Syrian Refugees: A Divided America

New Jersey: "I am a Syrian refugee... I am not a terrorist... We are escaping from the terrorists," says a visibly worried Hussam Alroustom, speaking on a rainy November afternoon at a refugee resettlement center in New Jersey. Mr Alroustom's journey to America has been an arduous one. The 36-year-old Syrian refugee came to America in June this year, with his wife and two children, a seven-year-old boy who became autistic because of the war and a four-year-old girl.

Recounting his experience, Mr Alroustom said, "Our home was destroyed in the war... it was shelled by a missile from the Syrian Army. The new house that we moved into with five other families was also hit by rockets. I paid a smuggler to take us across to the border with Jordan. We boarded a pickup truck with 20 other Syrian families and were dropped off in the middle of the night in the desert, from where we trekked many hours through the desert and mountains to a refugee camp. It was very hard."

But many American politicians are not listening to Mr Alroustom and others like him. The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill which imposes very stringent checks on Syrian and Iraqi refugees, which will make their entry into America near impossible.

So why is France, the country which was attacked, still willing to let in 30,000 refugees but America which so far has 2,000 Syrian refugees wanting to firmly close its doors. Is this because some politicians want to capitalise on voter fears in an approaching election year, or is the ordinary American citizen genuinely concerned that refugees could be a security threat?

The divide among party lines is clearly evident. Today the Republican Presidential Candidate, Ben Carson, compared some refugees to "rabid dogs." Speaking at a campaign stop in Alabama, Mr Carson said, "If there's a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you're probably not going to assume something good about that dog. And you're probably going to put your children out of the way. That doesn't mean that you hate all dogs."

President Barack Obama has been sharply criticizing the anti-refugee sentiment, tweeting yesterday: "Slamming the door in the face of refugees would betray our deepest values. That's not who we are. And it's not what we're going to do."

At Times Square in New York City, Anna, a 29-year-old American, said, "Why should we feed into what the terrorists want... fear. I do not think refugees could be terrorists... anyone could be a terrorist... these guys are seriously vetted."

The screening process for a refugee to enter the United States takes nearly two years and the US State Department has released data saying only two per cent  of 2,000 Syrians admitted so far are military aged men and 40 per cent are children under the age of 11. The US has only 2,200 Syrian refugees compared to 100,000 in Germany. Mr Obama wants to allow 10,000 more to come in 2016, Germany has said it will take up to 800,000 in coming years. 95 per cent of all Syrian refugees are in five countries - Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt.

But recent polls by Bloomberg and NBC say that over 50 per cent of Americans oppose accepting Syrian refugees, a reflection of a rapidly polarised America. And one in which the FBI director, James Comey, says he cannot guarantee a refugee will not be a terrorist, saying it is "impossible" to vet every single Syrian refugee.