LETTER: Refugee solution?

I believe the way to solve the Syrian refugee problem is private sponsorship. Unlike Canada, which has had a policy of private refugee sponsorship for years, there is currently no legal program available in the United States for individuals and/or groups to sponsor refugees.

This has not always been the case. Under the Reagan administration thousands of refugees were resettled in the United States by private sponsorship with very little taxpayer support, and the program was largely successful.

While much of the refugee argument has been framed in terms of Christian charity, I am not sure there is anything particularly Christian or charitable about a policy of extracting taxes from all Americans to redistribute the funds to government selected voluntary agencies and using the funds to resettle refugees where they are largely unwanted.

The way to demonstrate Christian love for the refugee is to get the government out of the refugee resettlement business (with the possible exceptions of using federal agencies to conduct background security checks and public health examinations).

Rather than allow politically motivated politicians to decide which immigrants will be net positives as new citizens, let individual private sponsors take the financial and social risks of bringing refugees to our shores. There are thousands of individuals and groups willing to use their own resources to demonstrate Christian love to refugees, and I say we let them.

By removing government from the equation, the sponsor will then be able to demonstrate genuine agape love rather than what I call “Facebook crusader feel-good love.” The sponsor rather than the taxpayer can ensure the refugee has food, shelter, health care, education, and employment, as well as oversee the refugee’s assimilation into American culture.

If the goal is to open America’s opportunity to foreign refugees while being mindful of national security concerns, and Christian charity is the banner under which we rally, then I believe a private sponsorship program for refugees is our best option. —Joseph D. Coco Jr., Whitefish