Getting into the U.S.A. as a refugee is one of the most strenuous processes anyone will ever go through. John Oliver does a great job explaining the multi-layered process someone will have to endure before being admitted to the U.S.
Oliver ingeniously debunked practically every facet of the far-right’s assertion that Syrian refugees are poisonous peanuts and/or spoiled Chipotle milk. “It is absolutely fair to be concerned about safety in the wake of [the Paris attacks],” Oliver said. “Unfortunately, many of the people talking about it this week don’t seem to have the first idea of what we’re doing.”
Speaking with a passion likely inspired by the fact that the House of Representatives recently passed a bill calling for a stricter screening process for Syrian refugees (a bill that President Obama will most certainly veto), Oliver took direct aim at the growing anti-refugee sentiment by, as he so often does, entertainingly presenting such rhetoric’s greatest enemy: actual facts. “The actual known ratio of arrested terrorist suspects to refugees is not one in a hundred,” Oliver said, referring to a variety of assertions from none other than everyone’s least favorite Republican bassist, Mike Huckabee. “It’s one in roughly 267,000. Peanuts themselves have killed far more people in the last decade than terrorist refugees.”
To further take a stand against this anti-refugee ideology, Oliver walked viewers through the entire vetting process one must face before entering the country. “This process usually typically takes 18 to 24 months once you’ve been referred to the U.N. by the United States,” Oliver outlined. “This is the most rigorous vetting anyone has to face before entering this country. No terrorist in their right mind would choose this path when the visa process requires far less effort.”