Refugees, Immigrants, and National Security

Policy Forum
October 3, 2016
12:00PM to 1:30PM
Hayek Auditorium, Cato Institute
Featuring Charles Stimson, Manager, National Security Law Program and Senior Legal Fellow, Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, Heritage Foundation; Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor, University of Maryland; Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; and Alex Nowrasteh, Immigration Policy Analyst, Cato Institute; moderated by A. Trevor Thrall, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute.

Are immigrants and refugees critical threats to American security? The Syrian refugee crisis and terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe have prompted fierce debate over how to strike the proper balance between national security, the benefits of immigration, and a humanitarian refugee policy. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has taken the extreme position that the United States should not welcome any immigrants or refugees from Muslim-majority nations because of the threat of terrorism. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has called for significant increases in the number of Syrian refugees that the United States accepts. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion as our expert panel examines the risk posed by foreign-born terrorists and how the public views the connection between immigrants and refugees on the one hand and national security and terrorism on the other.