Letter: US should first help persecuted Christians

Whether they are from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia or now Syria, there is great pressure from the international community for us to allow them to come here. We already take in more than 1 million legal immigrants each year. Untold numbers of illegal immigrants continue to stream across our southern border, adding to the tens of millions who are already here.

Our social welfare systems are stretched to the breaking point in many areas.

Meanwhile, we spend billions in foreign aid to countries around the world, many of which openly dislike us.

So, I have a proposal. Since we have already allowed many thousands of Muslim refugees from the above mentioned countries to settle here, if we are to accept any additional refugees from the Middle East, let them be Christians, who are being slaughtered by the tens of thousands by the various Muslim sects in many different countries.

They are crucified, burned alive, stoned to death or beheaded, simply because they refuse to recant their belief in a Christian God.

Surely they, of all the possible candidates for refugee status, deserve our help. An added benefit is that no member of any Christian group that I know of has ever chanted "Death to America."

Al Francis

Bluffton

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 9:04 PM with the headline "Letter: US should first help persecuted Christians."