President Obama’s directive that the U.S. admit 10,000 Syrian refugees as a humanitarian measure has many hallmarks of his governing style: it lacks a proper legal basis; it will harm rather than help its purported beneficiaries; it will undermine important American interests; and it is designed to signal virtue rather than accomplish anything. As to the legal basis of the directive, U.S. immigration law is specific. To enter the U.S. as a refugee, one must have a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” The program is not a free-floating humanitarian enterprise. This limitation makes sense. The broad dictionary definition of “refugee” is “a person who flees for refuge or safety,” and, according to the State Department’s Report to Congress on Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 2016 , there are almost 20 million of these, as of late...(Read Full Article)