We should be welcoming refugees.

[gratuitous]

5. Our obligation to take these refugees has many dimensions

One, of course, is that we've created so many of them by our horrible foreign policy. Think of it as the Pottery Barn obligation: You broke their country, now take care of the citizens fleeing the mess you made.

Second, there is the moral obligation, enhanced by the popular notion of American exceptionalism: If we really are that shining city on a hill, like the Republicans are so fond of quoting St. Reagan about, then we need to demonstrate that.

Third is the heartlessness of turning people back to face the meat grinder they just escaped. Gov. Pence of Indiana, come on down. This is Stalinesque in its psychopathy.

Fourth is the propaganda boost it gives our good friends in Daesh: "See what we told you about the decadent West? They don't care about the mayhem and carnage and they don't care about you. You can either be our victim or be our ally; nobody's coming to save you, and if you escape, they'll just send you back to us."