Antelope High School

Home of the Titans

Principal, John Becker
Phone: (916)782-6565 ext. 1047

Aaliyah Salgado
7801 Titan Drive
Antelope Ca, 95843

Governor Jerry Brown

c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, Ca 95814

To Whom It May Concern:

Hello, my name is Aaliyah Salgado. I am a sophomore at Antelope High School and it has come to my
knowledge that currently the U.S in not permitting the acceptance of Syrian refugees into our country. We the
people of this continent [should not be] afraid of foreigners because [all of us except the true natives] were once
foreigners (Pope Francis). Now you may be wondering how does a 15 year old girl have anything to do with
this or how can she relate to this? Well, believe it or not, often times I find myself asking How did I get to
America? Of course the obvious answer is that my grandparents immigrated into the U.S and eventually became
legal permanent residents, but Why me of all people? Why do I get all the opportunities when I know that
children in other countries want them even perhaps so much more than I do, and whom will take the most
advantage of those opportunities because its what they have longed for and they wont let that get away from
them. I do not know the answer to that, perhaps it was just my families luck, but one thing I do know is that it is
absolutely wrong to inflict violence on any of Gods children and it is also just as wrong to stand by, watch,
and do nothing about it.
As of right now 470 thousand Syrians have died. Cause of death? War. The problem in Syria is that
superimposed boundaries were placed without any consent of what types of people were being grouped
together. This then led up to the tension between different ethnic groups and religions to outburst into full on
war. Then to add even more to that the people of Syria are infuriated with the fact that they now have an
authoritarian government who had promised them a democracy.

The Syrian refugee crisis of today compared to that of the one during World War 2 can be seen as both
similar and also quite different. Back in World War 2 the U.S did not want to admit Jews into the country
because of fear that they could be a threat. Similar to the issue that we have today. Although today we have a
lot of good reasoning for not wanting to permit the intake of Syrian refugees, we fear these people actually area
threat because of previous attack there have been around the world. So we do have reasons for our points of
views and decisions but there are solutions to our problems. Its just a matter of choosing the right one.

There are solutions that can be made to help or solve our problems, itll will simply take a bit of
brainstorming. For example we could have stricter screenings and background checks for the refugees and a
system to better track the refugees and their involvement, progress, and contribution in the communities they
are placed in one they are permitted into the country. As well as permitting temporary residency to the refugees,
just until their country organizes itself so they can then return back home, and to speed up that process members
of the UN can send in troops and gather different government officials to help Syria with their Ethnic/Religious
conflicts as well as the development of their government.
 Antelope High School
Home of the Titans
Principal, John Becker
Phone: (916)782-6565 ext. 1047

For all of the above reasons Senators should side with the
admittance of these Syrian refugees. I thank you for your time and I hope
that for at least you this has made a difference

Sincerely,

Aaliyah Salgado
Antelope High School Student
Respectful. Responsible. Proud
GO TITANS!