Dear Senator Markey

Thank you for signing the 21 May letter with thirteen of your Senate colleagues
to President Obama, endorsing the Refugee Council USA's recommendation that
the United States accept at least 65,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016.
The refugee crisis has been brought to the fore this week by publication
in the worldwide press of the sickening and heartbreaking images of little
Aylan Al-Kurdi, a boy from Syria who drowned along with his brother when the
dinghy in which they were being transported sank off the coast of Turkey.
He wasn't much older than my own son, and when I saw his pale skin and stiff
arms, his face against the sand, I cried because I knew that there but for
the grace of God go I and my family, and my own son.

The United States tends to be geopolitically isolated from the African and
Middle Eastern migrant crisis that's engulfing Europe.  That doesn't mean that
Americans haven't a responsibility, as world citizens and as human beings, to
take action to remediate the horrible conditions that are driving so many
people to undertake such dangerous voyages.  These migrants are driven more by
political instability than by economic woes; they're coming not only from
war-torn Syria but also from other failing states such as Somalia and Eritrea.
If the United States, working with the European Union and the United Nations,
can act to improve political conditions in these countries then we can stem
this tide of migration.  Few people actually want to leave their homes and
extended families; the vast majority would prefer to remain in their home
countries if they could safely do so.  Let's make it safe for them.

I hope that you'll press for the United States to (1) act to mitigate the
conditions that are driving this migration, (2) act to prevent loss
of life amongst those who, despite advice, undertake the voyage, and at the
same time (3) take in a reasonable and proportionate number of legitimate
refugees, in cooperation with other United Nations member states.

Kind regards
Matthew Belmonte