In the response to Donald Trump’s surge in media attention, he has had many opportunities to share mostly unfounded on opinion on a range of topics, most infamously immigration.

When Trump speaks on his immigration views, he often ties it back to terrorism or crime as a way to plant the dea of xenophobia.

He has created a link in that every discussion on immigration, people often think of fear and crime. This narrative is held most often on Syrian refugees and Mexican immigrants.

Now, we have created a fear within ourselves that terror and crime lurks on every corner in the face of immigration.

Data continuously shows that few refugees end up committing terrorist plots.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, of the 784,000 refugees that have come to the United States since 9/11, only three have been charged with plotting terrorist acts.

Despite this data, this rhetoric of terrorism and crime are often spun so much that we feel fear despite the statistics.

Many of those in power who use this rhetoric are acting out their own racism and xenophobia, and using the only way they know how to act on this fear: repeating it so many times until you think the idea is your own.

It is scary to think that statistics are oftentimes forgotten in a conversation that holds the lives of so many families in its’ hand.

Rather, most links between immigration and terrorism are the fester of dispelling anything foreign.

The problem is the United States was built on the idea of entitlement and racism.

These xenophobic beliefs are embedded in our history and trail into today.

Because of this, it is hard to get out of depending on beliefs rather than the facts.

Even we, as a sea of faces of immigrants, and  the sons and daughters of immigrants, we get so comfortable in this society that we forget that these views are often held against us and our families.

It is easy to get in a cycle where one gets comfortable coming to America and forgets that there are others  behind you trying to get the same opportunities you have.

We must turn around and help those who do not have the same opportunities as we do to get into this country.

This is not to forget that there were instances in the past where immigrants have committed acts of terrorism, and that these events were not horrific and terrifying for all.

Yet, time and time again those arguments are used as a way to mask the racism and xenophobia that people have.

Despite the fact that many of us know this, we still allow ourselves to get looped into this narrative and begin to believe it.

A lot of times when immigrants do come to this country they are faced with their own obstacles of prejudice.

The least Americans can do is give the benefit of the doubt and open our arms to these immigrants.

However, it is an obligation to educate ourselves in immigration before we reach conclusions.

It is time to start doing our own research and depend on the facts and and statistics rather than our “gut feelings” because the lives of many families are being thrown around because of this conflict.

When a potential president is allowed to say, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.

They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us.

They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,”  there needs to be a review of the facts.