As a matter of fact, America has more to fear from attacks by the radical right. According to a study by Washington research center New America Foundation , there have been 48 people killed by domestic right-wing terrorists since 9/11, and 26 by homegrown Muslim extremists. The Southern Poverty Law Center has a list of 112 documented radical right-wing terrorist plots since 1995, an average of five-and-a-half a year. The plots included “plans to bomb government buildings, banks, refineries, utilities, clinics, synagogues, mosques, memorials, and bridges; to assassinate police officers, judges, politicians, civil-rights figures, and others; to rob banks, armored cars, and other criminals; and to amass illegal machine guns, missiles, explosives, and biological and chemical weapons.” One plot was designed to kill as many as 30,000 people — 10 times the number of people killed on September 11. The National Abortion Federation found there have been more than 200 bombings or arsons of abortion clinics since 1976. Additionally, there have been eight murders and numerous attempted murders of doctors and clinic staff.When it comes to crime in general, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. The American Immigration Council reports that immigrants are not only less likely to end up in prison, they’re less likely to engage in criminal behavior at all. “A variety of different studies using different methodologies have found that immigrants are less likely than the native-born to engage in either violent or nonviolent ‘antisocial’ behaviors; that immigrants are less likely than the native-born to be repeat offenders among ‘high risk’ adolescents; and that immigrant youth who were students in U.S. middle and high schools in the mid-1990s and are now young adults have among the lowest delinquency rates of all young people.”In a press conference held in mid-September, a State Department official outlined all the ways that refugees are checked for possible threats to the United States. They include a screening by the UNHCR, compilation of personal data for the Department of Homeland Security, an in-person interview, a name check, and a medical exam.The process can take 18-24 months — or longer — from beginning to end. Part of the reason the process is so long is the in-person interview. This crucial step can’t be waived, so potential immigrants must wait for a U.S. official to be able to travel to them in person, and because it’s more cost-effective to send interviewers to speak with a group rather than an individual, refugees must wait until there are enough of them trying to enter the United States for it to be worth it for the State Department to send an interviewer.Stacie Blake, the director of government and community relations for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, spoke to Refinery29 about the thoroughness of the process. “Refugees are the most vetted individuals who enter the United States. [More than] 70 million tourists enter the U.S. every year, for example, and I’m not sure that there is a background-screening procedure for them. But with regard to refugees, there are only 70,000 entering in a year, and they have a screening process that takes on average two years, which means that for some people it takes three years.”“For someone who is intent on causing harm, there are easier ways to enter the United States,” Blake says. Biometric data and personal information are vetted at every step of the application process, she says, “so it’s very comprehensive. It also includes people identifying their family tree, and so, for example, if I say that I have two sisters, et cetera, and then another woman who says she’s my sister says she only has one sister, now there’s a discrepancy. That type of discrepancy could throw us both out of the program.”