Trump wants to establish “Safe Zones” inside Syria and Yemen instead of allowing refugee’s into the U.S. is to instead create safe zones inside Syria.
I think safe zones are a great idea. Ultimately, we want the entire countries of Syria and Yemen to be safe zones. However, creating safe zones will take some time. We were already setup for accepting refugees that have already gone through an extensive vetting process. Trump likes to imply that Obama was letting just anyone in with no vetting, which was and is a lie. Refugees under Obama went through a vetting process that averaged TWO YEARS. That’s pretty extreme already. What does Trump propose to add to that in 120 days?
But that does not mean we turn our backs to the refugees waiting right now. The two options are not mutually exclusive.
One other thing to consider is that creating safe zones will require more American boots on the ground, and will result in more American casualties. We will end up losing more Americans in combat over there than we would lose from any terrorist sneaking into the U.S. disguised as a refugee. (If the Syrians could create these safe zones without our boots on the ground, they already would have.)