It would be a shame if public policy were formed as a knee-jerk reaction to a tragic event. But that seems to be the nature of recent calls to ban Syrian refugees from coming to the United States. So far, there is no evidence any of the Paris attackers were refugees. In fact, there has never been an act of terrorism committed by a refugee in the U.S.

In September, a photo of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying lifeless on a Turkish beach shocked the world. Kurdi’s family had been trying to flee the Islamic State when their inflatable boat capsized en route from Turkey to Greece.