Companion Threads
Obama Admin invites tens of thousands of radical Muslims to relocate inside the U.S.
In 2006 the Republicans loose the elections over Immigration and the Media shredding Bush Administration over the Iraq war.
Up to that point there were no large numbers of Iraqi refugees, only 202 were allowed in.
Ted Kennedy: We Can’t Ignore Iraq’s Refugees
by Pamela Leavey
December 30th, 2006 @ 1:10 am
Saddam Hussein has
met his demise, but today Senator Ted Kennedy reminds us of another one of the costs of that demise, “
the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children who have fled their homes and often their country to escape the violence of a nation increasingly at war with itself,” a war that George W. Bush dropped in their laps.
The refugees are witnesses to the cruelty that stains our age, and they cannot be overlooked. America bears heavy responsibility for their plight. We have a clear obligation to stop ignoring it and help chart a sensible course to ease the refugee crisis. Time is not on our side. We must act quickly and effectively.
Today, within Iraq, 1.6 million people have already fled or been expelled from their homes. An additional 1.8 million, fleeing sectarian violence, kidnappings, extortion, death threats and carnage, have sought refuge in neighboring countries. At least 700,000 are in Jordan, 600,000 in Syria, 100,000 in Egypt, 54,000 in Iran and 20,000 in Lebanon. Typically they are not living in refugee camps but have relocated in urban areas, where they must draw on their own meager resources to pay for food and shelter, and must depend on the good graces of the host governments.
The neighboring countries, in turn, are under enormous financial stress from the rapidly increasing needs of the refugees. In Jordan, they now make up more than 10 percent of the population — the equivalent of 30 million people flooding America’s shores. These countries are increasingly unable to meet the refugees’ basic needs.
Borders are being closed to more and more of these men, women and children, with the result that many who are most in need or in danger are trapped in the Iraqi caldron of violence. As it continues to boil, the humanitarian crisis will only worsen.
The recent report of the Iraq Study Group rightly concluded that if this refugee situation “is not addressed, Iraq and the region could be further destabilized, and the humanitarian suffering could be severe.” Sadly, as with so many other aspects of the Iraq war — from the growing threat of the insurgency to the need to provide adequate armor for our troops — the administration has failed to recognize the breadth of the crisis and to adjust our policy to address the plain facts on the ground.
There is an overwhelming need for temporary relief and permanent resettlement. Last year, however, America accepted only 202 Iraqi refugees, and next year we plan to accept approximately the same number. We and other nations of the world need to do far better.
Thousands of these refugees are fleeing because they have been affiliated in some way with the United States. Cooks, drivers and translators have been called traitors for cooperating with the United States. They know all too well that the fate of those who work with U.S. civilians or military forces can be sudden death. Yet, beyond a congressionally mandated program that accepts 50 Iraqi translators from Iraq and Afghanistan each year, the administration has done nothing to resettle brave Iraqis who provided assistance in some way to our military. This lack of conscience is fundamentally unfair. We need to do much more to help Iraqi refugees, especially those who have helped our troops.
Our nation is spending $8 billion a month to wage the war in Iraq. Yet to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the refugees who have fled the war, the State Department plans to spend only $20 million in the current fiscal year.
America needs to lead, but we cannot adequately respond to this overwhelming crisis alone. Because of the magnitude of the problem, we also need action by Iraq’s neighbors and the rest of the world. An essential first step could be to hold an international conference on the issue — ideally sponsored by the countries in the region and the United Nations — to begin to deal with the growing number and needs of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons. The United States should participate in the conference and provide substantial support for the refugees. Doing so would encourage other nations to address the crisis, help the refugees and displaced persons, and assist the countries shouldering the greatest burden.
Working with Iraq’s neighbors and the United Nations, we can encourage rapid action to relieve suffering and save lives. And a productive conference could lead in turn to broader discussions and greater progress on the future of Iraq.
Clearly, in the long term we need to work together to find a way to end the violence and stop the hemorrhaging of lives. In the short term, America needs to respond far more effectively to the needs of the millions of refugees and displaced persons who are suffering so much from the war. Failure to act quickly and cooperatively with other nations will only result in more carnage, chaos and instability in the region.
It’s time for Congress to step up and take the reigns from the ‘decider’ and end this mess in Iraq. We’ve created one hell of a mess over there. There’s an irony that one dictator is dead, but Iraq is still in turmoil.
Compassionate Conservatism, Except Toward Iraqi Refugees
July 11, 2007 at 9:37 am | Posted in American politics, Bush Administration, corruption, family values, Iraq, Syria | 5 Comments
The Bush administration and the Republicans claim they are “compassionate conservatives,” whatever that really means. Well, someone ought to ask them why under the Bush administration, the United States has only
accepted 202 Iraqi refugees to this point.
202.
That’s it.
That’s all the Iraqis fleeing the horror of what is happening in their home country the United States has allowed to enter. By comparison, Syria has taken in 449,000.
Kinda makes you look foolish when Bashir Assad is more compassionate to displaced Iraqis than the Republicans who claim they are compassionate.
Then Democrats began pushing legislation to take tens of thousands of refugees some of which are radical Muslims. They were complicit in turning Michigan's Dearborn into Dearbornistan.
House Bill Would Admit More Iraqi Refugees
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 10, 2007
House Democrats plan to introduce a bill this morning that would increase by at least 20,000 the number of Iraqi refugees eligible for resettlement in the United States in 2007 and 2008. It would also admit 15,000 "special immigrant status" Iraqis and their families for each of the next four years.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) will hold a news conference with
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Iraq's ambassador to Washington, Samir Sumaidaie, to explain the legislation, the "Responsibility to Iraqi Refugees Act." They will be joined by a West Point graduate who served in Iraq and representatives of the International Rescue Committee, Amnesty International and the Church World Service.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that more than 4 million Iraqis have been displaced by the war and now live in neighboring countries or in other parts of Iraq. An additional 50,000 to 70,000 Iraqis are displaced from their homes every month, the agency estimates.
Although current regulations allow for 7,000 Iraqi refugees to be processed for U.S. entry by year's end, only seven entered the country in February and 11 in March, compared to about 8,000 entering Sweden, officials said.
The "special immigrant status" Iraqis include interpreters and others who have worked for the U.S. government, the United Nations, contractors or U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations. Current law allows in 50 interpreters for U.S. personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There is stark awareness of what we have done for putting tens of thousands of Iraqis at risk because they helped us," Blumenauer said.
Ken Bacon, president of Refugees International, said the bill "addresses the group to which we have a moral obligation."
"Right now, it is not a bipartisan bill and that is a shame," Bacon said yesterday.
"How we address this flood of refugees coming into the U.S. and the millions who remain in the region, who could pose a future security problem to the U.S., should be bipartisan," he added.
Blumenauer told of how poignant it was for him to help a member of the Oregon National Guard try to get his interpreter out of Iraq. The man was moving every night in an attempt to stay safe.
A day after he called in from his uncle's house, Blumenauer said, he was killed.
The refugee category would include female heads of households, members of religious communities such as Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, Jews, Sabean Mandeans, Yazidis, Bahais and other vulnerable minority groups such as gay Iraqis and Iraqis with family members in the United States.
Iraqi Refugee Processing Fact Sheet
Updated: June 06, 2013
U.S. Refugee Admissions Program
The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) is an inter-agency effort involving a number of governmental and non-governmental partners, both overseas and domestically, whose mission is to resettle refugees in the United States. The U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) has overall management responsibility for the USRAP and has the lead in proposing admissions numbers and processing priorities.
Within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has responsibility for interviewing refugee applicants and adjudicating applications for refugee status. Through its cooperative agreements with Resettlement Support Centers (RSC), PRM handles the intake of refugee referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), U.S. embassies, and certain non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as the prescreening of cases and the out-processing of individuals for travel to the United States.
Iraqi Refugee Processing
Part of the humanitarian mission of the USRAP is to provide resettlement opportunities to especially vulnerable Iraqi refugees.
Since large-scale Iraqi refugee processing was announced in February 2007, DHS and DOS have worked cooperatively to increase the number of Iraqi refugees admitted to the United States as part of the worldwide commitment.
DHS and DOS have worked closely to expand processing capacity for Iraqi refugee applicants while ensuring the highest level of security. In support of these efforts, USCIS currently deploys approximately 55 officers per quarter to the Middle East to conduct refugee processing circuit rides. Since the inception of the program in 2007, 203,321 Iraqi nationals have been referred to the USRAP for resettlement to the United States. USCIS has interviewed 142,670 Iraqi refugee applicants; approved 199,202 for resettlement and, 84,902 Iraqi refugees have arrived in the United States.
|
FY 2007 |
FY 2008 |
FY 2009 |
FY 2010 |
FY 2011 |
*FY 2012 |
*FY 2013 |
*TOTAL |
Referrals to USRAP |
12,098 |
28,769 |
49,276 |
46,472 |
39,878 |
15,878 |
10,950 |
203,321 |
USCIS Interviews |
4,437 |
23,862 |
29,096 |
27,277 |
26,831 |
20,073 |
11,094 |
142,670 |
Approved by USCIS |
2,909 |
18,674 |
25,238 |
24,021 |
22,323 |
16,992 |
9,045 |
199,202 |
Admitted to US |
1,608 |
13,823 |
18,838 |
18,016 |
9,388 |
12,163 |
11,066 |
84,902 |
*as of April 30, 2013
Process for Resettlement
In identifying Iraqi cases for referral to the USRAP, UNHCR and DOS have been prioritizing 11 categories of especially vulnerable refugees, including individuals who are affiliated with the U.S. government and religious minorities, among others.
Iraqi refugees may gain access to this program through referrals from UNHCR, a U.S. Embassy, or certain NGOs. In addition, Iraqi nationals who worked for the U.S. government, a U.S. contractor, or a U.S.-based media organization or NGO, and their family members can apply directly to the USRAP in Jordan, Egypt and Iraq without a UNHCR referral. Iraqi applicants will also be considered for resettlement if an eligible family member applies on their behalf in the United States by filing Form I-130, a Petition for Alien Relative. These latter two categories – direct application cases and Form I-130 beneficiaries – are known as Priority 2 (P-2) cases. Before 2012, the majority of cases processed by the USRAP were referrals from UNHCR. Since 2012, P-2 cases have comprised a larger share of cases.
USCIS officers are currently interviewing Iraqi refugee applicants primarily in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq. Refugee processing in Iraq focuses on certain Iraqis who are associated with the U.S. and their family members. USCIS officers have previously interviewed Iraqi refugee applicants in Syria as well, but have not been able to work in Syria to process refugee applications since March 2011.
Determining Eligibility for Refugees
Eligibility for refugee status is decided on a case-by-case basis. A USCIS officer conducts a personal interview of the applicant designed to elicit information about the applicant's admissibility and claim for refugee status. During the interview, the officer confirms the basic biographical data of the applicant; verifies that the applicant was properly given access to the USRAP; determines whether the applicant has suffered past persecution or has a well-founded fear of future persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion in his or her home country; determines whether the applicant is admissible to the United States and whether he or she has been firmly resettled in another country; and assesses the credibility of the applicant.
Ensuring Security
We are committed to conducting the most rigorous screening in order to ensure that those being admitted through the refugee program are not seeking to harm the United States. In May 2007, DHS announced and implemented an Administration-coordinated, enhanced background and security check process for Iraqi refugees applying for resettlement in the United States. The security check regime, including both biographic and biometric checks, has been enhanced periodically over the last several years as new opportunities and interagency partnerships with the law enforcement and intelligence communities have been identified. These enhancements are a reflection of the commitment of DHS and other agencies to conduct the most thorough checks possible to prevent dangerous individuals from gaining access to the United States through the refugee program. No case is finally approved until results from all security checks have been received and analyzed.
Procedures for Iraqi Citizens Currently in the U.S.
Iraqis currently in the United States, who are not able to return to Iraq because they have been persecuted or fear that they will be persecuted on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, may apply for asylum with USCIS. Information on the process of applying for asylum in the U.S. can be found on our Web site:
www.USCIS.gov/asylum.
Procedures for Iraqi Citizens Living Outside of Iraq
Refugees and asylum seekers should seek to comply with all legal requirements of the country in which they are located, including registration with host governments if required. In addition, all Iraqi asylum seekers located in third countries should register with the nearest UNHCR office.
UNHCR has the international mandate to provide protection and assistance to refugees and may be able to provide a protection document and possibly other assistance if needed. For a small number of extremely vulnerable individuals, this could include referral to the USRAP or another country's resettlement program. UNHCR will identify individuals for resettlement referral based on an assessment of their vulnerability at the time of registration.
In Jordan and Egypt, direct access to the USRAP is available to direct-hire employees of the U.S. Mission in Iraq and other Iraqis who worked for the U.S. government or U.S. government contractors, or for U.S.-based media organizations or NGOs and their family members. Any Iraqi, who has fled to Jordan or Egypt because of his/her association with the U.S., is encouraged to contact the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to receive guidance. IOM can be reached at
IC@iom.int. Additional information is on the DOS/PRM web:
http://www.state.gov/j/prm/index.htm
USCIS staff are currently unable to travel to Syria to interview refugee applicants. Iraqi refugee applicants currently in Syria may contact the local UNHCR office if they are in immediate danger or have concerns regarding assistance, protection, or resettlement. Iraqi refugees who decide to leave Syria should contact the RSC and UNHCR office in the country of their new location. USCIS will continue to process such cases in the new location.
Procedures for Iraqi Citizens Currently in Iraq
In Iraq, direct access to the USRAP is available to direct-hire employees of the U.S. Mission in Iraq and other Iraqis who worked for the U.S. government or U.S. government contractors, or for U.S.-based media organizations or NGOs, and their family members. Any Iraqi, who believes he/she is at risk or has experienced serious harm as a result of association with the U.S., is encouraged to contact the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to receive guidance. IOM can be reached in Iraq at
IC@iom.int.
Additional information is on the DOS/PRM web:
http://www.state.gov/j/prm/index.htm
Special Immigrant Visas for Iraqis
Iraqi nationals who supported the U.S. armed forces or Chief of Mission authority as translators or interpreters, or Iraqi nationals who were or are employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in Iraq on or after March 20, 2003, for a period of at least one year may be eligible for Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) processing. The SIV program is separate and distinct from the USRAP. However, certain Iraqi SIV recipients are eligible for the same resettlement assistance, entitlement programs, and other benefits as refugees admitted under the refugee program.
Additional information regarding the SIV program may be found on the following pages;
Green card for an Afghan or Iraqi translator (SIV-1059)
www.uscis.gov/greencard/afghan-iraqi-translator
Green card for an Iraqi who assisted the U.S. government (SIV-1244),
www.uscis.gov/greencard/iraqi-assisted.
More information can also be found on the following Department of State pages;
Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Iraqi and Afghan Translators/Interpreters (SIV-1059),
Special Immigrant Visas for Iraqis – Who Worked for/on Behalf of the U.S. Government (SIV-1244)
Refugee Processing Center - Special Immigrant Visa Program for Afghan and Iraqi Nationals
Look at the millions that went went to Syria, now the Obama Administration wants to continue to bring tens of thousands of refugees in from Syria.
Bookmarks