Our Disgraceful Refugee Score Card

[babylonsister]

Our Disgraceful Refugee Score Card
by Anna Husarska

For those who help resettle refugees in this country, the big date annually is Sept. 30, the end of the federal government’s fiscal year. Because refugee arrivals are allotted per fiscal year, that’s when we can measure how well — or poorly — the administration performed in accepting refugees. This year’s score card is not good; the numbers have only slowly increased after the drop in admittees since the 9/11 attacks.

Although the Bush administration set a ceiling of 70,000 total refugees for fiscal year 2007, and budgeted for them, only 41,765 had arrived by Sept. 14, and the plan is to bring in 6,000 more before Sunday’s deadline.

Why such low numbers? One factor is the outrageous practice of denying admittance to bona fide refugees because of post-9/11 anti-terrorist legislation, which brands some of them as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.

The Hmong who fought under CIA command in Laos, for example, have been deemed under the post-9/11 laws as belonging to a “terrorist organization,” and they and those associated with them are now denied entry to the U.S. The same applies to Montagnards from Vietnam, staunch U.S. allies. Colombians who paid ransoms to save the lives of their kidnapped loved ones are considered guilty of giving material support to terrorists and denied access.

After a barrage of criticism in the media, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security issued a few targeted waivers. Those who associated with certain armed resistance groups (mostly Burmese combatants opposing the military regime in Myanmar) received waivers. Thanks to the waivers, more than 14,000 Burmese refugees will have been admitted this year. But the combatants are still banned.

This belated righting of a wrong shows that admitting more refugees — and in large numbers — is possible. As such, it constitutes a clear indictment of this administration on the most shameful chapter in the recent history of resettlement: the admission (or rather nonadmission) of Iraqi refugees into the United States.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/30/4217/

[Demeter]

1. Bush's Goal: Make Refugees of Americans

When he's driven us to other countries for political freedom and economic survival, then Bush's job will be finished.