Tag: U.S. Refugee Act of 1980

U.S. Adopts Confusing New Program for Resettling Certain Foreigners

On January 19, the Biden Administration announced an additional program for the resettlement of certain foreigners, i.e., “refugees,” in the U.S. that directly will involve U.S. citizens, acting through the State Department’s U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). This new program seeks to resettle refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean with the assistance of Americans “ranging from members of faith and civic groups, veterans, diaspora communities, businesses, colleges and universities, and more.” [1]

This new program already has its own website—Welcome Corps–which says that  more than 200 diverse organizations are signaling their support and that Americans will “work in groups of at least five  to welcome newcomers by securing and preparing initial housing, greeting refugee newcomers at the airport, enrolling children in school, and helping adults to find employment.” Most importantly, the individuals in these citizen groups will “offer a sense of welcome, belonging, and inclusion for families.”

The “Welcome Corps” website also describes its training program for “providing core private sponsoring services (e.g., housing, benefits and services access, cultural adjustment, etc.) and an overview of how to help facilitate the long-term integration of refugees, . . . the logistics of forming a Private Sponsor Group, fundraising, developing a Welcome Plan, and resiliency-building.” This training must be completed by at least one member of the Private Sponsor Group.”

Who Will Be Welcomed by the Welcome Corps? [2]

The initial Corps materials repeatedly use the word “refugee” to identify the foreigners it will be seeking to help relocate in the U.S. Those same materials also refer to  Latin Americans, Caribbeans, Afghans and Ukrainians as people they want to welcome to the U.S. Those are certainly laudatory goals.

But not all of those groups have been determined to meet the legal requirements for  “refugee” status under international and U.S. law as shown by the following:

  • International Law. On April 22, 1954, the international Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees went into force and became a binding treaty after its ratification or accession by the sixth state. Then after its amendment by the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees that went into effect on October 4, 1967, the international definition of “refugee” was the following: Any person who “owing to well- founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who,not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”

(Excluded from that international definition of “refugee” was “any person . . . [who] (a) . has committed a crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity . . . ; (b) . . .          has committed a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to his admission to that country as a refugee; [and] (c) . . . has been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the [U.N.].”)

  • U.S. Law. The U.S. did not ratify the previously mentioned Protocol (and by incorporation the previously mentioned Convention) until November 1, 1968, and 12 years later the U.S. finally adopted the implementing federal legislation (the Refugee Act of 1980), which defines “refugee” as follows: “any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” That federal statute also provided, “The term ‘refugee’ does not include any person who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

It must also be noted that this last Session of Congress failed to enact the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would have provided some temporary legal protection for Afghan evacuees who have not been determined to be “refugees.”[3]

Conclusion

It is utterly dumbfounding that the Departments of State and Homeland Security could erroneously use the important legal concept of “refugee” in this  matter of foreign policy.

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111 State Dep’t, Launch of the Welcome Corps—Private Sponsorship of Refugees (Jan. 19,2023); State Dep’t, U.S.  Refugee Admissions Program, (Jan. 19, 2023);  Welcome Corps Website, State Dep’t, U.S.  Refugee Admissions Program, (Jan. 19,2023); 200+ Organizations Signal Support for the Welcome Corps, New Service, Opportunities for Private Refugee Sponsorship; The Welcome Corps Essentials Training, Jordan, Biden Administration Invites Ordinary Americans to Help Settle Refugees, N.Y. Times (Jan. 19, 2023); Santana, (AP), Welcome Corps provides a new way for Americans to sponsor refugees, Ch. Sci. Monitor (Jan. 19, 2023).

[2] Refugee and Asylum Law: The Modern Era, dwkcommentaries.com (July 9, 2011); Refugee and Asylum Law: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, dwkcommentaries.com (July 10, 2011); Weissbrodt, Ni Aolain, Fitzpatrick & Newman, International Human Rights: Law, Policy, and Process at 1040-42 (4th ed. 2009).

[3] Need To Prod Congress to Enact the Afghan Adjustment Act, dwkcommentaries.com (Dec. 17, 2022); Apparent Failure To Enact Bipartisan Immigration Bills, dwkcommentaries.com (Dec. 18, 2022); Congress Fails to Adopt Important Immigration Bills, dwkcommentaries.com (Dec. 28, 2022).

 

 

 

 

Washington Post Endorses Court Injunction Against Trump’s Consent Requirements for Refugee Resettlement

On January 15, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction banning enforcement of President Trump’s executive order requiring state and local governments to consent to refugee resettlement. Later that same day the President through his Press Secretary released a bombastic criticism of that decision that was rebutted by the court’s opinion, which he obviously had not read. [1]

Now the Washington Post with an editorial joins the chorus of support for the court’s decision.[2]

According to the editorial, “there are excellent reasons” for not requiring such consents.

”First among them is that his executive order— in effect an invitation for Americans to turn away prospective neighbors who might look, sound or think different — reinforces and encourages the most exclusionary, divisive, intolerant faults in America’s social fabric. By doing so, it diminishes the country, not least in the eyes of a world that has long looked to the United States as a leader of humanitarian causes such as resettling the planet’s most desperate people.”

Second, the court’s opinion “offered a lucid explanation of why it is unlikely to pass legal or constitutional muster. [The judge] cited a raft of precedents, including by the Supreme Court, reserving for the federal government — not states, let alone localities — the exclusive power to admit or deny immigrants. He also demonstrated that the president’s stance flies in the face of Congress’s intent when it established the current refugee system, in 1980, and subsequently.”

“That law provides what it calls ‘comprehensive and uniform provisions’ to resettle and provide for refugees admitted after rigorous screening by U.S. agencies, a process that takes about two years. It establishes a system of consultation between federal and local officials designed to ensure a smoothly functioning system. Nowhere does it grant states and localities a veto; in fact, in amending the law to provide for more consultation, in 1986, the House Judiciary Committee noted in a report that it did not intend to grant states and localities any veto.”

“Mindful of the legislation, Justice Department lawyers, tasked with defending the president’s order, tried to pretend it did not amount to a veto for states and localities; rather, they said, it was meant only to ‘enhance the consultation.’ The judge rightly labeled that ‘Orwellian Newspeak.’”

“Mr. Trump’s move was an appeal to the nation’s worst instincts. Most Americans didn’t bite. Ahead of a deadline on Tuesday, at least 42 governors and scores of localities, including many with large Republican majorities, have announced they would accept refugees. Only Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) so far has declined; the judge’s decision denies him that power.”

“That won’t stop Mr. Trump from eviscerating the refu­gee program; he’s already slashed the annual limit on resettlements to 18,000, down from the 110,000 President Barack Obama announced in his last year in office. The open arms of most states and localities do send a convincing message, though — that Americans are not as fearful, hostile and small-minded as Mr. Trump evidently believes.”

Conclusion

Now is the time for other newspapers and citizens to join the chorus of objections to this president’s scurrilous attacks on refugees and to promulgate and honor the moral and religious obligation to welcome, protect, promote and integrate refugees and other immigrants. [3]

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[1] Court: Trump’s Illegal Consent Procedure for Refugee Resettlement, dwkcommentaries.com (Jan. 16, 2020); President Trump’s Unjust Criticism of Court’s Enjoining the Consent Procedure for Refugee Resettlement, dwkcommentaries.com (Jan. 18, 2020).

[2] Editorial, Trump invited states and localities to bar refugees. Judge says he can’t do that, Wash. Post (Jan. 19, 2020).

[3] Pope Francis Reminds Us To Welcome, Protect, Promote and Integrate Refugees and Immigrants, dwkcommentaries.com (Jan. 1, 2020).