U.S. eases rules to admit more Syrian refugees

Share:

syrian refugeesPresident Barack Obama’s administration announced on Wednesday that it had eased some immigration rules to allow more of the millions of Syrians forced from their homes during the country’s three-year civil war to come to the United States.

Only 31 Syrian refugees – out of an estimated 2.3 million – were admitted in the fiscal year that ended in October, prompting demands for change from rights advocates and many lawmakers.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been taken in by neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

The rules changes granted exemptions on a case by case basis to the “material support” bar in U.S. immigration law, according to an announcement in the Federal Register signed by Secretary of State John Kerry and Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of Homeland Security.

That bar had made it impossible for anyone who had provided any support to armed rebel groups to come to the United States, even if the groups themselves receive aid from Washington.

The advocacy group Human Rights First said, for example, that the existing law had been invoked to bar a refugee who had been robbed of $4 and his lunch by armed rebels, and a florist who had sold bouquets to a group the United States had designated as a terrorist organization.

“These exemptions will help address the plight of Syrian refugees who are caught up in the worst humanitarian crisis in a generation,” Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, chairman of the U.S. Senate subcommittee on human rights, said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear how many Syrians would be affected by the rules change.

By early January, 135,000 Syrians had applied for asylum in the United States. But the strict restrictions on immigration, many instituted to prevent terrorists from entering the country, had kept almost all of them out.

Washington has provided $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance to aid Syrian refugees. This year, the United Nations is also trying to relocate 30,000 displaced Syrians it considers especially vulnerable. Witnesses at a Senate hearing last month had testified that Washington would normally accept half.

Reuters

Share:

Comments

3 responses to “U.S. eases rules to admit more Syrian refugees”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar

    (small corrections)
    STILL do not see what ‘Mascara’ has to do with it … Is that a Code-Word for ‘Coverup’?

    “places were to be quarantined for Syrians” ….
    I see ‘auto-correct’ is becoming too popular … or they are going to be put into Guantanamo … ??

    “temporary residence to hundreds of vulnerable Syrian refugees, targeting those most traumatized”
    Actually, I find this a rather sadly misplaced desire, and probably a very bad idea.
    Better I think, to take the most willing to GET OUT and become citizens of another country. BUT in the strange ‘Fiberal-heart-felt’ idealism of wanting ‘all the tragedy’ of that horrible reality to go away, ONLY the worst of the brain-fried cases will be pulled out? Then shown how life ‘can be’ in western countries, and then shipped back, at some point, into the crap they got away from??
    Where all the sickening memories are still in place?????
    I think THAT ALONE would create some terrorists for sure. And a ‘rescued’ child will NEVER understand it 10 years later when ‘they’ say: ‘ok, you can go home’ … at a point in time when it may have been able to push the memories down far enough to make a life ….
    I live in a world of fatheads. 🙁

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar

    (small corrections)
    STILL do not see what ‘Mascara’ has to do with it … Is that a Code-Word for ‘Coverup’?

    “places were to be quarantined for Syrians” ….
    I see ‘auto-correct’ is becoming too popular … or they are going to be put into Guantanamo … ??

    “temporary residence to hundreds of vulnerable Syrian refugees, targeting those most traumatized”
    Actually, I find this a rather sadly misplaced desire, and probably a very bad idea.
    Better I think, to take the most willing to GET OUT and become citizens of another country. BUT in the strange ‘Fiberal-heart-felt’ idealism of wanting ‘all the tragedy’ of that horrible reality to go away, ONLY the worst of the brain-fried cases will be pulled out? Then shown how life ‘can be’ in western countries, and then shipped back, at some point, into the crap they got away from??
    Where all the sickening memories are still in place?????
    I think THAT ALONE would create some terrorists for sure. And a ‘rescued’ child will NEVER understand it 10 years later when ‘they’ say: ‘ok, you can go home’ … at a point in time when it may have been able to push the memories down far enough to make a life ….
    I live in a world of fatheads. 🙁

  3. Good observation Only 31 Syrian refugees – out of an estimated 2.3 million –

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *