17
Jun

U.S. Refugee Policy: Another Legal Immigration Program Overdue for Review

Published on June 17th, 2011

by Joe Guzzardi
May 10, 2010

With the deadline for citizens’ comments on the U.S. refugee policy fast approaching–May 12–a few facts that are mostly overlooked and underreported deserve attention.

A new Center for Immigration Studies analysis titled “Refugee Resettlement: A System Badly in Need of Review” contains details about the U.S. refugee program that support author Don Barnett’s conclusion that lack of focus, corruption and fraud are rampant. Barnett is a recognized expert of refugee and asylee immigration.

In 2011 the U. S. will admit 80,000 refugees, more than three times the total of the rest of the developed world combined and many more than were originally envision under the 1980 Refugee Act. Federal refugee policy appears to have entered into a period of unmanaged growth.

Immediately after 9/11, the United States tightened its refugee standards. But today, less than ten years later, the program is ratcheting up with no end in sight. High unemployment and budget shortfalls in the states where refugees are sent does not deter the federal government from increasing the numbers admitted.

One of the recent demands of the refugee lobby, led by churches and agencies that profit from admitting more refugees, is to grant Legal Permanent Residency immediately upon arrival despite the fact that extensive background checks are rarely conducted. Automatic LPR status would be a major upgrade to the current policy of giving refugees a work authorization permit and access to all welfare benefits but imposing a one-year limit on permanent residency.

Nevertheless, last year Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Refugee Act of 2010 (S. 31313) to remove the year-long wait. Capitol Hill insiders expect that Leahy’s bill will be introduced again in 2011 with President Barack Obama’s support.

Although the federal government estimates that the annual cost to provide for the refugee program is $1.1 billion, Barnett reveals that the government’s total excludes welfare costs which, he calculates, increases the aggregate cost by a factor of ten. Calling the U. S. a “welfare magnet,” Barnett points to cash assistance, subsidized housing and Medicare as refugees’ most heavily used welfare programs.

A 2007 Health and Human Services Department survey found that refugees who arrived in the past five years are between three to five times more likely than the average native-American to receive lifetime cash welfare benefits along with Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid. The same report also discovered that refugees are four-to-five times as likely to live in public housing and receive food stamps.

Barnett recommends that several steps must immediately taken to reduce the numbers of refugees while still maintaining a humane approach.

First, noting that each legal resident will likely become a citizen who can in turn sponsor other family members and thereby increase American overpopulation and add to the strain on social services, Barnett suggests that the refugee cap be set at 20,000 per year. That annual ceiling would still leave the U.S. as the world’s most refugee accepting nation.

Second, to identify which 20,000 should be given refugee status, Barnett urges Congress to clarify that resettlement in the United States is a last option available only to individuals in extreme danger and used after all other efforts to relocate the refugees in a region close to their native country have failed.

Third, give Americans a more accurate accounting of what taxpayers are spending to underwrite the refugee program by including all of the costs including welfare.

Like all the other legal immigration legislation that roll on unchecked, the refugee program is long overdue for a critical evaluation instead of just knee-jerk Congressional approval.

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Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Senior Writing Fellow. His columns have been syndicated in newspaper and on the Internet since 1986. Contact him at [email protected].

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