Thread: Brownback homes in on plight of immigrant refugees

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/l ... 949720.htm

Posted on Sun, Jul. 02, 2006

Brownback homes in on plight of immigrant refugees


WASHINGTON -- While lawmakers spend the Fourth of July recess gauging what voters want on immigration security and guest-worker programs, Sen. Sam Brownback is trying to use the debate to improve conditions for a tiny segment of the immigration tide: refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries.

How the United States handles people seeking political asylum is one of many important, but less-noticed, parts of the immigration legislation that's stalled on Capitol Hill. It has been a priority for Brownback, who has taken significant heat for his positions favoring expanded legal immigration.

"We have to show we are a humane people," he said.

Brownback is pushing for a better system of detaining refugees seeking asylum in the U.S., many of whom come to the country with little social or legal support.

Skeptics say that too open an asylum program could invite fraud among foreigners trying to come here, and that any fixes to the program should focus on keeping fraudulent refugees out of the country.

People who come to the U.S. to escape religious or political persecution make up a small fraction of all immigrants.

An estimated 11 million people live in the United States illegally. Last year, more than 1.2 million people became legal permanent residents.

In comparison, the United States admitted 53,813 people as refugees from political and religious persecution last year. Somalia, Laos and Cuba were the top three countries of origin.

But how America treats that small population is important, Brownback said, because acceptance of the persecuted is part of America's character as a free and welcoming society.

The current detention system works against that, he said. Asylum-seekers from troubled countries like Somalia are placed in facilities that rely heavily on jails for housing, where they're lumped in with illegal immigrants and foreigners facing deportation for breaking American laws.

Brownback is trying to get the federal government to allow more asylum-seekers to be placed with social-service organizations or families -- in some cases their own -- that will take responsibility for them while their applications for asylum are being resolved.

That would ensure that asylum-seekers are monitored while relieving stress on overcrowded detention facilities, Brownback said. It would also give the refugees more access to organizations that can help them find legal aid during the one year they have to convince the government to grant them asylum.

An amendment Brownback offered with Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., to encourage more refugees to be placed outside the regular detention system didn't get into the Senate's immigration bill this spring after Homeland Security officials discouraged it.

Don Barnett, an analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that generally favors stricter immigration policies, said such efforts would cost the government money and create additional burdens for Homeland Security officials who need to keep track of immigrants.

Barnett added that because immigration to America is so prized, the possibility of fraudulent claims of persecution are real. And simply handing over refugees to social-service groups could become a "boondoggle of federal payments" to them -- such groups would need to take greater responsibility for costs, he said.

And if any changes are made to how the U.S. treats refugees seeking asylum, he said, they should be looked at outside the broader immigration debate.

"This is too important than for it to be an afterthought," Barnett said.

Brownback agrees, but said he still hopes that changes to how the U.S. handles political refugees can pass as part of a broader immigration package this year.

Without it, he said, people legitimately fleeing persecution may be more likely to end up back home, which can be a matter of life and death.

"In many places, if you get on the wrong side of the leadership of that country or if you're of the wrong faith, you've got real problems," he said. "And it's not the sort of problem where you go to court. You're going to disappear."

Skeptics say that too open an asylum program could invite fraud among foreigners trying to come here, and that any fixes to the program should focus on keeping fraudulent refugees out of the country.

Oh gee, ya think? And yes, let's just release immigrants into our communities (I don't care who they're staying with) without checking them out to see if they are criminals (I'm NOT talking political nor religious) in their countries of origin, first.

For you newbies, here's my story which explains what my great-grandfather's family went through.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-25749-.html page 2.

When my uncle needed a really top secret clearance, so he could work in the space industry, during the 'Cold War', FIRST the gov't had to check that our family story was true...EVERY MEMBER OF OUR EXTENDED FAMILY HAD BEEN EXECUTED BY THE RUSSIANS. They were NOT amongst the huge Lithuanian population sent to Siberia. Our gov't had to make sure that there was no one left who could be used as a hostage by the Soviets, to force my uncle to give secret info to them. There wasn't.