http://www.whptv.com/news/national/stor ... 723495c63b

Calls for U.S. to Let More Iraqis In


United Press International

Refugee advocates in Washington say U.S. officials are not allowing enough Iraqis who fled their homes into the United States.

The Bush administration's original plan called for resettling 500 Iraqi refugees this year, a number representing a small fraction of the tens of thousands of people believed to be leaving the country to escape persecution, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The State Department has expressed willingness to increase the number but department officials say they are hindered by an unwieldy U.N. referral system, which itself is faced with a lack of funding and procedural obstacles.

"I don't know of anyone inside the administration who sees this as a priority area," said Lavinia Limon, president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nongovernmental refugee resettlement agency based in Washington. "If you think you're winning, you think they're going to go back soon."

The calls come as many of Iraq's majority Shiites begin to express mistrust of the United States and Shiite leaders seek more independence from U.S. influences, The Washington Post reported.