White House shrugs off lack of Christian refugees, won't pardon illegals
By PAUL BEDARD • 11/29/16 11:35 AM
The Obama administration sees no problem with the low numbers of persecuted Christian refugees getting into the United States, and likely won't pardon the millions of illegals seeking protection from President-elect Donald Trump.
White House Domestic Policy Advisor Cecilia Muñoz said that a pardon won't give illegals the protection they really need, legal citizenship.
In an interview with the Center for Migration Studies, she said, "I know that people are hoping that pardon authority is a way to protect people. It's ultimately not for a couple of reasons. One is that pardon authority is generally designed for criminal violations, not civil, but also it doesn't confer legal status, only Congress can do that, and so ultimately it wouldn't protect a single person from deportation, so it's not an answer here," she said.
The audio was released Tuesday. In the interview, Muñoz suggested that the reason the overwhelming number of refugees coming from the Middle East are Muslim, and not Christian, is because more face greater danger.
Pressed on charges that the administration is discriminating against Christians, she said that those complaining don't understand the system of picking and choosing refugees.
"A better understanding of the refugee process and how those determinations get made is what is called for here," said Muñoz.
"That for our purposes, and this is tremendously important, when the United States receives refugees, we're not applying a religious lens, and the folks who are making determinations about who is in fact in need of protection, the lens that they should be applying is the lens of are people suffering persecution, are people in danger. Sadly the world is a dangerous place for people of pretty much all faiths and our job is to protect them," she said.
Her comments were released after a Somali refugee, suspected of being a terrorist, was shot his wave of violence Monday on the campus of Ohio State University.
She said that the refugee system under President Obama is a source of national pride.
"This is an exercise of kind of fundamental grace for the American people, it's a sign of our strength, and a sign of our leadership in the world," she said. "It's one of the things that makes us great."
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