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Ted Kennedy: Kennedy, Colleagues Fight To Help Iraqi Refugee Crisis
Wed, 06/20/2007 - 12:47 — admin

June 19, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C— Because of the war in Iraq, more than two million Iraqis have been internally displaced in their own country, and two million other Iraqis are in neighboring countries throughout the region, primarily Jordan and Syria. The United States has allowed less than 500 Iraqi refugees into the country since the conflict began – only 63 have been admitted this year. The Judiciary Committee highlighted the urgency of this issue in January. Assistant Secretary Sauerbrey has said the U.S. Will accept 25,000 Iraqi refugees this year, but our current system of refugee processing is not working well enough or fast enough.

Today, on the eve of World Refugee Day, Senators Kennedy, Smith, Biden, Hagel, Leahy, Levin and Lieberman, introduced a plan to develop a comprehensive and effective approach to meet the rapidly growing needs of Iraq’s refugees and internationally displaced persons, especially those who are associated with the United States. The bill would create a special category of applicants for refugee status for those who have helped the United States and expand the current special immigrant program for translators and interpreters to include others who have supported the American effort in Iraq. The bill would also allow Iraqis denied asylum after March 2003 based on changed conditions to file a new petition with an immigration judge to reopen their cases.

“America has a special obligation to keep faith with the Iraqis who now have a bulls-eye on their back because of their association with our government,â€