Thread: U.S. Expands Visa Program for Iraqis - from NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/world ... ref=slogin

July 25, 2008
U.S. Expands Visa Program for Iraqis
By ALISSA J. RUBIN

BAGHDAD — The American Embassy in Baghdad announced Thursday that it had expanded tenfold its program to help Iraqi employees of the American government here, who faced threats for their work, to obtain visas and ultimately citizenship in the United States.

Although the program was established by law in January, it has become a practical reality just in the last two to three weeks as guidelines have been finalized and the embassy has brought in staff members and started processing applications.

The decision is the latest step in the administration’s attempt to answer sharp criticism over its failure to help even those Iraqis who have made the American presence in Iraq possible by serving as translators and supervisors on embassy projects, for the American military and for the Agency for International Development. But critics in the refugee relief community noted that the State Department had promised several times that it would try to speed up the process, and that it had not come through.

State Department officials attribute the gap between words and deeds to a cumbersome refugee resettlement system that includes fingerprinting, job checks, name checks and interviews.

The program will allow 5,000 Iraqis to go to the United States for each of the next five years. Each person can take immediate family members, who include spouses and children. More distant relatives, including siblings, parents and grandchildren, can apply under another program. So the actual numbers emigrating will probably be considerably higher. The average Iraqi household is estimated to have about six people, according to officials from the International Organization for Migration.

Curiously, the new visas were announced in Baghdad, at the American Embassy, and not in Washington, where Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said he was not initially aware that there was a report of an increase. “One of the things is that we have been working to allow for a greater number of those Iraqis who did work for us to be able to come to the United States,â€

Even if Iraqis make it to the United States, they face the difficulty of finding jobs and supporting family members. Often just one person in a family of six or eight speaks any English, making it difficult for the others to help the family with daily life and to hold down a job. Medical care, which is free in Iraq, must be paid for in the United States. Although it is possible for refugees to apply for Medicaid, there are bureaucratic obstacles that could prove daunting for people who do not speak English.

Another tidal wave of those who are likely going to require public assistance to make it in this country!

The United States has spent billions of dollars and countless American lives liberating these people. Haven't we done enough already for the people of Iraq? Now, we have to invite thousands of them home with us.

Are these people going to settle into mass enclaves and transform entire communities, rather than assimilate. I don't know, but how come I do not feel so warm and fuzzy inside about all this?

Well just look at Great Britian and you will see the United States in 10 years on top of the all the people we have entering illegally....Looks like their globalization is working...for them anyway.

The idiots in Dc just can not pack enough people in our country fast enough.

Saudi finacened mosques are going up all over the nation . madrassa'schools', paramilitary camps [Islamburg ] ,foorbaths, gender seperation in our universities ,etc.

Only 12% of new buildings of worship being built are christion or jewish , but 42% more new mosques go up every year . It is against the law to be a christian in some ways now ,it offends some .

In 1991 there 3100 mosques ,not counting schools where they worship also . Imagine how many have grown in past 18 yr.s . A huge mosque is being built as I write in my town .

weaselzipper.com or google has a film showing just what most muslims think of us . broad daylight NYC of all places ! A few muslims cursing America and stomping on our flag, while screaming 'allah akbar . The NYC people just walked by like it was nothing . WHAT SHORT MEMORY .

I'm sure they have been conviced by the Jones and Pauls that they are doing this because of our policy, but really they love the hell out of us all !

Also it is more like 1,000000 middle eastern coming ,not 5000 a yr. google it .

These are the people we'll need in place to continue building, shaping, and forming a new Iraq once we pull out. If we bring all our supporters in Iraq back home with us, we'll eventually end up right back were we started.

The enemy of my enemy is my freind !

There is some kind of reason for all immigrants they are bringing in . Knowing that most of them hate us our culture and our God .

From S.America Middle East, Russia, Ukrane, and all other nations on earth .

I was in my dr.s clinic with FIVE DIFFERENT families from 5 different nations .One from Columbia with her middle aged son , who I ended up arguing with 'because I couldn't take her spanish any longer when I knew she spoke english well . Others from Laos, Ukrane,mexico and russia. Not one spoke english from last 4 . We nationals had to sit and wait for the transaters . I don't know who translated the russian,ukrane,laos . All had kids with them, except the grining old woman I arguered with .

Who is going to translate for all these people ?

Well the idiot Obama was so proud over there in Germany when he said " America is so diverse we speak many different languages there" Is any body sure this man graduated from college no less Harvard!

Obama is just another "Democatic" blleding heart liberal. I.E. Socialist, just like the Clinton clan

In Europe last week, Obama crooned that he was proud to be a citizen of the WORLD, and ANYONE who puts THAT AHEAD of being an American has NO business being OUR President!