US Policy Keeps Refugees Out of America
In Sierra Leone there is a woman who was kept captive in her house for four days by guerrillas. The rebels raped her and her daughter and cut them with machetes. Under America's program to resettle refugees, she would be eligible to come to safety in the United States. But her application for refuge has been put on indefinite hold — because American law says that she provided "material support" to terrorists by giving them shelter.
This law is keeping out of the United States several thousand recognized refugees America had agreed in principle to shelter. By any reasonable definition, they are victims, not terrorists.
A Liberian woman was kidnapped by a guerrilla group and forced to be a sexual slave for several weeks. She also had to cook and do laundry. These services are now considered material support to terrorists. In Colombia, the United Nations will no longer ask the United States to admit dozens of refugees who are clearly victims, since all their predecessors have been rejected on material support grounds. One is a woman who gave a glass of water to an armed guerrilla who approached her house. Another is a young man who was kidnapped by paramilitary members on a killing spree and forced to dig graves alongside others. The men, many of whom were shot when their work was finished, never knew if one of the graves would become their own.
The law makes no exception for duress. It also treats any group of two or more people fighting a government as terrorists no matter how justified the cause, or how long ago the struggle. So the United States has turned away Chin refugees, for supporting an armed group fighting against the Myanmar dictatorship, which has barred them from practicing their religion. The United States has acknowledged that the law would also bar Iraqis who helped American marines find Jessica Lynch.
The law does not formally reject these applicants but places them on indefinite hold. No one accused of material support has ever had that hold lifted. The Department of Homeland Security can supposedly waive the material support provision but has never done so.
Clearly, Congress needs to add an exception for duress, allow the secretary of state to designate armed movements as non-terrorist, and allow supporters of legitimate groups to gain refuge. These changes would pose no risk of admitting terrorists to the United States and would keep America from further victimizing those who have already suffered at the hands of terrorist groups.
Source: The New York Times
