State Department is Redefining Refugee Eligibility

According to President Obama, as reported by the New York Times, the U.S. is slated to receive 10,000 Muslim Syrian “refugees” in 2015 between September and December.

The Refugee Resettlement Program, which was started under President Jimmy Carter through the Refugee Act of 1980, defines a refugee as follows:

…any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

Today, it is of special importance to read this definition. Basically, the 1980 definition of a refugee is a) any person who is outside any country and b) who is unable or unwilling to return, c) because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution.

Do the Syrian Refugees slated to be received by the U.S. meet this definition? Do they meet the three conditions?

• Yes, these persons are outside of the country.
• Whether Syrians are unable or unwilling to return is up to the individual?
• Persons slated to come to America as “refugees” are Muslim. Are Syrian Muslims facing persecution or do they have a well-founded fear of persecution? The Islamic State is targeting and persecuting :

1. Religions other than Muslim: mostly Christians and Jews
2. Shi’ite Muslims
3. Homosexuals
4. Journalists
5. Females
6. Muslims against sharia

Those persons who are coming from areas threatened by or currently under control of the Islamic State have no reason to fear persecution if they do not meet any of the 6 conditions listed above. The Islamic State would not persecute or cause fear of persecution otherwise.

Most of those slated to be received by America as “refugees” do not qualify as refugees under the 1980 definition, simply because they have no reason to fear persecution. Why then are these persons being classified as refugees?

Persons coming to America under the Syrian Refugee title have been labeled as refugees by the United Nations, but they also define refugee as one fleeing persecution. Interestingly, the page with the UN definition of refugee also has much to say about migration. Foremost, that refugees and migrants “are fundamentally different, and for that reason are treated very differently under modern international law.”

Why has the Office of Refugee Resettlement left the historical legal definition behind? This question alone brings reason to close the Refugee Resettlement Program today until a full evaluation of its expenditures and laxness is evaluated and exposed.

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