"I can not tell you how frustrating it is to see the misinformation and outright lies that are being perpetuated about the refugee process and the Syrian refugees."

Scott Hicks has been an immigration lawyer for more than 20 years and has a thing or two to say worth reading about what has become the topic du jour:

Most of my friends know I practice immigration law. As such, I have worked with the refugee community for over two decades. This post is long, but if you want actual information about the process, keep reading.

I can not tell you how frustrating it is to see the misinformation and outright lies that are being perpetuated about the refugee process and the Syrian refugees. So, here is a bit of information from the real world of someone who actually works and deals with this issue.

The refugee screening process is multi-layered and is very difficult to get through. Most people languish in temporary camps for months to years while their story is evaluated and checked.

First, you do not get to choose what country you might be resettled into. If you already have family (legal) in a country, that makes it more likely that you will go there to be with family, but other than that it is random. So, you can not simply walk into a refugee camp, show a document, and say, I want to go to America. Instead, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees) works with the local authorities to try to take care of basic needs. Once the person/family is registered to receive basic necessities, they can be processed for resettlement. Many people are not interested in resettlement as they hope to return to their country and are hoping that the turmoil they fled will be resolved soon. In fact, most refugees in refugee events never resettle to a third country. Those that do want to resettle have to go through an extensive process.

Resettlement in the U.S. is a long process and takes many steps. The Refugee Admissions Program is jointly administered by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) in the Department of State, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and offices within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) within DHS conducts refugee interviews and determines individual eligibility for refugee status in the United States.

We evaluate refugees on a tiered system with three levels of priority.

...

Every person accepted as a refugee for planned admission to the United States is conditional upon passing a medical examination and passing all security checks. Frankly, there is more screening of refugees than ever happens to get on an airplane. Of course, yes, no system can be 100% foolproof. But if that is your standard, then you better shut down the entire airline industry, close the borders, and stop all international commerce and shipping. Every one of those has been the source of entry of people and are much easier ways to gain access to the U.S. Only upon passing all of these checks (which involve basically every agency of the government involved in terrorist identification) can the person actually be approved to travel.

There's much more at the link and it's all from a guy who is enmeshed in the immigration front lines.

I see no reason to dismiss his credibility.  I'm positive some will.

There are ideologies that need advancing.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Comments

[Tim Chesterton]

Well said, Rick. A lot of people here in Canada are talking as if it's just a quick, perfunctory process. Good to know what the procedures are.

Canada's 'Macleans' magazine had a good piece on the same issue. Here it is.

[Rick]

Thanks Tim. All the credit rightly belongs to Artur Rosman, a former refugee himself, who published the initial piece at his place.

[Lands’nGrooves]

While the article is no doubt highly informative and educational, it doesn’t say what exactly anyone is lying about or the supposed bad information. It only covers what actual the immigration process is but doesn’t address anything else. While the article goes into great detail, to a degree of overkill on the subject, it is irrelevant insofar as whether or not we should allow certain people, such as Syrians, to immigrate here

While I, or anyone else who reads the article, now has a better understanding of the immigration process, not once was it explained that “this is what is being said” versus this is “actually how it works”. Not once. So the actual ‘how everyone who doesn’t believe Syrians should be allowed in at this time is wrong’ is never addressed.

What is covered is - “The refugee screening process is multi-layered”, “you do not get to choose what country you might be resettled into”, “(r)esettlement in the U.S. is a long process and takes many steps”, “(t)he Immigration laws require that the individuals prove that they have a ‘well-founded fear”, “(e)very person accepted as a refugee for planned admission to the United States is conditional upon passing a medical examination and passing all security checks”, “refugees sign a promissory note to repay the United States for their travel costs”, “this process from start to finish averages 18 to 24 months”, all with a lengthy list of immigration agencies.

While the article does state that “each refugee must undergo an extensive interviewing, screening, and security clearance process” it’s of no comfort considering the FBI Director James Comey said “We can only query against that which we have collected, and so if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interests reflected in our database, we can query our database til the cows come home, but … there’ll be nothing show up, because we have no record on that person. And DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said “We’ve gotten better at that over the last couple of years, but it is a time-consuming process and one of the challenges that we’ll have is that we’re not going to know a whole lot about the individual refugees that come forward.”

The most disingenuous point regarding “Many people are not interested in resettlement as they hope to return to their country” is just insulting. How many refugees who come here actually go back home? I doubt very many. It’s curious why that is intentionally left unanswered?

Rick, we just had the congress, by an overwhelming majority, of not only Republicans but Democrats also, vote to halt allowing Syrian refugees from coming here. Does that in the least give you pause?

Can we at least agree that we should delay in allowing Syrians to come here? Just to talk, just to figure some things out, and to maybe implement some more security measures? That’s what many us want, and it shouldn’t be too much to consider.

tim aka The Godless Heathen

[Rick]

tim, I think the piece counters the lie that there is no vetting process in place for refugees when in fact there is...

I also think that the FBI Director's comments are meant to convey the fact that given who our enemy is and what we're facing, the vetting process must improve.

I think we should definitely delay allowing some Syrians (men of fighting age) from entering the country while our vetting process is improved but I continue to think that we are smart enough to figure out ways to help women and childrenwho are fleeing the very violence we're attempting to protect ourselves from.

What gives me pause more than anything tim is our need to be the kind of people who do what we can to vanquish evil while also assisting those victimized by that evil.