Give me your tired

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free… 

 

This week Seattle City Councilmember M. Lorena González submitted what amounted to a big “screw you” in the form of a resolution affirming Seattle’s stance as a sanctuary city. The resolution passed unanimously on Monday, January 30^th, in front of a full chamber and a standing-room-only observation room. For over an hour after, the podium was filled with individuals and organizations vowing to resist the refugee ban as well as former refugees and minorities sharing their stories of welcome here in Seattle.

The council meeting was my first ever local government event and I sat happily wrapped in support and applause for an afternoon while outside a battle raged for some of the world’s most vulnerable.

Seven Middle Eastern and African countries were targeted by Saturday’s travel ban: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, North Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia. Syria received an indefinite ban and the other six are on hold for 90 days, while the US Refugee Administration Program is suspended for 120 days.

Interestingly the travel ban does not include Egypt (despite conservatives raising concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood gaining a foothold in America) nor Turkey, where a great majority of Syrian refugees land. Perhaps because Trump has business interests in those countries. Or perhaps it’s because Trump has access to information from the Dept. of State explaining why people from those Muslim majority countries don’t want to blow us up when the others do. I would ask them, except that the entire senior management just resigned so they are a bit busy right now.

The Trump administration has said that the Department of State can grant visas in exceptional cases , which is good. But how is the government going to find them? Are they going to sort through all the applications looking for exemplary persons to admit? That sounds like a rather time consuming vetting process, so why not just stick to the one we already had – which was extensive.

1. Applicants apply to UNHCR which collects personal info, iris scans (only for refugees from Middle East), conducts interviews and then selects 1% to move forward
2. Applicants received by Resettlement Support Center
3. Applicants face biographic Security Checks by FBI, Dept. of Homeland Security, State Department, and National Counterterrorism Center/Intelligence Community (Refugees are subject to the highest level of security checks of any category of traveler to the US) This process is repeated with any new information including previous names or new phone numbers
4. Applicants interviews by Dept. of Homeland Security
5. Applicants’ fingerprints run through FBI, DHS and Dept. of Defense
6. Applicants given a medical screening and those with significant medical concerns are denied
7. Applicants run through cultural orientation and assignment to resettlement locations as pending applications continue to be run through terrorist databases
8. Applicants travel to the US where they are subject to Customs and Border Control as well as TSA secure flight program
9. Applicants arrive in US and are required to apply for a green card with in a year of arrival which triggers yet another round of separate security and screening measures.

The end step on the helpful little whitehouse.gov info graphic cheerfully says “Refugees are woven into the rich fabric of American Society!” (including the !, no joke).

And that step has gone surprisingly well. Out of the 180 terrorist attacks carried out since 9/11, only 11 were perpetrated by persons from countries on the current ban list and of those every one was carried out by citizens or green card holders. Eighteen attacks were perpetrated by persons from Saudi Arabia (which is not on the list) and 81 were perpetrated by Americans.

Since 1975, terrorists with a refugee visa have killed three people- and those were Cuban refugees in the 70s.

Your chance of being killed by a refugee is 1 in 3.64 billion per year.

Shall we take a look at their chances of dying? Estimates of the Syrian Civil War death toll were between 470,000 and 400,000 as of spring 2016, almost a year ago.

If chances of dying were bowls of skittles, which one would you reach for?

Well persons from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, North Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia no longer get a choice. Donald Trump decided for them.

On the afternoon of Friday, January 27^th, in front of a plaque displaying the Statue of Liberty, executive order “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” was signed into action. The effect was instant.

By the next day the State Department announced that 170 people had been denied entry into the US. By Saturday the order still applied to dual residents and green card holders and anyone currently out of the country would be considered for reentry on a case by case basis, though the green card restriction has since been rethought. An army interpreter in Iraq named Hameed Khalid Darweesh was stopped in JFK with his wife and three children. Many were held in airports across the country as crowds of protesters gathered outside. Legal teams provided pro bono support and secured releases one by one. A federal judge in Brooklyn blocked the government from deporting refugees, Google recalled its staff abroad, Microsoft sent out an email with legal support info, Washington State sued the government over the order, and Trump fired his acting attorney general.

Months of planning, years of travel, refugee families waiting to be reunited, host families waiting for new members, agencies waiting to celebrate one more life resettled into safety – all of this was unraveled with the stroke of a pen.

 

…The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”