Why Donald Trump is 100% wrong about his claims about vetting of refugees
Trumps groundless calls for increased vetting of refugees has the same foundation of fact that his claim for widespread voter fraud, without any foundation whatsoever.
The facts are that people who enter the United States under refugee application are MUCH more carefully vetted than other visitors, like students, business people, or tourists. The process requires multiple levels of scrutiny for refugees over a lengthy process in camps where there is a large and motivated community to assist in vetting while other types of visas go through a single examination of assets, application and interview.
To understand the process you need to understand that there are two types of asylum for refugees: Countries of First Asylum and Countries of Second Asylum. With a few exceptions virtually all of refugees resettled into the US are the result of Second Asylum.
Second Asylum Processing.
Since World War II understanding how to assimilate refugees has become very sophisticated and is based on two important principles, they are:
1) The best possible solution is for the refugees to receive immediate protection (in First Asylum Countries) and work to pacify the situation so that refugees can return to their country of origin.
2) In the case where return is not possible then all efforts will be made for family reunion.
While all Second Asylum countries have various levels of support to assist refugees integrating into their new society (Scandinavian countries, for example need extended support to assist in difficult language adjustment) it has been well established that reuniting with relatives, even distant relatives like 2nd cousins, is a ‘force multiplier’ that makes successful integration much faster.
For this reason refugees entering into a First Asylum camp will first meet with a UN worker to establish a detailed family tree and an initial interview. This tree is compared with other family statements that are made in multiple camps. They are repeatedly told that if they misrepresent any facts it could make resettlement impossible.
These dossiers are made available to the resettlement countries assigning any country that has a family member the first option. For the US the next step is an interview with a service contracted with the state department. There are a dozen but the most well known are Catholic Refugee Services and IRC. The people who interview the refugees do this full time for years on end and like anyone who does the same thing over and over again become very skilled on discerning deception. Working with the caseworker is a trusted national that provides translation assistance and also skilled at evaluating statements of fact.
If the applicant family is a candidate for resettlement it then goes to a State Department Refugee Officer who has consular experience. The names of relatives and known associates are run through data bases developed by the CIA and anyone with an unusual connection or question is red flagged for extensive review.
One of the key elements that is overlooked in the hyperbole is that the process usually takes 2 years and during that time must live in a community of refugees from the same area who are highly motivated to find any enemies for two reasons. The first is that anyone from the regime (or ISIS) that is trying to go to the US is also the same enemy that caused them to lose their home and as you can imagine these people are filled with hatred for people from the regime/ISIS that caused them so much harm.
Secondly if you provide information that correctly reveals a terrorist (or a Viet Cong, for example) to the US you will immediately go to the front of the line and be resettled immediately. The fact is that the refugee camps had the best information because these were the communities where people closest to the US were already leaving.
For example in resettling refugees from Vietnam we would get information about Viet Cong that were planning to join the exodus (ironically the Viet Cong were harshly treated by the North Vietnamese) BEFORE they even left country. There were numerous cases where VC who tried to mix in with other refugees were identified at sea before they even reached the refugee camp.
Over the last 30 years we have resettled more than 1 million refugees including large numbers from Islamic countries and the record shows a very successful record. The median income for whites in the US is $ 59,698 while Vietnamese, for example, is $ 59,405.
The reality is that if someone intended to enter the US for terrorist operations it would be much easier and several years faster to enter as a student, travel ling businessman or a tourist than as a refugee and you only have to look at the 19 involved in the 9/11 attacks to see the proof.
The call for suspending refugee resettlement until better vetting methods are in place is another Trump lie.
They are again using fear and security concerns to promote racial and religious bigotry.
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