Because of questions that have arisen in recent months about federal laws and policies regarding refugees the following article has been written to provide an overview of the law and to answer some of those basic questions.
The synopsis was gleaned from the CRS Report for Congress, Refugee and Resettlement Policy, updated and published June 13, 2007. The report was provided by Rep. Jerry Moran’s office.
The report traces the history of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by the Refugee Act of 1980, and provides details about general refugee issues.
The 1980 Act had two purposes: 1. to provide a uniform procedure for admitting refugees, and 2. to authorize federal assistance to resettle refugees and promote their self-sufficiency.
“The intent of the legislation was to end an ad hoc approach to refugee admissions and resettlement that had characterized U.S. refugee policy since World War II,” the report stated.
The term “refugee” defines a person outside his or her country who is unable or unwilling to return because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution. A refugee, under certain special circumstances, also may be a person within a country who is persecuted or has a well-founded fear of persecution. Each type of persecution would involve race, religion, nationality, membership in a certain social group, or political opinion.
Any person who participated in the persecution of another would not be deemed a refugee.
Processing refugees
The U.S. State Department handles overseas processing of refugees and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the Department of Homeland Security makes the final determinations about eligibility for admission to the United States.
“Generally, (the State Department) arranges for an overseas processing entity to conduct pre-screening interviews of prospective refugees and prepare cases for submission to USCIS,” the report stated.
After one year in this country, refugees are required by law to apply to adjust to legal permanent resident status, the report stated.
The United States admits at least half of the refugees referred by the United National High Commissioner for Refugees for resettlement each year, if funding is available.
Refugee numbers
by world region
The number of refugee admissions and allocations by regions of the world are set by the president, after consulting with Congress.
Refugee admissions ceilings have fluctuated since fiscal year 1998, with a significant decrease in the number of refugees that actually were admitted after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. That year, the ceiling for total refugee admissions had been 80,000, while only 69,304 refugees were admitted.
In 2002, the total ceiling was 70,000; actual admissions plunged to 27,110, according to the report.
The greatest number of refugees from 1998 through 2002 came from Europe and Central Asia.
The East Asia region ranked second from 1998 through 2000. Fiscal years 2001 and 2002 brought sizable increases in the numbers of refugees who were admitted from the Near East and South Asia.
During that time, the ceiling number of African refugees increased, beginning with 7,000 in 1998 and peaking at 30,000 in 2004. According to the report, Africa was allocated 22,000 refugees in 2007. The actual number admitted from Africa in 2007 was 18,182.
Actual admissions overall were considerably lower than projected during the years after 9-11.
Although 70,000 refugees had been allocated in each of the following years, the actual admissions to the United States were:
- fiscal year 2002, 27,110
- fiscal year 2003, 28,422
- fiscal year 2004, 52,868
- fiscal year 2005, 53,813
- fiscal year 2006, 41,279
Total actual admissions were not given for fiscal year 2007.
In each year, a reserve allocation was set aside to accommodate special-circumstances situations, in addition to the anticipated numbers of refugees. Family reunification cases are included among the reserve allocation.
Refugee admissibility
USCIS determines whether an individual qualifies for refugee status and is otherwise admissible, under immigration law, to the United States.
The INA has several grounds for inadmissibility, including:
- health-related
- security-related
- “public charge” or indigence
- lack of proper documentation.
However, the latter two are not applicable to refugees and others can be waived for humanitarian purposes, to assure family unity or when it is otherwise in the public interest.
Health-related grounds of inadmissibility include infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Before 1999, HIV-infected refugees could qualify for a waiver by showing that they posed minimal risk to public health, the possibility they would spread the disease was minimal and they would not create additional costs for government agencies at any level, unless they had the consent of the relevant agencies.
In June 1999, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service eased the waiver requirements for HIV-infected refugees. Under the new policy, those refugees no longer are required to show they would not create additional costs for government-funded programs.
“The rationale for the change was that there are federally funded programs and services to such refugees (e.g., Refugee Medical Assistance, Medicaid, and other services through the Ryan White CARE Act), and that this eligibility serves as the U.S. government’s consent to incur costs for HIV-positive refugees,” the report stated.
Refugees are required to have counseling and to agree to take precautions to prevent spreading the virus.
Resettlement assistance
Since the refugee resettlement program was established in 1980, the policy has been that because the federal government makes decisions on admission of refugees, the federal government carries some responsibility for them.
“Unlike immigrants who enter through family or employment ties, refugees are admitted on humanitarian grounds and there is no requirement that they demonstrate economic self-sufficiency,” the report stated.
A total of $587.8 million has been provided for the Office of Refugee Resettlement through the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2007. At the time the CRS report was written, Congress had not agreed on a bill and ORR was being financed through a continuing resolution.
The ORR finances activities such as cash and medical assistance, social services to help refugees become socially and economically self-sufficient and targeted assistance for impacted areas.
Refugee Cash Assistance and Refugee Medical Assistance account for the majority of spending in the ORR budget.
Cash assistance and medical assistance are administered by the states and intended “to help needy refugees who are ineligible to receive benefits from mainstream federal assistance programs.”
Those benefits currently are available to refugees for eight months after entry.
Fraudulent applications
“During the late 1990s, the State Department found that a large number of Priority 3 applications were received from persons who did not qualify for refugee status and that there was a significant amount of fraud associated with these applications,” the report stated. “To address these problems, the U.S. government reduced the number of nationalities eligible for such refugee slots.”
For fiscal year 2007, Priority 3 processing is available to nationals of 17 countries. They are: Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Colombia, Congo (Brazzaville), Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
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