Some refugee seekers fleeing their homelands after being held hostage are in a Kafka-esque nightmare: paying a ransom to survive is interpreted as giving support to terrorists, and are therefore denied asylum in the United States. Read some of the stories.
Thousands of vulnerable refugees have been prevented from receiving asylum or being resettled in the U.S. because of the sweeping provisions included in the USA PATRIOT Act and the REAL ID Act that relate to “material support” to “terrorist” organizations.
Human Rights First is working to push for improved detention conditions as well as more precise definitions of “terrorist activity” and “terrorist organization” so that our immigration laws target actual terrorists, instead of hurting legitimate refugees who pose no threat.
Steps finally taken to mitigate the adverse impact of the immigration law’s “terrorism” bars on health care professionals In May…
“I have never been a member of al Qaeda or the Taliban.” These are the words of Noor Uthman Muhammed,…
Ben Wittes complains that we do not have an adequate “political vocabulary for discussing Gitmo recidivism.” I’m not sure what…
On Friday a small but key decision in the case of bin Laden’s driver may signify that the military commissions appeals…
Human Rights First’s report “Denial and Delay: The Impact of the Immigration Law’s ‘Terrorism Bars’ on Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United States” is cited in the NY Review of Books to explain that current law and legal interpretation regarding “material support” to “terrorism” mean that many innocent refugees and asylum seekers, who are themselves victims of violence or repression in foreign countries, have been stuck in limbo or denied entry to the United States.
The Refugee Protection Act of 2010 would address many of the problems with current practice.
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A reader wrote into the New York Review of Books asking the very important question about what to do about…
