I remember it like it was yesterday, in 2007 and 2008 the refugee lobby hounded George Bush on the slow flow of Iraqis into the US. Every month like clockwork AP reporter Matthew Lee reported what the refugee activists deemed too small a number of Iraqis entering the US and Bush was soooo bad! And, the next month, Bush is bad! Did you hear that! Bush is so bad!
Now that President Obama has pulled all of our troops out of Iraq and the violence is on the uptick (no military to protect Iraqis who helped us) and the flow is very slow—especially the flow of interpreters—there is one word missing in this lengthy article about those now in danger in Iraq—OBAMA. His name is completely absent from the Los Angeles Times story as if what is happening in Iraq is completely disconnected from who is in the White House now that Obama occupies it!
And, by the way, where is Ms. Samantha Powers and her “responsibility to protect.” She is the White House Iraqi refugee czar after all! The US State Department is getting the heat in this story, but gee, aren’t she and Obama responsible? How come the Left isn’t going after them?
From the Los Angeles Times featuring Iraqi ‘Tariq’ who would like to get here, but the process has been slowed after the Kentucky Iraqi terror bust (a story which has disappeared into a black hole in the media!):
The visa process, always slow and cumbersome, has bogged down further since two Iraqi refugees were arrested in Kentucky in May on federal terrorism charges that included providing material support in the U.S. for Al Qaeda.
We reported on the “passage” of the ‘Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act’ back when it was snuck on to a Defense authorization bill (literally at night) by the now deceased Senator Ted Kennedy. There were no hearings nor debate and it was attached to a bill that Bush had to sign. So wouldn’t this (below) be a point in the story where the LA Times reporter could tell us how bad Obama is—that he is not honoring the legacy of the “lion” of the Senate.
Three words from U.S. legislation are imprinted on his brain: “special immigrant visa.” The Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, passed in 2008, provided fast-track status for Iraqis who had worked for the U.S. government or military.
The law authorized 5,000 special visas per year — 20,000 through 2011. But through October, just 3,415 had been issued to Iraqis, according to the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project.
The State Department says 7,362 Iraqis who worked for the U.S. have received special visas over that period, but that total includes family members.
Through July, 62,500 Iraqis had applied through the special visa program, though many have given up and dropped out.
You might want to read the whole story.
More on Special Immigrant visas here at USCIS.