The President quietly signed into law the “Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act” as part of the 2008 Dept. of Defense Authorization Act. We’ve written on many occasions about this amendment which was attached in the dark of night to the Defense authorization bill without hearings or public discussion because Senators know that if these things are done in the light of day people would be furious. The bill calls for 5000 special visas to be made available for Iraqi refugees each year for the next 5 years, but presumably this is in addition to the 12,000 the administration already plans to bring in FY 2008 alone.
I planned to bring your attention to another pro-immigration group (another place to find information on refugees and asylees) tonight and just happened to find their joyful press release dated today. The group is called Human Rights First, but if you are a middle class taxpaying American citizen your human rights will not be first.
And, if you are an American who has lost a loved one in Iraq, fighting to give freedom to the Iraqis, this law is going to be a bitter pill to swallow when an able-bodied young Iraqi Muslim man is living next door to you.