Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a more detailed article then we had previously seen about the widespread fraud in the largest portion of our legal immigration program—family reunification. Guess what? The majority of East Africans who apply to come to join relatives in America are not related (that is the first bit of disgusting news). Widespread fraud has caused the suspension of the program:
The State Department has suspended a humanitarian program to reunite thousands of African refugees with relatives in the U.S. after unprecedented DNA testing by the government revealed widespread fraud.
This suspension began in April. Why haven’t we heard about the details sooner? Disgusting! (Our first little hint of this was back in July here.) The Wall Street Journal continues:
Typically, a refugee already living in the U.S., a so-called anchor, is entitled to apply for permission to bring a spouse, minor children, parents and siblings. The process requires interviews, medical examinations and security screening.
But suspicion has grown in recent years that unrelated Africans were posing as family members to gain entry. “This program is designed for people to reunify with family members” already in the U.S., says Barbara Strack, director of the refugee division at U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. “We wanted to have empirical data” to confirm suspected fraud, she says.
In February, the State Department launched pilot testing in Kenya to verify family relationships, mainly among Somalis.
Regular readers of RRW, will not be surprised at the Somalis. The BBC tells us that only 20% of those who applied were legitimately related. Can you just imagine how many East African refugees got into the US fraudulently since 911?
And, then how is this for more disgusting news. Catholic Charities and other of these groups which make their living resettling refugees using your tax dollars try to suggest there are other ways of defining family. You can just call someone son or daughter and magically they can come to America:
“No one condones people gaining entry by false means; the integrity of the program must be ensured,” says Bob Carey, chair of Refugee Council USA, a coalition of U.S. agencies that work on refugee issues, and vice president of resettlement for the International Rescue Committee. However, he adds, “DNA is not the only means to assess family relationships.”
Refugee advocates say the definition of family among Africans extends beyond blood relatives, especially when families fleeing persecution are scattered. “Some families are raising children who aren’t their own but whom they call son or daughter,” says Ms. Fox of Catholic Charities.
The Wall Street Journal ends with a bright bit of information. The numbers of refugees admitted this fiscal year are low so far. The Bush Administration aimed for 80,000 total refugees by the end of FY08. September 30th marks the end of the year. Looks like they won’t make 80,000.
Between Oct. 1, 2007, and Aug. 13 of this year, the U.S. admitted 45,644 refugees. For the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008, the Bush administration set a ceiling for African refugees at 16,000. But by Aug. 13, only 6,780 Africans had been admitted.
Update: More numbers here. They tested 5000 applicants finding that only 20% were telling the truth and this article says 95% of family reunification applicants come from Africa.