We remember when Jamshid Muhtorov was arrestedattempting to leave the country in 2012 and I have wondered what the heck was going on that his case was not going to trial.
Why didn’t we just let him leave? Why was protecting the Uzbek government our problem? Indeed, why was he here in the first place?
Before reading on, you might want to revisit another notorious case of an Uzbek refugee sentenced to prison in Idaho who subsequently tried to kill the prison warden where he had been incarcerated, see here.
Now to the story from Denver about Jamshid Muhtorov where we learn the trial delay was due to his lawyer’s efforts to challenge the use of information from NSA surveillance:
Trial underway for refugee who challenged NSA surveillance
Who is Ronald Mortensen?
I had never heard of him, but CNN and other outlets call him an immigration hardliner, a “fellow” at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Clearly a Trump supporter in Romney country, Mortensen said in August of 2016 that Trump is our only hope against corrupt elites. http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=4276026&itype=CMSID
Doing a quick scan of the Utah native’s writing at CIS, we see that he has mostly written about DACA and illegal alien issues, so his experience with the refugee program is apparently limited.
The most recent op-ed I found from him is from 6 months ago at The Hillabout how to structure an amnesty for the DACA ‘children’ entitled:
Want to pass the DREAM Act? Let’s combine mercy with justice
Hmmmm?
As a retired Foreign Service officer, he surely has a good feel for the countries and cultures that feed in to the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, and if approved by the Senate (a very long shot!), he might be able to find some experienced people to surround himself with who know where the problems are with the USRAP. Continue reading “Trump nominates Ronald Mortensen to head State Department refugee program”→
