Update July 25th: Jonathon Moseley, writing at American Thinker has a good piece laying out why (legally) they are not “refugees.” Hat tip: Cathy.
Unbelievable! In order to ‘solve the border crisis’ the Obama Administration is considering redefining the decades old international standards of who is, and who isn’t a refugee.
Here is the definition of a refugee as updated in 1967 (from the original 1951 UN Convention):
“A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it..”[8]
Although they say the plan would only be “tested” in Central America, what we understand they are proposing would mean that every person, ultimately anywhere in the world, (fearing crime in their home country) could run to their local US Embassy and apply for refugee status. Note that “crime” or even fear of “violence” from gangs is not in the definition!
A couple of major principles they want to destroy are 1) that refugees (and asylum seekers) must have left the country of their “persecution” otherwise they are simply “internally displaced people” (not legal refugees). And, 2) as we just mentioned, that trying to escape crime or poverty is not presently grounds for claiming refugee status. However it is something that the ANTI-BORDERS CROWD HAS BEEN PROMOTING FOR YEARS!
The more they can muddy the definition of “refugee” the more people they can shoe-horn into America.
Before I give you the dreadful news that Drudge is featuring this evening, please also see Mark Krikorian here on another important point. Legitimate asylum seekers (being persecuted for race, religion or political views) are supposed to ask for asylum in the first safe country they reach after escaping the place of their persecution. So, in fact, if these “children” were legitimately fearful they were supposed to have asked for protection in Mexico.
For me, this news, spells the end for the United States of America as we know it, and may well be the single most destructive act of all by a President who threatened/promised to “fundamentally change America.”
From the New York Times:
Hoping to stem the recent surge of migrants at the Southwest border, the Obama administration is considering whether to allow hundreds of minors and young adults from Honduras into the United States without making the dangerous trek through Mexico, according to a draft of the proposal.
If approved, the plan would direct the government to screen thousands of children and youths in Honduras to see if they can enter the United States as refugees or on emergency humanitarian grounds. It would be the first American refugee effort in a nation reachable by land to the United States, the White House said, putting the violence in Honduras on the level of humanitarian emergencies in Haiti and Vietnam, where such programs have been conducted in the past amid war and major crises.
Critics of the plan were quick to pounce, saying it appeared to redefine the legal definition of a refugee and would only increase the flow of migration to the United States.
[….]
Administration officials confirmed that they are considering the idea, although they stressed that no decision has been made to move forward. They said the idea is one of many being discussed by officials at the White House and the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services.
[….]
Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports tighter controls on immigration, said that the proposal would increase, not stem, the flood of migrants from Central America trying to get into the United States.
“It’s clearly a bad idea,” Mr. Krikorian said. “Orders of magnitude more people will apply for refugee status if they can just do it from their home countries.”
He added that the proposal would allow people to claim to be refugees from their countries with “nothing more than a bus ride to the consulate. We’re talking about, down the road, an enormous additional flow of people from those countries.”
You can bet the refugee contractors are jumping for joy! But they shouldn’t be because the inevitable angry backlash against tens of thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands, of phony “refugees” flooding into America needing their “services” will be something no one wants to see. And, those of you who truly care for real refugees should be weeping at this news.
Meanwhile, just as I was writing this, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan was on TV talking about his new program to combat poverty (poverty! he hasn’t seen anything yet), and Karl Rove was yammering about Obama’s fundraisers while Obama is busy bringing America to its knees.
Heck! Obama can apparently fly around the US on Air Force One and destroy the country at the same time!