Immigration and the Constitution – Part Three Mr. Mike’s 8th Grade Social Studies

Refugees – Some History After World War II, the U.S. led the assistance and reconstruction effort to help displaced persons. Part of the solution was to resettle to the U.S. hundreds of thousands of Europeans displaced from the war who could not return home. Following the admission of over 250,000 displaced Europeans, the first refugee legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress was the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. This legislation provided for the admission of an additional 400,000 displaced Europeans. In 1975 the U.S. resettled hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees through an ad hoc Refugee Task Force with temporary funding. This experience prompted Congress to pass the Refugee Act of 1980, which incorporated the United Nations definition of “refugee” and standardized the resettlement services for all refugees admitted to the U.S.

What does it mean to be a Refugee?

The Intersection of Foreign Policy and Asylum Policy In El Salvador, Between 1981 and 1990, military and death squads were responsible for thousands of disappearances and murders of union leaders, community leaders, and suspected guerilla sympathizers, including priests and nuns. In Guatemala, the army focused on indigenous communities, calling them communists, resulting in thousands of disappearances, murders, and forced displacements. As a result, almost one million Salvadorans and Guatemalans fled repression at home and journeyed to the United States secretly. They traveled to major cities like Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and Chicago. Thousands were also held at or near the border. President Reagan denied that the Salvadoran and Guatemalan governments had violated human rights and called the Salvadorans and Guatemalans "economic migrants,". As a result, approval rates for Salvadoran and Guatemalan asylum cases were under three percent in 1984. In the same year, the approval rate for Iranians was 60 percent, 40 percent for Afghans fleeing the Soviet invasion.

The Intersection of Foreign Policy and Asylum Policy The Justice Department and INS (ICE) actively discouraged Salvadorans and Guatemalans from applying for political asylum. Salvadorans and Guatemalans arrested near the Mexico-U.S. border were herded into crowded detention centers and pressured to agree to "voluntarily return" to their countries of origin. Thousands were deported without ever having the opportunity to receive legal advice or be informed of the possibility of applying for refugee status. Considering the widely reported human rights violations in El Salvador and Guatemala, the treatment of these migrants constituted a violation of U.S. obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Zeina Aboushaar’s Story

Refugee - Definition A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.

Refugee - Eligibility In order to qualify under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, a refugee normally must: Be of a designated nationality and fall within the priority categories for that nationality in that region; or Be outside their country of origin; Be referred by a U.S. embassy, UNHCR or a non-governmental organization (NGO); and Meet the U.S. definition of refugee; Not be excludable under INA Section 212(a); Have access to a U.S. refugee processing post or DHS/USCIS officer; and Not be firmly resettled in any foreign country.

Omar’s Story