In end-run around Congress, administration allows asylum for immigrants with limited terror contact

February 6, 2014 by Michael Dorstewitz Leave a Comment

Photo credit: www.nieman.harvard.edu

Without seeking Congressional approval, the Obama administration has relaxed immigration rules to allow individuals with “limited” terrorist contacts entry into the United States.
The rule changes were published Wednesday in the Federal Register jointly by the Departments of State and Homeland Security, according to The Daily Caller.
Until the change, a person would be denied asylum if he had any association whatsoever with terrorist activities. With the change, those who render “limited material support” to terrorists will now be granted refugee status.
“These exemptions cover five kinds of limited material support that have adversely and unfairly affected refugees and asylum seekers with no tangible connection to terrorism: material support that was insignificant in amount or provided incidentally in the course of everyday social, commercial, family or humanitarian interactions, or under significant pressure,” a Department of Homeland Security official explained to The Daily Caller.
The exemptions, signed by Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, were described by Homeland Security as “commonsense” changes.

Sheila Jackson Lee: ‘We’ll give President Obama a number of executive orders’ to sign

“In addition to rigorous background vetting, including checks coordinated across several government agencies, these exemptions will only be applied on a case-by-case basis after careful review and all security checks have cleared,” the official explained. “This exemption process is vital to advancing the U.S. government’s twin goal of protecting the world’s most vulnerable persons while ensuring U.S. national security and public safety.”
In addition to questioning the wisdom of the rule changes, some challenge the authority of the Obama administration to make them absent Congressional approval.
“[T]here is a very legitimate question as to whether the administration actually has the authority to change the law in this way,” Jessica Vaughan, former State Department official and current director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies said in an email to The Daily Caller. “It seems to me that they are announcing that they will be disregarding yet another law written by Congress that they don’t like and are replacing it with their own guidelines, which in this case appear to be extremely broad and vague, and which are sure to be exploited by those seeking to game our generous refugee admissions program.”
The Daily Caller reported:

According to DHS, Section 212(d)(3)(B) of the INA allows either the secretary of state or DHS secretary in consultation with each other and with the U.S. Attorney General “to determine that certain terrorism bars of the INA do not apply.
While Vaughan conceded that there are a number of immigrants seeking protection who have been denied due to unintentional contact with terrorists, she sees the exemptions as likely another opportunity for people to get around the system.

“If the recent past is any guide, those evaluating these cases will be ordered to ignore red flags in the applications, especially if the applicant is supported by one of the many advocacy groups that have the ear of senior DHS staff,” Vaughan said. “The administration already approves of the admission of gang members as asylees and criminals in the DACA program and grants of prosecutorial discretion, so I don’t expect them to be troubled by the admission of terrorists and garden variety fraudsters in our refugee program.  This is how we end up with families like the Tsarnaev brothers [the Boston marathon bombers], who were originally admitted for political asylum.”
In addition, the April sniper attack on a San Jose, Calif. electrical substation raised concerns Wednesday that it may have been a dry run to disable U.S. power grids in the future.
It was “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred” in the U.S., Jon Wellinghoff, who was chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time told The Wall Street Journal.
Former Florida Congressman Allen West described the incident to Newsmax Wednesday as an act of “asymmetrical warfare” committed by terrorist sleeper cells.
Yet the Departments of State and Homeland Security choose now to relax their rules for asylum seekers and refugees.