The Right to Refuse; History and the Syrian Refugee Crisis

"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 to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country or return there because there is a fear of persecution...

"Members of Congress want to know who pockets the stolen U.S. dollars that flow to Cuba, whether the Cuban government is behind the crime, and if American policy makes it too easy. Those questions are even more crucial now that President Obama is moving toward normalizing relations with the communist nation, lawmakers said in response to a Sun Sentinel investigation that documented a revolving door of crooks and cash to the island. Criminals are exploiting a unique immigration law, the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, that grants near-automatic entry to Cubans who make it to U.S. soil. Even Cuban-Americans in Congress, traditionally staunch supporters of preserving the preferential treatment the U.S. affords to Cubans, say some change is needed." [...] One U.S. senator tried in 2011 and got nowhere. Concerned about Cuban immigrants committing Medicare fraud, Sen. Charles Grassley asked in a hearing whether Cuban officials may be involved or may have facilitated fraud. He followed up with a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It is already concerning that organized crime has moved into health care fraud because it is so lucrative," wrote Grassley, an Iowa Republican who served on the Judiciary Committee. "It is even more troubling if foreign government officials are also facilitating or directing fraud." In response, an assistant attorney general wrote only that federal agencies coordinate "where appropriate" with international criminal investigations. The letter did not answer the senator's questions about the number of Cubans involved in fraud or how long they had been in the country, saying federal agencies that investigate fraud do not track that information. But the government does have that data. Mining federal bookings records, the Sun Sentinel found that Cuba natives are far and away the leaders in health care fraud. Though they comprise less than one percent of the U.S. population, they make up 41 percent of the health care fraud arrests nationwide, the analysis shows. The next largest group, defendants born in the U.S., represent 29 percent of the arrests, followed by Nigerians and Russians at 3 percent each."

II. "And so I say to all of those, in this campaign season who would criticize Arkansas, come on down ...you might even learn a thing or two.

The scene would later remind one witness of the Vietnam War. "Plumes of smoke billowed high into the illuminated night sky from barracks that had been set afire," David Maraniss wrote in The Washington Post. "Flames still flickered from a charred guardhouse. Whoops and fierce cries of defiance echoed across the camp. Shotgun-toting civilians in pickup trucks loomed a mile or so beyond the gate. The mood was tense and chaotic." But this wasn't Vietnam--or Iraq in the wake of an Islamic State attack. This was Fort Chaffee, a military installation in Arkansas, on June 1, 1980, when refugees from Fidel Castro's Cuba rioted. The refugees had been sent there at the behest of President Jimmy Carter over the vociferous objections of an Arkansas governor with quite a political future: Bill Clinton. "The White House message seemed to be: 'Don't complain, just handle the mess we gave you,'" former Arkansas first lady--and possible future president--Hillary Clinton wrote in her memoir "Living History." "Bill had done just that, but there was a big political price to pay for supporting his President." [...] Clinton's refugee problem began in the spring of 1980, when Castro, battling a bad economy, permitted 125,000 Cubans to leave the Communist nation in what became known as the Mariel boatlift. Chartered vessels carrying Cuban citizens across the water put Carter in tough spot--the United States was supposed to welcome the wretched refuse of any teeming shore. But what if Cuba's unwanted, which included criminals and the mentally ill, were a little too wretched? The president didn't appear to care. "We'll continue to provide an open heart and open arms to refugees seeking freedom from Communist domination and from economic deprivation, brought about primarily by Fidel Castro and his government," Carter said. But while the "open arms" line would prove Carter's most memorable statement on the boatlift, the White House wanted to fold its arms as soon as possible"

"First, Clinton suggested the refugees be screened on an aircraft carrier off of the Florida coast. Eidenburg said that didn't make sense, because there was no place to put those refugees the United States wouldn't accept. "Sure there is," Clinton replied, as recounted in his memoir "My Life." "We still have a base at Guantanamo, don't we? And there must be a gate in the fence that divides it from Cuba. Take them to Guantanamo, open the door, and march them back into Cuba." Perhaps unsurprisingly, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. rejected its future occupant's Guantanamo plan"

"On May 26, "a couple hundred" refugees escaped the fort, running out through an unguarded gate. Clinton demanded the National Guard act, but was faced with a bit of a Catch-22: The Cubans weren't illegal aliens, so they couldn't be detained against their will--even though they weren't citizens, and were now walking free among Arkansans, many of whom were hostile. Clinton called Carter and "demanded that someone be given authority to keep the Cubans on the base," he wrote. "I was afraid people in the area were going to start shooting them. There had been a run on handguns and rifles in every gun store within fifty miles of Chaffee." Carter sent more troops--Clinton wrote he "was able to relax a little." Then: "On the night of June 1, all hell broke loose." A riot erupted at the fort; 1,000 Cubans fled past troops, who did little to stop them. The Cubans began walking down a highway to the closest town, which was filled with "several hundred angry and armed Arkansans," as Clinton put it, with state troopers the governor's only muscle to prevent chaos. After some of the Cubans started throwing rocks, Clinton feared "a bloodbath that would make the Little Rock Central High crisis look like a Sunday afternoon picnic." Fortunately, the Cubans retreated when troopers fired warning shots. Sixty-two people were injured and three buildings at Fort Chaffee were destroyed, but no one died. Conditions at the fort improved, and the screening process was streamlined. Further, Carter promised no more Cubans would be sent to Arkansas. Calm returned to the state ahead of a November election in which Clinton would, he hoped, secure a second term as the Natural State's governor."

III. A Shining City on a Hill - with a City Wall

"America has always accepted refugees with open arms, but we should not do it in such a way as to make things worse for both the refugees and the communities in which they are placed"

"America's tradition of welcoming refugees is as old as Pilgrim Puritan John Winthrop's sermon about the new country becoming a "city on a hill" offering a model of unity for the entire world to watch. That spirit has survived through World Wars, and has been a key to Republican values as outlined in Reagan's farewell address in 1989. It is the spirit behind the thousands of Bosnians who came to a welcoming St. Louis two decades ago, and the reason Mayor Francis Slay has recommitted the city to accepting Syrian refugees. For Republicans who really want to do more than talk a good game about freedom, Barnes has a message: "I stand with Ronald Reagan." Who will stand with him?"

"Why should America take religious and other refugees? I'll start with the words of Ronald Reagan from his famous speech called "A Time for Choosing" in 1964. "Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee," Reagan explained. "And in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said 'We don't know how lucky we are.' And the Cuban stopped and said, 'How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.' And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth." Reagan ended with a famous line. "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny," he said. "We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness." The greatest threat to freedom in 1964 was Soviet Communism. The greatest threat today is ISIS and its savage ilk who are forcing hundreds of thousands of Christians, Muslims, and others from their homes in the Middle East. These refugees have created a humanitarian crisis in Europe, and there are no easy answers. Those who would deny refugee status to all of those fleeing ISIS bring to mind the tragic voyage of the St. Louis steamship in 1939, which carried 937 Jews fleeing Hitler across the Atlantic Ocean only to be denied entry in Havana and the United States. They left port on May 13 in Hamburg, Germany and arrived in Havana on May 27 to be turned away. After leaving Havana, the ship came so close to the U.S. that they could see the lights of Miami. Passengers on the ship begged the State Department and President Roosevelt to allow them to enter. Their requests were ignored and on June 6, the ship set sail back to Europe. Some found refuge in Great Britain and others re-settled on continental Europe. For those who disembarked on the continent, their refuge proved all too brief. Nearly half died in the Holocaust."

"Nevertheless, with the increase in Soviet Jewish émigrés arriving in the United States each year after 1975, the Jewish federations had a very difficult time funding the absorption of these destitute newcomers. By the summer of 1976, six of the 12 communities with Jewish populations above 75,000, and several medium-size Jewish communities, "restricted their acceptance of new refugees to those people who have first-degree relatives in that community." In addition, the unwillingness of local federations to accept certain refugees delayed refugee departures from Rome. This indicated early grassroots dissent from support for "freedom of choice." [...] "During the early 1980s, there were some efforts to rethink American policy toward refugees in general and Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union in particular. Moreover, the Liaison Bureau and some of its American Jewish supporters worked to alter American policy toward Soviet Jewish refugees; they pressured for closing America's gates to Soviet Jews. Until 1982, the United States had accepted almost all Soviet Jewish émigrés as refugees. Official American policy had been committed to the principle of freedom of choice. In March 1982, Howard Eugene Douglas, U.S. Ambassador at Large and Coordinator for Refugee Affairs at the State Department, met with CJF leadership in various local federations, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Cleveland, and with leaders and officials in HIAS and CJF. He discussed with them proposed changes in government regulations that would curtail refugee immigration into the United States. He made specific references to Soviet Jews as well as to other groups of refugees." [...] "In the meantime, the American Jewish establishment and grassroots Soviet Jewry advocacy organizations focused their efforts on Congress. On December 13, 1988, the 160-member Congressional Human Rights Caucus protested to President Reagan recent actions in Rome and Moscow affecting Soviet Jews. They charged these actions have handed "the Soviets an undeserved public relations victory by permitting them to claim that they are releasing more Soviet Jews than the United States is willing to receive." On January 30, a similar letter of protest was sent by 51 Senators to Secretary of State Baker and Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. They called on the new Bush Administration to revert to the former policy of granting refugee status to all Soviet Jews, citing the rise of anti-Semitism under the freedom of glasnost." [...] "The exodus of Soviet Jews increased in 1989 with almost 90 percent wanting to resettle in the United States. Some estimated that as many as 50,000 to 60,000 would leave in 1989. Failing to win over the Administration on the status of all Soviet Jews as potential refugees, American Jewish leaders supported the Lautenberg Amendment. Enacted in November 1989, it lowered the burden of proof of persecution for Soviet Jews, Evangelical Christians, and members of the Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church to obtain refugee status to the United States.6 These groups would have "strong likelihood of qualifying for admission to the United States as refugees because their groups have a history of persecution." It required immigration officers to consider whether "historical circumstances" might give refugees a "credible basis for concern," rather than the "well-founded fear" they had been required to prove. Some believed the amendment made every Soviet Jewish émigré a potential refugee. Regardless of support for the Lautenberg Amendment and previous efforts to obtain refugee status for all Soviet Jewish émigrés, the American Jewish establishment, except for HIAS professionals and some local federation personnel, abandoned the demand to resettle most Soviet Jewish émigrés in the United States. They decided to compromise on freedom of choice and to support their government's restrictive policy and encourage most Soviet Jews to go to Israel." [...] "Passage of the Lautenberg Amendment might have led to a confrontation between Congress and American Jewry against the Administration over the status of Soviet Jews as refugees. The administration, therefore sought a compromise. By expanding the number of Soviet Jewish refugees entering the United States, the Administration hoped that it could reach an understanding with American Jewish leaders and their supporters in Congress about the need to limit the number of Soviet Jews entering the United States."

"By far the largest number of Syrian refugee admissions into the U.S. since the civil war began in March 2011 took place in FY 2015 (Oct. 1, 2014-Sept. 30, 2015), when 1,682 arrived--or 75.6 percent of the total 2,224 who have been admitted since 2011. Of those 1,682 admissions in FY 2015, 1,573 (93.5 percent) were Sunni Muslims. An additional 53 were described as simply "Moslem" and 10 were Shia. Only 30 (1.8 percent) were Christian. Accounting for the rest were six Zoroastrians, two Baha'i, two atheists, five of "other religion," and one described as having "no religion."

"Despite being billed as a "refugee crisis," what is unfolding along Europe's borders is a mixed migration of asylum seekers and economic migrants. The European Union's official statistical agency, Eurostat, recorded 213,0000 arrived migrants in April, May, and June of this year; only 44,000--1 in five--were fleeing war in Syria. With new international attention turned to the problem over the last month, that proportion likely has changed. But even the International Organization for Migration reports that Syrians make up only 40 percent of the total migrant population. Another 11 percent are Afghans fleeing the Taliban; Eritreans fleeing their own oppressive government are 7 percent; and many thousands more hail from Iraq, Pakistan, and sub-Saharan Africa. Perhaps the most telling statistic is the ratio of men to women and children in the overall migrant population: 72 percent to 13 percent and 15 percent, respectively, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Given the typical profile of economic migrants, this dramatic disproportion suggests that many men are seeking economic opportunity, not sanctuary from violence."

"Again taking the Somali experience as a paradigm, surely the most troubling phenomenon is the exodus of young men and women--more than 60 from the Twin Cities to date--to join al-Shabaab and the Islamic State in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Overwhelmingly these young men and women were born in the United States, suggesting that subsequent generations are subject to a destabilizing tension between their "native" and "adopted" countries. Given the disinclination to require of new populations substantive assimilation, and given that Syria's Islamism is more potent and more aggressive than Somalia's has ever been, it is not difficult to imagine that the consequences of receiving a large Syrian-refugee population may not fully manifest themselves for decades."

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