U.S. Will Accept Refugees Again, With “Extreme Vetting” for “Higher Risk” Applications

Refugees in the United States

A new announcement by executive order of President Trump on Tuesday says that the U.S. will start accepting refugees again post the expiration of the 120-day freeze by the Trump administration.

The order also says that the government will need three more months as it assesses the screening processes to accept refugees from 11 nations designated as “higher risk.” The president has mandated the Department of Homeland Security to formulate “extreme vetting” procedures to screen applicants in order to prevent “radical Islamic terrorists” from taking advantage of the refugee program.

Additional data will be collected about all refugee candidates, which includes biometrics, social media usage and other personal information. Administration officials said that the information will be shared between U.S. agencies that are tasked with the vetting procedures for refugee candidates.

“These new measures are part of the administration’s effort to raise national security standards for all persons traveling to the United States, and they are designed to intensify screening to keep nefarious and fraudulent actors from exploiting the refugee process to enter the United States”

But the U.S. is not completely re-opening its doors to refugees, especially applicants from the 11 “higher risk” countries. Refugee admissions from these countries will be conducted on a limited case-by-case basis during an additional 90-day review period.

Incidentally, administration officials have refused to identify these countries, but they are presumed to closely match the list of countries on Trump’s travel ban attempts that have been foiled by the courts more than once.

The new executive order does not change the number of refugees that will be accepted over the next one year, and it remains capped at 45,000 – the lowest level since the Refugee Act was created nearly 40 years ago.

According to Donald Trump:

“We don’t want them here. to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people.”

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Source: The Washington Post