Action is needed now. The Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on this humanitarian problem more than 15 months ago. That hearing on the plight of Iraqi refugees was among our first. in January 2007. In the interim. the administration has continued to make promises it cannot. or will not keep with respect to the resettlement of Iraqi refugees in the United States. The administrations failure to acknowledge the Iraqi refugee crisis is emblematic of its inability to address other serious human rights issues that are much of its own making. The injustice resulting from the administrations interpretation of the material support and terrorism related bars that were enacted following September 11. 2001. continues to deprive legitimate asylum seekers of our protection. The consequences of these laws continue to go unaddressed. despite the fact that Congress has now twice given the Department of Homeland Security the authority to alleviate the situation. While Secretary Chertoff is unwilling to use this authority to provide asylum to those who need our protection. he has repeatedly used the vast authority ceded to him by proponents of the REAL ID Act to waive landmark environmental laws in the course of constructing a border wall between the United States and Mexico. This month. during the Judiciary Committees oversight hearing on the Department of Homeland Security. I followed up by asking Secretary Chertoff about his Departments lack of progress on implementing the authority Congress has given to him to remedy the material support and terrorism bars.
Keywords matched
border wall asylum seekers refugee refugees