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Study Guide Explores
Biblical Truths About
Refugees. To order, click here
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Pitts Legislative Fix
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Congressman Joseph R. Pitts, Republican from Pennsylvania, has drafted legislation HR5918 that would solve this problem with two simple and narrowly targeted fixes to the law: First, the legislation would prevent groups that have supported the United States or that the United States itself supports – such as the Burmese pro-democracy movements, anti-Castro movements, and groups of Hmong and Montagnards that supported the U.S. during the Vietnam War -- from inadvertently being labeled "terrorist organizations." Second, the legislation would protect victims of terrorism who were forced under threat of death or serious bodily injury into providing goods or services to armed rebels from being defined as "material supporters" of terrorism.
Click on these links for more information about this proposed legislative:
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How would the Pitts legislation solve this problem?
The Pitts legislation, HR5918, would solve this problem with two simple and narrowly targeted fixes to the law: First, the legislation would prevent groups that have supported the United States or that the United States itself supports – such as the Burmese pro-democracy movements, anti-Castro movements, and groups of Hmong and Montagnards that supported the U.S. during the Vietnam War -- from inadvertently being labeled "terrorist organizations." Second, the legislation would protect victims of terrorism who were forced under threat of death or serious bodily injury into providing goods or services to armed rebels from being defined as "material supporters" of terrorism.
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Will this amendment result in terrorists being admitted to this country?
No. The legislation does not affect the many other security and terrorism-related bars on entry which will continue to apply. Anyone who has ever engaged in terrorist activities, espoused terrorism, incited terrorism, received military training from a designated terrorist organization, solicited others to join a designated terrorist organization, associated with, joined or represented a designated terrorist organization, or provided any sort of material support – no matter how minimum – to a terrorist organization will continue to be barred entry to the United States
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What is the effect of the change to the definition of "terrorist organization" in the Pitts bill?
The Pitts bill leaves in place the applicable bars on any "designated" terrorist organization. Currently, there are over a hundred designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas, al Qaeda, the ETA, and FARC. All of their members and supporters will continue to be barred.
The Pitts bill simply changes the additional catch-all definition of terrorist organization -- by adding the criteria that the group must threaten the security of the United States or U.S. nationals. This amendment will ensure that groups that the U.S. supports and that support the U.S. – such as anti-Castro movements in Cuba, ethnic resistance movements in Burma, and Montagnards and Hmong who supported U.S. troops during the Vietnam War – are not inadvertently labeled "terrorist organizations" under the overbroad definition in current law.
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What about terrorist organizations that do not directly threaten the United States? Will their members and supporters continue to be barred?
The requirement that the group threaten the national security of the United States or U.S. citizens is the same criteria already required for any of the so-called "Tier I" designated terrorist groups – and is defined to include any group that threatens the national defense, foreign relations, or economic interests of the United States. This has been interpreted to encompass any group that threatens either the United States directly or one of its allies. For example, Hamas, FARC, and the Real IRA have all been determined to meet this criterion – even though none of these groups have ever been linked to a direct attack on the United States.
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Doesn't the administration already have the authority to waive the application of the law?
The administration has the authority to waive the application of the law but the authority is limited. It can waive in "material supporters," but not "members" of the groups that inadvertently fall within the overbroad definition of "terrorist organization."
It could, for example, waive in persons who independently provided food or shelter to U.S. troops in Vietnam or Afghanistan, but could not waive in those who fought alongside U.S. troops in those same conflicts.
Moreover, the waiver has proven difficult to implement. To date, the administration has utilized the waiver just once: for a subset of Burmese refugees in one camp - the Tham Hin camp - in Burma.
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What about that recent waiver for the Burmese in the Tham Hin Camp? Why wasn't that sufficient?
In May, the administration agreed to waive in some portion of the 9,300 Burmese refugees awaiting resettlement in the Tham Hin camp in Thailand. These are refugees that the United States had agreed to resettle almost a year ago. But all of their cases were put on hold because almost everyone in the camp either supported (often in the form of payment of taxes) or participated in the Karen National Union (KNU), a pro-democracy movement that has acted as a de facto government along the Thai-Burmese border.
The waiver, however, is limited. It only protects the "material supporters" of the KNU, and not the "members" or so-called "combatants" associated with the KNU - including nurses, teachers and civil servants that once worked in the areas it occupies. Spouses and children of members are also barred.
Current estimates suggest that only about 2,000 of the 9,300 refugees will ultimately be resettled after the waiver is fully implemented.
Most importantly, the waiver does not provide any relief for any of the other Burmese refugees in Thailand or Malaysia. And it fails to protect any of the other Cuban, Colombian, Hmong, Montagnard, Liberian, Sudanese, Somalian, and Sierra Leonean refugees being hurt by this bar.
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What will happen if this problem is not fixed?
Each fiscal year, Congress allocates a certain number of slots, broken down by region, for refugees to be admitted into the United States for the fiscal year. For the past several years, the United States has allocated 65,000 to 70,000 slots for refugees.
If the refugees' feet are not on U.S. soil by the end of the fiscal year, September 30, their slots will disappear. The best estimate suggests that without some sort of fix the United States will admit 10,000 to 15,000 fewer refugees than expected this year. Absent a solution, this shortfall will continue year after year. Many of these refugees will be left stranded – without any other viable options for resettlement.
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What can you do to help?
Please call your current and newly elected members of the House and Senate via the United States Capital switchboard at 202-224-3121 You may find the websites and phone numbers of newly elected members of the House and Senate on their campaign advertising. To find the name and contact information of your current senator or representative, go to www.congress.org <http://www.congress.org/> and enter your zip code.
- Congratulate those who won their elections; thank outgoing members for their service.
- Urge your House member to co-sponsor HR5918, the Pitts Bill.
- Urge your Senators to support similar legislation if it arises in the Senate.
If you have additional questions, contact Robin Foreman at 630/307-1400 x101.
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[Pitts Legislative Fix] |
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