The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

led by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass., Gordon Smith, R-Ore., Sam Brownback, R-Kan. and Joseph Lie- berman, I-Conn., introduced S. 1651, the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, as an amendment to the FY-08 Department of Defense authorization bill. In the House of Representatives, Reps. Earl Blumenauer, R-Ore., and Christopher Shays, D-Conn., introduced similar legislation, H.R. 2265. Both measures have been endorsed by the American Conservative Union. The legislation would give Iraqis facing potential persecution because of ties to the U.S. the chance to apply directly for admission to America, rather than forcing them to chance a perilous flight to safety through Jordan or Syria. These two countries, already overwhelmed by an estimated 2.2 million refugees, have begun deporting refugees back to Iraq. Just a day earlier, on Sept. 17, a cable from Ambassador Ryan Crocker denouncing the refugee process and the government’s halting response to the crisis was leaked to the press. In it, Crocker said that the admission of Iraqi refugees to the U.S. remains bogged down by “major bottlenecks” resulting from security reviews con- ducted by the departments of State and Homeland Security. He also made several suggestions for fast- tracking the process. In February, in response to congressional hearings and pressure from lawmakers and NGOs, the administration had promised to improve the processing of Iraqi refu- gees, in particular those endangered as a result of collaboration with the U.S., pledging to resettle 7,000 during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. But during the summer that number was scaled back to 2,000, and as of late September, fewer than 850 refugees had been accepted. Since the start of the Iraq War in 2003, only 1,521 refugees have been admitted to the U.S., a fraction of those eligible. Meanwhile, a new report by the Iraqi Red Crescent organization documents a surge of internal migra- tion in recent months. Tens of thousands of families have been up- rooted and forced to live in shanty- towns and makeshift shelters ( www. nytimes.com/2007/09/19/world/mi ddleeast/ ). In Baghdad alone, the report states, nearly 170,000 families, accounting for almost a million people, have fled their homes. U.S. officials say the Iraqi refugee popula- tion is increasing by 60,000 a month. On Sept. 19, the administration announced the appointment of two new senior officials — immigration law expert Lori Scialabba as a senior adviser at the Homeland Security Department and diplomat James Fol- ey as the State Department’s senior coordinator for Iraqi refugee issues. At the end of the week, DHS counselor Paul Rozenzweig vowed that 12,000 Iraqi refugees would be settled in the U.S. over the next fiscal year. Under a 2006 measure passed by Congress, 500 Iraqis who face parti- cular risk for having served in jobs such as translators for U.S. authorities can settle in the U.S. with their famil- ies each year. But of that vulnerable group, only 384 have been admitted so far, with 54 more expected by the end of September. In contrast, since 2003 more than 250 Iraqi translators have been killed. According to a Human Rights Watch estimate, there are presently nearly 150,000 Iraqis in this exposed position. About 65,000 Iraqis work for the Pentagon under contract or subcontract, and another 81,000 work for U.S. reconstruction projects. On Sept. 21, the U.N. said that Iraqi asylum applications had soared to record levels, with twice as many as last year ( www.unhcr.org/iraq.html ) . In the first six months of this year, C Y B E R N O T E S 10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7