U.S. may open doors to 25,000 refugees

washingtontimes.com ^ | 4-18-2007 | Nicholas Kralev

[bedolido]

The United States could take in up to 25,000 Iraqi refugees this year -- more than three times the number it previously agreed to admit -- in an effort to provide some relief to the crisis affecting several Arab countries, the State Department said yesterday.

[2banana]

Christians?

[bedolido]

I forgot to add Iraqi refugees to the headlines

[Basheva]

Just what we don’t need........

I watched a veiled woman walking down my street with her little girl - about three years old - also wearing a veil.

That’s to show the three year old is “modest” ....

It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

[antisocial]

25,000 ???, just damn.

[SolidWood]

I hope so. We’ll see.

But I have say some words on this whole Iraqi refugee matter. Especially to those Iraqi academia and professionals leaving:

We liberated your country, so you can rebuilt it. The idea was not to get you out of Iraq and bring you to us. The idea was giving you the chance to live in Iraq a decent and free life. Now stand up and fight for your country, as hundreds of thousands Iraqis in the Army and Police are doing.

[3AngelaD]

Is the “U.S.” going to guarantee than none of these refugees is going to turn on us, that none has ties to Al Queda, that none of these people are going to do harm to American citizens? Why don’t they stay home and build their own countries into something they can be proud of, instead of baiing out?

[twonie]

Refugees? This is not a good idea. Let them make a way for themselves in their own country, which we are making livable for them, since they seem unable to do it. No. No.

[TomGuy]

How is bringing 25,000 refugees here going to solve anything?

Who, exactly, will those 25,000 be? Political friendlies? How will they be selected?

Instead of bringing them here and putting them on the public dole, why not just send them their check and let them stay in Iraq. Couldn’t they add more the development of Iraq?

[TomGuy]

IIRC, the ‘original’ number put out by the Bush Administration a year or so previous was around 7,000 refugees.

Like the cost of the war and the cost of the medicare prescription drug bill, the number of refugee openings from Iraq appears to have been very underestimated.

[TomGuy]

Is the “U.S.” going to guarantee than none of these refugees is going to turn on us,

They can't even guarantee that for the ones joining the Iraqi police forces or serving in the Iraqi military. Look how many of those 'new recruits' in Iraq have turned into homicide bombers.

[3AngelaD]

This kind of announcement is so frustrating because there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it, they’ve made up their minds, and there is no one to complain to.

[jpl]

Well, at least they won’t have to flee the country on rickety little boats and float around desperately hoping to be picked up by someone.

[FarRightFanatic]

My daughter has a Muslim girl in her class. Her parents are from Somalia. Just this year she started to wear a hijab—at age 6! Last week they had picture day and the photographer made her remove her hijab as part of their “no hats or head coverings of any kind” policy. Needless to say, I’ll be ordering a large, expensive photo package from them.

[harmodius]

Just perfect. By all means, let’s import tens of thousands of Muslims, at least some of whom may blame the U.S. for their displacement. Because nothing bad could ever come from that. We all know how peaceful Muslims really are.

I shouldn’t be surprised. This is the same administration that wants amnesty of the millions of Mexicans (and unknown others) it has permitted to run across our border. So why not Iraqis? Heck, this is the same administration that its permitting 10,000 Saudi students to come and study at US universities (because Saudis would never do anything to hurt America!).

By the way, doesn’t this send a pretty loud message that the administration thinks Iraq is a lost cause in the long run?

I am completely disgusted with Bush and the GOP which lets him get away with crap like this.

[HitmanLV]

Dubya does seem dedicated to becoming the weakest and most unpopular president in modern history. He is well on the way to being the ‘Jimmy Carter’ of the GOP, maybe even eclipsing Carter’s reputation for getting in over his head and being inept. Very bad.

[SeafoodGumbo]

I don't know if Ted Kennedy was the first to start pushing for resettling Iraqi refugees here, but he was advocating it this previous December.

Once again, we see the confluence of the Bush administration and Kenndey (see: No Child Left Behind).

On a related note, how long before we hear about one of the 15,000 Saudi Arabian students who are in the U.S. doing something akin to the Virginia Tech shooting?

[pandoraou812]

Good questions that I would love to see the answers to. I don’t understand why they need to come here. Shaking my head again....~P~

[SeafoodGumbo]

The United States could take in up to 25,000 Iraqi refugees this year...

...because the example of Somalis in Minnesota has shown that we need more Muslims than we now have.

I can't express how furious I am with the Bush administration. He may have done some things right, but 50% or 60% is still an 'F' and that's not nearly good enough when we're talking about the life and death of Americans.

[ABN 505]

Remember at age three she is probably already engaged to be married [to a Ist cousin]!