The first part is that he has to be located outside of the United States. So in order to apply for refugee status, he would have had to have applied at the US Consulate in Jakarta. His application would go through an initial review, and when there are a sufficient number of people waiting for interviews, the INS is notified. The agency then sends personnel, known as “circuit riders,” to the consulates where the interviews will be conducted. After passing the interview portion, the applicant is required to take a medical examination. He also has to obtain a sponsor. When all the paperwork is complete, it is sent to INS for review. He is then put on a list. Mind you all of this would have had to have taken place within a period of 2 months ( he was back in school in Hawaii in September ). There is no way that amount of paperwork ( especially back in the mid 70’s before the onslaught of PC’s ) could have been completed in 2 months.
It doesn’t matter what his mother said. He had to prove his immigration status to the INS. The only way for him to do that would be to show his passport. That would have shown the embarkation stamp of his arriving in Indonesia from the US. So he couldn’t claim he was not firmly resettled in another country. Then you have the major part that has to be proven in order to be granted refugee status. He had to demonstrate that he was persecuted or had fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
Pretty hard to claim that when you just arrived in the country. If he had that fear, it wouldn’t make any sense for him to fly back to Indonesia.
I agree with you that you can’t trust anything with the Dunhams about identification. Considering Grandma Toots was the VP of the largest bank in Hawaii and the friends that hung around - Frank Marshall Davis for one - it would not be too hard for them to acquire a dormant SS number. I think you are grasping at straws over this “refugee” theory. It just doesn’t hold up - both in the practical sense and legally. I wish it did, since that would show he was naturalized.
Frankly, I just thought it was an interesting idea and I’m prodding along to debate so it can be hashed out. I’m not really committed either way to the idea.
Where are you getting your information about those INS regulations from? Couldn’t Stanley Anne have had a friend in the State Department expedite & rubberstamp those sorts of matters?