August 24, 2006
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. President,
As leaders of faith-based communities and individuals concerned with protecting victims of persecution, we ask to meet with you and urge you to directly intervene in a situation that is barring thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, some of the world’s most vulnerable and oppressed people, from gaining the protection offered by the U.S. refugee resettlement and asylum programs.
All refugees endure extreme hardship and suffering and for some, their only hope for rebuilding their lives is to resettle in the United States. However, the U.S. has mistakenly characterized many of these refugees as having aided terrorists when they in fact were often the victims of terrorism. For example, a Christian Burmese Chin refugee who was interrogated and beaten by the Burmese military, a Sierra Leonean woman refugee who was raped repeatedly by rebels and saw her daughter attacked in front of her, a Montagnard refugee who fought alongside our troops in Vietnam, and a Colombian father who paid a ransom to obtain the release of his son are all refugees who have been refused resettlement to the U.S. due to a grossly misconstrued interpretation by the Department of Homeland Security of what constitutes “material support to a terrorist organization.”
There is a process by which a waiver can be applied to allow certain groups of refugees to come to the U.S. who would otherwise be denied under this overbroad definition of “material support.” However, this waiver has only been exercised once, and for only one group of Burmese refugees in one of eight refugee camps in Thailand. Furthermore, it took nine months of interagency deliberations to reach this limited result which is so narrow that it excludes hundreds of refugees inside the camp who are deserving of resettlement and thousands more who face extremely precarious situations in some of the world’s most troubled regions. Just recently, twenty five Burmese refugees including two women in advanced stages of pregnancy were detained and sent into the hands of human traffickers after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees suspended referrals from Malaysia to the U.S. resettlement program due to the material support bar.
The current situation in which refugees are being denied the protection offered by the U.S. resettlement program runs contrary to your long-standing agenda of freedom and democracy for oppressed people all over the world and undermines the efforts of the Department of State to provide resettlement as a durable solution to refugees in need of protection. The Department of State, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security have not placed due urgency on resolving this issue, sending a message to the world that we no longer stand with those who have been oppressed by the very regimes we oppose. Thus we ask for your direct intervention so that current implementation of the law can correspond with the intent of the law and the foreign and domestic policy objectives of the White House.
The present interpretation of the material support bar has effectively altered U.S. policy so that refugees and asylum seekers who have suffered at the hands of terrorists and despotic regimes are now no longer welcome to the U.S. as our friends. Your leadership is needed at this critical juncture so our country can be a place of freedom for those who are persecuted all over the world. Refugees cannot become the unintended victims of the war against terrorism.
We ask to meet with you concerning this grave situation and look forward to your response.
Respectfully,
Gary Bauer
President
American Values
Most Reverend Gerald R. Barnes
Bishop of San Bernardino
Chairman, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration
Ann Buwalda
Director
Jubilee Campaign USA
Richard Cizik
Vice President for Governmental Affairs
National Association of Evangelicals
Charles W. Colson
Chairman of the Board
Prison Fellowship
Michael Cromartie
Vice President
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Mark L. Earley
President and CEO
Prison Fellowship
Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar
General Secretary
National Council of Churches of Christ
Deborah Fikes
Human Rights Advocacy Advisor
Ministerial Alliance of Midland, Texas
Joseph Grieboski
President
Institute on Religion and Public Policy
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Michael Horowitz
Senior Fellow
Hudson Institute
Jim Jacobson
President
Christian Freedom International
Jeff King
President
International Christian Concern
Dr. Richard Land
President
Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Rev. John L. McCullough
Executive Director
Church World Service
William Murray
Chairman
Peggy Birchfield
Executive Director
Religious Freedom Coalition
Kathryn Cameron Porter
President
Leadership Council for Human Rights
Pamela D. Pryor
Director of Government Relations & Public Policy
We Care America
Rabbi David Saperstein
Director
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Nina Shea
Director
Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House
Very Reverend Thomas H. Smolich, S.J.
President
Jesuit Conference, USA
James D. Standish, JD, MBA
Executive Director
North American Religious Liberty Association
James Tonkowich
President
Institute on Religion and Democracy
Geoff Tunnicliffe
International Director/CEO
World Evangelical Alliance
Jim Winkler
General Secretary
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
Wendy Wright
President
Concerned Women for America
Angela C. Wu
Director of International Advocacy
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
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Source: http://www.wr.org/joinin/advocacy/view.asp?id=80024025
Note: Bolds and Highlights added for emphasis...........Arsenio