Obama Admin Preps Unilateral Approval of Refugees Barred from Entry in Australia
November 22, 2016
Washington, D.C. – Congressional Judiciary Committee leaders are expressing frustration and concern with an Obama Administration plan to admit into the United States an unknown number of refugees who Australia has refused to admit. The Administration never disclosed to Congress that it was negotiating a deal with Australia, even though it was apparently in the works when Administration officials provided a legally-required consultation to Congress on refugees in September.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today expressed concern that the Obama Administration’s secret negotiations with Australia left Americans in the dark about the full scope of its resettlement plans. In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, the chairmen also said the plan raises other questions, including how many refugees will be resettled in the United States and why Australia refused to resettle them. According to administration officials, the refugees are largely from Iran, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Sudan. The State Department has designated Iran and Sudan as state sponsors of terrorism.
The chairmen are requesting a copy of the agreement and a classified briefing to gain a better understanding of the unilateral international refugee agreement that the Administration negotiated without Congressional consultation.
Full text of the Goodlatte-Grassley letter to Kerry and Johnson follows:
November 22, 2016
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION The Honorable Jeh Johnson Secretary Department of Homeland Security Washington, D.C. 20528 The Honorable John Kerry Secretary Department of State Washington, D.C. 20520 Dear Secretaries Johnson and Kerry: On November 11, a press report surfaced disclosing that the United States Government was finalizing a deal with Australia in which the United States would take refugees located on certain Pacific island nations that Australia has refused to admit. Congress learned, through the media, that 1,800 migrants interdicted before reaching Australia’s shores, could be transferred from detention facilities in Papua New Guinea and Nauru to U.S. soil. Upon requesting confirmation of the news report, our staffs were briefed by officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Officials from your departments confirmed that an agreement between the U.S. and Australia has been signed by a representative of the State Department, that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would refer individuals for resettlement to the United States, and that interviews and operations would begin almost immediately. Your employees reported that 2,465 individuals currently reside in detention facilities in Papa New Guinea and Nauru. When asked how many of the 2,465 individuals in the detention facilities the U.S. agreed to consider for resettlement in the U.S., the briefers said that number was classified. However, your employees confirmed that the individuals being detained and who will be eligible to seek resettlement are largely from the following countries:- Iran
- Stateless
- Sri Lanka
- Pakistan
- Afghanistan
- Somalia
- Iraq
- Sudan