Nir Rosen: the Iraq Refugee Crisis

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Steve Clemons at the Washington Note has some excellent follow-up to Nir Rosen's Sunday New York Times Magazine article, the Flight from Iraq. Per Clemons:

...the United States has granted only 466 visas during the Iraq War. According to both outgoing Asst. Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Barry Lowenkron and Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey -- who both attended the UN Foundation dinner -- while the U.S. has made way for roughly 7,200 visa acceptances this next year -- and more than 2,000 have been cleared through a UN High Commission for Refugees process that the State Department requires -- not a single visa, not one from this group -- has been cleared by the Department of Homeland Security.

Even people inside the Bush administration who recognize that fixing this problem of the US not opening to any refugees is fundamental in repairing America's image in the world can't do it because DHS is manically focused on building a "fortress America." And that is actually undoing what America is and means for many in the world.

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