Refugees
The Bush Administration has failed to maintain US leadership on refugee protection here and abroad. In 2002, less than 27,000 refugees were admitted to the United States, despite an annual ceiling of 70,000. In 2003, based on first quarter refugee admissions, only 16,000 will arrive. Enhanced security scrutiny of Middle Eastern refugees has resulted in steep reductions in refugee admissions from Iraq, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries that produce large numbers of refugees.
In November, President Bush ordered that boat people be placed in mandatory detention and fast-track removal procedures. He cited national security as the ground for deterring Haitian boat arrivals. Asylum procedures have also been streamlined to the point where due process protections are becoming more and more narrow and judicial review of asylum decisions increasingly rare. This is occurring in a context where immigration law is used increasingly as a pretext for holding aliens in indefinite, at times incommunicado, detention.
