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Thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers are being turned away from the United States because of immigration laws that label individuals as terrorists simply because they provided some sort of support to an armed resistance group. The results are both devastating and absurd. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, writes to Secretary Chertoff highlighting the obvious inconsistency in the administration’s policy.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently used her congressionally-authorized authority to waive the application of these bars for a subset of Burmese refugees. As a result, Karen living in Thailand and Chin living in Thailand, Malaysia or India who associated with local resistance groups can now be cleared for admission to the United States as refugees. But Karen or Chin asylum seekers who are already in the US do not benefit from this waiver, which applies only to those seeking to enter the US from overseas. Although Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has the authority to correct this obvious inconsistency by expanding the waiver to cover Burmese asylum seekers in the US, he has not done so. This leaves vulnerable asylum seekers at risk of deportation.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote to Chertoff on November 6, 2006, highlighting the obvious inconsistency in the administration’s policy and urging him to extend the waiver granted Burmese refugees overseas to those asylum seekers already in the US. He also urged the secretary to work with Congress to amend the immigration laws so that innocent victims are not erroneously labeled terrorists.

To read the letter, please see: https://www.hrw.org/us/us110606.pdf

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