Terrorism

# Asylees and Refugees# Asylum Seekers# Legal# National Security

“Halting” Asylum and “Re-Examining” Previously-Approved Cases

After the terrible shooting incident last week where a CIA-trained Afghan national killed one member of the National Guard and critically injured another, President Trump declared that he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country.” He also vowed to “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

We do not yet have a full picture of how these words will be put into operation, but several government agencies have already announced new restrictions on asylum and on people from Afghanistan and other “banned” countries. Here, we’ll look at what has been said so far, and try to understand how the new policies will affect asylum seekers and asylees.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Immigration

Violence, Terror, and Hypocrisy: The Dallas ICE Shooting

Last week, a 29-year-old man opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas. One detained migrant was killed and two others were injured. The shooter died of a self-inflicted wound.

DHS quickly concluded that this was “an attack on ICE law enforcement,” and the Acting U.S. Attorney for the region noted the “tragic irony” that migrants were harmed rather than ICE agents. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called out “the far-left,” and said that comparing ICE to the “Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences.”

For an Administration that has consistently dehumanized, demonized, and lied about non-citizens, the idea of blaming far-left rhetoric for the Dallas attack is richly hypocritical. So too is the “irony” that migrants were harmed instead of ICE agents, which assumes that the murderer was somehow trying to help immigrants. Despite all this, I think it’s worth exploring whether anti-ICE rhetoric is contributing to increased violence and whether there might be more effective ways to talk about the government’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Immigration# National Security

Targeting Pro-Palestinian Students (and Why That’s Bad for the Jews)

The Trump Administration has been targeting pro-Palestinian activists under an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which provides, “An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.” See INA § 237(a)(4)(C)(1). Under this section, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, can basically designate any non-citizen for deportation.

Until recently, this provision was rarely used, but now, the Trump Administration seems intent on labeling hundreds of non-citizens–mostly students who have expressed opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza–as people whose presence in the U.S. has “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” thus rendering them deportable. 

Here, we’ll discuss INA § 237(a)(4)(C)(1) and some policy implications of its widespread use.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylees and Refugees# Immigration# National Security

Evaluating the Threat Posed by Refugees

Last month, a Somali refugee and college student drove his car into a crowd at his university, jumped out, and started stabbing people. He was quickly shot dead by a campus police officer. The assailant, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, apparently left Somalia, lived for a time in Pakistan, and was resettled as a refugee in … Read more

By Jason Dzubow
# Asylees and Refugees# Asylum Seekers# National Security

In Defense of Muslim Refugees

Since the vicious attack last week by Muslim extremists in Paris, attention in the U.S. has focused on our country’s refugee policy and President Obama’s decision earlier this year to admit an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees (above the normal refugee ceiling of 70,000). More than half of the nation’s governors have indicated that Syria refugees … Read more

By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Credible Fear# National Security

Congress: Asylum System Letting in Terrorists

According to a letter from four members of Congress to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson,  a “recent disclosure [by USCIS] regarding the number of aliens found to have a ‘credible fear’ in cases where the terrorism bar to asylum eligibility may have applied raised the concern that hundreds of known and suspected aliens with terrorist connections may be attempting … Read more

By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# National Security

Beirut Embassy Bomber Gets US Asylum, New Book (Incorrectly) Claims

A new book by Pulitzer-Prize winner Kai Bird claims that the Iranian intelligence officer behind the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut–and many other terrorist attacks–received asylum in the United States. Among those killed in the 1983 attack were the CIA’s top Middle East analyst, a “good spy” named Robert Ames, who purportedly cultivated friendly … Read more

By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum# Asylum Seekers# Human Rights

Amendments to the Terrorism Bar–or–How Fox News Enables the Holocaust

I’ve created a new invention. It’s called the “No-Hypocrisy Time Machine.” It enables us to travel back into the past to apply today’s laws and policies to historical events so we can see what impact they would have. In the process, we might just uncover some inconsistent or–dare I say it–hypocritical thinking. Before we begin … Read more

By Jason Dzubow