A spokesman for the USA Citizenship and Immigration Providers, which conducts the interviews, stated groups of refugee officers proceed to journey to the Center East, together with to Iraq, to interview candidates on what are often called “circuit rides.” The spokesman wouldn’t say when the final circuit trip in Iraq had been carried out, citing safety issues.
A State Division spokeswoman stated fewer high-priority Iraqi refugees had been admitted to the USA partially due to more durable background checks ordered by Mr. Trump final 12 months. “The safety checks take time, however they’re crucial,” she stated.
Because the 2008 fiscal 12 months, the USA has accepted 47,331 Iraqi refugees underneath the Direct Entry Program, giving precedence within the resettlement course of to those that had been affiliated with the American authorities in the course of the Iraq warfare. Of these, 3,249 had been accepted in the course of the first three years of the Trump administration, the federal government knowledge present.
Initially, the Pentagon had requested that 6,000 slots be given to the high-priority Iraqi refugees for the 2020 fiscal 12 months. However others within the Trump administration, cautious of a continued risk from the Islamic State, fought to decrease the variety of Iraqis, viewing them as a safety danger.
Over the summer time, the Division of Homeland Safety deported Jimmy Aldaoud, who was born in Greece to Iraqi mother and father and had lived in the USA since he was an toddler. He had gathered a minimum of 20 prison convictions over 20 years and was despatched to Iraq, the place he had by no means lived and didn’t converse the language.
His demise in Baghdad — alone, sick and begging to return to his household in Detroit — outraged lawmakers and human rights activists.
A brand new spate of unrest throughout Iraq — weeks of violent demonstrations by protesters who demand public companies and are difficult authorities corruption — has made refugee candidates all of the extra anxious.