Coming to the United States as a refugee, says David Murphy, the Executive Director in San Diego Chapter of the International Rescue Committee, is not an easy journey. It can take from one and a half to ten years to go through the vigorous screening process. “To come into the United States through the refugee avenue is the most difficult way to get into the United States, because of the stringent security vetting that takes place. Any other way is easier than being a refugee.”
The United Nations estimates there are 20 million refugees worldwide. Murphy has worked with refugees for decades. He set up refugee camps in Africa and Afghanistan. “At any given time there are many, many wars going on – mostly civil wars throughout the world and the United States will then begin a process to identify individuals in these countries most at risk.” According to the United Nations some of the most war torn countries include: Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Somalia. The U.S. has agreed to take 85,000 refugees in 2016, of that a few thousand are from Syria.
The U.S. has been taking refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan for years, and new refugees continue to arrive. “That's because the Iraq war was happening eight years ago, five years ago, and so that's when those refugees we're coming forward, so even today with Syria we are not going to see Syrian refugees coming in big numbers anytime soon because this vetting process takes so long.”
The largest group of refugees who arrived in the U.S. last year came from Burma. “That's because the conflict in Burma was going on 10 years ago, five years ago, and that's when initially the refugees were coming in for resettlement.” In San Diego the highest number of refugees came from Iraq last year at 49% or 1,226. In part because they have family already here, refugees from Afghanistan and Somalia were the next highest groups.
Many have criticized the vetting process for the resettlement. Critics say the intelligence is not good enough in countries where their records cannot be obtained and people who may want to do the U.S. harm could slip through the process as they allegedly did in France.
Murphy says the current system in Europe is nowhere near as secure as the system we have here in the U.S.; he describes the process beginning with multiple interviews from multiple applicants, which take place at settlement camps outside the U.S.
“They will check biometric data they will take your fingerprints, even retina scans, and check it with a number of the databases. They will also go back into those countries to try to provide interviews. All of this is done by trained U.S. government staff employees with the Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, CIA, FBI and if at anytime there's a question mark they will then go in for even further screening, “says Murphy.
Ablo Sayad, a woman from Somalia, said the people in her village were constantly being killed. “They kill a lot of people there, still they do it in our village,” she told NBC7. With the help of a friend she and her six children were able to escape to a refugee camp in Kenya. It then it took several years for her to finally be able to resettle here in the U.S. “This is my home now in America is good life and good people. We safe, God bless America, we safe,” Sayad said as she fought back tears recalling the violence.
Sayad said her second husband, whom she met in Kenya, was not able to enter the U.S. as a refugee. He could not get through the long process. But she said her children were able to get an education here and one of her sons served in the U.S. Army. They are grateful to have escaped their war torn country to come to San Diego.
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At any time in the process if there is a question or a ‘ding’ as he calls it, the person seeking resettlement in America is rejected. David Murphy says “This is FBI, CIA, these are our Department of Homeland Security. They don't want to bring in anyone that's going to cause a problem, and so they are extra stringent. The U.S. government personnel that are part of these processes and the security vetting go through their own training programs so that they're trained up on how to spot fraud.”
There are many other ways, Murphy says, to get into the U.S. There are a variety of Visa programs: student, work, or tourist. Every year a million people enter the United States. Very few come in through the refugee program. But critics say it is too risky too let groups come into the country that may pose a threat, but Murphy says this program is for those most at risk. “These are refugees that are fleeing ISIS, these are refugees living in Syria that have been facing ISIS and ISIL for the last four and a half, five years,” grandmothers, women and children.
Adding, “Just by shutting down the refugee pipeline that's not going to keep Terrorists out. Terrorists can still get in. We have very open borders there are quite a number of ways to get in the United States. The refugee population that comes here, they are the most thoroughly security vetted population of any group.”
Murphy says since September 11th nearly 800,000 refugees have entered the U.S. and become hard working, tax paying citizens. “Just by shutting down the refugee pipeline that's not going to keep terrorists out, terrorists can still get in. We have very open borders there are quite a number of ways to get in the United States. The refugee population that comes here they are the most thoroughly security vetted population of any group.”
On Thursday the House of Representatives voted to halt the Syrian Refugee Program.
