Ten things to know about the refugee process.
The Obama administration sought to push back Tuesday against calls from 27 mostly Republican governors, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, to ban Syrian refugees from resettling in their states as the recent Paris attacks have stirred concern over the stream of migrants seeking safety in Europe and the U.S.
In a briefing with reporters, senior administration officials outlined the detailed security procedures the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. State Department follow when interviewing and screening applicants referred to them by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The U.S. has resettled 784,000 refugees since Sept. 11, 2001, according to Kathleen Newland, co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington D.C. Since then, Newland said, only three resettled refugees — two Iraqis in Kentucky and an Uzbek in Idaho — have been arrested for planning terrorist activities.
Here are 10 things to know
about how the refugee process works:
1. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees first screens applicants to determine if they are eligible and whether to send them to one of 28 countries, including the United States. It’s impossible for refugees to know where they will be sent.
2. After the U.N. agency has referred candidates to the U.S., based on a host of factors including whether they have friends and family there or if they require specialized medical attention, the Department of Homeland Security begins its process. Candidates undergo multiple in-person interviews. They are also screened biographically, which includes checking their names against federal databases, and biometrically, which runs their fingerprints.
Investigators check for criminal records and certain civil information, such as if the applicant has ever applied for a visa or gone to a U.S. embassy or consulate to check for consistencies such as claims of identity, location and nationality. The
process includes an investigation by the National Counterterrorism Center and the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center.
3. The government has added an extra level of screening for Syrian refugees based on its experience with Iraqi refugees, who spurred much of the same security concerns as we’re hearing today. Some of what that contains is classified but it also includes a detailed review of each refugee’s basic file, created by the U.N. agency. “If someone says, ‘I was at a demonstration in Aleppo, then the soldiers came and the police came and something happened,’ then we can look back at that time and place and follow up with lines of questioning that would be appropriate” to see if that really occurred, a senior administration official said.
4. After a refugee has passed his or her Department of Homeland Security background investigation, the State Department works with the nine mostly faith-based organizations which contract with more than 250 local resettlement groups across the country
to determine where to place refugees and help them in their transition. The process is funded by federal, not state, money.
5. From when the U.N. refers someone as a refugee to when they are finally placed takes an average of 1824 months but can take as long as three years. Syrian refugees have taken significantly longer to process because of security concerns and the fact that the U.S. doesn’t have a diplomatic presence in the country, making it more complicated for them to gather information about applicants. About half of all U.N. referrals from Syria have been approved, the administration said Tuesday, though it expects this number to increase as more Syrians edge forward in the clearance process in coming months.
6. About half of all Syrian refugees the administration has admitted have been children, officials said, and only 2 percent are single males of combat age.
7. Of the 18,000 Syrians referred by the U.N. refugee agency, about 10,000 are well along in their clearance and expected to arrive in greater numbers soon.
8. By comparison, more than 4 million refugees have fled Syria since the war began in 2011, according to the United Nations, with almost 1.8 million going to Turkey, more than 600,000 to Jordan and 1 million to Lebanon — a country whose population is just 4 million.
9. The United States has admitted about 2,200 Syrian refugees since the war broke out but the vast majority, nearly 1,700, were resettled in last fiscal year ending in September. In that period, 90 Syrians were placed in Houston, according to the State Department.
10. After living here for one year, refugees can apply for their green card and move where they would like just like any American. Houston has resettled the most refugees overall in the nation for the past two years.