FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram , Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 127

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
United States Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Rice:

On behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, I am writing to congratulate you on the formation of the Iraq Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons Task Force. For some time, the Commission has argued that the increasing numbers of IDPs and Iraqi refugees in the region demand urgent U.S. attention.

The Commission urges you to make the question of Iraqi refugee resettlement one of your top priorities on the agenda in your upcoming meeting with UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres this week. It is our understanding that the U.S. government and UNHCR are in discussions regarding Iraqi refugee resettlement to the United States and that UNHCR is looking to resettle approximately 20,000 Iraqi refugees here. In particular, the Commission urges that Iraqis fleeing religious persecution, particularly ChaldoAssyrians, Sabean Mandaeans and Yazidis, be given access to the U.S. Refugee Program and included in this 20,000. Specifically, because of the well-documented threats these groups face in Iraq, the Commission recommends that you:

• Create new or expand existing options for allowing members of Iraq's ChaldoAssyrian, Sabean Mandaean and Yazidi religious minority communities to access the U.S. refugee program. The Visa 92/93 and Priority Three (P-3) programs are too narrowly focused and unnecessarily limit opportunities for family reunification;
• Assure the UNHCR that it can count on the United States to play a leading role in contributing the resources necessary to preserve first asylum for Iraqis and provide resettlement places; and
• Urge that UNHCR take more proactive measures to ensure that the most vulnerable Iraqis in need of resettlement are identified and referred without undue delay.

Although they comprise only three percent of the population, UNHCR has estimated that ChaldoAssyrians and Sabean Mandaeans constitute up to 40 percent of all registered refugees and the International Organization for Migration estimates they constitute seven percent of all IDPs.

Knowing your concern for human rights and the plight of Iraqi refugees in the region, the Commission urges you to act on the above recommendations. This issue belongs on the agenda along with the refugee crisis in Darfur and the deplorable situation of North Koreans in China, problems the Commission has in the past reported on and written to you about.

Thank you very much for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Felice D. Gaer

Chair

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram , Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 127

WASHINGTON-Two years after the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published the congressionally authorized Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal, the problems it identified remain and the majority of its recommendations have not been implemented.

Congress intended Expedited Removal, written into law in 1996, to protect U.S. borders and bona fide asylum seekers. As this policy is being implemented, though, it has put asylum seekers at risk of being returned to countries where they face persecution.

That has helped turn the United States, a nation founded by people fleeing repression, into a country of bureaucratic walls and mazes where victims are sent back to their tormentors or thrown into U.S. jails alongside criminals pending a judgment on asylum.

On Feb. 8, 2005, USCIRF made 18 recommendations to the agencies responsible for implementing the Expedited Removal program, all designed to further both the aims of protecting U.S. borders and ensuring fair and humane treatment for bona fide asylum seekers.

Today USCIRF issued a report card assessing how well the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ) have implemented the recommendations, to assure that Congressional safeguards for bona fide asylum seekers are translated into practice.

USCIRF chair Felice D. Gaer noted that "we see no significant difference between the situations of then and now-with the exception that Expedited Removal was expanded in spite of our explicit recommendation to hold off on that."

DHS has widened Expedited Removal from a port-of-entry program to one that covers the entire land and sea border of the United States.

Customs and Border Protection did not institute any of the five recommendations USCIRF made to improve oversight, including measures as simple as adding videotape monitoring systems to all border patrol stations and ports of entry or employing so-called testers to verify that procedures are followed correctly. As a result, Customs and Border Protection earned the lowest grade, with an overall score of "F."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken no steps to improve the prison-like conditions under which asylum seekers are detained or ensure that release criteria are applied uniformly. ICE earned an overall grade of "D."

However, the picture isn't entirely bleak. The Justice Department's Executive Office of Immigration Review has taken steps to reinstate judicial training and expand its legal orientation program for detained asylum seekers, earning an overall grade of "C+."

The report card summary and the full report of USCIRF's two-year review of its recommendations on expedited removal are posted on its web site, www.uscirf.gov.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 06, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

-PRESS ADVISORY-

USCIRF EXPEDITED REMOVAL STUDY REPORT CARD: 2 YEARS LATER

When:Thursday, February 8, 2007, 9:30-10:30 am

Where:Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 342

Agenda: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published its congressionally authorized Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal on February 8, 2005. The study identified serious flaws in implementation of the Expedited Removal policy that put asylum seekers at risk of being returned to countries where they may face persecution, and it documented that they were held in inappropriate, prison-like conditions or even actual jails, among other findings.

Despite the passage of two years since the report was released, most of its recommendations have yet to be implemented. Senators Lieberman (ID-CT) and Brownback (R-KS) requested that the Commission report on progress made by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.

The Commission will hold a press conference to present its report card on the performance of those Departments and their subsidiary agencies dealing with expedited removals. The speakers will include:

• Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
• Felice D. Gaer, Chair, USCIRF
• Preeta D. Bansal, Commissioner, USCIRF

RSVP:Angela Stephens, [email protected], (202) 523-3240, x114

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.