Washington – President Donald Trump’s decision to extend restrictions on refugee admissions is an unnecessary security measure based on a nonexistent threat, Muslim Public Affairs Council Vice President Omar Noureldin said.
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order to resume a refugee admissions program that includes tight restrictions and stricter vetting procedures for citizens from 11 unnamed high-risk countries.
Noureldin told Sputnik on Wednesday:“this is a response to a phantom menace.
“For example, zero Americans have been killed by Syrian refugees in a terrorist attack on US soil. These new restrictions are unnecessary.”
Unnecessary security measures for refugees entering the United States may be a matter of life or death, Noureldin said, considering the vetting process for refugees can take between 18 and 24 months.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said earlier on Wednesday that Trump’s executive order to restrict refugee admission to the United States shows that Washington is taking steps to eliminate vulnerabilities in its visa vetting system that could be exploited to harm the homeland.
The White House said the United States will continue to resettle more refugees than any other country in the world and remains the world’s leader in humanitarian aid to refugees.
NAN reports that refugees currently undergo differing levels of security checks when applying for admission to the U.S., depending on the perceived risk they might present, including running their biographic and biometric data against law enforcement and intelligence databases.
Women and young children go through a lower level of security screening than men, said the three sources with knowledge of the proposal, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The proposed changes would bring their security checks more in line with what is required for adult male refugees.
Successive Republican and Democratic administrations have focused most of their attention on adult men who tend to join militant groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State in greater numbers than women.
A State Department official declined to comment on any refugee vetting processes while the review is underway.
The government is taking steps to “further intensify” refugee screening “to uphold the safety of the American people,” the official said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Dave Lapan declined to comment, and said the administration is “finalising security enhancement recommendations as part of the 120-day review.”
A White House spokeswoman said there were “no announcements at this time.”
All refugees referred for resettlement in the U.S. are run through a database with watch-list information, called the Consular Lookout and Support System.
Refugees can be singled out for a higher level of review based on their age, nationality, or gender.
Syrian refugees, for instance, undergo extra checks.
According to the State Department, of the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted to the U.S. in the 2016 fiscal year, about 72 per cent were women or children.
The department said total processing time for refugees to enter the United States now averages about 18 to 24 months.
Trump’s order to halt refugee admissions so his administration could determine whether additional checks are necessary was suspended for months by federal judges.
The U.S. Supreme Court eventually allowed it to go in effect for all refugees except those with close ties to the U.S.
Trump also lowered the maximum number of refugees to be allowed into the U.S. in 2017 to 50,000 from the 110,000 originally set by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
The 2018 level has been set at 45,000, the lowest number in decades.