Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Are Religious Tests For Refugee Status UnAmerican As Obama Claims?

According to law Professor Michael McConnell it is required by current law:
Americans have heard a lot of nonsense in the past week about the role of religion in our refugee policy – from both sides. Senator Ted Cruz has been derided, mostly justly, for saying that no Muslim refugees – but only Christians – should be admitted to this country from the killing fields of Syria and Iraq. But President Obama’s angry reaction that use of a “religious test” for evaluating asylum seekers would be “shameful” and “not American” is even more wrongheaded. “That's not who we are,” he said to an audience in Turkey, apparently in response to Cruz. “We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”

Except we do. It’s in the law.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which governs these issues, defines “refugee” as someone who has fled from his or her home country and cannot return because he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of “religion” – as well as race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. This certainly doesn’t let us use a religious test to filter otherwise-eligible immigrants out. But it does mean that when we’re deciding who to admit as refugees, religion matters.
UPDATE: Entertainingly enough, some readers got this ad below the posting:
The ads are picked by a computer based on the text, much like my often hostile postings about homosexuality often run gay dating site ads.  I am hoping the sign is for the gal, not the kid.

1 comment:

  1. On my work computer I usually get a Cramer's Stock Picks ad. On the home computer, I get singles ads from multiple nationalities. I think those outfits should be targeting male college students at elite universities, given the spreading rape libel culture.

    ReplyDelete