The ongoing citizenship backlog is highlighted in a story from the Las Vegas Sun. This article features an Iraqi who wants citizenship. Shouldn’t we demand those from countries we have died to liberate stay home and work there? To say nothing of how the government can’t handle the normal volume of citizenship requests, as the Feds stumbled all over themselves to throw 20 million more people at them.
The numbers are mindboggling, and so is our willingness to allow an Iraqi national to have what seems to be freewheeling access to military bases, providing ‘services’ a person can get from the internet.
Refugees Ask Courts for Citizenship Help
For six years, Ali Al-Lati has worked with the U.S. military, teaching soldiers simple Iraqi words and commands, telling them about the cultural mores of his native land and offering advice on how to deal with the extreme weather they’ll face in Iraq.
He’s a frequent visitor at the U.S. Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., and has passed the background checks necessary to work for a Department of Defense contractor. […] Both the FBI and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acknowledge the delays are a problem. About 150,000 citizenship applications nationwide currently have a wait time longer than six months, said Maria Elena Upson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship Immigration Service in Dallas.
The FBI completes about 62,000 name checks every week, with close to 27,000 new requests coming from USCIS alone on a weekly basis, said Trent Pedersen, a spokesman with the bureau’s Salt Lake City office.
Plenty more where he came from.
U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) Frequently Asked Questions – Iraqi Processing
I’ll give them credit, at least some people, like Ali Al-Lati, are not hopping the border and living here illegally. However, this still horrifies me.
“Shouldn’t we demand those from countries we have died to liberate stay home and work there?”
I say ABSOLUTELY. I’m not saying it is easy. Conditions for Iraqis are often terrible. But this is THEIR country. And our Troops have DIED giving them their chance for freedom. Unfortunately, after decades of oppression, they have little or no experience in standing up and fighting back. Well, no time like the present.
Iraq Losing Educated and Hopes for Renewal
“The exodus has…hollowed out Iraq’s most skilled classes—doctors, engineers, managers and bureaucrats. Baghdad was once home to one of the most educated populaces in the Middle East.”
These Iraqis should not be seen as emigrants but, rather, deserters. Abandoning their country when needed the most. No honor in that.
Tammy pointed out how we are giving this guy (maybe others?) “free-wheeling access to military bases, providing ‘services’ a person can get from the internet.” Ya Know?!?! Ok, fine, so I have no grip on Arabic at all, but a semi-basic knowledge of some Spanish, German, or even Hebrew (my own foreign language studies) and the internet are all you really need. Have you seen what’s available on-line describing Iraqi culture written by those who have come from Iraq? I’m all for compassion and everything, but we don’t know who this guy really is (or anyone like him). Why must it be HIM who tells us what the people and culture are like? Didn’t what we learned after 9/11 itself show us that terrorists are very patient, and NOT as in a virtuous way? They can apparently be great actors too. How do we know this guy is for real? Is anyone in charge thinking????
Well, I was entirely coherent in my last post! Or Not. I was trying to say that it’s interesting that we’ve given so much of ourselves into the hands of some who may or may not be terrorists. They may truly want to be Americans, but at the same time I agree with those who wonder if we should not challenge them to stay in their country and see this change through, for their own people. In a kind of eerie way, this whole issue reminds me of a theme in C.S. Lewis’ “The Last Battle” where the Calormenes (if you read it you can hardly wonder who they represent, but jihadists) slowly over time have kept coming into Narnia and at last they sort of take the land and there’s really nothing anyone can do. In an effort to be welcoming and “nice” Narnians gave themselves to their enemy. Fortunately Aslan saved the . . . well, everything in that story.
America is in a position to help people from around the world as well as itself with smart immigration policies. Good people from around the world want to come here.
I think some Iraqis that have helped us, but who find living in Iraq too dangerous because of services-like translators, should be allowed to enter.
Asymmetric
http://www.nelsonguirado.com