Washington, D.C. – An interfaith coalition of prominent faith-based leaders announce the release of the report Faithful but Forsaken: REAL ID Act Harms Victims of Religious Persecution
at a news conference Tuesday, April 12, at 9:00 a.m. in the Senate
Dirksen Office Building, Room G-11. Each of these traditions, having
witnessed the suffering of persons whose beliefs often place their
lives in jeopardy, come together to express strong opposition to the
refugee-related provisions of the REAL ID Act currently under
consideration in Congress.

“The REAL ID legislation would make it much more difficult for victims
of religious and other types of persecution to find safe haven in the
United States through the asylum system,” says Leonard Glickman,
president and CEO of HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. “We
support effective immigration enforcement and measures to increase our
national security, but the REAL ID Act would not accomplish that. In
fact, it would inflict serious hardship on victims of persecution,
torture, and trauma, who rightly look to the U.S. as a beacon of hope.”

The report, produced by HIAS, in cooperation with a coalition of
religious and refugee organizations, is a tribute to the many victims
of religious persecution who are pursuing asylum protection in the
United States and who would be adversely affected by The REAL ID Act.

The REAL ID Act was originally introduced by House Judiciary Committee
Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) and passed by the House of
Representatives in February. The REAL ID Act was subsequently included
by the House in the emergency supplemental bill, legislation to fund
U.S. troops in Iraq and aid tsunami victims in Southeast Asia, in an
attempt to press the Senate to vote anti-refugee provisions into law
without due deliberation and debate. The legislation includes
provisions that place refugees at an increased risk of persecution and
erodes this country’s historic commitment to protect those seeking safe
haven.

The purported intent of the refugee provisions of the REAL ID Act is to
prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States.
However, restricting access to asylum does not serve the cause of
national security. The REAL ID Act is a misguided piece of legislation
that would further victimize asylum seekers, including those documented
in the Faithful but Forsaken report.

Specifically, the REAL ID Act would require unreasonable levels of
evidence to prove an asylum claim, place a greater burden on asylum
seekers to convince reviewers of the key motivation of their accusers,
and eliminate stays of removal so that asylum seekers who are most
likely to win their cases would have already been sent back into the
hands of their persecutors.

The interfaith coalition calls upon Congress to oppose a narrowing of
the door to asylum to some of the world’s most at risk persons and
reject the REAL ID Act.

Speakers at the press conference include: Dr. Barrett
Duke, vice president for Public Policy and Research for the Southern
Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, Rabbi David
Saperstein, director and counsel for the Religious Action Center for
Reform Judaism, and Pastor Getaneh M. Getaneh, an Ethiopian granted
asylum on grounds of religious persecution. Ann Buwalda, director of
the Jubilee Campaign USA, will moderate.  

Faithful but Forsaken was originally released in February with 33
organizations endorsing the report. A new version is being released in
response to the House of Representatives’ passage of the REAL ID Act
(H.R. 418), House attachment of REAL ID Act to the emergency spending
bill (H.R. 1268), and the possible attachment of the REAL ID Act to the
Senate version of the emergency spending bill.