In
an absurd twist, America’s anti-terrorism laws are now being used to
deny protection to refugees fleeing some of the most brutal regimes and
violent conflicts on earth.

While measures to prevent
terrorists from being supported, and to keep their supporters out, are
critically important, the American government is using the material
support provision to exclude victims of terrorism – including those
whose very struggle to be free now makes them inadmissible to the
United States.  Shockingly, under today’s laws Jews who bravely
resisted Nazi terror and survived to tell about it would have faced
exclusion when they sought refuge in the United States.

Both Congress and the Administration have a role in fixing this
problem. The Administration can do much more to ensure that bona fide
refugees are not barred from the U.S. by using all the tools it already
has under current law to waive material support in appropriate cases. 
Right now, the Administration can and should consider the claims of
refugees and asylum who claim they were coerced under duress to provide
“support” to a terrorist group.  Under the Administration’s recent
policy change, victims of terrorism may be able to assert duress
claims, unless they were victimized by a group which the U.S. has formally designated as a terrorist group. 
As a result, the victims of some the worst terrorist groups in the
world remain barred from showing that they are not supporters but are
instead victims of terrorism.
Colombians who have paid ransom to
obtain the release of a kidnapped loved one are still considered by the
American government to be supporters of terrorism.  Women from Sierra
Leone and other countries where rebel forces frequently use rape and
torture to coerce their victims into providing household services and
other forms of “support” will likewise not be helped by the
Administration’s recent change in policy. 

In the meantime, this problem will not be solved until Congress
acts to change the law.  Without a change in the law, Burmese refugees
who are viciously repressed by the Burmese regime, Hmong refugees from
Laos who were ardent supporters of the American government during the
Vietnam War, and other groups who bravely resisted oppression will
continue to be denied admission to the United States.

President Bush has repeatedly expressed the view that the American
refugee program reflects our finest humanitarian tradition. To honor
this tradition, Congress and the Administration must both do their part
to exempt legitimate refugees from the material support bar where the
support provided has been coerced under duress, or where it is
otherwise clear that the refugees seeking the protection of the United
States are not supporters of terrorism and are in fact victims of
tyranny and oppression.

The material support bar is an unintended consequence of anti-terrorism
laws that continues to be over-broadly applied to eligible refugees who
are, in fact, victims of terrorism.  It is critical that Congress and
the White House act now to reverse this policy so as to ensure that
refugees in need of protection are not unfairly barred from admission
to the U.S.