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TESTIMONY
OF
LORI SCIALABBA
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
REFUGEE, ASYLUM AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE
U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES
and
SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE SECRETARY, IRAQI REFUGEES
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
BEFORE
THE HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON MIDDLE EAST and SOUTH ASIA
AND
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS, and OVERSIGHT
MARCH 11, 2008
2:00 P.M.
Good afternoon members of the Subcommittees and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to testify about the work that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is conducting to protect Iraqi refugees through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). My name is Lori Scialabba, and I am the Associate Director of the Refugee, Asylum, and International Operations Directorate at USCIS. I also serve as the Senior Advisor to Secretary Chertoff for Iraqi refugees. Part of the refugee program’s humanitarian mission is to offer resettlement in the U.S. to especially vulnerable Iraqi refugees who are unable to return to Iraq due to persecution. My office is responsible for interviewing refugee applicants and determining if they are eligible for resettlement in the United States.
I would like to assure the Subcommittees that USCIS is committed to working with the Department of State (DOS) and other program partners to meet the Administration’s goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees to the U.S. in FY 2008. Meeting this goal is a top priority for the agency, and our officers are working tirelessly to interview and adjudicate the cases necessary to reach this target.
The Administration as a whole is also devoting the resources needed to process and resettle 12,000 refugees from Iraq. We are working closely and cooperatively with DOS to assess progress towards meeting the goal and to identify ways to facilitate and streamline processing. In the relatively short time span of the past year, all refugee program partners have substantially increased their capacities to process cases in the Middle East, building the infrastructure to support a large-scale operation where it previously did not exist. That being said, achieving the 12,000 annual admissions target remains an ambitious goal for the Administration, and certain variables critical to the program’s success lie outside the U.S. government’s control.
USCIS’ role in refugee processing is to interview and adjudicate the applications for refugee resettlement, perform certain security checks, apply the material support exemption authority when necessary and warranted, and approve eligible cases once all necessary steps have been completed. Under established protocols, USCIS does not interview refugee applicants until they are prescreened by one of DOS’ Overseas Processing Entities (OPE). OPEs collect basic biographical information from all applicants, including educational, work, and military service history, and interview the principal applicant regarding the refugee claim. In addition, even prior to OPE prescreening, the majority of applicants are interviewed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). As you can begin to see from this brief description, multiple organizations are involved in the refugee admissions process. Today, I would like to share with you the steps we are taking to marshal our resources and make our part of the process as efficient as possible. I will also share with you some of the obstacles that the program faces.
First and foremost, USCIS is working to fulfill its commitment to process Iraqi refugees by maintaining a current and timely interview schedule. Since spring 2007, USCIS officers have interviewed Iraqis primarily in Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and Lebanon. We have teams of adjudicators in the region today, and we are scheduled to field teams on a nearly continuous basis in the coming months as cases become ready for interview. We expect to complete more than 8,400 Iraqi interviews during the first half of the fiscal year. We are working with DOS to put together a schedule of up to another 8,000 interviews for Iraqi refugee applicants during the third quarter. Given current approval rates, we estimate that achieving this volume of interviews would keep the United States on track to admit 12,000 Iraqi refugees by September 30th.
USCIS and DOS share responsibility for conducting background checks on all Iraqi refugee applicants. Security checks are rigorous and no case is finally approved until results have been received and analyzed. In addition to the Department of State database, those of the intelligence and law enforcement community are also researched. OPEs initiate name checks at the prescreening stage and USCIS conducts fingerprinting at the time of interview. Under regular refugee processing procedures DHS would not interview an applicant until the interagency security checks coordinated by DOS had cleared. Given the desire to expedite the Iraqi caseload, USCIS has agreed to conduct interviews while interagency name checks are still pending. This has enabled numerous cases to be interviewed and moved more quickly than if we had waited for the security checks to clear before the interview. Generally, USCIS receives biometric responses to the USCIS initiated security checks within two to four weeks after the interview. The process also runs concurrently with other out-processing steps, such as obtaining medical clearances and sponsorship assurances. Because we have been able to institute this process of completing several steps concurrently, on average the total processing time for Iraqi cases is significantly less than for other refugee groups worldwide.
We have exercised the Secretary’s discretionary exemption authority to admit hundreds of Iraqi refugees who otherwise would have been barred from admission under the material support-related ground of inadmissibility. USCIS officers have encountered many Iraqi refugee applicants who have paid ransom in order to secure the release of kidnapped family members. This ransom was generally paid from family funds or money given by friends, extended family or neighbors. We have determined that many of these refugees are eligible for consideration for an exemption to the material support inadmissibility provisions because such material support was provided under duress. To allow as many qualified individuals as possible to travel this fiscal year, we have devoted additional resources to reviewing material support cases that may be eligible for duress exemptions.
Refugee resettlement is a complex, multi-step process involving a large number of players, all integral to the success of the program. We have had excellent cooperation among these partners to get the Iraqi program to the point it is today. However, given that this is a complicated process involving multiple entities and individuals, we cannot control all the variables that can affect refugee admissions. A variety of factors may affect the program, including the number of Iraqi refugees coming forward to UNHCR for registration, the desire of Iraqi refugees to resettle in the United States, the overall pace of registration and prescreening, applicants failing to appear for prescreening interviews, USCIS interviews or flight departures, continued cooperation of host governments to allow us to process in the region, and other factors such as background clearances, medical issues, and resettlement out-processing.
I would also like to take this time to update you on the progress being made to implement the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, which was signed into law just six weeks ago. USCIS is working with interested DHS components, DOS and the National Security Council to determine how best to implement these new provisions. Together with DOS, we have already begun to implement the Priority 2 group for religious minorities with close family members in the United States by building on a pre-existing Priority 2 group for Iraqi beneficiaries of I-130 immediate relative petitions. Moreover, Iraqi applicants who are direct-hire employees of the U.S. Government in Iraq or an organization or entity closely associated with the U.S. mission in Iraq or of a U.S.-based media organization, or nongovernmental organization are being encouraged to contact the DOS implementing partner - International Organization for Migration (IOM) - to access this program.
In-country processing in Iraq has begun. USCIS and DOS have agreed to process up to 100 Locally Employed Staff (LES) and their immediate family members in Baghdad who are at risk of persecution based on their association with the U.S. government. The first group of referrals from Embassy Baghdad includes 31 LES and their immediate family members. These applicants are currently being prescreened by DOS’ OPE, and USCIS officers will travel to Baghdad next week to interview the applicants. Approved cases will receive expedited processing through the remainder of the resettlement process. Expansion of in-country refugee processing in Iraq beyond these initial referrals will involve significant coordination among a variety of partners. We must proceed with the utmost attention to ensuring the safety and security of both resettlement personnel and in-country refugee applicants. With this in mind, DHS, DOS, Embassy Baghdad and IOM are seeking ways to increase capacity and efficiency. Finally, USCIS Domestic Operations and DOS are in discussions regarding how best to expand Special Immigrant Visa processing, which is a distinct program, separate and apart from refugee processing.
Interviewing and adjudicating Iraqi cases has been and will continue to be a top priority for USCIS. We are committed to working with DOS and other program partners to meet the Administration’s goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees to the U.S. in FY 2008. As a component agency of the Department of Homeland Security, USCIS remains vigilant of our mission to preserve national security. We must continue to provide protection to qualified refugees from Iraq and elsewhere around the world while upholding that mission. While fulfilling these dual goals may be challenging, they are not at odds with one another. The efficient and timely execution of the protocols we have established for processing Iraqi refugees confirms this. We look forward to continuing our positive and close-working relationship with our State Department colleagues and our other partners in carrying out the humanitarian mission of admitting Iraqi refugees to the United States.
Once again, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss our efforts and I welcome any questions that you may have.