The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged refugees

Report: Asylum Denied to Those Who Need It

By | 10.21.10 | 2:16 pm

The United States offers asylum to non-citizens who enter the country because they face serious persecution in their countries of origin. To receive asylum status, immigrants must file an application within one year of entering the country — a rule intended to be a safeguard against abuse of the system More…

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Safety Net Support for Disabled Refugees Lapses on Congressional Inaction

By | 09.30.10 | 9:39 am

In recent weeks, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society has received dozens of messages from refugees facing extraordinary hardship. One came from a 50-year-old woman confined to a wheelchair. She fled government persecution in Liberia, and is worried about passing her naturalization test. Another woman came to the U.S. from Cuba. More…

Gillibrand Pushes Refugee Aid Extension for Elderly and Disabled

By | 09.29.10 | 10:24 am

About 3,800 elderly and disabled refugees, set to lose their federal aid tomorrow, could earn reprieve today if Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is successful in pushing an extension that would give them another year to gain citizenship. The motion could be passed by unanimous consent at the end More…

Elderly Refugees Face Loss of Access to Federal Aid

By | 09.22.10 | 1:57 pm

Up to 11,000 refugees will lose access to federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments next week after an eligibility extension begins to run out, The New Mexico Independent reported today.

The recession has made adjusting to life in the U.S. difficult for refugees, as even younger More…

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Recession Means Fewer Resources for Refugees, Struggling Amid Jobs Crisis

By | 09.09.10 | 4:30 am

Stan Delp, a 67-year-old retired teacher living in Lansdale, Penn., was sitting in church in June, 2008, when he noticed four unfamiliar black-haired men by him. He found they were new to the United States, having spent 11 years in refugee camp in Thailand. Delp’s church is not big — More…

Introducing TWI’s Gitmo Habeas Scoreboard

By | 12.16.09 | 3:14 pm

Since the Supreme Court ruled last year that detainees at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo have the right to habeas corpus — that is, the right to challenge their detention in court — hundreds of detainees have taken advantage, filing petitions in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. More…

Franken Challenges Napolitano on Imprisonment of Asylum Seekers

By | 12.09.09 | 12:07 pm

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning why it is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is imprisoning people coming to the United States seeking asylum from persecution abroad.

“A 2005 congressionally authorized bipartisan commission found that it wasn’t appropriate More…

CLINTON CONFIRMATION: Refugees, Iraqi and Otherwise

By | 01.13.09 | 12:24 pm

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) asks about the Iraqi refugee crisis. Now that there won’t be a Bush administration to treat dealing with Iraqi refugees as an admission of failure, what should the policy be?

Clinton says she’ll staff the State Department’s resident refugee office with “creative individuals.” Pledges to help More…