Introduction
Peace is continuously becoming scarce in many parts of the world, with many people fleeing to areas where they can get assistance or live without worry. The U.S. and several other European nations are critical destinations for many individuals seeking asylum around the globe. America is a vital target for many people facing domestic issues because of the country’s significantly stable political and socioeconomic status. However, the countless factors affecting the U.S. lead the country to exhibit excessive protectionism by ignoring some fundamental aspects concerning humans’ need for a belonging and safe home. The issue, therefore, leads to immeasurable immigration concerns that can only be understood through the analysis of the refugee act of the U.S. The present work thus covers America’s Refugee Act intending to pinpoint the various bottlenecks that can be removed to make the process of accepting ‘needy’ and qualifying persons into the country smooth.
Problem Statement: The Refugee Act
The American Refugee Act is a 1980 law that governs the issue of refugees’ acceptance into the country. The law defines who a refugee is and the various requirements to qualify to become a permanent citizen of the U.S. through naturalization. A refugee is incapable of returning to their home state due to justifiable fear of oppression based on race, political outlook, affiliation to specific social clusters, national origin, or religion (“Public Law 96-212,” n.d.). The definition finds its origin in the United Nation’s definition of the same group of individuals. The American Refugee Act determines who becomes a legal refugee in the nation and who can never realize considerations for the same.
Review of Literature
The Refugee Act was enacted by the U.S. Senate in 1979 and became an act in April 1980, after President Jimmy Carter signed it into law. The Act replaced the earlier versions of laws touching on the issue of refugees, mainly the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act (“Refugee timeline,” 2021). Moreover, the Refugee Act of 1980 established a special office that handles refugees’ issues, the U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (Pryce, 2018). The law requires that the coordinator reports directly to the president while the Office of Refugee Resettlement takes care of the group’s funding issue (“Public Law 96-212,” n.d). Better still, the 1980 law also increased the number of refugees accepted in the U.S. in a specific fiscal year to fifty thousand, from the previous cap of 17,400 individuals (“Public Law 96-212,” n.d). Thus, the law promotes America’s contribution to humankind by the elimination of suffering.
The Refugee Act continued to operate and received several amendments to accommodate new developments since 1980. The first such change was the Lautenberg Amendment in 1990, which cushioned specific groups from excessive evidentiary scrutiny by the American administration for refugee considerations (“Refugee timeline,” 2021). However, the most critical changes to the Refugee Act of 1980 occurred between 2002 and 2003. Such was after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes CBP, ICE, and USCIS, as a reaction to the 9/11 incident (Conconi et al., 2020). As a result of the 2002-2003 changes in the law, the number of people allowed to enter the U.S. as refugees now is about fourteen thousand, from fifty thousand plus, in the 1980s. The reduction contradicts the ever-growing number of persons wishing and qualifying to become refugees in the U.S.
The tightening of issues at the Department of Homeland Security also causes noteworthy delays. The American Immigration Council (2021) reports that the refugee status processing duration at the Department of State currently takes between eighteen and twenty-four months to end. The issue leaves many refugee applicants stranded in dangerous conditions that worsen their state (American Immigration Council, 2021). Worse still, the new definition of a refugee by the Refugee Act (of 1980) leads to a dangerous blander in the struggle to offer safety to the many people seeking such in the U.S. The term’s definition comes from the UNHCR Refugee Protocol’s meaning, which uses ‘persecution’ as the sole reason for refugee consideration (Menjivar et al., 2019). UNHCR, however, disregards persons leaving their home nations due to resource shortages and life-threatening weather occasions, despite the existence of a justifiable reason for their search for a better place to live.
The mistake in the Refugee Act affects many individuals going to the U.S. to seek refuge. For example, the American Immigration Council (2021) says that none of the about four million displaced Venezuelan citizens seeking shelter in the U.S. in 2020 qualify as asylum seekers or refugees. That is because of the absence of the ‘persecution’ facet in their description as persons seeking protection in the U.S. Disregarding individuals fleeing harsh natural calamities in Venezuela (in 2020) contradicts the nation’s implementation of the Azorean Refugee Act (of 1958). Consequently, America’s Refugee Act (of 1980) hurts many refugee seekers by exposing them to extended delays through prolonged refugee processing procedures. Additionally, the Act exhibits a myopic definition of a ‘refugee,’ thus leaving many qualifying ‘needy’ people unattended. The two mistakes cause several other problems in the U.S., such as creating a pool of desperate and vulnerable unregistered immigrants who fall prey to drug lords and human traffickers in the nation.
The issue of immigrant management in the U.S. is never new. America is often referred to as the ‘new’ land by many scholars and populations worldwide. Almost ninety-nine percent of the nation’s occupants are immigrants based on their ancestry (Schoenholtz et al., 2021). However, persons who arrived in the U.S. earlier, mostly Caucasians from Britain, tend to feel like the real owners of the land (Schoenholtz et al., 2021). However, the sense of ownership developed significantly after the nation’s independence in the eighteenth century. The Americans opted to control the inflow of persons to the nation through their parliament and legal system. The existence of policies touching on the issue of immigration and refugees, as early as 1891, for example, proves this aspect.
The Literacy test of 1917 also exists as another American law limiting the number of persons entering the U.S. as refugees. Together with the ‘Quota Acts’ of 1921 and 1923, all these laws reveal a deliberate move by the American administration to block some people with genuine needs and the desire to become Americans. Trump’s administration and its handling of immigrants through the existing Refugee Act further revealed the real interest behind the many bottlenecks in the law (Schoenholtz et al., 2021). Nonetheless, America needs to realize the need to embrace brotherhood, especially due to the world’s conversion into a neighborhood by technological innovations and the purpose of acting genuinely toward humankind.
Policy Analysis Specifics
The Refugee Act of 1980 makes converting eligible individuals into Americans significantly difficult. The law, thus, seems to promote the very adverse effects that it promises to resolve. The American Senate enacted the Refugee decree in 1980 to facilitate people’s entry into America and the realization of a better life among refugees. The then legislators appreciated the need to protect the world and its citizens from hostile situations that made life difficult. The legislators also understood America’s vantage position to help the world realize stability and respect humanity. Therefore, the 1980 law established a specific council that ought to advise the president on the issue of immigrants’ and refugees’ needs.
The council also exhibits the mandate to provide adequate finances to support refugees’ issues in the U.S. However, changes experienced over the years cause substantial deviation from the law’s original meaning. Instead of making the issue of refugees straight, the Refugee Act now complicates issues and makes accessing refuge in America very difficult (Micinski, 2019). The law also remains fixated on an original error to date, where it only defines refugees as persons fleeing persecution. The issues caused by the law’s negligence and poor implementation result in other grave consequences like the growth of illegal drug business and human trafficking in America. The Refugee Act, thus, contributes to homeland insecurity instead of security as of now.
Discussion and Conclusion
The main purpose of the 1980s Refugee Act is to make the process of refugees’ adoption into the U.S. easy, precise, and maintainable. During its enactment, the then-American legislators purposed to protect as many global citizens from domestic suffering as possible. The law’s bright prospects, however, never lasted long enough. Today, millions of eligible refugees languish in the U.S., awaiting their adoption for months and years. The number of acceptable refugees nowadays is also very low relative to the time of the law’s enactment. The current situation implies the need for legislators and all the concerned agencies to rectify the issue. Finding the link between the Refugee Act’s bottlenecks and the drug business and human trafficking issues in the U.S. constitutes a crucial research topic to understand the present matter further.
References
American Immigration Council. (2021). An overview of U.S. refugee law and policy. Web.
Conconi, P., Facchini, G., Steinhardt, M. F., & Zanardi, M. (2020). The political economy of trade and migration: Evidence from the U.S. Congress.Economics & Politics, 32(2), 250–278. Web.
Menjivar, C., Ruiz, M., & Ness, I. (2019). The Oxford Handbook of migration crises. Oxford University Press.
Micinski, N. R. (2019). Are you a terrorist? Comparing security screening for Iraqi asylum seekers in the United States and Sweden.International Migration, 57(4), 58–74. Web.
Pryce, D. K. (2018). U.S. citizens’ current attitudes toward immigrants and immigration: A study from the general social survey.Social Science Quarterly, 99(4), 1467–1483. Web.
Public Law 96-212. (n.d.). Web.
Refugee timeline. (2021). USCIS.gov. Web.
Schoenholtz, A. I., Ramji-Nogales, J., & Schrag, P. G. (2021). The end of asylum. Georgetown University Press.