The Refugee Influx - Gaining Entry Into The United States

Processing Priority System

The United States has established three priority categories for admitting refugees. These categories were restated and updated by President Bush in his "Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 2005—Report to Congress." Table 4.4 shows the breakdown of FY 2005 refugee admissions by the three priority groups for each region. Of the total 70,000 admissions, 25,000 were "approved pipeline from FY 2004" or carryover persons already in process.

PRIORITY 1: INDIVIDUAL REFERRALS.

This category is reserved for compelling individual protection cases or refugees for whom no other durable solution existed, and who were identified and referred to the program by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a U.S. embassy, or a nongovernmental organization (NGO). This processing priority is available to persons of any nationality. Historically the United States has resettled approximately 50% of all the UNHCR's resettlement referrals worldwide.

TABLE 4.3
Refugee admissions for fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2003–September 30, 2004)

PRIORITY 2: GROUP REFERRALS.

This category is used for groups of special humanitarian concern to the United States who are designated for resettlement processing. It includes specific groups (within certain nationalities, clans, or ethnic groups) identified by the Department of State in consultation with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), NGOs, the UNHCR,

TABLE 4.3
Refugee admissions for fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2003–September 30, 2004) [CONTINUED]
SOURCE: Adapted from "Summary of Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2004," U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, October 1, 2004, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/37128.pdf (accessed February 3, 2005)

and other experts. Some Priority 2 groups are processed in their countries of origin, including:

• Former Soviet Union—Jews, evangelical Christians, and Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox religious activists identified in the Lautenberg Amendment who had close family in the United States.
• Cuba—members of persecuted religious minorities, human rights activists, former political prisoners, forced-labor conscripts (1965–68), persons deprived of their professional credentials or subjected to other disproportionately harsh or discriminatory treatment resulting from their perceived or actual political or religious beliefs or activities, and persons who experienced or feared harm because of their family or social relationship to someone who falls under one of the preceding categories.
• Vietnam—persons eligible under the former Orderly Departure Program (ODP), and Resettlement Opportunity for Vietnamese Returnees (ROVR) programs; also included are Amerasian immigrants, whose numbers are counted in the refugee ceiling.
• For FY 2005 the following new Priority 2 groups were added—Meskhetian Turks in Russia; Hmong Lao at Wat Tham Krabok in Thailand; Iranian religious minorities, primarily in Austria; Vietnamese in TABLE 4.4
  Proposed refugee regional ceilings by priority, FY 2005
  SOURCE: "Table II. Proposed FY 2005 Regional Ceilings by Priority," in Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 2005: Report to Congress, Submitted on behalf of The President of the United States to the Committees on the Judiciary, United States Senate and United States House of Representatives i fulfillment of the requirements of Section 207(e) (1)-(7) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, Department of State, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, September 2004, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/36228.pdf (accessed March 1, 2005)

  Africa
  Approved pipeline from FY 2004	9,000
  Priority 1 individual referrals	2,500
  Priority 2 groups	5,000
  Priority 3 family reunification refugees	3,500
  Total proposed:	20,000
  East Asia
  Approved pipeline from FY 2004	8,000
  Priority 1 individual referrals	4,000
  Priority 2 groups	1,000
  Total proposed:	13,000
  Europe/Central Asia
  Approved pipeline from FY 2004	4,000
  Priority 1 individual referrals	100
  Priority 2 groups	5,400
  Total proposed:	9,500
  Latin America/Caribbean
  Approved pipeline from FY 2004	3,000
  Priority 1 individual referrals	700
  Priority 2 groups	1,200
  Priority 3 family reunification refugees	100
  Total proposed:	5,000
  Near East/South Asia
  Approved pipeline from FY 2004	1,000
  Priority 1 individual referrals	400
  Priority 2 groups	1,000
  Priority 3 family reunification refugees	100
  Total proposed:	2,500
  Unallocated reserve	20,000
  Total proposed ceiling:	70,000

  the Philippines; Somali Benadir in Kenya; Burundians in Tanzania; Somali group in Uganda; and Liberian groups in Ghana and Guinea.
• Additional populations under active consideration for group designation in FY 2005 included Bhutanese in Nepal; Kunama in Ethiopia; Ethiopians in Yemen; and Burmese in camps along the Thai border.

PRIORITY 3: FAMILY REUNIFICATION CASES.

In FY 2005, eligibility for a refugee interview was extended to nationals of fourteen countries (Burma, Burundi, Congo [Brazzaville], Colombia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iran, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, and Sudan) who were the spouses, unmarried children under twenty-one, or parents of persons granted asylum, admitted to the United States as refugees, or persons who were lawful permanent residents or U.S. citizens and were initially admitted to the United States as refugees or granted asylum.

TABLE 4.5
Refugee-status applications filed and approved by top 20 nationalities, fiscal year 2003
SOURCE: "Table E. Refugee-Status Applications Filed and Approved by Top 20 Nationalities, Fiscal Year 2003," in 2003 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, September 2004, http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/RA2003yrbk/2003RA.pdf (accessed March 2, 2005)

Refugees in the United States

According to the 2003 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, a publication of the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics, 42,705 individuals applied for refugee status in the United States in FY 2003. Of these, 59% (25,329) were approved. Table 4.5 shows the top twenty countries of origin for refugee applications in FY 2003. The Ukraine accounted for 18% of all applications filed and applications approved. Cuba, on the other hand, with the second-highest number of applications, represented 11.6% of all applications filed but just 6.3% of all those approved. Of the 28,134 refugees who actually arrived in the United States in FY 2003, 31% were from countries such as the Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, all part of the former Soviet Union. (See Table 4.6.)

The greatest share of refugees (14.9%) settled in California. As might be expected, New York and Texas were popular choices with 8.0% and 5.5% of refugees. Washington was the second most popular choice, however, receiving 9.8% of refugees. Minnesota attracted 6.2%. (See Table 4.7.)

Those Granted Lawful Permanent Residence

For a refugee or an asylee to adjust to permanent resident status, he or she must have lived in the United States for at least one year. From 1946 through 2003

TABLE 4.6
Refugee arrivals by top ten countries of origin, 2003 Country Number of refugees Percent of total refugees
SOURCE: Adapted from "Table VI. Refugee Arrivals by Country of Origin, FY 2003," in Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 2005: Report to Congress, Submitted on behalf of The President of the United States to the Committees on the Judiciary, United States Senate and United States House of Representatives in fulfillment of the requirements of Section 207(e) (1)-(7) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, Department of State, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, September 2004, http://www.state.gov/g/prm/asst/rl/rpts/36116.htm#table5 (accessed March 1, 2005)

more than 3.7 million refugees and asylees were granted lawful permanent resident status. (See Table 4.8.)