Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey testifies before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on March 26, 2007. George Packer is over her right shoulder; the author is over her left.
Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey testifies before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on March 26, 2007. George Packer is over her right shoulder; the author is over her left.
EXCERPT FROM:
Iraqi Volunteers, Iraqi Refugees: What Is America’s Obligation?
Hearing Before the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress
Mr. Gary Ackerman, D-NY: You anticipate the number of Iraqis who have worked for the United States or our coalition is in excess of 100,000?
Ms. Ellen Sauerbrey, Assistant Secretary of State: We do not really have that number. We have been talking to contractors trying to get a better understanding. . . . However, I have to point out that because of the security measures that were put in place with the changes to the INA following 9/11, getting Iraqis into the country today is very time consuming; there are multiple security checks that slow down the process. It is not like it was in the days of the fall of Vietnam when we were able to bring in huge numbers of people without any security measures.
Mr. Ackerman: Is it because in Vietnam despite the fact we were at war with them we decided that not everybody in Vietnam was a security risk or an evil person?
Ms. Sauerbrey: We did not have the measures in place at that time that were put in place by the Congress and by the Department of Homeland Security following 9/11.
Mr. Ackerman: And how many people do we have doing the processing?
Ms. Sauerbrey: We have ramped up. In the last several months, we have ramped up the capacity of our overseas processing entities so that we are now getting a stream of referrals from UNHCR.
Mr. Ackerman: I find it very frustrating when we are dealing with an administration that is supposed to be part of a unified government, and we are talking to the people who are responsible for refugees, and everything depends on somebody else, and numbers are not available, and that it is hard to understand why the department responsible for helping people resettle in the United States, you know, does not have these numbers at their command. I would think that is what you would do.
It sounds like a lot of foot dragging. Well, let me say this. There are many people who believe that if we started in earnest bringing in the people who so many of us in a nonpartisan fashion believe deserve to be rescued because of what they did to help us and trusted us, that if we began doing that it would be admitting a failure in the war, which, for some reason, some people do not want to come to terms with, and, therefore, they will put every roadblock possible in the way of bringing these refugees over here.
President Ford did not have to wrestle very long. He said, “Get this done,” and it got done. I think we have met the enemy, and they are us.