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Washington Update LIRS Advocacy Post-9-11 The aftermath of September 11 has implications for the advocacy agenda we formulated earlier in the year. The core principles of our ministry, however, are not fundamentally altered-indeed they are in many ways more timely than ever. The fact that the perpetrators identified so far are foreigners, Muslim Arabs in particular, has led to attacks around the country against people perceived to share these characteristics. We spoke out against this immediately and will continue to do so. The Bush administration is pushing anti-terrorism legislation that threatens to impose indefinite detention upon noncitizens based upon vague evidence of ill-defined transgressions with inadequate judicial review, even where they are eligible for relief from removal. We do not oppose sensible reforms, but we must preserve basic due process protections. War generates refugees. Protection in traditional countries of first asylum, already seriously eroded before the latest events, threatens to become more precarious, even nonexistent. We will speak out for vigorous humanitarian assistance to the displaced and for their protection wherever they may seek refuge. Refugee admissions to the United States will decline in the coming year due to increased security screening, but we will defend the merits of resettlement as a vital component of refugee protection and of our nation's historic commitment to the persecuted. Passage of the Refugee Protection Act repealing expedited removal is not soon likely. While we have scored a tentative legislative victory in winning Senate approval for funding for alternatives to detention, it seems doubtful that this will survive the House-Senate conference in the present atmosphere. Retaining funding for legal orientation programs for detainees, on the other hand, does not seem so unrealistic. Not all of our agenda needs to be defensive or on the back burner. Fair treatment of unaccompanied children in Immigration and Naturalization Service custody, for example, has little to do with national security. We can begin to lay the groundwork for passage of the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act next year with a grassroots campaign now. Economic migration is another issue that is not going to go away because of September 11. Cooler heads recognize even now that the stronger security arguments are in favor of bringing the undocumented workforce and its flow aboveground into the light of legality. When the debate resumes, dominated as usual by parochial and partisan interests, we will again speak for the voiceless. Contrary to some impressions, the world has not "turned upside down." In more than 60 years we have seen and dealt with the consequences of war, refugee displacement, xenophobia and repression, over and over again. Our principles, forged in the furnace of such challenges, will remain our strong guide in the days ahead.
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