Action Alert: Material Support - Legal Restrictions on Protecting the Persecuted
Background: Through asylum and resettlement programs, the United States provides safe-haven to thousands of refugees fleeing persecution and death in their countries of origin. These life-saving programs are at risk of suspension by post-9/11 legislation barring anyone providing “material support” to “terrorist organizations” from entering the United States. Although national security is a serious concern, government officials are overly defining what it means to provide “material support,” prohibiting even women and children victimized through rape and torture from seeking necessary protections from the United States government. Thousands of legitimate refugees are being denied access to the protections of asylum and resettlement in the United States because of “material support” to “terrorist activity.”
What is “Material Support”?: The “material support” statute criminalizes and bars admissibility to the United States to anyone providing material support and resources to terrorist organizations. Congressional action on “material support” was originally meant to counter the financing, training, arming, housing, transportation and supplying of terrorist organizations or activities. After September 11, 2001, this concept was expanded through the USA PATRIOT Act and the REAL ID Act. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of State is currently interpreting this concept to include any financial, physical or material assistance, regardless of its degree, nature or purpose, to armed resistance against any national government. This overly broad interpretation denies refugee protection to persecuted individuals, having, under threat of harm, provided insignificant and involuntary assistance/services to armed groups. There are situations of people being excluded from refugee protection for the same reasons that forced their flight from persecution. U.S. government officials have barred groups coerced into providing financing or services in protection of their lives and those of family members and to individuals involved in U.S. supported pro-democratic movements opposed to oppressive governance.
Restricting asylum or resettlement to victims of persecution fails to combat terrorism and does much to harm defenseless people. How the U.S. has chosen to define who is a terrorist or what is a terrorist activity is keeping a vulnerable population exposed to torture and death.
Action: “Material Support” will affect refugee communities in the U.S. and abroad. Unless action is taken, these communities will wait in tortured conditions.
- Contact the White House, your representatives and senators and express your concern that:
- denying refugees and asylum seekers much needed protection will do nothing to protect the security of this nation;
- support of pro-democratic resistance is not support of terrorism;
- a process should be developed to deal with refugees whose “material support” is made under duress or is involuntary/insignificant.
- Contact your local media requesting coverage of this inadequately reported issue.
- Educate and collaborate with local community leaders/activists on this issue.
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Senator _____________________ / Representative ____________________:
This country bears great pride in historically providing shelter and protection to thousands of men, women and children escaping conditions of oppression and persecution. Unfortunately, these vulnerable populations risk being denied the protection of resettlement in the United States because of “material support” restrictions to admission found in the USA PATRIOT Act and the REAL ID Act. Under these provisions of law, government officials have suspended the admission of thousands of legitimate refugees claiming their support of terrorist organizations and activities.
The U.S. Department of State & U.S. Department of Homeland Security has misapplied the “material support” provisions to legitimate refugees and asylum seekers. Among these adversely affected populations are refugees having provided “material support” while under duress, threat of rape, torture or death. Acquiescence under these brutal conditions has been interpreted to be “supportive” of terrorist activities and a bar to protection. Broadly defining “material support” to the detriment of needy people can not have been the congressional intent when these laws were passed.
If the U.S. refugee resettlement and asylum programs are to succeed in their effort to protect innocent lives, “material support” must be applied appropriately. Please contact President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and DHS Secretary Chertoff asking that material support provisions be narrowly applied to terrorist acts intended to harm this nation and its citizens and not to refugees in need of our protection.
I do not question the importance of our national security and the resistance of terrorism; however, I will question acts of my government denying people at risk of death and persecution with the protection of resettlement in the United States. Slamming the door on oppressed refugees does nothing to end terrorism or promote democracy abroad. Democracy in the United States is rooted in fairness, imposing guilt by association without any credible evidence is an embarrassment.
Thank you for your attention to this very concerning matter.
Sincerely,
{Your Name & Contact Information}