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Washington, D.C.<\/em> – President Obama reportedly is considering designating Latin American illegal aliens as “refugees” from gangs and drug lords to justify an executive action blocking them from deportation and providing them with a means of seeking American citizenship.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n This scheme, if imposed, would seriously disrupt carefully-crafted rules and limits for accepting refugees into the United States and put refugee candidates from other parts of the world, such as Africa, at a severe disadvantage.<\/span><\/p>\n Such a scheme would violate a limit on refugees set by Obama himself. It also would upend highly specialized conditions and procedures related to the acceptance of refugees set by U.S. law. <\/span><\/p>\n It would also create a situation in which potential refugee candidates from other regions are handicapped because they are often located at great distances and separated by oceans, as opposed to being smuggled across a border. This includes, but is not limited to, child refugees fleeing from Boko Haram in Nigeria, potential victims of ISIS murderers in Iraq, families displaced by the Syrian civil war, pro-democracy Afghans targeted by the Taliban and pro-democracy activists escaping from Communist China. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/sup><\/em><\/span><\/li>\n <\/sup><\/em><\/span><\/li>\n <\/sup><\/em><\/span><\/li>\n <\/sup><\/em><\/span><\/li>\n <\/sup><\/em><\/span><\/li>\n In 2014, Project 21 members have been interviewed or cited by the media on current events over 1,300 times, including by the Fox News Special Report with Bret Baier, the O’Reilly Factor, Fox and Friends, CNN’s Situation Room, Salem Radio Network, Sean Hannity, Jim Bohannon, Bill Martinez, Radio America, American Urban Radio Network, Bill Cunningham, Roger Hedgecock, Mike Siegal, Dana Loesch, Thomm Hartmann, Progressive Radio Network, The Blaze, EurWeb, St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em>, SiriusXM satellite radio, TVOne, the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, the Orlando Sentinel<\/em> and 50,000-watt talk radio stations including WBZ-Boston, WJR-Detroit, KDKA-Pittsburgh and WLW-Cincinnati. Project 21 has participated in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding race preferences and voting rights and defended voter ID laws at the United Nations. Its volunteer members come from all walks of life and are not salaried political professionals. <\/span><\/p>\n Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (https:\/\/nationalcenter.org<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n Contributions<\/a> to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.<\/span><\/p>\n -30-<\/span><\/p>\n Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 <\/sup><\/em><\/span> Frances Robles and Michael D. Shear, “U.S. Considering Refugee Status for Hondurans,” New York Times<\/em>, July 24, 2014, available at http:\/\/mobile.nytimes.com\/2014\/07\/25\/world\/americas\/administration-weighs-plan-to-move-processing-of-youths-seeking-entry-to-honduras-.html?_r=3&referrer=<\/a> as of September 2, 2014.<\/p>\n 2 <\/sup><\/em><\/span> Barack Obama, “Presidential Memorandum \u2014 Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2014,” The White House, Washington, D.C., October 2, 2013, available at http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2013\/10\/02\/presidential-memorandum-refugee-admissions-fiscal-year-2014<\/a> as of September 2, 2014.<\/p>\n 3 <\/sup><\/em><\/span> “Notice of Public Comments on FY 2015 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program,” Federal Register, April 10, 2014, available at https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/articles\/2014\/04\/10\/2014-08113\/notice-of-public-comments-on-fy-2015-us-refugee-admissions-program<\/a> as of September 2, 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n 4 <\/sup><\/em><\/span> “Refugees: A Fact Sheet,” Immigration Policy Center, American Immigration Council, Washington, D.C., October 21, 2010, available at http:\/\/www.immigrationpolicy.org\/just-facts\/refugees-fact-sheet<\/a> as of September 2, 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n 5 <\/sup><\/em><\/span> “Refugees,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, D.C., available at http:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/humanitarian\/refugees-asylum\/refugees<\/a> as of September 2, 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n 6 <\/sup><\/em><\/span> Ibid.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n 7 <\/sup><\/em><\/span> Ibid.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\nFacts and Figures <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n
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“Fleeing gender discrimination in the Middle East? Afraid you are going to be killed for your religious beliefs in Asia? Displaced by war in Africa? It seems your best bet for getting resettled in the United States may not be abiding by our government’s rules and putting yourself on a long waiting list at a refugee camp, but to buy a plane ticket to Mexico and smuggle yourself across America’s porous southern border. President Obama appears to be on the verge of yet another unlawful act in which he will once again ignore his duty to work with the people’s elected representatives in Congress. If the President isn’t going to follow the rule of law for what is obviously crass political gain, why should anyone else feel bound to it these days?” \u2014 Project 21’s Shelby Emmett<\/a>, an attorney, who dealt with immigration issues as a staff member for the U.S. Congress<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/nedd_sm-17.jpg\")
“<\/span>When a leader makes a mistake he owns up to it, apologizes for it and attempts to fix it. But when a politician makes a mistake, he often doubles down on that mistake. It’s absurd for President Obama to even contemplate calling illegal aliens refugees. It violates his own order placing limits on refugees from South America. When I lived in the Persian Gulf, my friend Mohammad converted to Christianity. People found out, and they attempted to kill him on more than one occasion. He was a true asylum-seeker, yet our doors were closed to him. America is a wonderful country endowed with gifts from our creator, and I understand why people flock here. But, under these circumstances, how do we countenance telling the real refugees ‘sorry, no vacancies’ while throwing the door wide open for those who might be considered more politically advantageous?” \u2014 Project 21’s Council Nedd II<\/a>, an Archbishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church. Archbishop Nedd is chairman of In God We Trust and serves as the Archbishop for Abu Dhabi. He has been involved in several relief missions to the Middle East and Africa.<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/martink_sm-9.jpg\")
“I believe President Obama and congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle firmly believe they will gain politically if they grant some sort of amnesty to the million of illegal aliens who are here and those still trying to come here. But nowhere in their narrative have they talked about how this relates to legal immigration and legitimate refugees. During my time in the United States Navy, I worked alongside dozens of legal immigrants who wanted to give back to our nation. Amnesty will be nothing more than a slap in the face to those who went through the legal process of immigration. And using a political trick to provide cover for those smuggled into this county is a mockery of a refugee policy meant to save our planet’s most vulnerable souls. This shows the laziness of politicians who seem to have forgotten long ago how to govern and protect out nation. Unabated, blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants is a complete scam.” \u2014 Project 21’s Kevin Martin<\/a>, who took part in refugee operations in Bosnia and Kosovo while serving in the U.S. Navy<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/joehicks_sm-11.jpg\")
“President Obama and other White House officials claim young illegal aliens who flooded across our southern border should be granted refugee status because they fled violence and poverty in their home nations. When have these conditions not existed in places such as Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala? This, the open-borders crowd claims, presents us with a moral crisis. A moral crisis is indeed facing our nation, but it is a crisis of the current political leadership, who appear willing to sacrifice the nation’s interests to the apologists for illegal immigration. These radical special interest groups disdain the nation’s immigration law and argue that it is they \u2014 and not the law \u2014 who should determine who can enter our nation, under what conditions and from where.” \u2014 Project 21’s Joe R. Hicks<\/a>, a former executive director of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and former executive director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\nWhat Others Are Saying About Possible Abuse of Our Refugee System<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n
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\nDuring 2014, Project 21 members have participated in over 150 interviews on immigration, including a commentary<\/a> in the Orlando Sentinel<\/em> written by Project 21 member Joe Hicks<\/a>, a former executive director of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Over the past several weeks, the Project 21 black leadership network has issued a series of press releases<\/a> highlighting how a unilateral move by the Obama Administration to protect illegal aliens could have a negative disparate impact on black Americans and African immigrants on issues such as jobs,<\/span>31<\/sup><\/em><\/span> education,<\/span>32<\/sup><\/em><\/span> health<\/span>33<\/sup><\/em><\/span> and legal immigration.<\/span>34<\/sup><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n