Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) argued that with the military troop buildup having bolstered security in Iraq, "I don't think it's the time that we should be accelerating our refugee efforts. . . . Now is the time that we should be calling on the refugees from Iraq to go home."
Referring to funds the State Department is sending to Jordan to support refugees, Rohrabacher said: "It is not the job of the people of the United States to subsidize the existence and living standards of refugees in Jordan or anywhere else if they have the option of going home."
...
The Baghdad government encouraged 46,000 refugees in Syria to return in November and December, offering free transportation and $800 for resettlement. But 70 percent of those who responded could not return to their homes, which had been destroyed or occupied by others or lacked basic services.
It's interesting for the purposes of this blog to note the shift in the media's attention on the issues as of late, supposedly 3% of the stories filed in the American press were about Iraq so far this year. It's a little funny that as we're told we're sick of talking about Iraq now and one of the most pressing issues relating to the war is the millions of Iraqis looking for refuge being
kept out of the US, the issue that
has been dominating the American press is...immigration. Much of the coverage, unfortunately, comes at the subject from a
negative angle. According to
Al Jazeera (eng) a study late last year found that it was the most discussed issue in the election campaigns: 26% of campaign coverage was about illegal immigration, and discussion about it took up 15% of the debates, more than any other issue. However, in polling immigration actually ranked 4th in Americans' list of priorities, following the economy, health, and the Iraq war which actually ranked highest among voter concerns at the time.
