The USA Patriot Act of 2001[1] and the REAL ID Act of 2005[2] created a new bar to admissibility for individuals who provide “material support” to a terrorist.[3]  The Patriot Act also changed the definition of what constitutes a foreign terrorist organization, greatly increasing the number of organizations that fall under this label.[4]  The new definition includes any group of two or more people who take up arms against a state, even if the group supports the aims of American foreign policy and does not appear on the government’s designated list of terrorist groups.[5]

Thousands of refugees overseas and asylum seekers in the U.S. have had their cases denied or put on indefinite hold by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because they, often under threat of death, provided “material support” in the form of goods and services to terrorist groups.[6]  

Some cases where it is believed that the “material support to terrorism” rule has been applied in a manner consistent with the letter of the law but inconsistent with the humanitarian intention of the refugee and asylum laws are:

• A Nepali health professional who was kidnapped by Maoist rebels and forced to provide medical aid to injured rebels, and the DHS argues that this constitutes providing material support to the rebel group.[7]
• A Colombian nurse who says she was abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia outside Bogota and was forced to treat one of their soldiers, and who fled the country after her life was threatened in a note to her family.  Her asylum request was rejected in 2006.[8]
• A fisherman from Sri Lanka who was abducted by the Tamil Tigers and forced to pay his own ransom.[9]

The refugee admissions programs for Colombia and Burma have been nearly shut down by the agencies’ application of the “material support” bar.[10]

According to some interpretations of the Patriot Act, Hmong refugees in the U.S. who fought in Laos alongside U.S. forces during the Vietnam War are former terrorists who fought against the communist Laotian government.[11] Administration officials acknowledge that the language in the laws could have an unintended effect on these fighters.[12]  Thus, family members and others who provided any level of support to the Laotian fighters are also barred from admissibility by the material support rule.

Compounding the problems created by the broad definitions is that the DHS is not communicating with applicants for refugee status, asylum, or adjustment of status that the applications are being held up because of this material support rule, according to Sophia De Wit, project director of the Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries.[13] 

Even though most conservatives support the general anti-terrorism thrust of the USA Patriot Act and the Real ID Act, says Gary Bauer, president of the conservative public policy group American Values, enforcement of the law has “lapsed into ludicrousy.”  “The concept of material support “is being distorted, and even the definition of the term ‘terrorism’ is being turned on its ear.”[14]

The REAL ID Act granted the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security the authority to exempt refugees from the material support bar.[15]  This power has been used in limited circumstances:

• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued limited waivers of the “material support” rule in May and October of 2006 to Karen refugees from Myanmar who had been living in refugee camps in Thailand, whose villages were burned and whose members endured rapes and forced labor.[16]
• On January 11, 2007, the U.S. administration proposed to exempt certain groups of refugees from its “material support” rules.[17]  
• On January 19, 2007, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated in a press release that, in an exercise of his discretionary authority, he would permit consideration of applications for refugee status, asylum, or adjustment of status from a select group of foreign nationals who were “uniquely victimized by terrorist groups” and “provided material support to groups while under duress,”  providing a reason that “[t]his group as a whole does not represent a threat to our homeland security.”[18] 
• At the same time, he said that if someone seeking asylum or adjustment of status had provided support to eight groups, then the material support to terrorism provisions would not be applied to them.  The groups included in this exemption are:  the Karen National Union and Karen National Liberation Army, Chin National Front and Chin National Army, Chin National League for Democracy, Kayan New Land Party, Arakan Liberation Party, Tibetan Mustangs, Cuban Alzados, and Karenni National Progressive Party.  He characterized the members of these groups as “individuals who do not represent a public safety or national security risk to the United States.”

Paul Rosenzweig, acting assistant Homeland Security Department secretary for international affairs, said that the administration decided to shift policies after struggling with the “unintended consequences” of anti-terrorism laws, and cited the case of “women caught in the civil war strife in Africa, who under threat of or actually after having been raped and threat of death, did laundry for the military opponents of her tribe.”[19]

Rosenzweig has also said that DHS is in the process of broadening a waiver for Hmong and Montagnard guerrillas who fought for the U.S.[20]

The administration’s proposal does not correct the language of the immigration law definitions that label people as supporters of “terrorist organizations,” but rather it provides exemptions in limited circumstances.  Groups such as Human Rights First urge “that the underlying definitions be fixed so that the issues will be addressed more fairly, effectively, and appropriately.”[21]  Additionally, there is not much detail about how Chertoff’s waiver process will actually work, or how long it will take refugees and asylum seekers to obtain one of these waivers.[22]

To take action on Material Support

Visit the website for SEARAC (Southeast Asia Resource Action Center) an organization that advocates reform of this issue to help Hmong and Montagnard refugees.  They have sample letters to lawmakers.

We urge you to contact your Senators asking them to reform material support provisions in the Real ID and Patriot Acts: 

Contact Senator Amy Klobuchar at (651) 714-2006 or (888) 714-2006.

Contact Senator Norm Coleman at (651) 645-0323 or (800) 642-6041.

Not from Minnesota? Find your Senators at http://www.senate.gov/.