State Tournament 1NR Round 3

Case
SOLVENCY: REFUGEE RESOURCES
The diversion of resources away from refugee admittance within the Department of
Homeland Security means that there’s a lack of qualified personnel.
Kylie Atwood reports for CBS News in June 2018:
[Kylie Atwood, Reporter for CBS News, CBS News, "Trump administration slow to admit refugees amid
growing international crisis," 06/20/18, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-slow-to-
admit-refugees-amid-growing-international-crisis/, Date Accessed: 10/29/18] // AP

As a result of the reviews there was additional screening added for certain individuals from
high-risk countries, the implementation of a more "risk-based manner" for the refugee program as a
whole and a periodic review of the risks posed by certain countries. The Trump administration also
added additional social media screening to everyone entering the U.S. These reviews took resources
across multiple agencies to complete but they were both finished by January. The Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) remains one place where there is a dearth of resources for refugee
admittance. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at DHS is the office that
takes the lead on security vetting for refugees and tackling the backlog of asylum seekers. "Since
early 2017, USCIS has been detailing refugee officers to assist the Asylum Division. There are presently
approximately 100 staff members from the Refugee Affairs Division temporarily assigned to work for the
Asylum Division," said Michael Bars, the USCIS Spokesperson. Due to the asylum focus, there are fewer
resources on the refugee side. But DHS is making headway on speeding up their efforts to tackle the
asylum backlog. They say the asylum process is broken and there is a very low requirement. The
problem has been further exasperated by the border surges especially on the southern US
border. In May, USCIS received approximately 7,750 new asylum cases and completed over 7,950
outstanding ones. In October of 2017, they had only completed 4,967 cases. There are now 319,218
total asylum cases pending, according to USCIS. "Every means in accordance with current law is on the
table to protect the integrity of our immigration system from those seeking to exploit it by bogging it
down with meritless or fraudulent claims, and undermine lawful petitioners," said Bars. DHS will not
comment on the record about the slowdown to the refugee review process. President Trump has
made it clear that he does not want a high number of refugees entering the country. "The
United States will not be a migrant camp and will not be a refugee holding facility. It won't be. You look
at what's happening in Europe. You look at what's happening in other places. We cannot allow that to
happen in the U.S. Not on my watch," Mr. Trump said on Monday.
 SOLVENCY: MATERIAL SUPPORT BAR
The affirmative plan does not change grounds for inadmissibility, such as the material
support bar, that are regularly used to reject refugees, even if caps are raised.

Jennifer Daskal, a Senior Counterterrorism Counsel for Human Rights Watch, writes in
2007:

[Jennifer Daskal, Senior Counterterrorism Counsel for Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch, "The Material
Support Bar: Denying Refuge to the Persecuted?," 09/18/07, https://www.hrw.org/news/2007/09/18/material-
support-bar-denying-refuge-persecuted, Date Accessed: 09/19/18] // AP

This statement for the record submitted by Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights
Watch, calls on Congress and the administration to correct the unintended effects of the overbroad terrorism-related
bars in United States immigration laws. Submitted by Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human
Rights Watch. Thank you for the invitation to submit a statement for the record on this important subject.
Thousands of vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers have been denied entry to the United
States or face return to their countries of origin by the U.S. because of overbroad
terrorism-related bars in the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. These bars define anyone who
associated with or provided any “material support” to any armed group as terrorists – even
if the group has been actively supported by the United States, and even if the individual was forced at gunpoint to
provide the support. Shockingly, Hmong and Montagnards have been defined as terrorists and barred entry into the
United States because they fought against the Lao and Vietnam governments – alongside the US – during the
Vietnam War; rape victims forced into domestic servitude have been labeled supporters of
terrorism because of the cooking and cleaning they did while enslaved; and Burmese refugees
have been labeled terrorists because they once fought against one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Last
fiscal year, the United States admitted over 12,000 fewer refugees than expected – largely
due to the unintended consequences of these bars.1 At its peak, over 500 asylum cases were on
indefinite hold, as the administration sorted out what to do with individuals who had cleared every other security
hurdle but were being described as “material supporters of terrorism” because they had been forced against their will
to provide food, water, or services to armed rebels. Tens of thousand of others who have already been
granted asylum – including thousands of Hmong and Montagnards who fought alongside or supported US
troops during the Vietnam War – have been told that they cannot naturalize because of these bars.

SOLVENCY: INCREASE CAP IS NOT ADMISSIONS

Increasing the cap doesn’t increase amount of refugees in – vetting procedures too difficult to
bypass

Gabrielle Levy, reporter at U.S. News & World Report, writes in 2018:

[Gabrielle Levy, Gabrielle Levy covers politics for U.S. News & World Report, US News & World Report,
"Refugee Admissions on Pace to be Slowest in Decades | Data Mine | US News," 04/03/18,
https://www.usnews.com/news/data-mine/articles/2018-04-03/refugee-admissions-on-pace-to-be-
slowest-in-decades, Date Accessed: 10/14/18] // AX

THE NUMBER OF REFUGEES admitted to the United States has tumbled since President Donald Trump
took office, and 2018 is likely to see the lowest number of admittances in decades. Just 10,548 refugees
have been allowed into the U.S. Since the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1 through March 31, down
74 percent from the same period in the 2017 fiscal year, which included the final four months of Barack
Obama's presidency. The country is on pace to admit just 21,000 refugees this year, which would be by
far the lowest annual number since 1980, when modern refugee policies were put in place, according to
data compiled by the Refugee Processing Center, a program operated by the Department of State
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Although the Trump administration already slashed the
number of refugees allowed for the year by more than half – to 45,000, from 110,000 the previous year
– unless there's a major surge over the summer, the number of admittances won't even reach
50 percent of the new cap. In addition to the much lower cap, admissions have been driven
down by other administrative policy changes, including enhanced screening procedures and
partial bans on refugees from nations the administration designated "high-risk," the most
recent of which was lifted in January. Prior to fiscal year 2016, when the refugee cap was raised in
response to the refugee crisis stemming from the Syrian civil war, the Obama administration admitted
an average of about 67,000 refugees each year. The number of refugees settled in each state and in the
District of Columbia fell across the board from fiscal year 2017 to 2018. No refugees have been settled
at all in two states – Hawaii and Wyoming – so far in 2018. Among the states with the largest drop-offs
were Maine, which accepted 661 refugees in 2017 and just 83 in 2018 (a drop of 88 percent); Michigan,
which accepted 4,986 in 2017 and 925 in 2018 (81 percent fewer); and Texas, which dropped saw its
admittance drop from 8,645 to 1,986 (a 77 percent drop). In California, where 9,100 refugees settled in
2017 – the most of any state – just 1,949 refugees were settled in 2018. The State Department has not
said whether it will attempt to speed up the admission of new refugees to meet the ceiling of 45,000.
"The refugee admissions ceiling of 45,000 is not a quota but represents an upper limit of
refugee admissions for this fiscal year," a spokesperson told ABC News last week. According to the
United Nations, there are 22 million refugees worldwide. More than half are children under the age of
18 and the majority come from Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan.