Christian Refugees Landing in America Over the Previous Decades Are Now Targets for Deportation

Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY 2.0
President Trump’s strict enforcement of refugee deportation hits his administration’s concern for Christian refugees.

An analysis of refugee data published by the U.S. State Department reveals that during the initial months of President Donald Trump coming to power, Christians now outnumber Muslims in refugee admittance to the United States.[/tweetit] According to the Pew Research Center
findings
, 9,598 Christian refugees entered the U.S. in the first months of Trump’s term. The number of Muslim refugees during the same time period was 7,250. The time period in this context starts from January 21 to June 30, 2017.

Christian Refugees Landing in America Over the Previous Decades Are Now Targets for Deportation[/tweetthis]

Christians made up 50 percent of all refugees coming into the U.S. Muslims made up 38 percent and refugees belonging to other religions constitute about 11 percent of the total intake. It is seen that refugees’ religious composition has been a constant state of flux from month to month. During Trump’s first month of office, Christians made up only 41 percent compared to Muslims accounting for 50 percent of a total of 4,580 refugees. In June, Christians refugee arrivals jumped to 57 percent outnumbering the 31 percent of Muslims.

Christian refugees July 17 TrumpIndependent observers have started to scrutinize refugees' religious affiliation from the time Trump issued his controversial executive order banning citizens from six countries to enter the United States. The Trump administration temporarily stopped the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program. The number of refugee admissions was also capped at 50,000 people. This executive order was subjected to legal challenges. In recent times, a more receptive U.S. Supreme Court permitted a few parts of the order's second version to take effect until the case is heard by the Supreme Court in the fall.

All these Christian refugees coming to the United States fleeing from persecution should automatically be welcomed by the Trump administration. This was made clear by the President himself, when Trump, during his presidential election days, publicized Christian plight in a number of countries and promptly declared that this should not be permitted to go on. It is natural that the travel ban instituted by Trump offered preferential treatment to the Christian refugees.

The problem is that defending Christians -one of Trump's pet projects is clashing with the president's insistence on removal of illegal aliens from U.S. soil. He has also advocated strict immigration laws. Many Christians from the Middle East are thus vulnerable to deportation as they have overstayed visas, committed crimes, and failed to file asylum applications on time. They can thus be deported back to their home countries where they escaped from religious persecution in the first place.

Resources

Follow the Conversation on Twitter