U.S. to Grant Immigrants Who Give Terrorists “Limited” Support Asylum

As if President Obama’s backdoor amnesty weren’t bad enough, the administration just issued an official order allowing the U.S. to take in once-banned refugees and asylum seekers who have provided “limited material support” to terrorists.

With the stroke of a few pens—those belonging to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secretary of State John Kerry—the nation’s zero tolerance for any sort of terrorism-related support has vanished. It also marks yet another alarming example of a president who changes or replaces laws passed by Congress when he doesn’t like them. Besides immigration, we’ve seen this in the selective enforcement of Obamacare.

This week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department issued an “Exercise of Authority” to tweak the Immigration and Nationality Act, implemented decades ago to govern immigration and citizenship in the United States. The law includes a ban on admitting refugees and asylum seekers who may have provided terrorists with any sort of material support, even the kind that may be considered trivial by some. In other words, the federal law rightfully had a zero tolerance for any kind of involvement with terrorist elements.

Not anymore and we have Obama and his minions to thank for it. Under the new rules “an alien who provided limited material support” to a terrorist organization won’t be banned from staying in the U.S. if—get this—they are believed to pose no threat. No word on who determines that. The new exemptions are posted in the Federal Register, which few people bother reading, but thankfully a conservative political news publication wrote about it this week. Don’t expect to see much coverage in the traditional mainstream media.

Here is an amusing quote from a DHS official explaining the change in the story: “These exemptions cover five kinds of limited material support that have adversely and unfairly affected refugees and asylum seekers with no tangible connection to terrorism: material support that was insignificant in amount or provided incidentally in the course of everyday social, commercial, family or humanitarian interactions, or under significant pressure.”  Never thought a Homeland Security official would deem any material support for terrorism “insignificant.”

Specifically, the new exemptions will grant asylum to individuals who provided small or inconsequential amounts of support to terrorism without the intent to further any terrorist or violent activities. This includes individuals who, in the ordinary course of business transactions or social interactions, incidentally provided support with no intent of abetting violent or terrorist activity. It also covers humanitarian assistance and support for terrorists “under significant pressure that does not quite rise to the level of duress.”

The exemptions will be granted on a case-by-case basis, the new rules say. Of interesting note is how this all came about. According to the Exercise of Authority, it was created after Attorney General Eric Holder, Kerry and Johnson had a big powwow, officially referred to as “consultations.” They determined that it’s not fair to “bar certain aliens who do not pose a national security or public safety risk from admission to the United States and from obtaining immigration benefits or other status.”