Brownback turns back on refugees
As a U.S. senator, Sam Brownback was second to none in advocating for those suffering because of war, persecution and oppression, often by citing the biblical admonition “that true religion is taking care of widows and orphans and the foreigner amongst you.”
That makes him the last governor you’d expect to fearmonger about refugees, as he did again last week by pulling Kansas out of the federal government’s refugee resettlement program.
Citing his concerns for Kansans’ safety, the governor said the feds’ failure “to provide adequate assurances regarding refugees it is settling in Kansas” left him no choice.
Though he voiced concern about refugees not only from Syria but also from Iran and Sudan, this latest move goes beyond his earlier executive orders and ends state government’s involvement with all refugees, a role for which Kansas has received $2.2 million a year in federal funding.
In doing so the governor chose to disregard, among other exchanges with federal authorities, a Nov. 20 letter in which Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told him: “The security vetting for this population – the most vulnerable of individuals – is extraordinarily thorough and comprehensive. It is the most robust screening process for any category of individuals seeking admission into the United States.”
Brownback knows from his travels and Senate work what these people have endured, and how much fear they have felt. He cannot have forgotten how, on a visit to Sudan a dozen years ago, refugees yelled to him, “They’re killing us. They’re killing us.” Again, that compounds the disappointment of seeing Brownback, who once viewed his work on immigration and refugee issues as part of being pro-life, now officially treat such families like security threats.
Would he have us fear Patrick, the soccer-crazy teen born and raised in a Rwandan refugee camp who is featured in an inspiring Greater Wichita YMCA video titled “The American Dream”? Or Sonia Inamugisha, whose arrival in Wichita last year, as described by PRI’s “The World” program, came only after losing her parents and brother to violence, walking for days from Congo to Uganda, living in refugee camps for eight years, and going through about eight interviews and other screening?
The 124 refugees who’ve enrolled in USD 259 this school year have mostly come from Congo, though others came from Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea. Many of the families originating from Africa are Christians. Nearly half of the more than 2,000 refugees settled in Kansas from 2012 to 2015 came from Myanmar.
The process that brought such families to Wichita may have taken 10 or more years, with the first choice of repatriation eventually giving way to extensive background checks, health screenings and more.
“You have to be incredibly strong to endure the journey that they’ve endured for the past decade or more. These are good people,” Stephanie Bird-Hutchison, a teaching specialist with the Wichita district’s Multilingual Education Services, told The Eagle editorial board.
Brownback’s actions won’t stop settlement, which is handled locally by the Wichita International Rescue Committee and Episcopal Wichita-Area Refugee Ministry. If anything, thank goodness, other churches and faith groups in Kansas have been motivated to assist the efforts and help families adjust and succeed. Such support should encourage more.
Kansans should follow the lead not of Gov. Brownback but the words of then-Sen. Brownback – that “helping and resettling people is some of the most noble and ennobling things that we can do” and “we are a better nation because of the refugees and asylees amongst us.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Brownback turns back on refugees."