Note to BushCo: We are fighting them over there, and they are already coming here

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/world/middleeast/02refugees.html?ex=1325394000&en=ecd41eeff27f7aed&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Few Iraqis Are Gaining U.S. Sanctuary



BAGHDAD, Jan. 1 — With thousands of Iraqis desperately fleeing this country every day, advocates for refugees, and even some American officials, say there is an urgent need to allow more Iraqi refugees into the United States.

Until recently the Bush administration had planned to resettle just 500 Iraqis this year, a mere fraction of the tens of thousands of Iraqis who are now believed to be fleeing their country each month. State Department officials say they are open to admitting larger numbers, but are limited by a cumbersome and poorly financed United Nations referral system.

...

Some critics say the Bush administration has been reluctant to create a significant refugee program because to do so would be tantamount to conceding failure in Iraq. They say a major change in policy could happen only as part of a broader White House shift on Iraq.

“I don’t know of anyone inside the administration who sees this as a priority area,” said Lavinia Limón, president of the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nongovernmental refugee resettlement agency based in Washington. “If you think you’re winning, you think they’re going to go back soon.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20070122-105804-5235r.htm

Mexico arrests 11 Iraqis bound for U.S.

Immigration officials in Monterrey, Mexico, arrested 11 Iraqis allegedly trying to travel to the United States with fake passports.

Jesus Gerardo Lopez, the top immigration official in Coahuila state, told a correspondent from the San Antonio Express News none of the nine men, two women and a 2-year-old girl were on any list of terror suspects, although he said the FBI, CIA and Interpol were alerted to the arrests.

Investigators said they determined the fake passports had been issued in Turkey and Cyprus, the newspaper said. During interrogation, group members said they had each paid as much as $10,000 for the passports and new identities that said they were Christian refugees fleeing the war in Iraq.