In Tuesday’s lead story in the New York Times, White House reporter Julie Hirschfeld Davis took on Obama from the left in “Obama Is Pressed to Speed Effort to Add Migrants -- Target: 10,000 Syrians. Lag in Admissions Is at Odds With Pledges as World Watches.”
Last month Davis, a long-serving admirer of the president, was fretting about a related left-wing obsession -- that Obama had to fulfill a "legacy" on immigration through amnesty. On Tuesday, Davis found not a single voice of caution. Not a single mention was made of the sexual assaults by migrants in Germany last New Year’s Eve. That’s no surprise, given that the Times threw garlands around Germany for its initial eagerness to welcome Muslim migrants, while dismissing security concerns as “nationalist bigotry.” (German migrant policy has since edged back toward reality.)
Every source cited by Davis either defended Obama’s progress on getting refugees into the country or criticized him for not doing so fast enough, while she portrayed protecting the homeland as a mere bureaucratic bother.
President Obama invited a Syrian refugee to this year’s State of the Union address, and he has spoken passionately about embracing refugees as a core American value.
But nearly eight months into an effort to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States, Mr. Obama’s administration has admitted just over 2,500. And as his administration prepares for a new round of deportations of Central Americans, including many women and children pleading for humanitarian protection, the president is facing intense criticism from allies in Congress and advocacy groups about his administration’s treatment of migrants.
They say Mr. Obama’s lofty message about the need to welcome those who come to the United States seeking protection has not been matched by action. And they warn that the president, who will host a summit meeting on refugees in September during the United Nations General Assembly session, risks undercutting his influence on the issue at a time when American leadership is needed to counteract a backlash against refugees.
But Davis suggested the buck doesn’t stop at President Obama, but that’s he a partial victim of bureaucracy and Republican whining about terrorism threats.
The delay is frustrating for Mr. Obama, who has made a point of speaking out against anti-immigrant sentiment both in the United States and abroad, arguing that Republicans, particularly the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, are playing on misplaced fears about terrorism.
Davis portrayed protecting the homeland as mere bureaucratic bother.
At the White House, he has instructed his top advisers that they must not fall short of meeting his goal to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States by the fall. But an onerous and complex web of security checks and vetting procedures, shared among several government agencies, has made the target difficult to reach.
At the same time, White House officials concede that the challenging election-year politics surrounding the issue -- 47 House Democrats joined Republicans in November in voting for legislation to further tighten the screening process -- make it impossible to quickly take in substantially more Syrians by removing any of the tough vetting procedures.
No political label was attached to groups that want more migrants in, though the Times is quick to tar opponents as “far right.”
Humanitarian groups have denounced the administration’s approach, arguing that the president must recognize the Central American migrants as refugees.
....
The criticism comes as some of Mr. Obama’s allies on Capitol Hill are arguing that he has not done enough to respond to the Syrian refugee crisis. Twenty-seven Democrats led by Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, who was Mr. Obama’s partner in the Senate and maintains close ties with the president, told him in a letter this month that the administration “can and should do much more” to accept Syrian refugees.
Davis outlined some of the administration’s steps while concluding that it wasn’t fast enough: “But the numbers remain stubbornly low.” She then cited old figures from Germany, again without mentioning the more recent decline or the contrvoersy over the migrant sex assaults that caused popular backlash in Europe: “Germany has not said how many refugees it might accept. In 2015, it registered 447,336 new applicants for asylum, about 25 percent of them Syrians.”
Administration officials argue that Mr. Obama is doing more than most -- the United States admits more refugees over all than any other country and is the largest contributor to humanitarian relief.
“When you step back and look at the longer-term picture in terms of the United States’ record on the U.N. refugee program,” Josh Earnest, Mr. Obama’s press secretary, said this month, “it’s hard for other countries to criticize.”
