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Saturday, November 4, 2017

Executive Order 13815: USRAP Changes

What the Executive Order Says

Executive Order (EO) 13815 is entitled "Resuming the United States Refugee Admittance Program with Enhanced Vetting Capabilities".  It was published on Oct 24th, 2017 and has 4 sections.

Section 1

This section defines the policy in subsection (a).  The rest of the subsections provide some historical background and reference EO 13780 (see my post here).  As well, there is reference to Proclamation 9645 entitled "Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats."  It was issued on September 24th, 2017.

Section 2

This section simply states that the 120 day "pause" that was initiated by EO 13780 is over and that entry by suitably vetted refugees may once again start.

Section 3

Subsection (a) sets up a recurring 90 day review of whether there are changes required to USRAP.  Subsection (b) requires that a report is delivered to the President within 180 days.

Section 4

This section has the standard legal fine print to ensure the constitutionality of the EO.

My Commentary

There is a lot of sound and fury signifying very little in this EO.  In Section 3(a)(i), you can parse the statement (without really distorting its meaning) to just "...the Secretary of Homeland Security...shall determine...whether any actions should be taken...and, if so, what those actions should be."  At some point, I will want to do a review of proclamation 9645 since it seems to have had some significance in the immigration debate.  In 1(c), it mentions that the Attorney General reported that more than 300 persons who had entered the US as refugees were then the subjects of FBI counterterrorism investigations.  This does not provide a time frame.  300 out of how many refugees?  Also, did all 300 investigations result in convictions?  It's a meaningless factoid.

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