for blocking renewal of legislation that helps religious minorities in Iran get out of the country and find refuge in the United States.
Congressman Smith says the National Review has it all backwards.
The National Review article says Iranian religious minorities have had a special route to safety under a provision of an appropriations law approved each year since 1990. The article says the Austrian government gives special visas to religious minorities in Tehran allowing them to come to Austria where they can be processed for refugee status at the US embassy in Vienna.
The article says Smith, who chairs the House immigration subcommittee, is blocking renewal of the provision because it does not come under the aegis of his subcommittee and he believes he should have oversight over all immigration matters.
Smith writes in reply that he questions allowing, “some potential refugees [to] be singled out for special treatment.” He says, “Iranian refugees can still come to the US like any other refugee” under longstanding refugee laws, but the provision tacked onto an appropriation bill each year and outside the normal legislative process gives “special treatment.”
This an old argument in Congress where congressmen on legislative committees like Smith’s that write policy get irritated when congressman on the appropriations committee tack policy amendments onto bills that are only supposed to deal with money.
Smith blocked renewal of the special Austria route and it expired June 1.
The National Review said that last month there were 688 Iranian minorities being processed for Austrian visas, but that Austria may now cease granting visas because the American part of the program has ended.
The National Review says that without the program, Iranian religious minorities will have “to flee” to countries neighboring Iran where they will be forced to deal with the UN refugee agency that “is frequently hostile to non-Muslim applicants.”
