(Washington D.C.)- In response to a number of inquiries to his Congressional office regarding Iraqi refugees relocating to Macomb county communities, Rep. Sander Levin issued the following statement:

“The information released today by the City of Warren is inaccurate and misleading.  My office talked to the State Department today and was informed of the following:

• The United States has made an overall commitment to a larger international effort to only re-settle 25,000 of the approximately 2.2 million Iraqis that have been displaced or placed in harms way because of the Iraq war. 
  
• This resettlement would occur over a number of years and over nine different regions in the country.
  
• While the hope was to re-settle 7,000 this year, the State Department has recently informed the international community that the U.S. can process at most only 2,000 individuals nationwide by the end of September 2007.
  
• The State Department stated that the priority basis for eligibility for refugee resettlement is not based on a contact with a family or other person already living in a community and therefore there is no basis for projecting specific allocation of refugees to a specific community.

“As I reiterated last week, I believe that we must dramatically change course in Iraq, and set out a timeframe for beginning to redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq.  The U.S. has historically joined with other nations in assisting individuals fleeing from religious, ethnic or other persecution.  I am confident that we will do so responsibly regarding refugees from Iraq which cannot happen based on the spread of inaccurate or misleading information.”

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