The California State Assembly passed a bill Friday that urges President Obama to expedite visa processing for minority groups fleeing Iraq, and lift quotas for Iraqi Christians, in order to facilitate their immigration to the United States.
SJR 17, authored by Senator Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, further urges Congress to pass House Resolution 663, sponsored by Congressman Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, that reaffirms the legislature’s support of religious freedom. The resolution also calls on the State Department to work with the Iraqi government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to secure safe havens for persons seeking amnesty.
The bill is chaptered by the Secretary of State and will be sent to the President and Congress by the joint bodies of the state legislature.
Anderson says the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria cannot be allowed to continue its genocide.
“Today we took another step in addressing this urgent need to protect religious minorities, including Iraqi Christians, from persecution by the Islamist State in Iraq and Syria,” said Anderson in a statement. “I am proud California is now on record urging the President to recognize this humanitarian crisis.”
Since its emergence in early 2013, the terrorist group known as ISIS or ISIL has taken over large portions of Iraq and Syria, driving out religious minorities in the process. In Mosul, another city under ISIS control, Christians were ordered to convert to Islam, pay a fine, or be killed.
On Aug. 8, CNN reported that Iraq’s largest Christian city had fallen to ISIS.
The United States launched airstrikes this month to counter ISIS, while President Obama was blasted on social media for a press conference statement that his administration didn’t have a long-term strategy.