{"id":21594,"date":"2015-11-19T10:41:08","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T16:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=21594"},"modified":"2015-11-27T11:02:36","modified_gmt":"2015-11-27T17:02:36","slug":"gov-rauners-refugee-ban-reaps-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/gov-rauners-refugee-ban-reaps-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Rauner\u2019s refugee ban reaps backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Aryn Braun<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Refugee-resettlement agencies condemned Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner\u2019s decision to temporarily ban Syrian refugees from settling in Chicago and vigorously defended the current U.S. vetting processes, in a press conference in Uptown on Nov. 18.<\/p>\n<div class=\"quoteright\">\u201cThis to me is personal. . . You\u2019re telling us that Syrian refugees are escaping war and terror\u2026and now we\u2019re going to not welcome them\u2026and then we\u2019re going to blame them? That\u2019s very unfair.\u201d <br \/>\u2014 Syrian emigree Suzanne Akhras.<\/div>\n<p>Though immigration, and therefore refugee resettlement, is a federal issue, many are up in arms defending Chicago as a welcoming and inclusive city, and one that will fight back against Rauner\u2019s decision to stand with his Republican counterparts. <\/p>\n<p>RefugeeOne, the leading refugee-resettlement organization in Chicago, stressed the slow and methodical procedure by which refugees are chosen and then screened for admittance to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey will go through medical exams before coming here, and then through an allocation process it will be decided which state they are going to be resettled,\u201d said Melineh Kano, Executive Director of RefugeeOne. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe shortest that this process takes is about three years. On average, refugees wait seventeen years to be resettled in the U.S.,\u201d Kano added.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Security concerns permeated throughout the detailed discussion of the vetting process, but didn\u2019t derail Kano and others from speaking out against Rauner\u2019s policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019d love to invite the Governor to meet with us and meet with refugee families,\u201d said Suzanne Akhras, President and Executive Director of the Syrian Community Network in Chicago. \u201cI think he would change his mind. I think they will touch his heart and he will take back his statement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Akhras emigrated from Syria in the 1980s, and though she\u2019s now an established Chicagoan, she took Rauner\u2019s statement as a personal affront.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis to me is personal, and on top of it, I\u2019m Syrian-American,\u201d said Akhras. \u201cYou\u2019re telling us that Syrian refugees are escaping war and terror\u2026and now we\u2019re going to not welcome them\u2026and then we\u2019re going to blame them? That\u2019s very unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Kano there are already 16 Syrian families settled in the Chicago area, with another refugee set to arrive in December, despite Rauner\u2019s resistance. <\/p>\n<p>Other groups are opposing Rauner\u2019s temporary ban in different ways.<\/p>\n<p>Organized Communities Against Deportations, and the Arab American Action Network co-sponsored a petition to reverse Rauner\u2019s policy that garnered thousands of signatures. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is Gov. Rauner and other governors across the U.S. utilizing this moment to really spread xenophobia, to spread fear amongst our community so that we will be unaccepting of people who are simply looking for safety in this state and in this city,\u201d said Irene Romulo, an organizer with the anti-deportation group.<\/p>\n<p>The petition, circulating around Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/not1more\" target=\"_blank\">under the #Not1More hashtag<\/a>, began with a goal of 500 signatures. <\/p>\n<p>By Wednesday night, it had just over 6,000 signees. <\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Melineh Kano, right, Executive Director of RefugeeOne, along with representatives from Chicago area universities and refugee resettlement agencies, pleads with Gov. Rauner to reverse his decision temporarily banning Syrian refugees in a press conference at RefugeeOne headquarters in Uptown on Nov. 18.  Others in photo are, from left,  Jessica H. Darrow of the University of Chicago\u2019s School of Social Service Administration;  Galya Ruffer, Director of Northwestern University&#8217;s Center for Forced Migration Studies; and Emily Gray, Executive Director of World Relief. (Aryn Braun\/MEDILL)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aryn Braun Refugee-resettlement agencies condemned Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner\u2019s decision to temporarily ban Syrian refugees from settling in Chicago and vigorously defended the current U.S. vetting processes, in a press conference in Uptown on Nov. 18. \u201cThis to me is personal. . . You\u2019re telling us that Syrian refugees are escaping war and terror\u2026and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":21595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[509,28,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2015","category-general-interest","category-public-affairs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gov. Rauner\u2019s refugee ban reaps backlash - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/gov-rauners-refugee-ban-reaps-backlash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gov. Rauner\u2019s refugee ban reaps backlash - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Aryn Braun Refugee-resettlement agencies condemned Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner\u2019s decision to temporarily ban Syrian refugees from settling in Chicago and vigorously defended the current U.S. vetting processes, in a press conference in Uptown on Nov. 18. \u201cThis to me is personal. . . You\u2019re telling us that Syrian refugees are escaping war and terror\u2026and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/gov-rauners-refugee-ban-reaps-backlash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-19T16:41:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-27T17:02:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/11\/refugee-ban-backlack-aryn.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"743\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aryn Braun\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Aryn Braun\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/gov-rauners-refugee-ban-reaps-backlash\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/gov-rauners-refugee-ban-reaps-backlash\/\",\"name\":\"Gov. 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Rauner to reverse his decision temporarily banning Syrian refugees in a press conference at RefugeeOne headquarters in Uptown on Nov. 18. )thers in photo are, from left, Jessica H. Darrow of the University of Chicago\u2019s School of Social Service Administration; Galya Ruffer, Director of Northwestern University's Center for Forced Migration Studies; and Emily Gray, Executive Director of World Relief. (Aryn Braun\/MEDILL)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/gov-rauners-refugee-ban-reaps-backlash\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gov. 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