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As pro-Palestinian protests continue across U.S. cities and college campuses, the Biden administration announced the opening of new refugee processing offices in the Middle East.

“How many of those pro-Hamas protestors on our college campuses are here on student visas? Who is funding them?” asked Dalia al-Aqidi, an Iraqi-born Muslim immigrant and GOP congressional candidate looking to challenge Rep. Ilhan Omar for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District seat.

“Who we let into our country matters,” she wrote on X in reaction to the news that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be opening international field offices in Qatar and Turkey to help bring more migrants to the U.S.

The new offices will “increase capacity for refugee processing, strengthen strategic partnerships, and facilitate interagency cooperation,” according to a USCIS press release Tuesday.

“The Biden-Harris administration set the refugee admissions ceiling for fiscal year 2024 at 125,000 refugees. Establishing USCIS field offices in Qatar and Turkey will support the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program’s infrastructure in the region. It also will directly support long-established and increasing USCIS refugee processing circuit rides,” the release states.

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio blasted the administration for providing billions more in taxpayer funds to facilitate bringing Middle Eastern migrants to the U.S.

“Not only did the ‘foreign aid’ bill that passed yesterday do nothing about the mass migration invasion of America, it provided over $3.5 billion to help bring migrants from the Middle East to America,” he wrote on X, referring to the staggering $95 billion foreign aid bill that passed in the Senate Tuesday.

“Opening these field offices establishes a USCIS presence and expertise in critical locations in the Middle East and is part of our commitment to the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to facilitate safe, lawful, and orderly migration and family reunification,” USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou said in a statement. “Our presence in Qatar and Turkey expands USCIS’ footprint outside the United States, supports our humanitarian mission, and strengthens the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.”

Qatar and Turkey were each cited as a “critical location and a regional refugee processing hub,” according to the government press release.

State Department consular staff will reportedly hand off refugee processing duties to USCIS staff which will also “assist with certain fraud detection-related activities, and provide other limited services.”

“With the opening of the Doha Field Office on May 7, 2024, and the Ankara Field Office on May 9, 2024, USCIS will have 11 international field offices,” according to the press release. “Other international field offices include Beijing; Guangzhou, China; Guatemala City; Havana; Mexico City; Nairobi, Kenya; New Delhi; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras.”

News of the new field offices sparked angry reactions on social media.

Frieda Powers
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