Iraq refugees face long wait to enter U.S.

WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- Even after the U.S. Congress acted last year to allow more Iraqi immigrants into the United States, advocates say a huge backlog of applications is waiting.

Congress passed the Iraqi Refugee Crisis Act, which established more immigration channels for skilled Iraqi workers seeking to leave a country in which they're frequently targeted as U.S. collaborators. But the demand to leave Iraq has been tremendous, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"The demand has far exceeded what we initially anticipated," an unnamed State Department official told the newspaper, saying U.S. policy originally was to encourage skilled workers to stay in Iraq and help rebuild the country.

Officials told the Post that more than 6,800 Iraqi immigrants have reached the United States since early last year and that a goal of 12,000 immigrants by September could be reached. But the program is hampered by delays necessitated in part by extensive security and background checks demanded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. officials need to work more quickly because many of the applicants are in danger from political violence, Kirk Johnson, a former U.S. aid worker in Iraq, told the Post.