Trump pledges to return Syrian refugees if elected, but US laws in his way

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he will send Syrian refugees home if he’s elected president, but U.S. laws would interfere with his plans.

The billionaire businessman, who remains a longshot for the White House, said Wednesday during an hour-long speech that included several profanities that he was worried the refugees, who have been fleeing Syria after years of civil war, could be Islamic State militants looking to get into the U.S.

“I’m putting the people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration. If I win, they’re going back,” Trump said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. “They’re going back. I’m telling you. They’re going back.”

There’s at least one thing that would stand in his way: U.S. immigration laws.

Refugees are awarded legal immigration status as soon as they arrive and granted work permits shortly thereafter. Within one year, they are eligible and must apply to become a legal permanent resident.

To send them home, a Trump administration would have to strip the refugees of the legal status that allowed them to travel to the U.S. That would require either a change in the conditions in Syria or evidence that immigrants weren’t actually qualified to be refugees in the first place. Even then, under federal regulations, any refugee would be allowed to protest such efforts in a process that could take at least one month.

The Obama administration said it intends to accept about 10,000 Syrian refugees and increase the overall number of refugees allowed into the U.S. from around the world to 85,000 in the next 12 months. That total would increase to 100,000 by 2017. The U.S. currently accepts up to 70,000 refugees per year.

An immigration lawyer, David Leopold of Cleveland, said Trump’s effort to return refugees would be difficult to apply to anyone who became a legal permanent resident.

In that case, the fastest way to get someone out of the country would be a traditional deportation case, which generally happens only when a legal permanent resident commits a serious crime.

“There are procedures and regulations which govern what happens if the country conditions change and the person is not a permanent resident,” Leopold said. “You can’t just (send them home). It just doesn’t work that way. We have regulations and we have statutes that govern how we treat refugees in the United States.”

Millions of Syrians, many risking their lives in crowded boats and rafts, have been fleeing a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people since March 2011. As many as 9 million people have been displaced, including more than 4 million who have fled the country, according to the United Nations.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Trump should show “some sensitivity” to something that is a “serious challenge.”

“We have an obligation to make sure that people coming here are legitimate, but send them all back? To a hellhole?” he said.

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Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap

EDITOR’S NOTE _ An occasional look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don’t tell the full story.