The National Review: More on the Lautenberg Amendment

The Becket Fund’s Director of Governmental Relations, Tina Ramirez, recently wrote a piece for the National Review regarding the Lautenberg Amendment:

Rep. Lamar Smith’s characterization of the Lautenberg Amendment fails to explain the rationale behind this legislation, which enables religious minorities to escape religious persecution.

Without the Lautenberg Amendment, the ability of the U.S. to protect persecuted religious minorities would be greatly diminished. Under U.S. law, a refugee must prove a “well-founded fear of persecution” on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion. The Lautenberg Amendment was adopted in 1989 to help Jews and other persecuted religious minorities flee the USSR, and was later expanded to cover religious minorities from Iran.

Continue reading on the National Review’s website.