The United States issues 680,000 green cards to migrants from Muslim countries every five years, awarding the chance to live in the United States permanently and apply for citizenship by the tens of thousands to the top receiving Muslim countries of Pakistan, Iraq and Bangladesh.
More Pakistani migrants (13,251) to the United States were awarded green cards in 2013 than migrants from the United Kingdom (12,984), the latest available Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data shows. Three times as many migrants from Iraq obtained green cards in that same year than from Italy. About three times as many migrants from Iran were given green cards in 2013 than from France. (RELATED: Many U.S. ‘Citizen Terrorists’ Are Also Legal Immigrants)
A whopping 12,099 migrants from Bangladesh also obtained green cards in 2013, and in 2012 and 2013 the U.S. awarded green cards to nearly 30,000 migrants from Iraq.
From 2009 to 2013, the U.S. issued 680,000 green cards to migrants from Muslim countries — more than the entire population of Washington, D.C. — and is on track to do the same in the next five years, if policy is not changed. The breakdown by country over those five years is illustrated in the chart below produced by the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, based on DHS data.
(Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest)
In 2013, the U.S. gave more than 3,000 green cards to people from Syria and more than 9,000 green cards to migrants from Iraq, compared to 2,960 to people from Italy. The same year 12,863 Iranian migrants obtained green cards, compared to 4,425 from France. And 2,196 green cards were awarded to migrants from Afghanistan, compared to 1,626 from Ireland.
By region, the U.S. issued nearly half a million green cards to Asia and Africa in 2013, compared to just 86,556 from Europe and 80,945 from South America. Every year under current policy the U.S. issues an average of one million green cards, which guarantee immigrants a lifetime work authorization, access to federal welfare, Social Security and Medicare, the ability to obtain citizenship and voting privileges and the immigration of their close relatives.
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