US denying refugee applications by Iranian Christians despite Trump order: report

Roughly 100 Iranian Christians have been stranded in Vienna after having their refugee visa applications denied by the U.S., despite the Trump administration’s previous pledge to prioritize persecuted religious minorities, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The newspaper reported that dozens of Iranians left the country more than a year ago with the hopes of resettling in America. However, the U.S. denied their applications for refugee status in recent weeks.

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Elderly and disabled people are among those who were not given visas, the Times reported. Those who have already left Iran said they are afraid to return to the country because they could be put in jail as enemies of the state.

Shiite Islam is the official religion of Iran. A U.S. report in 2017 found that Iranian authorities rounded up and detained hundreds of Christians in recent years.

The Trump administration has limited the flow of refugees into the United States. 

A year ago, President Trump signed an executive order that indicated the administration would “prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality.” 

That same order banned Syrian refugees indefinitely and suspended the U.S. refugee resettlement program for 120 days.

Trump, who as a candidate called for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S., has also proposed multiple versions of a travel ban. The latest version applies to eight countries but was deemed unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next month on the travel ban.

The ban focuses on travelers from six majority-Muslim countries: Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad. The latest ban also put restrictions on officials from Venezuela and immigrants from North Korea, but those are not at issue in the Supreme Court case.

Despite the president’s previous pledge, the travel ban does not directly address religious minorities, and was deemed unconstitutional by an appellate court because of it was deemed to be “tainted with animus toward Islam.”