Refugiados, segurança paranóica e a estupidez humana

Editorial do NY Times de hoje:
In Sierra Leone there is a woman who was kept captive in her house for four days by guerrillas. The rebels raped her and her daughter and cut them with machetes. Under America's program to resettle refugees, she would be eligible to come to safety in the United States. But her application for refuge has been put on indefinite hold — because American law says that she provided "material support" to terrorists by giving them shelter. (…)
A Liberian woman was kidnapped by a guerrilla group and forced to be a sexual slave for several weeks. She also had to cook and do laundry. These services are now considered material support to terrorists. In Colombia, the United Nations will no longer ask the United States to admit dozens of refugees who are clearly victims, since all their predecessors have been rejected on material support grounds. One is a woman who gave a glass of water to an armed guerrilla who approached her house. Another is a young man who was kidnapped by paramilitary members on a killing spree and forced to dig graves alongside others. The men, many of whom were shot when their work was finished, never knew if one of the graves would become their own.(…)
The law does not formally reject these applicants but places them on indefinite hold. No one accused of material support has ever had that hold lifted. The Department of Homeland Security can supposedly waive the material support provision but has never done so.