Spurned by U.S. and Facing Danger Back Home, Iranian Christians Fear the Worst

In late January, Representatives Randy Hultgren, Republican of Illinois, and James McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, chairmen of the House human rights commission, urged Vice President Mike Pence to expedite approvals for the Iranians. “These Iranians are members of religious minorities fleeing a regime that has brutally oppressed their communities since 1979,” they said in a statement. “This being the case, they should be presumed eligible for admittance to the United States as refugees under the Lautenberg Amendment.”