Our Mission
The List Project is a non-profit operating in the U.S., founded with the belief that the United States Government has a clear and urgent moral obligation to resettle to safety Iraqis who are imperiled due to their affiliation with the United States of America.
The List Project is the first comprehensive organizational effort to honor the sacrifice of these Iraqis. It has two pillars:
1. Help as many of the hundreds of Iraqis on our constantly-expanding List make it to the United States through a groundbreaking partnership with two top law firms and over 150 attorneys.
2. Provide a "cushion" for resettled Iraqis upon their arrival to America by:
• building an integration support fund to help defray emergency expenses, and
• helping them find meaningful employment through our expanding network of partnerships with the innovative NGOs like Upwardly Global.
Never before has there been such a vast group of refugees with access to their own pro bono representation by top U.S. law firms. Our partnership with domestic NGOs will maximize their integration so that they can be productive and successful in their new lives here in the U.S. The project hopes to contribute to a fundamental paradigm-shift in the way at-risk refugees can be assisted.
There is reason for optimism. We have succeeded in resettling dozens of Iraqis who fled their country because they helped us. Many more are on their way in the coming weeks and months. More and more law firms are approaching the List Project to contribute attorneys to the cause. American citizens write each day to offer rooms in their homes for the Iraqis we resettle, and contribute what small amounts they can.
But the List continues to grow at a frightening pace. An average of twelve new Iraqis are referred or write to the List Project each week. Because of the absurdly lengthy resettlement process, our allies who have fled to neighboring countries are losing hope of a life in peace in America, and with increasing regularity, giving up and submitting to whatever deadly fate awaits them back in Iraq.
The List Project is a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization under the Tides Foundation.
Our Story
December
2006, Kirk Johnson, a former USAID
worker who been based in Baghdad and Fallujah throughout 2005,
received a message from a former Iraqi colleague. A few weeks
earlier while walking home from his job assisting the U.S., "Y" (real
name withheld) had found a severed dog's head thrown on his front
steps with a note pinned to it that said: "Your head will be next."
When the U.S. government offered him no help, "Y" and his wife
packed what they could carry and, after years of service to America,
fled Iraq.
Johnson wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times describing Y's plight and calling on the U.S. to save those Iraqis imperiled by their belief in America and its state-building effort. Soon thereafter, Johnson began hearing from many others who had endured similar fates. He began documenting the names and whereabouts of former Iraqi colleagues and found that nearly 70% of the Iraqis he had worked with throughout 2005 were refugees in Syria, Jordan, the UAE, and other countries. Within weeks, Johnson's List had grown dramatically.
When he had accounted for the whereabouts of all of his former USAID colleagues, Johnson delivered his List to the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) in Washington DC, as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Following these meetings, the State Department committed to referring the names of the Iraqis on the List to UNHCR for priority processing.
In March 2007, the List was featured in a New Yorker article by George Packer, and was included in a Congressional hearing on the issue. The increased exposure led many Foreign Service officers, veterans and other American supervisors to refer their former Iraqi staff to Johnson for help. These Iraqis included State Department direct-hires, military interpreters employed by Titan/L3, and employees of USAID's implementing partners on reconstruction such as Bechtel, National Democratic Institute, and Research Triangle Institute. All bore the same stigma incurred by the USAID employees.
As his List continued to grow, Johnson published an Op-ed in the New York Times in April 2007 that called for a quicker response by the US government and a remedy for problems created by the Patriot Act's material support bar. To help him with his burgeoning List, Johnson also formed a partnership with law firms Holland and Knight and Proskauer Rose to provide pro bono legal services for each individual Iraqi on the List.
On June 20th, 2007, World Refugee Day, The List Project was formally launched with the mission of helping America's endangered Iraqi allies. It assists them by pressing their cases with relevant authorities, counseling them on the pitfalls of the screening process, helping them find new careers in the US, providing them with small grants and loans, connecting them with American volunteers and raising awareness of the issue through media. The List continues to grow, and the Project continues to add partners to accommodate them, including law firm Mayer Brown, non-profit Upwardly Global and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.