A couple of weeks ago Obama went on TV, as he is wont to do, and said (imitating Obama), "We do not have a religious test for people entering our country. It doesn't matter what they believe. We have freedom of religion in this country, whatever amendments since then. And it's the law, it's our law, and we cannot ask people about their religion, and we certainly cannot use what they say as a reason to keep --" And I was forced to remind everybody that not only can we, we must, because it is also American statutory law. We must ask immigrants seeking asylum what their religious beliefs are. We have done it. We continue to do it. Here's why.
The primary reason most refugees give for seeking asylum is that they are fleeing religious persecution in whatever war torn place they're coming from. During the interview process, it is required that we investigate that. "What religion are you?" we ask. They must tell us. Based on what they tell us, we then examine whether or not there is indeed persecution of that religious belief in the place where the immigrant, the refugee, is coming from. We dealt with this a couple of weeks ago. Obama said you could never have a religious test for refugees, and we showed that a religious test is actually written into the statutes that govern refugees and asylum.