Month: May 2012

Israel swamped with African migrants, Israelis riot

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story from this past week that I hadn’t had a chance to post until now.

From Reuters:

JERUSALEM, May 24 (Reuters) – Surging street violence against African migrants, including a rampage that an Israeli broadcaster dubbed a “pogrom”, drew empathy for the rioters from the interior minister on Thursday.

Waving Israeli flags and chanting “Deport the Sudanese”, residents of a low-income Tel Aviv neighbourhood where many of the border-jumpers from Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan live held a march late Wednesday that turned violent.

Police said 20 people were arrested for assault and vandalism. Trash cans were set alight, storefront windows were broken and a crowd attacked an African driving through the area, breaking his car’s windows. No serious injuries were reported.

Interviewing Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Army Radio likened the incident to pogrom attacks on Jews in 19th century Europe. Yishai bristled at such language, citing police findings that Sudanese and Eritrean migrants were a crime risk.

[….]

Fleeing poverty, fighting and authoritarian rule, some 60,000 Africans have crossed illegally into Israel through the relatively porous desert border with Egypt in recent years.

[….]

Unchecked, the number of Africans illegally in Israel could reach millions and overwhelm the citizenry, Yishai predicted.

“So what, the State of Israel, as the Jewish state, in the name of democracy, in the name of honouring U.N. resolutions, (should accept) a recipe for suicide?” he said.

“The truth has to be told, and believe me it is hard and it hurts, as we are the Jewish people, a merciful people.”

A recipe for suicide—indeed!

Update:  Yikes!  I hadn’t thought of this, but Patrick Cleburne writing at VDARE suggests we could get some of Israel’s illegal alien Africans.  After all, that is precisely what I’ve predicted could happen elsewhere as we continue to tout the Malta-model of resettlement—illegal aliens arrive on Malta and we take them off Malta’s hands because we want something from Malta!

What are readers reading?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you are a new reader at Refugee Resettlement Watch you might be interested in having a look at the right sidebar where “Top Posts” are listed.  I always find it informative to see what is interesting people from day to day.  Of course our posts on Somali numbers are almost always in the top ten.  But, today “Fun with Numbers” which gives you a link to State Department databases about what refugees and how many have been resettled in your towns in the last five years was number one—go figure!

Shake-up at Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The longtime president of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), one of the top nine federal contractors resettling refugees in our cities, resigned this month.   Hat tip: Friends of Refugees.

He says it’s for family reasons (that is what they all say!), but this article suggests that the agency was being criticized for not focusing on Jews in trouble around the world.  To tell you the truth from the earliest days of writing RRW I wondered how HIAS justified resettling Muslims.  But, I will bet if they didn’t agree to resettle everyone, the feds would cut them off financially.

You can read all about it here.  Aronoff confirms that in order to keep the organization going you need to resettle as many warm bodies as possible—not just Jews—because their funding is dependent on a per capita payment from you, the taxpayer.

The interim President, Mark Hetfield, testified at the May 1 State Department meeting among other things to lighten up on the security restrictions and to get the P-3 program completely up and running.   He specifically, sensibly, says, “The terror which refugees fled must not follow them to the United States,” then goes on to say we are being too strict with our security screening.  Go figure!

We have written about HIAS and Aronoff previously, here is one post where we learned that Aronoff was letting staff go in 2009 while holding on to his quarter of a million dollar salary.

Learn more about HIAS!  Check out our archives with all the posts in which we mention this contractor here.

Visas for family “reunification” explained

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A few days ago I reported on Somalis in Minneapolis who are angry that the US State Department/Homeland Security are making it harder for them to bring their “families” to the US.    I explained that the P-3 program had been suspended in 2008 when it was learned that tens of thousands of Africans (mostly from Somalia) had gotten into the US fraudulently—they lied about their family relationship.  The program is still partially closed.   And, now the I-130 visa process has added some hurdles which has ticked-off the would-be migrants (and their lawyers) even further.

Since these visa application processes are all ‘greek’ to those of us on the outside, I appealed for help in understanding the I-130 visa and the I-730 visa as it relates to “refugees.”    A kind reader with experience has sent us the following explanation (emphasis mine).   This will be filed in our ‘where to find information’ category for your future reference.

I-130’s

This is the name used for a form to apply for the legal immigration of certain relatives of  certain types of US legal residents. It is not a part of the US refugee resettlement program. It’s an application for a permanent visa based on family relationship criteria.

Any  US citizen can petition for parents, spouse , minor children, single adult children over 21, married children , and siblings. (spouses and minor children of beneficiaries are included on the visa)

Depending on the relationship to the petitioner,there are various waiting times based on the number of pending applications.

Parents, spouses and unmarried minor children are eligible for “immediate” visas and it’s just a matter of the actual processing time (although  it’s usually several months to a year).  Older children have a much longer waiting period and for siblings, the wait hovers around 10 years .

Legal permanent residents (green card holders) can only petition for spouses, unmarried minor children. Those are not “immediate” visas, but are subject to another waiting list but is usually 3-4 years),

Visas  are initially adjudicated by the visa center here in the US simply based on documentation presented with the application, and then (provided they are initially approved) , once they become “current” , sent overseas to the nearest embassy/consulate for final decision, based on a face to face interview and documentation.

The US petitioner is also required to file an “affidavit of support” (showing financial ability to support the applicant (s)) which precludes the applicants from accessing any public benefits upon entering the US. (this is a whole other issue, since  actual enforcement of those affidavits varies greatly from state to state and many legal visa recipients do access public benefits).

At one time, in the P-3 program, US relatives who were US citizens were barred from utilizing the P-3 process and required to file I-130’s. Refugee advocates successfully lobbied to have this rule changed, thus US citizens could file P-3 applications.  While no longer required to, they could still also simultaneously file I-130’s  as a back up in case the applicants failed to meet refugee criteria (one does not preclude the other). In my experience, most US relatives chose not to file the I-130s and , instead, rely solely on the P-3 process which, as you know, confers refugee status and eligibility for all available public benefits and puts no onus of financial responsibility on the US anchor relative.

I-730’s

This is where the lines can get a bit blurry.

This is a US visa called “following to join.” There are 2 categories:

Visa 93 (US relative was admitted as a refugee)
Visa 92 (US relative was granted political asylum in the US)

Applicants are limited to spouses and unmarried minor children (not parents, siblings, married or over 21 kids).

Relationships must have existed prior to granting of US petitioner’s status (some tricky parts here!).  Application must be filed within 2 years of granted status.

Visas 92/93 can be filed simultaneously with  P-3 applications.

Those applications are initially approved  by US immigration processing centers (there are only a couple who do these) and sent to the local embassy/consulate for final adjudication. The applicants are under no requirement to provide any proof of refugee claims themselves,  but only proof of relationship to the petitioner.  If the visa is granted, they are admitted to the US under “derivative refugee/asylee” status.  Affidavits of support are not required, and they are eligible for public benefits subject to the petitioner’s income (again,… my experience showed a large amount of  easily-conducted fraud).

NH Senate kills refugee moratorium bill; phony “grassroots” group organized

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The New Hampshire on-again-off-again refugee resettlement moratorium bill is apparently dead for now.

Here is the short story from AP:

CONCORD, N.H.—The New Hampshire Senate has killed a bill that would have let cities and towns enact moratoriums of up to one year on allowing refugees to settle in their communities.

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas has pushed for the moratorium due to the demands for services on his city. The House had wanted to negotiate a compromise on the issue, but the Senate rejected that request Wednesday.

Scott Spradling, spokesman for Granite Staters for Strong Communities, praised the vote, saying lawmakers should focus instead on the economic, cultural and social benefits of refugee resettlement in New Hampshire.

For background and for new readers, search RRW for Manchester and you can catch up on the story.

“Grassroots” organize to defend refugee program

My interest this morning is in this Granite Staters for Strong Communities, a supposed grassroots group that sprang up spontaneously (I know stop laughing!) to defend the refugee program in New Hampshire!   Check out Scott Spradling—he runs a public relations firm and my first question is who paid him to start a phony-baloney “grassroots” group?  (Note that the AP reporter above knew to call the Lefty PR guy for a quote!) This is how the Left and people who have a financial (corporatist) interest in some government program operate—George Soros (and before him Saul Alinsky) taught them their tricks.  First, you set up a “group” and attract some naive people to join you and everyone thinks it is some spontaneous uprising of the ‘good’ people!

Here is a story I missed from last month at the Union Leader about the Granite Staters who want to flood New Hampshire with third-worlders (like the Rohingya Muslims I mentioned in my last post).

MANCHESTER — A group is forming in support of refugees who have come to New Hampshire through the federal resettlement program and are battling a proposal to allow communities to impose a 1-year ban on it.

Granite Staters for Strong Communities is still early in the formation stage. Spokesman Scott Spradling described it as a bipartisan coalition of business owners, concerned citizens, civic leaders and religious groups that hopes to raise public awareness about the issue, which has been the subject of debate of lawmakers in Concord.

[….]

Spradling said the group had about 50 members as of last week and is expected to decide on leadership roles soon.

Regardless of the committee’s position or a vote in the general Senate, Spradling said Granite Staters for Strong Communities expects the issue to come up again.

Besides Spradling (who is surely being paid for his work), the article mentions another person whose livelihood depends on the immigrant flow to New Hampshire—an immigration lawyer!   Oh sure, he doesn’t want NH to look racist!

George Bruno, a Manchester-based immigration attorney and member of the group, said he doesn’t want to see New Hampshire gain the same reputation as other states that have had highly-publicized anti-immigration efforts.

Not connected to Soros-funded group (or so they say)!

Bruno and Spradling said the group is focused on New Hampshire and not affiliated with the national “Welcoming America” initiative.

Don’t miss the comments to this story.  See especially what Jack Alex has to say (too long to post here).

Tip for you folks in NH—-you need to infiltrate this “grassroots” group!  Get some unknown people to join and report back on what they are doing.  Be sure to examine their incorporation docs (if they get that far) and their financial statements.   Be sure to note who benefits financially and politically from the importation of impoverished immigrants to NH.  Even more fun would be to start a blog and report their activities to the public!  Nothing like a little sunshine!