Category: Trump Watch!

Senate Dems want law followed on refugee Presidential determination

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Rumors were rampant that President Donald Trump would announce on Friday the Presidential “determination” on how many refugees could be admitted (it is a CEILING number) to the US beginning on October 1 (for FY18).  Nothing happened.

Just looking around this morning I see that mid-week last week Senators Dick Durban and Dianne Feinstein (founding members of the ‘Jihad caucus’ who wanted 65,000 Syrians in addition to the usual 60-70,000 from other regions in Obama’s final full year), sent a letter to Trump asking him when this years’ ‘consultation’ could be expected.

The House and Senate, for the last 10 years (the years I have followed the program), could not have cared less about what the law said were the steps required in the consultation and Presidential determination (I outlined those steps here recently).

LOL! But all that changes now that Trump occupies the White House.

It is maddening to know something about an issue and see the complete disdain by elected officials for the laws they themselves wrote!

Sighing…

So here is the Reuters story about Dick and Dianne getting all uppity about something (the legal process) they didn’t care about during Obama’s years.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two high-ranking Democrats in the U.S. Senate asked the Trump administration on Wednesday to provide information on any plans to cut refugee admissions to historically low levels, saying Congress had not yet been consulted as required by law.

Dianne Feinstein, Dick Durbin
Suddenly Dick and Dianne are concerned with the steps laid out in the Refugee Act of 1980 for determining each years refugee admission ceiling.

“To date, we have not received a proposed refugee admissions plan for fiscal year 2018 or received any cooperation from your agencies in scheduling the refugee consultation,” Senator Richard Durbin and Senator Dianne Feinstein wrote in a letter seen by Reuters.

The letter was sent on Wednesday to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.

“We request that the proposed refugee admissions report be transmitted to Congress promptly and that we immediately begin the process of scheduling the consultation,” the letter said.

By law, the president is required to consult with members of Congress about the number of refugee admissions before the start of each fiscal year, which is Oct. 1.

Gee, for once we see a mainstream media outlet give some information on the ceiling vs. actual admissions numbers:

Since the U.S. Refugee Act was signed in 1980, the ceiling has never been set below 67,000 and in recent years has hovered around 70,000 to 80,000. The number of refugees actually admitted to the country can fall below the cap, and dropped to its lowest level in the fiscal year after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks with only around 27,000 admitted.  [No one went bonkers on Bush—ed]

Pay attention to the RAISE Act.

The proposed RAISE Act, which the White House has endorsed, calls for lower immigration overall and a statutory limit on the number of refugees offered permanent residency to no more than 50,000.

Reports that the 2018 cap might be set below 50,000 raised alarm bells for Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

More here if you want to read it.

Final thought:  Trump goes to the UN this week.  The federal refugee contractors have been yammering for 75,000 refugees for FY18.  Any number less than that announced this week will surely bring out screaming protesters and media hysteria. IMHO Trump should have announced numbers weeks ago (assuming they will be low!).

As you know, in light of American homelessness from Harvey and Irma, we have been advocating for a suspension of the program or at least a many-months delay in making a Presidential Determination.

From Amazon to agriculture, Minnesota looking for more migrant workers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They say their economy will flounder as they are having a hard time attracting American workers and apparently few Americans are willing to move to Minnesota.

At least this is all out in the open now—-immigration is not about humanitarianism and “American values,” but it is about importing laborers (including Somalis) that big companies don’t have to pay very well.

gov-mark-dayton
This story gives me the opportunity to tell new readers that the gov will be remembered for his 2015 admonition that if you don’t like the new (refugee-infused) Minnesota, get out! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/10/16/mn-governor-dayton-dont-like-immigrants-get-out-of-minnesota/

Seems to me that as more immigrants and refugees pour into Minnesota it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as Americans leave the state due to the tension and cultural upheaval evident in Minneapolis, Rochester, St. Cloud and other smaller burgs.

One more story….

From Minnesota Public Radio:

Minnesota’s increasing reliance on immigrants to fuel its work force can be seen at a unique neighborhood bus stop in Minneapolis.

A stream of workers, many of them Somali refugees, boards a private coach that will take them to the Amazon fulfillment center in Shakopee.

Amazon also arranges for the bus to shuttle workers back to their Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.

This scene plays out every day just outside the Shaqodoon job center. Last month, about 20 people a day — including those who speak little English — were being hired on the spot for packaging jobs and other tasks. They’re earning about $15 an hour or more, said Mohamud Noor, who runs the center.

“This is real,” said Noor, director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota and a candidate for the Minneapolis City Council. “It’s full-time employment with benefits, and it pays well.”

The state’s industry leaders say immigrants are needed to grow Minnesota’s economy and address a labor shortage. But calls for welcoming more immigrants come as the White House and others offer proposals for more restrictive immigrant policies.

[….]

Kevin Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, said half of the state’s cows are milked by immigrants, including many who aren’t authorized to be in the United States.

“The consumer will have to recognize that the choice is very simple: You’re going to have to allow us to import our labor in agriculture, or you’re going to have to accept importing our food from other countries,” Paap said. [What a scare tactic—importing food!—ed]

I’m no economist, but there might be some other options: first, stop encouraging every kid to go to college with expectations of a 6-figure salary in a white collar job (and by doing so, keep them away from political indoctrination).  And, why not a campaign throughout our school system to enhance the image of those working in blue collar fields (heck, have you tried to get a plumber recently!).

Next, pay wages that Americans will find attractive even if it means higher food prices.  The reality is we are supplementing those migrant workers’ wages already through welfare.  We pay one way or another!

Slow the flow of immigrants who have no intention of assimilating to Minnesota. Those refugees are causing tension and thus further depleting the available MN work force as Americans escape the state. (Gov. Dayton told native Minnesotans to get out!)

donald-trump

Or, consider this, maybe economies in some locations do not need to keep growing especially if growing means more migrants who need housing, food, schools, roads and Walmarts to accommodate them.

Donald’s test could come today!

You can bet that if Donald Trump comes in with a Fiscal Year 18 determination of more than say 10,000-15,000 truly needy persecuted refugees (announcement today?) then you know Paul Ryan, the Chamber of Commerce and some huge global corporations got to him!

See my huge archive on Minnesota by clicking here.

Reporters just too lazy to get their facts when bashing Trump is the goal!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know, and you are saying, so what else is new!

Needless to say, Yahoo News (here) is carrying the federal contractors’ water on the issue of the Presidential determination due any day on how many impoverished third worlders we would admit starting on October first.

I don’t want to go over the whole Yahoo story, and if you saw my post this morning, you got the gist of it. (LOL! You might want to check it out for the comments!).

But, this one paragraph made me so mad, I knew I wouldn’t sleep:

Even after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a time of clear national emergency, President George W. Bush set the year’s cap at 80,000 and only paused the system for two months while the country got back on its feet. [They conveniently leave out the extremely low admission numbers that followed.—ed]

You see how they skew the facts to put Donald Trump in the worst light—he is worse even than that Bush they all hated so much, and that is saying something.

Here are the facts about the numbers after 9/11 (couldn’t reporter Flaherty look them up, or did she simply take the word of the advocates who are paid by the head to resettle refugees!)

Look at this data from the 2007 ORR Annual Report to Congress a chart (p.4) showing CEILINGS (aka CAPS) and numbers actually admitted going back to 1983…..

 

Screenshot (833)

First, that 2001 ceiling of 80,000 was set by Bill Clinton in September of 2000. The 2001 fiscal year began on October 1, 2000. Bush didn’t take office until January 2001.

Yes, Bush suspended the program for a few months (fear of terrorists among the refugees?). (So the precedent for suspending the program already exists.) Then he did set the ceiling at 70,000 the following year.

But what do you see?

In the two subsequent years Bush admitted only 27,070 and 28,117 respectively. 

But, Trump is a monster for admitting over 50,000 this year?

And, for any reporters looking for the truth, here is the table since 2007:

Screenshot (654)
I was too lazy to get the chart through this August. This one is posted here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/07/09/supreme-court-is-giving-permission-for-the-refugee-ceiling-to-be-surpassed-for-first-time/

 

What do you see? The sainted Obama only bumped up his ceiling in the final year of his presidency and even he had two of his eight years in the 50 thousands.

So how about a little honesty from the media from time to time?

White House could announce refugee ceiling for FY18 this week

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“We don’t really know who is driving this train”

(whines Melanie Nezer of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)

Update: My friends at VDARE cross-posted this story and added an excellent chart that illustrates the ceilings and admissions over the years. See here.

The decision could come this week and the contractors*** are scared to death that the number could be 50,000 or lower. At least that is what VICE News is reporting and they clearly have an inside line to Leftist/Open Borders leakers in the administration if this report is to be believed, and I have no reason not to believe it.

It also confirms the vibes I got listening to the HIAS conference call last week—the contractors are out of the loop!

Before you read the VICE story, be sure to see my post yesterday entitled:

Consider the optics Mr. President! Thousands of impoverished people arriving in the US when Americans are homeless

Now, here is VICE News (emphasis is mine):

The Trump administration is expected to drastically reduce the number of refugees that will be allowed into the United States in the coming year, VICE News has learned.

Stephen Miller 2
VICE reports that Stephen Miller is butting heads with Mattis and McMaster over refugee numbers for FY18 (which begins in a little over 2 weeks)

Multiple sources, including an official in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) with direct knowledge of the situation, say Trump plans to cap refugee admissions for the 2018 fiscal year at no more than 50,000. That limit would be the fewest in modern history, and less than half as many as President Obama authorized last year.

[….]

Trump hasn’t yet made a final decision on refugee admissions, the sources said, but according to the USRAP official, “it won’t exceed 50,000” and could even be fewer. White House officials and members of the National Security Council were scheduled to discuss the refugee cap Tuesday, and an official announcement could come as soon as this week.

[….]

A White House spokesman declined to comment on “internal discussions” about refugees. The State Department, which oversees U.S. refugee resettlement programs, told VICE News the cap would be set “after appropriate consultation with Congress” and before the start of the 2018 fiscal year on October 1, but declined to answer additional questions.

According to a source familiar with the discussions, Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior advisor for policy, has been the leading advocate for fewer refugee admissions, and has attempted to sideline other key players in the discussions, including Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.

[….]

In his proposed budget for 2018, which is under consideration by Congress, Trump calls for slashing the budget for refugee resettlement from $544.7 million to $410 million. Overall spending on U.S. refugee programs, including ones that provide aid to refugees and displaced people overseas during humanitarian crises, would be cut by 13 percent, falling from $3.1 billion to $2.7 billion.

[….]

Under the Refugee Act of 1980, which established the current standards for screening refugees and admitting them into the country, the president has broad authority to dictate how many refugees the U.S accepts. In certain years the U.S. has admitted fewer refugees than allotted, but Trump’s proposed cap would be the lowest ever.

melanie-nezer

Transparency my a**!

This next bit should make your blood boil if you have been (for years) a citizen activist in your community and have been excluded from refugee planning meetings and denied documents about your towns/cities!

Humanitarian groups, which have typically been consulted ahead of a final decision by the president, complain they’ve been completely shut out of the process this year.

Melanie Nezer, senior vice president of public affairs at the refugee resettlement agency HIAS, said in past years there was transparency and an open dialogue between the White House, the State Department, and Congress, but uncertainty is now the status quo. [THERE WAS NEVER TRANSPARENCY FOR TAXPAYERS AND CITIZENS QUESTIONING HOW THEIR MONEY WAS BEING SPENT AND WHO WAS COMING TO THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS!–ED]

“We don’t really know who is driving this train,” Nezer said. “We’re guessing like everyone else. That’s very unusual. In prior administrations, both Democrat and Republican, we’ve been a real partner on this.”

Continue reading VICE here.  However, have a look at accurate numbers for the ceilings and actual admissions here.  Obama never set a ceiling anywhere near 110,000 until he was walking out the door in 2016.  Also there were many years when admissions dropped below 50,000.

For new readers, the point to remember is that each refugee (client) comes with a pile of money (taxpayer dollars) attached that goes to the contractors, like HIAS, to keep their phony-baloney ‘non-profit’ groups afloat.  See (here) how much they are being paid to do their ‘charitable good works.’

(BTW, HIAS is one of the plaintiffs in the ‘Travel ban’ lawsuit against the President while pocketing millions of federal dollars.)

We have been arguing for weeks that the President should suspend the program altogether for FY18 and tell Congress to investigate the program with an eye to reform it.  Irma and Harvey have made that the most sensible course of action.

America First!

We have refugees of our own!

Tell the President what you think by clicking here to get instructions…Tell your members of Congress and US Senators too!

***The federal contractors paid by the head for refugee “clients” they place (secretively!) in your towns and cities:

Consider the optics Mr. President! Thousands of impoverished people arriving in the US when Americans are homeless

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 

Irma in Florida
Irma damage in Florida. This article says the cost of hurricanes Harvey and Irama to the US economy will be $290 billion.  I’ve seen higher estimates. http://www.businessamlive.com/hurricanes-harvey-irma-damages-cost-us-economy-290-bn-accuweather-says/

 

As I have said until you are surely sick to death of it, President Donald J. Trump is expected to present to Congress a ‘determination’ within days about how many third world impoverished people will be admitted to the US beginning on October 1.

But, here is the thing—he has complete authority to say that NO refugees will be admitted in FY18 because the Refugee Act of 1980 gives that power to the President!

In the last 2 days, three reporters (that I know of) wrote about suspending, or shutting down, the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program for this year.

Frank Sharry
Open Borders activist Sharry admitted that Trump can “zero the program out.”

First, Thomas Allen at VDARE wrote this (read it all, it is full of historical knowledge about the program).  Allen mentions this:

But even Open Borders activists recognize Trump has the legal authority to set the number at zero for 2018. Frank Sharry [Email him] a leading Treason Lobbyist, told a group of activists at the National Partnership for New Americans conference in September 2017 [2016-ed] that Trump could “zero the program out” if he chose to. And Congress certainly could zero out the funding of the program if it chose to.

Not only did Sharry acknowledge this, but so did Bill Frelick from Human Rights Watch, here.

Bill Frelick of Human Rights Watch: “…there is no requirement that the U.S. resettle a single refugee….”

And, indeed HIAS executives reported (here) that George W. Bush delayed a Presidential determination in the wake of 9/11 without any legal consequences to him. (The administration must have been worried about Islamic terrorists getting in to the US even then!)

Harvey trash
Harvey leaves American homes in Texas ruined by flood waters. Maybe the refugee contractors could get their volunteers busy helping Americans first!

Next, read Daniel Horowitz yesterday at Conservative Review.

And, finally don’t miss Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily where I am quoted saying this:

Ann Corcoran, who has followed refugee resettlement for more than a decade, said Trump has plenty of reason to do just that and still come across as a great humanitarian by focusing on needy Americans.

“The public should be outraged to learn that in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which have left tens of thousands of Americans homeless, that we are poised to take in thousands of impoverished refugees when we now have our own refugees, struggling people who have lost their homes, lost everything, with their lives shattered, living in tents, shelters and RVs,” Corcoran said.

“To bring in more from other countries in a time like this would be the ultimate insanity.”

Read it all.

The refugee industry (the resettlement contractors and the cheap labor lobby) want you to think that the President must submit a determination of at least 50,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, but it just isn’t so!

Tell the President what you think by clicking here to get instructions…Tell your members of Congress and US Senators too!

America First!