We wondered where AP reporter Matthew Lee, the pet of the International Rescue Committee and Refugees International, had gotten to. I hadn’t seen his monthly sob story for awhile about how we weren’t bringing enough Iraqi refugees to the US. Here he says the Bush Administration actually surpassed its goal for FY 2008, but Bush continues his stinginess for only increasing the goal for upcoming FY09 by only 5000 to a total of 17,000.
“Now that systems are finally in place to process greater numbers of vulnerable Iraqi civilians, an increase of only 5,000 next year seems particularly meager,” the International Rescue Committee said in a statement late Tuesday.
His buddies in the refugee industry want the US to resettle 100,000 Iraqis HERE!
This particular link to Lee’s AP story comes to us from a Charleston, WV newspaper, which I thought was kind of amusing because I bet most West Virginians have never even seen a refugee. West Virginia is one of a handful of states that takes only a tiny number of refugees—in fact WV took NONE in FY 2006 and 2007! And from 1983-2005 the state took 404, yes 404, when we brought millions to the US in that time frame. (Numbers available here) Could senior DEMOCRATIC Senator Bobby KKK Byrd have some say in this?
It’s kind of like Senator Joe Biden who sponsored the original Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 with Senator Ted Kennedy. Biden is also advocating for bringing more Iraqis to the US, but NOT to Delaware! Delaware ranks in the bottom three states for number of refugees resettled.
If you would like to see our archive of Matthew Lee’s indepth (NOT) reporting on refugees go here.
P.S. None of these refugee advocacy groups pushing more Iraqi refugees, or Lee, ever mention the truly vulnerable Christian Iraqis. I wonder why that is? Not politically correct to point out that Muslims are persecuting Christians?