Obama: Sure, we’ll aim for another 80,000 refugees this fiscal year

10/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

No jobs, who cares!

The federal government’s fiscal year (FY2011) began two weeks ago on October 1. President Obama sent his Determination Letter to Congress on the 3oth of September, a document that sets the upper limit for refugee resettlement for the upcoming year.

Some were hoping to see a lowered ceiling this year in light of the on-going economic recession, but no such luck. The ceiling for FY2010 was 80,000 and Obama is aiming for that many again. Readers contrast the two years following 9/11 when everyone was scared to death terrorists would be arriving in droves where the numbers were 45,896 in 2002 and 39,544 in 2003, here. It appears however that we didn’t quite make the 80,000 this year—total here as of September 30th is 73,311.

This is from the Obama letter to Congress:

In accordance with section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the “Act”) (8 U.S.C. 1157), as amended, and after appropriate consultations with the Congress, I hereby make the following determinations and authorize the following actions:

The admission of up to 80,000 refugees to the United States during Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest…

Regional goals are as follows:

Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000
East Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19,000
Europe and Central Asia . . . . . . . . . . 2,000
Latin America/Caribbean. . . . . . . . . . . 5,500
Near East/South Asia. . . . . . . . . . . 35,500
Unallocated Reserve . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000

To find out what countries are in each region go back to this site where the countries are listed.

A refugee is generally defined as someone who has left one’s country due to persecution or a fear of persecution, however, the definition is ‘fudged’ in several cases. “Refugees” who have not left their country can still be called “refugees” if they are from one of these countries:

I [Barack Obama] also specify that, for FY 2011, the following persons may, if otherwise qualified, be considered refugees for the purpose of admission to the United States within their countries of nationality or habitual residence:

a. Persons in Cuba
b. Persons in the former Soviet Union
c. Persons in Iraq
d. In exceptional circumstances, persons identified by a United States Embassy in any location.

ORR, where is the annual report?

10/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

By law* the Office of Refugee Resettlement is required to report to Congress about how the refugee resettlement program and the refugees are fairing. The reports are handy to find out for instance how employment is going for refugees or for example, what percentage are on food stamps. However, the Office of Refugee Resettlement is now WAY BEHIND in their reports. Note here, the most recent report to Congress is 2007!

* Section 413(a) of the Immigration and Nationalities Act states:

Sec. 413. [8 U.S.C. 1523] (a) The Secretary, shall submit a report on activities under this chapter to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and of the Senate not later than the January 31 following the end of each fiscal year, beginning with fiscal year 1980.

We are just now beginning FY 2011, so it seems to me that 2008 and 2009 should have long ago been made available to Congress AND the public! Kinda makes you think they are hiding something!

And, if they had time to create this database why don’t they have time for the report?

Follow the money: New website at the Office of Refugee Resettlement

10/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars

Two people sent me this very cool (new!) database at the Dept. of Heath and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement where you can simply click on your state and see where the refugee money is flowing.

After you look at your state, check out Minnesota!

For new readers, Wyoming is the only state in the Nation that does not take refugees.

Reminder: We have a category entitled ‘where to find information’ with all sorts of other sources of information about refugees and immigration generally.

Massive (largest ever!) medicare fraud racket busted involving Armenians(?)

10/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yes, Armenians!

Today it’s all over the news! Millions of dollars have been ripped off from US taxpayers and the Medicare program in 25 states—the perpetrators are Armenian-Americans. Here we go again, another scam to join our growing list of medicare/medicaid and food stamp scams orchestrated by immigrant networks. (Someone really needs to write a whole blog just on these scams!)

From the New York Times:

An Armenian-American crime syndicate stole the identities of doctors and thousands of patients and used them and more than a hundred spurious clinics in 25 states to bill Medicare for more than $100 million for treatments no doctor ever performed and no patient ever received, the federal authorities announced on Wednesday.

Prosecutors said the case represented the largest Medicare fraud operation ever carried out by a single group that resulted in criminal charges. The group succeeded in stealing $35 million in Medicare reimbursements, officials said, before the charges were leveled and arrests were made on Wednesday.

The “highly organized massive scheme” is at the heart of a racketeering indictment and other charges unsealed in federal court against 44 people, including a number of members of the Armenian crime group, according to the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors in New York and Georgia.

“With 118 phantom clinics and over $100 million in bogus billings, this group of international gangsters allegedly ran a veritable fraud franchise,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement announcing the charges. “As charged, they stole taxpayer dollars earmarked for the elderly and infirm and got away with it, until now.”

Did we take Armenian refugees?

Sure enough! A little scouting around produced this 1988 article, in the New York Times no less, about bringing an emergency 12,000 Armenians here from the Soviet Union that year. I find it interesting that when something goes down, like this fraud bust, no mainstream media reporter ever asks how did all these Armenian gangsters get here in the first place.

Reagan Administration officials report a sharp increase in the number of Armenians trying to leave the Soviet Union, and the State Department has drafted a proposal to admit 12,000 of them to the United States as refugees.

The proposal suggests that President Reagan should begin emergency consultations with Congress so that the United States can take in the Armenians by doubling the maximum number of refugees who may be admitted this year from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

At the same time, Administration officials said, the State Department is proposing to raise the United States worldwide refugee admissions ceiling to 83,500 for the current fiscal year. That is 15,000 more than the number approved by Mr. Reagan in October.

Refugee numbers are set each year by the President. Under the Refugee Act of 1980, he can change numbers, but must first consult with Congress. Looking for Sources of Funds

Administration officials said they did not know how the Government could pay for processing and resettling the extra refugees. State Department officials estimate the cost at $25 million to $30 million, and they are searching for possible sources of funds.

Guess they found the money somewhere!

The New York Times takes on Pamela

10/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update: See Jihad Watch response to attacks on Geller, here.

That would be Pamela Geller of course, the indomitable blogger at Atlas Shrugs who day after day reminds us of the Stealth Jihad in the US (and the not so stealthy Jihad around the world).

She is the front man for all of us

Atlas Shrugs is one of those must-read blogs that is a favorite of mine. I could spend all day commenting on this piece—at times an obvious hit piece on one tough woman. However, this line from a Navy veteran says it all, “She’s the front man for so many of us who feel the same way.”

It is people like Pamela (and Robert Spencer) who will be brave and say what must be said, to give us all the strength to resist the coming Jihad. Read the New York Times article here, and thank God for Pamela.

Getting the message out far and wide

I had been planning to make a point last week about how widespread the discussion of the Stealth Jihad and Shariah law has become. This is a good place to do it since the NYT mentions the power of bloggers to not only get the message out, but to educate and change the language of political discourse. Here is the NYT:

Operating largely outside traditional Washington power centers — and, for better or worse, without traditional academic, public-policy or journalism credentials — Ms. Geller, with a coterie of allies, has helped set the tone and shape the narrative for a divisive national debate over Park51 (she calls the developer a “thug” and a “lowlife”). In the process, she has helped bring into the mainstream a concept that after 9/11 percolated mainly on the fringes of American politics: that terrorism by Muslims springs not from perversions of Islam but from the religion itself. Her writings, rallies and television appearances have both offended and inspired, transforming Ms. Geller from an Internet obscurity, who once videotaped herself in a bikini as she denounced “Islamofascism,” into a media commodity who has been profiled on “60 Minutes” and whose phraseology has been adopted by Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.

Not just Newt and Sarah! Last week I noted that Sharon Angle, the Tea Party candidate running against Harry Reid in Nevada, raised the issue of Shariah law and the stealth Jihad in America. Coincidentally, also last week while attending a Tea Party class on the Constitution, an older gentleman, a student in the class, raised the issue of Shariah law as it relates to the US Constitution. We owe Pamela Geller and other brave Americans and Europeans in the counterjihad movement who are willing to talk openly about the threat we face for the fact that Angle and the local gentleman are knowledgeable and willing to speak so freely—something that would never have happened if we were dependent on the likes of the politically-correct and timid New York Times to inform us.