Day: April 9, 2011

Refugee funding to be reduced, but by how much?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and what is Samantha Power up to?

Check out the pro-migration blog MicEvHill from time to time to keep up with what is happening with immigration generally in Washington.  A government shutdown has been averted for now and here is what blogger Michael Hill is reporting as of 10:50 a.m. this morning on the status of funding for refugee and other immigrant programs:

Consequences for Fiscal Year 2011 Immigration and Refugee Spending?

At the very least, the deal that Congress and the White House have reached will require that refugee-related programs sustain an across-the-board cut in fiscal year 2011 of a yet-to-be-revealed percentage below fiscal year 2010 spending levels.  However, the full consequences for immigration-, border security-, and refugee-related spending and policy of the full-year fiscal year 2011 deal were not yet known at the time of this writing.

Insiders who are familiar with the details of the deal indicate that it does not include the deep cuts in refugee resettlement, overseas refugee assistance, and refugee admissions funding that were contained in the House-passed version of H.R. 1, a full-year fiscal year 2011 continuing appropriations measure.  Moreover, insiders indicate that the only significant immigration-related policy rider that was contained in the House-passed version of H.R. 1, a provision that would have barred federal funding for immigrant integration programs, also will not be in the final fiscal year 2011 measure.  Notwithstanding the assertions of insiders, however, no firm word on those matters can be relied upon until the text of the measure that the House and Senate will take up emerges.

Samantha Power!  Now, I am beginning to see why it was so important to place the refugee issue with Power in the White House!

Readers may recall that in January 2010 the Obama Administration doubled the funding for the refugee program (so cutting to before 2010 levels would only take it to the amount it was supposed to be before the Obama money bomb).  This increase in spending came as a result of a stepped up PR campaign by federal contractors and was supposed to be part of an overall (and much needed) reform of the Refugee Resettlement Program.

That reform was being coordinated by Samantha Power’s office in the White House.  But, as far as I know Mrs. Cass Sunstein (aka Power) hasn’t accomplished  much in the way of reform (or they’ve been awfully quiet about it).  I suppose Power/Sunstein has been too busy getting us involved in a “humanitarian” war in Libya.

Unleashing the refugee weapon on Europe!

Uh oh, come to think of it, Ms. Power with her ‘humanitarian interventionism‘ has been busy creating more refugees as we just reported here and here.   Scary thought—what if these Marxists are using refugees as weapons to create chaos  behind a smokescreen of humanitarian concern.   First Europe, next stop Israel?

Gaddafi has no weapons of mass destruction, unless you count the refugees unleashed on Europe

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ed West writing at the UK Telegraph yesterday suggests that the tens of thousands of refugees being pushed out of North Africa will be Gaddafi’s last laugh on Europe as serious commenters begin to wonder if this is what the Fall of Rome felt like.  Thank champions of chaos, Obama and Ms. Power.

Colonel Gaddafi, having foolishly agreed not to arm himself with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons*, a lesson other dictators may heed, has set upon a more surreal but perhaps more effective weapon against the West – refugees.

[…..]

One of Roger Scruton’s most original arguments against our asylum policy is that it allows brutal dictators to rid themselves of enemies without having to get their hands dirty. But Gaddafi is now using people-dumping as a weapon of war, and a fairly effective one when your enemy has a free media and a conscience.

Italy opened the door to 20,000 Tunisians and France is freaking out!   France’s Marine Le Pen, a tough anti-immigration/pro-western civilization warrior, is running ahead of Sarkozy in polls.

And Gaddafi is now being aided by Italy’s incredibly short-sighted decision to give 20,000 Tunisians an effective amnesty by allowing them free movement in Europe.

[…..]

Most of the Tunisians are heading for France, which has an enormous Tunisian population already, and Italy’s decision, plus the refugees from a war started by Nicolas Sarkozy, will almost certainly influence the 2012 French presidential elections. Marine Le Pen, who is now second in the polls, and ahead of Sarkozy, has made much play of the refugee influx, and has already visited Italy’s refugee island, Lampedusa, for a publicity stunt.

Fall of Europe and America alone!

The Roman Empire comparison may be simplistic, but it’s worth remembering that the empire collapsed not as a result of hostile barbarian invaders, but because of barbarian refugees who wished to become part of the empire.

If the worst comes to the worst then come 2050 we’ll all be claiming asylum in the United States – better start practising your Spanish. [very funny Mr. West!—ed]

Read it all.

France puts checkpoints on Italian border to keep out migrants from North Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s amazing how quickly European Union—we are all one big happy borderless Europe—mumbo jumbo is forgotten when serious threats to a country’s sovereignty arise.

From the Wall Street Journal:

VENTIMIGLIA, Italy—The migration wave unleashed by North African unrest has prompted France to resurrect its border with Italy—a barrier that was supposedly consigned to history’s dustbin with Europe’s unified economy.

A couple of miles from the beach town of Ventimiglia, nestled along the Italian Riviera, French police have restaffed a formerly abandoned checkpoint along the country’s Mediterranean border with Italy.

In the nearby French town of Menton, French police in riot gear board trains crossing into France, grilling passengers while other police forces are monitoring roads and foot trails that lead into French territory from Italy.

Fences sure do make good neighbors.

To read the rest of the story, you will have to log-in at the Wall Street Journal.