Non-profit refugee contractor telling its supporters to call Senate on S.744

The International Rescue Committee is a multi-million dollar a year non-profit largely funded by you, the US taxpayer.  They are lobbying for more refugees and asylum seekers to come to America and there is more money in it for them if they do.  Remember S.744 (the Gang of Eight bill) has an NGO slush fund.

Just now they are tweeting to their people the following action alert.  They say refugees and asylum issues will be addressed in the Judiciary Committee on Monday, the 20th.

So you should contact Senate Judiciary Committee members and tell them to strike all refugee/asylum sections from the bill and hold separate hearings on the program that has never (for three decades!) been properly reviewed by Congress.  It is especially important to review it in light of the Boston Marathon terror attack perpetrated by people to whom we gave asylum.

Here is what the IRC is tweeting to their groupies:

URGENT: Protect Refugee & Asylee Provisions in the Immigration Bill
Call the Senate Judiciary Committee Today!

For decades, the U.S. has provided protection to refugees and asylees who face persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.  In search of a better life for themselves and for their families, refugees and asylees are eager to participate fully in the economic and civic life of this country. Through a network of 22 offices in the United States, the International Rescue Committee provides assistance and the tools of self-reliance to refugees and asylees.

The Senate immigration reform bill (S.744) includes provisions that would provide much needed improvements to the protection of asylum seekers and refugees. On Monday, May 20, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to consider amendments relating to refugees, asylees, and other vulnerable populations in the bipartisan immigration bill. Committee members need to hear from you – refugees, volunteers, and community members from across the country.  Please call 1-866-940-2439 to speak with the office of a specific Judiciary Committee member.

Here are the members of the Committee!

Senator Jeff Sessions has been doing a huge amount of work, please tell him to keep it up and to strip out all Refugee/Asylum provisions from the bill!   These are provisions that will allow more refugees/asylum seekers to come to America, as well as put more of your money into the pockets of refugee contractors!  Tell them to strip out the special new grant program for non-profit open borders groups like the IRC!

Call as many Senators as you can!

You did it! Your testimony flooded State Department hearing yesterday

Ed Hunter of Maryland testified against bringing more refugees to America in FY2014. Photo from a recent Maryland Thursday Meeting.*

I don’t know where to begin telling you about the State Department meeting yesterday to determine the “size and scope” of refugee admissions for Fiscal Year 2014.

Thirty or so people who attended the meeting at the D.C. office of the State Department each received a voluminous stack of testimony, and it will take me a few days to find enough time to go over it all.  Suffice it to say, on a quick glance, it looks like 90% of those testifying oppose bringing tens of thousands of third-worlders into the US next year.

Will it amount to anything more than a speed bump for the federal agencies and their non-profit contractors, only time will tell.

It is important that anyone concerned about high refugee numbers from countries that have a track record of producing terrorists, or are concerned with the fiscal cost of importing impoverished people, must let your Senators and Members of Congress know how you feel.  That is especially so right now because the Gang of Eight plus Grover bill in the Senate (S.744) will make it easier for more refugees and asylum seekers to get here, and it will grant more $$$ to non-profits!

Only about ten people actually testified verbally.  And, it was pretty much evenly split between those who want more refugees and those who said stop this program now!

Testifying for more refugees were contractors:  Mark Hetfield for Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Anastasia Brown for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Erol Kekic of Church World Service (doing double-duty** because he testified for the Refugee Council USA as well. RCUSA is the lobbying arm for the non-profits), someone they all seemed to know, but I didn’t get his name from the Ethiopian Community Development Council, and not from a major contractor Pary Karadaghi from the Kurdish Human Rights Watch (who brought along two refugees to speak).

There is testimony in our packet from Duncan Breen of Human Rights First, but honestly if he testified he made no impression on me!

Where were the other five major contractors?  Where was their testimony?  Who knows, maybe they didn’t want to make it public. Maybe they didn’t want you to know what refugees they wanted for their collection in 2014. They probably have their own back-channels at the State Department.   Heck, Anne Richard, the Asst. Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration, revolved into the State Department door from the International Rescue Committee.

Here is the list with links for all nine major resettlement contractors.    The International Rescue Committee was not represented, nor was World Relief, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee ServicesEpiscopal Migration Ministries, or the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

The hearing was presided over by:  Laurence Bartlett, Director of Admissions US State Dept,  Ken Tota, Deputy Director Office of Refugee Resettlement (that is in the Dept. of Health and Human Services), and Barbara Strack, Chief, Refugee Affairs Division, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security.

Those testifying to rein-in this program were Ed Hunter, testimony here, Anne Turner, Jim McDonald, Mark Tenney (here), and myself (I’ll post what I said in a separate post, just haven’t gotten to it yet).  Critics focused on security concerns, fiscal impact, community disruption and the cultural degradation of America.

This does not conclude my discussion of this meeting.  I need to now go back and review the written testimony.  Watch for more news later.

For new readers who don’t know what this is all about, go to our category set-up to report on this hearing, here. (Scroll down through 14 posts prior to this one.)

* Maryland Thursday Meeting website.

**Double-duty!  So next year some of us can request to get more time to speak for other groups—help me remember that!

Appeals Court: No asylum in America for German homeschoolers

We will take Chechens, Somalis and Rohingya Muslims, but not persecuted Christians from Germany who pose no threat to America.  Go figure!

We let Saudi students stay, and Somalis who have committed crimes stay, and Uzbek would-be Presidential assassins stay, but not a family like this one!

From The Local (German edition). Hat tip Fjordman via twitter:

An American appeals court has denied a fundamentalist Christian family from Germany the right to asylum in the US. The family claimed they were being persecuted for not being allowed to homeschool their children.

In its Tuesday ruling, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, said there was a difference between the persecution of a group and prosecution of violators of a law that is applied across the board – in this case, Germany’s rule on mandatory schooling.

News agency AP reported that the family is planning to fight the decision.

[….]

The Home School Legal Defense Association, which represented the Romeikes in court, said Germany’s policy on homeschooling is tantamount to persecution, and called Tuesday’s ruling “inexplicable”.

“We believe the Sixth Circuit is wrong and we will appeal their decision. America has room for this family and we will do everything we can to help them,” HSLDA founder Michael Farris said in a statement on the organisation’s website.

Thanks largely to the Home School Legal Defense Association, homeschooling (raising children to think independently!) in America is flourishing and is one of our fundamental rights that will help guarantee our freedom into the future.  Not permitting it is one more nail in Germany’s coffin.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL): hundreds of millions would immigrate to America if they could

…..but we don’t have the financial resources to accept the world’s immigrants!—not to mention the fact that we would be culturally finished as a country.

Six Members of Congress standing in Speaker Boehner’s way!

That is it in a nutshell!  That is the truth of it all—of the Gang of Eight plus Grover bill now before the Judiciary Committee of the US Senate and the Refugee and Asylum program, the diversity visa lottery, and the list goes on.  When I ask critics of my work here at RRW at what number would they stop before fully closing the borders, they can’t answer.

Six Members of Congress held a press conference on Tuesday maintaining their steadfast opposition to the amnesty plan being labored over in the Senate.  Rumblings on the Hill are that Speaker Boehner wants a bill, and these Members stand in his way of unifying the Republican caucus.

I visited Hill offices yesterday (with a request to strip all refugee and asylum changes from S.744) since I was in DC for the State Department hearing on refugee admissions for FY 2014.

One stop I made was to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s office.  I was surprised that the prominent member of the Tea Party caucus, was not on the steps with Rep. Steve King and the others since she was opposed one month ago!  Getting squishy?  Her new staff person on immigration is Javier Sanchez (Javier.Sanchez@mail.house.gov), you might let him know where you stand.

Here is the NumbersUSA report on the press conference:

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) was joined by five other House Members on Tuesday denouncing the Senate Gang of Eight’s amnesty bill, S.744. Rep. King was joined on the steps of the Capitol by Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama, John Fleming of Louisiana, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Steve Stockman and Louie Gohmert of Texas. The six Congressmen said they were concerned about the huge negative impact an amnesty for 11 million illegal aliens would have on the national debt, and they said they stood by the rule of law.

The press conference took place as the Senate Judiciary Committee was continuing its markup of the Gang of Eight’s bill.

[….]

“In each of the past five years, 620,000 to 1.05 million foreigners have been given American citizenship,” Rep. Brooks said. “No country on earth comes close to being as generous as America is with its citizenship.

“The immigration issue is not about whether America is compassionate and generous. We are. The immigration issue is about whether America has the financial resources to accept all the world’s immigrants into America. There are hundreds of millions of foreigners who, if they could, would immigrate to America.”

Readers, more soon on my trip to DC and the State Department hearing.  There is much to report.  But, I will leave you now with this—you came through with testimony and completely swamped the refugee contractors with the number of comments you sent in.  Thank you!