Month: July 2013

“Temporary” refugee should get legal residency says 6th Circuit Court of Appeals

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, we should strike the word “alien” from the US Code says Senior Judge Damon J. Keith.

Judge Damon J. Keith: the word “alien” is offensive and demeaning

I thought this story might just contain a little nugget of information on ‘Temporary Protected Status‘—another backdoor amnesty program for aliens who got into the US illegally and then because of a storm (decades ago!) or an earthquake or a civil war, the US declared anyone already here from that country could stay “temporarily,” but there is nothing temporary about this program.  The Salvadorans will tell you about that!

Most recently, the Obama Administration granted “temporary” refugee status to any Syrians already in the US.

To my knowledge, no one group has ever gone home!  And, I’m not sure, but I think those with TPS will all get to stay and become Legal Permanent Residents under S.744 (the Gang’s bill) if it should become law.

Now comes what I thought was a run-of-the-mill press release from an immigration law firm, but with an intriguing twist near the end. (Emphasis is mine).

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders who entered the United States illegally may now be eligible to ad adjust their status to “Lawful Permanent Resident” (LPR), according to a recent groundbreaking decision by a United States Court of Appeals.  The decision serves as a stunning departure from previous Unites States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy requiring TPS holders to first leave the United States before applying for LPR status, a process complicated by potential ten year bars from re-entry and additional obstacles facing those immigrants with previously unlawful presence in the country.  Attorney Ryan Korsunsky of Wites & Kapetan believes that the Court’s decision is a step in the right direction.  “USCIS policy on  adjusting TPS status should account for the uniqueness of an individual’s situation, and not treat all immigrants alike based solely on how they entered the country, which in many cases was over a decade ago.”

TPS holders come to the United States from foreign countries experiencing unsafe or extraordinary conditions, including armed conflict and environmental disasters.  Currently USCIS designates immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Syria as eligible to apply for TPS if they meet additional statutory requirements.  During a designated temporary period TPS holders are not removable from the Unites States, can be employed by obtaining an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), and may be granted authority to travel.  Most importantly, as it relates to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), USCIS regulation states a TPS holder “cannot be detained by DHS on the basis of his or her immigration status.”

The case, which came from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, is called Flores, et al. v. USCIS, and involves Saady Suazo, a Honduran national granted TPS in 1999 [temporary?—ed] after entering the United States without inspection (EWI) in 1998 [illegally—ed].  Suazo married a U.S. citizen in 2010, with whom he is raising a minor child, and applied to adjust his immigration status on the basis of his marriage.  Suazo’s application was denied by USCIS in accordance with the policy preventing those who entered the country illegally from adjusting their status to LPR.  The Court of Appeals reversed the decision, giving Suazo the requisite eligibility to apply for an adjustment to LPR status.  The Court found that the TPS statute allowed for Suazo to be considered in lawful nonimmigrant status for the purpose of adjusting his status.  The Court also referred to the U.S.’s current immigration system a “archaic and convoluted” and described the process Suazo would have faced under previous USCIS policy as “a waste of energy, time, government resources, and will have a negative effect on his family-United States citizens.”

The Obama Administration will likely not defend the present law by taking the Court of Appeals decision to the US Supreme Court.

Here is what I found most interesting.  Senior Judge Damon J. Keith declared the word “alien” offensive and said that it should be stricken from the US Code:

Judge Damon J. Keith, the author of the Court’s opinion, also denounced the term “alien” as offensive and demeaning, urging Congress to eliminate it entirely from the United States Code.

By the way, the definition of “alien” is simply someone born in another country who has not acquired citizenship.  So what word would the Judge find to describe such a person?  They are always, always! seeking to change the language.

Who is Judge Damon J. Keith?  Here he is being feted on his 90th birthday last year.  I don’t have the time to search much but he played a role in several decisions including ones involving the Communist Party in the US and I especially found this reference in the wikipedia page for Bernardine Dorhn interesting.

On October 14, 1970, Bernardine Rae Dohrn was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigations list of the “10 Most Wanted” fugitives. She used several aliases, including Bernardine Rae Ohrnstein, H.T. Smith, and Marion Del Gado. The FBI removed Dohrn from its “10 Most Wanted” list in December 1973, after District Judge Damon J. Keith dismissed the case against the Weathermen.

Photo is from The Damon Keith Collection, here.

Our complete archive on Temporary Protected Status may be found by clicking here.

Related?  See James Simpson—GOP immigration plan devised by Communist Party—at World Net Daily.

Arizona: Iraqi refugee who bombed federal building charged with killing Hispanic man

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Iraqi refugee charged in murder of Hispanic. I wonder if anyone has compiled the stats on minority on minority crime (other than black on black)?

This is a diversity is beautiful alert from Senator John McCain’s home state, and a preferred resettlement state for Iraqis.  It is also an update of a story we posted here last December.

From AP at USA Today (hat tip:  Atlas Shrugs):

An Iraqi man charged with detonating a homemade bomb outside a federal building in Arizona now faces additional charges, including first-degree murder in a killing just days before the bombing, authorities said Monday.

Abdullatif Ali Aldosary is charged with murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and two firearms counts in the Nov. 27, 2012, killing of an employee at the Arizona Grain processing facility in Maricopa, about 35 miles south of Phoenix.

Orlando Requena, 26, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds. He had worked for several years at the facility, where Aldosary also was employed for a time.

[….]

Aldosary came to the United States legally in 1997 * from his home country of Iraq.

In 2008, he pleaded guilty to felony aggravated harassment charges. He was sentenced to two months in jail and three years of probation. But his probation was revoked a year later, and he was ordered to serve a year in prison.

And, of course the big question is—-why wasn’t he deported?

Someone needs to let Senator Rand Paul know about this one!

* By the way, Aldosary would have been one of Bill Clinton’s and Lavinia Limon’s refugees.  Maybe a mainstream media reporter should get a quote from her!

 

Malta: Muscat push-back plan gets attention from big media

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Telegraph has a detailed article on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s plan to try to stem the tide of illegal aliens arriving on Malta, and getting stuck with them, because the EU rules they must abide by are really screwy.

“Refugees” hanging around in Malta waiting for a ticket out—to the US maybe!

We told you about the plan here and  here the other day.   If no changes are made Malta will eventually become a Muslim country, and the US will have played a role.

Here is the UK Telegraph:

The tiny island of Malta has received 17,743 mainly African migrants this decade – the equivalent, in Britain, of 2.5 million people. And it is struggling to cope, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says.

[….]

Perched on a tiny but strategic set of islands between Europe and Africa, the Maltese have long prided themselves on their ability to repel unwanted invaders. In the 1500s, their resident Knights of St John were the heroes of Europe after seeing off the Ottoman Turks, and in the Second World War, they won the George Cross for helping Britain to keep Hitler at bay.

Their latest efforts to turn back a foreign armada, however, are unlikely to win such plaudits. Or not from the European Union, anyway, which last week was embroiled in a bitter row with Mr Muscat’s government over its plans to return Mr Abdi [a newly arrived Somali from Libya] and his ilk to Libya, from where they came in a people-smuggling boat 12 days ago.

Malta the doormat:

….the row has highlighted how Malta – and nearby Italy – is struggling to reconcile their obligations as EU states with their unsought role as the doormat for illegal migrants from Africa seeking entry to Europe.

EU rules keep them in Malta:

….few African immigrants seek to put down roots down in Malta, preferring instead to head to mainland Europe, where job prospects are better, and where they can legally go under the Schengen arrangements.

But that creates another problem. The rules insist they must return to the country where they first claimed asylum within three months, and while the majority simply overstay, every year hundreds are caught and forcibly returned to Malta from other Schengen countries.

The US to the rescue! 

For new readers this is why we follow closely the controversy with illegal aliens (yes, The Telegraph calls them that in this piece) arriving on Malta—we are taking the largest share to America in a perversion of international refugee law.

Katrine Camilleri with Jesuit Refugee Services

A transfer scheme is already in place, but over the past decade other European nations have taken only 700 of Malta’s arrivals, with the US taking 1,300.

* Photo above is from this story where an immigration lawyer, Katrine Camilleri, (we mentioned her here) got an award for her stellar work with the migrants arriving on Malta.  This is what we want to know:

How many “refugees” has Ms. Katrine Camilleri welcomed to live in her home?

One more thing, Muscat represents the Center Left party in Malta and they are ticked-off at being labeled “xenophobes” by the immigration industry advocates.

Type ‘Malta’ into our search function for our many years of coverage of the Malta mess.

Egypt: Black African refugees claim UN treats Arab refugees better

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is nothing new that we haven’t written about here at RRW in recent years, but it’s a short and handy reminder of what is happening in Africa and the Middle East and some new readers may not know that black Africans, even the ones who are Muslim, are not liked by Arabs.

Fences make good neighbors! Israel built a border fence along its Egyptian border. Photo by Eliyahu Hershkovitz at Haaretz

From Israel News Service:

Black African refugees in Egypt are frustrated by ongoing racism and discrimination, particularly as they witness the assistance given to Arab refugees, the pan-Arab Aljazeera network reports.

Sources told the network that they have few rights in Egypt. “Even if you’re a recognized refugee, and you have a blue card, you have no right to medical treatment, no right to education, no right to work,” NGO programmer Christopher Eades explained.

Aid worker and refugee Yagoub Hamdan told Aljazeera, “When there was an influx of African refugees, there was no attention from the NGOs.” But when Syrian refugees began to arrive, he said, the United Nations took notice, and built camps for them.

So, the Africans went to Israel in large numbers (see our category on Israel and refugees) until they wore out their welcome and Israel built a border fence.

In recent years, African Muslim refugees in Egypt increasingly began fleeing to Israel, which provides illegal entrants with several social services. High crime among Sudanese and Eritrean migrants, particularly high-profile incidents of violent rape and anti-Semitism, led to a backlash against Israeli policy.

In recent months  the government completed a border fence that has contributed to a massive drop in illegal entry from Egypt.

Note to Obama:  It can be done!

Update from Australia: Opposition leader says Rudd asylum plan a “fake”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In our previous post earlier today we reported that Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has signed a plan with Papua New Guinea to take Australia’s boat people/illegal aliens off their hands.  The next logical question is:  ALL OF THEM?

Australian opposition leader, Tony Abbott, says that is where Rudd’s action becomes a political ploy to buy time until the next election.  PNG can’t possibly take them all.

Abbott suggests reading the fine print in an article ominously entitled: Nations to get asylum call!  My first thought was, uh-oh, since the US has already shown its willingness to take over one thousand mostly Muslim Africans who arrived on Malta (illegally) by boat, what is to stop the US State Department from ‘lending a hand’ to Rudd’s Labor party?

Here is the story in The West Australian:

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the so-called PNG solution was a “fake”.

He said the Prime Minister’s assertion that everyone who came to Australia by boat would now be sent to PNG was not borne out by the two-page document signed by Mr Rudd and Mr O’Neill.

“This is not a solution to our problem,” Mr Abbott said. “This is not a policy to stop the boats. This is simply a pre-election fix. This is simply something that is held together with Blu-Tack and Sellotape to last until the election.

“Mr Rudd has been misleading to the point of dishonesty.”

Shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison said PNG’s Prime Minister had made it clear that the country would not take an unlimited number of asylum seekers, despite Labor claims to the contrary.

Now this makes some sense, of course PNG doesn’t want the diseased, the criminals or the terrorists!

Mr Morrison said those found not to be refugees would become Australia’s problem, as would asylum seekers with communicable diseases, terrorism charges or a criminal background.

“The devil is always in the detail with Mr Rudd, and Mr Rudd always proves to be the devil in that detail,” Mr Morrison said.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke said every cohort of asylum seekers, including unaccompanied minors, women and children, would be sent to PNG when Manus Island welfare standards were improved.

The article lists other countries which may get the call from Rudd, but no mention (so far!) of Obama getting a call!

Come to think of it, I wouldn’t put it past these pols to have a plan to send some to PNG and that’s where the US State Department would pick them up to resettle in your town.

****Update**** More on the growing controversy from the Voice of America.  Nothing yet on the US giving a helping hand, but if you see it before I do, please let me know!

Update July 23:  Jesuit Refugee Services blasts (no surprise) Rudd saying PNG too poor to handle all the needy refugees on the way.