Day: August 13, 2013

Jamaica: Something fishy about Syrian couple’s story as they ask for asylum

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Stories similar to this one come and go across my desk from time to time and most I have no time to mention.  This one caught my eye for a couple of reasons.  First, the Jamaica news account lists the countries the pair traveled through before reaching Jamaica.  International refugee law requires that legitimate “asylum seekers” ask for asylum in the first safe country in which they land—not skip across the globe ‘shopping’ for asylum.

Syrians touring the Caribbean and looking for asylum (they say!)

Thus, by the way, those other than Mexicans who presented themselves at the US border last week, here, should have sought protection in the first country they arrived in that was not the country that had “persecuted” them.

And, the second troubling thing about this story is that the Jamaica report says the couple was headed to the US, but a Cayman Island report says they arrived earlier in the Caymans from the US!

Here are the pertinent parts of the story from Jamaica’s The Gleaner:

A Syrian couple who arrived from the Cayman Islands, en route to the United States early August, has asked for asylum in Jamaica.

Responding to queries from The Sunday Gleaner, the Ministry of National Security last week identified the couple as Fadi Al Lababidi and Hayat Hejazi.

“They arrived in Jamaica from the Cayman Islands on Sunday, August 4, but were denied permission to land,” the ministry said.

The Sunday Gleaner understands that Jamaican immigration officials became suspicious after the two were found to be carrying Syrian passports, with both having the same January 1 birthday.

Check out their travel itinerary!  No immigration and customs official in all those countries saw anything amiss??? And, imagine the cost of those flights!

According to the ministry (Jamaica Ministry of National Security), the couple’s itinerary indicated that they “travelled from Syria to Beirut, Moscow, Havana, and Grand Cayman and from there to Kingston. They stated that they did not seek asylum in Lebanon or Russia because they felt these countries were friendly with the Syrian government”.

The ministry said arrangements have been made to accommodate the couple while the Refugee Eligibility Committee makes the determination of their status.

LOL!  I wonder if they were part of the orchestrated US asylum claimers and got lost along the way.

Came from the US?

Adding to the mystery is that the Cayman Islands paper says they left the US!  One thing is for sure, immigration in the Cayman Islands did not initially detect the pair as frauds and allowed them to proceed to Jamaica.

From Cayman News Service:

(CNS): A Syrian couple who managed to get through the Cayman Islands on what appear to be forged passports are claiming asylum in Jamaica, the local press is reporting. Jamaica’s Ministry of National Security has revealed that Fadi Al Lababidi and Hayat Hejazi arrived in Cayman from the United States early this month before they then flew from this jurisdiction to Jamaica on Syrian passports, both of which carried the same 1 January birth date.  Immigration officials in the neighbouring country were suspicious and the couple were denied permission to land after claiming they had reservations at a Kingston hotel, which proved not to be true.

Who are these two?  Perhaps doing a test run!

‘Asylum seekers’ from Mexico: we just turn them loose

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is what Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform told Fox News in a more detailed article yesterday on the latest scam at the US Mexico border.  (See our earlier reports here and here.)

So much for homeland security!
Just let ’em loose!

Here is William La Jeunesse at Fox News (emphasis is mine) thanks to reader ‘pungentpeppers’:

Sources say one day last week, 200 border-crossers came through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry claiming asylum while and as many as 550 overflowed inside the processing center there and in nearby San Ysidro.

“People were sleeping on floors – they had nowhere to put them,” said one source, a long-time border agent and supervisor. “This shouldn’t be happening. Unless there is an immediate and well-publicized policy change, this situation will become another debacle.”

At a hotel near San Diego — which Fox News agreed not to identify for security reasons — ICE vans arrived several times over the weekend with immigrant families. They were escorted to the second floor by two armed, uniformed agents. Two border agents secured the entrance and side door.

Documents obtained by Fox News show that recently on a single day, dozens of illegal immigrants were being transferred to an area hotel where rooms cost $99 a night. Others were released to addresses in Texas, Florida and even Brooklyn, N.Y.

ICE sources say the addresses are almost always bogus. When they don’t show up for court, they are removed by an immigration judge in absentia.

Most of the immigrants came from Mexico, but others listed their native country as Haiti, Romania, Guatemala and Iraq. Some were over age 50, others were under a year old. Thirty were transported to a hotel. Seventy were released around the country.

One question I have is how did all these other illegal aliens from places like Iraq get into Mexico in the first place?  Haven’t we been told the Mexican government strictly enforces its borders?

“Orchestrated sham!”  Will crash the system!

It is during this time – during removal proceedings – when illegal immigrants are released. Many don’t show up, as 91 percent of asylum claims from Mexico are denied.

Asylum claims from Mexico are highly unusual and critics say this is an orchestrated sham – it’s not about getting asylum, they say, but about overwhelming the system and getting a free pass into the U.S. and a court date for which no one will show up.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have never returned and the list of people for whom warrants are outstanding is phenomenal,” said Nunez. “We have a long history of people absconding from immigration hearings of one sort of another, they just blend back into the community.”

ICE sources say an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 illegal immigrants a year do not show up for their court date and disappear into the U.S.  [Of course this is why countries like Australia build detention facilities.—ed]

The number of asylum claims is on the rise, almost tripling the last four years. Most come from Chinese, Egyptian and Ethiopian immigrants. Fewer than 200 a year come from Mexico, let alone 200 in a day. However, by claiming they have a “credible fear of persecution” if returned to Mexico, the immigrant is entitled to a series of interviews, hearings, proceedings and appeals that can drag on for years.

Let them loose in your town!

“The orders from Washington are to simply turn these people loose,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “All you have to say is you qualify for the Dream Act and/or you intend to apply, and they’re instructed by their higher-ups to simply turn these people loose, to set them free and let them pursue any path they want.”

There are 57 immigration courts and 231 immigration judges. Immigration courts handle 280,000 proceedings each year — an average of 1,243 per year per judge, or four decisions per day.

Asylum can be granted if the applicant has suffered past persecution or has a “well-founded fear of persecution” on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion in their native country.

There is nothing in that definition of asylum that says anything about protecting people from run-of-the-mill crime in whatever hell-hole they come from!

Daily readers of RRW know this same asylum scam is going on across the civilized world.

Let’s just hope this particular stunt has gone too far, and that “they” (whoever they are working to destabilize nations) have now overplayed their hand and the average citizen will wake up to the “refugee” scam going on not just in the US, but Canada, Europe, Australia and anywhere else where the rule of law has banished chaos and the population is generally prosperous as a result.