Don’t forget! US State Department taking comments on FY2015 refugee program

05/12/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update May 19th: Refugee advocates (aka contractors) will be lobbying Congress during the week of June 2-6 for more refugees and more $$$$ (here).

Although, as we reported here last month there will be NO OPPORTUNITY TO TESTIFY IN PERSON.

Many readers have asked about how to submit their testimony. We will outline that below. However, the most important thing you can do is to send your testimony to your elected representatives in Washington—your Congressman and your two Senators (even if they are hopeless!). Be sure to ask them for a response to your concerns!

Also, tell them there should be PUBLIC hearings on the program throughout the country next year!

Then please consider using your testimony in your local media—do a press release or letter to the editor and say you testified to the US State Department about the “size and scope” of the program for FY15.

Your testimony needn’t be long or detailed, but it must be polite and professional (LOL! please refrain from using some of the language we are seeing in rejected comments here at RRW).

Testimony is due in to the US State Department by 5 p.m. May 29th!

Your testimony can be long or short, detailed or general, but get something in by the deadline of 5 p.m. May 29th!

Address testimony to: Anne C. Richard, Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, US State Department, Washington, DC.

Reference Federal Register Public Notice 8690

E-mail or fax to Delicia Spruell:

Persons wishing to present written comments should submit them by 5 p.m. on Thursday May 29, 2014 via email to spruellda@state.gov or fax (202) 453-9393.

Now listen-up, this is important! If you don’t copy your testimony to your elected officials, you can be sure your testimony to the State Department will never see the light of day! Unless….

New this year! Ask the State Department for a complete record of the comments and tell your elected officials that you want a public record of all comments! I was able to get them in person last year, but that is not possible now since the (in-person) hearing has been abandoned.

To get the most bang for your buck, you must put cc at the bottom of your testimony and list the following:

~Your member of the House of Representatives (look up their addresses!)

~Your US Senators

~Any elected officials in your state who may be interested

Also, send to the pertinent House and Senate committees that deal with refugee issues. You don’t have to send to each committee member but those are linked here for your information:

~US Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security. Go here for list of Subcommittee Members. You will be mailing to the Subcommittee, however, if your US Senator is on that subcommittee then please be sure they are listed prominently on the testimony you send to the State Department. Mail to: U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, 224 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510. Mail your testimony to the Subcommittee even if your Senator is not on it!

~House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. Go here for a list of all the Subcommittee Members*** and see if your Member of Congress is on the Subcommittee. But, even if he or she isn’t then still send your testimony here (addressed to the Subcommittee): 2138 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, p/202-225-3951.

When sending anything to your US Senators or Members of Congress always ask a question so that hopefully it forces them to answer your letter! You might ask them to put pressure on the State Department to have “hearings” held in several locations around the country next year!

***Rep. Trey Gowdy is the chairman of the subcommittee and needs educating on this issue! If you do nothing else, send your testimony to him!

Any questions? Put your question in the comment section to this post, and I’ll try to answer it there because others may have the same question. Or, you may have suggestions for others planning to write testimony that I didn’t think of!

German court refuses to send Somali asylum seeker back to the Netherlands…

05/12/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….says the Dutch are “inhumane” to Muslim ‘refugees.’

Invasion of Europe report!

Does anyone wonder why the Dutch don’t want him? http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2010/12/12-somalis-arrested-in-netherlands-in.html

As we have told readers on many previous occasions, the European Union (in order to discourage asylum shopping) has a rule that says an asylum claim must be filed in the first country a would-be ‘refugee’ reaches in Europe. If the migrant moves on to another country (looking for a better deal), he/she must be returned to that first country.

This is the story from Dutch News:

A German court has refused to send a Somali asylum seeker back to the Netherlands, saying he runs the risk of receiving ‘inhumane treatment’, the NRC said on Saturday.

The man had lost his appeal for asylum in the Netherlands and then went to Germany, the NRC said.

The authorities there wanted to return him under the Dublin agreement, which states refugee applications must be dealt with the EU country a refugee first sets foot in.

However, a court in Darmstadt refused to do so, saying that it is not certain that asylum seekers in the Netherlands are given basic provisions such as food and a place to stay.

Germany: Netherlands bad!

The court said that in the Netherlands refugees are not allowed to work nor are they given government support. ‘Human values cannot be qualified by asylum policy,’ the NRC quoted the court as saying.

The paper says it is extremely rare for a EU country to use this reasoning to refuse to deport an asylum seeker to another European country.

Refugees are provided with food and shelter while their claim for asylum is being processed. However, if their claim fails and they refuse to go home, they can be evicted from refugee centres and left to fend for themselves.

My answer to Germany—-keep him yourself then!

Click here for more in our ‘invasion of Europe’ series.

Aunt Zeituni receives Muslim burial in Kenya

05/12/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I guess you could call this a wrap-up to the controversial story of Barack Obama’s favorite aunt who lived illegally in the US on the fruits of the American taxpayer, and who, near the end of her life, was granted asylum so she could escape persecution and wouldn’t have to return to that evil Kenya (one of Africa’s few relatively safe and stable countries). She is back in Kenya now.

Malik Obango (Barack’s half brother and best man) reported that Auntie was buried with her Muslim relatives. Photo: http://thecount.com/2013/03/07/president-obama-brother-loses-bid-for-political-office/

My original plan was to post this yesterday, Mothers Day, to tell you something I had never heard before—she had four children in Kenya and a man claiming to be her husband, so why the heck did she leave her children and live on welfare in Boston?—and, ultimately to be snubbed there by her dear nephew (he went golfing and did not attend her US memorial service).

From Standard Media Kenya:

Kisumu, Kenya: Zeituni Onyango Obama, the United States President Barack Obama’s aunt, has been laid to rest in Kisumu under the Muslim religion traditions. This is despite calls by a Homabay resident who had wanted to bury her body claiming she was his wife.

Recently, Ebel Mboya Okoko, a resident of Kanyadhiang Village in Homabay County claimed that Zeituni was his legal wife and wanted to bury her remains at his home under the Luo tradition.

Until Monday, Okoko still had hopes of burying the body despite what he termed his in-laws’ family denying him the rights.

He said efforts to meet Mama Sara Obama or other Zeituni’s close relatives to discuss the whereabouts of Zeituni’s funeral had failed.

Last week a report attributed to President Barack Obama’s half-brother Malik Abong’o, that the remains of Ms Zeituni would be buried in a Muslim cemetery in Kisumu prompted Okoko to seek legal redress to the matter.

Read on to learn more about her children and this dysfunctional family—not every one is granted asylum in America as a way of escaping screwed up relatives!

See all of our previous posts on Aunt Zeituni’s sojourn in America.