Refugee Council USA: lobbying arm for refugee contractors on the move

05/22/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In our previous post we reported that the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) apparently played a role in getting those 14 Senators signed on to a letter urging Obama to open the flood gates to 65,000 Syrian refugees before his term in office expires!
I’ve mentioned RCUSA over the years, but honestly may have underestimated the role this consortium of non-profits play in advancing an open borders agenda by lobbying Congress and promoting secrecy about refugee resettlement in towns and cities across America (indeed they apparently are informing the 350 plus resettlement contractors to give no information to any of you calling your local resettlement offices looking for information on what is planned for your towns.)

RCUSA chairman Anastasia Brown (in stripped shirt) talking about Syrian refugees earlier this year. Brown is one of the lobbyists for the USCCB. Photo: http://square-pics.com/m/934878258703720652_997264439

Here are the members which pay “dues” to belong to this lobbying arm for the resettlement industry.

I sure hope they aren’t using our tax dollars for their dues! (Those in red are the nine major resettlement contractors):

Here is what they do (important to understand that ‘advocacy’=lobbying):

RCUSA is a member-driven coalition and its funding comes solely from member dues. There are a number of standing committees that serve to structure the on-going work of the coalition. In addition to these committees, members are informed daily through RCUSA communications about meetings, events, and other relevant information pertaining to refugee and displacement issues.

General Council: The executives and/or officers from each member agency meet regularly to discuss the council’s work and reach consensus on key advocacy positions and other relevant issues.

Advocacy Committee: Individuals from each member agency meet bi-weekly in Washington, D.C. to coordinate legislative and administrative advocacy efforts at the national and local level.

The committee works together to advance refugee protection, strengthen the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), educate policymakers about the value of refugee protection and a strong resettlement program, and promote adequate funding for refugees. Katie Conway, Immigration and Refugee Policy Analyst, Episcopal Migration Ministries, currently chairs this Committee.

Go here for more!

Leadership of RCUSA

Chairmanship rotates and the present chair is Anastasia Brown of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, here. Brown is the contractor/lobbyist I observed who asked that we resettle more Rohingya Muslims here in 2013.

Refugee Council USA is chaired by the executives of member agencies on a rotating basis and has two full time staff.

RCUSA Chair: Anastasia Brown, Director of Resettlement Services of Migration and Refugee Services, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Anastasia Brown is the Director of Resettlement Services, Migration and Refugee
Services, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (MRS/USCCB). She has over 18
years of experience with refugee resettlement and is familiar with both overseas and
domestic resettlement issues. USCCB resettles approximately 28% of all refugees that
enter the United States. Ms. Brown served as the Chair of the Resettlement Committee
of the Refugee Council USA from 2008-2010. Ms. Brown served as the NGO co-chair
for the joint US Government/Refugee Council USA working group for the East Asia
Pacific Region from 2004-2007 and the Misrepresentation/Fraud Workgroup from 2004-
2006.

Prior to joining MRS/USCCB, Ms. Brown worked for the International Catholic
Migration Commission processing refugees from Vietnam under the Orderly Departure
Program.

To concerned citizens! Do not get discouraged when you see the lobbying power and the money behind the refugee resettlement industry and know that you are having an impact! You have every right to know every detail about who is coming to your towns and what these unelected advocacy groups are planning!

14 US Senators tell Obama: Bring MORE Syrians to America (65,000 is a good number!)

05/22/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update May 24th: Be sure to see Leo Hohmann’s good article at World Net Daily on this newest push for a mass infusion of Syrians into the US. Also, on this Sunday morning is your church indirectly supporting the resettlement of 65,000 mostly Muslim Syrians to America? Click here.

Urgent update! If your Senator is listed here, you really need to get the word out so that they get an earful from constituents!

Breaking News: According to Durban’s press release, all nine federal resettlement contractors are urging Obama to bring in 65,000 Syrians before his term ends!
Led by Senators Dick Durban (D-IL) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) (we don’t have enough Muslims in Minnesota yet!), fourteen US Senators are urging Obama to open the flood gates to the Syrian (mostly Muslim refugees) the UN has picked for us and that the refugee contractors are now lobbying for us to take.
[See yesterday, Syrian resettlement as jihadi pipeline!]
Here is Senator Durban’s press release and a portion of the letter:

NH Senator Jeanne Shaheen: Let’s bring in 65,000 Syrian refugees! It is our moral duty! Shaheen is one of 14 Senators who have asked Obama to open the flood gates!

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) today led a group of fourteen senators in calling on President Barack Obama to significantly increase the number of Syrian refugees allowed to resettle in the United States. The Syrian conflict has led to the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis and the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

“Our nation’s founders came to our shores to escape religious persecution and the United States has a long tradition of providing safe haven to refugees,” the senators wrote. “The United States traditionally accepts at least 50 percent of resettlement cases from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, we have accepted only approximately 700 refugees since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, an unacceptably low number. While the United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees, we must also dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees that we accept for resettlement.” [The number is actually 843/92% Muslim.—ed]

Not a single word about the fact that these members of the Refugee Council USA have a financial interest in bringing in this huge number of Syrians that the FBI has already said cannot be properly screened! “Nonpartisan” my foot! These members of the Refugee Council USA are all members in good standing of the hard LEFT.

Indeed, we cannot expect countries hosting Syrian refugees to continue shouldering such a disproportionate burden if the United States and other industrialized countries do not begin resettling many more Syrian refugees. UNHCR is seeking to resettle 130,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years and has thus far submitted more than 12,000 resettlement cases to the United States for consideration. Refugee Council USA, a nonpartisan coalition of the leading U.S. refugee organizations (including Church World Service, HIAS, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, USCCB, National Association of Evangelicals’ World Relief), recently called for the United States to resettle at least 65,000 of these Syrian refugees by the end of 2016. [This is news! Initially only the International Rescue Committee called for 65,000, now we see it is all of the so-called ‘religious federal government contractors.—ed]

[….]

In short, it is a moral, legal, and national security imperative for the United States to lead by example in addressing the world’s worst refugee crisis of our time by greatly increasing the number of Syrian refugees who are resettled in our country.

Funny that Durban doesn’t list the other signatures on the letter in his press release. In order to see them, go here, to the RCUSA website.
Here they are:

Al Franken (D-MN)

Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Patty Murray (D-WA)

Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

Christopher Coons (D-DE) LOL! Delaware hasn’t taken a refugee in a couple of years!

Tim Kaine (D-VA)

Edward Markey (D-MA)

Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

Mazie Hirono (D-HI) LOL! Last I looked Hawaii took a whole 7 refugees last year!

One must assume that by mentioning the 65,000 desired by the refugee resettlement contractors (via RCUSA), all 14 are on board with the number!
How about if we divide 65,000 by the 14 above and put 4,642 Syrians in each of their home towns!
Endnote: I have more to say and may edit this post or add a new one, just wanted to get this news posted before I lose internet connection again today.

To date, 843 Syrian refugees admitted to the US; 92% are Muslims

05/22/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editor’s note: I have so much news to post, but internet connection is dropping today. If I disappear, know that I am frustrated about not getting it to you or posting your comments! Or, answering your many e-mails.
Since everyone is talking about the number of Syrians admitted to the US as refugees (see yesterday’s comments by House Homeland Security Committee chairman), I thought it was time to update the numbers.

Most of our Syrians are coming from UN camps like this one which house primarily Muslim refugees. Photo: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/30/syria-aleppo-fight-continues-live

When I search the data base for Syrians I go back to calendar year 2012 (1/1/2012) so as to include those who might have gotten here right after the recent conflict began in 2011 (thus numbers you see published may vary some depending on when the source began counting).
I reported on May 1 that we had admitted 815 Syrians (92% Muslim) from 1/1/2012 to 5/1/2015.
This time I searched up until May 20th and here are the results:
* 843 Syrian refugees have been sent to your towns and cities.
* 508 of those came since January 1, 2015
* The top ten states receiving Syrians are:

Texas (107)

California (107)

Illinois (91)

Arizona (64)

Pennsylvania (54)

Michigan (34)

North Carolina (34)

New Jersey (31)

Florida (30)

Indiana (29)

* Yesterday Rep. Michael McCaul speculated that not too many US communities would want them right now, however Texas, his home state tops the list. Here are the cities in Texas which ‘welcomed’ Syrians:

Austin (4)

Dallas (31)

Ft. Worth (38)

Houston (34)

*One might assume that we were saving the Christian Syrians, but that isn’t happening. Just as we reported earlier in the month, 92% of those we are bringing in are Muslims. Here is the breakdown:

777 of them identify as one form of Muslim or another (729 are Sunni Muslims)

42 Christians are listed and 1 Catholic, several other religions or no religion are listed (for example, there is 1 Yazidi)

That works out to 92% Muslim!
By the way, if you are saying to yourself, heck, there are more Syrians in my town than this small number, remember that there are other legal avenues for entry. Syrians already in the US were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in 2012 by the Obama Administration and a reader recently shared with me that his US Senator says there are over 11,000 Syrians (who were already in the country when the conflict began) and are thus eligible for TPS.
By the way, it was our usual suspects, the US State Department resettlement contractors who lobbied, along with Arab groups, for the TPS designation.
Those same contractors want us to take 65,000 Syrians by the end of 2016 and the UNHCR has 11,000 picked out for us this year.