Diversity Visa Lottery: LEGAL immigration program allows 50,000 into US each year because we don't have enough diversity!

05/21/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have written a little bit over the years about the truly outrageous ‘Diversity Visa Lottery,’ sometimes referred to as the ‘Green card lottery.’
I’m writing about it now so that our many new readers understand that it isn’t just the Refugee Admissions Program that is allowing immigrants into the US who could potentially threaten our security in addition to competing with Americans for limited job opportunities.

Obama with Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. “The Green Card Lottery has really been the African Green Card Lottery.” In 2009 Lee attempted to change the Diversity lottery by adding another 50,000 which would have brought 100,000 annual “winners” to America. http://newafricanmagazine.com/will-green-card-lottery-get-red-card/

The program, like the Refugee resettlement program, is the brainchild of Senator Ted Kennedy and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.
Beginning in 1996 we began offering 50,000 slots (it can be confusing because some reports say 55,000) for legal immigration to the US in a lottery system that is shocking when you begin to examine it. It’s primary purpose is to increase our diversity!
We sure did increase our diversity as 1 million LEGAL immigrants entered the US in the last 20 years as a result of the Kennedy/Bush lottery.

The lottery aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants mostly from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States in the previous five years.

Unsuccessful efforts have been made in recent years to kill it, but among the programs great supporters are the very same federal refugee resettlement contractors we write about every day. Every time Congress has advanced bills to cut the lottery or cut its funding, who pops up to defend it? The VOLAGS!
One would think they might be concerned about increasing competition from the lottery winners for the scarce jobs that their refugees desperately need! Guess not!

If you would like to check it out yourselves, just type in one of the contractor’s names along with ‘diversity visa lottery’ and you will get lots of testimony and lots of lobbying by the contractors to keep the lottery alive.

New York Uzbek’s largely here thanks to Diversity Visa Lottery

What got me thinking about it this morning was a New York Times piece about ten days ago entitled:

Accusations of Terrorism Worry Brooklyn’s Uzbek Community

We learned that a large number of New York City’s Uzbek (mostly Muslim) immigrants came in through the lottery. However, we have also admitted Uzbek’s as refugees and have had some terror busts involving those. Here is one in Idaho.

Immigrants from Uzbekistan have been arriving in New York with help from a diversity visa lottery program, which the United States government created in 1990 to foster immigration from countries with previously low rates. The State Department issues 55,000 green cards every year through its diversity visa program and for the 2014-15 year, 4,368 were allotted to Uzbek lottery winners, the department said. [It was 5,101 in 2013, see below—-ed]

In my quick search I couldn’t find the 2014 “winners,” but here are the 2013 lucky ducks! I’ve selected some of the countries (those with the largest number of winners) from which “enrichment” has arrived on our shores. (See this commentary about the US Conference of Catholic Bishops going to bat for the lottery in Congressional testimony). Remember this line when you look at the list!

….a diverse pool of immigrants makes our nation a culturally richer place. [Who says so?—ed]

Selected entrants—2013

Here (and below) are the largest ethnic groups given green cards after winning the lottery in 2013:
Africa:

Algeria (2,161)

Cameroon (3,858)

DR Congo (3,924)

Egypt (5,015)

Ethiopia (4,910)

Ghana (5,105)

Kenya (4,410)

Morocco (2,068)

Nigeria (6,218)

Sierra Leone (2,516)

Togo (1,065)

Asia:

Iran (6,029)

Nepal (4,370)

Europe:

Albania (1,520)

Armenia (1,174)

Belarus (1,195)

Bulgaria (1,299)

Poland (2,038)

Russia (2,846)

Turkey (1,807)

Ukraine (6,424)

Uzbekistan (5,101)

The next time you hear an elected official mouth this foolish line know that he or she doesn’t know what the heck they are talking about!

I’m o.k. with legal immigration, but it is illegal immigration I have a problem with!

To learn more, we have a category on the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery’ here.

Michigan: Overloaded with Iraqi refugees, keeps state in top five resettlement states in the nation

05/21/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Two nights ago I spoke with a group in Michigan—Southeast Michigan 912 Tea Party— and in advance did some digging into the data bases to see how the state was doing. I was shocked to discover that over 18,000 Iraqis (among other refugees) have been resettled there since 2005.

Global Nation map — Note that these stats are from 2014. At this rate of resettlement, Michigan will get 40,000 refugees in the next ten years compared to the 29,000 it received in the last ten years.

Indeed in the last ten years, 29,141 refugees were resettled in Michigan and 18,505 were Iraqis.
I wondered what had happened to the US State Department’s 2008 ‘decision’ to slow the flow to Michigan?
Here is a headline and story from the Detroit News in October of 2008:

Iraqi refugees overwhelm Michigan relief program

Michigan’s economy is so bad that the State Department is sending fewer Iraqi refugees to the area because of concerns that their future would not be bright. [Never mind your future!—ed]

After a request by relief workers, the policy of bringing Iraqis to metro Detroit if relatives or friends live in the area was changed to allow only those with immediate family to settle here, according to the State Department.

“The State Department has taken the measure of things and decided it would be better to send them somewhere else, where they might be self-sufficient, instead of coming to Michigan, because the economy is very bad here, and we have the highest unemployment in the country,” Belmin Pinjic of Lutheran Social Services of Michigan said.

[….]

State Department officials said the policy change was implemented in late June partly because relief workers were having difficulty finding the refugees jobs.

But, see here, just a couple of months ago—despite high unemployment, refugees are still being poured into the state. And, then most recently of course we reported that a dumb idea was floated by the New York Times to resettle 50,000 Syrians (mostly Muslim) refugees in Detroit. How did we go from (2008) too many refugees would strain the economy, to 2015—refugees will cause the economy to recover?
Kentucky Iraqi terrorist bust slowed the flow slightly in 2011
As I searched the data bases I noted that there was never actually any slow down in the number of refugees resettled in Michigan despite the 2008 promise by the US State Department to do so.
There was a noticeable drop in Iraqis in 2011, but LOL! that was because the US State Department and Homeland Security discovered they had admitted at least two Iraqi refugee terrorists (caught in Kentucky—oopsy!) and thus security re-screening slowed the flow that year.

Here is what I learned about the number of refugees arriving in Michigan.

Of the total refugee load since 2005 (29,141), Iraqis topped the list by far at 18,505. Previous research concludes that about 3/4th of all Iraqis entering the US are Muslims. Religious minorities make up the other 1/4th.
After the Iraqis, the next too ethnic groups are Burmese (4,261) and Somalis (1,431). Of the 800 or so Syrians resettled so far in the US, 49 went to Michigan. The Somalis were mostly resettled in Lansing and Grand Rapids.
Then this really surprised me—Iraqis were resettled (“seeded”) in 98 towns in Michigan!
Here are the top ten Iraqi resettlement cities in the state (since 2005):

Southfield (4,427)

Sterling Heights (3,860)

Troy (1,998)

Warren (1,355)

Madison Heights (947)

Lansing (720)

Dearborn (626)

West Bloomfield (554)

Ann Arbor (297)

Detroit (289)

Six of the top nine federal resettlement contractors are operating in Michigan (falling all over themselves!). They are: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (we bring only a tiny handful of Jews to the US as refugees, so they are resettling large numbers of Muslims, go figure!), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, and the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Find their office contact information here.
Readers, remember two things. First there is “secondary migration” (here page nine) which means that in refugee resettlement lingo, refugees move within states and from state to state after initial resettlement. And, secondly, there are other LEGAL immigration programs that are bringing refugees from the third-world, and from terror hotspots, to America. I’m going to write about one of those this morning—the Diversity Visa lottery. So, it becomes very difficult to get a really good idea of who is living next door!
Want to write a book? We have 660 previous posts on Iraqi refugees, click here to begin your research! Go here for everything we have said about Michigan.

Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on Syrian refugee security concerns postponed

05/20/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Richard and Guterres — Asst. Sec. of State for PRM Anne Richard (left) and UNHCR Antonio Guterres want to send 11,000 Syrians to your towns and cities this year.

I am not surprised.

This is one of the hottest national security issues we have going right now—the question of whether we should be admitting the 11,000 Syrian refugees the UN has picked out for us without jeopardizing our safety!

A reader just sent us the postponement notice for a hearing we were anxious to see tomorrow. I’ve gotten pretty cynical, so wonder if someone got to the chairman?

Here is the announcement.

If you were planning on contacting your member of Congress on this, please still do so!

Breaking news: Man arrested in Italy is believed to be responsible for the deadly Tunisian museum attack. He got into Europe pretending to be a REFUGEE.
P.S. to the Michigan group I spoke with last night! I have not forgotten! I do plan to post the Michigan data, but have run out of time this morning!

Spartanburg County Council dodges and weaves, wants no responsibility in refugee controversy

05/20/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For new readers: this is an update of the two-month-old controversy about the secretive decision to place refugees in Spartanburg, SC. See all of our previous coverage by clicking here. We are all waiting to see what Rep. Trey Gowdy, who represents the district and just so happens to chair the House subcommittee responsible for the Refugee Admissions Program, will do.
In the meantime, the Spartanburg County Council is obviously trying desperately to get out of any responsibility for this all important decision for the future of the community. If they had a little backbone, they could help, not only themselves, but every town in America facing (or soon facing) an edict from the federal government to “welcome” needy third-worlders to town without any local government involvement or community input.
This is the crux of the problem:

Local communities MUST have a discussion and some decision-making authority and not leave decisions about refugee resettlement to the UN, the US State Department and a bunch of government contractors masquerading as non-profit “religious” charities!

Spartanburg County Council: Leave us out of this mess! We don’t want to stick our necks out or make difficult decisions! http://www.co.spartanburg.sc.us/govt/depts/cc/

Here is the news (at GoUpstate.com) about Monday night’s meeting of the Spartanburg County Council:

Spartanburg County Council announced it plans to take no action on a proposal to bring refugees to Spartanburg and is holding steady for U.S. Congressman Trey Gowdy’s findings concerning the resettlement program.

World Relief, a faith-based organization, plans to bring 60 refugees to Spartanburg this year to assimilate into the community, as part of a U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program. [The reporter apparently doesn’t know that the word “assimilate” is now a forbidden word among those working to seed American towns with migrants!—ed]

After several people spoke on the issue during a Monday evening council meeting, Chairman Jeff Horton said the County Council had no involvement in the matter and urged residents to be patient until all of the information has been gathered.

He pointed out that the state Senate adopted an amendment in its budget prohibiting state funds from being used for the refugee program until the county council approves the resettlement. The legislation originally stated that it was a decision for the legislative delegation, not the county council.

Horton said the amendment is wrong and should be “stricken immediately.” [In other words, he says, we don’t want this hot potato!—ed]

Christina Jeffrey, a citizen activist who spoke before the County Council on Monday, is concerned about security and wants public involvement in decisions about refugee resettlement. https://www.facebook.com/christinajeffrey

[….]

In April, Gowdy announced he had 17 questions about the program and asked Secretary of State John Kerry to put refugee resettlement plans on hold until questions are answered. Some of those questions revolved around security, education, funding and health care issues.

[….]

Christina Jeffrey, a former candidate for Congress, has voiced opposition to refugees resettling in Spartanburg and said during Monday’s council meeting that refugees cannot be adequately screened. She said the resettlement of refugees in the U.S. is a disservice to taxpayers, the education system, the job market and the safety of people.

She said the department of homeland security cannot ensure safety since screening is difficult, particularly for those coming from countries such as Syria and Iraq.

World Relief local director Jason Lee also attended the meeting and said the refugee resettlement program has traditionally not been a county council issue.

This last statement by Lee is telling. The US State Department and their cabal of contractors DO NOT WANT ANY LOCAL GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE!

We must work to change that ‘tradition’ by making it the law to include local citizens and local governments in the decision-making process that involves adding more poverty and potentially changing a town’s culture forever.

It is too bad that the Spartanburg County Council apparently doesn’t have the spine necessary to look at the bigger picture.

Refugees stranded outside gates of Baghdad; fears of ISIS Trojan Horse

05/20/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Daily Mail reported yesterday (hat tip: Kyle) that thousands of Iraqi refugees fleeing Ramadi are now trapped between the ISIS-controlled city and the safety of Baghdad. (BTW, pundits speculate that Baghdad will fall too.)

Over 20,000 innocent Iraqis are stranded in a deadly no man’s land between ISIS militants in Ramadi and potential safety in Baghdad 60 miles to the east, where they are cruelly being refused entry.

The terror group slaughtered over 500 people over the last few days to seize control of Ramadi – their biggest military victory in over a year – before holding a a twisted celebratory parade on its blood-stained streets.

The thousands who were forced from their homes are now living in the open – many without shelter and dwindling aid – in small towns like Amiriyat Fallujah on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Iraq’s military will not allow them to cross the Euphrates river and into the city because it can not confirm they are not ISIS militants, aid agencies in Baghdad have told MailOnline.

Kind of ironic isn’t it?

The US is bringing Iraqis to your towns and cities at the rate of 1,175 a MONTH at the moment. But, we dare not mention the Trojan Horse analogy and are told to welcome them with open arms.

Where is the UN? Isn’t it their job to go into these danger zones and help the people?
There is much more, with lots of photos, go here.
Related! Tomorrow the House Homeland Security Committee (subcommittee chaired by Rep. Peter King) will hold a hearing on the security concerns many have about the admission of Syrian refugees to the US. Go here for more. Update: hearing postponed!