Day: September 1, 2015

President to decide on refugee quota for FY2016 NOW! Will Congress lift a finger to protect America?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is September and as we speak, the Obama Administration (US State Department) is putting its final touches on their annual Determination Letter and accompanying report to Congress.

Obama shushing
Don’t tell Congress and let’s slip this by them again—maybe this time with 65,000 Syrians!

The new fiscal year begins on October 1 and by the 30th of this month Obama will send to Congress for “consultation” a document which states how many refugees and from what regions of the world we will be “welcoming” refugees to America.
This so-called “consultation” with Congress is a legal requirement. However, it is common knowledge that the House and Senate Committees responsible for analyzing this information have in the past been silent.
In fact, Ken Tota (who recently served as the interim director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement) was overheard saying that “in his entire almost 30-year career, Congress has never questioned the numbers.”
State Department scoping meetings
For our many new readers, this year there was no US State Department hearing on the “size and scope” of the refugee program (or, LOL! they kept it very secret!).  We can only assume that was because in the three previous years they heard testimony that they didn’t like from citizens that were concerned about the program.  Here is one post of dozens on the topic.  Readers of RRW had flooded the State Department with negative testimony about the program.  In fact, we testified that there should be a moratorium on the program.  See my 2014 testimony here.
I mention this because the Presidential Determination being prepared now is the culmination of the annual process that began with those late spring ‘hearings’ (and again there was no public opportunity to comment this year that we were aware of).
Also, regular readers know that we have been discussing, and attempting to obtain, R & P abstracts the subcontractors located around the country prepare for Washington—those are part of the process as well. Just as taxpaying citizens had no opportunity to testify to the State Department this year, taxpaying citizens have no input in the abstract preparation process either.
Presumably one final check in the system to protect America is the “consultation” with Congress in September of each year.

However, if this year is like all others, our elected representatives in Washington will not lift a finger to question the size and scope of this year’s proposed refugee quota!

And, this could be the year that plans to resettle tens of thousands of Syrians will be announced!
Click here for last year’s Presidential Determination, and here for the lengthy report which was sent to Congress on September 18th last year.  The report begins:

This Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2015: Report to the Congress is submitted in compliance with Sections 207(d)(1) and (e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The Act requires that before the start of the fiscal year and, to the extent possible, at least two weeks prior to consultations on refugee admissions, members of the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives be provided with the following information….

Note that the report goes to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.  Chairmen of the full committees are Bob Goodlatte and Chuck Grassley respectively.  Subcommittee Chairmen responsible for Refugee Resettlement are Trey Gowdy and Jeff Sessions.
Will those chairmen help protect America this year by holding hearings when the Presidential Determination for FY2016 arrives on the Hill which by law should be in about two weeks!  Or, will they (yet again!) simply rubber stamp what Obama wants?

US Ambassador: 17,000 Syrians in pipeline to America

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you are getting confused about just how many Syrians you will be expected to ‘welcome’ to your towns and cities, that is probably the Administration’s plan—to confuse you.
Just recently we heard the number 8,000 bandied-about for next year.  We know the refugee resettlement contractors want 65,000!  And, as a wise observer recently noted, they may be throwing the 65,000 number out as a ‘head fake’ so that you will give a sigh of relief over the comparatively smaller 8,000-17,000.

UNHCR camp
The vast majority of Syrian refugees who will be admitted to the US are in UN camps which house mostly Sunni Muslims. As of early July, 94% of all Syrians entering the US as refugees were Muslims. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/07/09/update-us-syrian-refugee-resettlement-numbers-pass-the-1000-mark-disbursed-to-36-states-94-are-muslims/

Here is CNS News.  Did you know that resettling refugees was involved in Obama’s plan to defeat ISIS (huh?):

(CNSNews.com) – U.S. Ambassador Brett McGurk said that 17,000 Syrian refugees have applied to enter the U.S. and that the nation will likely take in “more” of them next year.

“We took in about 1,500 last year. We think we’ll take in more next year,” McGurk, who serves as the deputy special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, said Sunday on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.

McGurk’s comments came in response to Todd’s question about whether the U.S. would increase the number of refugees it takes in from Syria.

“The United States takes in more refugees than any country around the world. We took in about 70,000 refugees last year, 20,000 asylum seekers. We have about 17,000 Syrian refugee applicants now to come into the U.S.,” he said.

“We took in about 1,500 last year. We think we’ll take in more next year,” he said.

 McGurk went on to discuss the refugee issue as part of a broader effort to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Warning!

In just a few weeks, by the end of September, the Obama Administration will be sending its FY2016 Presidential Determination Letter to Congress for “consultation” (I understand that in the past the pertinent committees simply rubber stamp the President’s refugee admissions plan). They will send it to Congress around Sept. 30th since FY2016 begins on October 1.   I am very concerned that instead of the usual 70,000 refugees the Obama Administration has been bringing in each year, that they will dramatically increase the number for 2016 to accommodate an extremely large number of Syrians that the United Nations wants us to take (even 8,000 will be a large number!).
The reason I suspect a rat is that it has been very very quiet ever since the Jihad Caucus wrote to Obama to demand the admission of tens of thousands of Syrians.   I’m guessing Obama/Kerry told them to hush-up for now because something is in the works!  
Watch for it!
We will be watching to see if any Member of Congress or US Senator has the spine to speak up if Obama does what we fear he will do!

Federal refugee contractors: Houston is "the perfect destination for refugees!"

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is your typical warm and fuzzy story about refugees ‘melting’ into America.
In fact it is one of those stories that drives me to tell you about the welfare moochers, murderers, rapists and terrorists in the refugee stream—you know to give balance to the news!
I’m skipping all the heartwarming information about one refugee’s successful resettlement in Houston, described as in the top four places in the world for refugee resettlement, to get to the bit of information I found revealing.
The US State Department does not choose which towns and cities will ‘welcome’ new resettlement seed communities—the nine federal non-governmental contractors*** do!  

Lawrence Bartlett
Bartlett is Asst. Sec. of State Anne Richard’s right hand man. Are the contractors leading the State Department by the nose?

We knew they played a huge role, but who knew they were calling the shots.  That means that no elected official at any level of government is deciding the future of your community—a bunch of left-leaning non-profit groups are in charge!
Here is what Larry Bartlett, director of refugee admissions at the US State Department, told the Houston Chronicle:

A trend stands out in Harris County refugee data. The vast majority of Houston’s refugees came from warm climates: Cuba, Iraq, Congo and Somalia. But the resettlement agencies don’t place people based on a preference for a hot, steamy climate.

“We don’t consider climate a major driver,” said Larry Bartlett, director of refugee admissions at the State Department, which oversees the resettlement process.

But assigning refugees to cities in the United States does not fall to the State Department. Those decisions are made by a consortium of nine national nongovernmental organizations.

There ought to be a law!

Then this:  more than half of the refugee flow to your town or city is from family reunification!

I mentioned that here in a post about Twin Falls, Idaho. So that means once your town has become an established seed community there is virtually no stopping it as the contractors are immediately filing applications for the extended family to come on in!
The Houston Chronicle story continued:

In a 2012 press briefing, Bartlett said that the refugee resettlement process prioritizes family reunification. He explained in a recent telephone interview that refugees indicate on their application whether they have a relative or friend in the United States. It does not help their chances, but it can help decide their resettlement location.

“Over half of our refugees are joining family members or other U.S. ties,” Bartlett said. This statistic likely applies in Houston; many refugees are placed here to join family or friends already living in this cosmopolitan melting pot.

Ultimately, the nine national organizations propose a number for each city each year, he said. Houston welcomes more refugees than any other American city because its nonprofit sector has the capacity to assist them.

The organizations consult with local refugee services agencies and elected officials to decide that number. Houston has a significant resettlement infrastructure: six of the nine national organizations operate in Houston, where they partner with five local refugee services agencies. “It’s a very successful site,” Bartlett said.

From my own experience I know that “consultation” with local elected officials is often not much more than a few minutes of briefing where the contractor tells the local elected government that they have no choice in the matter.

If there were any Members of Congress (besides Texas Rep. Brian Babin) or Senators with a backbone willing to begin at least amending the Refugee Act of 1980, one important fix would be to strip the CONTRACTORS of their power to target towns and cities for colonization!  It is outrageous—no one elected them!

Sign the petition, demand a local role in the process!  It might not be a perfect solution, but at least you have a shot at choosing through the election process officials you can trust.  There are 1,358 signatures on the petition to date representing all 50 states!
Texas is the number one resettlement state in the nation, please see our Texas archive, here.
*** For new readers, these are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors which control all of the resettlement of third worlders to your towns and cities!