Below is a map posted at the website for the International Organization on Migration (IOM) that tells us (that less than 8 weeks into 2016) over 100,000 migrants have reached Europe (and this is still winter!).
We don’t talk about it often, but you should know that the IOM is also a US federal contractor and prepares refugees for their trip to America among other things.
Notice that the vast majority of illegal migrants are coming through Turkey to Greece, so does that mean Turkey is behind the invasion of Europe? I think you can say that!
More here!
Be sure to check my favorite map, the interactive one, that tells us how many are coming each day and how they are spreading out throughout Europe.
For our complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive, click here.
For new readers: You might find it informative to visit our category ‘where to find information’ (over 400 posts, but just scroll through the titles).
Day: February 23, 2016
Tennessee's giant step forward in defending states' rights in refugee resettlement issue
Yesterday, Michael Patrick Leahy of Breitbart reported the incredible news that the Tennessee Senate passed a resolution that advances the Tenth Amendment concerns of many as it relates to the federal government (and its non-profit contractors) dropping off refugees in states where the state taxpayer then must pony-up and pay for some of their welfare, education and healthcare (without any say through an elected body). Our earlier post on the Tennessee legislature is here.
And, interestingly, in my previous post I mentioned an article in The Nation in which the author says that those states that have filed lawsuits against the federal program (Texas and Alabama for example) haven’t a legal leg to stand on. However, they never mentioned the possible bombshell that could be coming from Tennessee.
Here is the news:
The Tennessee State Senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution by a 27 to 5 margin requiring a state lawsuit against the federal government program that is dumping refugees into the Volunteer State.
Senate Joint Resolution 467 now goes to the Tennessee House of Representatives, where sources tell Breitbart News it is expected to pass some time in the next three weeks.
Passage of the resolution by the State Senate means that it is certain a lawsuit will be filed against the federal government’s Refugee Resettlement Program on Tenth Amendment grounds, something that no other state has yet done.
Both Texas and Alabama have filed federal lawsuits claiming that the federal government has failed to comply with the “consultation clause” of the Refugee Act of 1980. That argument, however, is considered to be on very thin legal grounds because the standard required to establish “consultation” is very low.
The State Senate is expected to wait on filing the lawsuit until it is joined by the House of Representatives, so the entire Tennessee General Assembly will be the plaintiff.
“This Resolution strikes a blow for liberty,” Majority Leader Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville), the co-sponsor of the bill who carefully guided it through the upper chamber tells Breitbart News in an exclusive statement.
Norris calls the resolution, “a declaration of our rights as a sovereign state which upholds the principles by which we foster freedom.”
Continue reading! This is very important!
Leahy tells us that the lawsuit would apply first to the so-called Wilson Fish states*** and other 11 states could join Tennessee or file their own lawsuit. In some states it requires the governor to be the plaintiff, but in Tennessee (others?) the legislature can do it.
And, for those of you in 36 other states here is what a serious state government (Texas! for example) could do:
Other states who are seeking a way to stop the unhindered flow of refugees will see in the Tennessee State senate’s action a legal path to successfully resist the continued operation of the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program in their states.
The other 11 “Wilson-Fish alternative program” states can join the Tennessee lawsuit, or they can file their own Tenth amendment challenges to the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program.
The remaining states that are currently participating in the program can withdraw from it, thereby becoming “Wilson-Fish alternative program” states, and also file Tenth amendment challenges to the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program.
***Wilson Fish states: Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee and Vermont.
Looking for the ‘silver bullet?’
I often tell people there is no one “silver bullet” to end the Refugee Admissions Program as constructed by the original Kennedy/Biden Refugee Act of 1980, but the Constitutional States’ Rights issue comes mighty close.
However! Do not expect your Republican governors and Republican legislatures to see the light shining in Tennessee and just jump on the bandwagon.
Most will be too chicken and some will see the refugee program as the source of cheap labor for their campaign donors, so it’s up to you to keep the pressure on through various means—resolutions, protests, letters to the editor, community meetings, agitation and pressure on elected officials at all levels of government, and Election 2016 campaigning are all examples of what you can do (and are doing!).
All of that political activity is vitally important. You can make it possible for elected officials to take action by creating the political climate they need.
In short, it is your job to agitate and create controversy just as the No Borders Left does all the time!
Syrians only trickling in, but Obama State Dept. says they will get to 10,000 this year
We’ve been reporting, see here, that the US State Department is way behind in meeting Obama’s goal of admitting 10,000 Syrians to the US by the end of the fiscal year (September 30th).
However, here at The Nation, Lawrence Bartlett, Director of Refugee Admissions at the US State Department, says they expect to get them in here and located in 48 states (they would like to make it 49 with Montana) before that deadline:
It’s common for resettlement numbers to start low and increase by the end of the fiscal year. Still, the difficulty the administration will have in admitting a mere 10,000 Syrians in a single year underscores the deep political challenges facing the Obama administration in responding to the ongoing Syrian civil war. In the months since the announcement, high-profile terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino have stoked anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, and the already onerous refugee resettlement application process has become even more stringent for Syrians. Despite this, the State Department says it still plans to meet its goal.
“We remain steadfastly committed to the President’s plan to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States in FY [fiscal year] 2016,” said Lawrence Bartlett, director of the State Department’s Office of Refugee Admissions, in a statement to The Nation. “We have met our admissions goals for each of the last three years, and we are on target to meet the goal of admitting 10,000 refugees from Syria and 85,000 refugees from all over the world, by the end of this fiscal year.” (The State Department didn’t set specific goals for Syrian refugees until this year, and only 1,682 were admitted in FY 2015.)
Has the so-called “interview surge” started?
Bartlett added that to meet the new goal, “from February through April, additional staff will be posted to Jordan, where they will conduct and support interviews of 10,000 UNHCR-referred refugee applicants,” referring to the UN’s refugee agency. In addition to the new efforts in Jordan, Barlett said the United States “will restart Department of Homeland Security refugee resettlement interviews in Beirut, Lebanon on February 18, 2016.” The vast majority of Syrian refugees are in the neighboring countries of Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Still, it’s unlikely that any of the refugees who begin the screening process this month would be able to travel to the United States by October, the end of the fiscal year.
Read the whole article. It sounds to me that (despite Obama’s pronouncements) we have many steadfast officials in our security apparatus that are taking the screening process very seriously.
See in red, one more reminder that the UN is picking our refugees!
For our many new readers: Just now as I retrieved the link for the resettlement office map I was reminded that we have a page for “Frequently Asked Questions” on the header above. Please visit it!
A list of all resettlement offices is here.