Month: February 2016

Tennessee's giant step forward in defending states' rights in refugee resettlement issue

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

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.

mark-tv-interview
Majority Leader Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville): “a declaration of our rights as a sovereign state…”

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

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

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:

Bartlett with map
Putting pins in the map? Bartlett, US State Dept. Refugee Admissions Director says they are aiming to get the 10,000 Syrians in here this year as Obama promised. Here he stands in front of the map showing 190 towns and cities where they could be located. Map: http://www.wrapsnet.org/Portals/1/Affiliate%20Directory%20Posting/PRM%20Affilaite%20Map%20with%20details1.13.15.pdf

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.

CAIR organizes anti-Islamophobia march in Minneapolis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As Election 2016 heats up (could it get hotter—yes!), I expect you will see more ‘marches’ and rallies organized by the community organizers at the Council on American Islamic Relations which are involved in getting Muslim voters registered to push back on those of you who have security concerns about more Muslim migration to America.

Jaylani
JAYLANI HUSSEIN of CAIR Minnesota that organized the march. http://www.cairmn.com/

CAIR has been learning its lessons well from the likes of the Southern Poverty Law Center*** which throws out their hate label to anyone who has a differing policy view from theirs.  CAIR and the SPLC want more Muslim migration to America and I, for one, don’t. It is simply a policy discussion America needs to have.
And, of all places, Minnesota Somalis have given us reason to have security concerns as dozens of young Somali refugees, who benefited from the generosity of the American taxpayer have joined the jihadists in Africa and the Middle East (since 2008 the FBI has been aware of their activities).
Some have been arrested, either before leaving to join ISIS or upon their return. Some are dead. Some have been sentenced to prison. Some are unaccounted for.
Any sane person should be concerned about these Minnesota Somalis who did not assimilate, became more devout and have joined the Islamic terrorists.
Here is the news (Feb. 20th) from WCCO CBS Minnestota.  Watch the clip! LOL! Is there even one Somali in the march?
 

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Dozens of protesters marched down Cedar Avenue Saturday, taking a stand against something many are all too familiar with–discrimination.

[….]

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations organized the march as part of many happenings throughout the country to raise awareness of Islamophobia.

“We created Minnesotans Against Islamophobia. 26 local organizationsendorse our action today,” said organizer Karen Schraufnagel.

Minnesota has the highest population of Somalis in the country, making Islamophobia a reality for many of them.

***Readers, I consider it a great honor to be called-out by the SPLC!  See here.  I had been hoping for years to be noticed by them!  I was green with envy when Daniel Greenfield was noticed a few years back and wrote this hilarious piece about his “hate group” (Greenfield and his cat).  I have a cat too!

My first response on finding out that I was now a hate group was to look around to see where everyone else was. A hate group needs the group part and one man and a cat don’t seem to be enough.

Back to the notice the SPLC has taken of RRW…..
(Not sure what they mean by my increasing radicalization.)  The only thing I can figure is that they see a change of tone over the years which can be attributed to my anger over a growing realization about how much power and money drives the secretive UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program on the political left and the political right (cheap labor for big global corporations!) and how unwilling elected officials are to even discuss it! Or, more accurately, they are willing to discuss it, but do nothing seriously about it!

GAO says Obama Office of Refugee Resettlement puts Unaccompanied Alien Children at risk

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and it puts you at risk because they are not being properly monitored!
Update February 23: Here is a link to the critical GAO report.
Hot off the press this morning is this Washington Post story about a GAO report released today that is highly critical of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement’s care of the ‘children’ who have been flooding our borders for many years now (the numbers are expected to rise, see here).

UAC children
UAC ‘children’ in Texas in 2014. Where are they now and what are they doing? Breitbart photos: http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2014/06/05/leaked-images-reveal-children-warehoused-in-crowded-us-cells-border-patrol-overwhelmed/

No surprise for those of us who have been following the Refugee Program for years that the contractors hired to take care of the kids are doing a rotten job.
BTW, the UACs are NOT refugees even if Obama and the contractors want them to be. They want them to be designated as refugees so they can get in line for welfare goodies and apply to bring their families to America.
Here is one recent story about how the contractors are squabbling over Obama payola for legal services for the UACs (mostly teenage boys!).
According to the WaPo story 125,000 ‘children’ have been distributed around the US since 2011.
I don’t know if any contractors are mentioned by name in the report, but we know that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugees Services, both federal refugee contractors, receive millions of dollars to care for the ‘children.’ Also, we learned in 2014 that there were two other HUGE contractors: Southwest Key Programs and Baptist Child & Family Service.  
Senator Grassley initially wanted answers from HHS here in 2014.
This is the Washington Post story this morning.  I’ve just snipped a bit of it, but you should read it all.

The government agency tasked with placing thousands of Central American children into communities while they await immigration court decisions has no system for tracking the children, does not keep complete case files and has allowed contractors to operate with little oversight, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.

“Based on the findings in this report, it’s no wonder that we are hearing of children being mistreated or simply falling off the grid once they are turned over to sponsors,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). “The Obama administration isn’t adequately monitoring the grantees or sponsors whom we are entrusting to provide basic care for unaccompanied children.”

[….]

The report also criticized the agency’s oversight of nonprofit groups that it pays to operate shelters for the children and locate sponsors.

[….]

Grassley sharply criticized the lack of follow-up for released children.

“Beyond the risks to the children created by these shortcomings, our communities are left to cope with the crime and violence from gang members and other delinquents who are not identified or tracked because of HHS’s haphazard and porous practices,” he said.

BTW, it is still a mystery about why the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (Eskinder Negash) resigned abruptly in December 2014.  Rumors are flying that it had something to do with the UACs.

Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on this report.  Go here for more information.

For more reading pleasure, all of our posts going back many years on the UACs are archived using the words ‘unaccompanied minors.’
And you will see there (among those posts) that Europe is having the same problem with ‘unaccompanied children’ flooding the Continent. In their case, they are mostly from the Middle East and Africa. One of the children recently murdered a care giver in Sweden.

Jewish refugee contractor, HIAS, goes to the Hill (to lobby for more refugees and more $$$)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Last week when we were all busy paying attention to the upcoming South Carolina primary and chuckling over the Pope sticking his nose in the 2016 Election process, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society was on Capitol Hill along with the other major federal resettlement contractors looking for approval and $$$ for more refugees (paying clients!) to resettle.
From HIAS website (hat tip: Joanne):

Rachel Nusbaum
Rachel Nusbaum is HIAS communication specialist, see here at Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelnusbaum

Today, instead of heading to the HIAS offices, I flagged down a cab and asked him to take me somewhere different. Capitol Hill, please. Senate side. [What, no subway? Are you using taxpayer money for your cab ride too?—ed]

[….]

I am on Capitol Hill right now along with not only other HIAS staff but with representatives from many of the top NGOs working on refugee issues. We’re here, pounding the pavement and filling the halls of the various House and Senate office buildings, for two days of intense advocacy organized by Refugee Council USA***, a coalition of 20 U.S.-based refugee protection NGOs.

Bringing in the “vulnerable” (and costly) ‘refugees’ (medical care for US taxpayers to pay for!):

Why is resettlement so important? Most refugees will remain in the country to which they first fled, until they are able to return to their home country. Only a very small number, about one percent, will be resettled to a third country. This small group is made up of the most vulnerable refugees, those who remain at risk even after fleeing their home country. This includes unaccompanied children, survivors of torture, LGBT refugees and people requiring medical attention not available to them in their host country. With so few resettlement spots and so many refugees, however, the need for resettlement far exceeds current availability.

It is maddening to know that, according to USA Spending.gov, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society received over $134 million from you since Obama took office, and HIAS, Inc. (its new name) has raked in another $58 million in that same time frame.  Are they lobbying on Capitol Hill on your dime? I bet they are!

***Refugee Council USA is the lobbying arm for the refugee industry.

We told you about them on many previous occasions. They supported the resettlement of 65,000 Syrians to your towns this year. Then subsequently upped the number to 100,000.
As we told you here last September, they have a lobbying kit in which they call-out RRW!  HIAS also authored a report urging that I be investigated (among others) by the Southern Poverty Law Center, see here.
This is from their grassroots lobbying kit:

Anti-Refugee Sentiment

Utilizing anti-immigrant and anti-Muslilm sentiment, individuals who oppose refugee resettlement are making their voices heard louder and more frequently to policy makers. Groups like Refugee Resettlement Watch and similar local groups are calling for an end to refugee resettlement altogether, moratoriums on arrivals to their areas, and fostering unwelcoming atmospheres for newcomers. It is critical that policy makers at local, state and national levels hear from refugees themselves and community members who support refugee resettlement, so they can ask questions, learn more about the importance of resettlement, support positive legislation and oppose proposals that would harm refugees.

Go here for more on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society one of nine major refugee contractors: