First, many apologies to all of you who thought I meant I would send your comments to the State Department. I don’t think they would like that very much! I offered merely to publish them here at RRW after (or even before) you send them in so that they would not completely disappear down a black hole and so that others would know that they are not alone.
So, here below, as suggested by another reader, is a very clear line about where to send them by 5 p.m. tomorrow May 19th!
Persons wishing to submit written comments on the appropriate size and scope of the FY 2017 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program should submit them by 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 19, 2016 via email to PRM-Comments@state.gov or fax (202) 453-9393.
For all of you who don’t know what we are talking about, go back to this post for a complete discussion. HOWEVER, I JUST NOW NOTICED THAT THE FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICE HAS THE WRONG DATES IN IT! I’ve written to the State Department for clarification! [update May 19th: we did hear from the State Department and they admitted they had made an error! You have until 5 p.m. today to get your testimony submitted.]
And, thanks to all who sent comments to me. I am still in the process of reading them all and getting them posted. Needless to say, I had no idea that so many of you would take the time to write.
All of the testimony we have posted so far and other information on this important opportunity is archived here.
We’ve been telling you lately about how the federal government and its refugee contractors are out scouting new locations to expand the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program to your towns and cities. They are desperate for new sites as older sites are overloaded and pushback from concerned citizens is growing.
We recently told you aboutRutland, VT and Reno, NV, (in April it was Ithaca, NY) so it was no surprise to see news about the Eugene, OR (Lane County) area getting Syrian refugees. However, as I read the story and went back to earlier stories, the plot thickened! No mention is made of the fact that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is a federal refugee contractor paid millions of dollars each year to seed refugees into American towns and cities.
The story that I saw first thing this morning is this one about a Catholic Charities being asked by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to take a few Syrians and Burmese refugees soon (usual fairly straightforward strategy).
SPRINGFIELD, Ore.- In a few months, Lane County will gain three new families with the help of Catholic Community Services of Lane County.
These families are refugees from Syria and Myanmar, also known as Burma.
After that, Lane County will continue to gain 7 to 10 new refugee families each year.
Catholic Community Services Executive Director Tom Mulhern says the US Conference of Catholic Bishops called Catholic Community Services, asking them to help facilitate a refugee program in Lane County.
Demand transparency!
Be sure if you live in this area to contact Catholic Community Services and your local elected officials and ask for a copy of the R & P Abstractfor Eugene/Springfield. Don’t know what that is, please readour recent post on Reno! As a taxpayer, you are entitled to all the facts on the new resettlement site. But, then get this! Are we seeing the United Nations new ALTERNATIVE PATHWAYS being put in motion to build the Syrian community in Lane County? This is Welcoming America’s slide presentation on the idea of seeding your towns with immigrants and refugees. I did not make this up!
Here is what I found when I looked around some more:
The ‘seedling’ for this new community is a Syrian ‘refugee’ named Ali Turki Ali who was ‘discovered’ by a longtime US State Department employee named Mark Ward working in Turkey.
Although Ali was apparently perfectly safe in Turkey, he was interested in going to Europe, but Ward convinced him to go to America instead.
You really need to read the article.
But, then this is something I have never heard of and makes me wonder if this is part of the new strategy to get Syrians in to the US. Ali was told that he would need a private sponsor and Ward’s 25-year-old son Peter would do the job. So some ‘twenty-something’ can vouch for a newly arrived Muslim refugee? When did that policy come into practice?
“You will need a sponsor wherever you go,” Ward said.
“I know one American,” Ali said. “You. And you’re not in the United States.”
“I know an American who could be your sponsor,” Ward said. “My son, Peter.”
A sponsor is someone who agrees to watch over a refugee for their first six months in the country. The sponsor helps a refugee find a place to live and learn about the community.
Mark Ward showed Ali a map of Oregon. It might as well have been a photograph of Mars.
“And that same look came over his face,” Ward says.
“And then I had to convince (Lutheran Community Services) in Portland that I wanted him in Eugene, and that wasn’t easy,” Ward says. Lutheran Community Services is Ali’s receiving agency in Oregon and one of three refugee resettlement agencies in the state, according to Evans, the state DHS spokesman.
“We want him in Portland,” Ward recalls the agency saying. “Where we can keep an eye on him.”
So, guess what, Ali went to Eugene, and subsequently the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has set up a new resettlement agency—-Catholic Community Services of Lane County—and presto! Ali’s extended family will be the first to arrive for the new resettlement site! We learn herethat because his two brothers have a relative in the area (Ali!) they are on the way to Eugene, Oregon. So plant the first refugee seedling and more will come!
About the seedling photo: Go here and learn where that came from.
See this story about investigations underway in Seattle where Somalis are carrying American dollars back to Africa (which is legal, but questionable under the circumstances described in the story from King 5). Are these your tax dollars flying from Sea-Tac to Somalia?
Here is the first question that popped into my head when I read this story: So, if Somalis can travel back and forth to Somalia safely (carrying suitcases stuffed with American dollars that will be lost to the US economy), then doesn’t that mean that Somalia is safe enough and we no longer need to be resettling Somalis at the rate of 750 a month into your towns and cities! Readthis incredible story! Here are just a few snips:
Travelers pulling suitcases full of cash started showing up at Sea-Tac Airport last year holding tickets for flights headed out of the United States.
Transporting large amounts of cash overseas isn’t illegal. But it was who was carrying the money … and where it was going that caught the attention of security officials.
[….]
The people carrying the cash didn’t hide the fact from Customs. Just the opposite, they reported it. Anyone traveling out of the United States is required to declare any amount over $10,000 and fill out a one-page federal form.
These reports are what caught the attention of terrorism investigators in Seattle.
“The thing was the amount, the staggering amount,” said Glenn Kerns, who was assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at the time.
The couriers were working for Seattle-area hawalas – businesses that derive their name from the Arabic word for “transfer.” Hawalas are part of a traditional system of informal banking in Muslim communities.
[….]
Kerns said the first cash shipment rolled through Sea-Tac early last year. A man carrying $750,000 in cash told Customs officials he was transporting the money overseas. Over the next several months, couriers carrying as much as $2 million boarded commercial flights at Sea-Tac.
“One hawala – Seattle hawala – sent out $20 million last year,” said Kerns.
[….]
Kerns was a Seattle police officer who retired last December after serving 14 years on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
He uncovered something suspicious when he analyzed financial records that the hawalas are required file with the Washington Department of Financial Institutions.
He researched the names of the ten clients who transferred the most money through hawalas last year.
“All ten of them were on welfare benefits. DSHS benefits,” said Kerns. “It’s fraud. Straight up fraud – every one of them.”
There is so much I want to say about thisWashington Times story, but my posting queue is so long and I am so far behind.
Remember this basic concept as you read this story. LEGITIMATE asylum seekers are to ask for protection in the first safe country in which they arrive—they are nothing more than illegal alien criminals when they use smugglers to get them through 7 safe countries before they arrive at the US border and ask for asylum (refugee) status.
The Palestinian men highlighted in this story clearly had money and were not going to be patient to wait in line to be processed as legitimate refugees. New American Palestinian Mounis Hammouda
They were simply shopping for the best deal (and had money to help them) as they left Gaza and passed through Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico to arrive on the Arizona border.
Here is just a bit of the story, you need to read it all (if you can stand the Washington Times pop-ups and other ads):
FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) – Mounis Hammouda and Hisham Shaban were stranded in Honduras, penniless after being ripped off by a smuggler who was supposed to get them to Mexico so that they could arrive at their final destination, the United States.
The Palestinian men had traveled across the world to escape bloodshed and torture in their homeland, and desperately phoned a friend in Canada to wire them money so they could finish their trek.
[….]
Some migrants cross into the U.S. illegally; others, like Hammouda and Shaban, turn themselves claiming asylum. They were among nearly 42,000 people to seek asylum in 2014 in the U.S., a more than 20 percent increase from 2010.
Immigrants claim asylum because they believe they will face persecution or torture in their homeland.
They can stay in the U.S. if an asylum officer and immigration judge determine that such a fear exists. Many are detained during this process, but some are granted bail while their request moves through the immigration court system, which can take years.
As you watch what is happening in Europe with hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving and asking for asylum, keep in mind this is happening at our borders too (just on a smaller scale so far)! Once granted asylum, these illegal aliens are then eligible just like refugees for all of our welfare benefits, for permission to work and to ultimately become a US citizen.
Check out this other story this morning (hat tip: Joanne): Smugglers made $5 billion in 2015 moving supposed ‘refugees’ around the world.
Someone asked me today where to find the number of refugees who were resettled in each state in the US over the years and it reminded me that we have many many new readers every day who are just beginning to try to get a handle on how the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program works. Most recent Annual Report to Congress
Very useful documents are the Office of Refugee Resettlement Annual Reports to Congress*** which are full of all sorts of data, not just the statistics on how many refugees were resettled in your state, but they include data on welfare use, employment, housing, and medical assistance, among other things.
They also include reports from the VOLAGs (the federal contractors) and discussions of special problems that some refugee populations encounter here. And, of course there is information about the myriad grants these contractors receive each year. I can’t say it enough, but knowledge is power. If you want to begin to understand what is happening in your towns and cities, start by looking at one of these documents. Click here for a list of available reports.
By the way, the Refugee Act of 1980 specifies that this report should be completed and sent to Congress by the end of January following the close of the fiscal year. Thus, the 2015 Annual Report should be available, but they are behind in producing it.
So what else is new! At one point a few years ago, they were three years behind!
For new readers we have a category entitled ‘where to find information,’ and you might want to have a look at it from time to time.
P.S. I just spent a few minutes examining Table 1 (of the Appendix) in theFY2009 Annual Reportwhere it cataloged how many refugees and from what countries were resettled in each state between 1983 and 2009. Wow! Amazing!
***This is not to be confused with another report to Congress that accompanies the President’s proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. That report also has much useful data but is not as comprehensive as the reports found here.
