We hear Ad nauseam that Syrian refugees entering the US now by the thousands are being vetted in a process that has been shrunk from the original 18-24 months down to 3 months. It is a lie, they can’t be vetted and truth-be-told neither can the Somalis, the Burmese Rohingya, the Afghans, the Sudanese, the Ethiopians and a good many of the Iraqis.
Forget the most egregious case, the Syrians, for a minute.
How do you find data on Somalis who have wandered all over the world, some on boats to Europe (to Malta!***) where we then pick them up and magically transform then into refugees for your town?
The Burmese Rohingya are leaving Burma and Bangladesh on boats headed for places like Malaysia where we pick them up and Catholic Charities delivers them to your towns.
We are picking up Afghans and other Middle Easterners in, of all places, Austria in Europe.
Who are these men? Do we query the government of Afghanistan for background data on Mohammed who has ‘made his way’ to Vienna? These migrants are basically other countries’ illegal aliens that we take off their hands and put on welfare in America!
Here is a good description from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (hat tip: Paul) which talks about the use of ‘vetting jargon’ to lull the American public into complacency about their new neighbors.
From FAIR (emphasis is mine):
“Vetting” is a term rarely used in everyday English. Nevertheless, it has appeared regularly in recent coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis and the mass movement of Middle-Eastern migrants into Europe. Media outlets and government officials have repeatedly discussed vetting as if it were some magical process that grants access to otherwise inaccessible information. But what does vetting really mean?
Simply put, vetting means conducting a background check on someone. If you have ever applied for a credit card or renewed a drivers’ license, you have been vetted. Vetting may consist of conversations with references, as when applying for a job; or it may consist of a review of information found in computerized databases, as when applying for a home loan.
[….]
In the United States, we regularly engage in business and governmental transactions where we furnish personal information. That data is captured and stored in various databases. When we apply for a drivers’ license the DMV captures our names, photographs, addresses and biographical details. In some cases, our fingerprints are also captured.
Successful vetting is dependent upon access to information that is reliable and verifiable. Therefore, it is relatively easy to vet people who live in the United States. As they go about their daily business, their information is regularly captured and updated – and can be checked against multiple government or commercial databases. It is also relatively easy to vet people who come to America from countries where businesses and government agencies are operated in a manner similar to the United States – as long as their governments are willing to share information with the United States.
[….]
Problems arise when attempting to vet people who come from countries where there are few reliable public records or countries that are unwilling to share information.
[….]
Prior to its civil war, Syria did not share significant amounts of background information on its citizens with the United States. Even if Syria were now willing to share its information, the Syrian civil war has caused the destruction of many government records and very little reliable, verifiable information is currently being compiled either by government or non-governmental organizations operating within the country. As a result, Syrian passports, birth certificates, drivers’ licenses and other government documents cannot be adequately verified.
[….]
Although USCIS claims that all Syrian applicants for refugee status are being thoroughly vetted, this is simply untrue.
[….]
Hiding behind jargon connected with the background check process will not conceal the shortcomings of that process. The American public has a right to expect that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will not admit refugees, and other seekers of immigration benefits, to the United States until it is reasonably certain that they pose no threat to those currently residing here. Failing to deny admission to those who have not, or cannot, be completely and thoroughly vetted constitutes a complete abdication of DHS’s responsibilities to secure the borders of the United States and ensure the safety of the American people.
It isn’t just the Syrians!
Back to the Freedom Caucus and their phony-baloney plan to attach a bill to the ‘Continuing Resolution’ requiring the Obama Administration guarantee Syrians are being vetted, I say, what about the Somalis, the Burmese Rohingya, the Afghans, the Ethiopians, the Iraqis, the Sudanese etc. They aren’t being thoroughly vetted either!
I checked the US Department of State’s data base for Muslim refugees arriving in the US for the first 11 months of the 2016 fiscal year (that is as of Sept. 1, 10 days ago) and here are some of the Muslim refugee numbers as of that date.
Syria: 10,600
Somalia: 7,967 (why are we still bringing in Somalis, it has been 30 years, does it ever end?)
Iraq: 6,840
Burma: 2,794 (they now have the Rohingya! flow in motion, look for 30 more years of this!)
Afghanistan: 2,128
Sudan: 997
Ethiopia: 456
(I didn’t do all of the Muslim countries)
Get this! We are constantly told that the refugees from DR Congo are all persecuted Christians, but this year alone we admitted 422 Muslims from the DR Congo! In 2013 we promised the United Nations we would admit 50,000 total refugees from DR Congo over 5 years.
Without a doubt, these migrants fleeing war and failed Middle Eastern and African countries cannot be vetted!
It is time to DEFUND THE REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM!
***Someday I hope a real investigative reporter digs in to the illegal process the Bush Administration put into place where we take some illegal alien Africans who make it to Malta and transform them into refugees and bring them to the US. We have a massive archive on Malta here at RRW for your reading pleasure.