Time reporter, Maya Rhodan, quotes Anne Richard the Obama Assistant Secretary of State, and public relations people at two resettlement contracting agencies, an academician, but no one on the side of slowing the flow of refugees to America for economic and security reasons! And, there are plenty of us out here now! She does quote Kellyanne Conway to be sure you know that it is Trump vs. the humanitarians!
Here is the story (actually we thank Ms. Rhodan for giving us so much information we didn’t have!):
Officials at the State Department and beyond are anxious about what the Trump presidency means for their work.
The past year had been tough for Anne Richard, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration. Ever since the body of 3-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi washed up on the shores of Turkey in 2015, her office, which processed 84,995 refugee claims last year, has been caught in political crossfire. [Notice how the propagandists have to get that poor baby in the story!—ed]
Richard says she’s been challenged constantly about how her office does its job, from members of Congress and everyday Americans…. [Glad to know this!—ed]
[….]
“I get these letters saying ‘Oh, you’re naïve, terrorists are going to use this program to infiltrate the United States,’” Richard said. “I don’t think I’m naïve. I’m looking at facts. The debate in the United States centers on this question of whether or not people should be afraid of refugees. I think not.”
The problem for Richard and her allies is that the next President of the United States, who will effectively run her office when she leaves on January 20, disagrees with that conclusion. [Anne Richard is an Obama appointee, so Trump will be choosing her replacement.—ed]
[….]
Inside and outside of the State Department, those who handle work around refugee resettlement are worried about the future of their work in the Trump administration. [And, the future of their paychecks!—ed] Many are working to share positive refugee stories with hopes of changing the hearts and minds of skeptics. While questions loom, the work continues—a little over 25,000 refugees have already been admitted to the U.S. since the beginning of the fiscal year—but on day one of the Trump administration things could change significantly.
What hardened the public against the refugee program was indeed the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. We noticed a huge jump in readership at RRW at that time.
Rhodan continues….
After a slight shift in opinion in the wake of Kurdi’s death, the majority of the public hardened on refugees after the terror attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. In September 2015, the Pew Research Center recorded that about 51% of Americans supported the government’s decision accept more refugees in response to the European migrant crisis. Two months later, a Bloomberg poll found 53% of Americans wanted the U.S. to stop accepting refugees altogether.
[….]
Around that time, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which houses the refugee admissions program and funds and manages the nine Resettlement Support Centers around world that prepare refugee applications, started playing defense.
When Senators Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and President Jimmy Carter created the Refugee Admissions Program in 1980 they gave the President inordinate amounts of power to determine who comes and how many. Now, as refugee skeptic Donald Trump arrives in Washington it could come back to bite them. (Both Bushs were soft on refugees).
In October, President Obama set a new goal of resettling 110,000 refugees in 2017—a number that president-elect Trump can decide to either reduce or ignore. The goal functions as a ceiling that the country can’t go over, and Trump can change it once he is president without an act of Congress.
At this point reporter Rhodan quotes from two representatives of refugee contracting agencies without mentioning that many jobs are at stake now at these quasi-government agencies since both of these organizations receive millions of taxpayer dollars to place refugees in your towns and cities. After discussing the International Rescue Committee, here is what she reports that Church World Service is doing.
What is so galling to me is that CWS is likely using funds you, as taxpayers, give them to organize lobbying efforts, marches on Washington and media propaganda campaigns. They use your money to work against you!
The Time article continues…..
Church World Service is working on sharing refugees’ and volunteers’ stories through a digital campaign called #GreaterAs1. They’ve also been encourage partners across the country to reach out to local and national officials to share refugee success stories and comment on the impact of their work. The group also plans to have refugee presence at both the confirmation hearing of Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as well as a women’s march planned for after the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump. [So they are going to parade refugee pawns in to Senator Sessions’ hearing to be Attorney General? Once again, thanks to reporter Rhodan for this information.—ed]
As Richard’s appointment comes to an end, she’s still working to get the word out about refugees. After a young Somali refugee carried out a knife attack at Ohio State University, she penned a letter to the editor to USA Today. “The biggest issue that I’ve tried to get across is that refugees are not terrorists,” she said. “They are the victims of terrorists, and victims of war, victims of persecution.”
There is more, click here to read the rest of the biased Time story.
Remember, even as Ms. Richard packs up and leaves, there are career bureaucrats who will carry-on until Trump puts someone in there to rein them in!
Endnote: You might want to see yesterday’s post about Rochester, NY where we learned that the State Department is not only countering negative news, but pushing resettlement agencies to the brink with a huge number of mostly Muslim refugees they are bringing in as they come up against the clock—Inauguration day January 20th.