I fear the Trump people don’t know all the questionable ethnic groups we are admitting!
Last night when Reutersreported that President Trump would sign an executive order restricting immigration from regions of the world known to be terror hotspots, the reporter listed these countries, or I assume they mean these nationalities (because many are no longer in their own countries but are spread out around the globe):
Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Libyans, Somalis, Sudanese and Yemenis.
The US admitted 13,500 Rohingya during the Obama years. Does anyone believe that the Muslim Rohingya boat people can be securely screened? Photo: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/05/30/myanmar-finds-boat-727-migrants-south-coast
However, we must not leave off the list the thousands of devout Rohingya Muslims we are admitting from Burma and Bangladesh. There is no way they are being vetted properly as they wander around Southeast Asia, many by boat.
I have a whole category (194 previous posts) going back years on Burma’s ethnic minority Rohingya and since I am running out of time this morning (I will be away today), you might want to click hereand learn a bit more about them.
Also, see the discussion about their admission to the US in the most recent report from the President (Obama) here last September (search the report for ‘Rohingya’).
As an ethnic minority group of “special humanitarian concern” they do not have to prove individually that they would be persecuted if returned to Burma or Bangladesh, they need only say they are Rohingya and they are automatically assumed to be refugees. We pick them up in Thailand and Malaysia. Malaysia is a safe Muslim country so there is no reason they couldn’t just stay there!
We have taken thousands so far—13,500 during the Obama Administration! (Click here).
How many this fiscal year?
When I worked on numbers atWrapsnet this morning, I checked on Burmese Muslim numbers and was surprised to find that 26% of the Burmese people we were bringing in are Muslims. This data is just for this fiscal year (FY2017) up until today. Today’s report on Burmese Muslim refugees being placed in your towns and cities.
Again, this post is filed in our Rohingya Reports category, here.
And, I will try to tell you about other ethnic groups that must be subject to extreme vetting later or tomorrow.
And, if the New York Times is right, a 50,000 cap for this fiscal year doesn’t cut numbers enough in my view!
Both Fox News and CNN are reporting this morning that today’s executive orders will deal with The Wall and other ways of beefing up immigration control. They report, contradicting what Reuters saidlast evening, that refugees will be later in the week. It is probably best to just wait and see rather than speculate. Trump Watch! Does the New York Times have its facts straight? Trump capping at 50,000?
But, I believe he can’t wait much longer because as we speak the US State Department has been bringing them in at an unprecedented rate since Inauguration day.
With no Secretary of State or any deputies, the bureaucrats are scrambling, and word is coming back from resettlement contractors that they have geared up for a massive flow to the established resettlement sites (see those sites here). Trump must act this week!
Wrapsnet is back!
Yesterday Ireported that the US State Department’s database where refugee entries to the US are logged by date of arrival, nationality, religion etc. had been down Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday making it impossible to find out how many refugees were coming in since Inauguration Day.
(See my introductory post to this watch, here.)
This is what we know. On the morning of Inauguration Day, January 20th, we had admitted 29,895 refugees since the first day of the 2017 FISCAL year (October 1, 2016). (This fiscal year runs from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017). 29,895 is itself an extraordinarily high number, a rate not seen since before 9/11.
This morning, January 25th, Wrapsnetreports that we have now admitted 30,885. That means of course that since Inauguration day, 990 refugees have been placed in your towns and cities.
As of today, and for this fiscal year we have admitted the following from some countries of concern:
Afghans: 810 (up 62 from Inauguration day)
Iraqis: 4,733 (up 173)
Somalis: 3,894 (up 88)
Syrians: 4,754 (up 166)
This is new!
The New York Timesreported yesterday that President Trump is talking about capping the number of refugees for this year at 50,000.
Before I get to that, for new readers, under the Refugee Act of 1980, the President (each year) sends a determination letter to Congress in September, in advance of the new fiscal year. In it, the President tells Congress how many refugees he wishes to admit and from what regions of the world they will come for the upcoming fiscal year.
Congress’s only role is that of consultant and for at least the first 8 years I’ve been writing about the refugee program, Congress did nothing. In 2015 and 2016 Senator Jeff Sessions’ Immigration Subcommittee held rigorous hearings, but without passing legislation there isn’t much they can do. Bottomline, the Prez has the power.
Now here is what the New York Times is reporting, thanks to reader Theodore for sending it.
Mr. Trump’s refugee directive is expected to target a program the Obama administration expanded last year in response to a global refugee crisis, fueled in large part by a large flow of Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war. Mr. Obama increased the overall number of refugees to be resettled in the United States to 85,000 and ordered that 10,000 of the slots be reserved for Syrians. He set the number of refugees to be resettled this year at 110,000, more than double the 50,000 Mr. Trump is now considering.
By the end of last month, more than 25,000 refugees had been resettled, according to State Department figures, meaning the plan Mr. Trump is considering would admit only 25,000 more by the end of September. [Yes, the NYT is using the fiscal year numbers—ed]
We reported above that as of today, the DOS has admitted 30,885 refugees.
Is Donald Trump really considering capping the number at 50,000 for FY2017?
If so, that is not cutting the numbers greatly in my view. Yes, compared to Obama’s wished-for 110,000 it seems substantial, but examine the chart below and see that it is not out of the ordinary and definitely is more than we admitted in 2002 and 2003 (in the wake of 9/11). In FY02 we admitted 45,850 and in FY03 it was 39,177(see my research here).
When you look at this chart from Wrapsnet, in addition to looking at total refugee admissions, add up the months of Oct, Nov, Dec and Jan and you will see that the numbers admitted in this fiscal year far surpass any year on this chart. (By the way, the column for “ceiling” is what the President proposed in his September determination letter.)
Couldn’t find the updated version of this chart. We admitted just under 85,000 refugees in Obama’s last full fiscal year. But please see that the lowest admission year reported here is 2006 (We admitted smaller numbers in 2002 and 2003.) See that in addition to FY02, FY03, FY06 and FY07, those Bush years are lower than this 50,000 number the NYT is reporting Trump might be shooting for.
To find more useful information, visit our ‘where to find information’ categoryhere. And, Trump Watch! is here.
I sent a message to the White House, here, yesterday. Have you?
And, LOL! now that I have spent 2 hours writing this, I’ll find out that the news has changed again!
Drudge is reporting the news with this banner headline tonight! If this is true, this is big!
Trump to Unleash Immigration Orders
Update Jan. 25th: Be sure to see the latest this morning,here. Reuters:
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign several executive orders on Wednesday restricting immigration from Syria and six other Middle Eastern or African countries, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter.
Trump Watch!
In addition to Syria, Trump’s orders are expected to temporarily restrict access to the United States for most refugees. Another order will block visas from being issued to Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, said the aides and experts, who asked not to be identified.
Trump’s restrictions on refugees are likely to include a multi-month ban on admissions from all countries until the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can increase the intensity of the vetting process.
The Republican president was expected to sign the orders at the Washington headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security, whose responsibilities include immigration and border security.
Continue here.
Anxiety has been building all day about whether President Trump was going to squish-out on doing anything serious about reining-in immigration.
I reported in my earlier post todaythat Wrapsnet has been down all weekend, but it is back up and we learned that a huge number of refugees have been admitted just since Inauguration day—990! So, if this is accurate news, that Trump will pause the refugee program, it couldn’t come soon enough.
More tomorrow!
See our new Trump Watch!category here.
Trump Watch! We know that the President has the power to pause the refugee program without Congress, what is taking so long?
He said he would do it on day one. No sign of anything happening today, on day 4, and it sure looks like his White House doesn’t even have refugees on its radar.
However, John Binder writing at Breitbartyesterday postulates that something on refugees will be coming sooner than expected. Really? It is already later than expected and comments from Sean Spicer at the first White House press briefing don’t sound hopeful (or knowledgeable). Every day that Trump delays gives the Open Borders leftist activists more time to bash him and organize against him, so he should just get the pain over with quickly in my opinion. ***Update*** FAIR is reporting that the President still plans to “use his pen” for an executive order on extreme vetting of refugees, see here in coming “days and weeks.”
Here, below, Maria Jeffrey writing at Conservative Review points to press secretary Sean Spicer’s brushoff regarding refugees yesterday.
(Hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum)
In his first formal press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer couldn’t answer a question about President Trump’s refugee policy.
A reporter asked Spicer, “What’s the status of the Refugee Resettlement Program?”
Spicer: Ask the State Dept! What the hell! I smell a rat—is it Reince or Ryan on refugees? Both?
Spicer told her, “I don’t know. I’ll have to get back to you on that one right now. Or, I think the best thing to do would be to contact the Department of State.”
Contact the State Department where the foxes are obviously still in control on the refugees! And, who would one even call there?
On the campaign trial, President Trump said that refugees seeking to come into the United States were a “Trojan horse” and that, in his administration, refugees would have to submit to rigorous vetting in order to be granted entrance. [See my previous post about how cursory the screening really is!—ed]
While the normal refugee resettlement process takes nearly two years, the Associated Press reported in April 2016 that, with the spike in refugees seeking admission to the U.S., the process was condensed to three months.
The Obama administration let in an unprecedented number of refugees in the past few years. [Yes, see here!—ed]
[….]
Conservative Review’s Daniel Horowitz has observed, “numbers matter when it comes to Middle Eastern immigration, cultural assimilation, and security risks.” Further, Horowitz asks, “when did the American people ever vote for such radical social transformation?”
The election of Donald Trump was a repudiation of many Obama-era leftist policies, and the admission of unprecedented numbers of refugees was one of them. It’s now up to President Trump to fulfill his own promises.
Yes, because I am beginning to hear the word “betrayal” on his immigration promises.
So much could be done to pause many immigration programs until Congress can be forced to act. Continue reading here. People are policy!
Spicer (Reince’s right hand man) came to his present perch from the Republican National Committee, not known for its work in reining-in immigration.See here. Laura Ingraham, earlier considered for the job of Press Secretary, comes from a very different place on the immigration issue—a loss for us, a win for the establishment.
What’s up with Wrapsnet?
There has been no data posted since I reported last on Saturday morning.Wrapsnet, for new readers, is where the US State Department almost daily reports on refugees being admitted to the US: their numbers, their nationalities, their religions and where they are being placed. The site stopped posting data on Saturday, the 21st, with 30,063 refugees processed in to your towns and cities since October 1, 2016.
Here are the options from benign to worrying that could explain the mystery:
~It was just time to fix/repair something with the database, something that has happened periodically over the last few years.
~Because of the transition, staff at Wrapsnet are behind in data processing (however, the Refugee Processing Centeris a contractor, so I don’t see why their work couldn’t continue).
~The Obama team cut it off just as they walked out the door and no one on the Trump team has a clue that it isn’t working.
~The Trump team cut it off on purpose so that we couldn’t continue to report the numbers entering the US while they took no action.
See our new category, Trump Watch! by clicking here.
Contact the White House opinion page here. Tell the President what you think about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
Just discovered by a citizen activist is this May 2016 discussion about the pros and cons of admitting Middle Eastern refugees to the US at McCuistion, a non-profit organization. We learned that The Foundation for Responsible Television has been producing the McCuistion Program for 20 years.
It is a 28-minute program and you can watch the whole thing below, but what our activist wanted you to hear is near the beginning of the discussion where A.J. Irwin, a former Homeland Security agent and expert on terrorism (see here at wikipedia) describes the screening process that we have been told is so long and so thorough. (Hat tip: Jim)
Remember, for the Syrians, the Obama Administration sent more agents to the Middle Eastto reduce the time it takes to bring them in. They processed them to your towns and cities within 3 months.
Begin listening at 2:50 until 4:57 and learn about the screening process that has largely been kept secret from us with euphemisms about how “robust” it is!
A.J. Irwin:
“…when we send refugee officers over there to interview people, they have a mission and their mission is not to detect fraud or identify terrorists, it’s to process these people and get ’em into the system….
When they sit down at their desks or their cubicle, the line is as far as they can see. And they have the pressure of processing these people. So they don’t spend a whole lot of time talking to them. They get their basic information, they see if they meet the basic requirements – have a credible fear – what it’s based on. And then they move on to the next person. So this process is very rapid and the mission, again, is more service. It is not enforcement; it’s not detection of fraud or national security.”
Be sure to see Senators Cruz and Sessions let looseon Homeland Security rep at hearing last September. Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was forced to admit that many Syrians were admitted on the basis of their “personal stories.” [Donald where are you, this would be easy to stop!—ed]
You know and I know that they all have manufactured stories about how they will be persecuted if we don’t take them to America. I bet the vast majority say that ISIS is after them. Ha! Well if we destroy ISIS, then what? Will they go home?
Watch the full discussion below or click here:
