I checked the numbers at Wrapsnet this morning and see that since I reported last on Wednesday (March 1) we had admitted 296 additional refugees.
Readers will recall that the US State Department notified its refugee resettlement contractors to expect the flow to stop on about March 3rd. Clearly it hasn’t stopped yet.
Of the 296 admitted since Wednesday, 105 were from four of the seven countries identified in the so-called “travel ban.”
None came in the last few days from Libya, Syria or Yemen (but readers should know that in the last few years only tiny numbers, if any, came from Libya or Yemen). But, it was a surprise to see that Syria was down to zero in the last couple of days.
The big winner in the gang of seven countries was Somalia which sent us a whopping 77 refugees since Wednesday.
Other big winners, among the usual sending countries, were Burma (97, 12 of those were Muslims) and 50 came from the DR Congo.
DR Congo! The UN said take 50,000 and we said yes, master!
Long time readers will remember that we promised the United Nations, here in 2013, to admit 50,000 from the DR Congo over 5 years. Only a small number of those are Muslims, but they represent some very traumatized women (with lots of children) who will require expensive mental health treatment, here. Their contribution to the US economy will surely be a negative one as we are clearly importing extreme poverty in this case.
I see that as of this morning we have admitted 37,913 from DR Congo since FY2013!
This is a prime example of a key reform we expect the Trump Administration to make. If we are going to admit some refugees….
We should decide which ‘refugees’ we take, not simply jump when the United Nations tells us to!
Did your state get Congolese? Here is a map from Wrapsnet showing where the DR Congolese were distributed since FY13:
The top three receiving states are Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina.
Tell President Trump to stop jumping when the UN tells us to help them clean out their refugee camps!
Endnote: I suspect the delay in the new travel ban announcement is that the State Department is waiting to clear the last refugees through airports world wide.
This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’
My DR Congo archive is here.