Day: March 25, 2017

Maryland judge to hold hearing on Tuesday regarding FY2017 refugee ceiling issue

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For background, see my post here about the annual refugee admissions ceiling and my contention that the President had (still has!) the authority under the Refugee Act of 1980 to stay under the ceiling set by Obama (110,000) or the new ceiling he has set (50,000).  There is nothing in the Act which compels him to bring in numbers approaching the ceiling.
The judge in Hawaii seems to think the judiciary has the right to set numbers, and apparently the Maryland judge is headed in the same direction.

One of the main plaintiffs in the case being heard on Tuesday is Mark Hetfield of HIAS. See here how much of your money HIAS lives on: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/11/13/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-lectures-trump-never-mentions-its-pecuniary-interest-in-refugees/

(BTW, we reported yesterday that Trump’s Dept. of State is still admitting refugees and another 31 came in since yesterday.)
Michael Patrick Leahy (Breitbart) thoroughly addresses the subject of whether courts can set the refugee admissions ceiling in an article entitled:

Federal Judge Who Blocked Trump Travel Ban Will Rule on Plaintiffs Request to Double Number of Refugees in FY 2017

Leahy explains the role of Congress in appropriating money, but the 1980 Act itself placed most of the power in the hands of the President.  I’m guessing that in 1980, Senators Kennedy, Biden and President Jimmy Carter never envisioned a President like Donald Trump, or the degree to which American citizens would object to admitting such poverty to the country, so it is silent on the subject of how low a Prez can go.
Anyway, here is Leahy:

Judge Theodore Chuang of the U.S. District Court in Maryland, who issued a temporary restraining order on March 15 halting part of President Trump’s Executive Order 13780, has scheduled a hearing on March 28 to consider the merits of a request made by the plaintiffs in their complaint to revoke the section of that exec order that limited the maximum number of refugees authorized to enter the United States in FY 2017 to 50,000.

Several legal scholars and political commentators have questioned Chuang’s impartiality, in part because he served as deputy general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, as Breitbart reported.

In the very first sentence of his March 15 decision, Chuang makes an error of fact which may indicate how he will rule on March 28.

“On March 6, 2017, President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order which bars, with certain exceptions, the entry to the United States of nationals of six predominantly Muslim countries, suspends the entry of refugees for 120 days, and cuts by more than half the number of refugees to be admitted to the United States in the current year,” Judge Chuang writes. (emphasis added)

With this statement, Judge Chuang makes it clear that he accepts the argument made by plaintiffs HIAS (formerly Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) about refugee resettlement numbers in FY 2017. The plaintiffs argue that former President Obama’s September 22, 2016 “presidential determination” that he wanted Congress to fund the resettlement of up to 110,000 refugees in the United States in FY 2017 means that Congress must fund the resettlement of 110,000 refugees this fiscal year, and that President Trump has absolutely no say in the matter.

The facts and the law say otherwise.

Leahy follows here with great detail about the role of Congress in appropriating money for resettlement.  Just a reminder that we argue that 50,000 is NOT THAT LOW when analyzing all years since 9/11.

Congress, however, has, of now, only appropriated funding sufficient to resettle 48,901 refugees in the United States in FY 2017, which is 1,099 below the limit of 50,000 President Trump established in Executive Order 13780.

Officials at the Department of State as well as all the refugee resettlement agencies–including HIAS–are well aware that their funding for FY 2017 is about to run out, and that circumstance is entirely unrelated at this time to President Obama’s September 22 “presidential determination” that set the maximum limit of refugees authorized to resettle in the United States in FY 2017 at 110,000.

[….]

The HIAS/IRAP complaint on which Judge Chuang will hold a hearing on March 28 is all about continuing the flow of federal funds to these VOLAGs who are almost completely reliant on the taxpayers to pay for their operations, and their salaries.

Much, much more here.
Go here to see, in my view, what HIAS is worried about!
This is going to be a week in courts involving refugees, more tomorrow.

Comment worth noting: It might be too late for some American communities

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editor:  This is a comment from reader ‘Seneca the Elder’ posted 4 days ago in response to this post.  I apologize for the late posting, I’ve been distracted by a family health issue (trying to squeeze in reading and posting between playing nurse).
From ‘Seneca the Elder’ “…it is kind of too late”

There have been a lot of missteps by the Trump administration when it comes to “refugees” aka invaders/migrants/barbarians/Third Worlders.

I understand that they have a lot on their plates, but immigration is probably THE most important issue for a lot of people. Especially those of us who live in or near a sanctuary city. Just yesterday I was walking around the one near me. Here I was in affluent Westchester County, walking around a small city that looked like it was in the slums of Ecuador or Guatemala. In violation of the City codes, the signs were in Spanish, not English. Judging by all the dish antennas on the roof and other parts of the houses, there were obviously half a dozen families living in many of the small, single family homes. The building inspectors and city employees are afraid of being called racists so they allow all the violations even though there have been fires where people lost their lives.

There are no more cute boutiques or specialty shops because all the store fronts have been taken by barber shops, dollar stores and hair salons (another zoning violation to have to many on one block) that are fronts for gambling, drug dealing and prostitution. Oh, and the roosters that you hear crowing in the distance are not from any farm- they are the ones the “immigrants” use for cock fighting, which has also made a comeback.

Sure, it’s not a no go zone like they have in Europe, but there are many blocks that I hesitate to walk down because of all the cat calls and nasty remarks made by the able bodied young men who hang around the barber shops which seem to be their main gathering place. It must be a third world cultural thing that these thugs are all getting their hair cut at 10-11 pm at night-there’s a lot of action at the barber shops for sure.

Most of the older families of Italian, Irish, Polish and European descent have left for the neighboring small towns where English is still the main language and the schools are better.

The liberal Dems who still live in the little city proudly send their kids to schools that are now 90% Hispanic and English is of course a second language. Taxes have gone up significantly to pay for all the help that the third world children and their parents need. I love it when I go to the local supermarket during the day and I see the wonderful families lined up to pay for their groceries. There’s young able bodied “dad”, young pregnant “mom” one kid in the carriage and another toddler holding on. Their hundreds of dollars worth of groceries are easily paid for with the latest benefit card that my tax dollars support.

So even if Trump & Co.. do everything right from here on out, for many places, even in our President’s own back yard, it’s kind of too late.

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