Month: March 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.

For more ‘comments worth noting’ from readers and guest opinion pieces, click here.

Not everyone in the Jewish community thinks it is wise to import Middle Eastern Muslims to US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You know there has to be anxiety in the Jewish community about whether Jews should, without reservation, promote the resettlement of Muslims from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan in the ME or Somali Muslims from Africa.
Here at the The Jewish Chronicle we see at least the beginning of some honesty about the friction.

Longtime readers know that we have extensively chronicled the activities of the only Jewish federal resettlement contractor HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) on these pages.  When you read about local Jewish resettlement groups know that most are subcontractors of HIAS (see their subcontractors here).
Here is the story:

By and large, Pittsburgh’s Jewish community — in line with the American Jewish community in general — has rallied behind efforts to bring Syrian refugees to the United States. Formal statements in support of immigration have been issued by area institutions, winter coats for newly arrived families have been collected, and outraged discourse on social media protesting the Trump administration’s attempts to thwart immigration from Syria and other Muslim-majority nations is common.

But despite the outcry from so many in Jewish Pittsburgh that it is imperative to “welcome the stranger,” others argue that Jewish funds and resources should not be going to help bring Syrians here.

Syrian refugees arrive in Pittsburgh in February. http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/02/07/Syrian-refugees-Pittsburgh-International-Airport-Donald-Trump-immigration-ban/stories/201702070214?pgpageversion=pgevoke

“How can Jews be so smart and yet so stupid at the same time?” said Lou Weiss of Squirrel Hill. “Everyone loves the immigration of people to our country to become Americans. But who’s in favor of bringing in immigrants from a country where they hate gays, where women are subjected to female circumcision and honor killings, and they hate Jews?”

While Weiss may hold the minority opinion on this issue, he certainly is not alone.

“From our perspective, 99 percent of the responses we’ve gotten have been positive,” said Jordan Golin, president and CEO of the Jewish Family & Children’s Service, which so far has resettled 51 Syrian families in Pittsburgh and is scheduled to bring in additional families. “We are aware, though, that there are other members of the Jewish community that have different feelings about this issue.”

You have to go to the end of a longish story to hear more from Weiss:

But for Weiss, the issue of whether Jews should be supporting the effort to bring Syrians to this country is pretty cut and dried.

“Take a look at what’s going on in Europe; that’s what will happen here,” Weiss said, noting the mass migration of Jews from European countries who feel threatened by Islamic immigrants there. “Jewish people are people of immigration. But we have to see who it is we’re welcoming into the United Sates. Syrians are taught Holocaust denial. They are taught that Jews are the sons of apes and pigs. There are blood libel books written by their leaders. Only the Jews would pay to bring them to this country.

“You have to think about this rationally,” he continued. “Who are the immigrants? They hate gays, and they subject women to horrible second-class treatment — not every single person, but as a group. And if you bring them here, ultimately, they will vote. If you think they’ll vote to support Israeli interests, you’re sadly mistaken.”

While Weiss is not one of the individuals who has complained to the Federation or to JF&CS, he nonetheless feels strongly about the issue.

“The anti-Semitism of Syrian Muslims is not a quirk,” he said. “It’s a feature of their culture. I love immigrants. But I don’t love the immigration of people that are anti-gay, anti-women, and anti-Semitic.”

Go here for more of The Jewish Chronicle story, and here for our archive on HIAS.

Here we go again, refugee numbers jump, 342 since Wednesday

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As we have said repeatedly, and most recently here, the Hawaiian judge did not have the power to slow the flow of refugees entering the US, nor did he have any power to set the ceiling.   That said, a week after the 120-day slowdown was  to go in to effect, the numbers entering the US picked up dramatically since we reported 38,111 as of Wednesday (for FY17).

Who is calling the shots on refugee admissions? Career bureaucrats or Sec. of State Tillerson? Either way, why the big jump in admissions over last two days? And, what is taking Trump so long to choose Asst. Sec. to oversee refugee program?

Today data at Wrapsnet indicates that another 342 refugees arrived in the US in the last 48 hours.  We are now at 38,453!

If the US Department of State had been preparing for a 120-day pause to begin on March 16th, how is it that this large number of refugees was ready to board planes?  Is there anyone in charge (other than the career people) at the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration? Are they still calling all the shots?  Or, is it possible that the White House isn’t willing to fight on this portion of the EO (assuming we wouldn’t notice)?
The top five nationalities among the 342 newly arrived are as follows:

Syria (55 and 51 of those were Muslims)

Somalia (50 and all are Muslims)

Burma (44 and a surprisingly high number of those—17—are Muslims)

Iraq (41 and 32 are Muslims)

Ukraine (32 and zero Muslims)

The top five states receiving Syrians over the last two days are: Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho and Ohio.
The top five states receiving Somalis since Wednesday are: Massachusetts, Georgia, Maine, Minnesota, and New York.
This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’

Supt. Montgomery County Schools says it is federal govt. that screens unaccompanied minors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to Joanne for spotting the answer to our question from earlier this morning.

Montgomery County, MD, Superintendent of Public Schools, Jack R. Smith held a press conference yesterday about the “tragedy.” The tragedy is that the Obama Administration allowed creeps like these to enter the US and with the government’s help be spread out throughout America.

The Conservative Tree House reported the following when describing the press conference yesterday about the  alleged Rockville rapists from Central America:

Mr. Smith does acknowledge during the latter part of the presser that these predator suspects were indeed part of the Unaccompanied Alien Children relocation program.

Go to the Conservative Tree House and watch the video of the press conference led by MoCo Superintendent of Schools Jack R. Smith.
If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, go to 20:10 and see that in response to a question about screening, Smith says they don’t screen those who are part of the “unaccompanied minors” program where the federal government places the children with families.  He implies that the feds screen them.
To get to the bottom of whether they were part of the program housed in the Office of Refugee Resettlement, real investigative reporters should try and get information out of them.
Unfortunately, the place is still being run by Obama bureaucrats, so chances are slim anyone there will fess up to having processed the alleged rapists.

Central American Minors (CAM) program

God forbid that these perps came in through Obama’s illegal expansion of the US Refugee Admissions Program known as CAM where instead of the ‘child’ aliens coming across our southern border on their own steam trying to claim asylum, we go and get them!
I’ve been meaning to report that Wrapsnet has catalogued hundreds coming in from Central America as refugees already in this fiscal year, but will try to get to that later.
THESE ARE NOT REFUGEES.  People escaping poverty or violence do not fit the definition of a refugee who must prove he/she will be PERSECUTED for one of several reasons if returned home. Obama vastly expanded the refugee definition and Trump’s team needs to get to work immediately and rein-in the expansion!