Month: May 2017

HuffPo: Refugee processing pipeline being restarted, contractors optimistic

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I looked at this article (Huffington Post) more carefully, I see it only sends a garbled message about whether the refugee pipeline is being geared up to start seriously flowing again or is only trickling.
But, it does appear that the resettlement contractors are getting excited that it will flow with gusto soon since they are rehiring staff they let go shortly after Trump put out his first Executive Order.

Limbaugh: “Does he know that it’s the Republicans that are the roadblock here?”

I think the Trump team made a big mistake by placing the refugee moratorium (to assess the adequacy of our  security screening) and a reduction in the CEILING for refugee admissions in an Executive Order with the so-called travel ban for all those coming from the terror hot-spot countries.

It is my view, that Trump did not need an EO to slow the flow of refugees across the board!

By combining the two (the ceiling cap and the ban) and the subsequent rogue court decisions, Trump has lost (given up?) his power (the power the President is given in the Refugee Act of 1980 to set the admissions limit on refugees).  And, thus everyone is confused, apparently even within his Administration.
To add to the confusion the Republicans in Congress funded the US Refugee Admissions Program at a level for 75,000 refugees to be admitted by September 30th (the last day of this fiscal year), AND Trump signed it!

75,000 would be the second highest admission number in ten years! (see chart below)

Indeed, Rush Limbaugh was right yesterday when he asked (on a different issue): “Does he know that it’s the Republicans that are the roadblock here?” 
Again, the President has the power to set the ceiling in “consultation” with Congress. If Trump wanted to take them on he could ask for a rescission of those funds to admit the numbers he wants—which he said would be UNDER 50,000!

Every day that the White House is silent on the stunning news we heard last week says to me that the White House agrees with the 75,000 admissions this year.

Why do the Republicans in Congress want to keep the pipeline going?
It is because most of them work for their big business donors and the Chamber of Commerce to guarantee a steady supply of cheap immigrant labor! Adding insult to injury, your tax dollars support refugee families through the welfare system because wages are too low! You pay for the importation of the labor and for the laborers’ support once here!

It is really quite a difficult obstacle for us (who wish to see the USRAP reformed) to overcome—big businesses and global corporations pushing cheap labor in conjunction with so-called ‘religious’ charities (paid by taxpayers!) claiming this is all about humanitarianism while essentially acting as ‘head hunters’ for big business.
Anyway, here is the HuffPo’s latest on the pipeline flowing:

The United States appears to be resuming its longstanding efforts to resettle refugees after the program was derailed and almost completely upended abroad for several months.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “has begun to expand its interview schedule in the 3rd quarter of the fiscal year,” public affairs officer Marilu Cabrera told HuffPost in a statement on Friday. The Department of Homeland Security is working with the State Department to plan for a “further expansion” through the end of fiscal year 2017, she added.

[….]

Jen Smyers is a lobbyist for Church World Service in Washington, DC. “Director of Advocacy” is just a fancy name for lobbyist. https://cwsglobal.org/jen-smyers/

Even though both orders were blocked in federal court, the administration quietly pumped the brakes on various steps of the resettlement process that occur overseas. Vetting and screening refugees is an 18- to 24-month process, involving interviews with many branches of the U.S. government as well as various security and medical clearances.

[….]

USCIS noted in its statement that circuit rides ― a technical term that refers to DHS agent travel to different countries to conduct refugee interviews ― were suspended on Jan. 25, just prior to Trump’s first executive order, and continued on a reduced schedule from January through March.

In addition to stalled DHS interviews, security and medical checks expire after several months and “none of them [were] being re-run, said Jen Smyers, the associate director of immigration and refugee policy at Church World Service*** one of nine domestic resettlement agencies. “Also, our understanding is that for a while, [medical clearances] were not happening, with some exceptions for emergency cases.” [BTW, I don’t think they do any mental health screening as we learned here! —ed]

Because both of Trump’s executive orders attempted to lower the refugee admissions quota from 110,00 to 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year, “the State Department and USCIS assessed that it was not necessary to interview large numbers of refugee applicants in order to meet the new ceiling,” the USCIS statement said.

[….]

Resettlement experts said they’re cautiously optimistic about the expanded interview schedule.

“We’re waiting to celebrate until we see the pipeline of refugee processing look healthier,” Smyers said. “All of this is really preliminary.”

But they are already in the process of hiring back some of the almost 600 staffers they had to lay off worldwide during the executive order legal limbo.

[….]

Congress recently passed a budget with enough funding to resettle a total of 75,000 refugees through the end of the fiscal year. This should mean significant increases in the number of refugee arrivals in the coming weeks.

More here.
By the way, in a report on Trump’s original idea of choosing Christian refugees as a first priority, Smyers called it “shameful.”
***See my most recent post on Church World Service finances. 67% of their budget comes from you—taxpayers!

No refugee “clients” means no payola for them!  For new readers here are the nine contractors:

 

 

15,726 refugees admitted to US since Inauguration Day, see where they went

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 
I recommend that all of you interested in the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program have some fun at the Refugee Processing Center (aka Wrapsnet).  Play around with the databases and you can learn a lot about what is happening in your state and of course in the country.

Because Donald Trump has not put his people in place in the DOS, Simon Henshaw, a career official, is in charge of the US Refugee Admissions Program. https://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/bureau/213334.htm

Today I wanted to see exactly who are the Trump refugees and where were they placed.
Here (below) is the breakdown of nationalities (top 12) admitted by the Trump Department of State which is still largely being run by the bureaucrats because, at least for the department of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), there is still no Trump appointee running the bureau.
Henshaw, at right, would have been the person responsible for the shocking announcement last week that the number of refugees arriving per week are going to jump dramatically.***
Here are the top 12 sending countries:

DR Congo (2,579) The Obama Administration promised the UN we would take 50,000 and we are getting pretty close now.

Burma (2,083) A whopping 541 of these are Muslim Rohingya

Iraq (1,711)

Syria (1,626)

Somalia (1,564)

Ukraine (1,275)

Bhutan (1,104)

Eritrea (765)

Iran (751)

Sudan (406)

El Salvador (392) Not refugees, these are the result of a special illegal program Obama set up!

Afghanistan (385)

So where did Trump’s 15,726 refugees go:

 

Alaska got 23 and Hawaii, Wyoming and Washington DC ‘welcomed’ zero. The fact that Hawaii, begging for more diversity, got zip is so telling.

 
Here are the top ten states receiving Trump’s refugees:
 

 
***15,726 is about 874 refugees a week entering the US since Trump was inaugurated. We are told that the number will be jumping to 1,500 a week shortly.

What not to tell the Canadian taxpayers about Syrian refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an excellent use of 6 minutes of your time!
I don’t know this program, but thank Paul for sending the youtube clip from The Rebel.
I’m guessing that what Faith Goldy learned about Canada’s new 40,000+ Syrian population applies to America’s flow as well.
We have followed Boy Trudeau’s rash Syrian resettlement program since it began in 2015, see our Canada archive for previous posts.
The Rebel learned that they can’t speak the language, that they are sick (TB!), and that they use large amounts of welfare because they aren’t finding work, but worst of all it was revealed that the documents, obtained by investigators, are littered with admonitions to not tell the taxpaying public the bad news!
If the video doesn’t play below, then watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iqUq1Rmekw
 

 
 

Idaho Uzbek convicted terrorist indicted in attempt to kill prison warden

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For all of the refugee contractors and their groupies busily spreading propaganda that refugees never commit crimes, take note of Muslim Fazliddin Kurbanov who was already in prison, convicted on terrorism charges, and then tried to kill the prison warden a year ago this week!

Obama’s US Attorney for Idaho, Wendy Olson, was concerned with American rabble that might act up during Kurbanov’s 2015 trial!

Where the heck was (is!) the national media on this story? 
We surely would have heard about the attempted murder by one of our star refugee criminals if anyone had reported it before now.
What do you think? Should I give the refugee advocates the benefit of the doubt and when they say there are no refugee criminals, maybe it’s because the media rarely reports those stories.
See a few of our recent ones, here, here and here (yesterday!).
You might want to see our archive on Fazliddin Kurbanov by clicking here.
Don’t miss this story where Idaho US Attorney Wendy Olson suggested that Americans might demonstrate “acts of bias” during his 2015 trial! (You will see that the Idaho Statesman story is now gone!)

Olson showed her bias as she attempted to tamp down the controversy surrounding the Refugee sexual assault case in Idaho as well, here.  (But, I digress!)
From KTVB-7  titled (LOL! just a “man”):

Indictment: Boise man serving terrorism sentence tried to kill prison warden

RIVERSIDE, California — A Boise man who was convicted in 2015 of terrorism-related crimes has been indicted after prosecutors say he attacked the warden at the federal prison where he was held.

Fazliddin Kurbanov, 34, was just months into a 25-year sentence when the attack happened May 31, 2016 at the Federal Correctional Institute in Victorville, California.

He was indicted Wednesday on charges of attempted murder of a federal officer, assault on a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and possession by an inmate of a prohibited object intended to be used as a weapon.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kurbanov used a prison-made knife to attack Calvin Johnson, seriously injuring him. According to the Amercian Federation of Government Employees, the warden needed more than 80 staples to close wounds on his torso.

The indictment describes the knife as “a metal blade or ‘shank’ approximately three to four inches in length.”

Kurbanov was moved to FCI Terminal Island in San Pedro after the attack. Johnson, who recovered from his injuries, is also now working at a different prison.

Kurbanov, an Uzbek national, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, one count of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device in November 2015.

Prosecutors in that case outlined how Kurbanov communicated online with members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, promising to send money and supplies, and expressing interest in carrying out an attack in the United States.

Kurbanov told FBI informants that he was considering Ann Morrison Park or Mountain Home Air Force Base as possible attack sites. Although he did not carry out any attack before his arrest, Kurbanov had stockpiled explosive ingredients including including fertilizer, Tannerite, ammonium nitrate, acetone and aluminum powder in his Curtis Road apartment before his arrest.

Typical! no mention of the ‘R’ word! REFUGEE!
Interesting! The Daily Mail has a story on Kurbanov and mentions that he considered attacking West Point as well.
There is something very fishy about the admission of Uzbeks during the Bush and early Obama years, wish we knew the full story.

Readers: Let me know if the latest on this charming refugee (who will be costing us a fortune to keep in prison for life!) makes it to any national news story or any cable news outlet!

45,732 refugees admitted this fiscal year so far, 45% are Muslim

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been asked frequently what the numbers look like for which religions are practiced by refugees entering the US right now.
Unless Donald Trump tells us that the New York Times story was fake news last week, see here, and that we are not shooting for 70,000 refugees this year, we will assume it is true (and report the numbers as they come in).  Just a reminder that any number in excess of 70,000 will put Trump ahead of most Bush years and ahead of several of Obama’s years.

It doesn’t matter what religion the alleged Burmese biter practices, the questions you should ask are, how did he get through “extreme vetting” and can we afford ‘refugees’ with this degree of apparent mental illness? https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/05/28/burmese-biter-was-headed-for-new-bern-nc-are-we-importing-mentally-ill-in-refugee-program/

Before I give you the list, I want to emphasize that religion should not be the main criteria for your assessment of whether the refugee is good or bad for America.
First, these people are all supposed to have been PERSECUTED?   Do we take some who are really simply economic migrants, those who need work? If so, that is not the purpose of the Refugee Act of 1980.
Can we afford large numbers with mental illness, or illnesses such as TB?
Can we afford those who have no hope of getting off welfare for a generation?
Can we afford those who might already have criminal tendencies that do not become evident in those personal interviews (when no data is available from failed nation states)?
Are we to take into consideration the need by big companies and the Chamber of Commerce for a steady supply of cheap immigrant labor (supported by your tax dollars)?
Are we taking some supposed ‘refugees’ for other purposes of the US State Department, to ‘help-out’ some country that is having a security or economic problem? Or, as we have done in some cases (Uzbeks? Meskhetians?), where we want something from that country?
Again, religion should not be the primary reason we admit or deny anyone, unless they can prove they are being persecuted for it!
Here is a list of some of the religions recorded at Wrapsnet and the refugees who practice those religions (data for this fiscal year from October 1, 2016 to today).  Note: This program operates on a fiscal year basis!
Again, I do not include below all of the religions listed. These are the larger (or more interesting to me) numbers and these are not my categories, they are how they are categorized at Wrapsnet.  45% of those entering the US in this fiscal year practice some form of Islam.   Since Trump was inaugurated on January 20th, the percentage of Muslims entering the US has dropped to 39%.
Numbers for the fiscal year 2017 (so far):

Baptists (1,591)

Buddhists (1,380)

Catholics (2,713)

Christians (6,890)

Evangelical Christians (364)

Hindu (979)

Jehovah Witness (388)

Jewish (149)

Moslem Suni (9,663)

Moslem Shiite (2,509)

Moslem (8,180) These must not have designated a sect

No religion (369)

Orthodox (983)

Pentecostalist (3,901)

Protestant (1,918)

Yezidi (416)

Total refugees this fiscal year:  45,732
Like it or not, these will be Trump’s refugees because years from now (especially if we reach the 70,000 mark by September 30th), no one will remember that Obama presided over 3 1/2 months of the fiscal year.
Again, the data base goes on for 22 pages and I’ve picked those with the largest numbers, or in a few cases ones that interested me like the small number of Jews entering as refugees.  If HIAS (formerly Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) still focused on Jewish refugees they would be out of business by now!
One last thing!
We have been admitting mostly Burmese Christians for probably a decade, but the number of Burmese Muslims (Rohingya) are on the rise and I note that, for this fiscal year, 1,108 of the ‘Moslems’ are from Burma.  I was also surprised to see how large a number of ‘Moslems’ there were from the DR Congo (325) when that whole flow was supposed to have been, we were led to believe, Christians.