This is the “dumb” deal that the Trump Administration has agreed to honor! (See previous posts here)
Supposedly we are taking up to 1,250 rejected asylum seekers (mostly from Muslim countries) that Australia is housing in detention centers at two off-shore locations after they tried to enter Australia illegally.
Australia plans to close some of the detention facilities by the end of August and detainees (those not going to your US town) have been offered help to get home.
So what is the “deal” part of this? For the first time in a long time, we get a bit of news about what Australia is doing for us! Get this!
Australia is taking some Central Americans presently in Central America (they aren’t even in the US!). So, I repeat, what are we getting out of the deal?
From 9 News (Australia):
More than 1600 refugees have expressed interest in Australia’s resettlement deal with the United States, which is expected to offer up to 1250 places.
[….]
US officials are vetting refugees on both Manus Island and Nauru to decide who they’ll resettle in America under a one-off deal struck with the federal government.
The immigration department says the US considers refugees as cases, which can comprise a nuclear or extended family group, or an individual.
More than 900 detainees have completed their first interviews with US officials.
[….]
Australia will remove itself from the process on August 31, meaning no more help for refugees returning to their home countries voluntarily from that date forward, senators were told.
Meanwhile, Australia has begun a refugee screening process for seven cases, 30 individuals in total, for potential resettlement from Central America in relation to the US deal.
Let me be clear! First, any Central American migrants presently in Central America are not our problem.
And, consider this!
Australia will take Central American Christians and we get mostly Muslims from the following countries: Iran, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, and Sudan (4 of those countries are on Trump’s original travel ban list).
Adding insult to injury, you pay for all of this!
Trump spotted the dumb deal and called it what it is, but….
POTUS might have had the best instincts during the campaign and shortly after getting in office, but frankly, he is now being rolled by the bureaucrats (and RINOs in Congress). So much for his business/management acumen!
If this deal goes through, it will be Trump’s dumb deal!