Month: June 2017

Virginia: Iraqi refugee to plead guilty today to lying on refugee application

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

She failed to disclose a family relationship to an Iraqi terrorist.  Ho hum! There was no American fatally affected.
I’m joking because in a story I read within the last day, but can’t remember where, a pro-more-refugees advocate qualified his comment about no refugees committing terror attacks to say—no US refugee committed a fatal terror attack on US soil.  That isn’t true, and, the main reason there aren’t more is that the cases have been foiled!

This is the story we reported in March.
(Dear Supreme Court, family members lie!)
We learn that the Iraqi female liar will admit guilt today.
From AP at the Lincoln Journal Star (hat tip: Joanne). BTW, I searched and searched for any photos of the perps, but found none.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Virginia woman living in the U.S. as an Iraqi refugee for the last decade is scheduled to plead guilty Wednesday to federal charges after being charged with hiding her ties to the kidnapper of a U.S. contractor. [Translation—she lied on her refugee application and in her screening interviews!—ed]

Enas (eh-NAHS’) Ibrahim of Vienna was charged in March on allegations of visa fraud.

Prosecutors say Ibrahim, her husband and her husband’s brother all came to the U.S. and settled in the suburbs of the nation’s capital after receiving refugee status.

But prosecutors say the two men are brothers of Majid Al Mashhandani, who admitted participating in the 2004 kidnapping of U.S. contractor Roy Hallums.

Fraud, fraud and more fraud!
In addition to leaving out any reference to the Islamic terrorist brother because people told them in Iraq (who told them, a refugee contractor!) that they would be rejected from the refugee program if they revealed the terrorist brother, they FABRICATED PERSECUTION STORIES FOR THEMSELVES.
See the DOJ press release from March with all of the details of their lies.

How many more Iraqis lied to get in as refugees and to gain citizenship?

Checking Wrapsnet just now, I see that since the US opened the floodgates for Iraqis we have admitted 140,576 with no end in sight!
Virginia is number seven in the top ten receiving states with 4,536.

Alaska got 49 and Hawaii got a whopping four!

 

And so it begins—the battle of the bona fides

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“Anyone who has an existing relationship with a nonprofit, frankly tens of thousands of refugees, should be seen as having bona fide ties.”

Becca Heller

 
The US Supreme Court has taken it upon itself to re-write Refugee law by creating a new requirement (even if it is just for a few months) that refugees may enter the country ABOVE TRUMP’S CEILING OF 50,000 ADMISSIONS by September 30th if they can show a “bona fide relationship” to someone already here or to an “entity” in the US.
In Washington, DC, the scrambling to define those words—“bona fide relationship”—is underway!
The Refugee Act of 1980 has no provisions for going over the President’s CEILING except in an emergency and in such a case, the President (wishing to increase the ceiling) must “consult” with Congress.

The Supremes have thus gone beyond their Constitutional role and are crafting a new requirement that effectively nullifies Trump’s 50,000 admissions ceiling and strips the President and Congress of their authority under the Refugee Act of 1980.

Before I give you the  NY Times on the battle of the bona fides, you might want to read Andy McCarthy here (not much of a victory) on the decision as he raises an important point about giving powerful legal rights to some random immigrant who just happened to get here earlier who can now, with a demand to bring in the family members, have a legal right to supersede the President’s power to keep us safe.

International Refugee Assistance Project is one of the original litigants.

Here is the NY Times (other news outlets are signalling as well in which direction the refugee industry is going on this) which begins with the usual get-your-minds-right sob story with a couple of refugee ‘stars’ of the article telling their sad tale.
Skipping to the important part ……

About four out of 10 refugees who come to the United States have no family ties in the country, according to independent estimates. In some cities known for taking in refugees — like Boise, Idaho; New Haven; and Fayetteville, Ark. — those with no family ties are a majority.

On Monday, the Supreme Court threw into question whether such refugees, who are among the most vulnerable people seeking a haven after fleeing persecution or conflict, will be approved for resettlement in the United States.

In agreeing to hear two cases on President Trump’s travel ban, the court introduced a new phrase to the fraught discussion of refugees and Muslim immigrants: “bona fide relationship.”

Those who can show a “bona fide relationship” with a “person or entity” in the United States will not be affected by Mr. Trump’s 120-day halt to refugee admissions or his 90-day ban on travel from six majority-Muslim countries, according to the court’s order. Those refugees or travelers must be admitted, at least for now.

However, those who have no family, business or other ties can be prohibited, the court said.
The justices gave some examples of a bona fide relationship: visiting relatives in the United States, attending a university or taking a job offer.

Here we go! No family ties? So, they are setting the stage for demanding that anyone already connected, even tangentially, to a US refugee resettlement contractor*** should be admitted in addition to the relatives!

On a conference call Monday, lawyers who have fought the Trump administration argued that other refugees and travelers should also be allowed in because, like Mr. Dagoum, they often have ties to a nonprofit organization that has been helping them even before they land in the United States.

“Anyone who has an existing relationship with a nonprofit, frankly tens of thousands of refugees,” should be seen as having bona fide ties, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Representatives of some resettlement agencies said they were awaiting guidance from the State Department. Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that the department would consult with the Justice Department on how to define “bona fide relationship,” a process she expected to take two more days. Meanwhile, anyone already approved for travel to the United States by July 6 would be allowed in, she said.

Continue reading here.
Just checking the numbers at Wrapsnet and see that as of this morning we are at 48,920 refugees admitted this fiscal year (began Oct. 1, 2016). We are thus 1,080 away from Trump’s 50,000 CEILING—a ceiling now rendered meaningless by the Supreme Court with this assertion.
With this below from the Court’s opinion, Trump (and America!) loses big time (where are you Congress?):

 
 
My previous posts on the Supreme Court debacle are here and here.
*** These are the nine major US resettlement contractors and working under them (using your tax dollars) are hundreds of local subcontractors.

"…an authentic immigrant invasion" is underway, as record breaking number of migrants make it to Italy in two days

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It looks like the Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi (Hillary gets the credit for killing him and destabilizing Libya) may be right in the end. And, he wasn’t even thinking about the Syrian invasion via Turkey.

Muammar Gaddafi: We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe—without swords, without guns, without conquest—will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades. (April 2006)

Breitbart reports here  that 13,500 Africans made it to Italy in the last two days.  The journey through Africa, to Libya and to the coast is run by human traffickers, but then as we have reported on many occasions, NGO rescue boats joined by the Italian navy end up delivering them to the shores of Italy.

Invasion of Europe news…

Italy’s migrant welcome centers are in a state of “collapse” as huge waves of African migrants take advantage of the temperate climate to make the crossing from Libya to the Italian peninsula.

On Tuesday, 8,500 African migrants are reaching Italian shores aboard 14 different ships, adding to the 5,000 who arrived on Monday. The massive arrivals have led local media as well as politicians to speak of an authentic immigrant “invasion” exceeding the country’s capacity of assimilation.

Officials reported on June 15 that more than 65,000 migrants had arrived since the beginning of the year, but that was prior to the latest influx. Figures for the year now stand at 73,380 migrants into Italy, or a rise of 14.42 percent over the same period in 2016, when then-record arrivals had reached 64,133.

The exodus from Libya to the Italian coast has continuing unabated with no visible action on the part of the Italian government or the European Union to halt it. [All they had to do years ago was to safely turn back a few of the boats to the African coast to discourage  the mass migration from an overpopulated Africa.—ed]

The illegal immigrants who reach the Libyan coast from all parts of Africa (most recently, from the West), embark in the Mediterranean on makeshift boats. The majority of these are picked up either by NGOs or humanitarian organizations or official Italian Coast Guard or naval vessels.

Despite their intention to travel up through Italy into northern Europe, the vast majority of migrants end up remaining in Italy, mostly because the northern borders with France, Switzerland and Austria are closely watched.

Continue here.
If you are an American of Italian descent, it might be a good time to see your ancestors’ homeland before it is too late.
Looking for some light summer (beach!) reading about Africa and Europe?  Check out these novels from three prescient authors…..


 

 
See my complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive here.
I just now wondered when I began writing about the invasion and after scrolling back through dozens and dozens of posts in this archive, it looks like my earliest one is in 2010.
Do you wonder sometimes if there were Romans who foresaw the fall of the empire? Or, is it possible they didn’t identify the invaders/Barbarians until it was too late?
 
 
Incidentally, “Submission” became one step closer to reality in the wake of recent French elections.

Random thoughts on the Supreme Court decision yesterday….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

See my post yesterday immediately following the surprising announcement by the Supreme Court on the Trump ‘travel ban’ from six terror-producing countries and the ceiling/moratorium on refugee resettlement across all countries and ethnic groups.
This morning I thought I might find an article or two that sounded reasonably informed about what is going to happen in the coming days and weeks.  I didn’t find anything (yet) that looks very useful. Everyone seems confused.
There is an LA Times story with a juicy nugget where they say 50,500 refugees (yikes!) are waiting in the wings from the six targeted ‘travel ban’ countries. And, a Buffalo News story is representative of the myriad stories from across the country where refugee contractors are scratching their heads about what it all means for them.  Those that get mostly refugees with “family ties” believe they will be getting their full quotas of paying clients.

Random thoughts!

So, as much as I would like to give readers guidance on what is going to happen, I can’t.  But, here are some thoughts I have in random order. Some are comments, others are questions.

Some of the articles I read this morning suggest we have more of this coming….

~The issue of bona fide relationships is going to be a huge mess.  Already the contractors and subcontractors are thinking that if they have some refugees on the way from any country, they, the contractor, will be a bona fide “entity” and therefore their refugees will get in.
~Apparently a 120-day MORATORIUM on refugee resettlement (90 days for those 6 countries is a separate part of the EO) will go into effect, except for those who can claim a relationship of some sort. If it begins on Thursday (as most are predicting), 120 days ends on or about October 26th which is 26 days in to  FY18.  It then makes me wonder what Donald Trump will do with his ‘determination’ for that fiscal year which by law he will present to Congress in September.
~After wandering in the weeds about numbers, will the Trump Administration have any will to reform the whole US Refugee Admissions Program?  It is now or never!
~Even if the Supreme Court hears the case in October, it could be months later for a decision (well in to election year 2018).
~BTW, as several news articles yesterday pointed out, there was and probably still is, a huge amount of fraud in the Refugee Admissions Program as it relates to who is, and who isn’t, a family member.  Long time readers may remember the discovery in 2008 that literally as many as 20,000 Somalis entered the US fraudulently as part of the P-3 Family Reunification program. The Dept. of State shut down the P-3 for parts of Africa for years.  The Supreme Court has now further increased the incentive for fraudulent claims of family connections.
~The Supreme Court ruling is troubling to me, actually on many levels, but they suggest that refugees with family ties get priority, while perhaps more persecuted people are left behind.  Heck, every Somali probably has a family tie to someone in the US (since way over 100,000 are here already), while a truly persecuted Syrian Christian may have no ties because so few Syrian Christians have been admitted  to the US. How did the Supremes let themselves get into this quagmire?
~The Dept. of State, with the likes of Brian Hook working with Sec. of State Tillerson, will be making critical decisions about how choices will be made about who gets in here between now and October 26th. They will be forced to depend on career bureaucrats (because Trump has moved too slowly to get people loyal to him placed in agencies across Washington) who have long-time personal relationships with the contractors.
~Although, as I said yesterday, I’m glad the Supreme Court put to rest the issue of whether Trump had the authority to reduce the refugee CEILING that he inherited from Obama (from 110,000 to 50,000), I am extremely troubled by the Supreme Court writing refugee law. The Refugee Act of 1980 is very specific about what steps must be taken for a President to go above the CEILING. The steps involve the President consulting with Congress in the case of an emergency. The court here is saying they have now stepped in to allow an increase over 50,000 (for relatives!).  What is Congress going to do—continue to hide on the subject of refugees—and give up their Constitutional power to the courts?

~Congress actually appropriated enough money for 75,000 refugees to be admitted by September 30th, so what happens to that money as the number surely won’t come in anywhere near the 75,000 level (how on earth did Tillerson/Hook get out on that limb back in May telling contractors 1,500 would be admitted every week?).
~Representatives of the nine federal contractors*** are in a tizzy (as I read many news stories this morning), some trying to put a positive spin on what the Court has done. I wondered if they wouldn’t have been better off just letting Trump’s EO go in to effect months ago and get the review over with. It would have been done by now and some normalcy returned.  Instead we are all looking to many more months of chaos, confusion and lawsuits.  So maybe we can say, that the contractors are responsible for those “vulnerable” refugees left in limbo now.
~On that point about being in a tizzy, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) is organizing a briefing call on Thursday so you can find out what they think of the decision and what they will do going forward.
From an e-mail:

To learn more about the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision for refugees and non-citizens, join HIAS for a briefing call on Thursday, June 27 at 4:30pm EST. Click here to RSVP and receive a call-in number.

[Update!  A reader has pointed out that Thursday is the 29th! So, I expect there will be an e-mail correction coming from HIAS—ed]
I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things, and if I find some great legal mind who can predict what is going to happen beginning on Thursday, I’ll send it your way.  In the meantime, send story links that you think add to the discussion to the comments here at RRW.
More later…..
***Federal contractors in a tizzy.  Since the vast majority of their annual income is from the US Treasury based on the number of refugees admitted each year, their budgets have again gone to hell. Not that  I am sympathetic about their financial mess, but this is why Congress has to get the middlemen contractors out of the refugee business!

 

"Trump wins" on travel ban/refugee restrictions, or does he?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 27, 2017: My random thoughts this morning, here.
Update #6: See what the NY Times has to say.
Update #5: Michael Leahy at Breitbart—it is a mess.
Update #4: UN not happy with US Supreme Court, here.
Update #3: Don’t pop the champagne yet says Daniel Horowitz at Conservative Review.
Update #2:  See what former Rep. and Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says here at WND.
Update: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society says they are pleased with some of  the court’s conclusions, see here.
On the surface it might appear that the Trump Administration has won an important victory in the Supreme Court which ruled just a few hours ago on the so-called “travel ban” Executive Order, but in my view the Court has created an enormous bureaucratic mess, not to mention having re-written Refugee law! What were they thinking???

I know, I know, they will decide the case on the merits after hearing it next fall (and this decision does show where they are leaning), but from now until then there will be nothing but chaos and controversy relating to travel from the 6 countries and regarding the refugee admissions CEILING.  Remember readers, I am not a legal beagle, but the minute I heard some of the convoluted balancing of equities argument I thought my head would explode!
The gist of the decision is that Trump (the President) can halt immigration from the six (although incomplete list) of terror-producing countries unless the wannabe entrant (for any purpose) “can credibly claim a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
So, I guess  that means the court has decided in advance who the potential terrorists are and that they can’t possibly be someone who has a relative here already or is coming to college at the University of Hawaii (or any college) or connected to any “entity” (a VOLAG perhaps!).
Of greater interest to me is that, although Trump can have his refugee admissions ceiling of 50,000 (remember CEILING is not a target), but the ceiling can be surpassed (says the majority opinion) in the remaining months of this fiscal year  (up to September 30th) if the wannabe refugees have relatives here (what if 10,000, 20,000 and so forth have relatives here!).
Can you see the potential for fraud as all over the world, migrants wishing to get to America are scrambling to have relatives or a bona fide entity with which to associate themselves.
So, in effect the Supreme Court (led by Chief Justice Roberts) has just rewritten the Refugee Act of 1980!
The Act allows the President to exceed his designated ceiling (and here they agree it is 50,000!) only by making a case for an emergency and consulting with Congress.  Well, forget that! Looks like the Supreme Court is now determining the number of refugees to be admitted to America.
(I concede real lawyers might have a different interpretation, but reading the Court’s decision today one wonders if they read the Refugee Act!).
Here in the dissent written by Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch you can clearly see the bureaucratic and legal mess the Court has thrown to a State Department not firmly in the White House’s control, not to mention the parade of court cases the three dissenting Justices envision.
Here is the opinion.  I invite you all to make up your own minds, send comments with your analysis.
Here is the portion of the dissent that says it all: