State Dept. extends refugee cut-off date; Hawaii judge denies new request for clarification

It was supposed to have been yesterday that the US State Department expected the President’s FY17 50,000 cap to be reached.
When the number is reached (a ceiling set for decades by the President under refugee law), as we know, the US Supreme Court owns it because they stepped in to rewrite law and the battle for the bona fides begins.
As of today we have admitted 49,793 refugees this fiscal year according to the State Department’s own Refugee Processing Center (aka Wrapsnet).
Here is the LA Times reporting that the deadline is extended because the 50,000 cap was not reached yesterday as expected.

Hetfield’s name turns up in most mainstream media stories about the US Refugee Program and Pres. Trump. The media must see him as the go-to guy for quotes! Did you know that he pulls down a salary of over $300,000—doing well by doing good? Learn more about him and HIAS’s finances here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/11/13/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-lectures-trump-never-mentions-its-pecuniary-interest-in-refugees/

Refugee resettlement agencies say the State Department has given them updated instructions on President Trump’s travel ban that extends the cutoff date for refugee admissions.

When the ban was put into place last week, the administration said refugees who had booked travel would be admitted through Thursday. After that, immigration officials would block all refugees, except those who could prove they had U.S. connections, such as close relatives.

The July 6 date was a government estimate of when the country would reach a 50,000-person cap on refugee admissions this fiscal year. Federal officials now estimate that the cap will be hit a week later, according to refugee groups.

[….]

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department would not confirm the change and said more information would come out Thursday.

“The cap could be hit earlier, so it could be earlier than July 12,” said Mark Hetfield, chief executive of the resettlement group HIAS, formerly known as Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

HIAS is among several refugee resettlement groups that have challenged the ban, which blocks travel from six Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and suspends refugee admissions from everywhere for 120 days.

The LA Times goes on to say that the Hawaii Open Borders advocates filed suit (again) looking for clarification about whether the contractors*** are bona fide entities for the purpose of bringing even more than 50,000 refugees in over the remaining roughly 2 months and 3 weeks remaining in this fiscal year.

Justices wrote that people with “bona fide” connections to the U.S. such as jobs, university admission and family could bypass the ban but left it up to the Trump administration to define which family members counted.

The administration has said that people with “close family” in the U.S. — such as a parent, spouse, fiance or fiancee, child or sibling — could go around the ban. But it blocked others, including grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Immigrant and refugee groups are challenging the definitions in a Honolulu federal district court, saying the administration is violating the Supreme Court’s orders. A federal judge there who previously ruled against the ban in one of the cases being considered by the high court could issue a decision on the matter this week.

Refugee advocates argue that their relationship to refugees should be enough for them to gain admission to the country despite the ban. The government disagrees.

Request denied!

 

See it here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3890325-Hawaii-v-Trump-Clarify-Order.html

 
Just as I am writing this post, I see that the same Hawaii judge has denied their request for clarification.
See here!  Let the Supremes decide.
By the way, the other plaintiff in the case joining with the State of Hawaii is an Imam who wants more Muslims admitted to the US, here.  But, Hawaii is normally at the bottom of the list of states taking any refugees! 
Hey, maybe the State Dept. could put all those they bring in above the cap (it could be thousands!) in Hawaii!

Why not tell the President that when you write to him today! Give Hawaii its dearest wish—more third world diversity. Go here.

All of my posts on this topic are filed in my new ‘Supreme Court’ category.
***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizers paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities.  Because their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, the only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors from the process.

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