WaPo: Stirring the pot, highlighting controversy between White House and DOS on refugees, etc.

07/10/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you about the discussions (supposedly) on-going in the administration to possibly shift the refugee program and consular affairs from the Dept. of State to the Dept. of Homeland Security, here.
The Washington Post describes the battle lines as Tillerson/Democrat (the ‘good guys’ in the Senate) vs. Stephen Miller (leader of the “Nativist strain”) in the White House. Who knows what is really going on! I don’t.

Stephen Miller, we are told, crafted that historic Warsaw speech last week (the save Western Civilization speech!). Here he is during the campaign with his former boss and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Left (including the WaPo) would like nothing better than to put the two on the President’s wrong side. See WND here when Trump tapped Miller: http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/trump-snags-top-aide-to-jeff-sessions/

However, Washington Post opinion writer Josh Rogin has got it all figured out and it all goes back to that Poland speech the left is having hissy-fits over—the LOL! Nationalist speech and its boogeyman author.
Here is what Rogin says in his closing paragraphs after trying to make a case that bureaucratically the refugee program should stay at the State Department.

That nativist strain in the White House is represented by Miller, who was the principal author of Trump’s travel ban, which targeted six Muslim-majority countries, as well as of Trump’s speech last week in Poland, which cast the mission of U.S. foreign policy as one based on threats, not relationships.

“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” Trump said. “Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”

I would like to think that there is a great battle of ideals happening around the subject of moving one bureaucratic function from one federal agency to another, but it is more likely that the little fiefdoms and power structures built around certain federal agencies (and their friends in Congress) are simply protecting turf and their MONEY!
Earlier Rogin tells us this which I think is closer to the truth about what the concern is—there are little fiefdoms to protect at Foggy Bottom and the bureaucrats/Senate lackeys are trying to not have their little world rocked or any power removed from the State Department, a bastion of liberalism in Washington.

Although the State Department’s internal reorganization plans are still under review, spokeswoman Heather Nauert told me that Tillerson believes the two bureaus should remain where they are and he views consular and refugee work “as essential to the Department’s mission to secure our borders and protect the American people.”

State stands to lose not only the 12,000-plus personnel billets associated with the work but also the more than $3 billion annually that consular fees bring in.

Tillerson’s position runs counter to the “Listening Report” he commissioned to review the State Department’s organizational structure, which actually recommended handing over all consular functions to DHS. The report, compiled by the private firm Insigniam, claimed such a move “would elevate security at our borders and remove a source of dissatisfaction and frustration.”

Read it all here.
As for those fiefdoms! Such a move could upset the little fiefdoms developed between the State Dept. Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and its nine federal contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America.
Someone once told me that one must repeat the same message seven times before people listen. I’m probably up to at least that many on this subject!
There can never be real reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program as long as these nine fake non-profit groups, functioning as contractors, lobbyists, and community organizers, are being paid with taxpayer dollars to seed refugees in to unsuspecting towns and cities.
A move of the program from one federal agency to another won’t be enough, but it might be a good start.

Supreme Court is giving permission for the refugee ceiling to be surpassed for first time

07/09/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know, I am a broken record on this issue and that it is more interesting to read about the rich kids at Harvard wanting refugees and about Muslim refugees facing trial skipping out on bail, but we have to address the boring numbers stuff too.
Here is what we know:
~The President sets the CEILING for refugee admissions each year (the ceiling is a cap!).

~President Obama set the ceiling for FY17 at 110,000 in his final months in office (he never set a ceiling that high in his previous 7 years).
~Donald Trump’s EO reset it at 50,000.
~As of today we are at 49,803 according to Wrapsnet.
~The Supreme Court confirmed the 50,000 with a caveat. Anyone who could prove a “bona fide relationship” with a relative in the US or to an “entity” could come in above the 50,000 cap.
~I contend that with that stipulation, the Supreme Court has taken it upon itself to rewrite refugee law because there is a mechanism in the Refugee Act to go above the cap, but it sure doesn’t involve the courts. The President must determine that there is an emergency and he must consult with Congress—not the courts—to go above the ceiling.

Tomorrow or the next day, we will cross the 50,000 mark.

Have we ever surpassed a refugee ceiling?

I wanted to know if we have ever gone above the ceiling and so I did some research and this is what I learned:

Since 1983 (over 30 years!), no President has exceeded the ceiling, but many of them came in way below the ceiling previously set.

From the 2007 ORR Annual Report to Congress a chart (p.4) showing CEILINGS and numbers actually admitted going back to 1983.

Do you see how far below the ceiling they were in a number of years. And, note the text at the top. There is no mention of any court having any role in determining the ceiling.

Now pick it up from 2007 to right now, end of June 2017 from Wrapsnet. Have they ever surpassed the ceiling in more recent years? NO!
But, I want you take note of the fact that the US State Department (Trump’s DOS!) cannot even bring itself to put the 50,000 in the CEILING column. I explained here about when it was removed. In fact the chart last month (for the end of May) left out the whole ceiling column!

Note that the ceiling column is blank for FY17 although the Supreme Court confirmed it is 50,000.

By the way, ignore all the wailing and moaning by the contractors. If you check the average admissions number for 20 years up to Obama’s huge FY16, the average admissions come in at just over 62,000. If the Supremes get their way, you can bet Trump will be forced past that number. (Congress has appropriated enough money for 75,000 by September 30th!)
If the President is serious, he can ask Congress for a rescission of those funds!
We will be watching every day! Any refugees over 50,000 are the responsibility of the Supreme Court having taken over the President’s constitutional authority to protect us!

Missing in America: Muslims charged with crimes have disappeared

07/09/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“When given the opportunity to prosecute the woman who attacked myself and my children, I personally feel they were afraid of retribution from the Muslim community…”

(Victim speaking about the failed legal system in her county)

This important news went missing on the 4th of July by me and maybe most of you.
From Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily we learn about several cases where refugees and other immigrants charged with crimes, but out on bail, are now missing!
The first case is one we reported here shortly after it happened and asked the question: why is this not making national news?

Aisha Ibrahim, aka Amina Ali Ahra. Why two names? How did she get in to the US as a refugee with two names?

It is the case of a Somali refugee woman wandering around a neighborhood in Georgia who, spying a large American flag on a mailbox, grabbed the flag and attempted to beat a woman and her daughter with their own flag in their own yard.
Here is the update—-the alleged attacker is missing!

On June 19, Aisha Ibrahim became the latest Muslim migrant to jump bail after being charged with a violent crime.

Ibrahim, a 31-year-old Somali refugee living near Atlanta in Lawrenceville, Georgia, was charged with two counts of battery and giving false information to police after she beat a middle-aged woman and her daughter with their own American flag last summer.

The FBI said it looked at the case against Ibrahim, who goes by the alias Amina Ali Ahra, and determined not to file federal hate-crime charges. But, as WND previously reported, the FBI cleared Ibrahim of hate-crime charges without ever interviewing the victims or the witnesses to her violent outburst against the Arno family.

Lawrenceville, GA, about 30 miles from Atlanta, is a huge resettlement site. According to Wrapsnet, Atlanta has resettled 1,355 Somalis in the last ten years.

She ended up being released after posting a $5,800 bond, failed to appear at her scheduled arraignment in March and had it rescheduled twice. The last time, on June 19, the judge finally lost patience and issued a bench warrant for her arrest.

Gwinnett County District Attorney Daniel Porter did not return calls from WND seeking comment on the whereabouts of Ibrahim.

“As far as I know, they have not found her yet,” said Dami Arno, the 43-year-old Lawrenceville woman who was assaulted by Ibrahim last year. “We knew she was gone long before June 19.”

Arno said she was “highly disappointed” in the Gwinnett County legal system.

“When given the opportunity to prosecute the woman who attacked myself and my children, I personally feel they were afraid of retribution from the Muslim community that is protected by law more than an American citizen,” she said. “They allowed my attacker to bond out of jail and failed to notify my family. They allowed her brother to stand in court and claim she was in the hospital and never asked for proof. Then her lawyer was on leave of absence creating another delay.”

After assaulting an American family with their own American flag, Arno said she believes Ibrahim has fled the country or is being harbored by one of the many Somali enclaves inside the U.S.

More here.
By the way, add one more case of refugees committing crimes! See my crimes category here.

Cambridge, Mass: No refugees for you! Neighborhood is too wealthy!

07/09/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Waahhhh! The Harvard kids want refugees, but there isn’t any low income housing in Cambridge so the US State Department and its contractors send refugees to working class communities elsewhere in Massachusetts!

Tony Cambridge, Mass. home to Harvard University won’t see refugees placed there anytime soon! More Boston photos: http://www.stevenedson.net/photographs-of-boston-01/rowers-at-weeks-bridge-cambridge-ma-35_6_767.html

Moral of the story: Wealthy communities don’t get refugees, but working class communities do. And, if you build low income housing, your town becomes a refugee magnet!
From the Boston Globe:

“Help us welcome local refugees to our community!” read a flier advertising the carnival in Cambridge, where attendees would later pose at a photo booth, mingle, and munch on baked goods inside a balloon-festooned gymnasium.

“We wanted to have . . . an opportunity for refugee families to come and have a fun time, relax, play games,” said Caitlin Nichols, a Harvard PhD student who helped organize last month’s event.

But notably absent from the event? Refugees.

[….]

In September 2015, after watching the number of Syrians displaced by violence soar, Cambridge City Councilor Nadeem Mazen decided the council had “a moral and economic imperative” to act. He won passage of legislation calling on city officials to determine Cambridge’s capacity to take in Syrian refugees and then provide those families with the housing and support they would need.

Cambridge “peace and justice” commissioner, Brian Corr. https://twitter.com/bcorr

But when peace commissioner Brian Corr — the local official charged with promoting “peace and social justice within Cambridge and in the wider world”— began reaching out to refugee resettlement agencies and government officials, he was told, politely, no thanks.

“I spoke to a lot of people and got a lot of e-mail information. Long story short . . . Cambridge is not the place where refugees get resettled,” Corr said.

Where refugees end up is largely at the discretion of the State Department and nine resettlement agencies nationwide. From 2014 to 2016, 233 Syrian refugees arrived in Massachusetts. More than half went to Lowell, Springfield, or West Springfield, according to State Department records. None wound up in Cambridge.

Financial support is limited for new arrivals. Representatives of the State Department and Massachusetts resettlement agencies said they consider two factors when placing refugees, in addition to family ties.

“The key factor is a combination of cost of living and employment opportunities that will allow them to become economically self-sufficient quickly because the support that the federal government provides is extremely limited,” said Jeffrey Thielman, president and CEO of the International Institute of New England, the area’s largest resettlement agency.

Here they are admitting it again, the contractor*** pockets half of the per head payment the refugee gets from the feds (no mention that all forms of welfare are available to refugees upon arrival). BTW, the contractors primary job is to get the refugees signed up for their services and then they move on to the next batch of paying “clients.”

Each refugee receives a one-time stipend of $2,075 from the federal government, and nearly half of that goes to the resettlement agency to help finance their work, according to a State Department spokeswoman.

Agencies sometimes provide refugees additional cash assistance, and some refugees can receive $428 per month from the state for up to 18 months.

Such small sums don’t go far in Cambridge, where two-bedroom apartments rent for around $3,000 a month. That’s twice as expensive as housing in Springfield or Lowell.

Throughout Greater Boston, inexpensive housing options are few and shrinking. Thielman said the only places in the area where his agency can find housing for refugees are shared units for single individuals in Lynn or Dorchester — places where they can pay $350 or less in rent per month.

Continue reading here because some refugee advocates have a new angle. See what it is!
This is my ‘laugh of the day!’ post but it isn’t so funny!
The International Institute of New England (aka International Institute of Boston) works as a subcontractor for the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).
Don’t forget to write to the White House!
***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.

Linda Sarsour: Muslim immigrants must not "assimilate"

07/08/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The news is not surprising, so I’m bringing this Breitbart article by Neil Munro to your attention so I can once again mention the words “assimilate” and “integrate” in the Left/Open Borders agitators’ lexicon.

Linda Sarsour is the American-born daughter of Palestinian immigrant parents according to wikipedia and she is making news almost on a daily basis as she champions the cause of Islam in the age of Trump.
Here is Munro in a story entitled: ‘Muslim Immigrants Must Not Assimilate, Says Progressive Ally Linda Sarsour’

Muslims in the United States should not assimilate into American society, but should instead act “to please Allah and only Allah,” said Linda Sarsour, a rising star among progressive Democrats, last weekend.

Sarsour’s remarks were part of a July 1 speech given at the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA.

[….]

Sarsour’s speech was peppered with refusals to integrate into Americans’ Western-style blends of secular government, religious freedoms, and civic society, or to compromise any aspects of Islamic doctrines, such as support for Muslim Palestinians living alongside Israel.

[….]

She urged Muslim groups to build alliances – but to not integrate — with other groups in America, saying “You are not [numerous] enough on your own …. we need to build coalitions, we need allies.” [Not numerous enough yet!—ed]

Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend our community. It is not to assimilate and to please any other people in authority.

Read the whole thing by clicking here.

Integrate vs. assimilate?

Watch closely going forward. The open borders left is outright opposed to any assimilation by immigrants. They see assimilation as meaning that the immigrant must take on some American lifestyles and values (be a part of a national community) and is therefore a bad thing!
They prefer the word ‘integrate’ which they see as a side-by-side (separate and no compromising of principles) way of living.
Did you ever see Obama or any of his gang say ‘immigrant assimilation?’ Never! But, instead they said ‘immigrant integration’ was a worthy goal.
I’ve watched over the years and haven’t seen the refugee contractors use the word “assimilate” either as a desired goal. But, they will use the word “integrate” as a positive objective (LOL! and integration implies that you, Americans, must bend to accommodate the migrant community and its values!).
Be sure to see my 2015 post for further edification:

Migrant “integration” vs. “assimilation,” how the Obama Administration is changing the language with devastating results

The point I’m making is twofold, no well-trained progressive worth their salt would ever want immigrant “assimilation.” That is taboo! And, we must be careful in swapping those words back and forth because they don’t have the same meaning for the Left.

My recommendation is to use the word, and demand “assimilation”! Make them go ballistic!

And, avoid falling in to using their preferred word choice—integration.
I did not read Sarsour’s speech, let me know if she goes back and forth between those words as reporter Munro does.