They apparently want to make it clear to the Muslim world that they are the good people.
Here is what Mark Hetfield CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (aka HIAS) said in an e-mail yesterday. (Emphasis is mine)
The Trump Administration shows no signs of backing off their policies against refugees, so we’re taking the Administration to court. Again.
From the moment the first executive order banning refugees and travelers from Muslim countries was issued on January 27th, HIAS and our partners in the American Jewish community have opposed every attempt by President Trump to close America’s doors to those in need of protection.
Our outrage has only grown stronger with every new executive order that prevents thousands of refugees from finding safety in the U.S.
Enough is enough. Together with our longstanding local resettlement partners Jewish Family Service of Seattle and Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley, HIAS yesterday filed a suit to again challenge restrictive policies that seek to prevent vulnerable refugees from finding freedom and safety. As we have for the last 136 years, we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that America remains a country that welcomes refugees instead of turning them away.
Then here is the news from Seattle:
Lawsuit: ‘It’s the dismantling of the U.S. refugee program’
“People are dying who were given permission to come into this country. It’s tragic,” said Rabbi Will Berkovitz, CEO of Jewish Family Service of Seattle, one of the refugee agencies that’s filed the lawsuit.
“The agenda that’s really thinly veiled here is the dismantlement of the refugee resettlement program as a whole,” Berkovitz said. “Not for now, but forever.”
The lawsuit claims the order is unconstitutional, discriminates against Muslims and gives preference to Christian refugees. [The US might actually give preference to Christians, what is the world coming to!—ed]
You have to give them credit for chutzpah!
HIAS has been a long-time supporter of the Lautenberg Amendment which gave preference for resettlement to Soviet Jews among others, see here.
So are they now saying that the Lautenberg Amendment must go? Look for HIAS to reverse itself and ask Congress to abolish Lautenberg (Ha! Ha!).
Here is what we learned from the Jewish agency in California:
Plaintiffs are being represented by the International Refugee Assistance Project at the Urban Justice Center; the National Immigration Law Center; attorneys Lauren Aguiar, Mollie M. Kornreich and Abigail Sheehan Davis; Perkins Coie; and HIAS.
Learn more about the director of the National Immigration Law Center when she was bragging and disparaging then candidate Donald Trump by clicking here. Jim Simpson and I attended the spectacle.
This is a screenshot from a recent financial accounting post on the nine federal refugee contractors:
