Brookings has questions about refugee policy for Secretary of State nominee Pompeo

04/12/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is really a kind of ‘nothing-burger’ article from a policy wonk at the Brooking’s Institution attempting to influence the Far Left Dems to ask questions about refugees when Trump’s new pick to head the US State Department, Mike Pompeo, goes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today.

Pompeo and Trump — Trump: Mike Pompeo and I are on the same wavelength! https://www.today.com/video/trump-mike-pompeo-and-i-are-on-the-same-wavelength-1184613443805?v=b

Here is a bit of it. We can definitely agree with Jessica Brandt‘s opener—the Trump Administration needs to staff-up at DOS. But, they must assure people loyal to the President and his policies are in those appointed jobs!

Tomorrow [today—-ed], former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s pick to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, will come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The hearing is an opportunity for congressional leaders to question him on a broad range of consequential subjects. Resourcing the State Department should be first on the list. It is difficult, if not impossible, to craft and implement an effective set of strategies on any foreign policy issue without the personnel in place to do so.

brandtj_portrait — Jessica Brandt is “a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a David Rockefeller Fellow of the Trilateral Commission.”

But exploring Pompeo’s views on refugee policy should also be a high priority. That’s for three reasons.

First, Pompeo has a history of expressing deep distaste for refugee policies he views as lax. While in Congress, he cosponsored a bill calling for an immediate ban on the entry of all refugees, regardless of their country of origin. The measure would have gone farther than then-candidate Trump’s controversial proposal to bar Muslim immigration. Later that year, after returning home from a study tour focusing on the migration crisis in Europe, he argued in support of Trump’s instincts on these issues in the Wall Street Journal.

You can read the rest yourself by clicking here.
Then this closer made me laugh. These Leftists can’t help themselves. In an article at the venerable Brookings Institution, Ms. Brandt can’t resist the snark!

Pompeo’s answers to these questions could reveal a great deal about how he plans to approach a sensitive, consequential issue. I hope he plans to be more forward leaning than his predecessor. But given his record, I doubt it.

And, btw, what the heck is “forward leaning?” I think we know….

South Dakota: Meet Taneeza Islam, your friendly Muslim (activist) next door!

04/11/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I wish I was tech-savvy and knew how to design a Bull S*** meter for stories like this one.
Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)/Muslim Brotherhood activist to speak in Huron, South Dakota on Sunday (April 15th) to assure all of you that there is nothing to fear from migration of Muslim political activists to the Great Plains!
She believes in meeting those who belong to “vilified” groups, she says.
That is so funny because, by intimidating the speaking venues, she actually shut down events in South Dakota a few months ago where speakers who disagree with her political views were scheduled to speak. Wasn’t she vilifying them with her actions?
It would serve her right if the tables were turned on her and she was silenced! (But, we don’t do that because we believe in free speech!).
See my Taneeza Islam archive here.
From the Huron Plainsman
(Sub-headline should read CAIR political activist to speak to ‘Connecting Cultures’)

‘Discussion on Diversity’ focused on Muslims

People are encouraged to attend a free “Discussion on Diversity” featuring Taneeza Islam of Sioux Falls at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 15, at Top Floor Events.

Screenshot (374)

A second-generation Muslim who was born in Michigan, Islam will talk about the Islam religion, as well as immigrants and refugees.

An RSVP-only lunch will be served during the event for a small fee (notice luncheon time change). Beverages and brownies will be available for everyone during the event.

Please RSVP lunch reservations to Amy L. Bennett at jampyview@yahoo.com and provide your name and the number of guests.

“We’re not trying to change beliefs, we’re trying to add value to our own,” said Amy Bennett, a member of Connecting Cultures in Huron, who was instrumental in organizing this program, along with Rhonda Kludt, Kim Rieger and Fern Marie Mattke, who helped secure a Thrivent Action Team Grant.

“Being Muslim in our nation can be very tenuous and painful for some,” said Bennett, who is Jewish. “How can we fulfill their lives without treating them like that? We want to respect someone else’s place or opinion. I’m willing to listen to your story and how it impacts you and understand how you feel that way.”

Bennett said she noticed a site for Taneeza Islam one day when she was looking at Facebook, and explored her further on YouTube.

“Her video was welcoming and approachable — with such a hot topic,” Bennett said. “We shouldn’t be afraid to have hard conversations.

What we should be afraid of is when we don’t have any conversations.”

Tell that to Ms. Islam!
At this point the Huron Plainsman gives a recitation of highlights from Ms. Islam’s bio, but fails to mention that she was CAIR Minnesota’s Civil Rights Director stirring up trouble for a St. Cloud high school in 2010, see here (among other things!).
In Islam’s own words:

“I believe the best way to overcome intolerance and hate is to actually meet a person from the group that is being vilified,” she said.

“I am the norm of what American Muslims are really like.”

LOL! But, that is precisely what we fear the most—that you, Ms. Islam, are the norm!
I’m guessing, but I think CAIR/Muslim Brotherhood wanted an Islamic political activist in South Dakota when they saw the opposition growing to more refugee resettlement there and Taneeza Islam is it.
Maybe someone should contact Ms. Bennett, since she wants to hear different viewpoints, and ask her to hold another luncheon for the opposing view on Muslim migration, CAIR, and sharia law in America! Wouldn’t that be the fair thing to do?
My very large South Dakota archive is here.

Australia "dumb" deal update: Aussie Libs want US to take families

04/11/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Let me say at the outset that the Australia deal struck by the Obama Administration in its waning months is dumber than dumb and Donald Trump should have followed his first instincts and cancelled the whole thing (as even the Australians suspected he would) and been done with it in February of 2017.
Here we see that Australian immigration official Peter Dutton is being blamed for not allowing an Afghan family (who attempted to break in to Australia illegally) that have been split between the mainland and offshore detention to apply to come to the US.

peter-dutton1 — Dutton’s call to rethink the 1951 UN Refugee Convention has to make the No Borders agitators crazy! Out to get him now for sure!*

Not one word in The Guardian story about whether the US has any say in this!

I believe the US State Department has already said that we aren’t taking extended families of the detainees (so far 220 of Australia’s rejects, mostly Muslim men, have been airlifted to Your Town, USA!).
For new readers, Australia had such an awful problem with boat people attempting to break in to their country that they made a new policy. Anyone breaking in would be detained in offshore detention facilities and would never be admitted to the mainland. That was about 5 years ago and they are sticking to the policy. However! Lefties in Australia have been beating up the government ever since, so they found a way to wiggle out—thanks to Obama—by sending those they won’t grant refugee status to to America!
The Guardian:

Dutton urged to allow refugee families in Australia to apply for US resettlement

Split up refugee families stuck in limbo because of Australian government policy could be reunited if Peter Dutton let them apply for US resettlement from Australia, the opposition has said.

The comment follows revelations by Guardian Australia that a family of four had been split between Nauru and Australia since 2014.

Leftwing “shadow minister” Shayne Neumann blames Dutton for not allowing sick Shiite Muslim family to reunite and apply for US resettlement. Hey! Neumann, why should the US take on Australia’s migration problems!

Australian Border Force has told the 27-year-old daughter on Nauru that they could be reunited but only if her mother and sister returned to the island. The mother is in Australia confined to a wheelchair and awaiting surgery, and doctors have said she cannot go back.

While the mother and one daughter are in Australia they cannot apply for resettlement in the US, offered under a deal struck between the Australian government and the Obama administration. More than 220 have been resettled, out of a promise of “up to 1,200”.

By the way, something must have slowed the flow to the US. Last report was over a month ago. Wonder what that is all about!

“Labor strongly supports the US refugee resettlement agreement and wants all eligible refugees – including those in Australia for medical treatment – to have the opportunity to apply for resettlement in the US,” the shadow minister for immigration, Shayne Neumann, said.

“The long-term issue of asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru in Australia could have been avoided entirely if Peter Dutton simply allowed eligible refugees in Australia the opportunity to apply to resettle in the United States.”

Nuts! No offense to Dutton, but the US gets some say in this!
More here.
Asylum shopping!
Follow links back and see that this family with its health issues (including mental health issues) would be a huge burden on US taxpayers! Legitimate refugees are to ask for asylum in the first safe country they enter, however, the whole system has been perverted and that is why the 1951 UN Refugee Convention should be trashed.
I have dozens of posts on the Australia “dumb” deal, click here to learn more.
*Don’t miss Dutton calls for reconsideration of outdated 1951 UN Refugee Convention, here.
Contact the White House! Tell the President to cut it off now. 220 is too many already!

Why is it our job to clean out UN refugee camps?

04/10/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, why is the Trump Administration continuing refugee resettlement started for no other reason (by George Bush and Barack Obama) than to please the UN?

anne-richard-and-unhcr — Obama Secretary of State for PRM, Anne Richard with then UNHCR, now Secretary General of the UN Guterres, decided that the US should take 50,000 from the DR Congo.

Previous presidents jumped to the UN piper’s tune and said sure, the US will step up to take the Bhutanese and the DR Congolese because the UN asked us to.
These people were not our responsibility, no one could say we caused the problems that resulted in their care by the UN.
We have no strategic interest or reason other than to make the UN happy (and some big employers who want the cheap labor, the Dems who want voters and the contractors who want the payola!).
(By the way, there are other examples of cleaning out camps and of course the largest over the years have been the UN camps in Kenya, but the numbers have dramatically slowed in the last year, not so for the two I’m writing about now. And, of course the UN has no interest in cleaning out the Palestinian camps and sending those people to other Arab countries.)

DR Congo express to America….

map DR Congo
The largest ethnic group of refugees coming to the US right now are DR Congolese. In the first 6 months of this fiscal year (’18) we admitted 2,569.
In 2013 the Obama State Department told the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that we would take 50,000 from the DR Congo over five years.
Checking Wrapsnet just now, I see that we have taken 40,899 since that promise was made, however going back to FY10, I see we are now at 49,476.
Will the flow ever stop?
Based on the Bush Bhutanese deal, the answer is likely NO!

Nearly 100,000 Bhutanese scattered across America…

In 2006 we told the UN we would take 60,000 Bhutanese off their hands over five years.
These displaced people are really Nepali people that were kicked out of Bhutan and Nepal wouldn’t take them back.
map nepal and bhutan
Other western countries promised to take another 30,000.
Here in 2015 the UN reported on its “success” at that point in time:

A core group of eight countries came together in 2007 to create this opportunity for Bhutanese refugees to begin new lives: Australia (5,554), Canada (6,500), Denmark (874), New Zealand (1002), the Netherlands (327), Norway (566), the United Kingdom (358) and the United States of America (84,819).

Now 10 years after Bush Asst. Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey said we would take 60,000, we are at 95,841 (as of today).

In the last 6 months, an additional 1,925 ‘refugees’ of Nepali origin that we call Bhutanese were resettled across the country. I have to laugh because the total number in 2006 was 108,000 and between the US and other countries we have far surpassed that number now, so it begs the question—have more people arrived at the camps looking for resettlement in recent years? (See one of my many posts on fuzzy math!)
Here is where 95,481 have been place in the US in just 10 years!

Screenshot (372)

Screenshot (368) — The numbers are difficult to read even in the original. The top five ‘welcoming’ states are Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, New York and Georgia. And, can you believe it, Hawaii, the state that is hankering for more diversity got zip!

I don’t believe there is a law that says we must take refugees that the UN wants us to take!
And, thus, I think it is time that the Trump Administration distanced itself from the dictates of the United Nations. In fact, maybe it is time to do more than that! Let’s take the lead in rethinking the entire 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
Surely, if we are going to offer ‘welcome’ to legitimate refugees, we have smart people who would know how to pick the most worthy candidates and not just take in ethnic groups wholesale because the UN tells us we must!
See Nayla Rush writing at the Center for Immigration Studies about the haphazard choices being made (even under Donald Trump!).
See my archive on the Bhutanese by clicking here. The thing that has brought them to the media’s attention over the years is the fact that they have a high suicide rate in America. In fact, for years leading up to 2006, they steadfastly maintained that they did not want to be “scattered to the four winds.”
Contact the White House, tell the President: As your Administration prepares refugee plans for the coming fiscal year, stop asking how high, when the UN says jump! We will pick our own refugees, thank you very much!

Dear Mr. President, Invite the victorious Orban to the White House

04/09/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban won for Europe (although most countries don’t know it) an astounding election victory for Western Civilization.

Orban and Soros — If the President invited Orban to the White House it would strike a mighty blow against his own nemesis—George Soros!

If President Trump wanted to put icing on his recent immigration control cake, he should invite Orban to the White House and give him a lavish state dinner. Such a move would turn the whole world on its head!
Heck, use the occasion to kick start a discussion about dumping the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. (See here.)
There are many stories about Orban’s win, but Politico is a good choice to quote since they can’t control their animus (in supposed news reporting!) toward the man and what he stands for!

Orbán wins landslide to secure third straight term

BUDAPEST — Viktor Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party won a landslide victory in Hungary’s general election on Sunday, setting the stage for the prime minister to pursue his nationalistic vision and fight more battles with Brussels.

The result gives Orbán a third consecutive term as prime minister and a strong platform from which to further rail against migrants and Muslims, stage crackdowns on NGOs and mount strong resistance to greater EU integration.

More clashes between Budapest and EU institutions, particularly the European Commission and European Parliament, look assured. Orbán opposed a Commission plan to distribute migrants around the bloc while the Parliament has voted to put Hungary on a path toward censure for backsliding on democratic standards.

The election result will also likely embolden far-right parties and populists across Europe inspired by Orbán.

Orbán, who built a fence on Hungary’s southern border during the 2015 migration crisis, constructed his election campaign around strong a strong nationalist and anti-migrant message. The U.N. human rights chief earlier this year branded him a racist.

It really came down to one issue—immigration. Are you listening Donald?

But a senior Fidesz official said the anti-migrant message was key. “It is simply the fear of migrants. Fidesz did a single-issue campaign and it was successful,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

More here.
See my previous posts on Hungary, here. My ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive is here.
Contact the White House! and tell the President to invite the victorious Orban to his home—the White House or Mar a Lago!