Office of Refugee Resettlement Annual Reports to Congress are Running More than Two Years Late

But, Congress has never seemed to care (likely because no one there bothers to read anyway!).

This post is a service for serious students of the US Refugee Admissions Program. 

Go here to read the entire document: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/arc_16_508.pdf

The Annual Report to Congress, in which the Office of Refugee Resettlement analyzes the entire program and the refugee population for a given year, is required by law to be submitted to Congress in January of the following fiscal year.

In other words we should expect the FY19 report to be available in January 2020.  But, much to my shock I just now checked the Annual reports and find that the last one that ORR published is the FY16 report!

By the way, this report should not be confused with a report the President will be sending to Congress along with his Presidential Determination for FY2020 which begins tomorrow!

The reports that are now very late are a treasure-trove of information on the program and serious students should at least see the FY16 report (published in June of 2018) to get an idea of, for instance, the percentage of refugees finding jobs and/or using welfare.

It also includes pages and pages of federal grant money—-millions of dollars—going out to ‘non-profit’ groups for myriad reasons.

Some of you might also like to see how much payola your state is getting from the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

About ten years ago the ORR was equally remiss in getting these reports done in the time frame outlined by the law, then for a few years they got better at it, but I guess they are again dragging their bureaucratic feet!

A list of all Annual Reports is here.

 

Desperate Bowling Green, KY School System Overloaded with Refugee Children

What!  How can this be? Too many refugees are arriving in one location in a year that we are told has one of the lowest arrival rates of all time.

Iraqi terrorists arrested in Bowling Green in 2011. As a result of this pair getting through our supposedly robust security screening, the entire cohort of Iraqis arriving in the US had to be rescreened that year.

Bowling Green, by the way, is the location where those Iraqi refugee terrorists were found about eight years ago and it is Senator Rand Paul’s hometown.

It has been a controversial resettlement location for years, see my archive here.

There is one important bit of information you need to pay attention to as you read about how the schools can’t cope.  Hint! It involves a key component of Trump’s recent Executive Order that seeks to allow some cities and states to turn away refugees.

From Bowling Green Daily News:

Local schools ‘overwhelmed’ by refugee arrivals

The Bowling Green International Center  is working with a special stakeholder group that will address local school superintendents’ concerns that their schools have been “overwhelmed” by the number of refugee arrivals in recent years.

“We’re barely getting by,” Warren County Public Schools Superintendent Rob Clayton said.

Clayton was joined Thursday by Bowling Green Independent School District Superintendent Gary Fields at the International Center’s fourth quarterly meeting with local resettlement stakeholders. [Just a reminder that you—members of the public—should be admitted to these meetings, but I know the contractors do everything in their power to keep the public out.—ed]

Together, the two superintendents emphasized a need for what they described as a more sustainable approach to refugee resettlement.

“We’re at capacity,” Fields said, describing the dearth of resources available to current English learner students in his school district.

By the end of the school year, Fields said, his district anticipates reaching the 20 percent mark for students classified as English learners. In Warren County Public Schools, one in five students fall into that category.

“As of September, we will have 190 Swahili speakers in our school district,” he said. “We have one translator.”

[….]

In some cases, due to the nature of their persecution and displacement from their homeland, refugees have interrupted educational experiences.

Bearing the responsibility for educating those students is sometimes a Herculean effort, Clayton said, citing an example of a 19-year-old student with no formal education.

[….]

Overall, the center received 513 refugees as of Sept. 20. That’s up from 297 refugees resettled in Bowling Green during the previous fiscal year.

Here it is, the major point I want you to see.  Refugees are placed with family members who came before them so that once you have a contingent of certain ethnic groups in your ‘welcoming’ town or city more of that ethnic group will follow.

Also, note that there is no way to control “secondary migration” as refugees are permitted to move and often do for jobs or to be with their own kind of people.

Despite the uncertainty around what number the Trump administration would set, the Bowling Green International Center has seen a steady stream of arrivals.

This is mainly due to the role a refugee’s U.S. ties play in the resettlement process.

Refugees can ask to be resettled with family members already established in the country.The International Center also sees a significant number of “secondary migrants,” who initially resettle in other parts of the country and then travel to Bowling Green, often seeking work.

So, although you may hear the contractors squawking about Trump’s plan to let communities (or states) decide if they want more refugees, once a seed community is established there is usually no going back and the resettlement contractors know it.

Dear Trudy, Why are We Obligated to Take One More Iraqi or Afghan Refugee?

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s esteemed foreign affairs columnist Trudy Rubin has penned an opinion piece dripping with venom and bias against the President (and White House aide Stephen Miller) claiming we still owe US citizenship to thousands more Iraqi and Afghan “translators” who supposedly all helped the US military.

Trudy Rubin says we must admit thousands more Afghan and Iraqi ‘interpreters’ to America! I want to know when is enough enough?

The war in Iraq ended in 2011, so first let me ask why after 8 years we still must be giving anyone from Iraq (maybe with an exception for truly persecuted Christians) a taxpayer-funded new life in America?

We spent enormous blood and treasure giving Iraqis new leadership and a fresh chance at governing themselves, why must we move tens of thousands of the newly freed Iraqis (mostly Muslims) to a town near you?

Just a reminder here, dear readers, that when we go to war in a Middle Eastern country the Leftists will claim, now and forevermore, that we are morally bankrupt if we don’t bring that country’s nationals to America!

To hear Ms. Rubin you would not know that since the fall of 2006 through last week we admitted the following astronomical numbers from these two countries.

Afghanistan:

11,142 refugees and 59,104 SIVs (those that supposedly helped us) 

Iraq:

143,135 refugees and 18,530 SIVs

All of the SIVs are not so brave and helpful. Maybe Ms. Rubin doesn’t know about Jasim Mohammed Hasin Ramadon. https://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/04/18/iraqi-called-war-hero-sentenced-in-colorado-rape/

(Below I’m going to show you all where Ms. Rubin can find accurate numbers so that maybe next time she won’t get all her facts from refugee contractors who make fat salaries off the US taxpayer and thus have a pecuniary interest in ever-growing refugee numbers.***)

So I guess Trudy Rubin doesn’t think we have already done enough!

Here is the Philadelphia Inquirer piece that got my blood boiling.

And, by the way, by highlighting a sympathetic case she deploys the sob story method to play on her readers’ emotions. I can do that too….learn more about the convicted rapist Jasim.

For extra added measure she throws in the canard that our population is declining in America so we need all these new people to pay taxes.

Another Trump scandal: Blocking visas for Iraqis who saved American lives

Apart from Ukraine-gate, another White House scandal revved up recently, almost unnoticed.

The White House effort to block legal immigration shifted into overdrive. The State Department announced last week it would slash the already shrunken U.S. refugee program almost in half, to 18,000 admissions over the next 12 months, nearly eliminating America’s historic role as a safe haven.  [I’m questioning why America always has to be a safe haven!—ed]

And the Trump team is trying to limit the impact of a recent D.C. District Court ruling that it end years-long delays in granting special immigrant visas (SIV) for thousands of Afghans and Iraqis who helped the U.S. military – as mandated by Congress. 

The SIV mandate is a joke.  Then Sen. Ted Kennedy added the provision for SIVs to a defense authorization bill and so there was never a Congressional debate on Iraq and Afghanistan SIVs.

What kind of moral bankrupts try to shut our doors to those who saved American lives?

Cry me a river! 

Look who is talking!

“With one final blow, the Trump administration has snuffed out Lady Liberty’s torch and ended our nation’s legacy of compassion and welcome,” says the Rev. John L. McCullough, president of Church World Service, a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations.

Just a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations?

John McCullough pulls down a salary of over $300,000 a year as President and CEO of Church World Service, a federal refugee contractor that got over $40 million in federal tax dollars in a recent year to place refugees throughout America while acting as a leading far left Open Borders political agitation group!

(Ms. Rubin might want to have a look at CWS’s Form 990 here.)

Even more shocking is the White House willingness to betray Iraqis and Afghans who are at risk because they helped the U.S. military.

[….]

Administration callousness beggars belief. Many of these applicants and their families have been hiding for years under death threats.

Meantime, State Department data show that only 1,649 Afghans got SIV visas in 2018, a 60% drop from 2017.

See how she cherry-picks the numbers to put Trump in the worst light! Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, it is time to stop the SIV program? Haven’t we brought enough already?  Isn’t 59,104 enough already!

As for Iraqis, the situation is far worse. Those in greatest danger – such as military interpreters and their families – have been tossed into a huge pool of applicants also entitled to visas because they worked for U.S. civilians. That backlog has reached 100,000.

Under Stephen Miller, only 51 Iraqis were admitted in 2018 (as compared with 10,000 in 2016).  [LOL! Of course, gotta get their boogey man Miller in here.  Don’t they call this dog whistling!—ed]

“They [the SIV applicants] served bravely in support of our missions abroad, and we promised them a pathway to safety in return,” points out Deepa Alagesan, the supervising attorney who brought the successful court case on behalf of the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Under pressure from Congress, 4,000 [more—ed] of the rare refugee slots will supposedly be reserved for Iraqis who worked for the U.S. military. But will they ever receive them?

There is more here.

Haven’t we already done enough for Iraq? 

161,665 refugees and SIVs moved to America isn’t enough?

Was our blood and treasure squandered for a country that eight years after the war ended isn’t safe enough according to the refugee industry agitators?

Are we expected to bring Iraqi ‘refugees’ to our American towns for the next ten years and ten after that?  

*** For inquisitive readers, lazy reporters and for Ms. Rubin, here is where you can find accurate numbers. This is the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center.

These particular data bases for Iraq and Afghanistan show placement for each state for refugee numbers vs. SIV numbers.

This is a screenshot of the page. Go to the page and click on the link and a large spreadsheet will open. https://www.wrapsnet.org/admissions-and-arrivals/

Refugee Resettlement Contractors Stay in the Black With Lucrative Federal Grants

In case you are wondering how the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors stay afloat through lean times—when the President cuts the flow of new refugees (paying clients!) coming into the country—here is one example.

Check out this list of new federal grant recipients employed by the feds to teach immigrants how to pass the naturalization test!

Over $10 million out the door to the likes of Catholic Charities, HIAS, Lutheran Social Services and others whose federal grants for new refugees had slowed in recent years. 

Gotta get all those new voters signed up pronto!  (Hat tip: Steven)

USCIS Awards FY 2019 Citizenship and Assimilation Grants

Nearly $10 Million Will Expand Citizenship Preparation Services in 24 States

On September 26, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the award of nearly $10 million in grants to 41 organizations that prepare lawful permanent residents (LPRs) for naturalization. The grants also aim to promote prospective citizens’ assimilation into American civic life by funding educational programs designed to increase their knowledge of English, U.S. history, and civics. Located in 24 states, these organizations will receive federal funding to support citizenship preparation services for LPRs through September 2021.

I can see giving grants to community colleges, school systems, libraries, but refugee agencies, SEIU and something called Progreso Latino and Women for Afghan Women?

Could their students be getting a little indoctrination by progressive Dems along with their English language and civic lessons?

And, why don’t we see any politically conservative non-profits getting some of this grant money?

(Groups highlighted in red are involved in refugee resettlement)

1199SEIU League Training and Upgrading Fund New York, NY $250,000

Access California Services Anaheim, CA $250,000

Asian Counseling and Referral Service Seattle, WA $250,000

Baker Ripley Houston, TX $250,000

BPSOS Center for Community Advancement Westminster,CA $250,000

Burmese American Community Institute, Inc. Indianapolis, IN $225,000

Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans New Orleans, LA $225,000

Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, Inc.Overland Park, KS $250,000

Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada Reno, NV $250,000

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa Santa Rosa, CA $237,500

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Fort Worth, Inc.Fort Worth, TX $250,000

Church World Service, Inc.Durham, NC $237,500

Emerald Isle Immigration Center Woodside, NY $250,000

English Skills Learning Center Salt Lake City, UT $250,000

Fresno Unified School District Fresno, CA $250,000

Hartford Public Library Hartford, CT $225,000

HIAS and Council Migration Services of Philadelphia, Inc.Philadelphia, PA $250,000

Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Saint Paul, MN $250,000

Instituto del Progreso Latino Chicago, IL $225,000

International Institute of New England, Inc.Boston, MA $250,000

International Rescue Committee, Inc.San Diego, CA $250,000

International Rescue Committee, Inc.Baltimore, MD $250,000

International Rescue Committee, Inc.Turlock, CA $237,500

International Rescue Committee, Inc.Seattle, WA $250,000

Jewish Family & Vocational Service of Middlesex County, Inc. Milltown, NJ $250,000

Jewish Family Service of San Diego San Diego, CA $225,000

Jewish Family Services of Western Massachusetts, Inc.Springfield, MA $250,000

Kentucky Refugee Ministries, Inc.Louisville, KY $250,000

Literacy New Jersey Edison, NJ $250,000

Lutheran Community Services Northwest Portland, OR $250,000

Lutheran Social Services of Colorado Denver, CO $250,000

Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid Minneapolis, MN $237,500

Montgomery College Rockville, MD $250,000

Pars Equality Center Sherman Oaks, CA $225,000

Progreso Latino, Inc.Central Falls, RI $250,000

School Board of Miami-Dade, FLMiami, FL $225,000

Shorefront YM-YWHA of Brighton-Manhattan Beach, Inc.Brooklyn, NY $250,000

Skyline Literacy Harrisonburg, VA $250,000

The International Institute of Metropolitan St. Louis St. Louis, MO $225,000

United Methodist Cooperative Ministries/Suncoast, Inc.Largo, FL $237,500

Women for Afghan Women, Inc.Fresh Meadows, NY $250,000

I’ve done it over the years, but maybe it is time to revisit all of the grants available to ‘non-profit’ groups that are very much involved in political organizing particularly against this President.

More on the President’s 18,000 Refugees for FY2020 Decision

Editor:  First, see my quickie post last night.  Also, note that I am now able (at this newly reconstructed RRW) to accept comments and I suspect more than a few of you might not like my analysis. So I will say at the outset, my hesitation to give a full blessing to the Presidential Determination in no way diminishes my support for the President. 

As the Leftists know so well, in order to move the needle on any political issue there has to be someone staking out a position who is willing to say it is not enough!  Heck, all of the groups included in the Refugee Industry were demanding 95,000 refugees knowing that was NEVER going to happen. They didn’t come in with anything that would appear reasonable—say 35,000-40,000—they went for the extreme.

However, I’m not saying that I wanted zero this year purely as a political ploy, but I am saying that simply reducing numbers and tinkering around the edges of an extremely flawed program designed in 1979 and 1980 by Senator Ted Kennedy and President Jimmy Carter is not going to fix how we admit refugees in the decades ahead.

Setting the level at zero would likely have forced a major national debate and Trump could have said to Congress—you don’t like it, then dump the Refugee Act of 1980 and reform the entire process by which we admit refugees.

And, yes, this is only the beginning you might argue, but only if Donald Trump is reelected in 2020!

As predicted, those organizations with a vested interest in admitting more refugees both as future Democrat voters and because they are paid to place refugees are furious.

Here is what the Refugee Council USA (an Open Borders lobbying consortium in Washington, DC) said last night.

Washington, DC – The Administration announced that it is proposing to set the Presidential Determination (PD) for annual refugee admissions for FY 2020 at 18,000. This decision is unprecedented, cruel, and contrary to American humanitarian values and strategic interests.

[….]

The US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) is built on nearly four decades of public-private partnership, bringing together nonprofits, faith groups, local communities, and the Federal and State governments for this essential community-building work. Refugees strengthen our communities and our country socially, culturally, and economically.

Public-Private Partnership mumbo-jumbo!

Of course, and as usual, there is no mention that nine of the members of RCUSA*** have a financial interest in keeping numbers high because they are paid from the US Treasury to place refugees into towns and cities of their choosing.

I continue to argue that the major flaw in the US Refugee Admissions Program is the fact that Left-leaning non-profit groups are paid for their ‘charitable’ work, so there is never any incentive to adjust the flow without those groups taking to the streets with anti-Trump placards held aloft.

Kennedy and Carter created a political structure funded by taxpayers that assures a continuous flow of third world poverty to American towns and cities. 

Those of us who object have no political organization with the financial resources of the nine resettlement contractors and their extensive networks, mostly through their church or synagogue infrastructure, to fight back. Not to mention the big bucks certain industries (meatpackers!) and the Chamber of Commerce are shelling out in order to keep a steady supply of cheap labor.

Although there was talk last year of dropping some of the nine federal contractors, that didn’t happen and all nine are still in place. But, even if this coming year’s low number forces a couple of the contractors to close their programs, it just allows the big ones like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the International Rescue Committee to further monopolize the process.

First, get rid of the contractors!

I have said and continue to maintain that if we are to admit refugees then there is no reason that these non-profits, including the churches, can’t still do their ‘humanitarian’ work in the old fashioned way—with true private charity, and not as paid agents of the federal government.

Geographic placement of refugees

Lawrence Bartlett, as far as I know, still runs the Refugee Program at the State Department. Here he proudly displays a map of the resettlement sites chosen with very little consultation with communities by the nine resettlement contractors. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-refugees/sidelined-state-department-official-returns-to-refugee-post-idUSKCN1NO2K6

The second important issue I’ve raised here for years involves the placement of refugees which has been largely dictated by the nine federal contractors for decades.

Yes, they coordinate with the US State Department, but it’s largely a game of pin the refugee on the map. 

Only when citizens of the ‘lucky’ chosen community organize and object does anyone pay any attention to concerns about a given location (a large part of my work here for a dozen years has been to show where citizens in “pockets of resistance” have objected to the US State Department changing their community by changing the people.)

I give the President kudos for an attempt to address the problem of placement with an Executive Order signed yesterday.  Read it here. But, honestly it has not been very carefully thought through and thus strikes me as a political bone thrown to critics of the program.

Why didn’t the President’s people call in some of us who are somewhat knowledgeable about how the program works on the ground to help craft a feasible way to give decision-making power to the states and local citizens who will be most affected by the arrival of large numbers of impoverished people?

This is getting too long, but let me give a few examples of why I say the order has not been thoroughly thought out.

So, governor number one (who might only have a year or so left in his/her term) says yes, we love refugees send more, but a neighboring governor says no thanks.  What is going to keep the refugees in welcoming state number one?

In America, all of us are allowed to move without government approval and that includes refugees.

You can run that same scenario involving mayors.  One mayor says we love refugees, but a town down the road isn’t on board with the idea. Refugees placed in town number one pack up and move to town number two anyway!

Then how about ‘welcoming’ governor number one is out of office in a year and is replaced by another governor who wants to stop the refugee flow to the state, how quickly could the feds put on the brakes to stop the flow to the now ‘unwelcoming’ state?   You can see the chaos that would ensue.

I do have some ideas that I think could work in terms of revamping the whole program (assuming Americans want to continue accepting some refugees), but no one has ever contacted me to ask.

There are so many other issues involving the Presidential Determination that need to be discussed and I’ll do that in the coming days—things like: we are going to continue to take Australia’s rejected asylum seekers!  Nuts!

Let me just say once again, maybe more clearly:  We can still support President Trump and criticize some of his decisions.

It is my view that Trump’s greatest downfall as President began on day one when he did not immediately clean out the deep state actors throughout the White House and federal agencies and move his genuine (and knowledgeable) loyal supporters into his Administration.

The best thing you can do now is work hard for Trump’s reelection so that he has four more years to get it right and solve this problem.

***For new readers these are the nine federally-funded resettlement contractors: