It seems like an eternity ago that the Trump Administration, via an Executive Order, sought to give local governments and governors a say in whether their county/state would be open to refugee placement during a small portion of the present fiscal year.
In January a court in Maryland halted the President’s plan when refugee contractors filed a lawsuit challenging the reform effort and subsequently the Justice Department appealed the ruling.
Mark Hetfield, President and CEO of HIAS, here at an anti-Trump rally in NYC in 2017. HIAS sued to stop the President’s Executive order that would have given local governments a voice in resettlement decisions.
Now comes news that 19 states are asserting via an amicus brief that they don’t want local governments (or governors) to have any say and indeed assert that refugee resettlement is the right and responsibility of the federal government.
In effect they are saying that the UN, the US State Department, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and nine federal contractors know what is best for your county!
This is some of the press releasefrom California Attorney General Xavier Becerra a week ago. The title is a joke because in supporting the resettlement contractors’ lawsuit they are agreeing to have no states rights when it comes to refugee resettlement decisions.
Attorney General Becerra Blasts Federal Overreach, Continues Fight to Protect Refugee and State Rights
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh today co-led a coalition of 19 attorneys general in an amicus brief filed in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s unlawful executive order on refugee resettlement.
The executive order seeks to upend the existing process by requiring written consent from state and local authorities before being able to place refugees in their jurisdictions.
One of three primary opponents of the President’s efforts to reform the refugee program: Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh
Following a multistate amicus brief at the district court level, the U.S. Department of State was blocked from implementing the executive order while litigation is ongoing.
In this latest amicus following the Trump Administration’s decision to appeal the preliminary injunction issued in HIAS, Inc. v. Trump, the coalition again asserts that the executive order violates the Refugee Act of 1980, undermines family reunification efforts, and disrupts the states’ ability to deliver essential resources that help refugees contribute to the communities that welcome them.
“Our nation is already reeling from an unprecedented economic and public health crisis,” said Attorney General Becerra.“ Now is not the time for the federal government to throw a wrench into a system that helps bring billions of dollars to communities across the country. Standing up for refugees who are lawfully admitted to this country isn’t just right, it’s the smart thing to do. Despite what President Trump might say, refugees are welcome here in California.”
What the heck! The refugee program costs federal and state taxpayers billions of dollars. They are such liars and no one ever calls them on it. The comment about family reunification is a lie too—the order specifically says families can be reunited.
So here are the 19 states that ‘welcome’ any and all refugees that the feds and their contractors want to send them!
In submitting the amicus brief, Attorney General Becerra is joined by the attorneys general of Illinois, Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
We are only a few months away from the November Presidential election and if the Democrat candidate wins, it will be all over on the issue of refugees. Biden has already signaled that he will start with 125,000 a year if he wins the White House.
125,000 divided by 19 = 6,578 for each of the welcoming states and then leave the rest of America alone!
Now, we are told, the reason so few cases have been reported at the world’s supposedly largest refugee camp in Bangladesh is that the residents fear they will be isolated if found to be infected and are therefore refusing testing.
I know this is likely boring for most of you, but since I started following the warnings of “catastrophe” and “carnage” as the Chinese Virus spread “like wildfire” to camps where “vulnerable” migrants live in close proximity to each other, I’m compelled to give you updates.
Literally for months there have been dire predictions of the impending crisis, that has not yet materialized.
Only one death of an old man so far as I said hereon Wednesday.
Fear stops Rohingya getting tested as virus hits refugee camps
BANGKOK/DHAKA (Reuters) – Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh with symptoms of the novel coronavirus are not coming forward to get tested because they fear being separated from their families and held in isolation, community leaders and aid workers say.
Only one death from the coronavirus has been recorded in the crowded camps in southeast Bangladesh, where some 730,000 Muslim Rohingya fled in 2017 to escape a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Yale Economics Professor Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak visited the camp and told Reuters he is sure the disease prevalence is much higher than testing so far indicates. https://faculty.som.yale.edu/mushfiqmobarak/
But aid workers fear the coronavirus may be spreading faster through the world’s largest refugee settlement than the 29 cases confirmed since mid-May would indicate.Only 339 tests have been carried out in the camps, officials said, partly because people were simply not going to health facilities to get checked.
“Camp hospitals are emptyand illegal doctors’ shops are full,” said 23-year-old refugee Mujef Khan, a community organiser, referring to pharmacies in the camps run by refugees where people buy pills to treat themselves.
“Many people are getting sick day by day – in every shelter,” he said.
Three Rohingya leaders interviewed by Reuters said coronavirus symptoms were prevalent in the camps that sprawl out over hills near the border with Myanmar.
The camps are more densely populated than the most crowded cities and sanitation is poor and social distancing impossible. [This will be the ultimate test in my opinion of whether social distancing matters or not!—ed]
While new testing facilities and treatment centres are being built, a surge in cases couldoverwhelm the camps, aid workers said.
I guess if they aren’t bothering to be tested, they aren’t that sick. However, they won’t be able to hide the deaths and so we will then get a better indication if the “tinderbox” has exploded as the media has been predicting literally for months!
I have been writing about the Rohingya for nearly 13 years. You need to know they are being resettled in the United States right now. See my Rohingya Reports categoryto learn more about this Muslim ethnic group.
