“We cannot and we must not fall victims to politics of fear and hatred that drives the far-right…..[Biden] “must follow through on his promise.”
(Rep. Ilhan Omar)
In addition to abysmally low numbers, Biden hasn’t re-started the flow of refugees from Muslim countries, the flow Trump halted for a handful of countries that hate us.
Syrians, Somalis, Iraqis are waiting and frustrated, but not nearly as frustrated as the refugee contractors*** and their friends in Congress like Minnesota Somali Rep. Ilhan Omar.
As I have said before, the mystery for me is this:
How do the contractors who have been paid since at least 1980 to place refugees in your towns and cities and who have had a pipeline to the US State Department via their swamp dwelling bureaucrats (even as Trump was in the White House) not know what is going on?
Apparently they don’t and the guess is that Biden doesn’t want to look too pro-immigration as the southern border is being overrun.
Well, duh!
It is too late for that as most of America sees Biden as the most open borders President ever!
And, besides the average American voter does not even fully understand the difference between fake asylum seekers (illegal aliens!) at the southern border and the Refugee Admissions Program.
It is ludicrous to think that voters are sitting around saying, gee it’s good of Biden to stop the refugee flow right now so let’s give him some brownie points because he is slowing, by a tiny bit, the Great Replacement!
Biden’s delay on refugees baffles and frustrates allies
Senator Ted Kennedy created the present refugee and asylum system with the help of Joe Biden in 1979. Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act into law in 1980. A question I have asked for over a decade is this: Why has Biden’s Delaware resettled only a handful of refugees since then? Maybe Joe doesn’t like foreigners in HIS neighborhood!
President Biden sent a stark message in February to foreigners fleeing oppression, persecution and danger: The United States stands ready to help them once again. He pledged an eightfold-plus increase in the annual cap on refugees set during the Trump administration, saying he would aim for a “down payment” on that promise “as soon as possible.”
More than two months later, Biden has not made good on his vow. He has yet to sign a directive that would lift the cap for the next fiscal year or enact more-immediate changes to the Trump limits.
His advisers have provided little public clarity on why, angering many human rights advocates who say the delay is inflicting growing harm on refugees desperate to take flight to the United States.
[….]
People close to the White House’s decision-making attribute the delay to several factors. Some point to the administration’s ongoing struggles to contain a massive increase in migrants arriving at the southern border, saying they detect political concerns from the White House about expanding the refugee program at a moment when there is increasing pressure on Biden to be tougher on immigration and border security.
Jenny Yang of World Relief
“What’s missing is the political will of the president,” said Jenny Yang, vice president for advocacy and policy at World Relief, one of a handful of resettlement agencies working with the government.
The result, Yang said, is that “the program is effectively operating as if President Trump were still in office.”
[….]
Before becoming a highly paid refugee contractor CEO, Vignarajah worked for Michelle in the White House.
“Unfortunately, I think it shows that President Trump may have been effective in conflating refugee resettlements and the asylum program,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, another resettlement agency working with the government.
She said there “is no substantive reason” why Trump’s directive should remain in place, given that changing it is “not a herculean task” for Biden.
I don’t know why Lutheran CEO Vignarajah is complaining as her organization is raking in millions of your tax dollars to take ‘care’ of the Unaccompanied Alien (mostly teens) Children invading the border.
Biden cautious on immigration!
Biden’s careful posture underscores the broader caution with which he and his advisers are approaching immigration.
Keenly aware of how the issue has sparked impassioned divisions in recent years, Biden, who ran as a unifier, did not emphasize it as a candidate. As president, he and his aides have treaded lightly, wary of inflaming a polarizing debate that could threaten to his appeal to a broad swath of voters.
He didn’t emphasize it as a candidate because controlling immigration appeals to most Americans and plays in Trump’s favor!
Some of the most fervent concern has come from Democrats in the House. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who lived in a refugee camp in Kenya as a child after her family fled a civil war in Somalia, warned in a recent statement that “We cannot and we must not fall victims to politics of fear and hatred that drives the far-right.”
Biden, she said, “must follow through on his promise.”
[….]
Biden announced that he would raise the annual cap on refugee admission to 125,000 for the first full fiscal year of his administration, which begins in October. He informed Congress that his target for the current fiscal year was 62,500.
But he never signed a new presidential determination, a decision that has left Trump’s directive in place. Now, Biden is on pace to accept the fewest refugees this year of any modern president, according to a report the International Rescue Committee released last week. The Biden administration has admitted only 2,050 refugees at the halfway point of this fiscal year, according to the nonprofit organization’s report.
Data from the Refugee Processing Center.You can readily see that if Biden follows through on what he said, his numbers would eclipse anything George Bush or Barack Obama ever did.
Six months into the fiscal year and only 2,050 refugees have been admitted. They have to do some real hustling if they want to beat Trump’s lowest year of 11,814.
The report says Biden’s inaction means “tens of thousands of already-cleared refugees remain barred from resettlement and over 700 resettlement flights have been cancelled.”
Absent a reversal of Trump-era restrictions, most refugees from civil war-ravaged Syria, who have the highest resettlement needs according to the report, do not have a chance of coming to the U.S.
Refugees from other Muslim countries are also being hit hard by current rules, according to the report
[….]
Some White House allies find the president’s delay perplexing because the refugee program has attracted bipartisan support in recent years. Even some of the Republicans who have been critical of Biden’s handling of the border have called for raising the refugee cap to expand the legal pathways for immigrants to come to the United States.
Republican Senator Portman: Increase the refugee cap! Any Republican wanting to increase the cap is making the Chamber of Commerce types happy!
“The refugee program is much more of an orderly and legal process that is entirely distinct” from the situation at the border, said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). “I would increase the refugees cap from where it was in the Trump years, and I would make the asylum system work as it should.”
In addition to abysmally low numbers, Biden hasn’t re-started the flow of refugees from Muslim countries, the flow Trump halted for a handful of countries that hate us.
Data from the Refugee Processing Center. You can readily see that if Biden follows through on what he said, his numbers would eclipse anything George Bush or Barack Obama ever did.
