Editor: This is another copy of testimony submitted in response to my offer to post testimony that readers have sent, or are sending, to the US State Department before close of business today. Your testimony can be long or short, more detailed or less so. Just send something! And, then be sure to copy it to your elected officials. You have a few more hours to send in your testimony!
Persons wishing to submit written comments on the appropriate size and scope of the FY 2017 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program should submit them by 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 19, 2016 via email to PRM-Comments@state.gov or fax (202) 453-9393.
The refugee resettlement program should be put on hold until we can put our house back in order.
From James Simpson:
The refugee resettlement program is expensive, secretive and dangerous. We have been resettling millions of people from all over the world who largely do not assimilate to our society and culture. The refugee contractors place increasing numbers throughout our community without our knowledge or consent. And when the federal grant monies run out (which we pay for through taxes), local communities are left to deal with these needy populations. The Office of Refugee Resettlement maintains statistics of welfare use among refugee communities. Refugees use welfare at rates wildly out of proportion to their number. Even after 5 years, refugee welfare use is magnitudes greater than U.S. citizens. For example, 60.2% of refugees still use food stamps after 5 years, while the rate for citizens is 15.1% – and that is the highest rate for U.S. citizens in recorded history. In their first year, refugees use food stamps at the rate of 75.9% and cash assistance at the rate of 46.9% (Americans use cash assistance at the rate of 5.3%). We are $20 trillion in debt, and cannot afford to expand our burgeoning welfare state further with populations of people supported by welfare.
Islamic terror plots and attacks have increased at exponential rates in the U.S. and abroad in the past few years, culminating this year in the horrendous mass murders in Paris, San Bernardino and Brussels. Two of the Paris terrorists were carrying Syrian passports, and ISIS has its own passport printing facility according to the FBI. The San Bernardino Islamic terrorists were recruited by Mohamed Hassan, a Somali refugee who returned to Somalia from Minnesota to become a terrorist recruiter. ISIS intends to use the refugee program to infiltrate terrorists into the U.S. The head of every single federal security agency says that Syrian refugees cannot be vetted, yet president Obama wants to reduce processing time from 18 months to 3 months, an 83% reduction. While most Syrians we resettle here will likely not be a threat, some certainly will be; and increasing the size of the Syrian population will provide a safe haven for Islamic terrorists to hide and plot. Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, says that an attack in the U.S. by ISIS is likely in 2016.
The goal of refugee resettlement is to send refugees back to their homeland. That is what they prefer and should be our purpose. We can provide many more benefits to Syrians in refugee camps at the same cost than we can if we bring them here. This is the more compassionate and cost effective way to help. Finally, Syrians currently residing in refugee camps do not meet the definition of “refugee” as provided in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which is our operating framework. For these reasons, the refugee resettlement program should be put on hold until we can put our house back in order. To do otherwise is the height of irresponsibility, and flagrantly denies our current waking reality every single day.
This is the eleventh testimony in our series leading up to the deadline for testimony at 5 p.m. today, May 19th. Go here for where they are archived. We are posting as many as we can because we know the US State Department has refused in the past to make them public (so much for Obama transparency!).
I will continue to post testimonies even after the deadline. I was not expecting so many!