Long time readers will remember that for a couple of years we were on a hunt to reveal the forty plus new resettlement sites the US State Department was quietly targeting for placement of the huge flow of refugees they expected in the waning years of the Obama Administration (and planning ahead for the Hillary years to come!).
We were able to identify some sites in various stages of planning just because local newspapers reported that their town was being chosen (or might be chosen), but there was never any official release of information from the DOS.
Thus, Judicial Watch went to work to try to uncover the list and the criteria being used to select new sites.
In December 2016 this is a list I had put together from various news reports:
Below are new sites we have identified so far of the supposed 47 the Obama Administration is (or has been) trying to get established.
One of the first things the Trump Administration must do is to make all of this information public information. Here are some of the sites we have identified so far by just keeping an eye on local news reports in 2015 and 2016:
(again, this is a list from 2016!)
Asheville, NC (not decided yet)
Rutland, VT (approved, waiting)
Reno, NV (open)
Ithaca, NY
Missoula, MT (open)
Aberdeen, SD (not now)
Charleston, WV (approved, see Senator Capito as the Frau Merkel of WV!)
Fayetteville, AR
Blacksburg, VA
Pittsfield, MA
Northhampton, MA
Flint, MI
Bloomington, IN (dead for now)
Traverse City, MI
Poughkeepsie, NY
Wilmington, DE
Hudson, WI (dead for now?)
Watertown, NY (maybe)
Youngstown, OH (maybe)
Storm Lake, Iowa
Sante Fe, NM (approved but on hold)
Judicial Watch wants to know more!
Why is that important?
Besides keeping the State Department accountable, you know and I know that when Trump is no longer President, the deep staters and the refugee contractors*** will go right back to their previous ways (including identifying prospective new resettlement sites) UNLESS Trump makes permanent changes through legislation to the US Refugee Admissions Program.
One place to start will be to make it the law that local citizens will no longer be kept in the dark in the development and planning process for these sites.
Press release from Judicial Watch on June 18, 2018:
Judicial Watch Sues State Department for Obama-Era Records on Refugee Resettlement Site Locations
(Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for records on sites that were considered for the resettlement of refugees in the United States during the last two years of the Obama administration. (Judicial Watch vs. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:18-cv-01244))
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit after the State Department failed to respond to a February 23, 2017, FOIA request seeking:
~All records reflecting the locations within the United States that were considered as possible sites for refugee resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in 2015 and 2016.
~All records reflecting the criteria used to determine suitability of locations as refugee resettlement sites in 2015 and 2016.
~All records reflecting the names of local organizations promoting any of the locations identified above for consideration as refugee resettlement sites.
In October 2016, Judicial Watch made public 128 pages of documents it obtained from the mayor of Rutland, Vermont, showing a concerted effort by the mayor and a number of private organizations to conceal from the public their plans to resettle 100 Syrian refugees into the small southern Vermont town. The mayor and resettlement organizations shrouded the plan in such secrecy that not even the town’s aldermen were informed of what was taking place behind closed doors. The aldermen eventually wrote to the U.S. Department of State protesting the plan and opened an investigation into the mayor’s actions.
The State Department says it currently works with nine nonprofit organizations to resettle refugees. Those nonprofits have about 315 affiliates in 180 communities throughout the U.S.
Go here for more and to follow JW links.
We know the Obama Administration didn’t believe in transparency, but we expect more of Trump’s State Department, so we assume the information will be forthcoming!
***Here (below) are the big nine ‘non-profit’ organizations that monopolize all refugee resettlement in the US. The six ‘religious’ contractors are part of the politically active Religious Left. They worked with local Interfaith groups to secretly set up new resettlement sites in the heyday of the Obama Administration.
Truthfully readers, there will be no lasting reform of the refugee program in the US until this contracting system is abolished. The President can reduce numbers for awhile, but these nine (and their hundreds of subcontractors) receiving the majority of their funding from taxpayers and then acting as Leftwing community organizers (holding rallies, ginning up bad publicity against the President) must go and that will require Congress to rewrite refugee law.
- Church World Service (CWS)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- World Relief Corporation (WR)