Investigative journalist, author and popular speaker James Simpson has penned an excellent overview of the Refugee Admissions Program published at The Federalista few days ago.
Full of facts and figures with many links to more information, it is entitled:
Simpson concludes with this prescription for the incoming Trump administration reflecting my views as well:
The resettlement program is dangerous, expensive, and unfair to Americans. Its structure encourages endless growth, systemic corruption, cronyism, secrecy, and duplicity. The refugee program must be put on hold. Members of Congress have called for a moratorium, and such legislation is circulating. H.R. 3314, the Resettlement Accountability National Security Act, has 86 co-sponsors.
James Simpson
But legislation isn’t needed. On his first day in office, Trump can pause the entire program by simply resetting the annual refugee targets to whatever number has already been reached this fiscal year.The 1980 Refugee Act gives him authority to do this, and subsequent court decisions have declared Congress’s refugee resettlement oversight authority as advisory only.
Trump has stated his desire to halt resettlement from nations of terrorism concern. It would be wiser to pause the entire program.
Once paused, the entire system must be either trashed or completely reformed. Congress must do that, and by pausing the program it puts the hammer over reluctant Congressional leaders’ heads! If they want to admit refugees to the US, they can reform it or completely scrap the present law and start all over. But, that fight must be fought.
Trump could easily do what George Bush did in the wake of 9/11!
There is precedent for pausing the program. George Bush partially paused it in the two years following 9/11. I just had a look at the ORR Annual Report to Congress for 2003 and entry tables*** are telling. We went from admitting 94,226 refugees in FY2000, and 87,110 in FY2001 to the following numbers for FY02 and FY03: 45,850 and 39,177 respectively.
Going back to my previous post where I reported that we have admitted 25,671 refugees in the first 90 days of this fiscal year, if that rate continues until January 20th (adding another 5,704) that means by inauguration day the number for this fiscal year will be 31,375. And, if Trump doesn’t pause it until January 30th, then we are looking at 34,228 having entered by then (not far off of the Bush numbers).
Your work is not over because Trump must take the initiative to change the law, not just halt or slow the flow during his term in office. So, pausing, or giving the program a ‘time-out,’ when Trump enters office will not be unprecedented or unreasonable to help assure our safety and will throw the ball to Congress where the law must be changed or in 4-8 years we will be back to square one.
***BTW, I was interested to see the dramatic drop in Somali numbers from 2001 (4,940) to 2002 (242!). Worried about Somalis weren’t they!
Time reporter, Maya Rhodan, quotes Anne Richard the Obama Assistant Secretary of State, and public relations people at two resettlement contracting agencies, an academician, but no one on the side of slowing the flow of refugees to America for economic and security reasons! And, there are plenty of us out here now! She does quote Kellyanne Conway to be sure you know that it is Trump vs. the humanitarians! Here is the story (actually we thank Ms. Rhodan for giving us so much information we didn’t have!): Poor Anne Richard has been constantly challenged about how she does her job.
Officials at the State Department and beyond are anxious about what the Trump presidency means for their work.
The past year had been tough for Anne Richard, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration. Ever since the body of 3-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi washed up on the shores of Turkey in 2015, her office, which processed 84,995 refugee claims last year, has been caught in political crossfire. [Notice how the propagandists have to get that poor baby in the story!—ed]
Richard says she’s been challenged constantly about how her office does its job, from members of Congress and everyday Americans…. [Glad to know this!—ed]
[….]
“I get these letters saying ‘Oh, you’re naïve, terrorists are going to use this program to infiltrate the United States,’” Richard said. “I don’t think I’m naïve. I’m looking at facts. The debate in the United States centers on this question of whether or not people should be afraid of refugees. I think not.”
The problem for Richard and her allies is that the next President of the United States, who will effectively run her office when she leaves on January 20, disagrees with that conclusion. [Anne Richard is an Obama appointee, so Trump will be choosing her replacement.—ed]
[….]
Inside and outside of the State Department, those who handle work around refugee resettlement are worried about the future of their work in the Trump administration. [And, the future of their paychecks!—ed] Many are working to share positive refugee stories with hopes of changing the hearts and minds of skeptics. While questions loom, the work continues—a little over 25,000 refugees have already been admitted to the U.S. since the beginning of the fiscal year—but on day one of the Trump administration things could change significantly.
What hardened the public against the refugee program was indeed the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. We noticed a huge jump in readership at RRW at that time.
Rhodan continues…. I know you can’t see it clearly, but wanted readers to know that Brenda in Charleston, WV has created this homemade poster of US refugees who have been arrested/convicted of Islamic terrorism or other heinous crimes. She plans to use it at meetings where the refugee advocates are promoting the meme that refugees are pure as the driven snow.
After a slight shift in opinion in the wake of Kurdi’s death, the majority of the public hardened on refugees after the terror attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. In September 2015, the Pew Research Center recorded that about 51% of Americans supported the government’s decision accept more refugees in response to the European migrant crisis. Two months later, a Bloomberg poll found 53% of Americans wanted the U.S. to stop accepting refugees altogether.
[….]
Around that time, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which houses the refugee admissions program and funds and manages the nine Resettlement Support Centers around world that prepare refugee applications, started playing defense.
When Senators Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and President Jimmy Carter created the Refugee Admissions Program in 1980 they gave the President inordinate amounts of power to determine who comes and how many. Now, as refugee skeptic Donald Trump arrives in Washington it could come back to bite them. (Both Bushs were soft on refugees).
In October, President Obama set a new goal of resettling 110,000 refugees in 2017—a number that president-elect Trump can decide to either reduce or ignore. The goal functions as a ceiling that the country can’t go over, and Trump can change it once he is president without an act of Congress.
At this point reporter Rhodan quotes from two representatives of refugee contracting agencies without mentioning that many jobs are at stake now at these quasi-government agencies since both of these organizations receive millions of taxpayer dollars to place refugees in your towns and cities. After discussing the International Rescue Committee, here is what she reports that Church World Service is doing.
What is so galling to me is that CWS is likely using funds you, as taxpayers, give them to organize lobbying efforts, marches on Washington and media propaganda campaigns. They use your money to work against you!
The Time article continues…..
Church World Service is working on sharing refugees’ and volunteers’ stories through a digital campaign called #GreaterAs1. They’ve also been encourage partners across the country to reach out to local and national officials to share refugee success stories and comment on the impact of their work. The group also plans to have refugee presence at both the confirmation hearing of Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as well as a women’s march planned for after the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump. [So they are going to parade refugee pawns in to Senator Sessions’hearing to be Attorney General?Once again, thanks to reporter Rhodan for this information.—ed]
As Richard’s appointment comes to an end, she’s still working to get the word out about refugees. After a young Somali refugee carried out a knife attack at Ohio State University, she penned a letter to the editor to USA Today. “The biggest issue that I’ve tried to get across is that refugees are not terrorists,” she said.“They are the victims of terrorists, and victims of war, victims of persecution.”
There is more, click here to read the rest of the biased Time story. Remember, even as Ms. Richard packs up and leaves, there are career bureaucrats who will carry-on until Trump puts someone in there to rein them in! Endnote:You might want to see yesterday’s post about Rochester, NY where we learned that the State Department is not only countering negative news, but pushing resettlement agencies to the brink with a huge number of mostly Muslim refugees they are bringing in as they come up against the clock—Inauguration day January 20th.
This is direct confirmation from a resettlement contractor in Rochester, NY that indeed the pipeline of refugees headed to America is packed to overflowing and that local resettlement agencies are struggling to cope with the numbers.
Of course this means that refugees will suffer as will local communities, governments/school systems that must adjust to rapid cultural and demographic change (in addition to shelling-out for taxpayer-funded expenses for schooling etc.). Not sure what the 10 different options are that Trump could choose, but we can think of one at least—pause the program on day one and force Congress to trash the present law or reform it.
On January 20th, Donald Trump could simply turn off the spigot, and if he does there will be howls of rage by contractors who say he is mean and hateful as he cuts off the flow of not only refugees, but the MONEY that comes with them from Washington!
This article at the Democrat and Chronicle (hat tip: Jim, LOL! Not the Jim quoted in the story!) tells us that the local resettlement contractor is in a tough spot because they can’t cope with the uncertainty. They can’t go out and hire staff to take care of the huge, unexpected influx!
Nearly 1,200 people arrived in Rochester as refugees in 2016, a huge spike from 2015 that has put serious strain on the local agencies through which they pass.
The influx a 56 percent increase over last year’s total mirrors a nationwide increase and reflects Rochester’s role as a major center for refugees like Haidar Al-Hasooni, a 16-year-old from Iraq.
Like most newly arriving children, he attends the Rochester International Academy (RIA), which has nearly doubled its enrollment since the start of the school year. [For more on this part of the story, be sure toclick here.—ed]
[….]
The increase in refugee arrivals coincides with President Barack Obama’s decision to raise the total national number from 70,000 to 85,000 for the 2015-16 fiscal year, which ended in September.
That includes Syrians, 80 of whom settled in Rochester in 2016.There were also significant increases in arrivals from Somalia (231, up from 103); Cuba (179, up from 119); Iraq (105, up from 54); and the Republic of the Congo (99, up from 39).
Rochester welcomed 756 refugees in 2015. This year, it was 1,176, and the pace has remained frenetic into the winter.
“This is usually a very slow time for us, but this year it’s the opposite because there are so many people in the pipeline,” said Jim Morris, associate vice president for family services at Catholic Family Center.
[….]
Even when refugee arrival trends are apparent, it is difficult for local agencies to plan very far in advance. Numbers can fluctuate in response to a variety of domestic and international factors, with the election of Donald Trump as president foremost at the moment.
“We’re not really built for the (current) level of arrivals,” Morris said. “We can get through a couple of months like this, but a sustained high level for seven or eight months makes it very difficult. … But we can’t really scale up, because it will likely go back down. The new administration could do one of 10 different options.”
The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) said in a press release in recent days that they were going ahead with their plans to open an office in Rutland, VT for the purpose of placing 100 Syrians (the first 100!) in the city where those plans have drawn heated controversy since last spring. Lavinia Limon with Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya. Ms. Limon’s organization, USCRI, helps Chobani Yogurt by sending refugees to Twin Falls, Idaho. Limon headed Bill Clinton’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. Warning to Mr. Trump: These are not squishy do-gooder organizations and people who you can easily roll. They are sharp, experienced political fighters.
Throwing all caution to the wind (shelling out money they don’t know they will have) and gambling that they can back Trump down, the federal resettlement contractor headed by longtime Clinton ally Lavinia Limon is hiring staff for a proposed opening in a couple of weeks—timed, I surmise, to happen just about the time Donald Trump is inaugurated. Setting up a showdown with Donald Trump…..
If Trump does what he said he would do and quickly pauses refugee resettlement at least from terror-producing regions of the world, USCRI will be in a position to scream bloody murder—how dare Trump stop these poor women and children who were headed to a ‘welcoming’ Vermont town.
By the way, the NYT puff piece on Rutland recently was likely part of the propaganda set up to nail a heartless Trump.
These resettlement contractorshave been around for over 30 years! Lots of big salaries depend on the continuation of the industry (yes, it is an industry), not to mention cheap labor for global corporations. Goals also include increasing Democrat voter rolls and generally driving all of us to accept a multicultural borderless world.
They are not going to give up easily or quietly!
From Valley News:
Rutland —
The Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program’s Rutland office is expected to open and be fully staffed within a couple of weeks.
According to Stacie Blake, director of government and community relations with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the office will have three full-time employees. Primary guidance will come from the Colchester, Vt., office and will be based on the organization’s 35 years of experience working with refugees in Vermont.
“The program expects to welcome the first refugee families to Rutland in January,” Blake said in a news release.
[….]
“Sites across the country are continuing to welcome new arrivals as their travel from overseas is booked,”Blake said in an email. “We have no information regarding changes to the resettlement program.”
I’ll bet you those travel bookings at IOMare going through the roof! The articlegoes on to say how excited the volunteers are who are anticipating their very own Syrians (how cool is that!), and these local refugee advocates can be counted on to wailif Trump pauses the program (and they will have no clue that USCRI used them).
See our extensive archive on Rutland, here. And for more on Lavinia Limon, go here.
http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/protection/resettlement/575836267/unhcr-projected-global-resettlement-needs-2017.html
Nayla Rush at the Center for Immigration Studies has done the work for us and analyzed a new UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report which makes suggestions for reform that basically increases the number of migrants (aka refugees) that would move from the third world to the first.
Watch for it! They will be pushing for “alternative pathways” because they know that the refugee system they have been relying on is crumbling. Of course, one option in that reform (in my opinion) should be to sever our connection with the UNHCR altogether and choose our own refugees (and how many!) and thus leave the UN out of our immigration business!
Wouldn’t it be great if Trump UN Ambassador Nikki Haley could preside over the process of severing our ties to the UNHCR! (I can dream!)
Here is Rush’s opening paragraph:
The latest United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) resettlement assessment report summarizes its 2015 activities and introduces its 2017 strategic direction and needs.1 At a time when refugee protection is addressed on a global scale, the report, “UNHCR Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2017”, provides us with insightful information about submission categories and acceptance rates, top resettlement countries of origin and destination, and more. It also suggests how badly in need of reform the entire refugee system is. [Of course the UN’s idea of reform and ours is very different!—ed]
