Irecently reportedon our ‘Temporary Protected Status‘ program which allows migrants who got in to the US through some other means to legally stay if some big catastrophe happens in their home country while they are here (sometimes illegally!). As I write, demonstrations are being held around the US in an effort to keep Haitians here, but another TPS designation is about to expire and that is the one for Ebola ‘refugees’ from the Obama 2014 TPS designation.
Here is the news from AP at US News:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hundreds of people living in Minnesota are expected to lose the temporary immigration status they were given when the Ebola epidemic hit three West African countries three years ago.
Ebola epicenter. BTW, we allowed Liberians to stay here for years and years under another TPS designation when they had a civil war. My question is this: why are civil wars around the world our problem?
The Homeland Security Department granted temporary protected status to about 5,000 West Africans in 2014, allowing residents from the most impacted countries to live and work in the U.S. legally until the outbreak was contained, Minnesota Public Radio reported (http://bit.ly/2pSGWom ).
In 2016, the countries were declared Ebola-free. The temporary immigration status was originally issued for an 18-month period, but it got two six-month extensions, with the last one ending this Sunday.
Advocates say Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are still recovering from the outbreak, so it’s not safe to go home yet.
But others say programs designed to be temporary should end.
I will be shocked if the Trump Administration actually sends these fake refugees back to Africa. This program is one of the most abused of our LEGAL immigration programs!
Hey, since many of the refugees and other immigrants now causing expensive infectious diseases to spread in the state are a result of Obama’s migration policy, maybe he could contribute his $3 million speaking fee to Minnesota as a partial payment to handle the crisis!
Here is the latest news generated by the recent Measles epidemic in Minnesota. As of Tuesday there were 50 diagnosed cases, most (45) are in the ‘Somali community.’ And, we are told that refugees don’t cost state and local taxpayers a dime!
From Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart:
Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger sounded an alert on more frequent and costly threats to the public health, referencing measles, tuberculosis, and even the Zika virus and syphilis, according to a statement released by the MDH on Wednesday as reported by Hometownsource.com.
Remember this story! Gov. Mark Dayton: If you don’t like our Somali refugees, get out of Minnesota because they are here to stay! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/10/16/mn-governor-dayton-dont-like-immigrants-get-out-of-minnesota/
“In recent months, state and local public health officials have had to respond to a series of infectious disease outbreaks including multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, hundreds of new cases of syphilis, and now, the largest measles outbreak the state has faced in nearly 30 years. These outbreaks come on the heels of extensive public health efforts in 2016 for the Zika virus response and in 2014-15 for Ebola preparedness,” he added…..
[….]
Minnesota is currently in the middle of the largest outbreak of measles in over twenty years. As of Tuesday, 50 cases of measles have been diagnosed in the state since the first case was reported on April 11, 45 of which have been diagnosed in Somali Minnesotans.
As Breitbart News reported previously, 90 percent of the 168 cases of active tuberculosis diagnosed in Minnesota in 2016 were foreign-born, much higher than the 67 percent of foreign-born cases that accounted for the 9,287 cases of active TB diagnosed in the United States in 2016.
Fourteen of those cases were from newly arrived refugees, eleven of whom were diagnosed with active TB in medical screenings overseas but were nonetheless allowed to resettle in Minnesota by the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security.
Continue reading here. The article is chock full of important information and links to follow.
See my ‘Health issues’ category, here, where I have archived 329 previous posts about health issues (including mental health issues) involving the refugee flow to America.
I wondered here if this Measles outbreak started with a newly arrived refugee from Somalia (or from elsewhere in East Africa since a large number of our Somalis come from UN camps in Kenya).
BTW, Slate had a hysterical story the other day claiming this Measles outbreak is Trump’s fault—not because he is admitting infected Somalis, but because he hangs with “Anti-vaxxer pals.” Huh?
I’ve concluded that I need to start writing more about other ways legal immigrants get to the US from Islamic terror-producing parts of the world.
This week tens of thousands learned whether they won the “diversity visa lottery” (aka green card lottery) and will soon be on the way to your town.
Overlooked by most everyone is this insane lottery set up with the premise that the US is lacking in diversity and needs more of it!
Previously, I wrote about the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery’ (see category here) a lot, but it has fallen off my radar screen as the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program has drawn so much attention. The WaPo tells us that Trump has not mentioned the Diversity Visa Lottery. Has any staff member told him about it?
Frankly I’ve been disappointed that no other private citizen investigators have taken up the cause of writing about this program, or about Temporary Protected Status, or Immigrant Food Stamp/welfare fraud. Those are all areas where someone should write exclusively on the topic!
Goodness knows there is enough material to keep someone going daily on just one of those topics. Herethe Washington Post tells us that earlier this week the new ‘winners’ were announced. By the way, refugee numbers do not count when determining ineligible countries, so we take lottery applicants from Cuba, Iraq, Burma, and Iran to name just a few. WaPo (at The Denver Post):
On Tuesday, more than 14 million anxious people around the world will begin checking computers and smartphones in one of the strangest rituals of the U.S. immigration system. When the clock strikes noon in Washington, they will be able to visit a State Department website, enter their names, years of birth and 16-digit identification numbers. Then they will press “submit” to learn whether they have won one of the world’s most coveted contests: the U.S. green card lottery.
Each year, the Diversity Visa Lottery, as it is officially known, provides up to 55,000 randomly selected foreigners – fewer than 1 percent of those who enter the drawing – with permanent residency in the United States.
I learned something I didn’t know! Mohammad Atta tried twice to win the lottery, but ultimately got in (as sadly we know) using another legal visa.
The current lottery coincides with an intense debate over immigration and comes amid policy changes that have made the country less welcoming to new arrivals. President Donald Trump has cracked down on illegal immigration and pressed forward with plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico. He has issued executive orders targeting foreign workers, refugees and travelers from certain majority-Muslim countries.
But he hasn’t said a word about the green card lottery.
Its days may be numbered, nonetheless. The lottery appears to conflict with the president’s call for a “merit-based” immigration system. And at least two bills in the Republican-controlled Congress seek to eliminate the program.
“The Diversity Lottery is plagued with fraud, advances no economic or humanitarian interest, and does not even deliver the diversity of its namesake,” according to a news release from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a co-sponsor of one of the bills.
Just what we need, 50,000 people annually, some with barely a high school education, and with spouses and families along for the ride!
The lottery’s premise is simple. It’s not connected to employment or family members in the United States. Instead, the only requirement is that entrants be adults with a high school diploma or two years of work experience. Winners can bring spouses and children. Citizens of countries that have sent 50,000 people to the United States in the past five years – such as Canada, China, India, Nigeria and Mexico – are ineligible to participate.
The lottery, which was launched in its present form in 1995, is especially beloved in Eastern Europe and Africa. In recent years, the two regions have accounted for more than two-thirds of lottery winners. In Liberia and other West African countries, nearly 10 percent of the population applies each year.
[….]
The program – operated from a consular center in Williamsburg, Kentucky [Mitch McConnell country!—ed] – has been on the chopping block before. It came under attack in 2002 after an Egyptian terrorist who killed two people in Los Angeles was found to be in the United States through his wife’s diversity visa. Mohamed Atta, another Egyptian and one of the 9/11 suicide pilots, had entered the lottery twice before entering the United States on a different visa to study aviation.
“If you’re a terrorist organization and you can get a few hundred people to apply to this from several countries . . . odds are you’d get one or two of them picked,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told The Washington Post in 2011 after introducing an ill-fated bill to kill the program.
Continue reading here.
I couldn’t find a list of the numbers (selected for 2018) from each country, but here are the countries eligible to participate in 2018 from Africa and Asia.
Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart has been doing great work digging in to the Minnesota Somali measles outbreak which we first reported here on April 20th.
Health officials in Minnesota predict it is going to get worse before it gets better and you can bet it is costing the state taxpayers a bundle to track and treat. Kris Ehresmann is director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division at the Minnesota Department of Health. Photo: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2009/10/16/ehresmann Did you know that Measles was considered eradicated in the US in 2000? I didn’t!
New cases are coming in with the new immigrants, most likely the refugee flow that Trump has not curtailed!
Here is Leahy yesterday:
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced on Friday afternoon that the number of confirmed cases of measles in the state has now increased to 44, three more than had been confirmed 24 hours ago, and ten more than had been confirmed 48 hours ago.
Of the 44 total cases, 41 are in Hennepin County, two are in Ramsey County, and one is in Crow Wing County.
Forty-two are “confirmed to be unvaccinated.” Two “had 2 doses of MMR.”
Forty-three of the cases are “in children ages 0 through 10 years,” while there is “1 case in an adult.”
MDH reports that “38 of the cases are Somali Minnesotan.”
[….]
“Once measles begins to spread in unvaccinated populations, it can be very difficult to stop,” Kris Ehresmann, director of infectious disease control for MDH, said in the statement.
“We would not be surprised if we saw additional cases in other parts of the state where there are clusters of unvaccinated people before this is over,” Ehresmann added.
[….]
“Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but it is still common in other parts of the world. Ehresmann noted that Europe is currently experiencing a significant measles outbreak. [Gee, I wonder why?—-ed]
So where have Trump’s Somalis been placed in Minnesota?
When trying to figure out the source of the initial case of Measles in the state, the first group to be analyzed should be refugees admitted to the US in recent months!
As we have reported on many occasions, the US State Department and DHS do not weed-out sick refugees.
The Minnesota Department of Health should find out which Somalis entered the state within the disease’s incubation period. Of course they will have trouble finding out who is ‘just visiting’ since there is no travel ban in place and as far as I know there is no way to track those who get in as visitors. And, never forget, Somali, so-called refugees, are traveling back and forth to Africa all the time (so much for fearing persecution!).
For your edification, here (below) is where 193 new Somali refugees were placed in Minnesota since President Trump was inaugurated.
Overall (as of today, May 6th) Trump has welcomed 1,394 Somalis since inauguration day. Minnesota is the number one state, but as we reported here, some placed in other states pack up quickly to get to Minnesota as ‘secondary migrants’ to join their own kind of people and avail themselves of the more generous welfare that they get in MN.
(I am having trouble with screen shots these days, so forgive the lousy shots below).
From Wrapsnet: For new readers, we have 328 previous posts in our ‘Health Issues’ category, click hereto learn more about the many diseases, parasites, and mental health issues involving the refugee flow to America. You will see that TB is an especially big problem in the refugee flow.
The Republican Senator from Tennessee might be called out-of-step with his constituents in his home state where the Tennessee legislature voted to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement and filed suit in March. (Waiting now for the Trump administration response to the lawsuit.) Besides “normalizing” the refugee admissions process, Senator Corker wants the US to send more foreign aid to Africa. http://africa-online.com/2017/04/18/us-senator-pushes-back-against-trumps-proposed-foreign-aid-cuts/ Over the Easter recess Corker went to Africa and declared that he wants Trump to “normalize” refugee resettlement which means he has zero interest in taking on the contentious issue of reforming the over 35-year-old flawed system where nine non-profit groups, funded by the federal government, determine how many refugees and from where are seeded in to a state (including his!).
BTW, we were relieved that Trump did not pick Corker for the top job at the US State Department, but we didn’t do any better (at least so far) with Rex Tillerson who is obviously continuing to rely on entrenched bureaucrats to make refugee resettlement decisions. (See Trump admits over 12,000 refugees, including Syrians and Somalis, since Inauguration Day, here)
Here is what Pajama’s Media told us last week about the Corker/Coons trip to Africa (hat tip: ‘Seneca the Elder’):
WASHINGTON – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he hopes the Trump administration begins to “move back to a regular process” and “normalize” the admission of refugees into the United States.
Over the Easter recess, Corker and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) visited the Bidi Bidi refugee camp in Uganda, which houses about 270,000 people who fled the civil war in South Sudan. Corker was asked if he has recommendations for the Trump administration on refugees after his experience on the trip.
“It’s my hope that what they’re going to do is go through a process of, as they’ve already stated, of understanding how people are being vetted, do the things they feel are necessary to ensure that when people are coming here they are coming in a way that continues to make sure our whole nation is safe – and then we’ll move on and move back to the regular process that we’ve been in for some time, or hopefully an improved process if there are issues that need to be dealt with,” Corker said on a Monday conference call.
Corker praised the Trump administration decision to remove Iraq from its list of countries covered by the revised executive order that restricted travel and the admission of refugees from some Muslim-majority nations. A federal court blocked the executive order.
“I was thankful they decided Iraq would not be a part of that. I hope they are actually, right now, going through a process of looking at this whole issue of travel. Hopefully, they are stiffening their resolve to make sure it’s done in an appropriate way, and then, hopefully, when that is done we can move on and more normalize what we have been doing in this regard for many years,” Corker said.
Coons said he respected and appreciated Corker’s comments about refugees.
More here.
Sure looks like no hope in Corker’s case for reform by Congress of the whole UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
And, if the US Refugee Admissions Program (as designed by the 1980 Act), is not reformed now, in the coming months (with leadership from Trump), it never will be. By early 2018, members of Congress and many Senators will be focused on only one thing—getting re-elected!
Just a reminder, in September the Trump Administration will send its ‘determination’ (the ceiling!) to Congress for how many refugees (and from which regions of the world) could be admitted to the US in FY18. What they send to the Hill for “consultation” (Congress does not have to approve, just consult) will tell us everything we need to know about whether Trump will have the guts to stick with campaign promises and get the program under control, or not!
