UN: Israel to send its illegal aliens to Western countries (oops! cancel that)

04/03/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

jewish-protesters — This is what Israel has been contending with for years. Some of these migrant activists are already coming to the US!

It seems that Israeli Prime Minister nixed his own deal with the UN before the ink was dry on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (aka HIAS)‘s crowing e-mail to its followers.
I received Mark Hetfield’s e-mail at 3:28 p.m. yesterday, but sometime later yesterday the New York Times reported that the deal was off.
I was planning to post on the Hetfield e-mail anyway this morning, but now the story gets even juicier. My focus would have been on the outrageous idea that 16,000 Africans who broke in to Israel over the years would be resettled as refugees in WESTERN COUNTRIES. Which countries? The US! Surely Europe can’t handle one more needy African!
***Update*** Canada in the cross hairs, see here.
(Readers need to know that we (the US) are already bringing rejected asylum seekers from Israel to be placed in Anytown, USA. 71 arrived between Oct. 1, 2017 and February, 28, 2018. Hundreds more have come in recent years probably all resettled by HIAS.)
Below is Mark Hetfield, CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society yesterday. We previously questioned why HIAS, one of nine major federal resettlement contractors, was mucking around in Israel’s business in the first place.

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Then here is the New York Times sometime after that e-mail went out.
By the way, after the original flood of illegal aliens entering Israel, the Israelis built a very successful wall.

JERUSALEM — In a head-spinning turnaround, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel announced on Monday that he had reached an extraordinary deal with the United Nations refugee agency to resettle thousands of African asylum seekers in Western countries. Within hours Mr. Netanyahu suspended the deal after coming under heavy criticism from his coalition partners.

The flip-flop appeared to reflect Mr. Netanyahu’s fear of losing support from those partners or from his right-wing constituency, who call the asylum seekers infiltrators and want them gone. His opponents on the left described the prime minister’s behavior as an embarrassing and cowardly surrender under pressure.

ISRAEL-AFRICAN-REF_2783947b — African protesters in Tel Aviv in 2014. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10556609/African-refugees-plan-march-on-Jerusalem-amid-anger-at-Israeli-dentention-plans.html

Mr. Netanyahu, who is battling for his political future under the cloud of multiple corruption scandals and faces possible charges of bribery, had apparently failed to consult with most of his own conservative Likud Party colleagues or coalition allies before announcing the migrant deal.

[….]

The agreement with the United Nations was meant to replace a contentious Israeli plan that had offered the migrants a stark choice: forced deportation to Africa or prison. That plan fell through after Rwanda, the African country meant to receive the deportees, announced that it would accept only those who left Israel voluntarily.

In the afternoon, in a televised news conference, Mr. Netanyahu triumphantly announced the new deal, under which the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees committed to persuading countries in the West to take at least 16,250 migrants over five years, while Israel would grant official status as temporary residents to most who remained.

Estimates of the population of African asylum seekers in Israel, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, range from 35,000 to 39,000.

But the agreement to let many stay in Israel drew harsh criticism from some of Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition allies, who were taken by surprise. Naftali Bennett, the education minister and leader of the far-right Jewish Home party, said the deal would “turn Israel into an infiltrator’s paradise.”

Mr. Netanyahu backtracked.

[….]

The plan was to be carried out in three phases, with the first 6,000 migrants expected to leave over the next 18 months.

William Spindler, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency in Geneva, said there was no agreement in place with other countries to take any of them. He said that the agency would need countries to come forward with offers, but that “we are confident we will be able to find places for these 16,000 people.”

More here.
The UN is confident! I’m not! A major part of the deal requires WESTERN COUNTRIES to take 16,000 —- which countries?
And, why should Israel’s, or Malta’s, or Australia’s illegal aliens be our problem!
Refugees, asylum seekers, migrants are the problem of the country they have escaped to—-they are not the US’s problem—and if the President is serious about reforming the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, simply disallowing resettlement from first world countries is something he can do at the State Department level!
See my category, ‘Israel and refugees’ with 169 previous posts archived here.
I’ll try to remember to put this at the end of every post….

Contact the President by clicking here.

German 'model' detention center is former US Army base

04/02/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news…
German officials are looking at replicating the facility in Bavaria throughout the country so that asylum seekers are pretty much contained in one fenced facility while they wait for a decision about whether they will be deported or not.

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From Deutsche Welle:

In Bavaria, one model “reception center” is home to more than 1,300 asylum-seekers. Directors say the barbed-wire enclosure and lack of privacy are for “safety” and efficiency. One resident says “it’s a wasted life.”

Is this what the future of asylum management will look like in Germany?

On the outskirts of the romantic UNESCO World Heritage city of Bamberg in Bavaria, one passes through an unforgiving security checkpoint manned by tough guards to enter into a facility lined with barbed wire. This was once a US army base, complete with cinema, supermarket and disco.

Since July 2016 the long, light-colored barracks have served as refugee housing. The streets are named after types of trees. During my visit in December, a thin man in a track suit stood at a roundabout and waved: “I tell you the truth!” he yelled to me. There are guards everywhere. Welcome to the Upper Franconia Reception Center.

[….]

The way the government sees things, the Upper Franconia Reception Center provides refugees with everything they need. They can even receive text notifications about the status of their asylum applications, which they submit at the facility, on their cellphones.

[….]

The Federal Administrative Court has an office here, as does the region’s immigration agency. The welfare agency is in Block E. This is all “state of the art” in Krug’s eyes: “If the government decides to put refugees into centralized accommodations, then our facility is definitely a good model.”

Controversial proposal by interior minister

GERMANY-EUROPE-MIGRANTS — Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer

Deutsche Welle continues….

That is exactly the plan advocated by Horst Seehofer, the interior minister in the new federal government and a member of Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU). He has presented plans to open “anchor centers” to house asylum applicants from their arrival in Germany until their requests are granted or they are deported.

And the first one may well be built in Bavaria. The centers that Seehofer proposes are intended to provide efficiency, as well as maximum control over the people who come to Germany hoping to find more sustainable living conditions.

Seehofer has for years presented a hard line on immigration and frequently come into conflict with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

[….]

Whether the Bamberg model will be replicated elsewhere remains to be seen.

There is much more and definitely worth reading.
If the German government put out word throughout Africa and the Middle East that all migrants flooding in to Germany would be housed in large facilities it would surely act as a deterrent to many others trying to get to ‘welcoming’ Europe.
And, hey, couldn’t the US run more detention centers—a kind of one stop shop until asylum decisions are made. Expensive? Probably, but better than just releasing so many to their supposed relatives and expecting them to show up for their asylum court date.
My ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive is here. And, I’ve written a great deal about dear Deutschland, here.

More of Australia's rejected asylum seekers leave for US

03/05/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update on the movement of illegal aliens who tried to get in to Australia by boat, were placed in Australian detention centers, but thanks to former President Obama’s “dumb deal” they are coming to the US as refugees.

australian-detainees-on-the-way — Photo is of a bunch that was headed our way in January. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/23/australian-rejected-refugees-on-the-way-to-us-this-week/

(A refugee designation is the highest class of legal immigration one can hope to get because it comes with the works—a furnished apartment, job counseling, case workers to sign you up for your ‘services,’ etc.)
If you are a new reader, you need to know that Donald Trump agreed to honor the deal he once called “dumb,” but at least the administration seems to be slow-walking the process.
This time we learn that the latest batch includes a few families in addition to the larger number of single men, that Australia did not want on its mainland, being placed without your knowledge in Any Town, USA.
From the Australian AP via the Daily Mail:

Four more families of refugees and a cohort of single men have left immigration camps on Nauru to start new lives in the United States.

The group of 29, including eight children, who flew off the island nation on Sunday is the fifth cohort to depart Nauru under Australia’s refugee resettlement deal with the US.

They included two Sri Lankan, one Rohingyan and one Afghan family and single men from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, refugee advocates said.

Two hundred and twenty four of a projected 1,250 have been selected.

Since resettlements under the deal started in September, 139 refugees have left Nauru and 85 from Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

Ian Rintoul — Australian open borders activist Rintoul wonders why no more vetting interviews have been scheduled.

However, the Refugee Action Coalition said it was remarkable there were no Iranian, Somali or Sudanese refugees among those who have left this year, despite Australian Border Force officials denying any particular nationalities were banned from resettling in the US. [It makes no sense that the Trump Admin is blocking Iranians, Somalis and Sudanese, but allowing Afghans, Pakistanis and Rohingya!—ed]

Hmmmm……slow-walk?

RAC spokesman Ian Rintoul said US officials were expected to remain in Nauru for another couple of weeks but had not yet scheduled any new vetting interviews for another round of refugees.

Under the deal Australia reached with the previous Obama administration – derided as the worst ever by now-president Donald Trump – the US agreed to take up to 1250 refugees from the offshore detention centres.

Go here to learn more about the Australian “dumb” deal. We have been following it for months.

Germany: Palestinian jihadist sentenced to life in prison for deadly knife attack

03/02/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news….
He was a failed asylum seeker who said he understood the Koran and therefore needed to go out and kill Christians.
From AFP via Malay Mail Online:

HAMBURG, March 1 — A Palestinian jihadist who killed one man and wounded six other people in a German supermarket knife rampage last year was sentenced today to life in prison.

FILES-GERMANY-JUSTICE-TRIAL-ATTACK — What a wonderful asset this wannabe refugee was for Germany. Now German taxpayers get to pay for his life in prison.

Ahmad Alhaw, 27, had admitted to the murder and assaults in the river port city of Hamburg.

In delivering the sentence, the judge noted the “particular severity” of the crime, lowering Alhaw’s chances of obtaining early release on parole.

Prosecutors had said the attack stemmed from a “radical Islamist” motive, charging that the man had hoped “he would die as a martyr”.

His aim was to kill as many German Christians as possible to avenge the suffering of Muslims worldwide, they said.

[….]

The defendant entered a supermarket on July 28 last year, snatched a 20-centimetre (eight-inch) knife from the shelves, unwrapped it and fatally stabbed a 50-year-old man.

As panic broke out, he slashed and stabbed at others inside and then outside the shop, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), and also wounding a 50-year-old woman and four men.

[….]

The Islamist attack was Germany’s first since December 2016 when Tunisian Anis Amri ploughed a stolen truck through a Berlin Christmas market in an attack that claimed 12 lives.

The knife rampage led to charges that security services had been too complacent in keeping an eye on Alhaw despite multiple warnings that he was radicalising.

It also fuelled growing xenophobia against Muslim migrants after the mass influx of more than one million asylum seekers since mid-2015.

Witnesses told the court they had seen the failed asylum seeker self-radicalise in the lead-up to the attack.

[….]

….Alhaw, who had watched IS propaganda videos online, grew deeply religious and increasingly distrustful of state authorities.

By 2016 he thought that he suddenly understood the Koran completely, rejected all previous temptations, and started looking at all other people as either true believers or non-believers, the psychiatrist said.

More here.
For my complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive go here. My Germany files are here.

Politico says Trump refugee slowdown is the result of "engineered chaos"

02/27/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is an unnecessarily long article written by Politico reporter Meredith Hoffman. You can read the whole thing. But, I do want to make a point or two before I move on to other things (like Leo Hohmann’s latest on his trip to South Dakota).
The article begins as usual with a sympathetic case (star of the story) of an African woman who got in to the US and is now separated (because of Trump) from the children she left behind.
It goes in to the usual stuff we have been hearing about—the ban, Trump’s low refugee ceiling, the refugees trickling in, the ‘hardship’ the contractors are facing, but it mentions an issue I found most interesting.
The Trump Administration has shifted a focus away from sending USCIS officers abroad to interview prospective refugees and sent them instead to the border and elsewhere in the US to process the huge backlog in US asylum claims that piled up as Obama shifted these officers abroad.
Asylum a huge and growing problem!

migrants at US border — Other than Mexicans, extra-continentales, arranging their movement to the US border, getting travel advice and information about immigration lawyers! From: https://newrepublic.com/article/146919/this-route-doesnt-exist-map

Readers, the asylum issue is huge and will become an even greater challenge if this horrifying story at The New Republic (hat tip: Judy) is any indication…..

….many thousands of migrants who can’t get in to an increasingly unwelcome Europe are headed to South America with the goal of reaching our southern border.

These are all clever people who know that if they are caught at the border, they will ask for political asylum (there will be an immigration lawyer waiting for them) and will spend years here as that process slogs along.
Now to Politico and the usual whinefest. This is only a small bit of the story.
I see that Barbara Strack, after ‘retiring,’ has begun talking to the media. (Emphasis is mine, along with paragraph breaks for easier reading.)

….workers’ [the usual cabal] impression of engineered chaos comes as the State Department is already using low numbers of refugees to justify the closure of dozens of offices of resettlement agencies, which are private nonprofits that contract with the federal government***. The resettlement agencies and employees still standing are left with the question of how to do their jobs under an administration that at best is making resettlement a very low priority.

[….]

In a year in which the president simply banned whole groups of refugees from entering the United States, it’s far from unexpected that arrivals would be below those of previous administrations. But Trump’s high-profile executive orders halting refugee admissions last year are just part of the resettlement program’s disruptions.

Barbara Strack

More than a year after the original ban, resettlement workers paint a picture of chaos and confusion, and a field that has been upended by dramatic, sometimes seemingly arbitrary, changes. “If the refugee resettlement program were an assembly line in a factory, it works efficiently because every station knows what to do and how to do the handoff,” said Barbara Strack, who was chief of the Refugee Affairs Division at the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the Department of Homeland Security until retiring three weeks ago. “What the administration has done this year is break that assembly line in multiple places at the same time.”

Trump is prioritizing asylum processing and that makes them all pretty angry, but should please those (like you and me!) who don’t want to see asylum seekers allowed to roam free until their cases are heard.

It’s not just the bureaucratic re-routing that is holding up the process. Another dramatic impetus for the drop in refugee arrivals is that USCIS is assigning about half of its Refugee Affairs Division officers to the border and to asylum offices in the U.S. interior instead of abroad, Strack said, which has a dramatic effect on USCIS’ capacity to do refugee interviews.

Under past administrations the reverse has been true: Asylum officers were occasionally sent abroad to help screen refugees, especially under the Obama administration, which ordered as many asylum officers as necessary to help screen enough refugees to reach the ceiling, she said. (The Obama administration came just shy of its 85,000 ceiling in fiscal year 2016, with 84,994 refugees.)

Readers might remember that Obama was hellbent to get as many Syrians in to the US as possible during his last year in office and hired many more officers to get them processed.
Politico continues….

With only half the resettlement officers working abroad as usual, the Department of Homeland Security has had to cut back drastically on trips for employees to screen refugees in those countries, known as circuit rides.

DHS cut its circuit rides to fewer than five locations abroad in the first quarter of this fiscal year, which began in October, resettlement sources said. That’s less than one-third the usual amount in that same time period in previous administration.

The rides were also shorter, staffed with fewer officers and included none to the Middle East, multiple resettlement sources confirmed. And while DHS has added more locations to its second quarter, the rides will remain much shorter than their usual six-to-eight-week duration, and still include no Middle East locations.

Then this! Trump: A ceiling is a ceiling, it is not a goal!

As we have said ad nausea, the Refugee Act of 1980 describes a ceiling chosen by the President in advance of the fiscal year. A ceiling is a cap, not a goal to be achieved. The refugee industry has for decades attempted to make it a goal to be reached!

…..the people I spoke to in the resettlement world all agreed on one thing: The Trump administration is more than happy to stay far below that 45,000-refugee ceiling. “Past administrations have looked at the ceiling [wrongly—ed] as a goal,” said Strack, who served in the federal government 26 years and in refugee resettlement the past 12. “That’s not the case for this administration.”

So to conclude… They can call it “engineered chaos”, but I see what the Trump Administration is doing is pretty clear.
Why process more people abroad when wannabe ‘refugees’ are piling up at the US border, or are already here and have never been screened?

Sounds like there is a clear goal here to keep us safe and create order out of the chaos Obama left us with!

***These are the private contractors that are paid by the head to place refugees in your towns and cities. Come on Politico why can’t you tell your readers how many millions they are paid annually to do their ‘charitable good works!’
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)! From most recent accounting, here.