And, of course the refugee industry as represented by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights cabal (TIRRC) is steaming!
By the way, this legislation is a possible model for you in states where your Republican governor has caved to the Open Borders Left and said yes to more refugees for your state. Of course it could only work in states where the legislature has a Republican majority with some guts.
First here is the news, then we’ll learn a bit more about TIRRCwhich has 6 paid lobbyists included in a staff of 14 while those organizing grassroots on the side of restraining more migration, in pockets of resistance, must do so with no funding support.
Tennessee committee advances bill seeking to halt refugee resettlement
NASHVILLE, Tenn.–The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is calling a Tennessee House of Representatives bill recommended for passage “hateful.”
TIRRC says Rep. Weaver is appealing to “hateful” voters with her bill.
HJR 741 targets state funds used to resettle refugees as part of a federal program which allows states to opt-in to accept refugee resettlement.
Under the bill originally filed by Rep. Teri Lynn Weaver (R-Lancaster), HJR 741 calls for no action to be taken by Governor Bill Lee when it comes to resettlement unless authorized by a joint resolution of the General Assembly.
The bill targets Governor Lee due to his decision to continue to accept refugees in the state in response to an Executive Order issued by President Donald J. Trump last year. President Trump had issued the “Enhancing State and Local Involvement in Refugee Resettlement” order in September.
Under the Executive Order, the Federal Government would only be able to resettle refugees in specific areas where state and local governments agree to accept refugees.
However, the decision is ultimately in the hands of each state’s governor and Lee made the decision to continue participation.
Rep. Weaver’s resolution says Governor Lee’s decision obligates public money “in violation of the Tennessee General Assembly’s constitutional duty.” The resolution was recommended for passage on Tuesday by the Departments & Agencies Subcommittee.
TIRRC is calling the advancement part of a “classic hateful playbook.” TIRRC Votes Police and Legislative Affairs Manager Judith Clerjeune issued the following statement in response to the resolution…
A few days ago Tennessee’s Dailyrollcallreported on TIRRC and its fellow travelers that include the Koch’s Americans for Prosperity!
Tennessee Elected Officials – is it the Tenth or TIRRC For You?
Republican governors, like Tennessee’s Bill Lee, have given up any pretense of caring about the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution by allowing the federal government to dictate how Tennesseans will spend their tax dollars.
TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition’s political arm called TIRRC VOTES, has SIX paid lobbyists. TIRRC itself has 14 on staff, Soros money and is running multiple email disinformation campaigns on refugee resettlement, targeting state legislators, local county commissioners and any other locally elected official.
At it’s core, TIRRC’s agenda aligns with that of the New American Economy (NAE, formerly named the Partnership for a New American Economy) outfit, along with the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity (AFP), two big dollar organizations mobilized to push more legal and illegal immigrants into communities. Like TIRRC, NAE and AFP are pushing back on key Trump immigration policies intended to help American citizens prosper.
NAE, AFP and TIRRC like to push the false economic-enhancing narrative of legal immigrants like refugees and illegal aliens. TIRRC also thinks name-calling like xenophobe, racist and hater, is an effective tool to silence anyone who disagrees with their agenda.
While TIRRC’s coalition member the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC) parades refugees turned Tennesseans, NAE puts out reports claiming that after living in the U.S. between 16-25 years, refugees are earn “well above the income of refugees who have been here for five years or less.” They also claim that refugees are the answer to reviving aging and declining communities.
TIRRC parrots these same points trying to deflect from the Tennessee issues. With regard to the federal refugee program, Tennessee legislators and advocates have raised the core Constitutional issue of federalism on the one hand, and the role of the state’s legislature to appropriate public money, on the other.
On these important state issues, it appears that Governor Lee has aligned himself lock, stock and barrel with TIRRC as opposed to advocating for the state’s Tenth Amendment rights and Tennessee’s Constitutional powers and duties.
Here it is!—a great summary of the US Refugee Admissions Program and where it has gone wrong according to Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studiesin an interview at Blaze TV. H/t Kevin
I get pretty deep in the weeds here at RRW, so this is excellent to send to everyone—especially newbies—who want a quick overview of the program’s failings!
SIVs are nationals of Iraq and Afghanistan who supposedly helped us during our long involvement in the Middle East. They are most often referred to as “interpreters” but they could have done any menial job connected to our military or connected to non-profit groups operating in those countries and be eligible to come here and be given the same benefits as refugees—which means of course virtually all social services.
So the US goes to war in some hellhole country and then, admitting we didn’t leave them a better government and a safer country, Americans are expected to reach out and welcome tens of thousands of their people to the US so that the next time we go to war, the military can offer a ticket to America in exchange for our largely unwilling presence in their hellhole country.
Sorry, I do respect our military, but this is going too far.
Since October of 2006, and as of a week ago, we have admitted 64,501 Afghan SIVs and another 18,677 Iraqi SIVs and so we are being told that over 83,000 is NOT ENOUGH!
83,000 is NOT enough says the International Refugee Assistance Projectthe same ‘non-profit’ law firm that has fought the Trump Administration in court on every immigration/refugee reform issue the administration has undertaken.
From the Military Times(a report that leaves readers believing that only a trickle have come in so far):
Former interpreters laud court ruling to accelerate special visa decisions
For thousands of Afghan and Iraqi nationals who served as interpreters with the U.S. military, visa applications to gain permanent legal residence in the United States have languished in legal limbo for years. Now there may be help on the way, in the form of a court ruling.
[….]
This week, however, a judge granted “class certification” to Afghan and Iraqi nationals suing the federal government for overdue visa decisions, allowing thousands of outstanding cases to be included in a class-action lawsuit.
[….]
US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan,
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled in favor of the five anonymous Afghan and Iraqi nationals, “who, despite significant personal risk, aided the United States in its time of need and now look to the United States for refuge for themselves and their immediate family members.”
The federal government now has 30 days to submit a plan to adjudicate long-delayed visa applications that have been pending for more than nine months.
“We are thrilled that the judge is holding the government accountable to its obligations to the thousands of men and women who have sacrificed so much in serving the U.S. missions abroad,” said Deepa Alagesan, a supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), in a press release.
[….]
Currently, a total of 22,500 visas could be issued to former Afghan interpreters through the Special Immigrant Visa program — up from the 18,500 limit — after a provision was included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
Never forget! The SIV programs for Iraq and Afghanistan were created as riders to must-pass Defense authorization and appropriation bills and thus never went through the committee process to be stand-alone bills sent to the President for his signature. Snuck on when hardly anyone was looking!
And, if you are wondering about vetting for the SIVs, here is another bunch (besides the CO rapist gang) who clearly slipped through and werebusted for running an international fencing ring in California late last year. There are probably plenty more like that they just haven’t come to my attention yet!
Mark my words, the SIV program is a ticking time bomb!
John Binder does excellent work on the immigration/refugee beat for Breitbart and this is one post I missed (lost in my overflowing e-mail inbox).
Thanks to reader Robert for bringing it to my attention.
More confirmation that we aren’t only dealing with liberal Open Borders types on immigration, but must battle Chamber of Commerce Republicans who are shilling for businesses looking to make money off of the immigrant population either as cheap labor or consumers.
As one of my readers once quipped—refugees buy used cars.
Ohio GOP Chair Defends Republicans Importing Refugees to Fill U.S. Jobs
Chairwoman of the Ohio Republican Party, Jane Timken, is defending Republican governors like Ohio’s Mike DeWine for asking the federal government to continue resettling refugees in their states.
[….]
Coupled with the refugee reduction, Trump signed an executive order that gives localities, counties, and states veto power over whether they want to resettle refugees in their communities.
DeWine, along with 18 other Republican governors, announced he would continue allowing refugee contractors to resettle refugees in Ohio — a decision that Timken is now defending using widely circulated talking points, which Breitbart News exclusively reported.
Here are the 19 Republican governors who thumbed their noses at President Trump and said—send us more impoverished people willing to work for low wages and for our taxpayers to support!
An orange X indicates those who quickly dissed the Prez, and the pink X marks the second wave of Republican governors who told Trump they want more refugees. Of course Governor Abbott of Texas is the only governor to say NO (so far).
In a statement to Ohio Republicans, Timken said she is “supportive of Governor DeWine’s decision” to bring more refugees to Ohio, declaring without evidence that the refugee vetting process has been fixed and thus previous national security concerns are no longer valid:
“Accusations that the federal government is letting dangerous individuals into the country through poor vetting are no longer accurate. President Trump’s administration approves every refugee resettled into Ohio, and the process is now very stringent. We can now be confident in how the federal government is vetting refugees.”
Vetting is only one issue, what about Ohioans who need jobs?
Does the President know she opposes his refugee reform effort?
Like so many other state officials she doesn’t know how the program works.
We get a lot of Chinese asylum seekers (who get across our borders without any vetting and then apply for asylum), but vetted Chinese refugees are rare.
Timken also said refugees arriving in the U.S. today “are truly victims of oppression,” citing that “an example of someone who would be able to seek refugee status would be a Christian in China who is being persecuted by the Chinese government for her religious beliefs.”
That example, though, is not indicative of the refugees who are often resettled in Ohio. Since Trump’s inauguration in 2017, only 18 refugees from China have been admitted to the U.S. and none have been resettled in Ohio.
Ohio, since 2017, has resettled nearly 4,500 refugees in areas like Cleveland Heights, Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. The majority of these refugees have arrived from Bhutan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, and Ukraine.
[….]
Today, there are more than 242,600 unemployed Ohioans — indicating that Ohio has the sixth-largest unemployed state population in the U.S. just behind Pennsylvania with an unemployed population of about 293,000. Likewise, Ohio’s unemployment rate of 4.2 percent remains above the national average.
Indeed much to my shock,USA Spendingreports that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) is getting more federal dollars under the Trump Administration than it did under the Obama government!
HIASis the 4th of the nine federal contractors I’ve analyzed at USA Spendingand three of the four are doing exceedingly well financially under Trump in spite of their constant wailing and moaning about how they must close offices and reduce staff.
Our often assumed connection between the number of refugees coming in and the nine contractors’ financial well-being is out the window!
