First 50 of Australia’s failed asylum seekers have arrived in US

And, yes, Mr. President, the deal was “dumb” and it makes you “look terrible.”

We have America’s hurricane refugees and you are bringing in ‘refugees’ that Australia does not want on its mainland!

Trump and Turnbull shitty grin
What is Trump grinning about?  He (we!) get nothing out of the deal that saves Turnbull’s political neck.

 

The news that they were leaving Australia’s detention centers en route  to at least five American states is two days old, so surely they have been delivered.

For new readers, see all of my posts on the Australian (dumb!) deal by clicking here.

Here is the news posted Wednesday at The Guardian:

More than 50 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru are on their way to the United States to be resettled there.

The first 52 refugees to be accepted for resettlement in the United States under a contentious agreement with Australia have left the Pacific island camps where they had been held for years.

Their move comes as reports from Washington indicate the US is preparing to announce it is further slashing its overall refugee intake to its lowest level in a decade.

The first 25 refugees from the men-only camp on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island had flown out of the capital, Port Moresby, on Tuesday for the United States via the Philippines and Qatar, Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said.

Another 27 refugees flew to Port Moresby on Wednesday from a camp in Nauru, he said, also bound, ultimately, for Los Angeles.

But, Los Angeles is not their final destination:

The refugees will be resettled across the United States, including in Georgia, Oregon, Colorado, Texas and Arizona.

They will be assisted with housing, physical and mental healthcare, English lessons, enrolment of children in schools, and in finding employment. [On the US taxpayer’s dime!—ed]

[….]

Obama’s administration had agreed to accept up to 1,250 of Australia’s refugees, mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, [earlier reports said that Rohingya Muslims were in the group too—ed] in exchange for Australia agreeing to accept refugees from the “northern triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, under a US-led resettlement program. [These are mostly economic migrants NOT even in the US.—ed]

It was dumb when Obama did it, and it is dumb now!

Trump lashed his predecessor’s deal as “dumb”, and complained in a phone call to the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, that it would “make me look terrible”.

[….]

Trump ultimately agreed to honour the agreement, subject to “extreme vetting” of refugees.

The US is under no obligation to take a set number of refugees. Australian officials are confident the US will resettle somewhere approaching the 1,250 figure publicly speculated…

The takeaway from this dumb deal is that the US is helping Australia protect its borders, and maintain its security and sovereignty while sacrificing ours!

Australia’s asylum policy mandates that no refugee who arrives in Australia by boat can ever be resettled in the country, a policy the government says dissuades asylum seekers from attempting the dangerous and occasionally deadly ocean crossing from Indonesia.

You can read the rest of the story, here.

Tell the President what you think by clicking here.

HIAS leads the pack: wants Congress to admit more refugees than Trump’s 45,000 ceiling

Nevermind, that the Refugee Act of 1980 gives the power to the President to set the CAP/CEILING*** for refugee admissions for the coming fiscal year which begins on Sunday.

I have to laugh because I can always count on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society to be the first of the nine federal contractors to break from the gate on the next political action the refugee industry will take.

mark-hetfield-hias logo
As CEO of HIAS, Hetfield makes an annual salary of $358,718 (doing well by doing good!). Will he take a pay cut if there aren’t enough paying ‘clients’ (aka refugees) entering the US this year?

For new readers, see how much of your money,  your tax dollars, goes to each of the nine to resettle refugees on a per head basis, here.

There can never be serious reform while the nine are rolling in your money using it to hold rallies and lobby on the Hill while the media tries to make the public think that this is all about ‘humanitarianism’ and ‘religious charity.’

As you surely know by the keening sound coming from contractors like HIAS they aren’t happy with the 45,000 cap announced this week. (I can see huge bidding wars between the contractors as they bid for bodies in a smaller pool of refugees.)

I’m very unhappy with the number too, as I said here.  The UN/US Refugee Admissions Program should be reviewed by Congress to determine if it is still even a program the US should continue.

If the President had suspended the program and said a ‘determination’ would not be sent until Congress reviewed the program, he might have achieved some important campaign promises.  Sending a determination of 45,000 was meaningless—splitting the baby—and will do very little, if anything, to bring about needed long term change.

I digress, more later on what Donald Trump should be doing on the issue.

Here is HIAS telling its followers what to do:

 

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This is a screenshot, so links are not hot.  If you want to see the text of what they want their followers to send the Washington reps, go here: https://www.hias.org/stand-against-record-low-cap-refugee-admissions

 

This is what you should be doing today. 

Tell the President that you are unhappy with 45,000.  He clearly wimped out! And, tell your representatives in the House and Senate how you feel too because you are up against lobbyists, like those at HIAS (likely teamed up with global corporation/Chamber of Commerce lobbyists) working the halls of Congress.

*** You will be hearing more from me about the fact that the 45,000 is a CEILING (NOT A TARGET). Trump could stay well under 45,000 and still be operating within the law.

He doesn’t need an Executive order to stay under the ceiling—he never did!

Trump takes easy way out: says we will admit up to 45,000 refugees to begin arriving Sunday

And, no one is happy except maybe the Republican leadership in Congress—they will get some cheap labor for big business donors and the President has asked nothing of them in the way of trashing or reforming the system.

Trump shit eating grin
No one is happy when you split the baby!

They can go home to angry voters who wanted a lower number (or none at all!) and pass the buck to the Prez.

Looking at the wailing headlines this morning (quoting the refugee industry) about how Donald Trump, the meany, has slashed refugee admissions to an all-time low, it seems to me that only Breitbart got it right!

Trump Administration Misses Opportunity to Suspend Refugee Program, Sets FY 2018 Ceiling at 45,000

If Trump had suspended the program (Bush suspended it for two months at the beginning of FY02), it might have lit a fire under the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to begin seriously investigating the program and either trashing it or reforming it.  There is now zero incentive to do that.

And, does anyone think any serious effort will be made in Election year 2018?

The program can move along at this slightly lower level until Trump is no longer President and then they can kick it in to high gear again, and away they go.  They will push up the numbers dramatically to make up for lost time in demographically changing America.

BTW, Breitbart reporter Michael Patrick Leahy did a little calculation and points out that the average annual admissions under George Bush were guess what?  Under 45,000.

So, Donald Trump has done what politicians always do—tried to split the baby—and turned off his base of voters who wanted to see this program and other legal immigration programs reined in.

I’ll have more to say later (have a family gathering to host) when I may be able to calmly give some guidance on what we might do next.

Members of Senate Jihad Caucus ask Trump for “robust” number of FY18 refugees; joined by two RINOs

A couple of years ago, when Obama was considering how many Syrian Muslims to admit to the US, a bunch of far Left Senators sent a letter demanding he admit 65,000 Syrians on top of at least another 100,000 refugees from around the world.

Murkowski and McCain
Two Republican Senators (Murkowski and McCain) demand Trump admit more third world poverty to America.

So, friends of mine coined the term ‘Senate Jihad Caucus’ to describe them, see one post here:

I had a good laugh here in September of last year when we saw that the New York Times had picked up our nickname for the group but couldn’t bother to link or even name where they got it!

Now we see that Republican Senators John McCain and Lisa Murkowski have joined that distinguished growing group.

Here is their letter (notice in this anti-Trump PR stunt they can’t even agree on what they think is the appropriate number so have opted for the Left’s favorite word—robust).

 

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Daily Caller headline writer has fallen for the spin—45,000 refugees is not a huge cut!

White House Prepares To Announce Huge Cut In Refugee Admissions

Just because Obama set a ceiling of an unrealistically high 110,000 for one of his 8 years (which was not realized), we are supposed to be thrilled about 45,000!

***Update*** Do not fall for the media spin that Trump is cutting numbers in half. I just checked admission numbers for 15 full years following 9/11 and the average admission number is 57,938. I repeat: 45,000 is not a significant drop! Go here for all the numbers.

If the Daily Caller has its facts straight (and this isn’t a head-fake!), Trump’s State Department is proposing a ceiling of 45,000 refugees for FY18 which will do nothing to bring about needed reform.

Trump grin and Tillerson
If true, Trump has been fooled!

It will slow the flow some, and maybe a contractor CEO or two will have to take a pay cut (from their $200,000-500,000 a year salaries); low level staffers will get the boot; and some new resettlement sites might be put on hold—big deal.

Without any reform initiative from the White House, when Trump is no longer in office they will simply boost numbers to make up for lost time.

45,000 is NOT a significant reduction!

Even the sainted Obama had two years when he admitted between 50,000 and 60,000. George Bush had two years between 20,000 and 30,000!

The Daily Caller cites Axios that is reporting that Secretary of State Tillerson will go to the Hill on Wednesday to “consult” about their 45,000 refugee cap—a number which is making the career bureaucrats angry, we are told. (Of course, they want a much higher number.)

Axios says Stephen Miller in the White House wanted 20,000.

We maintained that in light of Harvey, Irma and Maria (American refugees!) the program should have been suspended.

45,000 will not win Trump any brownie points with the Open Borders left, the resettlement contractors, and Chamber of Commerce types, so he should have gone the whole way, suspended the program and told Congress to reform it.

Mark my words….

As soon as Trump is no longer in office, the Dems and the RINO establishment will up the number above 100,000 to make up for lost time and a window of opportunity to review the program will have been lost.