Longtime readers know that Anne Richard(originally a Vice President at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), one of the nine federal contractors*** that monopolize all refugee resettlement in America), was Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration. (Trump, btw, never chose anyone to fill that spot).
For inquisitive readers, we have an extensive Anne Richard archive, here.
Yesterday she penned an informative pieceat Georgetown University’s Berkeley Center where she describes how she is energized by all of her gal pals working to advance refugee resettlement in US towns and cities.
By the way, since Richard references the women leaders in her piece, I wondered where are all the men in her industry who are making the big bucks as CEOs of the ‘non-profit’ contractors? Weren’t they at the confab she describes?
Refugee Experts Express Hope for Refugee Resettlement in America
Anne Richard
As the moderator of a panel on “The Future of U.S. Refugee Resettlement Policy” at the “Current Challenges in Refugee Policy” conference, I asked a stellar lineup of experts the sad question:
Is there a future for Refugee Resettlement in America?
They and I knew that the number of refugees being resettled in this country has dropped drastically under the Trump administration.
[….]
Jen Smyers “Where prayer meets politics”
Jen Smyers, director of policy and advocacy for the immigration and refugee program with Church World Service, pointed out that 18,000 is an historic low point for the program and pronounced the Trump policy “shameful,”noting: “this is being done in the worst displacement crisis that the world has ever seen….There are more than 70 million people who are displaced across the globe, including more than 25 million refugees.” [And, so why is this our problem?—ed]
Jenny Yang, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, reported, “Last month in October it was the first month in over 30 years that we didn’t receive a single refugee, which is a startling statistic.”
All of us recognized that deep cuts in the numbers of refugees would translate into resettlement offices being forced to shut down across America. These closures would mean letting staff go, reducing services to refugees already here, cutting long-term relationships with schools, employers and landlords—and would be exceedingly hard to reverse.
[….]
I figured the panelists were, like me, utterly demoralized. So, I was taken aback when each panelist in turn talked about the energy now being devoted to defending the program and fighting back against efforts to kill it.
Smyers mentioned a three-pronged approach, based on (1) rebuilding bipartisan support in Congress, (2) organizing at the local level so that refugees can share their stories with Congressional district offices, and state and local officials, and (3) escalating tactics, such as a recent protest and coordinated act of civil disobedience at the U.S. Capitol,which included the arrests of 18 leaders including Amnesty International USA Executive Director Margaret Huang and yours truly.
Jen mentioned the Bipartisan Congressional Refugee Caucus in the House of Representatives and multiple letters signed by both Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate as evidence that the White House did not speak for all elected officials. [I’ll have a follow-up post on the Congressional Refugee Caucus—ed]
[….]
Jenny Yang explained the work World Relief is doing with evangelical churches in many communities across the United States. Over 1,400 local volunteers that have signed up as Good Neighbor Teams that are “walking alongside” these refugees that are coming in, and helping them transition into their communities. In 2017, more than 9,000 evangelical pastors signed on to a World Relief petition supporting refugees. World Relief later issued a letter showing evangelicals in every state in the country support refugees and immigrants.
[….]
Ash: Refugee Admissions Program benefits businesses.
Nazanin Ash, vice president for public policy and advocacy at the International Rescue Committee and a visiting policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, shared how over 100 pieces of anti-refugee state legislation have been defeated.
I have no idea what she is talking about — where were 100 pieces of anti-refugee state bills defeated?
Ash went on to describe growing numbers of advocates. “Alongside traditional community organizations and faith groups…,” she said, “what’s been wonderful to see are strong and emerging partnerships with business, strong and emerging partnerships with the national security sector.
Because big global corporations are on the hunt for cheap labor, your community will be changed forever! Likewise, since some of our military leadership is demanding we hand out more tickets to America to Afghans, Iraqis and soon Syrians, we are expected to stay silent as our rural towns and small cities are transformed (big cities are gone already!).
These new sectors that…declare their support and talk about how the refugee admissions program benefits business, makes America stronger, promotes our values, and serves our humanitarian leadership goals, and our strategic interests. She went on to describe a network across the country in red, blue, and purple states which is now approaching 250,000 people.
The states where she sees the largest constituencies of advocates include Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Idaho.
[….]
“I really do have a lot of hope,” said Ash, “and that’s in no small part due to the panel I’m sharing here with this group of really extraordinary women, and their really extraordinary organizations and communities and constituencies that they represent, and the way in which this community has come together and has joined forces with broader advocacy groups, human rights, immigration, business, military, a growing constituency of grass tops [WTH?—ed] and grassroots, who have been given the opportunity in this oppositional environment to plant their flag for refugees and for humanitarian leadership, and they really are.”
And, of course, they hide their desire to change America by changing the people behind their supposed humanitarian do-gooderism and do it with your tax dollars!
***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America. For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!
Do you remember this headline only four short years ago? Probably not. I hadn’t, although I surely wrote about it at the time. It was right after one of those horrible Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe and it woke from slumber some Republican governors for a few minutes.
30 Governors Call For Halt To U.S. Resettlement Of Syrian Refugees
My how things have changed.
They talked tough then (mostly because Obama was in office and they knew they had no voice), but now when the President has actually presented them with an opportunity to put up or shut up and go on record saying NO to more refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere, well now they are worried about their “workforce” and they tuck their tails and run fearing they will be perceived as mean and unwelcoming by the Dems.
Nothing has changed by the way! We bring fewer Syrians these days, but the vast majority of Syrians who do come are Muslims.
And, not just Syrians, but Iraqis, Somalis, Burmese Rohingya and literally tens of thousands of Afghans.
The vetting can’t really be improved because as Senator Marco Rubio said at the time:
“There is no background-check system in the world that allows us to find that out, because who do you call in Syria to background-check them?”
That same common sense applies to most places in the Middle East, Asia and Africa—who you gonna call?
Although I should be writing on all sorts of things on this subject, not to mention that my other blog ‘Frauds and Crooks’ is suffering from lack of attention, I found myself rummaging around Wrapsnet (the Refugee Processing Center) and holy cow!
Four years: 19,514 Syrians!
In the 4 years since NPR posted their story (from November 17, 2015 to today December 11, 2019) we admitted 19,514 Syrians—19,514! 19,195 of those are Muslims!
Although most of those came as Obama was leaving town, 6,413 of the Syrian Muslims came in Trump’s first (partial) year with 602 since.
Here is where the nearly 20,000 Syrians were placed:
GOP governors betraying constituents by pushing refugee resettlement
He linked a list of today’s Republican Governors and so far that we know of (some might be hiding!), Republican governors of Utah, New Hampshire, Arizona and North Dakota are opposing the President (and America Firsters) on the issue of Refugee Resettlement.
Because of the national attentionBurleigh County’s Monday meeting was generating, the governor obviously went to the Administration to get clarification on how the process works and I want to comment on a few items he posted from the governor’s office.
But, he hadn’t gottenthe clarificationwhen he sent his letter supporting the program way back on November 19th in which he says they are happily integrating their refugees into their workforce.
White House clarifies proposed figures for refugee resettlement as local jurisdictions weigh consent
Here are a few points I want to highlight this morning from what the governor reports.
First, he got clarification that under the new Trump resettlement program this same process will be used every year, and each year the local community and the governor must consent.
The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs confirmed that local jurisdictions will need to consent every year for refugee resettlement to continue.
He learned that in addition to the 18,000 cap on the regular refugee program for fiscal year 2020 (which began on October 1, 2019) there will be 10,000 additional special refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq (virtually all Muslims we surmise) who supposedly helped our military in some way or other.
They are treated as refugees with all the social service benefits refugees receive, but with one important exception—they can go anywhere in America they wish. Regular refugees are placed by contractors*** in the locations they choose.
The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs also stated that up to 10,000 Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders – individuals who were employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in either Iraq or Afghanistan – are eligible for reception and placement services through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Unlike refugees, SIV holders can choose where to settle in the United States. LSS is allowed to provide services to SIV holders and has served up to 21 annually since 2016, though none were served in 2019, according to the agency, which includes SIV holders in its reported total for refugee resettlements.
Then he did confirm why Republicans like himself support the flow of low-skilled refugees to America—because their state business interests want the low wage workers. And, because they don’t want any global corporations that might be eyeing ND to think the state is filled with bigoted hateful people. (He doesn’t say that, but that is what he means.)
“We support the administration giving states and local jurisdictions the consent authority on whether to continue receiving refugees, and we respect the right to exercise local control,” Burgum said. “That being said, we have serious concerns that denying resettlement to a handful of well-vetted and often family-connected refugees would send a negative signal beyond our borders at a time when North Dakota is facing a severe workforce shortage and trying to attract capital and talent to our state.”
Never mind that those low-skilled refugees earning low wages will need taxpayer-funded services and will eventually vote the Republicans out of office.
North Dakota is done for now, but you will have another shot at it later this year as the feds prepare for fiscal year 2021 that begins on October first of 2020! Assuming he runs again, Burgum will be up for re-election at that same time.
For many years, it has seen a lot of controversy over refugee resettlement. I just was reminded when I scanned my posts on the state that the Somali knife attacker in St. Cloud in 2016 was a refugee originally resettled in Fargo, ND
***For new readers these (below) are the nine refugee contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America. For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!
It is Secretary of State Pompeo who is collecting letters from governors and local elected officials about whether they are opting-in or opting-out of the US Refugee Admission Program.
(Yesterday I posted a sample letter that you might use as a template when you write to your governor or county commission.)
Since the governors who have already said YES (how many we don’t know) to ‘welcoming’ more poverty for local and state taxpayers to support are likely round-filing (trashing!) your letters, why not send a copy directly to the Secretary of State.
If your governor has, or hasn’t, opted-in or out, then still send a letter to the US State Department.
Frankly, this whole exercise is a barometer for the President. We assume he will be reelected, and so during the next five years we expect him to make serious changes to how we resettle refugees (if we resettle refugees). He needs to know that you care.
Send your letters to:
Secretary Michael R. Pompeo
U.S. Department of State
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Carol T. O’Connell
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State
Just now I reportedon how the New York Times covered the Burleigh County North Dakota hearing and vote on whether that county would say yes, or no, to MORE refugees in the coming year.
A few paragraphs near the end of the biased report, which never mentions that the ‘religious’ groups placing refugees are actually federal contractors*** paid to place them in almost all states, jumped out at me.
Jenny Yang, lobbyist for World Relief, one of the nine contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America, is lobbying governors.
Jenny Yang, working for the refugee contracting agency World Reliefsays 16 governors have already opted-in and told the State Department that they want MORE poor people for their state to take care of.
I’ve been following closely and so far media reports indicate only these states are in:
Pennsylvania
Oregon
Utah (R)
Washington
Virginia
New Hampshire (R)
North Dakota (?)(R)
Kansas
Arizona (R)
I guess you all need to find out if your governor has quietly opted-in without any public mention (that is, in secrecy).
Jenny Yang, vice president for advocacy at World Relief, an evangelical agency whose work includes resettlement, has been steering an effort to lobby governors to keep their states open to refugees.
She said about 16 governors have submitted written consent, six of them Republicans. Gov. Doug Ducey, Republican of Arizona, agreed after receiving a letter supporting resettlement signed by 250 evangelical leaders. Gov. Greg Abbott, Republican of Texas, who leads the state that received the most refugees last year, has not yet offered his view,despite a plea from the mayor of Fort Worth to continue accepting refugees.
As I have been saying, they are gunning for Gov. Abbott of Texas. Sure hope you Texans are telling the governor what you think.
Since Texas is the top resettlement state in the nation and has been for several years, Abbott could easily say—we need a breather to assimilate those we have ‘welcomed’ for the last decade!
***For new readers these (below) are the nine refugee contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America. For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!
Nothing has changed by the way! We bring fewer Syrians these days, but the vast majority of Syrians who do come are Muslims.
