And, the health care system there is begging the feds for more money to help relieve this latest fallout from Biden’s totally screwed-up Afghan evacuation.
Americans turned away from Virginia hospitals over Afghan evacuees
(Editor: Glad to see that the Afghans are not being referred to as ‘refugees.’ They are not legitimate refugees!)
A massive influx of Afghan evacuees strained Northern Virginia hospitals so much this week that American citizens were being turned away.
Every Virginian should be complaining to Virginia Democrat Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. Let them know that Biden’s disastrous Afghan surrender will be hurting them and their party in the next election. Throwing more taxpayer dollars at the problem won’t get them off the hook.
A hospital near Dulles Expo Center has been running out of beds, forcing the facility to turn away non-Afghan patients who didn’t need critical care, according to The Washington Post.
The overwhelmed hospital system prompted a regional emergency response group to monitor the hospitals after one became so packed with patients that federal officials lost track of a number of Afghans receiving medical care, including a month-old child suffering from a possibly life-threatening condition.
Kristin Nickerson, executive director of the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System, said the child was later located in one of the hospitals. Nickerson, who also directs the Northern Virginia Hospital Alliance, confirmed that another hospital was forced to turn away American patients.
“Our hospitals are already almost at capacity,” she said, referring to patients with COVID-19. “It’s not like they have tons of free beds available. We are still in the middle of a pandemic.”
Nickerson said federal officials have not been responsive to requests for financial help. The Washington Post reported that a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said questions should be presented to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not respond to several attempts seeking comment.
The offices of both Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner said they are aware of and monitoring the situation.
[….]
Nickerson further explained that a federal contractor which was supposed to retrieve Afghan evacuees after their hospital visits has left them in the facilities for up to six hours. Cherokee Federal, the contractor in question, did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment. [Oh, gee, another contractor for me to investigate!—ed]
Surprise (not!):
As Afghan evacuees continue to arrive, the cost to care for them continues to rise.
On Aug. 28, top local administrators, who make up the board of the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System group, sent a letter to Virginia’s secretary of health and human services, calling for federal and state dollars to be allocated for the ongoing effort.
“To meet the current need, we are leveraging what little resources we have to augment the existing team at the moment, but this is not sustainable with only a staff of 12,” the letter said.
J. Stephen Jones, chief executive of the Inova Health System, said the hospitals shouldn’t expect the impact of the Afghan crisis to end any time soon.
By the way, I have 390 posts in my health issues category. See what other health problems refugees and migrants of all sorts bring to America. Health problems, including mental health problems, that you ultimately pay for, one way or another.
If you missed it yesterday, I wrote a refugee-related story at ‘Frauds and Crooks.’
So says an advocate working to raise money for their needs.
Regular readers may remember that in 2016 Barack Obama (as he was wrapping up his 8 years as President) cut a deal with the then Australian Prime Minister to allow more than a thousand of Australia’s illegal aliens, who tried to break into the country by boat, to be brought to the US as legitimate refugees.
One group of the mostly single men are pictured en route to an American city.
Donald Trump knew instinctively that it was a dumb ‘deal,’ but went along with it anyway. You could hardly call it a deal because a deal implies we get something in exchange. News reports are mysteriously silent about what we got for taking the mostly Muslim men into our country.
If you want to catch up on the details, see my extensive file Australia Dumb Deal.
Here is an update of their arrivals in the US written by a journalist/advocate who leads a non-profit group to help take care of their needs through private charity—admirable if it is all private money.*** However, they are clearly advocates for more US taxpayer spending for so-called refugees that have nothing to do with Americans.
He fingers US refugee resettlement contractors for not doing their jobs!
As you read his story, remember that these ‘refugees’ tried to break into Australia by boat, were caught and detained under Australian law. Theychose to try to illegally enter Australia. They should not have been our problem!
It’s hard to imagine how the US-Australia refugee deal could have been handled worse
Four years ago then Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull struck a deal with then US president Barack Obama to transfer up to 1,250 of Australia’s unwanted refugees to the United States.
As we enter 2021 – despite US president Donald Trump’s condemnation of “this dumb deal” and a pandemic which has crippled the US resettlement system – the transfers continue. About 870 have arrived so far with more slated shortly.
After more than seven years in limbo, refugees will arrive with barely more than the clothes on their backs and they will be plunged into a collapsed economy, a rampant pandemic and a threadbare support system.
After touching down in Los Angeles, refugees are separated from each other and shuttled on to flights to cities from Phoenix to Philadelphia, San Antonio to Salt Lake City. Each will be handed a debt notice for their transfer flights – an absurdity that can total more than $11,000 for families with children.
US refugee policy does require the repayment of airfare ‘loans,’ but large amounts are never repaid. The State Department does not want to publicly reveal how bad the repayment rate is.
Winsor continues:
The new arrivals are offered just 90 days of accommodation and basic support. Then they’re on their own.
Abandoned by refugee resettlement contractors!
In theory, resettlement agencies are supposed to help with job applications, work authorisation and medical assistance in this period. But in reality, many refugees tell us they’re all but abandoned.
[….]
All of it is forced on refugees by the Australian government’s seven-year failure to resolve a crisis of its own making.
Almost all these refugees arrived in the days and months after the government’s sudden 2013 announcement that refugees arriving by boat would be barred from resettling in Australia – a deterrent which appears to have succeeded but has left thousands in limbo.
More than 40% of refugees tell Ads-Up they need assistance with medical care; another 40% request help with dental treatment. Inadequate healthcare on the islands means some arrive with easily treatable infections which have been left to fester undiagnosed.
[….]
Despite everything, most arrivals bear no ill will towards Australians.
They recall those who befriended them via Facebook when they were stranded, or who held vigils and protests. They are grateful to America, and even Trump, for giving them the chance to restart their lives.
*** I could not find a Form990 for Ads-Up. They say that Ads-Up (USA) is a recognised not-for-profit charity under the umbrella of the Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs network. Hmmmm!
That is, if he and Kamala make it to the White House.
They campaigned on reversing all of what they claim were draconian policies by the Trump White House to slow the flow across our southern border and to halt the influx of impoverished, possibly sick, low skilled workers, eg. refugees to America.
Will Biden be called a racist if he leaves many of Trump’s immigration policies in place? Not a chance!
Since the Chinese virus reared its ugly head in the spring, much of the Trump team’s actions were to slow the arrival of the COVID-19 virus potentially arriving with the migrants.
As a result Trump was called a racist and a white nationalist by the Biden-supporting media.
Now I am seeing one story after another about how the Harris/Biden administration might have to go very slowly to unravel Trump’s efforts to keep America safe and Americans working.
LOL! I will be looking for the Leftist media to label Biden an evil racist when he will almost certainly not be able to fling open America’s gates for months or even years!
It wasn’t long after Election Steal Day in the weeks following November 3rd, that the stories began popping up about a new surge on the border.
U.S. agents apprehend 1,000 migrant children in 6 days as crossings along Mexican border rise
By the way, unaccompanied alien children are the responsibility of the US Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Many paragraphs into the story we learn that oopsy(!), maybe Joe and Kamala cannot immediately reverse Trump’s immigration control strategies, especially as Americans will be furious if it is done while the virus rages on.
Mr. Biden’s team has also pledged to review the expulsions policy to ensure border-crossers “have the ability to submit their asylum claims.”
Andrew Selee, president of the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute, said ending the “Remain in Mexico” program and the expulsions too quickly could lead to a surge in border crossings.
He suggested the incoming Biden administration could end Remain-in-Mexico but temporarily retain the expulsion policy, a scenario that could be complicated by legal challenges and reporting that shows public health officials were pressured by the White House to authorize the expulsions.
Selee said an influx in border arrests could hurt chances of a divided Congress passing immigration legislation, including one that provides a pathway to U.S. citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries. Republicans lawmakers blamed the DACA program for a surge in border apprehensions of Central American children in 2014, even though the policy, established in 2012, did not benefit new arrivals.
Before completely ending Mr. Trump’s policies, Selee said the incoming Biden administration should deploy more asylum officers, surge resources to the border and expand case management programs that allow migrants to complete their U.S. immigration proceedings outside of detention centers. Otherwise, he added, a sharp increase in unauthorized migration could leave the U.S. government unprepared, worsen conditions in temporary migrant holding facilities and lead to more draconian enforcement policies.
“You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place: Either you start releasing people in the general population or you hold them in the middle of a pandemic,” Selee said.
“If you try to be the anti-Trump on day one, you will end up acting like Trump in the end,” he added. “If you try and throw out everything Trump has done on day one, without having an alternative in place, you’ll end up doing the same things Trump did.”
And, here (read it yourself) is a more recent warning about the ‘kids’ rushing the border. From USA Today:
Thousands of unaccompanied minors arrive at US-Mexico border as Border Patrol grapples with COVID-19 deaths
Lowering expectations?
And, a little nugget in this news from the Pittsburgh Post Gazetteindicates that the Refugee Resettlement Industry has begun to tamp down expectations for a huge jump in new refugees being flown into your towns and cities anytime soon.
Biden campaigned on restoring the flow of refugees into the country from Trump’s less than 20,000 annual refugee admissions to a whopping 125,000 in year one he said!
Pittsburgh 2017 anti-Trump rally. Will they protest if Biden doesn’t move fast enough to reverse Trump’s policies? Not a chance.
Pittsburgh-area agencies await word on Biden’s refugee plan
Deep into this story we have this news that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Societyis telling its satellite offices that the flood isn’t coming right away.
While the Biden team hasn’t detailed its plans, Ms. Aizenman has heard speculation from her agency’s national affiliate that there might be some increases later in 2021, with a higher ceiling in 2022.
But wait! That is not what we heard BEFORE November 3rd.
(Ms. Aizenman is the director of refugee and immigrant services at Jewish Family and Community Services which is a subcontractor of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)).
We had a hint that increases in refugee numbers might not be cominghere the other day.
If Biden and Harris (or Harris and someone else!) are installed in the White House, we will be watching! I know it is serious, but I anticipate being amused as they squirm to get out from between a rock and a hard place.
Clever America Firsters will have to figure out how to keep up the pressure on that rock.
Hmmmm! She does mention removing the Muslim ban in a first one hundred days (assuming they get even one day!), but not a word about immediately raising the ceiling the President has placed on refugee admissions.
Glaring omission, I thought, as the Biden/Harris platform has stated from its earliest days that they would raise the ceiling to 125,000 refugees for 2021 beginning immediately after inauguration day on January 20th.
Trump’s ceiling for the year is 15,000.
Editor: I’ve been busy writing at ‘Frauds and Crooks’ recently. A lot of fraud news with the election! But other news too. Check out the latest on the Kenyan Killer case if you missed it where a NEW AMERICAN is behind bars charged with murdering possibly as many as 24 vulnerable senior citizens in a killing spree that went undetected for almost 2 years.
Kamala Harris Vows Amnesty in First 100 Days, Restarting Immigration from Exporters of Terrorism
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) detailed Democrat Joe Biden’s plans to drastically reopen various routes of migration to the United States, including an amnesty for all 11 to 22 million illegal aliens in the U.S. and a restart of immigration from countries that export terrorism.
During a brief, pre-recorded speech at the National Immigrant Integration Conference, Harris said she and Biden are focused on undoing President Trump’s reforms that sought to protect American citizens from security threats and the national workforce from unfair foreign competition.
My first thought when I saw this was omg, if we have to listen to this voice for four years, it will be torture! And, secondly I figured that the gaff-prone, and clearly mentally impaired, Joe Biden was beginning to be sidelined.
“In our first 100 days, we will send an immigration bill to Congress, reinstate DACA, repeal harmful and discriminatory policies like the Muslim ban,” Harris said. “And during our administration, we will repeal indiscriminate enforcement policies that tear families apart and make us less safe.”
The ending of Trump’s travel ban by Biden would come as the overwhelming majority of Americans support such immigration restrictions. Last month, 5-in-6 voters said they supported travel bans to slow the spread of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, and in November 2018, more than 4-in-9 Americans said they supported travel bans on Muslim-majority countries.
But, again no mention of lifting the refugee ceiling. Do they already know that during the Chinese Virus ‘crisis’ the average American will go ballistic to see thousands upon thousands of third worlders flown into the US (without COVID testing) to be cared for at taxpayer expense.
The refugee industry is getting really desperate as they bring out their old ‘bigwigs’ and use the ghost of Ronald Reagan to stick it to ‘orange man’ who is trying to limit the number of diseased people entering the US.
As you most likely know Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden teamed up in 1979 to push through the Refugee Act of 1980which only went into action to change America in Reagan’s first term in office.
James N. Purcellsays he is one of the creators of the Carter Act and became an early head of the program under Reagan.
Reagan admitted hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and Southeast Asian refugees escaping Communism during his 8 years in office.
Purcell has been out and about in recent months to fill the elder statesman role in the Open Borders Lefts’ war on Trump.
My question is this: Just because it is now 40 years old, does it mean that somehow the Refugee Act is sacrosanct and can never be changed, or dumped completely?
Reagan refused to allow fear of disease to halt refugee resettlement, and Trump shouldn’t either
We set up protocols and rules to ensure Southeast Asians fleeing communism didn’t spread tuberculosis.
[Before I give you a few snips from what he says, know that we are admitting refugees and have been for decades who have TB and some of those have active TB. I always thought that would be something that would make the general public sit up and take notice of flaws in the supposed ‘health screening’ of refugees, but so far it hasn’t. Obviously Trump has thankfully noticed. See my extensive file on refugee TB by clicking here.]
Now here is some of what Purcell said, but please read it all (emphasis is mine):
Rep. Sam Hall [Democrat!—ed] was relentless as he questioned me about the Indochina refugees we proposed to admit to the United States: Are these refugees free of tuberculosis? Is the American public in danger?I recalled these congressional oversight questions from 40 years ago with great trepidation when I learned recently about the Trump administration’s current attempts to bar refugees and migrants on health grounds.
[….]
It was September 1981 as I pondered questions from the late Democratic congressman from Texas; eight months into the new Reagan administration, I was representing the State Department at these “consultations” hearings as acting director of the Bureau for Refugee Programs. Along with me were acting representatives from the Departments of Health, Education and Welfare and Justice, and the Voice of America. The Refugee Act of 1980 required administration representatives to consult with the judiciary committees of both houses on future admissions. Rep. Ron Mazzoli of Kentucky was in the chair and all members were present, as well as an overflow audience.
[….]
…..my colleague Paul Wolfowitz (assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific) and I had agonized for weeks about the deteriorating refugee situation in Asia and the critical importance of these make-or-break hearings. Wolfowitz warned, “Vietnamese refugees continue to flee the new communist regime that took over after the fall of Saigon, and persecuted victims from Laos and Cambodia are also on the move. All are flocking to the non-communist states of Southeast Asia. Our experts warn that refugee flight shows no signs of ending.”
[….]
The State Department’s advance team had alerted us that TB was a major concern. When Hall raised his questions, I described the medical checks we conducted for refugees prior to departure from Asia. Each was carefully screened before departure by the Geneva-based Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, using guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Public Health Service. I described two types of TB, communicable and non-communicable, and emphasized that “no refugee with communicable TB was admitted to the United States; while a few with non-communicable TB had been admitted, they were not a threat and could best be treated here.” [Yep, we took on the role of treating thousands upon thousands of refugees with latent TB and that job went to local health departments in your communities—ed]
[….]
The committee was not satisfied with my testimony, and the notion of an admissions moratorium had arisen.My reaction was clear and unambiguous: a moratorium would lead to disaster and death in Southeast Asia and must be avoided. I realized my explanations had not gotten through when the national news that evening reported, “500,000 ticking time bombs in the U.S.”
An admission moratorium was contemplated by the Hill committee!
Readers, this is quite a revelation. Did the committee think they had the power under the Refuge Act to suggest such a thing? Today “consultations” happen behind closed doors with only the principals involved—the State Department rep and some committee chairmen.
Again, the consultation today is CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC!
Later, when the U.S. accepted the protocol to the U.N. Convention Related to the Status of Refugees in 1968, the president accepted that, “deportation of a refugee is a particularly serious measure, and it would not be humanitarian to deport a refugee for reasons of health.” By this action, the United States recognized that it could not expel a refugee for a “contagious disease” when we could offer acceptable treatments. Congress codified the obligation in the Refugee Act of 1980.
It became clear that actions we proposed were consistent with evolving policy and practice. Nevertheless, several members remained unconvinced. When the committee voted several days later, the moratorium was defeated by one vote. This was a narrow and a key victory, as it confirmed the legal and policy precedent for the next 40 years.
That must have been the first and last strong stand Congress ever took on the Carter/Kennedy law that opened the door to impoverished (and sick) people to legally flood into America.
The refugee industry today wants no restrictions for health reasons. Our healthcare system (which you pay for) can just fix their health problems they say.
But, shockingly, the idea is with us again with the Trump administration’s proposed Security Bars and Processing Rule. According to Yael Schacher, historian with Refugees International, this rule would “expand the definition of national security to incorporate public health bars in an unprecedented, unnecessary, and arbitrary way that would enable refoulement, or the return of asylum seekers to persecution.”
As with hundreds of other rules and policy shifts designed to restrict and limit refugee and immigrant admissions to the United States, this rule fails to safeguard public health or uphold laws and treaties protecting people fleeing persecution. Getting a jump-start, the CDC has already put an order in place that closes the border to those without documents on health grounds, regardless of persecution. [“without documents?” means they are not refugees selected through the US Refugee Admissions Program.—ed]
But, especially in this time of a worldwide pandemic, sensible Americans can see that Trump has America first in mind, so let him know that you are grateful for that.
