This is one more in our ‘invasion of Europe’ series. And, one more story about tiny Bulgaria being beaten-up by the international humanitarian industrial complex working tirelessly to erase borders worldwide.
Bulgarian border police stand near a barbed wire fence on the Bulgarian-Turkish border July 17, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Stoyan Nenov
(Reuters) – Bulgaria may extend the fence at its border with Turkey to stop more refugees from Syria and Iraq entering illegally, a top interior ministry official said on Wednesday, while the foreign minister warned of “terrorism imports” to the EU member state.
The problem border is the one with Turkey.
The Balkan country is considering adding 130 km (80 miles) of barbed-wire fencing to an existing 33-km fence along the 240-km southeastern border which, the interior ministry’s Chief Secretary Svetoslav Lazarov, said would save 2 million levs ($1.36 million) a month on policing the area.
“It would be a prohibitively facility,” Lazarov told reporters. “Our country has enough border points and those who want to come as a refugee can go through them.”
More than 10,000 refugees, mainly Syrians, entered Bulgaria illegally last year from Turkey and, in an attempt to limit the influx, authorities deployed over 1,000 police officers.
Bulgarian authorities said the Black Sea state could face an even greater influx in the coming months due to intensified fighting in Iraq in recent weeks.
There is more, including the usual whack from the human rights agitators. I always wonder why they aren’t whacking Turkey for letting the migrants pass through to the Bulgarian border. Legitimate asylum seekers are supposed to ask for protection in the first safe country they come to—in this case Turkey.
For more on Bulgaria, click here. For our whole ‘invasion of Europe’ series,go here.
Just yesterday we reported that Swedish politicians approaching the coming election are getting squeamish about how Sweden (Europe’s most famous welfare state) can possibly maintain its rate of in-migration and at the same time “show tolerance,” and what do we see—Palestinians starving themselves to death on the streets!
This is not helpful as elections approach. (Just as it is not helpful to Obama’s party in November if the “children” keep surging across the US border and turn up in local schools and health departments).
Palestinian hunger strikers in Gothenburg, Sweden. http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-refugees-sweden-hunger-strike-demand-asylum/13777
On Thursday last week, 24-year-old Nidal Lulu was taken to a hospital by emergency services after he lost consciousness as a result of nine days without food. Lulu is one of thirty Palestinian asylum-seekers, some of whom are under the age of eighteen, who commenced a hunger strike on 6 August in central Gothenburg, Sweden.
Thirteen have been taken to hospital. But ten have returned to tents erected in a city square and continue the strike.
“We cannot go back. We are from old Palestine and we have no country and no homes anymore. Many of us have been here from two to eight years without being granted residence. It’s no way to live,” one of the refugees, Muhammed Abughalioun, told local newspaper Göteborgs-Posten last week.
“We will continue our hunger strike until we die,” he said.
….invite in more “children” because more migrants means more money for government contractors! (she doesn’t say that! I do!)
Lavinia Limon is the CEO of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, known in the refugee industry as USCRI. Below, published at the Budapest Business Journal (of all places) is her six-point prescription for what the Obama Administration should do to save the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ (child “refugees” she calls them) because how we respond will “define us as a Nation,” she says.
Revolving door! Doing well by doing good!
Limon in 1996 as head of Bill Clinton’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/person/42360
It’s mentioned in her bio at the end of this opinion piece, but keep in mind she is one of several refugee contractors who have moved in and out of the revolving door from ‘non-profit’ contractor to government giver-of-grants and then back out again.
She was Bill Clinton’s head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in HHS)after first working in a ‘non-profit’ resettlement agency, and now she heads up the ‘non-profit’ group USCRI where she seeks grants from her former USCRI VP (Eskinder Negash) who now heads Obama’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. Did you get that?
And, be sure to have a look at this post we wrote in 2008 when we nicknamed her “whoop-de-do” when one of her resettlement subcontractors was caught dumping (and not caring for) refugees in Waterbury, CT. It had been revealed to the public that the contractor keeps a cut of what the refugees each are allotted by the feds and she told the reporter that the feds weren’t keeping up with the economic times and she mentioned everyone would squawk if their salaries weren’t growing. She said:
“Whoop-de-do” ….“God help us if our salaries had not kept pace with inflation like that.“
So, let’s see how the inflationary times are treating USCRI and her salary! (I’m going to get to her prescription for handling the southern border invasion, but this is too good!).
In 2008, we reported Ms. Limon’s 2006 salary (while USCRI was taking in $18 million):
In 2006 her salary and other compensation was $195,478. That is up about $20,000 from the previous couple of years.
Are you ready for this!
First, you need to know that in its 2013 Form 990, USCRI took in $35,676,146 and $35,429,570 came from government grants (page 9)—that is, 99% of their funds are from you—the US taxpayer! (much worse than any contractor*** we have reviewed so far). They apparently make virtually no effort to raise private funds in what was supposed to be a public-private partnership when the Refugee Act of 1980 was signed into law by Jimmy Carter.
So what is Ms. Limon’s salary today? Drum roll please!
Now working as a government contractor, you can hire Ms. Limon to speak. http://speakerpedia.com/speakers/lavinia-limon
On page 7 of that Form 990 we learn that Lavinia Limon is making more than the Vice President of the United States whom she ever-so-gently disparages in her op-ed at the Budapest Journal.
Her salary from USCRI and other sources related to her work there is $289,192. It went up 32% since 2006! Has your salary increased that much over so short a time? If she were in the legitimate private sector, then what they pay is none of our business, but she is essentially a government employee, so we have every right to blow our stacks!
Family business? One Peter Limon is listed in that Form 990 as well pulling down a salary of $115,878 and $23,991 from related income.
Consider all of that information when you read this opinion-piece (that you paid for!).
…..we’ve proposed six actions that the United States should take to resolve this issue. We’ve personally handed our proposal to every member of Congress, and we’ve spoken about it with every reporter who’s called. We’re getting some traction on these simple, yet tested ideas:
1. Respect families by allowing parents from El Salvador and Honduras who reside legally in the United States under Temporary Protected Status to apply for their minor children to reunite. The children’s status would then be linked to their parents. This would immediately reduce immigration court backlogs, and would apply to an estimated 30–40 percent of the children surrendering at the border.
2. Keep kids out of the courtrooms by instituting a Children’s Corps based on the Asylum Officer Corps model. Officers will have training in child-sensitive interview techniques and Best Interest Determination standards, and will determine whether a child is eligible for legal relief. This will move the adjudication process from an adversarial judicial process to an administrative process for most children. Reports indicate that 40–60 percent of these children may be eligible for legal protection.
3. Help children avoid the dangerous journey by allowing them to apply for refugee status from their home country. We’ve previously used this process so that Soviet Jews, Vietnamese, and Cubans could avoid life-threatening escapes. Additionally, other North and South American countries may be willing to accept the children for resettlement.
4. Engage the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to determine international protection needs using its well-established procedures.The UNHCR could then refer cases to the U.S. Department of State for further interviewing and approval before resettlement in the United States, and possibly other countries.
5. Forgive the children by granting Children’s Protected Status (CPS) to all unaccompanied children who have already been brought into custody.We used this approach with Cubans and Haitians who arrived illegally in 1980. The government could announce a cut-off date after which new arrivals would be subject to expedited removal. Granting CPS will relieve the government of the burden and cost of adjudicating the cases of the thousands of unaccompanied minors who are at the border, and will increase the Department of Homeland Security’s capacity to handle other immigration cases.
6. Introduce hope by creating a Regulated Entry Procedure for 10,000 unaccompanied immigrant children per year per country from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. As precedent, a lottery system has allowed 20,000 Cubans to enter the United States annually for the past 34 years. The children would enter the United States legally through a process managed and regulated by the U.S. government.
I love the United States, and I have high expectations for its international behavior and reputation. We can do better, and I commit to being part of the solution.
Every time we turn around we find one more legal reason foreign nationals can stay in the US.
The one federal program (besides refugee resettlement/asylum) we have noted most often on these pages is Temporary Protected Status a ridiculously named program since it is rarely temporary. We still have Central Americans living here legally ten years and longer after some storm/earthquake roughed-up their landscape. Their “temporary refugee” status (allowing them to work and do anything a legal immigrant can do, and since they get drivers licenses, they probably vote!) simply gets extended every 18 months or so. See our complete TPS archive by clicking here.
In fact, Liberians have been begging again for an extension of their legal status in the US, guess they will get their wish.
Here is a press alert from USCIS entitled: Ebola Outbreak-related Immigration Relief Measures to Nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone Currently in the United States.
From a July CNN story. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/03/health/ebola-outbreak-west-africa/
Release Date: August 15, 2014
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. USCIS offers relief measures to nationals of those three countries who are currently in the United States.
Immigration relief measures that may be available if requested include:
Change or extension of nonimmigrant status for an individual currently in the United States, even if the request is filed after the authorized period of admission has expired;
Extension of certain grants of parole made by USCIS;
Expedited adjudication and approval, where possible, of requests for off-campus employment authorization for F-1 students experiencing severe economic hardship;
Expedited processing of immigrant petitions for immediate relatives (currently in the United States) of U.S. citizens;
Expedited adjudication of employment authorization applications, where appropriate; and
Consideration for waiver of fees associated with USCIS benefit applications.
For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov, call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283, or follow USCIS on Facebook (/uscis), Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon.
Update August 20th: What do you know, change of plans, “children” not going there after all. Hat tip: Robin
A “financially troubled” Lutheran Church on Long Island riled the community of Commack recently when it said it was considering housing some of the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ flooding the US border in recent months.
A NYC fire fighter who lives next door said: “It’s basically going to be a hotel right next to my house.”
Lutheran church in Commack, NY could become a “hotel” for the unaccompanied alien children. http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2014/aug/16/plan-send-immigrant-kids-ny-church/
A Lutheran church in Commack may host some of the tens of thousands of immigrant children illegally crossing the United States’ border with Mexico mainly to reunite with family here, the church’s pastor said Tuesday.
The financially troubled Holy Cross Lutheran Church had to cancel a meeting last week after outraged neighbors packed the church to protest the proposal, but Rev. Dennis Walker said the congregation is still considering it and hopes to meet in coming weeks to decide.
Walker said community opposition was being fueled by misinformation about the proposal, and he hopes “people will reconsider in a more rational light. This is minimal impact on the community with substantial benefits” such as jobs for workers who would remodel the building to create the living quarters. [Here is one of my questions, if the “children’s” border surge ended tomorrow and the church had already been remodeled, then what? Would it house other migrants of some sort?—ed]
The proposal calls for about 40 children, 4 to 17, to be housed at the church at any one time between seven and 30 days, Walker said. The children would be in transit from federal immigration detention facilities to relatives in the New York area, and would leave only for medical appointments or other important issues, Walker said.
So who does have moola (federal cash!)?
The proposal was brought to the church by Lutheran Social Services of New York, the Manhattan-based agency that would cover cost for the renovation, using federal funds.
Nearby residents firmly oppose the idea. “It’s scary,” said Sheryl Cambria, 35, a special-education teacher at Lindenhurst High School. “I have two little kids. Who’s to say my house is going to be safe?” New York City firefighter Michael Cantwell, 44, said, “It’s basically going to be a hotel right next to my house.”
Not just in Commack, New York, but from sea to shining sea, this is what it is all about, the good pastor admits—
—they get money (your tax dollars) and get to “do the Christian thing!” Who can beat that!
Walker said the Commack church is in dire financial straitsafter a day care business stopped renting space in June.
The immigrant children program could bring in $8,000 to $10,000 a month, help pay off a $25,000 debt — and allow the church to do the Christian thing, he said.
***According to Guidestar, Lutheran Social Services of New York does not file a Form 990 tax return with the IRS because it says it’s exempt as a “church.” I’ve seen that occasionally over the years (of course, it’s a way of hiding their financials from the public) and wonder that the ACLU isn’t interested in examining this situation—federal money flowing directly to a church (and not a “religious” IRS-approved non-profit group). Hmmm!
Any forensic accountants following the money trail?
Endnote: The AP has a longer story posted on this past Saturday, here. Note that the AP reporter tried to talk with someone at Lutheran Social Services of New York (offices on Riverside Dr at the “God Box” where God is a Leftwinger) and they refused to comment.
For more on ‘unaccompanied minors’ here at RRW, click here.
