In a sketchy scheme, six non-governmental organizations have been assigned the task of sorting through the tens of thousands of asylum seekers that President Trump successfully kept in Mexico (so they wouldn’t bring the Chinese Virus into the US as they waited for their asylum claims to be processed) to determine which ones get to enter the US now.
But, critics, like a top ACLU attorney says:
“The government cannot farm out the asylum system.”
Biden administration taps humanitarian groups to pick asylum-seekers to allow into country
SAN DIEGO — The Biden administration has quietly tasked six humanitarian groups with recommending which migrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. instead of being rapidly expelled from the country under federal pandemic-related powers that block people from seeking asylum.
The groups will determine who is most vulnerable in Mexico, and their criteria has not been made public. It comes as large numbers of people are crossing the southern border and as the government faces intensifying pressure to lift the public health powers instituted by former President Donald Trump and kept in place by President Joe Biden during the coronavirus pandemic.
Several members of the consortium spoke to The Associated Press about the criteria and provided details of the system that have not been previously reported. The government is aiming to admit to the country up to 250 asylum-seekers a day who are referred by the groups and is agreeing to that system only until July 31. By then, the consortium hopes the Biden administration will have lifted the public health rules, though the government has not committed to that.
So far, a total of nearly 800 asylum-seekers have been let in since May 3, and members of the consortium say there is already more demand than they can meet.
Think about this, three of the organizations are not even US-based organizations!
So we have foreign non-profit groups deciding who can enter the US?
The groups have not been publicly identified except for the International Rescue Committee, a global relief organization. The others are London-based Save the Children; two U.S.-based organizations, HIAS and Kids in Need of Defense; and two Mexico-based organizations, Asylum Access and the Institute for Women in Migration, according to two people with direct knowledge who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not intended for public release.
How did the Harris/Biden gang decide who would play God? It is a secret!
Critics of the new selection processes say too much power is vested in a small number of organizations and that the effort is shrouded in secrecy without a clear explanation of how the groups were chosen. Critics also say there are no assurances that the most vulnerable or deserving migrants will be chosen to seek asylum.
Some consortium members are concerned that going public may cause their offices in Mexico to be mobbed by asylum-seekers, overwhelming their tiny staffs and exposing them to potential threats and physical attacks from extortionists and other criminals.
[….]
Lee Gelernt
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said advocacy groups are in “a very difficult position because they need to essentially rank the desperation” of people, but he insisted it was temporary. The government, he said, “cannot farm out the asylum system.”
Migration experts not involved in the process have questioned how the groups determine who is eligible.
“It has been murky,” said Jessica Bolter, an analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute who believes the administration is trying to quietly be humane without encouraging more people to come, a balancing act she doubts will succeed.
If so, tell them to put their money where their mouths are and follow Governor Abbott’s lead.
By the way, Abbott was the only Republican governor in the nation to support President Trump’s efforts to reform the Refugee Admissions Program. Trump’s concept was to give the states and local governments a greater say in the placement of refugees. Of course, as we have been saying the ‘children’are not refugees.
Gov. Greg Abbott orders Texas child-care regulators to yank licenses of facilities housing immigrant kids
AUSTIN — Escalating his showdown with President Joe Biden, Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday ordered state child-care regulators to yank licenses from facilities that house minors who crossed the state’s southern border without papers and were detained.
Currently, 52 state-licensed general residential operations and child placing agencies in Texas have contracts with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement to care for undocumented immigrant children.
ORR contracts with about 200 facilities in 22 states.
Within three months or so, Abbott’s move apparently would force them to stop serving unaccompanied minors because the facilities must have state licenses to qualify for the federal contracts.
The effects are unclear: Nationwide, there are now about 17,000 unaccompanied children, according to data provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As of May 19, 4,223 of those were being housed in state licensed facilities or child placing agencies in Texas, according to the state Health and Human Services Commission.
Though it’s unclear how many are kept in unlicensed emergency sites – such as the one that just closed in Dallas or the site at Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso that can hold up to 10,000 unaccompanied migrant children and teens – Abbott’s move potentially could force relocation of up to one-fourth of the children nationwide.
For more than a dozen years (that is the time I’ve been following the US Refugee Admissions Program), I’ve watched the Open Borders propagandists and their media lackeys sell the idea that those mostly teenaged illegal alien border crossers that began flooding our southern border in massive waves during the Obama administration are legitimate refugees.
Legal (whether they are legitimate is another question) refugees are selected abroad (supposedly able to prove they are being persecuted) in a process that begins with the United Nations, the US State Department admits them with screening in advance by the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services provides funds for many of their initial needs.
Those nine federal contractors*** I’m always talking about are contracted and funded by the US State Department to settle them in your towns and cities and those nine receive additional grants and contracts from ORR to supposedly care for them for an initial three month period.
The ‘children’ we see being flown around the US, the ones who caused that recent uproar in Tennessee,here, came to our border, crossed it illegally and were then turned over to ORR and therein I believe is where the confusion began.
I believe, with no hard proof, that the Open Borders lobby wanted the ‘care’ of the children placed in the Office of Refugee Resettlement to further advance the idea to the media and to you, that the ‘children’ are legitimate refugees who would ultimately be entitled to all of the benefits legal refugees receive and thus ultimately acquire citizenship.
Coming back to bite them….
For all of these more than a dozen years I’ve watched this, the big nine, because they clearly want to see the most third worlders admitted to the US as possible, have supported the influx of UACs.
In my early years this was a surprise to me as I assumed the contractors would put the legal refugees they were committed (and contracted!) to care for ahead of any concerns for illegal aliens, but they don’t.
This year their lack of discernment has come back to bite them as Biden himself recognized (briefly) that funds for legal refugees were being consumed by the expensive care being provided to the illegal alien kids.
Here at the Detroit News, in an article about the “decimated refugee infrastructure” we learned that indeed money for legal refugees was being shifted to the illegal ‘children’:
When Biden initially announced he would keep the Trump-era refugee admissions cap of 15,000 — before backtracking amid widespread outcry — he hinted that resources needed at the border were being drawn from the refugee resettlement program.
“The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people,” he said in April. “We couldn’t do two things at once.”
Funding for the Unaccompanied Children Program, which manages custody of child migrants at the border, and the HHS portion of the refugee admissions program, which reimburses states for refugee-related expenses, are indeed part of a single appropriation within HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement and can be internally redirected.
Of course, this money shortage won’t last long as the Biden team will simply allocate billions more (and probably already has) to accelerate the process of changing America by changing the people.
Unforeseen consequences of years of conflation….
But, perhaps an unforeseen result of years of selling the media and the public on the false notion that the UACs (Biden says we aren’t supposed to call them Unaccompanied Alien Children) are legal refugees is that furious tax paying Americans are going to (already are!) lump the illegal alien teens in with legal refugees making it much harder for the contractors to sell communities with the idea of welcoming more legal refugees.
In other words, most Americans think too many are coming no matter what category they fall within.
For those of you who have gotten this far in this morning’s post and are thinking that you don’t give a damn about the bureaucratic details and are saying to yourselves—we are admitting too many migrants of all stripes while paying for them out of our wallets—stop reading now.
Otherwise, know this, and keep reading.
Even our so-called political leaders don’t know what they are talking about and are adding to the confusion, or dodging and weaving.
In my post on Fridayabout the Tennessee uproar, the conflation issue raised its ugly head as politicians scurried to look like they were doing something to push back against the Biden migrant dump.
Good for two writers to begin to unravel the mess.
Green apparently fell for the “conflation.” Editor: I sure would like to see a little better preparation by a Tea Party endorsed candidate. Some of the best experts in the country on refugee resettlement are right there in his own back yard. Here is an idea! Call them before looking foolish.
A lack of legal understanding by a lawmaker is of concern.
Jumping on the bandwagon is US Rep. Mark Green who apparently thinks he is doing something with a bill that will go nowhere in Nancy Pelosi’s House.
For politicians, it is the outrage that matters!
Pat Hamsa writing at Tennessee’s Daily Roll Call calls out Green for adding to the confusion by referring to the UACs as refugees!
Is Mark Green Conflating Illegal Aliens With Refugees?
It’s anybody’s best guess why Green’s explanation of his bill, H.R.3500, doesn’t match what he’s telling folks it’s supposed to do.
Green’s press release about his new bill, “Leads Fight to Block Refugee Resettlement Without State Consent”states in part:
“Last week, in the dead of night, unaccompanied migrant children were flown into Tennessee without our approval or consent. I am alarmed that the Biden Administration would use taxpayer resources to transport refugees into Tennessee without transparency or coordination with state authorities. This overreach and secrecy has to stop.”
In a recent interview with WRCBtv Chattanooga, Green said that he drafted the bill in response to what happened in Chattanooga and that “this bill would mandate permission of the state before they move illegal migrants to Tennessee.”
Then why does he call them refugees in the headline to his press release?
I am amazed at the amount of real research a writer at a local Tennessee paper put into this story attempting to unravel the conflation confusion. It is so rare to see links to solid information to back the reporting.
From Wyatt Massey at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Massey points out that Governor Lee is on record supporting more legal refugees to Tennessee while acting outraged by the arrival of the ‘children,’ even as during his tenure, the Chattanooga facility for the ‘children’ was licensed.
Refugee, migrant shelters for children referenced in Tennessee debate are separate under federal rules
Controversy in the past week about the movement of migrant children through Tennessee and into a Chattanooga shelter licensed by the state in May 2020 has led to confusion about the immigration status of the children housed in Southeast Tennessee and those video recorded exiting a plane in Chattanooga.
Gov. Bill Lee opposed Trump’s efforts to give states a greater say when the feds placed refugees in a state. He wants more legal refugees, but is distancing himself from the very unpopular drop-off of UACs, so it is to his advantage to make a distinction between the two programs.
Gov. Bill Lee has previously been criticized for his strong words against President Joe Biden administration policies related to the unaccompanied minors after announcing in 2019 the state would continue resettling refugees.
[….]
The governor faced criticism from some conservatives at the time for continuing to accept refugees.Lee cited his Christian faith, calling it a “moral obligation” and a “biblical mandate” for the state to remain in the program.
This is a separate program from federal efforts to care for unaccompanied children who, after they cross the border, are initially in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. ICE and CBP have three days to move the children away from a temporary border shelter to a shelter run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Children stay in ORR shelters, like the one in Chattanooga, for about a month while caseworkers locate and vet a sponsor, usually a relative, to take custody of the child until immigration proceedings can begin.
[….]
On May 19, WRCB aired video of children getting off a plane at the Wilson Air Center to be transported to shelters or placed with sponsors throughout the region. The video sparked outrage from members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation and Lee, who said he had declined a Biden administration request to house unaccompanied minors in the state.
However, documents from the state show Lee’s own Department of Children’s Services licensed the shelter near downtown Chattanooga to house “unaccompanied minors” in May 2020.
On Monday, the Times Free Press asked Lee why his administration approved the license for the facility, conducted monthly inspections and issued monthly reports if the governor was then raising concerns about a lack of transparency over migrant children and saying he declined a federal request to house unaccompanied children.
Although the Times Free Press asked specifically about the migrant children, the governor said the Times Free Press was conflating unaccompanied minors with refugees.
Keep reading. Massey even digs into the finances of the contractor, the Baptiste Group from Georgia, that is housing the UACs in Tennessee. Good work!
Now, after all that, if you made it this far, I suspect you are saying:
Conflation or not there is just too darn much poverty, cultural conflict and potential crime and terrorism being brought into the country and I don’t want to pay for it!
***In case you are new to RRW, here are all of the nine contractors that have monopolized all refugee distribution in the US for decades.
They worked to ‘elect’ Biden/Harris andlobby for open borders. As taxpayers you pay them millions annually to change America by changing the people.
Two of the contractors, the USCCB and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are alsopaid to find locationsfor the Unaccompanied Alien Children.
At this very moment they are all out scouting for new, fresh territory in which to place their refugee clients. See Winchester, VA.
Biden Wants to Prepare for Future Surges of Unaccompanied Minors
Okay, that news is bad enough, but it gave me a chuckle to see how they are spinning the present surge of illegal alien kids with the arrival of Biden in the Oval Office—just happens from time to time, move along, nothing to see!
It is just a normal cycle and we must be better prepared by spending more of your tax dollars for housing for the mostly teenaged boys. That apparently is the talking point coming from this White House.
If you missed my post the other day about planes landing in the night in Tennessee, check it out here:
One good thing about the Tennessee expose’ is that the secrecy angle has brought the Administration’s movement of the ‘children’ to the media’s attention, but it has been going on for years.
We see that WRCB-TV in Chattanooga has an update. I’m happy that they are trying to get more accurate information on the Tennessee situation by using data at the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, but I have a bone to pick with them about their headline. Here is my complaint:
The Unaccompanied Alien Children are illegal aliens NOT REFUGEES.
They aren’t even legitimate asylum seekers unless, and until, they file an asylum claim.
WRBC-TV:
What happens next in the refugee resettlement process of migrant children?
It’s been more than a week since four planes carrying migrant children landed in Chattanooga.
Similar operations are happening across the country. Some of those children are being cared for in a group home, but hundreds of others left the airport on a bus.
Channel 3 learned what happens next in the refugee resettlement process, and the number of children relying on sponsors in Tennessee.
From October to March, 66 unaccompanied children were released to a sponsor in Hamilton County.
While the federal government looks for a sponsor, children are taken to one of about 200 facilities across twenty-two states. A child therapist says this process can take a toll on the children involved.
There are about 200 facilities across the country where unaccompanied children are being housed.
One of them is in Chattanooga, which can house between 30 and 50 minors.
As of May 13, there are around 20,000 kids in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, nationwide.Their average stay is 31 days.
More on that shortly…
But, back to the Pew articleI mentioned above. Get ready for another federal agency for the ‘children.’
The Biden administration wants to create a permanent federal workforce to provide housing for unaccompanied migrant children during surges like the one that began in January and continues to overwhelm authorities.
Mayorkas is not wrong. Surges have occurred periodically, but Trump did get a handle on the problem toward the end of his presidency.
“We all know that surges arise periodically,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said during a congressional hearing earlier this month. “They arose in 2019. They arose in 2016, in 2014 and well before that. Migration is a very dynamic and fluid challenge that we have faced for many, many years.”
Mayorkas said during the hearing that DHS is exploring options, but the agency did not respond to a Stateline request for more detail.
Currently, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, houses the children by relying on state-licensed contractors. But Republican governors in Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming recently blocked contractors in their states from taking in the children, claiming that the unaccompanied kids would displace those already in state foster care or limit states’ ability to make new placements.
However, there currently are no federally funded long-term foster care providers for unaccompanied minors in any of those five states.
The Pew article goes on to say that Senator Rob Portman said the previous administration had no surges, but I am sad to say he is wrong. They might not have had a surge at the end of Trump’s time in office, but they sure did have a surge earlier as you will see below.
I know it isn’t what we want to see, but Donald Trump presided over the largest surge year so far.
For perspective, in 2003, when ORR became the agency in charge of UACs, there were 8,000 arriving illegally that year.
And, so here is my big question:
Since over 70% of the ‘childrenare ages 15-17, what happens to them when they age-out as they turn 18? Tens of thousands of Trump’s UACs likely already aged out. Where are they? Why does no one ask? Are they simply loose in your towns and counties? I think so!
And, see that the Left-leaning Migration Policy Institute is critical of the Biden team’s handling of the mess. Are they helping set the narrative that an entire new bureaucratic structure is the only answer to the border crisis?
“It is absolutely unacceptable if the Biden Administration is facilitating a mass migration without any input or oversight from Tennesseans and the affected communities.”
(Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn)
***Update***Governor Lee comments and incredibly a media outlet reminds its audience that Lee had welcomed more refugees when President Trump was trying to get immigration under control a couple of years ago. Is it any wonder that the Biden gang figured Tennessee was a soft target?
For years, readers would contact me to say that planes with “refugees” or migrants of some sort were being flown into small airports in small cities and rural areas. I would tell them to go film the arrivals because I couldn’t just post something without proof.
Well, finally some citizens are being proactive and doing just that.
The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (in Health and Human Services) is reportedly behind such flights arriving after dark in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
You may recall that Tennessee Governor Bill Lee was one of twenty governors who earlier this month wrote to Biden to say: NOT in my state!
But, shamefully, he was one of many Republican governors who did not support President Trump when Trump attempted to give governors a greater say in whether their states would receive refugees the federal government had chosen for the state.
FIRST ON 3: Late-night flights carrying migrant children arrive in Chattanooga
Chattanooga’s Wilson Air Center is receiving planes carrying migrant children who are being bused to multiple southeastern cities during overnight hours.
Channel 3 obtained video of one of those planes arriving Friday, May 14 shortly before 1:30 a.m.
A second video, shared with Channel 3, shows more children arriving late Saturday night. According to the source who provided the video, a third plane carrying children arrived Friday afternoon. Flight records confirm that a fourth plane arrived early Wednesday morning, May 19.
[….]
A source with direct knowledge of the operation asked to remain anonymous but tells Channel 3 that approximately 30 to 50 minors are transported at a time, some to reunite with family members and others to go to group homes. He says the operation started in Dallas, Texas, but moved to small airports recently to avoid attention.
In April, HHS confirmed a group of unaccompanied minors is being housed at a former Tennessee Temple dormitory in Highland Park. It is not clear how many of the children who have arrived in Chattanooga in recent days have been transported to that facility, but multiple sources say at least ten boys from the group were taken to the facility.
Quotes from US Senators, but what does Governor Lee say?
U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty said he was not aware of the flights into Chattanooga, but said, “It is time for President Biden to be transparent with Tennesseans and the American people regarding where the hundreds of thousands of migrants being resettled in the United States are being sent because they deserve to know.”
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn shared a statement Wednesday afternoon, saying she was unaware of the operation in Tennessee.
“Our office has received no information from the Biden Administration informing us of a mass transportation of migrants to Tennessee,” said Blackburn. “It is absolutely unacceptable if the Biden Administration is facilitating a mass migration without any input or oversight from Tennesseans and the affected communities.”
By the way, for all of you contemplating a move to Tennessee because you might be thinking you can escape to a conservative nirvana, check it out carefully in advance. They have a lot of problems with refugees there as especially Nashville is a longtime target resettlement site.
Note that I have an entire category titled Nashville which includes over 100 posts on refugees there and in Tennessee generally.
In a sketchy scheme, six non-governmental organizations have been assigned the task of sorting through the tens of thousands of asylum seekers that President Trump successfully kept in Mexico (so they wouldn’t bring the Chinese Virus into the US as they waited for their asylum claims to be processed) to determine which ones get to enter the US now.
