“It is important to hold accountable those who would seek to defraud such programs, particularly when the crimes compromise our national security and public safety, when they impose such high costs on taxpayers…”
(Michael R. Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia)
Yes, you heard that right. The Special Immigrant Visa Program for Iraqis (and their family members) who have supposedly helped us in Iraq was suspended as a result of that fraud bust we reporteda few days ago. I had missed this part of the story.
Feds stop special Iraqi refugee program after troubling DHS security breach
The State Department announced an emergency 90-day halt on admitting refugees from Iraq who helped the U.S. war effort after authorities revealed Friday that the program had been breached in a brazen conspiracy to steal refugees’ files.
Michael Sherwin
Acting Secretary of State Daniel B. Smith said they need to study the Iraqi program’s “vulnerabilities,” but insisted the broader refugee program is still safe.
His announcement came just hours after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging three people, including two Homeland Security employees accused of selling secret files on refugee applicants.
Prosecutors said the secret information, including applicants’ employment records, security checks, military history and their very personal accounts of persecution, were all able to be breached by the employees.
Just so you know, more Afghans are admitted in this special program that came into existence as a hidden rider by Senator Ted Kennedy to a Defense authorization bill. The program did not go through regular order in Congress.
The three-year-old chart below does not show that tens of thousands more dependents came along with the SIV applicant.
“It is important to hold accountable those who would seek to defraud such programs, particularly when the crimes compromise our national security and public safety, when they impose such high costs on taxpayers…”
(Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin for the District of Columbia)
Three foreign nationals from Russia, Iraq and Jordan have been charged in stealing information about refugees from the US State Department’s WRAPs data base.
And, this case might explain why the flow of Iraqis to your American towns had slowed dramatically late in the Trump administration.
As we have been saying for over a decade, the US Refugee Admissions Program is filled with fraud and corruption. These three are likely small fish in the overall scheme of things.
Three Foreign Nationals Charged with Conspiracy to Steal U.S. Government Records and Defraud U.S. Refugee Program
WASHINGTON – An indictment charging three defendants was unsealed in the District of Columbia today.
The indictment charges Aws Muwafaq Abduljabbar, 42; Haitham Isa Saado Sad, 42; and Olesya Leonidovna Krasilova, 43, with conspiracy to steal U.S. government records and to defraud the United States, theft of U.S. government records, and conspiracy to launder money, all related to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).
[….]
According to the indictment, Sad was employed in Amman, Jordan from 2007 to 2016 by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Krasilova held a similar position at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. Part of their duties included processing applications for refugee resettlement in the United States through the USRAP.
The indictment charges that, from approximately February 2016 until at least April 2019, the three defendants, led by Abduljabbar, conspired to steal U.S. government records related to hundreds of USRAP applications.The records contained sensitive, non-public information about refugee applicants, their family members, their employment and military history, their accounts of persecution or fear of persecution, the results of security checks, and internal assessments by U.S. officials regarding applications.
[….]
As outlined in the indictment, the theft of USRAP records creates a number of risks to public safety and national security while imposing significant costs on the U.S. government, its taxpayers, and otherwise legitimate refugee applicants negatively impacted by the scheme. Defendants Abduljabbar and Sad were previously arrested and remain held without bond. Defendant Krasilova remains at large.
[….]
“Individuals like Ms. Krasilova and Mr. Sad are entrusted to protect the integrity of the U.S. immigration system and sensitive information vital to our national security interests,” said Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Dr. Joseph V. Cuffari. “The Office of Inspector General remains committed to aggressively investigating DHS employees who abuse their positions, betray the public trust, and conspire with persons such as Mr. Abduljabbar to defraud the United States.”
We will have more to say, but just wanted to get a preliminary story out.
For those with inquiring minds, here is the indictment itself. (If this doesn’t open, send me a comment to this post and I’ll send it to you directly.)
We expect the Biden administration to be doing a better job of hiring people for this work than Obama did… Ha!
And, I just came across this cutesy video created as Obama was leaving office explaining to potential refugees the process for admission to the US. Thought you might find it interesting.
This is too funny! They are worried that they will not be able to whip up a public frenzy to demand more migration to American towns and cities once they have installed their man—Joe Biden—in the White House.
This is just one of many stories I’ve read in recent days in which the Socialist Dems worry that either Biden can’t possibly unwind all of the changes the Trump Administration made to our immigration system that slowed the invasion at the border, increased vetting for refugees, limited refugee numbers to help American low wage workers***, restricted the flow of migrants possibly carrying the Chinese virus, and saw the deportation of criminals who should not have been here.
What will Biden do when this happens? And, it will!
And, they are in a pickle if the flow across the border picks up (it has already started). Images of border wall crashers will be a public relations nightmare for the Biden team. The vast majority of Americans do not want to see an invasion repeat.
If Biden can’t or won’t act quickly to reverse what Trump has done to limit immigration, how on earth are they going to whip up a public frenzy after they destroyed our election system to get their candidate installed in the White House?
Here is a story that had me rolling on the floor laughing….
Let me be clear this is about Leftwing Jews! Just as there are Leftist Catholics and conservative Catholics, there are many conservative Jews who do strongly support the Trump Administration’s immigration restriction stance.
Jews rallied behind immigrants under Trump. Will they stop once Biden is president?
Alain Mentha, co-chair of the New Jersey Jewish Coalition for Refugees, watched with dismay last week as the board of Hudson County voted to extend a contract to hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at the local jail. The board consists entirely of Democrats, many of whom had pledged to stop working with ICE during the Trump presidency, and yet it approved the extension in a 6-3 vote.
Mentha’s frustration with the vote mirrors the concerns of some immigration advocates across the country who were heartened by Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, but fear it may not be enough to reverse Trump-era policies — especially if the public pressure over the issue dies down.
“I’m very worried, to be honest,” Mentha said in an interview. “I don’t want to be cynical or pessimistic, but I think it’s fair to wonder whether our elected officials are going to become complacent or suffer from inertia.”
Or, is it possible that even Democrat elected officials know that the general public will not tolerate loosening immigration policy!
The Trump administration took more than 400 executive actions over the last four years to break apart and reconstruct the nation’s immigration system, the Migration Policy Institute said in a recent report.
Liberal Jewish groups mobilized in opposition to these changes, which included the practice of separating children from their parents at the Mexican border, and the decision to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for their court hearings. Many advocates are optimistic that President-elect Biden will follow through on his campaign promises to reverse these policies, but they also fear that a Democratic administration may not face the same scrutiny that turned arcane border and refugee policy into frontpage news over the last four years.
What they are really saying is that they won’t have the orange monster to beat up (with the help of the media) and how on earth are they going to beat up Biden!
“There is that possibility that in January people feel like, ‘OK, everything is back to normal,’” said Melanie Nezer, a senior vice president at HIAS, the leading Jewish immigrant aid group.“We really have an opportunity here, but it won’t happen without intense pressure.”
Biden has pledged to resettle 125,000 refugees per year, more than in all but seven years since the program began in 1980 and well above average of 70,000 per year under President George W. Bush and 80,000 per year during the Obama administration. The ambitious goal would also be 10 times the 12,000 allowed to enter the United States during the past year.
He has also committed to end the current policy requiring asylum-seekers to await their hearings in Mexico; restore the program that allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children to receive legal residence; and prioritize the deportation of people who have committed crimes unrelated to their immigration status.
But Nezer said the immigration system has been so thoroughly altered by Trump and his senior adviser, Stephen Miller, that it will take years to repair. [LOL! She is lowering expectations to protect Biden.–ed]
No kidding!
Mentha said he fears that Biden may not prioritize immigration policy early in his term, as the country continues to grapple with a public health and economic crisis that could make Americans skeptical of allowing in foreigners.
“I’m very concerned that the climate as a whole isn’t very receptive,” he said.
It’s certainly not all doom and gloom for those active in the Jewish immigration-rights world, most of whom are optimistic about the next four years. Several activists interviewed cited Biden’s nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas, who arrived in the United States as an infant, to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Mayorkas, who is on the board of HIAS, comes from a family of Cuban-Jewish refugees. He helped craft DACA while serving in the Obama administrationand pledged after his nomination last week to protect “those who flee persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones.”
*** Here is one storyfrom recent days about how difficult it is going to be to unwind Trump’s policies.
Refugees under the Obama Administration were coming in in vast numbers to supply low wage workers for big business and the service industry (you know maids and janitors). But, the Chinese virus crisis has limited those jobs and here we see former Obama refugee honcho make that point:
“There are challenges that were not present during the Obama administration that are going to complicate or present obstacles to expanding the program,” Carey said. “And I think refugees generally enter entry-level jobs in the service industry, and that’s an area that’s been particularly hard hit in the economic downturn.”
So will Biden (if he makes it to the White House!) just bring in larger numbers than we have seen admitted for decades and simply put them all on welfare?
If you are new to RRW, you might want to learn more about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. I have an extensive archive on the federal government contractor (taxpayers pay them millions for their ‘work’) that has probably worked the hardest of the nine federal refugee contractors to remove President Trump from the White House.
The US Refugee Admissions Program is not dead yet as the refugee industry fears it soon will be—see myprevious post.
For new readers, I’m too lazy to give you a full background report on the subject of Australia’s rejects—migrants who attempted to break into Australia were placed in detention centers on offshore locations. Their fate was, and is, Australia’s responsibility, yet Obama promised Australia we would take hundreds of them to live in your towns and cities.
Trump, much to my shock, agreed to honor the Obama deal. You can go through my “Dumb deal” archive by clicking here.
On Friday we learned that nine more are on the way bringing Trump’s welcome to over 400 so far. By the way, these are mostly young men who have spent years in detention camps.
“We reiterate that the only strategy to combat ‘irregular’ migration is to open legal, safe channels, managed at the European level.”
(Paolo Naso)
The Leftist Open Borders Evangelicals do not represent all Evangelicals. I hate it when the media makes it sound like Leftwing political Christians are somehow representative of all Christians. But that has been the game for decades as the cultural Marxists work to bring about the (yes I’m saying it) the new world order.
We pay attention to Europe because what is happening there is a warning to us! See my complete Invasion of Europearchive.
Italian Evangelicals Call for Open Channels of African Migration into Europe
ROME — A prominent Protestant leader in Italy has called for streamlined channels of immigration from Africa into Europe after some 370 migrants arrived on the island of Lampedusa Saturday night.
Paolo Naso, coordinator of Mediterranean Hope, the migrant and refugee program of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, said Sunday that the current situation on Lampedusa is “undeniably unsustainable” both for migrants and residents, while calling for the immediate activation of “even temporary networks for the immediate reception of the most vulnerable subjects.”
“For our part, we are engaged in assisting the landings to help associations and institutions to manage the first moments of the arrivals of these people,” Mr. Naso said. “As Protestant churches we are ready to collaborate with institutions and other associations to seek solutions related to this emergency.”
“We are facing an emergency that was, however, entirely predictable, given the conditions in Tunisia and Libya,” he added.
Matteo Salvini
Opposing efforts by Matteo Salvini’s Lega party to control immigration by securing ports and borders, Naso insisted that the only real solution is to open regular channels of legal immigration.
“We reiterate that the only strategy to combat ‘irregular’ migration is to open legal, safe channels, managed at the European level,” he said.
Banners of demonstrators included messages such as “Stop Immigrants,” “Close Lampedusa Welcome Center,” and “Criminal Government.”
Matteo Salvini, leader of the populist Lega party, has blamed the leftist coalition government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for the recent surge in illegal migrants.
Last month, Mr. Salvini noted that “landings have tripled since last year, with illegal immigrants being recovered even near Maltese waters, while Lampedusa is collapsing and hundreds of immigrants flee the reception centers who risk spreading Covid-19.”
WASHINGTON – An indictment charging three defendants was unsealed in the District of Columbia today.
“There is that possibility that in January people feel like, ‘OK, everything is back to normal,’” said Melanie Nezer, a senior vice president at HIAS, the leading Jewish immigrant aid group. “We really have an opportunity here, but it won’t happen without intense pressure.”
