For readers of RRW who are interested in the amnesty campaign in Washington, please see my other blog Potomac Tea Party Reportwhere Grover Norquist is helping Marco Rubio and has gone to war with the Heritage Foundation over the so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform (aka amnesty) push.
Remember as refugee unemployment rates are sky high, today I linked this report(to my post last night) that says Iraqi refugees have a 67% unemployment rate, we could be adding 11 million job competitors really soon.
Update April 11th: Yikes! Here is another story that says Iraqi refugees in the US have a 67% unemployment rate, so hey Grover Norquist, champion of Open Borders for Business, hire an Iraqi (after all Americans get jobs that is)!
Over and over and over again we have heard the refrain for weeks (for months!)—we need more immigrant laborers (this in spite of the still extremely poor US job market)! What the hell! Then why are we seeing stories about Iraqi refugees who are about to end up in a homeless shelter for lack of work?
And, this is what really ticks me off—among those demonstrating today on Capitol Hill are at least two US government refugee resettlement contractors (two that I know of!). The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (two of nine contractors who monopolize refugee resettlement),urged their groupies to go protest and demand legalization of the millions of workers who will make it even harder for Muna Al-Hamood and her husband to find work!
One of the ESL students is Muna Al-Hamood. She arrived in Massachusetts three months ago, after militants killed her son.
“I lost one of my sons,” she says in Arabic through tears. “I cannot imagine losing the rest of my children.”
Al-Hamood was a clothing designer in Iraq; now, she’s on the verge of homelessness.When I ask her for an interview, she looks at me skeptically, and asks, “What I am going to get out of this? Is my husband going to get a job?”
Her husband has not been able to find work since they’ve arrived. They can barely make ends meet. “I’m ready for my husband to work any kind of job just so that we don’t have to go to the shelter,” she says.
That fear of going to a homeless shelter is something new, according to resettlement agencies.[Let this damn agency spend their own privately raised money to keep them out of a shelter, or stop bringing them in—ed]
[…..]
Resettlement agencies help new immigrants from Day 1 — picking them up from the airport, showing them how to use the T, and vamping up their resumes.
Benedict-Drew: The government (you taxpayers) never give us enough money! We are setting people up for poverty!
One of the largest agencies is the International Institute of New England in Boston’s Financial District. *[ They are a subcontractor of one of the other nine, USCRI—ed]The organization’s CEO and president, Carolyn Benedict-Drew, says part of the problem is that after the first month, refugees generally don’t receive rental help. The government gives them a monthly cash allowance — $428. (That amount goes up to $531 for a couple.)
“It is simply not enough,” Benedict-Drew says. “It’s never been enough, and it probably will never be enough. So, that is really a tremendous dilemma. And you almost feel like you’re setting people up for poverty. It is poverty. It’s a poverty level.”[ALMOST! ALMOST!—ed]
Benedict-Drew says that first year in America is particularly rough for refugees because it’s tough to find a job, and there’s so little money in the pipeline.
But, you are telling us we need more immigrant workers!!!
The article goes on to say we have a moral duty to Iraqis—then why are these very same contractors making legal refugees lives even more difficult by pushing for amnesty for illegals (undocumented Democrats!) who will take even more of the jobs that might have gone to Iraqis?
Endnote: In its most recent report to Congress, the Office of Refugee Resettlement reports that 46% of Iraqis are unemployed and 95% are on food stamps. Where is the morality in that? Heck, Benedict-Drew draws a 6-figure salarymaybe she could give Ms. Al-Hamood a little loan to tide her over and keep her out of a homeless shelter!
* Sometimes called the International Institute of Boston just to confuse you!
Following the increasingly common refrain—we broke it, we own it—19 Members of Congress earlier this month wrote to President Obama seeking his leadership in extending the deadline for the so-called Special Immigrant Visaprogram for Iraqis and Afghans who ‘helped us’ when we sought to give them a free country. I thought we succeeded, isn’t that why we can leave now?
Longtime readers may recall that the Special Immigrant Visa was created by an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act of 2008 (here is one post I wrote at the time). It was an amendment by Senator Ted Kennedy that gave the US government permission to grant Visa’s and give all the perks of the refugee program to certain qualified Iraqis. There was little debate and since the amendment was attached to a Defense Authorization bill, ol’ Ted knew that Bush had to sign it.
Waad Ramadan Alwan. His fingerprints were on an IED in Iraq, but he lied and got into the US as a refugee!
Now we have a bunch of bellyaching stories about how we didn’t fulfill our promise and bring enough of these people into the US. But, none of the stories tell the reader why we have some problems with the influx of Iraqis. First, remember that ‘shock-of-shocks’ we had a couple of Iraqis who went to Kentucky convicted on terrorism charges (here is one story on the case), so it has caused even the Obama Administration to vet the Iraqis more carefully. And, then the Iraqis who have come to the US are experiencing high levels of unemployment (46%) and of welfare use (95% on food stamps)! Some have even returned to the Middle East in disgust. But, you would never know about the problems from the news stories.
Here isTruthdig(yes, but only a part of the truth, LOL!).
We have brought ONLY 80,000 IRAQIS!!! Can you believe it!
….the U.S. 10 years later is loath to invite too many of our friends inside our borders. Of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees who have fled the country, only about 80,000, or 5 percent, have been resettled here in the U.S.
The author goes on to tout how great Sweden has been compared to the US, but fails to mention that Sweden is now sending Iraqis BACK to Iraq.
Truthdig continues:
Most Iraqi refugees, along with those internally displaced in Iraq, have received little attention from the nation that sought to bring them freedom. [Little attention?—ed]*
[….]
The Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for Iraqi and Afghan civilians, created in 2008, were meant to expedite the process of resettlement for those who provided “faithful and valuable service” to U.S. efforts in the wars and who might face “ongoing serious threats” as a result of their actions.
Flawed criteria for admittance, coupled with technical difficulties many refugees face in the application process, have led to a dearth of visas. Of the possible 25,000 SIVs, only 5,500 have been issued. The program, which anticipated four times as many resettlements, expired at the end of fiscal year 2012, failing many applicants who have struggled to relocate themselves and their families. [They don’t tell you that many potential refugees have also heard the stories about the US menial labor or high unemployment rates and have had second thoughts about coming.—ed]
Earlier this month, 19 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to extend the program. They cited problems of inefficiency, lack of transparency and discrepancies between the Afghan and Iraqi SIVs—22 percent of the available Iraqi SIVs have been approved, but only 12 percent of Afghan ones have been issued.
Frankly, I don’t know how Obama has any authority to do anything, other than cheer these guys on. They have to write legislation and get it passed which surely they will do by sneaking the bill on as an amendment to another more important piece of legislation in the dark of night (like Kennedy did last time).
Here are the nineteen who want to bring more Iraqis to your towns who will be largely unemployed and in need of social services:
The members signed onto the letter are Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Andre Carson (D-IN), Jon Conyers (D-MI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Chris Gibson (R-NY), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Dave Loebsack (D-IA), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Ted Poe (R-TX), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Adam Smith (D-WA), Steve Stivers (R-OH), Marc Veasey (D-TX), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Frank Wolf (R-VA).
* Little attention! We have 564 previous posts on Iraqi refugees in our special category specifically for Iraqi refugee news, so I find Truthdig’s (Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law) suggestion ludicrous that little attention has been paid to Iraqi refugees!
Come to think of it, what ever happened to those Iraqis arrested on rape charges in 2012? One of them had helped US troops and an American soldier helped him get to Colorado?
Update:Here is a storyI meant to post this past week about Iraqis struggling in California.
This week there have been a bunch of stories in which the news hook is the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, and although we supposedly gave them a democracy and supposedly things have calmed down in Iraq—tens of thousands are still waiting in Jordan to come to your town in hopes of getting a job and finding the American dream.
Jordan took refugees from Iraq and now from Syria, but Saudi Arabia takes NO REFUGEES and nary a word is mentioned because the UN and its cabal of “human rights” agitators is scared of Saudi Arabia.
We applaud this refugee man’s wish to work, but I sure hope the IOM has him adequately informed:
While the US might be seen as the land of opportunity for many, Abu Sufyan is mindful of the various challenges awaiting him.
He is “scared of the future” in a country where he does not know many people or speak the language.
But if there is one thing he can do, it is to find employment.[Not so much! See below—ed]
While his sponsor will help him get on his feet, Abu Sufyan says, “I will depend on myself. Of course I am going to need help in the beginning, but I will avoid asking people for help. I don’t like to sit still. I would like to get a job and feed my family.”
Perhaps Abu Sufyan’s determination was cemented after his cultural orientation organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Daryl Morrissey, an emergency response project manager at the IOM, explained that a lot of effort has been put into designing the resettlement orientation programme, whereby participants could come to their own conclusions on what life in their new country of residence will be like.
“We try to give them a very realistic perspective. We let them know how difficult it is to get jobs; even if they have professional qualifications these may not be accepted in the US and it may take them several years to be recertified, so that means they may have to take entry-level jobs.”
Let’s have a look at his chances of finding a job—based on the 2009 Annual Report to Congress on the refugee program (the most recent summary we have since ORR has not released more recent figures). So, if things have improved for Iraqis in the US, we don’t know it because ORR hasn’t reported since this 2009 report came out only last month.
The Annual Report(beginning on p. 113) tells us that the US unemployment rate for Iraqis is at 46%. The average hourly wage is $8.80! The average number of weeks worked was 25! 37% took 7-12 months to find the first job.
(BTW, isn’t the gang of eight in the US Senate telling us that we need more immigrant labor as they craft an amnesty for 11 million illegal aliens?)
89% of the surveyed Iraqis are on Medicaidor a special Refugee Medical program (also paid for with tax dollars), 86% get some sort of taxpayer-funded cash assistance, and 95% are on food stamps.
We have some sympathy for Jordan. Surely they want to move the Iraqis out, because as we reported the other day, here, masses of Syrians are now moving in!
For ambitious readers! We have 563 previous postson Iraqi refugees in our special category on the subject.
My Canada stories are piling up, so I’m going to post three here in one post.
First is an update of the Sri Lankan boat people that we first reportedherein 2010. Seems that at least two men on the ship were wrongly given refugee status according to a Canadian Court. Pro-immigration lawyers had creatively argued that since the ship had been publicly identified with Tamil Tiger terrorists that none of the migrants could be returned safely to Sri Lanka without fear of persecution.
Sri Lankans are also traveling by boat to get into Australia as we reportedherelast week.
Police and military personnel wear surgical masks as they board the MV Sun Sea after it was escorted into CFB Esquimalt in Colwood, B.C. on Aug. 13, 2010. Jonathan Hayward / CP files
The Immigration & Refugee Board misinterpreted the law when it granted asylum to two Sri Lankans simply because they had traveled to Canada aboard the human smuggling ship MV Sun Sea, the Federal Court has ruled.
In a pair of decisions, the court weighed in on attempts by refugee lawyers to argue that, because the Sun Sea has been publicly linked to the Tamil Tigers rebels, its passengers faced persecution if Canada sent them back to Sri Lanka.
The latest cases involved two men who were not considered genuine refugees except for the fact they had been on board the Sun Sea. The refugee board ruled that made them members of a “social group” that faced persecution.
But this week, the court said it had used the wrong standard of proof to reach those decisions. It overturned both men’s asylum claims and sent the cases back for re-evaluation.
[….]
The Sun Sea arrived off the British Columbia coast in August 2010, carrying 492 Sri Lankan migrants. The voyage had originated in Thailand and was organized by a smuggling syndicate that charged hefty fees.
Although those on board claimed to be fleeing persecution, Justice Sean Harrington said B472 “was found to be a liar,” while B323 was not credible and did not face a serious chance of mistreatment when he had lived in Sri Lanka.
“The Sun Sea passengers had a myriad of motives to come to Canada,” he wrote in his ruling.
“Some were human smugglers. Some may well have been terrorists. Some were garden-variety criminals who wanted to escape justice. Some had serious reason to fear persecution in Sri Lanka and some, like Mr. 472, were economic migrants.”
Second story for today
Canada saving billions by fast-tracking asylum claimsfrom countries not considered to be producing legitimate refugees, including any who want asylum from the US! Thanks to a reader for sending this about a week ago.
Canada has seen a dramatic drop in the number of refugees seeking asylum here after Ottawa began fast-tracking applications from countries where it feels people are less likely to be persecuted.
Senior government sources say that on average, 164 foreigners are claiming asylum weekly in 2013, down nearly 70 per cent from the average weekly claim for the past five years, which was 537. This is based on data for the first seven weeks of 2013.
The plummeting figures show the impact of the changes that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made to Canada’s refugee system in 2012 when he sponsored a bill that made this country a less welcoming destination for asylum seekers with shaky claims – those he called “bogus refugees.”
[…..]
Mr. Kenney’s legislation, now law, gives the Immigration Minister the power to designate which countries are less likely to be a legitimate source of refugees.
Changes last year designated 27 countries of origin – including the United States, most European Union member countries and Croatia – as places from which claims would be fast-tracked. Ottawa added eight more countries to this list this month.
Refugee claimants from countries on this safe list – those that Canada considers democratic states with a solid human-rights record and an independent judiciary – now have much less time to fight to stay here. [and thus do not need to be housed and fed at taxpayer expense—ed]
The third story in my Canadian troika today is this one about Immigration Minister Kenney traveling to Turkey and being criticized for not committing to take thousands of Syrians home with him. This is the story from the Edmonton Journal last week. Kenney did commit to resettle more Iraqis and Iranians.
OTTAWA – The NDP and a Syrian Canadian group are questioning why Immigration Minister Jason Kenney chose to accept Iraqi and Iranian refugees when he visited fleeing Syrians in Turkey last month.
They accuse Kenney of misleading the Canadian public by touting his visit as being in support of Syrian refugees, which currently number about 200,000 in Turkey, when Canada opted instead to take 5,000 Iraqis and Iranians.
But Kenney’s office says there’s a perfectly good explanation for the decision: Turkey won’t let any fleeing Syrians leave the country until the United Nations officially declares them actual refugees.
Kenney’s aides also say Canada is currently co-operating with the UN’s refugee agency, which doesn’t want to push the resettlement of the hundreds of thousands of fleeing Syrians just yet.
I had been wondering why Western countries weren’t dashing to Turkey to bring home refugees. The UN says it isn’t time yet. Watch for it! The Iraqis are getting boring to the US refugee contractors, Syrians will be next. As a matter of fact, I bet at this year’s State Department hearing for who to bring in 2014, the likes of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops will be asking for Syrians please!
