Category: Iraqi refugees

Obama State Department: No Iraqi refugee airlift anticipated

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you way back in January of 2009  that the “progressives” at John Podesta’s Center for American Progress (George Soros) began pushing the Obama team to commit to airlifting Iraqis to the US in the tens of thousands before they had even taken office.

Now, as the US draw down has begun, Eric Schwartz, Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration told Maryland Senator Ben Cardin (among others) that the refugee program was so successful there would be no need to airlift Iraqis who helped the US.  (See also Schwartz connection to George Soros, here.)    Hat tip:   Friends of Refugees blog here.  By the way, since I’ve been busy elsewhere, read FOR for all the latest on refugees being left in the lurch by their federally contracted resettlement agencies.

From the Washington Post:

At a recent hearing, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin warned the State Department’s top refugee official that Iraqis who had worked for the U.S. military would be in increasing jeopardy during the American drawdown.

“Let me just remind you that in 1996, we had an airlift of Iraqis” involved with U.S. organizations, when their security was threatened, said Cardin (D-Md.).

“You don’t have to remind me” about the airlift, replied the official, Eric P. Schwartz. “Because I managed it at the National Security Council.”

Fourteen years after that dramatic operation, Schwartz is again grappling with the resettlement of Iraqis – this time, as assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.

During the first several years of the Iraq conflict, the administration of George W. Bush was intensely criticized for accepting only a trickle of the 3 million or more Iraqis who had fled their homes.

But the flow of Iraqis to the United States has dramatically expanded, to 18,000 last year.

It is now the largest refugee resettlement program in the world.

Read it all.

Note to Senator Cardin, maybe you should look into all the cases of Iraqi refugees who have been brought to the US and are profoundly unhappy with their resettlement—some have even returned to the Middle East.  Or, maybe hop on over to Senator Lugar’s office and learn more about how the refugee program is working on the ground in overburdened cities like Ft. Wayne, IN.

Check the numbers here.  The fiscal year ends on September 30th.  The Obama refugee resettlement goal was 80,000 for this year.  They have now resettled 60,566 as of July 31st.  14,836 are Iraqis (the largest single group of refugees admitted, with Burmese coming in a close second).

AP confirms Detroit refugee resettlement to resume

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 24th:  Debbie Schlussel has some good comments on this story, here.

I told you the other day about the State Department memo where the State Department gives its blessing for more resettlement of Iraqis in the Detroit area.  Here is an Associated Press story on the announcement.

DETROIT – The U.S. State Department has decided to relax a two-year-old policy that limited refugee resettlement to the Detroit area because of Michigan’s struggling economy.

An influx of Iraqi refugees have come to the area in recent years, many of whom were attracted to the Detroit area because of its large Middle Eastern population. But authorities said two years ago only those with close relatives could resettle there, in part out of fear that they would be unable to find work.

Now, the State Department says anyone with family and friends can come to the area, Lawrence Bartlett, the department’s deputy director of refugee admissions, told The Associated Press.

Why do they say they can lift the restriction—because they got more of your federal tax dollars to redistribute.

One big reason for the change was the State Department’s decision in January to double the payments to resettlement agencies on behalf of each refugee to $1,800. That money is designed* to help refugees with their expenses, such as food and housing, for up to 90 days.

With the increase, “we were able to take a new look at this restriction,” Bartlett said.

Meanwhile in the Detroit area, Christians are arrested attending an Arab festival.

By the way, those Iraqis flowing to Michigan are both Christians and Muslims.  If they weren’t getting along in Iraq, why would we assume everything will be peachy in Detroit?

* “Designed” is the operative word here, readers should know that the agency gets to keep some of the money for its own overhead.  The program was originally ‘designed’ as a public-private partnership.  That means that the agency was supposed to raise money on its own to contribute, but over time most volags (the big federal contractors) and their subcontractors are largely funded by taxpayers’ dollars.

State Department re-opens Iraqi resettlement in Detroit

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Since June of 2008, the US State Department has only allowed limited resettlement of certain refugees to Detroit—specifically immediate family members of Iraqis already there.  The policy wasn’t working and so in a Memo this week to “Reception and Placement Agencies” and “Overseas Processing Entities”  from the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration the restriction has been lifted.

The memo states:

Effective immediately, this placement restriction is modified to allow the placement of any refugees in the Detroit metro region who have ties there.

It appears that social services in Michigan were sinking under the weight of more unemployed people (no kidding!) and thus the original policy by the State Department sought to not add further to Michigan’s troubles.  But, what happened is that Iraqi refugees who had been resettled elsewhere were making a beeline for Detroit anyway.  After all, as refugee advocates are quick to note, this is a free country and people can move to wherever they wish.

If you would like to learn  more (a lot more!) about the subject, we have 474 posts in our Iraqi Refugee Category, here .  For more on Detroit, search ‘Iraqis Detroit.’

UN: 100,000 Iraqis have been resettled or are on the way; most coming to US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

An Indian News agency, Kerala News, has this report obviously generated by the fact that today is World Refugee Day.

New York, Jun 19 : The United Nations said on Friday that 100,000 Iraqi refugees have been referred for resettlement from the Middle East to third countries since 2007, a major milestone for one of the world’s largest refugee populations.

“100,000 submissions of Iraqi refugees is a tremendous achievement,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said on Friday during his visit to Syria, which according to government estimates, hosts over 1 million refugees, the majority from Iraq.

[….]

The acceptance rate by resettlement countries of referrals by the UN refugee agency, known as UNHCR, currently stands at 80 per cent of total submissions, of which the largest number, nearly 76 per cent, have been accepted by the United States.

I guess they haven’t gotten the word yet about no jobs and the terrible living conditions some refugees are finding in the US which has resulted in some Iraqis returning to the life they know in the Middle East.

Iraqi Christians in Michigan shout down government official

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 5th: I see that Friends of Refugees blog has more on this story, here.

The Detroit Free Press reports:

With growing concern about the plight of Christians in their native land, local Iraqi Americans met this week with the highest-ranking State Department official in charge of Iraq policy when he made a three-day stop in Detroit.

But Michael Corbin, deputy assistant secretary of State for Iraq in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, faced an angry crowd that shouted him down during one of his meetings with Chaldeans, illustrating the frustrations many have about the perceived erosion of Christianity in Iraq and Chaldean refugees facing deportation.

Some Chaldeans approached the stage, forcing Corbin to quickly leave a Troy center Tuesday night and prompting a police response.

Later, someone from the Free Press spoke to Corbin.

QUESTION: Some local Iraqi Chaldeans say the U.S.-led invasion has caused the erosion of Christianity in Iraq. How can they be helped? ANSWER: We’ve acknowledged that mistakes were made after the invasion of Iraq. But … the Iraqi government has committed to protect churches, protect religious observances, festivals, religious holidays. This is important. These communities are vulnerable. They don’t have militias.

To the reporter: It’s not a little quirk of Chaldeans to claim that Christianity in Iraq isn’t doing so well; it’s a widely known fact, one that the Michigan Chaldeans might know a lot about.  To Michael Corbin: So what is our government is doing to protect Christians? Not much, huh?