Category: Legal immigration and jobs

Michelle Malkin gets TPS scam out to a broader audience

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have been writing a lot about Temporary Protected Status lately, here’s our archive, but having Michelle Malkin pen a piece at Human Events assures the topic a much broader audience.  I heard her discussing it on Fox News over the weekend as well.

Entitled, ‘Object Lesson: “Temporary” amnesty never dies,’ it begins:

Does America lack “compassion” and “humanity” for uninvited foreigners? Quite the contrary. While open-borders activists rail against “injustice” and demand new “pathways to citizenship,” official U.S. policy rewards countless line-jumpers with permanent residency and taxpayer-subsidized benefits.

Case in point: the massive “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) program run by the Department of Homeland Security.

In theory, as the DHS website describes it, the Secretary of Homeland Security “may designate a foreign country for TPS due to conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country’s nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately.” Those conditions include hurricanes, environmental catastrophes, civil war, epidemics and other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.”

The U.S. allows illegal aliens from TPS-designated countries to live here, work here, be protected from detention or deportation, and travel freely. It’s essentially a bad-weather pass into the U.S. Whenever a natural disaster strikes, we allow legions of foreigners who entered illegally — mostly from Latin America — to stay here while their homelands recover.  [Somalia, Syria and Liberia too!–ed]

Eligible for Obamacare!

In the meantime, TPS winners can apply for a panoply of other immigration benefits and protections and file for “adjustment of status” to pave the way to permanent legalization. In fact, the official draft application for Obamacare lists “Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Applicant for Temporary Protected Status (TPS)” as an “eligible immigration status.”

Yep, that means you don’t even have to be a legit, approved TPS designee to qualify for Obamacare. If you merely filed paperwork to be an “applicant” for TPS, you’re in like Flynn!

The hitch is that temporary “refugees” never go home.  Read it all.

Kentucky furniture manufacturer going out of business; immigrants lose jobs

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hurry!!!  Tell Senator Rand Paul we need to bring in more foreign workers to add to the unemployed refugee workers  in Bowling Green!

Longtime readers of RRW know that Bowling Green is a preferred resettlement site for refugees and has been in the news many times for problems there with the federal refugee contractors, with crime and with its dubious distinction as the home of two Iraqi refugee terrorists (now convicted and in the slammer).

Doors close at Eagle Industries

…by immigrant laborers!

This is the bad news from the Bowling Green Daily News (hat tip: Robin):

Bosnian, Burmese, Spanish, Vietnamese and English were among the languages spoken Wednesday by the more than 150 former Eagle Industries employees who sought help from the Rapid Response Team.

The Bowling Green furniture maker shut down last month with the intention of reopening with new owners. Instead, the company was forced into receivership and 286 people are without a job. So while employees quickly filed for unemployment benefits, they did not fill out all the paperwork needed for continued unemployment benefits, according to A.J. Tutko of the state’s Office of Employment and Career Services.

“You all thought you were going to be called back,” Tutko said, followed by interpreters in different languages.

Workers need to register for job focus career services, a web-based program that matches a person’s skill set with available jobs.

One man asked Tutko if he knew anything about the fate of Eagle. “No, I don’t,” he said.

Tutko was brought in for the meeting by the Rapid Response Team, which is overseen by the Barren River Area Development District. The team helps workers displaced in massive layoffs or closures. The team had two sessions at the BRADD office Wednesday and was scheduled to have two more today. It wasn’t clear how many workers would show up.

Workers in need of health care are desperate!

Jill Lewis, response team coordinator, started talking to workers about COBRA health insurance and how they could find out about those benefits. But workers, through an interpreter, said Eagle had stopped their health insurance benefits three years ago.

“Then they wouldn’t be eligible for this,” Lewis said.

She suggested that people look toward Fairview Health Center for help and suggested they sign up their children under 19 for Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program. It was clear that workers were unaware of that program. Many of the Hispanic women quickly shuffled through their papers looking for information on the program.

Read it all.  There were a few other employers at the event looking for a few workers (maybe!).

For more on the mess the US Office of Refugee Resettlement and the US State Department have made of Bowling Green, type ‘Bowling Green’ into our search function and you will find posts spanning nearly 6 years.

After you let Senator Paul know (his staff person responsible for immigration is Brian Darling, 202-224-4343, Brian_Darling@paul.senate.gov), let Senator McConnell know too!

I have a sneaking suspicion that these employers looking for cheap immigrant labor have been enabling McConnell (and vice versa!) for decades.  Bowling Green would not have become a federal preferred resettlement community without McConnell’s blessing!

Obama extends TEMPORARY “refugee” status to Hondurans and Nicaraguans

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Josh Gerstein writing at Politico nails it when discussing our ludicrously-named backdoor immigration program—Temporary Protected Status.

“Temporary refugees!”  They came to America illegally and  Hurricane Mitch (in 1998!) became the excuse for never leaving! Photo: History Files

Here is Gerstein’s most “undercovered” story of the week!  (Emphasis mine):

My candidate for undercovered news story of the week: the extension of TPS for immigrants potentially subject to deportation to Honduras or Nicaragua.

What’s TPS? Unheard of in many communities, it stands for Temporary Protected Status and is well known in places with substantial populations of immigrants from Central America.

[….]

The provision allows the federal government to defer deportations, nominally temporarily, to countries where a problem such as natural disaster or unrest could put added stress on a country or make it unsafe for those abroad to return. Perhaps more importantly than halting deportations, it allows immigrants in the U.S. illegally from those countries to receive authorization to work here. [They can work, but there is no path to citizenship (yet!)—ed]

On Wednesday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced that she was extending the legal status of immigrants from Honduras and Nicaragua for another 18 months. The action was purportedly taken to allow the countries more time to recover from a hurricane. If you’re having trouble remembering a huge hurricane that hit the region recently, it’s not you. The disaster which led to the deportation halt, Hurricane Mitch, took place in the fall of 1998—more than 14 years ago.

Napolitano’s designations for Honduras and Nicaragua are the eleventh extensions of the original grants of TPS. With the passage of time, the findings in the extensions become more and more implausible, as does the notion that there is anything temporary about the program and that the conditions in those countries today are fairly traceable to the 1998 hurricane.  [Technically to receive TPS status the illegal alien had to be in the US before the crisis occurred, but this is just more of the winking and nodding that surely goes on with this program.–ed]

The truth is it has become politically unthinkable to end the TPS designations, especially given how long they’ve been in place. The policies now stretch through three presidential administrations, two Democratic and one Republican [Bush of course!—ed]

In many ways, the extensions are a symptom of the nation’s broken immigration system. About 64,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans are affected by the programs. Another TPS for El Salvador based on earthquakes in 2001 affects even more people: 212,000, making it a major source of remittances* for that country.

Read it all!

They are all waiting now for the big break—amnesty. Yippee! New Democrat voters!

*We told you about the role of remittances here at Potomac Tea Party Report.  The most recent group to receive TPS status are the Syrians—just in time for amnesty!

Non-profit group uses your money to train refugees to compete for your jobs; discriminatory?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

What a racket!

This is from a recent press release from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) about their employment training for refugees! in California (where the unemployment rate is very high).

Regular readers know that the IRC is the non-profit group that receives millions from the US taxpayer as a US State Department contractor, one of nine right now, who have a monopoly on bringing refugees to your towns and cities (I recently read that the IRC is bringing refugees to twenty-plus US cities).

Just last week the IRC was all over the news when it hired British former Foreign Secretary and man with a banana, David Miliband, to replace George Rupp as its CEO.

When I read over the IRC press release just now, I wondered when I will see it in its entirety, printed without changes, in some media outlet too lazy to do its own story.   Readers! Let me know if you see this as a news story somewhere!

Does no one ever question whether this type of job training just for refugees, a special class of people, is even Constitutional.  We know it’s legal (here) but doesn’t it use your tax dollars to discriminate against other classes of job seekers?

Someone in California (a white American) should go to the IRC for job training and be turned away then sue their pants off—I don’t think anyone has challenged the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 in this way.

By the way, when that law was passed it was made clear that refugees must work (not just be a drain on social services) and the bottomline now is that the unemployment rate for refugees is really high (46% or more for Iraqis), so these resettlement agencies are in a tizzy to get the refugees a job—any job!

Here is the release:

 Refugees arrive in Los Angeles to rebuild their lives with little more than a few contacts, enterprise and resilience. Getting their first job is the linchpin of the resettlement process as they seek to establish financial stability and independence.

But as refugees enter the marketplace of their new communities, they must overcome a new obstacle: breaking into a competitive job market.

A refugee’s first job sets the stage for their resettlement experience, according to International Rescue Committee Employment Specialist Luisa Gavoutian.

[…..]

The job search in Los Angeles is a struggle for refugees and American citizens alike. Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate increased slightly to 10.4% in January while the state’s unemployment rate remained at 9.8%.

But for recently resettled refugees, the challenge is even harder.

“You’re struggling against not only the economy and job market, but also language, community and capacity challenges to expand your network,” according to IRC Immigration Outreach Specialist Angineh Torosiyan.

Federally-funded but the IRC gets all the credit:

For al Janabi, Norouzi and other refugees in Los Angeles, the IRC is a trusted point of reference as they navigate the job market. The IRC’s Early Employment Program helps refugees with diverse professional backgrounds, as well as those who have never worked before, overcome network and employment barriers.
 
The federally-funded program assists refugees in every aspect of the job search process, from building resumes and submitting applications to interview practice and workplace etiquette. Refugees meet with a job mentor for one-on-one support and attend job readiness workshops each week. Program staff, interns and volunteers build relationships with local businesses in the community and serve as a bridge between refugees and potential employers.  [No bridges for the poor American schlub!—ed]

In a recent Form 990, the IRC received $247 million from YOU in a budget of $431 million!   Maybe they could start using their own privately-raised money for programs like this discriminatory one!   I don’t think this is Constitutional!

Iraqis still lined up in Jordan in hopes of getting to the US, and getting a job!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

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.

Here is one such story from the Jordan Times.

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 Medicaid or 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 posts on Iraqi refugees in our special category on the subject.