Yes! Obama isn’t here anymore and we expect greater transparency from the Trump State Department on refugees than we have seen in the last 8 years!
New readers,go here and follow links to many previous posts on the “dumb” deal.
From Newsmax(hat tip: Heymister24):
Sen. Chuck Grassley on Twitter Sunday said he wanted an answer from the White House on why a deal the U.S. made with Australia to accept as many as 1,000 refugees hasn’t been declassified, the Hill reports.
Grassley earlier this month sent a letter to new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asking for a response.
“As I said before, the American people have a right to be fully aware of the actions of their government regarding foreign nationals who may be admitted to the United States,” the Republican senator wrote in the letter.
The Obama administration agreed in November to accept the refugees Australia has been holding in detention centers on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, most of whom are from Iraq and Iran, as a way to help its ally.
Senator Grassley and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Judiciary Committee chairmen in the Senate and House) initially identified the countries (see here) from which the migrants came seeking asylum in Australia, but Australia does not want them!
They (Jewish Family Services) are concentrating “poverty on top of poverty!”
(Mayor Domenic Sarno)
We told you about Democrat Mayor Domenic Sarno a few years ago when he asked the US State Department to place a moratorium on refugees being deposited in his beleaguered and over-loaded city. Of, course he was ignored as mayors have been ignored in Amarillo, TX, Lewiston, ME and Manchester, NH.
His pleas to the Obama State Department were ignored, will Tillerson’s agency treat him better?
Democrat Mayor Sarno standing up for veterans and the American flag at Hampshire College last fall. Maybe Trump should bring him in to the Administration. Put him in the State Department. He has common sense and he has experience on the receiving end! http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/11/28/at-least-1000-veterans-descend-upon-college-to-protest-american-flag-removal/
(See our archive on Springfield, here)
So this past week he learned that Jewish Family Services was quietly placing more refugees in the city and he came out firing with both barrels!
From MassLive:
‘Enough is enough’: Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno critical of new ‘influx’ of refugees to city
SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, after learning that several refugee families are expected to arrive in the Springfield area this week, has renewed criticism of local resettlement agencies, saying “enough is enough.”
In a prepared release, Sarno raised a series of questions about the arrival, saying he had received no advance communication from the Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts***, the resettlement agency.
“Once again, these resettlement agencies with no prior contact and/or coordination efforts with our city departments, use our Springfield as their ‘designated resettlement site,'” Sarno said. “Yet when these resettlement agencies are asked to assist these families in need in their own cities and/or towns — they state they do not have the capacity. Maybe they should try to create their own capacity.”
Sarno had also been critical of resettlement agencies in 2013 and 2014, urging the federal government at that time to put a moratorium on new refugee families settled in Springfield.
Sarno restated his claims of the past that the resettlement of refugees in Springfield was a situation of concentrating “poverty on top of poverty,” with low income people added to low-income areas.
This is a good sign and perhaps the way Trump might begin to make progress against the Open Borders Leftwing—just do what you need to do within the Administration. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is between a rock and a hard place. But, why should American towns have to absorb Australia’s rejects?
If you are a new reader and don’t know about the “dumb deal” Barack Obama made literally within days of Trump’s unexpected election, the gist of it is that Obama said that the US would resettle in America over 1,000 migrants who tried to get to Australia by boat and have since been housed offshore.
Australia doesn’t want to take them to their mainland, so why should we take them to the US to be placed without your knowledge in your home towns!
Canberra, Australia (AP) — U.S. officials stopped screening refugees held on Nauru for potential resettlement in the United States this week but will return to the Pacific atoll to continue working toward a deal that President Donald Trump has condemned as “dumb,” an Australian minister said Thursday.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton would not say when U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials would return to Nauru to conduct what Trump describes as “extreme vetting.”
Trump made enhanced screening a condition for agreeing to honor an Obama administration dealto accept up to 1,250 refugees refused entry into Australia. Australia pays Nauru and Papua New Guinea to keep more than 2,000 asylum seekers — mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka — in conditions condemned by rights groups.
U.S. officials were sent to Nauru within days of the deal’s announcement in November after the U.S. presidential election. But they left this week with arrangements under a cloud.
There is more here.
By the way, although only briefly mentioned here, one of the issues facing all first world countries attempting to deport failed asylum seekers (Australia, Germany, and the US) is that some of the Muslim countries from which they came refuse to take them back. Heck, they don’t want troublesome people either!
Here is one of many stories about the impact of the cap reduction to 50,000 refugees for the US in FY17, a portion of the Trump EO not effected by court wrangling.
We learned here that the refugee resettlement contracting agencies were going to be working on placing sob stories (like this one) to sway public opinion against President Trump.
As you read this, remember that since 9/11 we have had 4 years under 50,000 (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007) and under Obama we had one year (2011) under 60,000 see here. Joel Charny: “I expect the 50,000 cap to remain in place in subsequent years as well.” 50,000 is not that low! Photo and bio here: https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/leadership_inst.aspx?id=152471339390
So these whining contractors have often had lower numbers to resettle, but they were licking their chops for Obama’s proposed 110,000 paying refugee clients (they are paid by the head, by you, to resettle refugees in your towns and cities).
And, here, I argued that the Trump Administration should lower the cap to 35,000. Very few migrants from Syria, Somalia and Iraq get to the US outside of the refugee program so it would effectively slow the flow from terror hotspots. And, btw, we have been taking Somalis for 30 years—DOES IT EVER STOP!
***This morning we are already at 34,078 (1,953 since the EO was signed on 1/28) according to Wrapsnet.***
One more thing before I give you a few snips from the “chaos” news. Don’t allow anyone to use the argument made at the end of this article that we only take a fraction compared to say Turkey or Pakistan. Our refugees become permanent citizens and those presently swamping those countries will not be accepted as citizens. They will be expected to return to their own countries when the conflict ends. Mark my words, if this flow from Syria to America gets going full steam, as it has for Somalia, we will still be taking Syrians for decades no matter what happens in their homeland.
Here is Devex:
President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees from entering the U.S. has — at least for now — been suspended. But the resulting scene for those involved in refugee resettlement is chaotic, exacerbated by concern about the longer term prospects of the United States’ role as a host country, according to several resettlement, legal aid and advocacy organizations. A cap on refugee arrivals at less than half the previous expected figure remains in place.
“We don’t know when people will be brought over, or how many those numbers will be. It’s very complicated — total chaos,” said Bill Swersey, senior director of communications and digital media at HIAS, one of the nine refugee resettlement organizations*** contracted by the U.S. federal government, in a phone interview early this week. “Everybody is confused. It is like we are riding a rollercoaster. First there is a ban, then it is rescinded… We don’t know when we will receive new people. Last week, there was one Syrian refugee family that arrived.”
[….]
…..some elements of the ban remain in place.
This includes a reduction of the number of refugees the U.S. will welcome — now curtailed to 50,000 per year, less than half of this year’s expected admission of 110,000.
[….]
“That is a huge concern. Over time we have incrementally worked up to more sufficient numbers and that is a highly discretionary thing the President sets a cap for every year,” said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, the International Rescue Committee’s senior director of policy and advocacy. “We worry if the caps are lower it just sets us back many, many years with the resettlement we are doing. [And, it means less $$$ and less staff for them!—ed]
The US takes the largest share by far of UN chosen refugees for permanent resettlement
The U.S. has historically been the largest participant in the U.N. refugee agency’s global resettlement program. Canada, Australia, Norway and the U.K. also take large numbers of refugees through this program.
“It is hard to see any countries being able to come forward and make up for this reduction,” Joel Charny, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council USA, wrote in an email to Devex. “I expect the 50,000 cap to remain in place in subsequent years as well.”
In 2016, a total of 114,916 refugees were resettled as part of the U.N. refugee agency’s program. The U.S. admitted 84,995 people during fiscal year 2016.The greatest number of refugees entering the U.S. came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, followed by Syria, Burma, Iraq and Somalia.
Continue reading here.
This reminds me, Trump could take us out of the UN program and we could pick our own refugees. The fact that 98% of the Syrians entering the US right now are Muslims is because the UN makes the first cut. Where is Congress? Hiding? Afraid of the Chamber of Commerce and big corporations needing cheap labor, like the meatpackers? The present system of resettlement in America is so flawed that I believe the Refugee Act of 1980 must be trashed.
Congress could then write a new law, dumping the UN role in choosing refugees, if it was determined to be in America’s best interests to bring in a certain amount of third world poverty to our towns and cities.
***Nine major federal refugee contractors:
As a refugee coordinator, I saw the exploitations, inconsistencies and security lapses in the program….
(25-year veteran of the US Department of State)
I know I said earlierthis morning that I wasn’t posting today so I could catch up on reading e-mails etc., but this just goes to show what important news is in those e-mails when I find the time to read them!
Letter: I have seen first-hand the abuse and fraud in the U.S. refugee program
I fully support President Donald Trump’s executive order that temporarily halts admissions from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and bans travel from nationals of countries that potentially pose a security risk to the United States; however, I don’t think the action goes far enough. Further, I believe there are many people throughout the country who feel the same way.
Writer says that the movement of Malta’s ‘refugees’ to the US is “legally questionable.” Most are Somalis as we see here in photo and story. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130618/local/more-than-90-per-cent-of-immigrants-in-malta-get-refugee-humanitarian.474370
As a recently retired 25-year veteran of the U.S. Department of Statewho served almost eight years as a refugee coordinator throughout the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Cuba, I have seen first-hand the abuses and fraud that permeate the refugee program and know about the entrenched interests that fight every effort to implement much-needed reform.Despite claims of enhanced vetting, the reality is that it is virtually impossible to vet an individual who has no type of an official record, particularly in countries compromised by terrorism. U.S. immigration officials simply rely on the person’s often rehearsed and fabricated “testimony.” I have personally seen this on hundreds of occasions.
As a refugee coordinator, I saw the exploitations, inconsistencies and security lapses in the program, and I advocated strongly for change. Nonetheless, during the past decade and specifically under the Obama administration, the Refugee Admissions Program continued to expand blindly, seemingly without concern for security or whether it served the best interests of its own citizens. For instance, the legally questionable resettlement of refugees from Malta to the United States grew substantially, despite the fact that as a European country with a functioning asylum system, “refugees” should have remained there under the internationally accepted concept of “the country of first asylum.” Similarly, the “special” in-country refugee programs in Cuba and Russia continue, although they are laden with fraud and far too often simply admit economic migrants rather than actual refugees.
As an insider who understands its operations, politics and weaknesses, I believe the refugee program must change dramatically and the courts must allow the president to fully implement the order.
Signed Mary Doetsch
I know there are others of you out there with stories to tell, I’ve heard from some of you before.
See my e-mail address in the left hand column. For the sake of national security, please send me your stories (they can be anonymous if you fear for your jobs).
Yes! Obama isn’t here anymore and we expect greater transparency from the Trump State Department on refugees than we have seen in the last 8 years!
