Category: Obama

Obama's 110,000 refugee plan for 2017 is a CEILING! A Trump administration could turn off the spigot

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For all the years I’ve been writing RRW (9 now), I’ve seen the Open Borders advocates and the Resettlement contractors*** try to make the President’s proposed numbers (his determination) for the upcoming fiscal year a REQUIRED GOAL.  It is not! It is a CEILING. There is no requirement that they must reach that number and in fact most times they don’t.

leahy-and-durbin
If Donald Trump is elected and uses his power by cutting refugee admissions, expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth from Senators Dick Durban and Patrick Leahy, two of the most important members of the Senate welcoming tens of thousands of Middle Eastern and African refugees to your towns.

I’ve posted a table below from the Refugee Processing Center so you will have some idea what the ceiling was each year since 2006 and the number they hit.
By the way, failure to reach that number can usually be attributed to not enough resettlement sites and capacity in those sites (very often a limiting factor is the availability of enough cheap housing), or it might simply be that the UNHCR hasn’t processed enough refugees for us that year.
However, I doubt that this administration in its waning months is going to be responsible and consider capacity. 

My guess is that the refugee flow is going to be on steroids for October and in to November.

If Trump is elected they will go completely insane pouring people in here before his inauguration (unless in December the lame duck Congress severely curtails their funding).
To accommodate these vast new numbers Obama has proposed, and because they are wearing out their welcome in existing resettlement sites, we are hearing that there  are as many as 47 new targeted towns to be seeded with mostly Middle Eastern and African refugees.

The Continuing Resolution, being voted on this week, will give them enough money (since the Republican leadership has failed us) to get that ball rolling in the first few months. In fact, that ball will get rolling in two days, on October first!
What about Hillary’s 65,000 Syrians?
In yesterday’s hearing someone (Sen. Sessions?) asked about Hillary’s proposed 65,000 Syrians and if there had to be any “consultation” with Congress if she is elected and wants to bring that many in the opening days of her administration. The answer is yes, probably, but what the hell is Congress going to do other than say, ‘thanks for stopping by and informing us!’  Congress’ only recourse is to stop the funding! Don’t hold your breath!
Conversely, because the Refugee Admissions Program is heavily weighted toward the President’s wishes, if Donald Trump should be elected, he has great leeway to cut back, or even propose a moratorium on Obama’s 110,000 goal. He does not have to reach the ceiling!
Of course, he would have to “consult” Congress too.  The likes of Senators Patrick Leahy and Dick Durban will be WAILING! (That would be fun to see!)
So, bottomline, Donald Trump must win the Presidency and Congress must cut the funding for the program, or we are finished.
Here is the table I mentioned above.  You will be looking at the columns labeled “ceiling” and “admitted.”
 
 
screenshot-26
 
The table above is through August 31, 2016. As of today, September 29th, the FY 2016 admissions are at 84,870 with the Syrians at 12,571 (Refugee Processing Center). When you are looking at the table, note also how they completely stress-out towns (local health departments, schools, etc.) by bringing in large new batches of refugees in the last two months of the fiscal year in their zeal to hit that ceiling.
One more thing!  Do you see how far off the mark they were in 2011, that is because those two Iraqi refugee terrorists were discovered living in Kentucky and much security screening had to be repeated.
***For new readers these are the nine federal resettlement contractors who rely almost completely on funding from you, the taxpayer:

Senator Jeff Sessions' Senate subcommittee has re-scheduled Refugee Oversight hearing

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is the same hearing that the Dept. of State said they couldn’t attend last week because they were too busy hobnobbing at the United Nations.

bob_carey_orr_director_2
One of those scheduled to testify is Bob Carey the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS). Carey came to his government job from a major refugee contracting job at the International Rescue Committee. He had previously served as chair of the Refugee Council USA, the lobbying arm for the refugee industry. (Revolving door!) http://www.acf.hhs.gov/about/leadership/bob-carey

The hearing in Sessions’ subcommittee ‘Immigration and the National Interest’ will be this coming Wednesday, the 28th.

Go here for details.
I’m thinking that maybe you should tell your US Senators on Monday and Tuesday to take the time this week to attend Sessions’ hearing so they won’t be so ignorant about this program that is changing (and endangering!) America. It is a good excuse to call them.
Heck, you could even tell  your House Members to walk across the Hill and stop in since the House Judiciary Committee (Rep. Trey Gowdy is Sessions’ counterpart in the House) isn’t doing anything.
Again, check out the Senate Subcommittee website here. I expect they will be live-streaming the event.
For a reminder of what happened at this same hearing last year, go here.
And, by the way, until Sessions’ hearing last year, Congress had not been doing its legally required hearing on the Presidential Determination.  I believe that hearing was the first since 9/11.
Here is what I said last year about the law!  LOL! I wonder if there is anyway to sue the House Judiciary Committee for breaking the law?

Where is the House Judiciary Committee on Obama's refugee plan? Where is the hearing?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Refugee Act of 1980 requires a hearing in both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on the Presidential ‘determination’ on the number of refugees the President is proposing for the upcoming fiscal year—in advance of the fiscal year.

FY2017 begins a week from today!

We know that Senator Jeff Sessions scheduled a hearing and that the Obama State Department refused to attend (see here).
***Update*** Senate hearing postponed from last week is now scheduled for Wednesday the 28th of September.  Details here.
But where is the House?

ryan-and-gowdy
Rep. Trey Gowdy is Chairman of the subcommittee responsible for the Refugee Admissions Program. He did not sign the Babin letter where more than 30 of his colleagues (found the time to sign) are asking that funding be stopped for refugees coming from terrorist-producing regions of the world. We are told that Gowdy has since written his own PRIVATE letter to Speaker Ryan on the subject. If there is a letter (doubtful). Why the secrecy?

I just checked the House Judiciary Committee hearing schedule and there is nothing scheduled this week on the largest and most dangerous number of refugees we have proposed to admit to the US probably ever!
Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy has a hearing scheduled this week on how New Orleans became a sanctuary city, but nothing else.
(It is Gowdy’s subcommittee that would be responsible for reforming the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program, but no one in 30 years, including Gowdy, has had the guts to tackle it.)
I’m sure that New Orleans illegal alien problem is a very important issue, but….

…no where near as important as 110,000 refugees (20,000-30,000 Syrians) arriving in the US beginning next Saturday!

And, so far, Chairman of the full committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, doesn’t have any hearing scheduled either when you know that the Administration will open the flood gates in October trying to get as many of their 110,000 in here before Obama leaves office in January.

Are Goodlatte and Gowdy going to sit by silently and watch?

I want you to have a look at the Congressional calendar (below) as it stands right now for the last few months and through the end of they year.  They can’t wait to get that Continuing Budget Resolution (CR) done and get out of DC so they can campaign.
And, the reason we once again will be looking at a Budget rush-job is that Congress (under the leadership of Speaker Paul Ryan) once again did not get their work done in a timely fashion.
Look at this calendar! Frankly they shouldn’t be off for 6 weeks beginning this Friday!
 

2016housecalendar
Most recent calendar I could find, there may be an updated one.

 
But, don’t despair, you have perhaps one of the best opportunities to make their lives miserable as the majority of your representatives will be up for re-election on November 8th. You will need to reach them in their districts on this, in my opinion, the most critical issue this country faces—immigration and specifically refugee resettlement!  Be at every townhall they hold. Picket their offices and their homes if you must to get their attention.
Don’t let any member of the House, or US Senator, tell you it is too late for this year!
They will be coming back to finish the budget during the lame duck session and you need to ‘educate’ them at home because they can cut out funding for the refugee program in the lame duck!  More on that later.
BTW, I don’t know where they are at the moment on the CR (short term funding of the federal government), but keep telling them you want the Refugee Admissions Program defunded (use the word moratorium!) because as frustrating as it is trying to get through to them, your persistence alone sends them a warning message about how important this issue is to you (and to the future of America!).
For any of you who want to read-up on the issue, everything I’ve written on Congress’ role as the branch of government that doles out the money for Obama’s programs is tagged ‘Where is Congress.’ 

Resettlement industry wants 100,000 Syrians in FY17, 210,000 total refugees and billions more from Congress

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just to recap, Obama’s final ‘determination’ sent to Capitol Hill a week ago calls for a ceiling*** of 110,000 refugees from all over the world for Fiscal year 2017 which begins in 8 days.  He did not indicate how many of those would be Syrians but recently we learned that 20,000-30,000 would likely be Syrian Muslims.

the National Clean Energy Summit 7.0 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on September 4, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Political and economic leaders are attending the summit to discuss a domestic policy agenda to advance alternative energy for the country's future.
Hillary and John Podesta (working for George Soros) started the Center for American Progress and you can bet if she gets in the White House, the two of them will open the floodgates to the third world. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=6709

Thanks to Richard at Blue Ridge Forum for spotting this story at the Center for American Progress (CAP) where the resettlement contractors and their friends spell out what they really want. 
They want the 110,000 to be a floor and not a ceiling and they want 100,000 Syrian Muslims on top of 110,000 other refugees.
They also drop some astounding numbers about how many billions of dollars they want from the REPUBLICAN Congress.
Here is the story from earlier in the week:

After a slow start in fiscal year 2016—in which, by the end of May, the United States had only resettled one-quarter of its stated commitment of 10,000 Syrian refugees—the administration announced on August 29 that it had hit its target. According to the administration’s report to Congress laying out its 2017 resettlement goals—the “Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2017”—the administration now believes it will surpass its original goal, bringing in up to 13,000 Syrians by the end of September.

Most importantly, the report to Congress makes clear that the United States will surpass even the commitment made by Secretary of State John Kerry in September 2015 to bring in 100,000 refugees in FY 2017: It raises the target for resettlement in FY 2017 to 110,000 refugees.

[….]

Human Rights First, for example, has called for the administration to admit 100,000 Syrians next year in addition to 100,000 refugees from the rest of the world.

Whatever number of Syrians the administration ultimately decides to admit, it should view the commitment to resettling 110,000 total refugees in FY 2017 as a floor, rather than a ceiling, and should do everything in its power to increase the number of refugees admitted.

They know what we have been trying to say for weeks! Congress has the power to slow the invasion if they want to because the resettlement contractors have virtually no money of their own. 

They need your money to change your towns!

CAP continues:

Funding is critical, and the ball is in Congress’ court

While the Obama administration has stepped up to raise the numbers of refugees to be resettled, Congress has not, to date, provided a corresponding increase in the funds available to ensure that these individuals are able to resettle smoothly, find livelihoods, and become self-sufficient soon after arrival—a key goal of the U.S. refugee program.

The funding Congress appropriated for FY 2016 was based on an estimate of only 75,000 refugees being resettled. When the administration raised its target to 85,000 refugees, Congress did not increase the funding to match. This means that over the past year, the government has had to resettle more refugees with fewer funds. To make matters worse, Congress will most likely only fund the government for the remainder of the calendar year using a continuing resolution—a stopgap, short-term funding bill rather than a full-year appropriation—likely holding the amount of funding for resettlement to FY 2016 levels. This will become all the more difficult to sustain as the number of refugees admitted grows to 110,000.

Take the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, as an example. This agency helps integrate newly arrived refugees into American life and society, providing financial and medical assistance, social work and case management, and language and job training programs. It also has primary responsibility for the housing and care of unaccompanied children who arrive in the United States. In FY 2016, the ORR received a little less than $1.7 billion to accomplish these tasks. With an increase in the numbers of both refugees being resettled and unaccompanied children arriving, however, ORR’s budget is stretched thin.

The Refugee Council USA (mentioned below) is the lobbying arm of the resettlement industry in Washington.

The administration’s FY 2017 budget, based on the original goal of resettling 100,000 refugees, calls for the ORR to receive about $2.2 billion, while Refugee Council USA—the main umbrella group for organizations working to resettle and protect refugees—has called for the ORR to receive $2.95 billion. Either way, Congress must come together to provide more funding to the agency.

The Continuing Budget Resolution as it now stands has barely half that much and we are urging Congress to cut even more deeply.
Keep calling them and tell them that you know they, the Republican leadership, hold the cards—not Obama!
We have written a lot about the Refugee Council USA and also about the Center for American Progress, so please use our search function if you want to learn more.
***On this ‘ceiling’ issue: for all the time I have been writing this blog, the industry has been working to make sure the ceiling is met. But, it is only a ceiling.  The President can, during the course of the year, go below the ceiling and in some earlier years a president has.  So it strikes me that if Donald Trump is elected, he could very well just (at minimum) go way below the ‘ceiling’ (tell his Secretary of State to slow it down) after he is inaugurated without even initiating a battle (over Obama’s last determination) in the opening months of his administration.