Category: Obama

In Texas, Leftist community organizers target governor over Syrian refugee stance

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As you know by now, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has supported the call made by scores of other governors to halt Syrian resettlement to the state.

Texas is the holy grail for the No Borders activists (they want to turn it BLUE) and as such has been the number one state in the nation for several years to receive third world refugees.

(For background see especially our three part Texas series of posts from earlier this year, click here and follow links to parts II and III).

Caterine at governors mansion
Look for Leftwing community organizers like (bull horn) Joe Caterine behind protests like this one. It doesn’t look like “hundreds.” Photo: http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Joe+Caterine/Activists+Protest+Against+Texas+Gov+Greg+Abbott/as49AI-2wqv

It is no surprise that community organizers are whipping up the Syrian issue and protesting the governor as they did this weekend in Austin.  The governor has also been criticized by these same activists for TX role in the DAPA lawsuit.
Calling ‘Pockets of Resistance!’
Maybe folks in Texas ‘pockets of resistance’ need to show their support for the governor in some significant and coordinated way. (Maybe already in the works?)
See this news at The Texas Tribune and note that Catholic Charities of Dallas is thumbing its nose at the governor, and says it will resettle them in Texas anyway!  (Don’t forget that CC is paid by the head to resettle these mostly Sunni Muslim refugees in TX!).

A few hundred demonstrators, carrying placards and chanting slogans, rallied outside the Texas Governor’s Mansion Sunday to protest Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempts to block refugees fleeing civil war in Syria from settling in Texas.

Under the watchful eye of dozens of police, the protesters gathered to criticize what they described as xenophobic and misinformed policies aimed at the war refugees.

[….]

Abbott said last week that Texas would not accept Syrian refugees into the state, and he ordered the Texas Health & Human Services Commission’s Refugee Resettlement program to quit participating in the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Texas.

[….]

Leaders of the protest said refugees admitted into the United States undergo a rigorous vetting process and will come to the Lone Star State despite Abbott’s order, because the federal government has the final say even if states attempt to cut off financial support that would help them.

“They’re coming no matter what,” said Joe Caterine, head of the Syrian People Solidarity Group, one of the organizers of Sunday’s protest. “If we’re not helping them find a place to live and find a job they’re going to be a burden on the government.”

One group helping with resettlements in North Texas, Catholic Charities of Dallas, announced after Abbott’s declaration on Monday that it would no longer accept Syrian refugees. But on Wednesday the group reversed course and announced that it would continue helping them find homes in Texas despite Abbott’s order, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Continue reading here.

Joseph Caterine
Caterine at Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-caterine-1528793b

Don’t forget!  These protesters are demonstrating for Sunni Muslim Syrians, not all Syrians! 

There are only a tiny number of Christian Syrians in the stream (chosen by the UNHCR) and headed to America, and virtually no Shiite Muslims are in the group.  98% Sunni Muslim!

I think you should keep pointing that out—these are protests FOR ONLY SUNNI MUSLIMS! There may be some Texans who are rightly worried for the Christians in Syria and they need to know that Christians are only a tiny fraction of those getting in to the US.

Who is the leader of the Syrian People Solidarity Group?

Know the opposition!  See more on Joe Caterine, here (with Solidarity Circuit’s Inter-Act) and here (he works for, or did work for, North Texas Area United Way).  More here.
Facebook page for Syrian People Solidarity Group is here.   It really should be renamed—Syrian Sunni Muslim Solidarity Group!
See our huge archive on Texas by clicking here.

Arabs in Dearborn support governor's decision to curtail Syrian refugee resettlement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday we reported that many Christian Syrian immigrants in Allentown, PA oppose resettlement of the mostly Sunni Muslim Syrians in the pipeline to America, and now look at this!  The mostly Shiite Muslims in the Dearborn area don’t want the Sunni Syrians there either!

Muslims against ISIS
Dearborn Muslims protest ISIS in 2014. ISIS is Sunni, many Dearborn Muslims are Shiite. Obama doesn’t seem to care that we are admitting to the US both sides of the centuries’ old conflict in the refugee stream. Photo: http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/09/muslims-in-dearborn-michigan-and-britain-condemn-isis-illinois-muslims-silent.html

Before you read this latest news, be sure to check our recent post—98% of Syrians admitted so far are Sunni Muslims (ISIS is Sunni as is al-Qaeda).
From NBC News (what is happening to the MSM, are they starting to get-it?):

They’re not rolling out the welcome wagon for the Syrian refugees in the Arab immigrant enclave of Dearborn, Michigan.

And some longtime residents told NBC News they even agree with Gov. Rick Snyder’s decision to suspend efforts to bring the long-suffering Syrians to his state after last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.

“We don’t need no more troubles, you know?” said Hicham Dawil, who immigrated to the U.S. three decades ago. “I feel bad for the people. On the other hand, look what’s happening in France. This is crazy, you know. It’s just evil.”

Dawil, a father of five college-aged kids all born here who runs his own heating and cooling business, said the ISIS attacks turned his stomach and the fallout affects him as an Arab immigrant.

“We just cannot afford being looked at like, ‘Oh, well, you are one of them,'” he said. “Let’s say I walk into a lounge … I can see people look at me.”

So Dawil supports Snyder’s move “100 percent.”

There is much more here.

Malaysia: Obama (today) meets with Rohingya (Burmese) Muslims on way to US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story is a Drudge headline this morning:  Obama defiant: vows more refugees.
***Update*** November 22:  Almost 15,000 Burmese Muslim came in as refugees in last ten years, here.
He is in Malaysia, a safe Muslim country which is sending Rohingya Muslims (who arrive there illegally) to America!  So while we have anxiety about Syrian Muslims coming to the US, remember the US resettlement program has been bringing in Muslims from Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Burma (and other countries) for years.

Esar Met evil face
Meet Esar Met a Burmese Muslim sentenced to life in prison in Utah in 2014 when he was found guilty of brutally raping and murdering a little Christian Burmese girl in his Salt Lake City apartment complex. The medical examiner testified that she died in excruciating pain. Shame on the mainstream media for never reporting on this case outside of Utah. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/05/15/utah-burmese-muslim-refugee-sentenced-in-brutal-rapemurder-of-little-girl/

The Rohingya are especially fundamentalist Muslims we have been following for 8 years.  We have an extensive archive (Rohingya Reports) with 182 previous posts just on the situation in Burma and surrounding countries with the Rohingya.  (Want to write a book on Rohingya?  Your research is right here on these pages!)
In 2013 we reported that Anastasia Brown, on behalf to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, lobbied the US State Department to allow Rohingya Muslims to enter the US with a P-2 Designation meaning that they need not prove individually that they are persecuted, but that they would be admitted to the US as a class.
In other words, all they need do is say:  I am Rohingya and they are eligible for resettlement in your towns and cities.
Thousands are already here.   In our earliest years of reporting on Rohingya, the US State Department was not admitting them for fear that terrorists were among them.   All that has changed.
See the AP story at Myway:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Pushing back against efforts to bar Syrian refugees from resettling in the U.S., President Barack Obama vowed Saturday that his country will be a welcoming place for millions fleeing violence around the world “as long as I’m president.”

Obama commented Saturday at a learning center in the Malaysian capital that serves the poor, including some refugees. He met with boys and girls wearing crisp white and black uniforms and neckties as they sat at tables and worked on painting and puzzle projects.

[….]

Most of the children the president met with are Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar to escape persecution by the country’s Buddhist majority, with many ending up in Malaysia, where Obama was attending a regional economic summit.

[….]

The refugees Obama met with have all been cleared to come to the U.S. and have been assigned to specific cities, the White House said.

Earlier this year we reported that 12,615 Burmese Muslims had been admitted to the US in the last ten year.  I’ll have to do an update of those numbers when I get a minute (Ha!).  BTW, the majority population of Burma (aka Myanmar) is Buddhist and they want the country to remain majority Buddhist.  Even the famed human rights activist from Burma has angered the humanitarian industrial complex by not speaking out on behalf of rights for Rohingya.
See why Obama is angry (in my opinion). His job was to get them in here as part of the UN agenda, and he has hit a roadblock!—YOU!
Addendum:  How could I forget.  Hillary has been touting her ‘success’ in Burma while Secretary of State.  Then why are we taking thousands of Burmese Muslims to the US if she has done such a good job?  You must see this post!  Podesta Group sent to Burma to shore up her image!

Sessions: Congress must use 'power of the purse' in refugee controversy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Senator Jeff Sessions, the long-time champion of the American worker and taxpayer took to the Senate floor on Thursday evening in an attempt to get the message to all of you that simply asking the fox (the Obama Administration) to guarantee that no terrorists would slip into the refugee stream, as the Ryan bill (here) did that same day, is not sufficient.

Sessions on the floor
Sessions: Administration will not give us full accounting of immigration histories of arrested/convicted Islamic terrorists in US.

I sure hope this means that an effort to cut funding is still on the table following the Thanksgiving recess.
Here is World Net Daily (Hohmann again) with details:

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is throwing cold water on President Obama’s plans to expand the number of Islamic refugees entering the U.S. from Syria, saying it’s a recipe for disaster similar to what’s happening in Europe.

He urged Congress to use its only real power – the power of the purse – to stop a president who has often “run over Congress” to get his way.

In a speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Sessions said Obama has ignored 72 documented cases of terrorist activity by suspected Muslim immigrants inside the United States since July of last year. Many of these terrorists came to the U.S. as refugees, a stark contrast to the “widows and orphans” meme put forth by the Obama administration and the myriad political and religious groups that support the resettlement business.

Sessions said his office sent the list of terrorist plots, many of them foiled by the FBI before they could be carried out, to the administration more than four months ago and asked for the immigration histories of each suspect.

Sen. Ted Cruz also co-signed the request sent to the Obama administration with an attached list of 72 individuals charged or convicted of terrorism.

“We asked for the immigration histories of each one of these individuals,” Sessions said. “Isn’t that a good thing to know?

Shouldn’t we as policy makers know how these terrorists got into the country? Well, stunningly, the administration just refused to respond. They think if maybe they ignore these requests then people won’t know and begin to question how things are being conducted. Congress should not acquiesce to the president’s refugee funding request when he refuses to even publicly disclose the immigration histories of these 72 terrorists, many of whom are connected to ISIS – al-Qaida and ISIS.”

[….]

The Syrians now flooding into the United States are more than 97 percent Muslims, and evidence is building that Muslim officials within the United Nations refugee camps discriminate heavily against Christians.

A new poll out this week by Bloomberg showed that a majority of Americans across all party lines, 53 percent, are against the resettlement of Syrian Muslim refugees in their cities and towns.

Sessions has called for Congress to defund the refugee program, rather than merely ask for greater assurances that refugees can be vetted, as does Speaker Paul Ryan’s bill, passed by the House Thursday.

“It would be unthinkable for Congress to acquiesce to the president’s refugee funding request when he refuses to even publicly disclose the immigration history of these 72 terrorists, many of whom are involved with ISIS,” Sessions said.

[….]

What should Congress do to stop a program that the people oppose and Congress has not approved?

“The answer lies in the power of the purse,” Sessions said. “Each and every year the president submits a request to congress to fund. Congress, who has been run over numerous times by this administration, must not write the blank check that the president is asking.”

Much more here.

House passes bill that doesn't do much; Senate says it's dead on arrival there

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  According to The Hill, top administration officials couldn’t get support from large number of Dems following briefing.
If you are looking for me to have the definitive word this morning on what has happened in the last week and where we go from here, I don’t have it. A week ago Thursday, at the request of ACT for America, Don Barnett and I participated in a briefing of Hill staffers on the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program and then Friday night hell broke loose in Paris.  In 7 days the refugee resettlement program has been completely turned on its head in a way I could never have imagined this time last week.

Obama and Ryan
Speaker Paul Ryan and President Obama agree: there will be no preference given to Christian refugees from the Middle East (98% of those arriving in the last six weeks are Sunni Muslims). Selecting only Christians would be “offensive” said Obama. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-syrian-refugees_564cb1f9e4b00b7997f878f3

Over 30 governors have said ‘NO’ to Syrian resettlement, so federal resettlement contractors who are ‘welcoming’ Syrians now on a daily basis are in turmoil trying to figure out where to send them.
The House Judiciary Committee has held its first serious hearing on the program since before 9/11 and the full House has passed the only bill maybe since 1979 (when the law creating this program passed both houses) that seeks in any way to control the monstrosity that the program has become.
And, to top it off, talk-radio and cable news are talking about refugees 24/7!  Can I retire now?
All of that is to say, I need to sort through the news, so much of which you are getting faster than me because Drudge is on top of it (Drudge even posted one of my posts on Somali refugees—don’t forget there are hundreds of Somalis coming into the US every month!).
That said, this is a good summary of the House action from Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily who has made this issue a top priority in his reporting since at least July 2014 (when we first posted on his work).  Emphasis below is mine:

The House voted Thursday to approve a bill that would require a new “certified” screening process for refugees coming from Iraq and Syria, but the bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate, says Minority Leader Harry Reid, and some conservatives are saying the bill doesn’t go nearly far enough in keeping America safe.

The House vote was 289-137 and included 47 Democrats, just two votes shy of enough to override a presidential veto.

“[The American SAFE Act] is simply putting a pause on the Syrian refugee program until we can be assured … they can be properly vetted and background checks can be done before they are brought in,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. “Also, we require certification by the secretary of Homeland Security, FBI director and director of national intelligence. I think this is a very measured, well-balanced bill.”

[….]

Two Republicans voted against the bill: Reps. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Steve King, R-Iowa, likely because the bill doesn’t go far enough in their eyes.

Critics have said the proposed law wouldn’t stop a single Islamic refugee from entering the U.S. And there are much tougher bills sitting in committees, including Rep. Brian Babin’s HR 3314, which would stop all refugee resettlement until the Obama administration can give a full accounting of the costs and national security risks.

“Speaker Paul Ryan is trying to protect Obama’s Syrian refugee resettlement programs today by passing a bill that only ‘pauses’ the program instead of stopping it,” said William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. “Also, Ryan’s bill is based on the false premise that refugees from Muslim countries can be adequately vetted when they can’t, as Sen. Jeff Sessions is pointing out.”

[….]

The legislation will now go to the Senate, where it may face a tougher path to passage.

Reid, D-Nev., vowed to block the House bill if it is considered by the upper chamber after the Thanksgiving recess.

[….]

When asked about the prospect of Obama vetoing the legislation, Reid said, “Don’t worry, it won’t get passed. Next question?”

[….]

WND reported earlier this week that Ryan was lining up a “meaningless show vote,” quoting a senior staffer on Capitol Hill. That’s exactly what happened, with a vote allowing Ryan and the GOP to sound tough on ISIS without providing any real teeth because the legislation still depends on the Obama administration to “certify” that every refugee is not a terrorist.

This is impossible, critics such as Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., say, because many of the refugees have clean backgrounds and become radicalized after they arrive in the U.S.

Continue reading here, there is much more!

Ryan:  We won’t take Syrian Christians first!

The day before the vote, Speaker Paul Ryan made it clear that Christian Syrians would not be given preference over the mostly Sunni Muslim Syrians being admitted right now, here at the Huffington Post.  (By the way, I could argue that with an arrival rate of 98% Muslim, that we are giving preference to Sunni Muslims for admission to the US!).
Find our here if your “faith group” is backing Obama in his Syrian Muslim resettlement efforts.
Appropriations?
Rep. Bridenstine and others propose a bill to cut the funding, here.  I don’t know the future of efforts to bring the issue to a head on the FY2016 government funding measure that Congress must pass by December 11.  But, here is news from before the vote that such an efforts was being prepared in the House.
In addition to the Oklahoma representative Bridenstine, the other three warriors on this effort were/are:

Joining Bridenstine were Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Lamar Smith of Texas and Brian Babin of Texas.

Will try to get more news from Washington in the coming days…..