They are changing America by changing the people
Update! It is not too late, just let them know how you are feeling about all this over the weekend, some of our readers have done so.
Just received this notice from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (we told you about it here previously):
We told you here a couple of weeks ago that the Obama Administration wants to Shape a Federal Immigrant and Refugee Integration Strategy!
They need your help and have scheduled listening sessions so you might give them ideas.
I’m thinking the best way to assimilate (preferred word!) them is to bring a whole lot less of them into the country now and into the foreseeable future.
Here is the e-mail I received yesterday (you are a “Stakeholder” too):
Dear Stakeholder,
The President’s Task Force on New Americans and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) invite you to participate in three listening sessions on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015 from 1 to 2 p.m. (Eastern), Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015, from 1 to 2 p.m. (Eastern) and Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, from 1 to 2 p.m. (Eastern) to discuss federal strategies to strengthen the civic integration of new Americans.
On Nov. 21, 2014, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum establishing a White House Task Force on New Americans, an interagency effort to develop a coordinated federal strategy to better integrate new Americans into communities.
During these listening sessions, Task Force members and USCIS officials will provide an overview of the Task Force on New Americans and seek your feedback on best practices or strategies for successfully integrating immigrants into local communities.
To register for these sessions, please follow the steps below:
Once we process your registration, you will receive a confirmation email with additional details. If you have any questions about the registration process, or if you do not receive a confirmation email within two business days, please email us at Public.Engagement@uscis.dhs.gov.
Note to the media: This engagement is not for press purposes. Please contact the USCIS Press Office at (202) 272-1200 for any media inquiries. If you have questions regarding the engagement or other stakeholder matters, please email us at Public.Engagement@uscis.dhs.gov.
We look forward to engaging with you!
Watch for it (we sure will)—the drum roll from the humanitarian industrial complex that we need to begin resettling Nigerians in a big way.
Have you noticed a trend in who is creating refugees around the world? Don’t you wonder why Obama can’t see it?
From International Business Times:
Boko Haram’s ransacking of villages in northeastern Nigeria during the past three weeks has caused a massive displacement of citizens who are now spilling over the borders of two neighboring countries, with the area quickly becoming the locus of one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises. Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon are pooling military resources to fight the Islamist militant group, but their efforts have failed to stop the mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of people who are now seeking humanitarian assistance.
Nigeria is not presently a country from which we take refugees!
Here is a thought, maybe the Rainbow Nation would welcome their fellow Africans?
Chris Chmielenski at NumbersUSA sent out this important announcement today:
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) was named chairman of the Senate Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee this week, giving significant control over immigration legislation to Congress’ top champion of lower immigration levels and American workers. Sen. Sessions has already renamed the subcommittee “‘Immigration and the National Interest,’ as a declaration to the American people that this subcommittee belongs to them,” according to a statement on his website.
“The financial and political elite have been controlling this debate for years; this subcommittee will give voice to those whose voice has been shut out … the voice of all Americans who believe we must have a lawful system of immigration they can be proud of and that puts their interests first.”
— Sen. Sessions
Sen. Sessions’ record on immigration speaks for itself. He was the most ardent opponent of the Senate’s Gang of 8 mass amnesty bill in 2013 and has consistently spoken out against Pres. Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Earlier this month, his staff hand-delivered a 25-page memo he wrote to all House GOP in advance of their retreat, making the case for lower immigration levels and increased enforcement.
The appointment could prove to be extremely significant should new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stick to his pledge to return the Senate to “regular order”. It would mean that every immigration-related bill would have to pass through Sen. Sessions’ subcommittee before it could reach the Senate floor for a vote.
The subcommittee’s vice-chair will be another immigration-reduction champion, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). Both Sessions and Vitter have NumbersUSA Career grades of A+.
Senate considers its options
Thank you to all of our activists who placed thousands of phone calls to Senate offices this week pushing for passage of the House-passed DHS spending bill that would defund most of Obama’s executive actions. Your calls reminded lawmakers of their midterm campaign promises and that voters won’t forget pledges to do everything in their power to stop Pres. Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
The Senate is not in session today, but will return on Monday. Debate over some bills is running longer than expected, so it’s still uncertai n when Sen. McConnell will bring the House-passed DHS spending bill to the Senate floor. But, Politico is reporting that GOP Leaders are looking for alternative solutions to stopping the President’s executive overreach should the DHS spending bill not pass.
“Top Republicans are exploring ways of escaping their political jam on immigration, with steps that could avoid a funding cutoff for the Department of Homeland Security while letting conservatives vent their anger at President Barack Obama.”
— Politico, “GOP seeking Plan B on immigration”, Jan. 21, 2015
NumbersUSA President Roy Beck protests that thinking:
We aren’t interested in venting anger; we’re interested in results that protect American workers and their families from the wage depression of Mr. Obama’s actions.
We can’t let Members of Congress off the hook! We’ll be coming to you next week with more phoning and faxing opportunities as we continue to pressure Congress to uphold its promise to stop Pres. Obama’s executive amnesties and work permits for millions of illegal aliens.
Border bill moving quickly through the House
Earlier this week, the House Homeland Security Committee passed an amended version of Rep. Michael McCaul’s (R-Texas) border bill, the Secure the Border First Act.
The bill purports to require completion of the 700-miles of double layered fencing that was authorized by the Secure the Fence Act of 2006, but in fact, counts vehicle barriers and single-layer fencing in the 700 miles, even though they don’t comply with the requirements of the law. It also requires implementation of the biometric entry/exit system that has been authorized by Congress and funded on at least six separate occasions and requires DHS to achieve “operational control” along the Southern border. But the bill allows 5-7 years for these provisions to take effect, letting the Obama Administration off the hook for its lack of enfo rcement over the last six years.
The bill’s title, however — the Secure the Border First Act — suggests that Congress should take no further actions on immigration, including guest worker programs and amnesty, until the provisions are implemented and the border secured.
It’s been pointed out by both Sen. Sessions and Jessica Vaughan at the Center for Immigration Studies that the bill throws lots of resources at the border but doesn’t actually change the current administration’s policies, including catch-and-release. Thus, this administration and future ones could intercept every person crossing the Southern border illegally, but if they’re simply issued notices to appear an d relocated to the interior of the country, it wouldn’t really stop future waves of illegal border crossings like the one last summer. So, in reality, the bill really doesn’t do anything to reduce illegal immigration.
The bill will come before the House Rules Committee on Monday and then move to the House floor during the week.
Maybe we can persuade the new Sessions subcommittee (Immigration and the National Interest) to have a look at the Refugee Resettlement Program! After three decades it needs a review!
Getting away from Muslim migrants for a moment, we have a story this morning about how federal refugee resettlement contractor (one of the big nine***), Church World Service, helps Cubans who are ECONOMIC migrants, not refugees, get settled in America.
I’ve been wondering lately what Obama’s change in US/Cuban relations will have on the thousands and thousands of Cubans still arriving in the US under that ridiculous “wet foot, dry foot” policy.
If we normalize relations with Cuba, why would there be any “refugees” coming here? Or, will his policy simply open the pipeline completely for one and all to fly right in?
A refugee by definition is escaping persecution. People wanting a job and social services are economic migrants and not eligible for refugee status (unless you are Cuban of course).
They are coming here for American jobs! Remember! Your tax dollars pay for most of the services of Church World Service! See how much here.
Here is the story from PRI.org (emphasis below is mine):
Forget for a second that you live in the United States, that you know its laws, know English, know what a Social Security number is, let alone worrying about having one.
Now imagine that’s the wave of information you are trying to absorb, quickly, in a small conference room in Miami. That’s exactly what happens to some families when they arrive in the United States.
Miguel Laguna helps guide them through the bewildering process. He’s a caseworker at Church World Service, a refugee resettlement agency with an office in the Miami area. Most of the Miami office’s clients are Cubans. [Miami office website is here–ed]
Laguna goes over with the family how to take the bus, apply for citizenship and where to study English. It’s a lot to take in.
[….]
Ramos sits with his wife, Ailén, and his son, also named Ismael. The family tells me it took two days and two nights in a small boat to reach Florida. They got lost in the Gulf of Mexico, but eventually made it. “The GPS broke, so we didn’t know where we were for a while,” Ailén says.
They say they left Cuba because there’s no work there. Ailén says she was a gym teacher making $12 a month, a pretty typical salary in Cuba. The family thought of leaving for years, but sped up their plans for fear that the United States’ unique and controversial “wet foot, dry foot” policy might disappear.
That policy says that Cuban migrants who make it to shore — “dry foot” — won’t be sent back, and will essentially be granted US residency after a year and one day in this country. The original intent was to drain the best and brightest from communist Cuba by dangling US visas, so some Cubans worry that better US-Cuba relations will lead to a change in policy.
Only Congress can make changes to “wet foot, dry foot,” and that could take a while. But the rumors that the policy might disappear persist in Cuba, and a rising number of people are leaving the island for the US on boats or, in some cases, by land through Latin America.
[….]
Laguna does note that this family has an advantage: They have relatives living in Miami. For Cuban refugees who arrive alone, there’s a lot of uncertainty.
[….]
I ask them why they left Cuba. They all say similar thing: “the economy,” “jobs,” “no work.”
It’s an answer that fuels a growing argument: Why treat Cubans differently than Guatemalans who flee gangs and poverty? What about Mexicans wanting to send money back to their relatives back home, or people fleeing war and repression elsewhere who must petition for asylum in the United States? Why give Cubans a special pass?
Of course what they are working up to is not changing the fact that Cubans get a pass with special treatment, but they want every other person in the world who needs a job or is fleeing crime to get the same pass without that messy business of applying for asylum!
By the way, we make 20,000 slots available every year IN CUBA for truly persecuted people, they don’t have to take risky voyages! Those taking the risky trip are job seekers—economic migrants!
It was Church World Service’s role in the county where I live that is responsible for the birth of this blog.
*** For new readers, these are the nine major federal resettlement contractors: