Category: Other Immigration

International Organization for Migration: managing the movement of people around the world

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve written about the International Organization for Migration (IOM) before because they get big bucks from us (the taxpayers) to process refugees into the US.  They are also largely responsible for teaching refugees abroad how to live in the West.  In its sixtieth year this year, they do more than that according to the New York Times.

The way I see it, the IOM is funded largely by US taxpayers to help manage the flow of labor for businesses around the world—they are kind of like glorified ‘head hunters.’  The article tells us in glowing terms how they have come to rescue various nationals when the labor situation went sour —like Bangladeshis sent to Libya to work and needing to get back home when Obama’s Libyan war broke out.   We pay for this.

This article shows how frustrating it is for the average US voter to understand who is running the international migration racket and get a handle on it.  It’s  not like you can call your Congressman and say stop the funding because we are dealing here with a body that is operating outside US jurisdiction (even though the NYT says the US calls the shots).  Add IOM and the UN and it’s no wonder immigration is out of the control of our federal government.

From the New York Times:

DHAKA, Bangladesh — As global migration has rapidly expanded, so has the influence of a little-known group whose eclectic work shapes migrants’ lives across six continents.

[….]

Part research group, part handyman crew, the International Organization for Migration has become the who-you-gonna-call outfit for 132 member countries grappling with the surge in migration, both legal and unauthorized. Its rapid growth is a sign that migration has outgrown most countries’ ability to manage on their own. “I haven’t made it to a country yet where migration hasn’t been high on the list of priorities,” said William L. Swing, the director general.

Yet even as its duties grow, the group operates under tight constraints that reflect the special worries migration can arouse. The United States [who in the US calls the shots?] and other rich donors largely dictate its agenda and ensure that it does not erode their power to decide which migrants they admit and how many.

“It helps them bring in the people they want and keep out the people they don’t,” said Joseph Chamie, a researcher at the Center for Migration Studies in New York.  [It looks like they want cheap third world laborers and not well-educated Europeans or other westerners—ed]

[….]

The migration group was formed in 1951 under a different name to resettle Europeans displaced by World War II. It had plans to quickly disband, but migration kept growing. Starting in the 1970s, it helped resettle 1.5 million Indochinese refugees, and brought home 218,000 workers during the first Persian Gulf war. In the past two decades, the group has added 89 member countries and undertaken increasingly varied work.

What!  Who decides immigration policy these days—governments or meatpackers (or both in collusion)?  Canadian readers should find this next paragraph interesting.

Canada tapped it to recruit meatpackers. Britain used it to screen would-be migrants for tuberculosis. The United States used it to run a jobs program in Haiti, deterring Haitians from illegally immigrating.

Gee, I wonder how that jobs program worked out for Haiti because if it was successful in keeping the Haitians home, maybe Obama could import it to the US!

IOM: The movement of people causes more concern than the movement of money or goods!  You got that right!

“If the range of our activities has expanded, it’s because migration has taken on much more importance in our globalized world,” said Gervais Appave, a senior official at the group’s headquarters in Geneva.

But the movement of people causes more concern than the movement of money or goods, and Western powers are unwilling to cede authority to an international group.  [sounds like they already have to a large degree–ceded power!]

I’ll bet you a buck that the average US Senator or Congressman has never heard of the International Organization for Migration.  LOL!  We are always surprised every time we learn another Member of Congress has NEVER heard of the Refugee Resettlement Program even.

Big budget funded with boatloads of your money:

Virtually all its work is financed on a project-by-project basis, giving donors control. Together, the United States and Europe provide half the $1.4 billion budget, and every director has been American.

A few years ago I was able to find at USA Spending our “contribution” to the IOM and it stood at over $301 million (before Obama).  Today I can’t find anywhere what the US gives the IOM.  Readers:  Let me know if you find it.

Then there is the UN

I’ve had this article kicking around for days, so just to save the link, I’ll note here that a Republican bill in the US House of Representatives is seeking to scale back our contribution to the UN and bring its policies more in-line with US policy.  The bill would limit funding to the special UN Palestinian refugee agency:

The legislation also would limit the use of U.S. contributions to only the specific purposes outlined by Congress and would withhold U.S. funding for any UN agency that upgrades the status of the Palestinian observer mission or any agency that helps Palestinian refugees.

Whoa! Check it out! Obama’s illegal alien uncle has been found

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

(Cross-posted from Potomac Tea Party Report)

Update August 29th:  The Australian has more details, here.

For readers who have followed the tale of President Obama’s African Aunt Zeituni who was found to be living illegally in the US in 2008 (she had been ordered deported, but never left) and was ultimately granted asylum (from what persecution never was made clear, but she had great lawyers!), here comes incredible news.

Obama had mentioned Uncle Omar in Dreams from My Father (written with the help of Bill Ayers), but his whereabouts in the US (or even whether he was alive) were not known until last week when he turned up in a near miss accident with a police cruiser.

He told police he wanted to call the White House!

The story is here in the Washington Times today (Hat tip: Gateway Pundit):

A number of media outlets have already reported that an illegal immigrant from Kenya by the name of Onyango Obama, 67, was arrested last week on Wednesday after he nearly rammed his SUV into a police car in Framingham, Massachusetts.

He was later charged with DUI among other violations. I spoke to Framingham Public Information Officer Lieutenant Delaney who told me that when Onyango Obama was asked at booking if he wanted to make a telephone call to arrange for bail, the Kenyan immigrant replied: “I think I will call the White House.”

[….]

According to article, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement has warrant for his arrest and ICE previously ordered him to be deported back to Kenya. In the meantime, a judge has not set bail on the driving charges but ordered that he be held on the ICE warrant.

Lucky for Uncle Omar that his nephew just unilaterally gave amnesty to anyone not committing a major crime.

By the way, Obama’s relationship with his supposed beloved Aunt is a strange one—here in 2009 she complained that he doesn’t invite her to family gatherings.

Texas: another guilty plea by immigrant in food stamp scam

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s the same old story, but interesting to note that ICE is involved so the guy must have some immigration ‘problems’ too:

From MMD Newswire:

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (MMD Newswire) August 26, 2011 – – The owner of a local supermarket pleaded guilty on Wednesday to defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamp fraud, announced U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno, Southern District of Texas. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General.

Parviz Sheikh Rezaei, 56, the proprietor of the Pariz Dollar Supermarket was arraigned by U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen on Aug. 23. According to court documents, Rezaei repeatedly exchanged Lone Star card benefits from participants in the food stamp program for discounted amounts of cash. Then, he charged the government for the full value of the Lone Star card transaction. Some of those transactions were with undercover federal law enforcement agents.

“Today’s guilty plea is an example of the impact we can have when law enforcement combine their expertise,” said Jerry Robinette, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in San Antonio. “ICE HSI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to aggressively investigate these cases and ensure that those who profit by taking advantage of others face justice for their crimes.”

He might go to jail for a few years but in light of Obama’s amnesty by fiat, he likely will never be deported.

Type ‘food stamp fraud’ into our search function and learn about dozens of other cases like this one.

Obama administration wants to “continue the conversation” on our “broken immigration system”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….blah, blah, blah!

Big problem is we have very different ideas on what exactly is broken.

This is an article I’ve had kicking around for over a week.  Nothing surprising here, but want to post it so as to not lose the link.  Earlier this month the Obama Administration had a chit-chat meeting in the White House with members of the African Diaspora.   They like that word “diaspora” because it makes it sound so what—chic, exotic, acceptable? to spread throughout the world like the Somalis have done and as reported in this Taki’s Magazine article I’ve also had kicking around in my queue for more than a few days.

From the Office of White House Public Engagement:

This past Friday (a couple of Fridays ago), White House and senior administration officials – including representatives from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of Education, and HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement – met with African community leaders to discuss immigration issues specific to the African immigrant and refugee population. The convening brought together leaders and advocates representing communities from the countries of Mauritania, Somalia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Guinea Bissau.

Cecilia Munoz, Director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, opened the forum and highlighted the challenges in fixing the legal immigration system and reassured the community leaders in the room of the President’s continued commitment to a legislative solution to fixing the broken immigration system.

Get your White House community organizing “tool kit.”

Stephanie Valencia, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement, encouraged everyone in the room to help broaden the dialogue and elevate the debate by hosting immigration action roundtables in their own communities check out the roundtable toolkit to sponsor your own immigration roundtable.

After you have your local “immigration roundtable” turn in the names of those attending to help build for Obama’s reelection efforts (they don’t really say that, but they do want the attendees names).

For more on Obama’s “conversation” on “broadening the dialogue,” and “elevating the debate” about our “broken immigration system” go here, so we can “win the future.”  Blah, blah, blah…..

120,000 foreign students invited to US each summer to work, some are now striking

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit reports today that the percentage of young people (ages 16-24) working this summer is the lowest ever, here.

For those of you who are going to wonder what this has to do with refugees, I’ll tell you right now.  The unemployment rate for refugees is probably around 50%.  Of course that’s a guess because the Office of Refugee Resettlement is several years behind with the facts on that, but here you have the US State Department in charge of refugees and at the same time importing competition for the refugees (and for Americans desperate to work) in a nightmare job market (Just in: new jobless claims rise!)

This belongs in a not-yet-created-but-needed category called OMG!   Can you believe it—the US State Department has a program known as the J-1 Visa that allows 120,000 foreign students to come to the US to work!  This when AMERICAN KIDS HAVE NO SUMMER JOBS!

How did I learn about this?  That d*** SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and another “guest worker” union have encouraged FOREIGN students to strike at the Hershey Chocolate plant in Pennsylvania!  And, now SEIU is sending out a plea for money—to be sent to SEIU—to help the kids!  This is what SEIU is saying in an urgent e-mail today:

Against all odds, students working for the famous chocolate factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania have gone on strike to fight back against the company’s predatory practices and to win fair wages.

Their story has inspired national attention and a State Department investigation, but since many of them make $8 an hour (with “program fees” and rent automatically dedicated) they’re running out of time and on the verge of being unable to afford basic necessities: food and rent.

The students need to raise $15,000 to keep up the fight, and the SEIU family can help them.  [What! no money and SEIU will walk away?]

Here is what the New York Times said about the “strike” just this week.

About 400 foreign students are working at the Palmyra plant under a summer cultural exchange program for work and travel offered by the State Department. About 120,000 students come to the United States each year on what are known as J-1 visas, which allow them to work for several months and then travel for a month as tourists. Their employment is organized by some 52 nonprofit sponsoring agencies in this country.

The students at the packing plant, who came from China, Romania, Ukraine, Nigeria and other nations, were employed through one of those agencies, the Council for Educational Travel, U.S.A., based in California.

The students protested that they were forced to continuously lift boxes of candy weighing more than 50 pounds and work on night shifts beginning at 11 p.m. on production lines moving too fast for them to keep up. They said that after the council deducted as much as $400 a month from their paychecks for rent, they did not earn enough to cover their expenses or to afford to travel, or even to earn back the up to $6,000 many had paid to obtain the visas.

[….]

Most of the students returned to their jobs in recent days, according to a spokeswoman for Exel, the logistics company that operates the plant for Hershey’s.

Several dozen of them wore armbands as a way to continue their protest inside the plant. A small group of students did not return to work but will go on tours in Pennsylvania and New York organized by labor unions.

“There’s nothing wrong with paid vacations, but a paid vacation won’t cover up the truth” that Hershey knew, condoned and benefited from the low-wage labor of the students, said Saket Soni, executive director of the National Guestworker Alliance, a labor group that helped the students organize their protest.

What is the National Guestworker Alliance?*  Who did the students pay $6000 to?   Who are these non-profit groups that arrange to help bring foreign kids while your kids wish they had a job!   And, whose brilliant idea is this whole thing?

Most importantly, who makes sure these “kids” leave the country when their time is up?

* Check them out here—it’s all about evil Hershey’s Chocolates!  And, you know what else is funny?  They are located in New Orleans, isn’t that where ACORN and all its spin-offs were located too?