If you are looking at that headline and saying, so what, consider this….
We are still admitting Special Immigrant Visaholders from Afghanistan to the US—821 in March— but the average is over 1,200 for each of the six months in this fiscal year. (Go to the Refugee Processing Centerto see where I get the SIV numbers.)
Are they being tested, or required to quarantine as they are being flown into the US RIGHT NOW?
Here is the news that caught my eye this morning. Read this and then I have a question.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees flee from Iran’s hot zone, spreading the coronavirus
Mahdi Noori, a young Afghan refugee in Iran, was left jobless when the factory where he’d worked cutting stone was shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak. He had no money, was afraid of contracting the virus and had no options. So he headed home.
At one point, 15,000 a day were crossing back into Afghanistan!
He joined a large migration of some 200,000 Afghans and counting who have been flowing home across the border for weeks — from a country that is one of the world’s biggest epicenters of the pandemic to an impoverished homeland that is woefully unprepared to deal with it.
At the border, Noori lined up with thousands of other returning refugees earlier this month, crowded together waiting to cross. “I saw women and children on the border, and I was thinking, What if they get infected now, here?” the 20-year-old told The Associated Press.
The NYT reported in mid March that Afghans returning from India had temps taken, but that is not happening at the border of Iran and Afghanistan. And then, as we all know now, fevers do not appear in a large number of those infected. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/world/asia/afghanistan-coronavirus.html
The massive influx of returnees, who are going back untested and unmonitored to cities, towns and villages around the country, threatens to create a greater outbreak in Afghanistan that could overwhelm its health infrastructure wrecked by decades of war.
So far, Afghan authorities have confirmed 273 cases*** of the new coronavirus, more than 210 of them in people who returned from Iran. Four deaths have been recorded.
Afghan Health Minister Ferozudin Feroz says the virus has already spread because of the returnees. “If the cases increase, then it will be out of control and we will need help,” he said.
He and other Afghan officials expressed concern that Iran would push out the more than 1 million Afghans working illegally in the country. Iran has already barred entry from Afghanistan, preventing any who left from coming back. Iran has had more than 58,000 coronavirus cases and more than 3,600 deaths.
***This morning (4/7) Worldometer has Iran at 62,589 cases and Afghanistan has 423.
Suppose we are good American citizens and self-isolate and manage to flatten that magical curve in the next two weeks or so, what is to stop another outbreak beginning say in May or June as we bring in refugees from countries who are weeks behind us and have not yet flattened their curve (if that is even possible in Afghanistan)?
Check out that NYT storyabout how sick, infected Afghans are escaping hospitals to go home.
Actually my question applies to any country in the world that has not yet been widely infected.
We clean up the US and then import new cases from parts of the world that are late to the game, and end up with new pockets in states that thought they were through the worst.
Top ‘welcoming’ states for these special refugees from Afghanistan are California, Georgia, Maryland, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
That is what the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement Jonathan Hayes told Congress this week.
The ‘children’ coming to America by train through Mexico in 2016!
Actually he calls them “unaccompanied alien children,” but heck when only 15% of the “children” crossing the border illegally without parents are under 12-years-old, we might just as well call them more accurately “teens.” (See data here.)
Virtually all of them are from three countries: Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
And, caring for the ‘children’ is costing American taxpayers well over a billion a year!
HHS: Number of Unaccompanied Alien Children Entering US Reaches Highest in History
(CNSNews.com) – The number of unaccompanied children (UACs) entering the United States during fiscal year 2019 has grown to levels never seen before, Jonathan Hayes, director of the HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), told Congress on Thursday.
According to his written testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, DHS referred more than 67,000 UACs to ORR as of Sept. 16, 2019, which is the highest number in the program’s history.
Compare that to the 59,170 DHS referrals in FY 2016, the second highest number of referrals on record.
At the moment, HHS has less than 6,000 UACs in its care, but the number fluctuates on a daily basis, Hayes said.
“The number of children in our care is down from a recent high of over 13,700 just a few months ago in June. This decline is due to a decrease in daily referrals over the last few months, and ORR’s ability to maintain a steady high discharge rate of UAC placement with sponsors,” he testified.
Curious about where they have placed tens of thousands of teenagers, I checked the data and here are some fun facts.
Toprecipient statesof alien (mostly) teens for the first ten months of FY19 are:
(States which ‘welcomed’ over 3,000 in ten months!)
When you visit that data add up the last 6 years for your state to see the real impact these “children” must be having on your school systems. Maryland, for example, added 18,330 UACs since October 2013!
Now have a look at the lucky counties during that same time period (here):
By the way, when I first started writing about these new ‘refugees’ they were referred to as ‘unaccompanied minors’ so that is the tag I have continued to use.
Month number seven of fiscal year 2018 ended last night, and from the contractors*** point of view, it was another dismal one for agencies collecting a per head payment for refugees they place and ‘take care of’ for only a few months. April’s total was 1,607 which is below average for the previous six months (average 1,758 for previous months this FY).
The team….Bolton, Trump, Pompeo: It will be interesting to see what happens with the Refugee Program and those SIVs now that a couple of serious hardliners are in place. CAIR recently called Pompeo an “Islamophobe.”
Bush (so far) holds the record for low refugee admission years: Bush admitted 27,070 in 2002 and 28,117 in 2003
We have now reached the six month mark of the first full fiscal year of the Trump presidency and Trump could easily break the Bush record set in 2002 of 27,070 refugee admissions for one year.
(See post here on the Bush record low years.)
At the six month mark, the Trump Administration operating well under a CEILING of 45,000 refugees, is at 10,548 admitted so far.
Assuming that rate continues for the next six months, Trump could be at 21,000 (give or take a few) for the year, handily smashing President Bush’s record.
Since the nine federal contractors*** are paid on a refugee per head basis for placing the refugees in your towns and cities, they surely are taking big hits to their budgets.
Here is a map from Wrapsnetof where those 10,548 have been placed. Wyoming is the only state in the nation that never signed up to ‘welcome’ refugees and for some unexplained reason, Hawaii gets very few even though the government there has said they welcome diversity!
Sorry numbers are not clearer. They aren’t very clear at the website itself.
Top ten resettlement states are in descending order: OH, TX, NY, WA, CA, PA, AZ, NC, GA, and MN.
Admissions by month for the last ten+ years (Wrapsnet):
The top sending countries so far in FY18 are:
DR Congo (2,569)
Bhutan (1,925)
Burma (1,769)
Ukraine (1,176)
Eritrea (760)
Muslim numbers drastically reduced to 16% of total.
In recent years the Muslim refugees accounted for sometimes as close to half of all refugee admissions. As of April 1, of the 10,548 admitted, 1,725 are Muslims of one sect or another. (Data maintained at Wrapsnet)
Significant numbers of Muslims are coming in the Burma and DR Congo flow.
Let the President know what you think!
*** The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.
As long as the nine contractors are paid largely by you via Congress and the US Treasury, and then act as community organizing/political agitators, there will never be serious reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
But a big problem, says the Government Accountability Office , is that neither the US State Department or the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS are doing much to track the outcomes of those admitted to the US from Iraq and Afghanistan who supposedly worked for us as interpreters.
I told youhere recentlythat the number admitted to the US from those two violent countries is pushing 70,000 in the last ten years.
As Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders they are treated as full-fledged refugees with all the welfare benefits other refugees receive.
We have been told that the resettlement contractors*** are relying on these paying clients to keep federal dollars flowing to their budgets as the refugee flow they hoped for is not materializing.
Some members of Congress must have requested this GAO study because problems are obviously brewing with this portion of our ‘welcome’ to Middle Eastern Muslims. I did not read the whole report, here, but it seems that there are some pretty disillusioned SIVs who thought they would have good jobs and decent housing when they got here.
Here are a few snips from the summary:
Not exactly a bombshell title:
AFGHAN AND IRAQI SPECIAL IMMIGRANTS:More Information on Their Resettlement Outcomes Would Be Beneficial
What GAO Found
Since fiscal year 2011, about [about?—ed] 13,000 Afghan and Iraqi nationals (excluding family members) have resettled in the United States under special immigrant visas (SIV), but limited data on their outcomes are available from the Department of State (State) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). State collects data on SIV holders’ resettlement outcomes once—90 days after they arrive. GAO’s analysis of State’s data from October 2010 through December 2016 showed that the majority of principal SIV holders—those who worked for the U.S. government—were unemployed at 90 days, including those reporting high levels of education and spoken English.
Very high unemployment rate at 90 days. Why is 90 days important? That is when their resettlement contractor is done with them and has moved on to the next batch of paying clients (aka refugees). By 90 days the SIV is expected to be self-sufficient. BTW, don’t you wonder who the 1,760 “interpreters” without “good spoken English” are?
GAO continues…
Stakeholders [must be referring to the resettlement contractors—ed] GAO interviewed reported several resettlement challenges, including capacity issues in handling large numbers of SIV holders, difficulties finding skilled employment, and SIV holders’ high expectations.
Officials from local resettlement agencies in Northern Virginia reported capacity challenges for their agencies and the community due to the large increase of SIV holders. In almost all of GAO’s focus groups with principal SIV holders, participants expressed frustration at the need to take low-skilled jobs because they expected that their education and prior work experience would lead to skilled work. [You can bet they aren’t going to the slaughterhouse jobs where contractors like to place those in their care.—-ed]
State and HHS have taken steps to address some resettlement challenges. For example, in 2017 State placed restrictions on where SIV holders could resettle and HHS announced a new grant to support career development programs for SIV holders, refugees, and others.
In addition, State provides information to prospective SIV holders about resettlement. However, the information is general, and lacks detail on key issues such as housing affordability, employment, and available government assistance. Providing such specifics could lead to more informed decisions by SIV holders on where to resettle and help them more quickly adapt to potential challenges once in the United States. [I don’t think that GAO knows that the SIVs original resettlement location is not chosen by the refugees, but by the State Department in conjunction with contractors*** as they bid for bodies (aka paying clients).—ed]
In light of so many disillusioned and unemployed SIVs, I sure hope that someone is reporting that news to others in the pipeline on their way to America!
Why the discrepancy in the numbers?
I wondered if GAO is downplaying the numbers on purpose…. were they as shocked as we are to find these enormous numbers?
In the summary, GAO talks about 13,000 SIVs since 2011, excluding family members, but in the full report they describe the real numbers we have placed in your towns and cities.
And, rather than saying “over 60,000”, they could have said closer to 70,000! As Ireported early this month, using data readily available at the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center (Wrapsnet), we admitted from FY2008-right up to my post on March 8th, the numbers as follows:
Iraq: 18,084
Afghanistan: 49,358
Total to March 8th: 67,442
When I went to the full report they say this (below) on Page 1, but once again use the word “about.” They do clarify one point: “about 20,000” are the people who worked for us or on behalf of us, the remaining, over 40,000! are their family members.
Afghan and Iraqi nationals who were employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan or Iraq and have experienced ongoing serious threats as a consequence of such employment, or who worked directly with the U.S. Armed Forces or under chief of mission authority as a translator or interpreter, may apply for a special immigrant visa (SIV) to the United States.
Upon securing a visa, the principal SIV holder and his or her eligible dependents may resettle in the United States and are granted lawful permanent resident status upon admission into the United States. Since fiscal year 2008, over 60,000 individuals—about 20,000 principal SIV holders and their families—have been admitted under SIVs and received federal resettlement assistance upon arrival.
SIV holders are authorized to receive resettlement assistance from the Departments of State (State) and Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as federal public benefits, to the same extent and for the same periods of time as refugees.
***These are the nine federal contractors working with the US State Department to place the SIVs and their families. Although GAO seems to have been fixated on how poorly the State Department and ORR are keeping track of the SIVs and their progress toward assimilation, it seems to me that the contractors should come in for more blame if their charges are doing so poorly.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.
We are still admitting Special Immigrant Visa holders from Afghanistan to the US—821 in March— but the average is over 1,200 for each of the six months in this fiscal year. (Go to the Refugee Processing Center to see where I get the SIV numbers.)
