Category: Other refugees

Getting ready for war in the “rainbow nation”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

No time to do this story justice today, but I have written on many occasions about the myth of the “Rainbow Nation”—South Africa (please use our search function and type in ‘rainbow nation’ for the many stories).  I wonder will we in the civilized West be giving refugee status to whites escaping persecution by elements of the South African government (the ANC Youth League)—hmmm?

Here is the dreadful story from News 24 in Johannesburg:

Johannesburg – The son of a murdered farmer has challenged ANC Youth League statements that land should be taken without compensation, according to a report on Friday.

Hanno van Rensburg, son of the murdered farmer, Johan van Rensburg, 77, blamed the ANC Youth League for the crime in which his mother Gloudien, 65, was also critically wounded, reported Beeld newspaper.

“The ANC Youth League say they want to take our land by violent means and declare war. If they want war, they must come. I’ll fucking shoot them. My family’s blood has been spilt on this land.”

Ronald Lamola, deputy president of the ANC Youth League, called on Tuesday night at the Durban University of Technology for the expropriation of land without compensation.

“We need an act as forceful as war to bring it back to the Africans,” Lomola said.

Henry Geldenhuys, deputy president of the Transvaal Agricultural Union, said Lamola was inciting violence.

“There’s no option left for the farmers but to prepare for a war.“

American tourists were witnesses to the murder, here.

LGBT rights groups say Obama Administration not doing enough to get gays into US as refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Not just gays, but lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals….

One of the hottest controversies on-going right now in the refugee business is the issue of saving LGBT people from persecution around the world by bringing them to the US as refugees.    Indeed the subject was brought up at the May 1 State Department scoping meeting on refugee goals for fy2013.  The subject was the centerpiece of the testimony that day by Duncan Breen of Human Rights First (oops, I see it’s LGBTI, I is for intersex).

Here is a lengthy story in the Advocate summarizing the situation and calling for the Obama Administration to not just use words but do something fast for LGBT people who are mostly being persecuted in Islamic countries.   LOL!  They didn’t say ‘Islamic’ countries, in fact they never use the words “Islam” or “Muslims” to describe the abusers of gay people.

Advocate:

Nearly six months ago, the White House unveiled a global blueprint for promoting and protecting the rights of LGBT individuals, countless numbers of whom live in countries where they are imprisoned, blackmailed, and in places like Iraq, sometimes crushed to death with cement blocks.

The State Department’s 2011 Human Rights Report, released last week, provides a grim, if incomplete, catalog of such atrocities.

[…..]

Combating such physical and political violence is central to American foreign policy, as President Obama articulated in a December 6 memorandum and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed in her seminal “gay rights are human rights” speech at the Palais des Nations in Geneva that same day. The presidential memo reflected both the growing consciousness on the issue and the concrete work already being done by the Obama administration. It also laid out ambitious objectives for one of the global LGBT rights movement’s most vexing problems: how to aid those seeking to escape violence and persecution in virulently antigay climates.

“In order to improve protection for LGBT refugees and asylum seekers at all stages of displacement, the Departments of State and Homeland Security shall enhance their ongoing efforts to ensure that LGBT refugees and asylum seekers have equal access to protection and assistance, particularly in countries of first asylum,” President Obama wrote, further instructing that federal agencies must have “the ability to identify and expedite resettlement of highly vulnerable persons with urgent protection needs.” Homeland Security, the State Department, the Defense Department, and other agencies engaged abroad have a deadline of next week to report on what progress has been made regarding the initiatives outlined in the memo.

But the goal of identifying and ultimately resettling at-risk LGBT individuals in the United States is constrained by a complex bureaucratic process. Security and medical checks involve multiple agencies and often delay processing, which can take a year or much longer — particularly in regions such as East Africa and the Middle East, where the problem of antigay violence is, ironically, most acute.

Why the word “ironically?”  Does the writer not understand that it is the fundamentalist Islamic culture in those regions of the world that is so virulently anti-gay?

Meeting next week to discuss a system for identifying and expediting the process.  I’m wondering how they can determine if someone in those cultures, where lying is a way of life, can sort out who is, and who isn’t telling the truth about their sexual orientation and whether they are being persecuted because of it.   I wonder too, if American Muslim groups (CAIR etc) are quietly opposed to bringing more LGBT people to the US?

Next week refugee groups are meeting with State Department officials to discuss expedited resettlement (a State Department spokeswoman declined to confirm the meeting, though she explained, “We frequently meet with our partners in the resettlement community and welcome the exchange of views on how we can improve our systems and processes”). For the administration to achieve its promises to LGBT refugees in harm’s way, a formalized system that is both transparent and concrete is desperately needed, advocates said.

Read it all.

The Migration Policy Institute has an article about the history of asylum claims based on sexual orientation that is worth reading.

Cuban refugee charged in sex crime

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is just one more crime story involving a refugee—a Cuban this time.  But, I’m posting it because we often forget that we are still admitting thousands upon thousands of so-called “refugees” from Cuba each year.  As a matter of fact, according to the 2005 Annual Report to Congress, here, in the year this guy got in, he came with 21,419 other Cubans.  All of them are here legally and are allowed to work and apply for welfare benefits.

Here is the story from Lubbock, TX:

The arrest warrant of a former Frenship ISD custodian who was charged with sexual assault confirmed his status as a Cuban national and refugee in this country.

Marcelo Salas is being held at the Lubbock County Detention Center on one count of sexual assault, two counts of assault and one count of disorderly conduct.

The arrest warrant filed by FISD Detective Rosanna Langston on April 20 briefly described Salas’ immigration status.

Rhonda Dillard, director of human resources for FISD, told Langston that Salas is a Cuban national, according to the warrant. At that point, Langston contacted Border Patrol Agent John Parum, who confirmed Salas’ nationality and added he was a refugee as of April 2005.

What do you think the odds are that he will be shipped back to Cuba?  Zip, zero, nada!

Obama says yes to MORE “temporary” refugees—Syrians

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to a reader for sending this, I had missed it yesterday. The Obama Administration has agreed to let Syrians who are in the US now for any reason—students, tourists, illegal aliens, etc—stay basically forever.  They call it “Temporary” Protected Status and we told you that Non-profits (which will surely get something financial out of it) and far Left Senators were lobbying for the designation.  Like the Salvadorans, the Liberians, and Somalis before them, they will never be required to leave the country.

Here is a short AP story on the decision:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration will allow Syrians in the United States to temporarily stay beyond the expiration of their visas and not deport those in the country illegally due to deteriorating conditions in their native country.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Friday that Syrians in the U.S. would be given temporary protected status because they would face “serious threats to their personal safety” if they were to return to Syria. She said details of the program, including eligibility requirements will be published early next week in the Federal Register.

Syrians in the U.S. have to apply for the status and must undergo a full background check before it is granted. Napolitano encouraged Syrians to apply but said they should not do until the notice is published.

Suicide.   I wonder sometimes if there were Romans who saw the end coming.

Senators push for more “temporary” refugees—Syrians this time

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has turned into a joke.  Maybe there were good intentions behind the idea of giving “temporary” refuge to people in the US (legally or ILLEGALLY) when their home country was embroiled in war or had been recently hit by a natural disaster, but now it has become one more backdoor amnesty.

I’ve written several posts recently at Potomac Tea Party Report and here at RRW about TPS for Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Syrians.

So what is the problem?  They never go home!  As I have oft repeated, ‘there is nothing quite so permanent as a temporary refugee’ (Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies).  And, by the way, “temporary” refugees are given work permits and can do anything a US citizen can do except vote (and they are probably doing that too!).

Now here is Fox News telling us that six US Senators are pushing Obama to grant TPS to Syrians (they estimate around 10,000 are in the US legally at this moment, but they don’t know how many illegal Syrians are here).

Several Democratic senators are calling on the Obama administration to allow Syrians who are already in the United States to stay, at least temporarily, out of concern it would be “too dangerous” for them to return home.

The senators want President Obama to invoke what’s known as “temporary protected status” for thousands of Syrians in the U.S. The designation typically is given to foreign nationals whose home countries are beset by war or natural disaster and who could face harm should they return.

The senators argued that Syrians in the U.S. are in just that kind of predicament, as Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s regime sustains its bloody crackdown on protesters across the country.

“It is obviously too dangerous for Syrian nationals to return to Syria,” the senators wrote in a letter to President Obama.

Arab advocacy groups have been calling for the federal government to grant the status for Syrians in the U.S.

The designation, however, is controversial as Washington tends to repeatedly extend “temporary” status. Critics claim the status can become semi-permanent. The government currently grants “TPS” to people from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan.

Here are the six Senators pushing this latest backdoor amnesty program (no surprise!):

The letter was signed by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Ben Cardin, D-Md.; and Bob Casey, D-Pa.

And, just a reminder of the Arab activist agitators and refugee contractors pushing the Senators:

United for a Free Syria (UFS), in close coordination with a broad coalition including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Syrian Expatriates Organization (SEO), Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), Syrian Americans for Democracy (SAD), South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI),* and Refugee Council USA (RCUSA)

So, where does this all end?  Will we have TPS for every political hot spot, every hurricane, every earthquake in the world.  And, why are the Syrians more important than say the Libyans, the Yemenis, the Egyptians, the Nigerians and so forth—all experiencing upheaval of one sort or another.

Remember TPS isn’t just for those who are here legally on some visa or another; the TPS given to Salvadorans and other Central Americans went largely to ILLEGAL aliens.

* HIAS and USCRI are federal refugee contractors whose bankroll comes mostly from you—the taxpayer.