Category: Refugee statistics

US top refugee processing countries shifting with Trump Administration

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know this is getting in to the weeds, but I want readers to understand that for instance, the Somali refugees arriving in the US are picked up all over the world, and so if there is a ‘travel ban’ for say Somalia it doesn’t mean that no Somalis are coming.

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Most Somalis coming to the US come from Kenya because the big UN camps are there and the UN makes the first cut on who comes to America.

From time to time, I show you processing country maps which are posted at Wrapsnet (the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center) for the previous months of the fiscal year (by the 5th of the present month).

For background, visit this post from December 2016 where you can see the top PROCESSING country is Kenya followed by Turkey and Tanzania as numbers two and three.

I’m always annoyed to see Malta as a processing country because as a European country it is responsible for the illegal boat migrants who land on its shores (not America!), but ever since the Bush Administration we have been turning illegal aliens on Malta into refugees destined for Your Town, USA.  See my huge archive on the disgraceful Malta deal, here.

And, tell me, how can they seriously assure us that some boat migrant from Libya who washed ashore on the island nation of Malta has been thoroughly security screened!  Was he carrying his documents and criminal record in a ziploc bag?

Here is Wrapsnet’s processing countries map for the first month of President Trump’s first full fiscal year—October FY18.  FY17 began when Obama was still in office.

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In the first month of fiscal year 2018 the US admitted 1,247 refugees

 

 

Here below is a list of the countries from which we are processing refugees so far this fiscal year.

Malta to America Express!

See that Trump’s State Department has continued the Malta to America express!  By the way there is no way I’ve ever figured out how to identify what nationalities are arriving from Malta.  In the past we did learn that many are Somalis. The numbers are small but significant because we again are taking illegal migrants that are really Europe’s problem!

The Trump Administration could stop the Malta arrangement with a phone call if they wanted to.

And, I sure would like to know why we take any refugees from Israel! They should be taking care of whichever ‘refugees’ seek asylum there.  What is that all about.

 

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Kenya is still in the top three but dropped from first to third place. First place goes to Nepal (for the so-called Bhutanese refugees) with Malaysia as number two. Note that Ethiopia is not far behind the top 3. Malaysia is the likely jumping off location for Rohingya to America. Turkey and Tanzania are now way down the list.

 

 

Since one of the top three sending countries is Kenya I checked Wrapsnet for the number of Somalis who entered the US in the month of October.  The total number was 113.

Then, for fun! I wanted to see how many and where they went in Minnesota. The total was 23 in October.  Minnesota got the highest number in the 113. The other 90 were scattered around America. None to St. Cloud right now.

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Here are some of the top ethnic groups resettled in the US in October: Bhutanese (273), DR Congolese (181), Burmese (147), Somalis (113), Ukrainians (77) and Syrians (33).

Because knowledge is power, here is what you can do…

With long cold winter days ahead, you too might want to have fun with numbers at Wrapsnet, the US State Department’s data collection site.  You never know what you might find out about your own state or even your own town!

Endnote: While we are looking at maps, you might want to revisit a map showing the countries that have been warned about the deadly Plague spreading out from Madagascar.

October refugee numbers extremely low, refugee industry worried

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart did some number crunching yesterday and the conclusion is that if the Trump Administration continues to admit refugees at this historically low level, our refugee admissions this year will be way below the CEILING Trump set in September for this fiscal year (45,000).

But….

Will President Donald Trump beat George W. Bush’s record?

Here is Leahy:

The number of refugees admitted into the country during the first month of FY 2018 by the Trump administration plummeted to 1,242 – an 87 percent decline from the 9,945 admitted during the first month of FY 2017 by the Obama administration.

The percentage of refugees admitted who are Muslim declined dramatically as well, from 45 percent in October 2016 to 23 percent in October 2017, according to the State Department interactive website.

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George W. Bush still holds the record for the two lowest admission years in 2002 and 2003.  Why so low? Fear of terrorists getting in to the US in the wake of 9/11.

Of particular note is the precipitous drop in the number of refugees admitted from the seven countries whose citizens were temporarily banned from traveling to the United States under the first travel ban, Executive Order 13679, issued by President Trump on January 27, 2017.

In October 2017, the first month of FY 2018, only 275 refugees from these seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudian, Syria, and Yemen — were admitted to the United States under the Refugee Admissions Program.

In contrast, in October 2016, the first month of FY 2017, a total of 4,581 refugees from these seven countries were admitted into the United States under the Refugee Admissions Program (1,352 from Somalia, 1,323 from Iraq, 1,297 from Syria, 414 from Iran, and none from either Libya or Yemen.)

This would beat the Bush record!

Should refugee admissions continue at this same pace for the remaining eleven months of FY 2018, the total number of refugees admitted for the entire fiscal year would be less than 15,000, which is 30,000 below the 45,000 cap for refugees set forward in the Trump administration’s presidential determination announced in September.

If it should be 15,000 that would be the lowest number admitted since the creation of the present system of admitting refugees.  However, anything above George W. Bush’s two lowest years of 27,070 (2002) and 28,117 (2003) would not set any records. In both those years the CEILING was set at 70,000 (so much for ceilings having any meaning!).

Leahy continues:

The refugee resettlement industry — which receives almost all of its estimated $1 billion annual funding from the federal government — is already feeling the budget pinch resulting from the diminished number of new arrivals. [And, that is why you are seeing so many refugee ‘forums’ in various states seeking to gin-up negative media publicity against Trump—ed]

[….]

The harsh political reality now facing the refugee resettlement industry is that neither the Trump administration nor Congress have much inclination to meet that 45,000 annual refugee ceiling.

Continue reading here.

Want to see where the refugees went in the first month of FY18.  Here is a map from Wrapsnet (October 1-31, 2017).  Top ‘welcoming’ states were Texas, Ohio, California, New York and Washington.

 

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Sorry to split the map.  I couldn’t figure out how to get it on one page for the screenshot!  Alaska welcomed 9 and Hawaii (the state begging for more diversity) again got zero!

 

For more on numbers, see my ‘refugee statistics’ category here.

Pew produces handy summary of where refugees have been placed since FY02

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Pew Research Center, which has the money and time, has put together a handy interactive map to show which ethnic groups were placed in which states since fiscal year 2002.

This is the 2017 map (FY17 ended on September 30th, 2017). Of course it can be deceptive because it doesn’t show the numbers.

Take Hawaii for instance that shows Burmese predominated in the refugee flow to that state, but it doesn’t tell you that the flow was probably a whole 3 Burmese refugees (maybe 5 or 6, I was too lazy to look up the number).

 

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The nationalities change over the years as the US jumps to the United Nations’ tune and follows its dictates as to what groups to further diversify America with (that are in vogue at the moment). DR Congo is a hit-cause right now, but watch for movement to the Burmese Rohingya.  Iraqis had their hay-day.  Bhutan chic is fading, and Syrians are oh-so-yesterday. Somalis remain a reliably cool choice year after year.

 

In case you are wondering, Wyoming wisely stayed out of the whole mess over decades. However, a couple of years ago the Republican governor there proposed setting up a refugee office in the state with the help of the Lutheran contractor out of its Rocky Mountain office.  There was a robust citizens’ uprising that ended that idea for now.  (See my Wyoming archive.)

Author Jynnah Radford tells us this at the end (a refresher for new readers).

Generally, refugee populations are dispersed across the U.S. based on local community resources, efforts to reunite families and the ability of nonprofit organizations to resettle refugees. Nine voluntary agencies share the national resettlement workload and determine where refugees will settle. (These agencies maintain a nationwide network of 309 affiliated offices in 180 locations to provide services.)

In other words…

“Local community resources” = welfare, good medical care including mental health care and available housing, etc.  And, LOL! global companies looking for cheap and compliant labor!

“Efforts to reunite families” = once they have established a seed community of a particular ethnic group in your town or city, they will bring in the extended family and that is part of the trick on you! Population gets too large and you are labeled a hate monger and racist for denying ‘family’ reunification if you ask for a slowdown.

“Ability of the nonprofit organizations to resettle refugees” = do the members of the big nine*** have a subcontractor group/other citizens’ group up and running.

“Nine share the workload” = those nine have a monopoly on the resettlement process, they bid for bodies (paying clients) among the incoming refugee cases.

(Nine) “determine where refugees will resettle” = you and your community have no say, they are deciding the future of your town in secretive weekly meetings in DC.

***These are the big nine quasi-government agencies, run by no one elected by you, that make the decisions about how to change your town by changing the people (with the help of the Podesta Group and the meatpackers!).

 

 

President Trump issues new Executive Order on refugees as old one expired yesterday

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Trump and Sessions
The Attorney General will report to the President on his findings in 180 days.

Apparently Donald Trump isn’t finished reviewing the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program and yesterday set forth in a new Executive Order plans to continue to study the many concerns surrounding the USRAP for another 180 days.

That, however, hasn’t stopped the flow of refugees in to the country in the first 24 days of this fiscal year.  The number, as of this morning, is 1,236 entries since October 1. (See the graph below showing monthly admissions over the last ten years.

 

Here are a couple of critical sections of the new EO (read all of it here). Hat tip Richard at Blue Ridge Forum.

(ii) Within 90 days of the date of this order and annually thereafter, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, shall determine, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, whether any actions taken to address the risks to the security and welfare of the United States presented by permitting any category of refugees to enter this country should be modified or terminated, and, if so, what those modifications or terminations should be. If the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, determines, at any time, that any actions taken pursuant to section 3(a)(i) should be modified or terminated, the Secretary of Homeland Security may modify or terminate those actions accordingly. The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State shall administer the USRAP consistent with the determinations made under this subsection, and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.

And, then this section is especially interesting.  The Justice Department is required to do a study of the effect of refugee resettlement including its effect on the “general welfare of the United States.”

(b) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, and in cooperation with the heads of other executive departments and agencies as he deems appropriate, provide a report to the President on the effect of refugee resettlement in the United States on the national security, public safety, and general welfare of the United States. The report shall include any recommendations the Attorney General deems necessary to advance those interests.

We will be watching for that in April!

But, all the more reason you all have to make news where you live so that we can maybe, just maybe, get the attention of the Attorney General! (See St. Cloud!)

Here from Wrapsnet is a month by month accounting of refugee admissions going back to FY2007.  Again, as of today, we have admitted 1,236 refugees in the first 24 days of October.

To reach anywhere near Trump’s FY18 ceiling of 45,000, we would have to admit refugees at a rate of over 3,500 a month.  Each refugee is, as you know, a paying client for one of the nine federal refugee contractors.***

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Take a few minutes to look at this chart. Notice the ceiling and then the actual admissions number. Obama set his last ceiling at 110,000.  I don’t know why it isn’t even reported here. But, be sure to see how he came in at only in the 50,000s for a few years when most media reports leave readers with the impression that somehow Trump has cut numbers in half! That 53,

 

This post is filed in my Refugee statistics and Where to find information categories.

*** For new readers, these are the nine federal refugee contractors placing refugees into towns and cities in most of your states.

Lutheran Social Service planning to seed 225 additional refugees into St. Cloud this year

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
jodi harpstead
CEO Harpstead pulls down a salary and benefits package of over $300,000 annually to head the $91 million a year operation. Link to Form 990 below.

If they succeed they will be placing 27 more than they did in FY17 which ended on the 30th of September.

Checking Wrapsnet, here is a summary (below) of the refugees (mostly Muslims) who were placed by a subcontractor (Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota) of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service mothership located in Baltimore.

Refugees who went to St. Cloud in direct resettlement (there are no reliable numbers on secondary migrants) last year are below.

 

Secondary migrants are refugees placed elsewhere who migrate (legally!) on their own to another town or city.

Minnesota does have the highest number of secondary migrants in the country as we learned a few years ago when such information was published.

In FY17 St. Cloud received 198 of the 1,623 refugees resettled in the entire state.

Burma (4)

Ethiopia (19)

Iraq (9)

Somalia (166)

St. Cloud had the second highest Somali resettlement after Minneapolis (364).

Here (below) is the FY18 R & P Abstract for St. Cloud. 

This is the document that should be made available to the public BEFORE it goes to Washington.  These numbers are determined by Lutheran Social Service in Minnesota (Harpstead’s organization) with the help of “stakeholders.”  Stakeholders should include your local elected officials!

(See my post on St. Cloud yesterday)

Normally this document is kept from the general public, but we were fortunate enough to obtain it. Knowledge is power and that is the primary reason there is so little transparency with refugee resettlement. The feds and the contractors don’t want citizens to have all the facts!

I maintain that if the program is a good one for the community, they should be able to sell it with all the facts on the table!

Below are screenshots of the pages.  Serious students should go to this post where I explained some of the numbers, categories etc.  But, I am far from an expert!

Documents like this (reporting the capacity of your town to ‘welcome’ refugees and from where) come in to Washington from hundreds of towns and cities and are put together to become the basis for the Presidential determination which we know is a maximum 45,000 refugees for FY18 (which is now underway as of Oct. 1).

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Again, knowledge is power!

I leave it to you, again with the help of this post to examine the plans that Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in conjunction with the US State Department and the US Department of Health and Human Services have in the works for St. Cloud.

LOL! Do you see that line in the last chart about voluntary hours/miles?  What that represents is the number of hours and the miles that volunteers put on their own vehicles converted to a cash value.  The contractor uses that figure to show the federal government that they have put some skin in the game (it is supposed to be a public-private partnership after all).  I wonder do volunteers know that they are worth money to the contractor?

Check out the actual cash from foundations/corporations in FY16 and the enormous jump estimated for FY18.  Is that realistic? Can they just make up numbers?

Housing specialist? So the refugees get a housing specialist? Do just regular poor Americans get one from LSS of MN?

The most recent Form 990 for LSS of Minnesota is here (or see LSS financials page):

file:///C:/Users/Ann/AppData/Local/Temp/Lutheran%20Social%20Service%20of%20MN%20-%20Public%20Inspection%20Copy-1.pdf

Other contractors are operating in other cities in Minnesota. See here:

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/acb67-publicaffiliatedirectory1-6-17.pdf

What can you do?

Citizens in St. Cloud, see my complete archive on what I’ve reported about your city since 2008.

Concerned citizens elsewhere, go to the list of contractor/subcontractors I linked above. Call one near you and ask for the FY18 R & P Abstract (Reception and Placement Abstract).  Ask your local elected officials—mayor and council—if any of them have ever seen the plans for their town/city?

Addendum! If you get a runaround complain to your elected officials in Washington—your member of Congress and US Senators. If they can’t (or won’t!) get it for you, then you have even more to complain about!