Enduring mystery: How did Delaware dodge the refugee bullet for decades?

There is a short news item at Delaware Public Media about how a Jewish refugee agency in Delaware is waiting for seven families (likely Muslim families based on their country of origin) they hope they will soon be settling in Delaware—the First State.  So I thought I might revisit a topic I haven’t discussed for a long time and that is the origin of the Refugee Act of 1980.

Senators Biden and Kennedy are responsible for the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. See list below of other Senators deeply involved in 1979.

But, first here is a portion of the short piece at Delaware Public Media:

The state of Hawaii’s stay on Trump’s second travel ban suspends the FY17 cap for refugees – currently set at 50,000.

That opens the door for refugee families from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Eastern African country of Eritrea in line to come to the First State, but none of them have travel plans in place yet.

Jewish Family Services of Delaware Refugee Resettlement Coordinator Sarah Green says that currently, the families are stuck in Jordan and Ethiopia.

“It’s hard to know what’s happening,” Green said. “We just have to wait and see. We get a very limited view of what’s happening over there.”

She says her agency is taking the approach that these families could arrive any day – and working to ensure they’ll be comfortable when they reach Delaware.

[….]

There’s reason to expect they could arrive soon. According to the U.S. State Department, 900 flights for refugees to the U.S. are being scheduled every week.

As of this morning, 831 new refugees arrived in the US in the past week (5/5-5/12) according to Wrapsnet. And, that puts us at 44,072 this fiscal year.

At this rate the Trump Administration will hit 50,000 in about 7-8 weeks.  Will they stop at 50,000 which should happen around the first week of July? That is the question!

Delaware, in some ways, is more interesting to me than some of the other very low refugee admission states (LOL! including Hawaii).  See chart below.
And that is because then Senator Joe Biden was one of the chief sponsors of the Senate-generated Refugee Act of 1979 (S.643) which became the Refugee Act of 1980 when Jimmy Carter signed it in to law the following year.  You can learn more about it here.  Pay special attention to the part about how states were NOT to be burdened with welfare costs of refugees.
Here are the co-sponsors of S.643 another of Senator Ted Kennedy’s swamp-America-with-immigrants bills:
 

Mostly Dems of course!

 
So how is it that Delaware is in the bottom ten locations for refugee seeding when then Senator and now former Vice President Joe Biden is that state’s most prominent political figure?  Did he welcome refugees to America in 1979, but keep them from swamping Delaware with diversity for decades?

Wrapsnet data only goes back to FY2003, but that gives us enough years to see a pattern. (For researchers more diligent than I am, you can go back through all the previous annual reports and put the data together from the very beginning, but I expect the pattern is similar in the early years.)
So from FY03 through today (in FY17) we admitted 886,324 refugees to America (not including asylum seekers) and Delaware got a whopping 139 of them!

In the years Joe Biden was Vice President, Delaware got only 50 refugees.

Here are the last ten locations for refugee placement from FY03 to the present. What the heck is “Unknown State?” Does that mean 68 refugees were placed secretly somewhere? Yikes!
 

If Delaware Public Media really wanted to do some important work, reporters there should try to find out exactly why and how Delaware dodged a bullet for so many years when their claim to fame, Veep Joe Biden, sponsored the original law and then apparently kept diversity-seeding from the state! (It is not because of the state’s small size since Rhode Island got thousands more than Delaware).
For new readers, this post is filed in my ‘where to find information’ category and in ‘Refugee statistics.’

AP perpetuates myth that numbers of refugees arriving in the US under Trump are "plummeting!"

It is really amazing to see how blatantly the mainstream media spins the facts!
Before I even get to the story, once again, here (below) is the data for the last ten plus years (from the Refugee Processing Center). FY2007 and FY2008 are Bush years.  FY2009-2016 are Obama years. And, like it or not, FY2017 is Trump (even though the FY began on October 1, 2016).
First look at the ceilings set over the years.  Did Obama ever set one near 110,000 (set in Sept. 2016) for any of his years prior to his final months in office?
Until Obama’s last years, he didn’t come close to the CEILING in his first 4 years, see especially FY11 and 12 (it is a ceiling not a TARGET)!  Obama had two years under 60,000! Did the resettlement contractors complain and moan about Obama—NO!
Much is being made in the media about Trump’s March number (2,070) but who had lower months—both Bush AND Obama. See Obama’s October 2014. It is 1,810! March 2011 is lower too!

Is Trump’s April that far out of line from some of Obama’s months? NO! Obama had some months lower than 3,316!
Now have a look at the first 4 months for the last eleven years. Until Obama’s last months in office, have you ever seen the numbers so high in the first 4 months for all of the years? The Obama State Department began pouring refugees in at record numbers (in anticipation of a Trump slowdown?) and I bet they also skipped a lot of screening to get the flow going at that incredible rate.
Again look at the numbers!  Trump is on target for a just below an average year of about 60,000 admissions, but much to my shock the AP is reporting that Congress has granted enough funds for 75,000 this year!  75,000 would put the admission number ABOVE any year from FY2007 to FY2015!
So who is AP trying to kid?
 

 
Here are some snips from the AP story by Meredith Hoffmann which begins with a Somali sob story.  Why does no one ever ask how it came to be that this Somali man abandoned his family for seven years, got in to the US without them and left them to deal with poverty and war in Africa?
Besides the effort to make it look like numbers are “plummeting,” Hoffmann actually helps make the case why this program needs to be dumped or reformed.  The first thing that Congress must do is stop the per head payment to NON-PROFIT resettlement agencies who then whine and moan whenever numbers drop (like Kekic here!).  She also points out the many states that are trying to get out of the program. So where is Congress?

The family’s case illustrates how Trump’s travel bans have caused the number of refugees coming into the U.S. to plummet in the last two months, despite his executive orders largely being blocked in the courts. The number of refugees arriving in the U.S. dipped to 2,070 in March, which was a six-year low except for a period in 2013 when the federal government was shut down. The figure was slightly higher in April, 3,200, but it was still much lower than the months preceding Trump’s order. [Note that we pointed out above that Obama had a couple of months below 2,070! I don’t recall any crying and moaning then!—ed]

[….]

It can’t be turned on and off like a faucet because the NGO contractors then can’t figure out how to pay their salaries! This is why Congress must get these middlemen phony religious contractors out this business!

“This program simply can’t be turned on and off like a faucet,” said Erol Kekic, executive director of the Immigration and Refugee Program for Church World Service, one of the world’s largest resettlement organizations.

[….]

Conservatives praise the decrease but insist a total halt in admissions is necessary. Refugee groups say the drop has forced them to lay off employees while trapping thousands of people in war-torn nations, overflowing refugee camps and dangerous living conditions amid the world’s largest refugee crisis in modern history.

At the same time, Republican-controlled [state—ed] legislatures have been doing their part to limit the flow of refugees into their states.

[….]

The legal challenges returned the refugee cap number to 110,000, [No, see the chart above, it is in legal limbo—ed] but the slowdown from January to March and actions in Congress mean the U.S. will likely come nowhere close to reaching that number by the end of the fiscal year in October.

The U.S. is currently on pace for about 60,000, but a State Department spokesman said the agency was “not in a position to speculate as to the final number of refugees that will be admitted by the end of Fiscal Year 2017.” [Obama had two years under 60,000!—ed]

“Tickets were canceled, exit permits were canceled,” said Kay Bellor, vice president of programs for the resettlement agency Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services. “You can’t just turn around and say, ‘everybody get back on the plane.'”

Congress has approved a budget for only 75,000 for this fiscal year. A U.S. State Department spokesman said the country is now resettling 900 refugee arrivals weekly, to remain within that budget.

On this next point, this for me is the Trump test!
Trump has the legal right to set the arrival number for FY2018 at zero if he wants to. What number will he propose in September?  The other part of my personal Trump test is this: Will the Trump administration tell Congress (or lead Congress) to dump the law or do a complete legal re-write of the program?  If he does not do it this year, it will never happen!
AP continues….

And Trump can set his preferred limit for fiscal year 2018 — likely a steep drop from former President Obama’s 110,000, said Anna Greene, senior director of policy for U.S. programs with the resettlement agency International Rescue Committee. [It is maddening how this 110,000, nothing more that a wish from a departing president, becomes the number the program is expected to submit!—ed]

Resettlement agencies get paid per refugee, causing them to cut back once the flow slowed down. Church World Service cut about 600 of its 640 employees in Sub-Saharan Africa but later rehired some of them, said Kekic.

You can read the rest of the AP story by clicking here.

Can we call Minnesota Somali Measles outbreak an epidemic yet?

Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart has been doing great work digging in to the Minnesota Somali measles outbreak which we first reported here on April 20th.
Health officials in Minnesota predict it is going to get worse before it gets better and you can bet it is costing the state taxpayers a bundle to track and treat.

Kris Ehresmann is director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division at the Minnesota Department of Health. Photo: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2009/10/16/ehresmann

Did you know that Measles was considered eradicated in the US in 2000?  I didn’t!
New cases are coming in with the new immigrants, most likely the refugee flow that Trump has not curtailed!
Here is Leahy yesterday:

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced on Friday afternoon that the number of confirmed cases of measles in the state has now increased to 44, three more than had been confirmed 24 hours ago, and ten more than had been confirmed 48 hours ago.

Of the 44 total cases, 41 are in Hennepin County, two are in Ramsey County, and one is in Crow Wing County.

Forty-two are “confirmed to be unvaccinated.” Two “had 2 doses of MMR.”

Forty-three of the cases are “in children ages 0 through 10 years,” while there is “1 case in an adult.”

MDH reports that “38 of the cases are Somali Minnesotan.”

[….]

“Once measles begins to spread in unvaccinated populations, it can be very difficult to stop,” Kris Ehresmann, director of infectious disease control for MDH, said in the statement.

“We would not be surprised if we saw additional cases in other parts of the state where there are clusters of unvaccinated people before this is over,” Ehresmann added.

[….]

“Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but it is still common in other parts of the world. Ehresmann noted that Europe is currently experiencing a significant measles outbreak. [Gee, I wonder why?—-ed]

Continue reading here.

So where have Trump’s Somalis been placed in Minnesota?


When trying to figure out the source of the initial case of Measles in the state, the first group to be analyzed should be refugees admitted to the US in recent months! 
As we have reported on many occasions, the US State Department and DHS do not weed-out sick refugees.
The Minnesota Department of  Health should find out which Somalis entered the state within the disease’s incubation period.  Of course they will have trouble finding out who is ‘just visiting’ since there is no travel ban in place and as far as I know there is no way to track those who get in as visitors.  And, never forget, Somali, so-called refugees, are traveling back and forth to Africa all the time (so much for fearing persecution!).
For your edification, here (below) is where 193 new Somali refugees were placed in Minnesota since President Trump was inaugurated.
Overall (as of today, May 6th) Trump has welcomed 1,394 Somalis since inauguration day. Minnesota is the number one state, but as we reported here, some placed in other states pack up quickly to get to Minnesota as ‘secondary migrants’ to join their own kind of people and avail themselves of the more generous welfare that they get in MN.
(I am having trouble with screen shots these days, so forgive the lousy shots below).
From Wrapsnet:


For new readers, we have 328 previous posts in our ‘Health Issues’ category, click here to learn more about the many diseases, parasites, and mental health issues involving the refugee flow to America. You will see that TB is an especially big problem in the refugee flow.

Despicable USA Today says refugee numbers plummet under Trump, but were silent when Obama monthly numbers were low

It is so maddening to see how the Leftwing Open borders media spins the news!
Here USA Today trumpets:

Refugee admissions plummet under Trump, USA TODAY analysis finds

Before you even read their analysis, look at this chart we posted two days ago showing monthly admissions for the last ten years.  We pointed out that at this point in the fiscal year (the end of April) we actually admitted more refugees than we did in that period for the last ten years. See also this morning’s numbers report.
Trump is on target (we are unhappy to say) to bring in just slightly less than the average number for the previous ten years, but you would never know that from reading the mainstream media!

Kay Bellor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services told USA Today: “The statements from this administration about refugees are shocking to me…It’s language I’ve never heard used with refugees…” Photo: http://lirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Kay_BellorBiography.pdf

See the chart that comes directly from the US State Dept. data below:
Notice that Obama had a month (FY2014) at 1,810 (did USA Today trumpet a plummet?)
Notice that Obama had two very low months in FY11, 2,034 and 2,190 (did USA Today trumpet a plummet?)
Notice that Obama had many months where the numbers were in the 3,000s. (did USA Today trumpet a plummet?)
And, don’t miss the fact that Obama, in many years did not reach his ‘ceiling’ and in fact never set one anywhere near 110,000 until he was on his way out of office!
Indeed, if Trump keeps his present pace he will exceed Obama’s years of FY11 and FY12.
Notice that George W. Bush’s numbers were in the 2,000s and 3,000s for many months.
 

 
Now here is how USA Today begins its story:

The number of refugees arriving in the United States has dropped sharply this year because of President Trump’s threats to bar their entry, even though his order for a total 120-day ban has been blocked twice by federal courts, a USA TODAY analysis of government figures shows.

The U.S. accepted 2,070 refugees in March, the lowest monthly total since 2013, according to State Department data. April ended with 3,316 refugees admitted, the second-lowest total since 2013.

The lying sacks only went back to 2013 where they could find a number that works for them, but how did they manage to overlook October 2014?
Read to the very end of the story and see what Mark Krikorian had to say.  And, USA Today finally does get to the crux of the matter—-the contractors are worried about their cash flow if Trump does follow-through and cap resettlement at 50,000.
The big test for Trump comes in September when he sets the level for FY18 and we will be watching.
BTW, there used to be “scoping meetings” in May (held by the US State Dept) to ask the public what the numbers and nationalities should look like for the upcoming fiscal year.  We will be watching to see if Tillerson’s DOS goes back to that practice.  The Obama Administration curtailed  those meetings in its final years because they really didn’t want to hear what the general public had to say!

Trump has admitted 13,224 refugees since January 20th, 5,135 since supposed moratorium began

And, Syrians, Iraqis and Somalis arrive by the thousands…..
I know I am sounding like a broken record! But….

They (Syrians) aren’t going back at all! Trump is admitting more Syrians every day!

We have not forgotten that Donald Trump announced earlier this year that on March 16th a 120-day moratorium on all refugee resettlement would commence for the purpose of assessing how well we are screening refugees. (That was ALL, across the board and not just the so-called banned countries).
Then the courts intervened to stop a completely unnecessary Executive Order on the matter and the Administration tucked its tail, and continues admitting refugees as if nothing was ever said (before or after the Presidential campaign).
Here are the numbers this morning:
Since FY2017 began on October 1, 2016, we have admitted 43,241 refugees, and are on target to have a slightly below average admissions year, as I reported  here.  However, we have admitted more refugees at this point in the fiscal year than any year in the previous ten.
Since Inauguration Day on January 20th, Donald Trump has admitted 13,224 refugees.  Including:

Afghanistan (340)

Iraq (1,599)

Somalia (1,394)

Sudan (303)

Syria (1,534)

And, since the day the moratorium was supposed to begin to assess security screening (March 16th), Trump welcomed 5,135.
Here (from Wrapsnet) is where  the 1,534 Syrians were placed from January 20th up to this morning:

Alaska and Hawaii got zero.

This post is filed in our ‘Trump Watch’ category, click here.