Add “trickle” to our descriptive media word-list about this years’ refugee flow to America.
Previously we jokedabout “plummeting” numbers (dip, tumble, drop dramatically, drastically decline, etc.). Now we can add “trickle.” Back in the good ‘ol days, Lavinia Limon (USCRI) was sending Mr. Chobani Yogurt (Hamdi Ulukaya) his workers for Twin Falls.
Mr. Chobani Yogurt must be a bit annoyed as the refugee worker stream to his Twin Falls yogurt plant must be trickling too.
And, heck, he even lost pal, doyenne of the refugee contractors, Lavinia Limon last fall. See here.
This article is just another of the ho-hum planted media stories about that mean ol’ Donald Trump and how his refugee slowdown is hurting their refugee industry. It wouldn’t be worth posting except for the blatant admission that plummeting refugee arrivals are hurting the contractors’ budgets.
For longtime readers you are likely thinking—well we know that!
However, ten years ago, when I started writing this blog about the flawed US Refugee Admissions Program, the media didn’t know that refugee contracting agencies*** were paid by the head to place refugees, so I see this paragraph below as progress!
From the Idaho State Journal:
There are challenges that come with taking in fewer refugees. It’s hard to manage the Refugee Center’s budget, Rwasama said, because the center receives federal funding per refugee who arrives. “Everything is impacted when you don’t have funding to provide services.”
More here.
I was glad to see that they say they are taking better care of the formerly placed refugees since they are receiving so few new ones.
Rwasama is CSI Refugee Center director Zeze Rwasama. It has never been adequately explained just how the College of Southern Idaho became a subcontractor for USCRI, one of the nine (soon to be eight?) federal contractors.
Nevertheless, we are happy to see that the admission is being made regularly and the media is now reporting that:
Federal resettlement contractors (and their subcontractors) receive payment from you, the US taxpayer, on a per refugee head basis!
Progress!
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
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.
In a press release dated yesterday, the Manhattan-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) asks its followers to contact members of Congress and Senators to pressure the Prez to fulfill the 45,000 refugee CEILING set by Trump last fall. From his perch in Manhattan, Miliband pulls down a nearly $700,000 annual salary (doing well by doing good!) while he dabbles in UK politics, specifically the Brexit controversy. https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/856974/Brexit-news-Tony-Blair-EU-latest-news-Concordia-summit-David-Miliband
At the present rate the Trump State Department will admit about halfthat number and the resettlement contractors*** are shaking in their boots.
Each refugee admitted represents money, your money, to their budgets and reports are that at least one of the nine that have monopolized all resettlement to the US for a decade might not survive.
That is not true for the IRC, it is rolling in money….
Which reminds me (as I read this press release)—where is “moneybags” Miliband? Why is he not quoted? Too busy mucking around back home in the UK?
This press release wouldn’t be worth mentioning except for one nugget I found interesting (and for the fact that I love writing about this super rich Manhattan-based taxpayer-funded organization making decisions for small city/town America.). Here is some of it:
New York, NY, April 11, 2018 — Midway through the 2018 fiscal year, which ends September 30, just 10,584 refugees have been resettled to the United States. By contrast, 39,098 refugees were welcomed to the U.S. in the first half of the 2017 fiscal year—even with the slowdown on admissions due to the Trump Administration’s refugee bans. This decline in refugee admissions represents a stark 73 percent year-over-year drop. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) projects that a series of excessive red-tape vetting and processing changes will result in no more than 23,000 refugees being resettled in FY18, barely achieving 50 percent of the ceiling.
[They are so deceptive, the reason the number is so high, 39,098, for the first half of FY17 is because Obama presided over October, November, December and most of January and his outgoing State Department was pouring them in as fast as they could before Trump was inaugurated.—ed]
Now this next bit is rich! Here we have Hans (most likely still a Dutch national) who works for a British national (David Miliband) lecturing us about “core American values.”
Said Hans Van de Weerd, Vice President, US Programs, International Rescue Committee:
“Halfway through FY18, the U.S. is establishing a record on resettlement that runs counter to core American values of freedom and welcome and strategic interests abroad.
I can’t believe that they think they can still sell this silly notion, that somehow by curtailing immigration to the US from Muslim countries, we make Islamic terrorists angry (angrier?) with us. Hans Van de Weerd lectures us on “core American values!”
“Drastically diminished refugee arrivals have detrimental consequences for U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, including fueling the anti-American narratives of the very terrorist organizations we aim to defeat. The Trump Administration must change course in the second half of FY18 and meet its commitment to admit 45,000 refugees.” [For the umpteenth time, the 45,000 is a CEILING, a cap, NOT a target!—ed]
Now, here comes the part that interested me most.
We know that the contractors have been dependent on the large number of SIVs entering the US (Iraqi and Afghans who supposedly gave us support at some point) to help feed their budgets (see my recent post here). However, apparently even those numbers are dropping (eeeek!).
Shocking drop in March in admissions of those who assisted U.S. missions
Without explanation, only 510 Iraqi and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients arrived during the month of March, a more than 68 percent drop compared to average monthly arrivals in FY17.
Total SIV arrivals overall in the first half of FY18 have declined by 28 percent compared to the same time period in FY17.
I wonder (if there is a slowdown), if it is because they are running out of places to put them. Supposedly most go to San Diego or Northern Virginia where there is an overload of SIVs and as we reported here, they aren’t finding work.
U.S.-affiliated Iraqis (P-2s) left behind
These are supposed ‘beneficiaries’ and their family members. They always say they are translators, but they could have been taking out the garbage. See here.
U.S.-affiliated Iraqis are individuals who provided critical services, like translation, to U.S. missions abroad and now face persecution as a result.
Conservative estimates suggest that there are approximately 50,000 Iraqis with close affiliations with the U.S. government waiting for interviews to have their cases for resettlement processed.
Yet, only 36 U.S.-affiliated Iraqis have arrived in FY18.
Then here is Hans’ wrap-up:
It’s time to pressure the Administration to pick up the pace on refugee resettlement. Take action now.
Click here to see what they want their groupies to tell Congress.
You should tell your member of Congress and US Senators what you think too, but honestly I have little hope they will get off their duffs and do anything, so right now, it is best toContact the White Houseand tell the Prez to hang tough!
And, for fun, ask him why we pay David Miliband over a half a million a year so he can do his anti-Brexit political agitation work in his home country.
See my David Milibandarchive here. Waaahhh! What will I do when he finally goes home!
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
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.
Is David Miliband going back to the UK, or is he staying in Manhattan to collect an exorbitant salary to manage the largest (financially) refugee resettlement agency in the US? When I see news like this, I wonder.
***Update*** See this amusing bit at the Daily Mailcalling Miliband the “king over the water…” Miliband applying the “double-hander” on you know who!
Maybe what he is really doing is waiting to jump back across the pond when something has been firmed-up there for him.
After all, the US resettlement program is experiencing tough times with fewer refugees, staff layoffs, head honchos bailing out, and even the possibility that the gang of nine will lose one whole agency this year.
(SeeLutheran CEO—gone, and USCRI CEO—gone. )
And, there appears to be no hope for return of the good-old-days on the horizon based on what we are hearing out of the Trump Administration.
Here is the Financial Times on Miliband:
Labour fury and derision at prospect of new centrist party
David Miliband, the former Labour foreign secretary who some centrists see as a potential leader, dipped a toe back into domestic politics last week when he called for a second Brexit referendum.“The threats to peace around the world are more acute than ever,” Mr Miliband wrote in the New Statesman.
As a pal of Soros, the Clintons, Samantha Power and Obama, I don’t know how anyone would call Miliband a centrist!
And, since we pay him nearly $700,000 a year to run the International Rescue Committee, doesn’t he have enough to do without dipping toes in UK politics?
See my archive on ‘Moneybags’ Miliband here.
In some ways I’ll be sad to see him go because he is fun to write about. Just 5 days ago I told you he was trash-talking Europe and saying countries there need to take more refugees.
Invasion of Europe news…. Members of German Special Forces in Muenster yesterday. Still no official report on the deadly attack. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/muenster-attack-several-dead-after-car-drives-into-crowd-in-germany-a3808266.html
I bet Japan Timesis eager to show the citizens of Japan what a mess one’s country becomes when the migrant tide is invited in!
From Japan Times:
BERLIN – A scuffle over immigration has marred the first weeks in office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fourth coalition, promising anything but smooth sailing in the years ahead for the loveless left-right alliance.
Conservatives among Merkel’s Christian Democrats are keen to restrict as heavily as possible so-called family reunifications that would allow some of the million-plus migrants and refugees who have arrived since 2015 to bring in relatives.
That has stirred the ire of Social Democrats (SPD), the reluctant junior partners who helped Merkel into office to end the longest period of post-election limbo in post-World War II German history.
A thousand a month! Chancellor Merkel and Interior Minister Seehofer
Japan Timescontinues…..
In their painstakingly negotiated coalition deal, the parties agreed that up to 1,000 people per month could enter Germany under family reunification, with only immediate relatives eligible.
New Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is eager to tighten the screws further, with a draft law that would prevent people dependent on social benefits from bringing in family members and further restrict which relations are eligible, including ruling out siblings.
Now that is an idea! The US should be doing that too! If the family already here is on welfare, they can’t bring other family members over. Gee, I bet that is already a law we don’t follow!
Many people who arrived in Germany as refugees are yet to join the labor market, undergoing job training or language classes, and would therefore not qualify.
Seehofer is a former leader of the ultra-conservative CSU, the smaller Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s more centrist CDU.
[….]
“If the Social Democrats don’t cooperate, the ‘grand coalition’ would be over” less than a month after Merkel was sworn in, deputy leader of the conservative parliamentary group Georg Nuesslein told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
The family reunification row is just one front in a broader battle over immigration, integration and Islam in German society that has pitted the SPD against the CDU/CSU.
Seehofer is also keen to speed up expulsions of people whose asylum applications are refused, many of whom spend months or years contesting the decisions in the courts or acquire a “tolerated” residence status.
The twin issues of asylum abuse and family reunification are also key elements in the US debate over our southern border.
Can’t lose with the issue of more law and order!
Health Minister Jens Spahn, a rising star of the CDU’s right wing seen as a potential future candidate for the chancellorship, has spent his first weeks in office giving interviews urging more “law and order” in troubled city districts.
Continue reading the story at Japan Times, here.
Japanese readers must be asking: Why would any sane government act to destroy its own country and culture?
See my Germany archive here. And, new readers might like to know that Japan doesn’t want to open its doors to the third world, here.
And, for those with a lot of time, see my archive on the ‘Invasion of Europe’ by clicking here.
Hmmmm!
This is from a short article at The Catholic Recordin Kentucky. It’s about how difficult it was for a new employee with Migration and Refugee Services in Louisvilleto learn the ropes about the resettlement process.
I can relate since I’m still learning the system after writing about it for nearly 11 years, but one bit caught my attention! Here is what Catholic Charities of Louisville’s “employment team leader” Somali Ahmed Hussein told the new guy on the block:
One of my co-workers who is always willing to share his story and answer questions about his experience as a refugee is our employment team leader, Ahmed Hussein.
Ahmed is a Somali refugee who came to Kentucky after spending eight years in a Kenyan refugee camp. I remember when I first met Ahmed, I asked why they chose Louisville as a destination, and his response was really eye-opening to the entire resettlement process, “Man, we didn’t choose Louisville, they (the United Nations High Commission for Refugees) choose for you, and you take the destination they offer.”
You know what!
Since the US State Department and their resettlement contractors*** NEVER explain to the public how locations are chosen (it is one of the most closely held secrets of the whole process), we’ll go with Mr. Hussein’s explanation until we get some real answers!
And, have a look at this graphic I found. It’s a couple years old, but it does give you some idea of where the UN is placing Somalis!
I missed this article in 2016: http://stumpinfortrump.com/2016/03/19/somali-tsunami-obama-sending-700-per-month-u-s-cities-despite-admitted-terror-recruitment-problem/
This is the Top Twenty list of cities (targeted by the UN?) from that map:
Minneapolis-St. Paul – 646
Columbus, Ohio – 412
Buffalo, N.Y. – 361
Syracuse, N.Y. – 307
Dallas-Ft. Worth – 302
Salt Lake City, Utah – 276
San Diego – 275
St. Cloud – 243
Louisville, Ky. – 236
Phoenix, Ariz. – 218
Seattle, Wash. – 212
Erie, Pa. – 207
Atlanta – 159
Glendale, Ariz. – 155
Tuscon – 154
Boston – 153
Houston – 150
Nashville – 148
Kansas City, Mo. – 145
Portland, Ore. – 132
Contact the President by clicking here. Tell him it is time to get the UN out of our refugee resettlement business!
*** These are the nine major resettlement contractors who keep this secret well: How is your town or city chosen?
I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
(Catholic Charities works for the US Bishops.)
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.
