DHS says they can’t handle 50,000 refugees for FY18, but 40,000 is okay!

It is not okay with me and thousands of American taxpayers who want to see the program abolished or reformed! Just dickering over numbers is a fools errand—unless of course the White House and Congress have no intention of seriously investigating the program, ever!

Donald Trump announces his Candidacy for President
Dumb political move: 50,000 (or 40,000) third worlders beginning to arrive in 10 days gets Trump nothing! The Left will still hate him and it will do nothing to satisfy Americans looking for relief from the financial and cultural burdens the program creates.

This is a huge disappointment.

Suspending the program in light of Harvey, Irma and Maria (when Americans are hurting and need housing and help) would have been the sensible thing to do in this non-election year.

Does bringing more poverty to America at this time make political sense?

And, does anyone really think that when the entire Congress and a third of the Senate is up for election in 2018, they will lift a finger to investigate and reform? Of course not!

This article at Politico (thanks to Joanne) tells us why the White House has been remiss in following refugee law and getting the decision made in a timely fashion.  Here we are right up to the deadline and the dickering continues….

And, Trump doesn’t get it!

He will get s*** at 40,000, or 50,000, anyway.  He might as well suspend the program and tell Congress to review the law! He has the power to do that!

Politico:

Department of Homeland Security officials have warned the White House that they may have trouble processing 50,000 refugees next year, putting additional pressure on President Donald Trump to lower the cap on refugees entering the United States to the lowest point in decades.

In private meetings with White House officials in recent weeks, DHS officials have raised logistical concerns about handling 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2018 if the president decides to maintain the cap that he imposed as part of the travel ban, according to two administration officials.

One of the administration officials said the department was swamped with a backlog of asylum applications, which have skyrocketed in recent years. In June, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had roughly 275,000 pending “affirmative” asylum cases — when someone arrives in the U.S. and requests safe haven. The figure amounts to a more than 600 percent increase in the backlog compared with December 2013.

The pressure from DHS comes as Trump faces a vanishing window to make the decision on refugee admissions. According to the statute that governs the program, the president should determine refugee levels before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Though administration officials say Trump has not yet made up his mind, they expect him to lower the refugee cap below 50,000.

DHS has recommended setting the fiscal year 2018 refugee ceiling at 40,000, the administration officials said.

You can read the rest yourself, here.  I have to go get a tooth pulled—highly preferable to reading more about this huge political blunder!

 

Arizona Rohingya refugee story: from poor refugee to political agitator

If you don’t know about the Rohingya, you better learn quickly! You can start your education with my over 200 posts here at RRW.

We have admitted almost 20,000 Rohingya to the US in the last ten years and as their numbers increase they become (like all Islamic ethnic groups) political activists.

Sheraz Islam: from suffering refugee to Islamic political activist! Story and photo here: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/rohingya-refugees-in-phoenix-ethnic-cleansing-in-myanmar-9701725

This article from the Phoenix New Times features a 25-year-old Rohingya Muslim refugee living in Phoenix who wants to get his mother and 10 siblings here (but for that mean old Donald Trump).

A few things you need to know before reading this story, which the Leftwing media will never tell you.

~The Buddhist government contends that the ‘Rohingya’ are not some special group, but are illegal aliens from Bangladesh (a Muslim country) who decades ago illegally arrived in Burma. The Buddhist leaders of Burma want the country to remain Buddhist and don’t want to be demographically conquered by Muslims.

~Aung San Suu Kyi, the famous Burmese freedom fighter, has not rallied to the Rohingya’s cause which infuriates the Left.

~The Organization of Islamic Cooperation is trying to get its foot in the door in Burma to defend their people and agitate against the government.

~The round of violence that began in 2012 (often cited by the mainstream media) was ignited when a gang of Muslim men raped and murdered a Burmese Buddhist girl (something the media never tells you now), and the Buddhists retaliated.

~As we learned here yesterday, the newest wave of violence was from a Burmese military response to attacks by a Rohingya armed group.

Now to the political agitators at Arizona State.

Here is what I want to know, if they are “ethnic cleansing” in Burma (aka Myanmar), why is that our problem?

Why is that a reason to spend billions of US taxpayer dollars bringing people like Islam here, apparently not to add much to American society, but to political organize for Muslims back home?

BTW, Trump will be supplying more Rohingya activists for mosques and Islamic centers when the first Australian rejects get here (see my earlier post).

From the Phoenix New Times, a new cause, not the Syrian Muslim victims (that was oh so last year), but Rohingya:

Here in Phoenix, Rohingya refugees are wondering why no one seems to be paying attention.

Among those trying to spread awareness about the crisis is Sheraz Islam, whose own father died less than a month ago while trying to flee the country for Bangladesh. His family lost their home, their land, and everything they own, he says. And convincing Americans to care, when they may or may not even be able to point to Myanmar on a map, is a challenge.

“Most people, they don’t know who the Rohingya are,” he says. “When we talk to people, we explain that we are an ethnic minority, and the government [of Myanmar] denied us our citizenship.

“We’d like to live in our own country, but unfortunately we had to leave because we are Rohingya.”

LOL! Aung San Suu Kyi not sure she wants the Obama smooch! You can imagine how angry the Left is with Suu Kyi. She is one of them, they think. So how can she not be coming to the defense of Muslims!

Islam is one of roughly 600 Rohingya refugees currently living in the Valley. They make up less than a quarter of the total number of Burmese refugees who have been resettled in Arizona since 2001. Most are Muslims, and arrived after 2012, when attacks on the Rohingya intensified after decades of discrimination.

[….]

After landing in a refugee camp in Sri Lanka, he applied for asylum through the United Nations. The U.S. State Department approved his application, and, a little less than six years ago, he arrived in Arizona. Lutheran Social Services helped get him set up with a job and apartment, and taught him how to turn the lights on and off — he’d never had electricity before.

“We don’t have these kind of things back in our country,” he explains. “They came and they guided us how to use the oven, how to use the microwave, how to use the bathroom.”

Here we go! Rally organized by Islamic Community Centers, what a surprise!

On Sunday night, he and other Rohingya refugees held a vigil on the Old Main Lawn at Arizona State University.

Organized by the Islamic Community Center of Tempe and Islamic Center of the Northeast Valley, it drew a diverse crowd of student activists, local faith leaders, and refugees from around the world. They held up signs calling on Aung San Suu Kyi — the country’s de facto leader, and, ironically, a former winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — to put an end to the violence against the Rohingya.

Lots more here if you feel like reading it.

Again, my Rohingya Reports category is here, posts extend back ten years.

US Catholic Bishops rolling in federal dough according to financial statements

USCCBYesterday I said that it is time for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to add one important detail to every press release or news story where they lecture us (or Donald Trump) about humanitarianism, about social justice, about “welcoming the stranger.”

That important missing piece of information is how much of your money (not freely given) goes to them directly from the US Treasury.

Thanks to reader Joanne for pointing us to recent audited financial reports for the Bishops, here.  And, specifically the most recent one available.

As you look at the numbers, don’t miss the millions going to the Bishops for the Unaccompanied Alien Children!

 

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For fun I went back to the 2010 report for comparison. Wow!

 

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During Obama’s time in office they went from $58 million to $95 million!

You need to know too, that individual Catholic Charities (usually through the local diocese) are also getting money separately from the feds for many activities.  Use USASpending.gov to research your local “charities.”

As we have said repeatedly: refugee resettlement is a business!

Federal contractor removes director of its San Diego office in wake of investigation

See my previous report on what is alleged about the International Rescue Committee (IRC).  (This is David Miliband’s organization.)

And, if you are thinking, ho hum, so refugees got placed possibly illegally in inadequate housing (as some of you previously commented), I need to explain why this case is significant.

It is surely not a one-off case, but what is important is that a mainstream media outlet has actually had the nerve to investigate a darling of the left—the US Refugee Admissions Program, and its contractor, the IRC.  You might not have sympathy for the refugees, but you should.

Your critical aim should be at the federal policies, the bureaucrats, and the contractors*** hired by the feds to bring the refugees to your towns, not the specific refugees who took advantage of what Congress and the White House have offered them.

We need more investigations (like this one) by mainstream media of questionable practices by the contractors in order to further the education of voting Americans!

Number of bodies resettled, more important than quality of care.

So here is the update from Inewsource.org:

A local refugee resettlement agency is searching for a new executive director little more than a week after the organization’s national office found the affiliate had violated housing policies.

David Murphy
I’m guessing that Murphy was sent more refugees than the office could handle in the first place.

A spokesman for the International Rescue Committee‘s headquarters in New York confirmed David Murphy is no longer the relief agency’s executive director in San Diego, but would not address additional questions. A posting for the position appeared online last week.

Earlier this month, the national office said the San Diego affiliate had engaged in housing placement practices that were “inconsistent” with its policies, but declined to discuss its findings further.

The agency’s statement followed a KPBS investigation first published in July that found seven families, who arrived during a rush of refugees last year, living in El Cajon apartments with more people than were listed on their leases, a potential contract violation.

[….]

The resettlement agency receives a one-time stipend of federal dollars to cover housing and other needs for refugees…

Continue here.

***These are the federal contractors paid by the head for refugee “clients” they place (secretively!) in your towns and cities. Congress should be investigating how they are using the millions of federal dollars they receive annually.  The San Diego housing irregularity is, I suspect, the tip of the iceberg!

Will the US Conference of Catholic Bishops ever be honest with parishioners?

Update September 20th: See here, the Bishops received almost $100 Million from taxpayers in 2016 for their migration/refugee fund “good works.”

I know I’m dreaming to think that one day the Catholic Church would explain to parishioners and the public at large that they depend on millions of taxpayer dollars every year to run their migration program.

Cardinal DiNardo
President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. Let’s make a deal, tell the public and your parishioners how many millions you receive each year from the US Treasury for your migration campaign and I will shut up. Not holding my breath!

Here we have one more story where the Bishops are whining about how that mean old Donald Trump might slow the flow of refugees to America.  BUT NOT ONE WORD ABOUT HOW THE BISHOPS’ BUDGET WILL BE IMPACTED!

They want the Administration to admit 75,000 impoverished third worlders to the US beginning October 1, but NOT ONE WORD THAT THEY RECEIVE TAXPAYER DOLLARS ON A PER HEAD BASIS (and the Bishops resettle the largest number of refugees each year).

Maybe many Catholics will think that is all hunky-dory, but they should at least be informed.

Here is the latest from Catholic News Agency:

Washington D.C., Sep 17, 2017 / 04:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Trump administration is reportedly planning to further reduce the number of refugees the U.S. will accept in the coming fiscal year, drawing concern from the U.S. bishops and others.

“We’re strongly urging the administration, the President, to set a Presidential determination of at least 75,000 [refugees],” Matt Wilch of the Office of Migration and Refugee Services at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told CNA of reported changes to the number of refugees the U.S. plans to accept in the 2018 fiscal year.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Trump administration is planning to further reduce the number of refugee admissions for the 2018 fiscal year, “according to current and former government officials familiar with the discussions.”

[….]

Now the administration may be reducing its refugee quota even further, to below 50,000. [Eeek!  I hope it is far below that!—ed]

The Executive Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a written statement Tuesday that they were “troubled and deeply concerned” at reports that the administration was considering the reduction, which they called “inhumane.”

“We implore the administration to show mercy and compassion for those seeking refuge, and to advance the American value of freedom through providing safe harbor to those fleeing tyranny and religious persecution,” the bishops said.

The conference proposed a goal of 75,000 refugees instead. “We think it’s really time to get back to the serious business of saving lives, and we urge the administration to have the total this coming year be 75,000,” Wilch told CNA Thursday.

By the way, the nine contractors (see how much each of them gets from you, here) agreed that 75,000 was the number for this year and have coordinated their lobbying efforts around that number. It is no where near what they asked last year (200,000), but…

I’m guessing they think that is the best they can do and still keep their taxpayer-funded budgets from imploding.

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Did taxpayer dollars pay for this pamphlet?

Now, pay attention Catholics!

The Bishops have launched a propaganda campaign described in this American Thinker article (Catholic push for multicultural utopia gets weird) (hat tip: Julia).  I have no time to go in to it in detail, but I strongly recommend that you—Catholics—read it.

Let me be clear!  The Bishops and the church can do whatever they want to ‘educate’ their people, or welcome illegal aliens and refugees as long as they do so as a private entity.

A very simple concept!

The minute the USCCB takes your money and mine (taxpayers!) it becomes our business how they spend it.