Category: Taxpayer goodies

Trump Admin reining-in Obama plan to get more Central American children to US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Barack Obama illegally expanded the US Refugee Admissions Program a few years ago with his Central American Minors Program (CAM) which allowed Central American parents (from 3 countries) already in the US to get their kids to America by claiming they are refugees.  Obama said it would stem the illegal border invasion by ‘children.’  (Begging the question—so how could these parents simply leave their kids behind in the first place!)

Technically to be a refugee one must prove that one is persecuted for one of several reasons (religion, race, political persuasion, etc.) and that the person (the wannabe refugee) has left his country and would be harmed if returned. This is a very large hurdle for kids who are still in their country of origin and who are mostly economically challenged and not truly persecuted. So Obama bent the law further by allowing them to be paroled in to the US.

Trump has now dumped the parole option. If the kid can meet the refugee standards, presumably he/she can still get here.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

I was looking for an illustration for this story, and although not what the story is about, I found this incredible graph showing the cost to taxpayers for the surge in so-called “unaccompanied children” arriving illegally. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS) is responsible for them. Funny, the number of children crossing has declined while the cost keeps going up!

The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday it plans to shut down a program that offered some children and young adults from three Central Amercian countries a chance to lawfully immigrate to the U.S. to join their parents.

The decision will close down a portion of the Central American Minors program, established in 2014 under President Obama as a way to slow the stream of minors from strife-torn Central American countries.

The program allows unmarried youths under 21 years old from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala who had one parent who had lawful status in the U.S. to apply for refugee status, from their home country.

If the refugee status was denied. they could still be allowed into the U.S. under humanitarian parole, a way to legally be in the country that is not permanent but must be renewed periodically.

In an announcement to be published in the Federal Register today DHS said that it was terminating the humanitarian parole part of the CAM program.

Children and young adults can still seek refugee status , but if that is denied the parole option will no longer be available.

Lisa Frydman, Kids in Need of Defense, is Angelina Jolies organization. https://supportkind.org/about/leadership/

No reason was given for the change to the program, though the administration of President Donald Trump has made both choking off the flow of youths and families from Central America and tightening the legal immigration avenues a priority as part of its overall crackdown on immigration.

[….]

The program began in 2014, and in late 2016 it was expanded to allow additional family members to apply. But that expansion came late in the Obama presidency and because of the length of time it takes to review, investigate and approve an application no one has been admitted under the expanded rules.

Earlier this year the State Department said 11,000 people had applied to the program and 2,400 had been admitted. Another 2,700 individuals had been granted conditional parole but had not yet traveled to the U.S., according to Lisa Frydman with the Kids In Need Of Defense, an advocacy group in San Francisco.

The announcement said that those conditional approvals are now rescinded.

More here.

What might you do today?  Contact the White House and thank the president for doing this, and tell him to dump the whole program.  It is Congress’s job to write laws about who is and who isn’t a refugee.

By the way, much of the cost of the UACs in that graph above is because some of our usual contractors are being paid to care for the kids!

Good luck getting data on refugee welfare usage when Congress can’t get it!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There have been many efforts in recent years to press local and state governments to cough up data on the cost of refugees placed in communities—most recently in North Dakota and Minnesota.

This Congressional Research Memo to Congress from 2015 gives you a glimpse in to why they aren’t able to do it (assuming they were willing!).

Refugees are not identified (separately from other immigrants) at the local level when they go to the local social service agency to get their “benefits.” Indeed, immigrants may not even be designated as such on welfare applications.

Of course, this could easily be remedied by writing a few laws that direct local welfare agencies/school systems getting federal funds to require immigration status at the time one signs up for benefits or enrollment.  Is the recipient a ‘refugee’ or one of many other categories of legal immigrant (or illegal!)?

In 2015, unknown Senators attempted to get some answers and this is what they got. (Hat tip: Joanne)

So, has the recipient of the report done anything about it?

From Congressional Research Service:

 

 

So the Senate requester is directed to this table (below) from the 2013 ORR Annual Report to Congress. You might wish to see some of those yourself by clicking here.

You will find, as I have (see here in 2014), that data like this below is completely extrapolated from self-reporting by refugees who are called on the phone (who can be found and who answer the phone!) and are WILLING to tell a stranger (a contract worker) what ‘benefits’ they are getting.

You can then imagine how useless this data really is!

 

 

As much as I want to encourage efforts to get the true costs for refugees to the American taxpayer, it won’t be possible until local and state agencies are forced to get the information on immigration status of someone coming in for benefits.  And, if it is required to divulge one’s legal status (refugees are legal of course), then, in the process, the local agency will necessarily have to admit the illegal status of some beneficiaries of your taxpayer-funded kindness. They do not want to do that!

And, one more thing!  If you think you can get a true study where you live, you must make sure that included in the cost side of the ledger are costs to the criminal justice system (how much is a life sentence in prison costing some states?), interpreter costs, emergency room costs, monitoring and medicines for those with TB, and the cost to the US economy of remittances (money sent out of the US economy to the refugee’s home country).  Other costs I’m not thinking of?

El Cajon again! Refugee contractor accused of skirting housing rules when placing large families

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Sheesh! A few minutes ago we told you about the huge US refugee contractor—the IRC—working with Starbucks to find refugee employees to make your morning coffees in the San Diego area, and up pops more news (not good news!) about the IRC there.

 

https://www.rescue.org/united-states/san-diego-ca

 

This sort of news will result in a cry for more start-up money for refugees.  It will never result in formal questions being asked by Congress about whether we are bringing in more refugees than we can afford!

From KPBS San Diego:

Three large refugee families that a local nonprofit helped resettle at an El Cajon apartment complex are being asked to move because they have too many people living in their homes.

Uh-oh!

They came forward after KPBS aired an investigation nearly two weeks ago about other refugee families who said the same resettlement agency — the International Rescue Committee in San Diego — put them into too-small apartments by encouraging them to sign leases that omitted the names of some occupants.

IRC’s national office in New York has said it is investigating the recent claims made by refugees. In an email Tuesday, a spokesman said the office is aware of the new cases, which it is also looking into, “and is supporting our clients through their next steps.”

What say you, David? IRC CEO David Miliband giving George Soros their highest award in 2013. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/11/09/federal-refugee-contractor-gives-freedom-award-to-george-soros/

The three families, who moved into their two-bedroom apartments last year, said they received the 30-day notices to vacate a day after KPBS’s story was published on July 27. A manager for the complex, which is under new ownership, said only five people are allowed in a two-bedroom apartment. Two of the families have eight members, while another has seven.

Lalmir Hamdard, a refugee from Afghanistan who arrived here in September, said he relied on an IRC translator to help him sign the English-language lease. A copy of the document provided to KPBS showed five names on the lease instead of all eight members of his family.

“At the time, I didn’t understand it in English — even my daughters with little English didn’t understand,” he said in Farsi through a translator. “I only understood that it said here, ‘Write this, sign here, do this.’ And I did.”

Two neighboring Syrian families who speak Arabic shared similar stories. They would have to find a three-bedroom apartment, which would be more expensive, and they are already having trouble keeping up with rent on their two-bedroom units. However, even a larger apartment may not be big enough depending on a complex’s policy.

More here.

Nice to see some real investigative journalism for a change, but reporter needs to ask….

Where is the US State Department that oversees agreements with its contractors (the IRC is one of nine that contracts with the federal government to place refugees) which surely include rules about how many tenants are in each apartment or house?

We have a huge archive on the IRC and its head honcho—David Miliband—here. Go here to see my latest financial  accounting for the IRC.

Trump loses (with the media) on Australia refugee swap deal….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..but he can still win with the voters!

His first instincts were correct—-this is a “dumb” deal.  And, whoever advised him to move forward with a completely ridiculous (unprecedented!) Obama Administration last minute ‘deal’ should be fired.

(See my extensive archive on the Australia deal by clicking here.)

Update: Iranian detainee kills himself.  He had mental health issues now being blamed on Australian policy and by extension, Trump. See here at Australia News Corp (see video, are you ready for these men as neighbors?)

Turnbull definitely wants the deal to save his political neck! Leftwing Australians want these mostly men admitted to the mainland.

If the Trump State Department/Homeland Security ultimately admit hundreds of mostly Muslim men to American towns, voters will be truly ticked-off.

If he doesn’t go through with the ‘deal,’ get a taste of  the treatment he is already getting from the likes of CNN.

CNN managed to find a family and a single woman to interview (to criticize the leaked phone conversation) while most of the detainees are young men.

All of this could have been avoided if he had killed the ‘deal’ in the first weeks of his Presidency.

From CNN:

(CNN)In the wake of a leaked phone call in which US President Donald Trump repeatedly called them “bad” and “prisoners,” refugees at the center of a controversial deal between the US and Australia say they have lost faith in ever making it to America. [Think about this, they tried to reach Australia illegally and somehow they have some expectation of getting to America!—ed]

“We are really hopeless,” said Shirdel Eskandari Khah, an Iranian refugee who lives with his wife and seven-year-old son on the Pacific island of Nauru.

“We believe that it is another game from the US and Australian governments.”

Under the terms of a deal settled by the Obama administration, the US agreed to vet and then resettle nearly 1,200 refugees like Eskandari Khah, who have been living for years in or around offshore detention camps [So, not all in camps!—ed] run by the Australian government. In return, Canberra would take a group of Central American refugees who had been attempting to make it to the US.

Just think about that previous line.  So these Central Americans were trying to illegally get to the US and somehow it is the American taxpayers’ responsibility to admit them to our towns and cities, or send them on to Australia. BTW, HIAS is involved, see here. (Never a good thing!)

USCIS spokesman Carter Langston—No worries! We are coming back to do more interviews (build up hope, so if the deal falls through, Trump can be blamed further).

Australia was on the right track in its attempt to deter illegal migrants, but WHY IS THIS NOW OUR PROBLEM?

The offshore camps — on Nauru and Papua New Guinea — are key to Australia’s immigration policy. Anyone who arrives by boat without a visa is told they will never be able to settle on Australian soil and sent to the island camps for processing.

[….]

Last week, refugees on Nauru began to hold regular demonstrations, with one of the demands being for an update on the status of the US program.

Carter Langston, a spokesman for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the resettlement deal was ongoing and the department was planning upcoming trips to the camps.

There is a lot more, especially whining questionable refugees, go here.

It is not too late, Trump can still get out of the ‘deal’—at least some American voters will be happy. If he goes forward with the swap, he just gets deeper and deeper in to the muck and shouldn’t expect any praise from the media.

And, whoever convinced him to move forward with the rotten deal in the early days of this Administration needs to be fired!

Refugee contractors launch August recess campaign; minimum 75,000 refugees for FY18

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
From the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society website: https://www.hias.org/support-presidential-determination-least-75000-refugees

 

In mid-September the Trump Administration will be sending its ‘Presidential determination’ to the Hill.

The determination will set the CEILING for the number of refugees the President would like to see admitted to the US and sets priorities for what regions of the world will be the source of those refugees.

It also tells Congress how much money the Administration needs to get that job done.

Obama’s average admissions for 8 years was 69,683. Do they really think that Donald Trump will ask for 75,000?

For the umpteenth time, the number is a ceiling that is rarely reached.

The contractors*** are telling their followers that the magic number for FY18 is 75,000.  They must be taking a new tack because at this time last year they were asking Obama for 200,000.  I suspect they know the situation is bad for their budgets and they need more than 50,000 (paying refugee clients) to stay afloat.

By the way, Trump reset the ceiling for FY17 to 50,000.

And, as  of this morning (according to Wrapsnet) Trump is at 50,672.  This is the first time in the history of the program that the ceiling has been surpassed.

For the eight years of the Obama Administration the average number of admissions was 69,683 (see here). The average would have been much lower if it weren’t for his last year, an outlier, of nearly 85,000.

So, if Trump goes to 75,000 for FY18, which begins October 1, he will be proposing to bring in more refugees than Obama’s average.

Ginning up their base!

Just one portion of the “members” page at the RCUSA. http://www.rcusa.org/members/

In an August recess toolkit prepared by the Refugee Council USA (the lobbying arm of the refugee industry), here is what they are telling their activists (and using your tax dollars for their community organizing!):

Trump’s attacks on refugees, immigrants, and their families are morally detestable, discriminatory, and violate our sacred honor to protect the most vulnerable among us. Right now, we need Congress to urge the administration to resettle at least 75,000 refugees next year and protect DACA. Congress must also robustly fund refugee assistance overseas and the U.S. refugee resettlement program, at minimum at last year’s levels, and reduce funding for mass immigration detention, deportation, and border militarization.

One of the most active of the activist groups is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) which has instructions to its supporters on what to say to Washington Representatives and Senators.

Scratching your head about why Jews would import their enemy? Learn about “Stalinist Jews” where “ideology over reality” rules. Watch starting at minute 46 in this new documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmhfRi5j8aA

They know that the Republican Congress can be manipulated easily by public opinion on this issue because the establishment GOP fears being labeled racist AND many R’s are beholden to the Chamber of Commerce, big business and global corporations looking for more consumers and a ready supply of cheap labor.

***The Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizers? paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities are below.  Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors.

The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, but they also receive myriad grants to service their “New Americans.”

If you are a good-hearted soul and think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again! Big businesses depend on the free flow of cheap (some call it slave) labor.

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/Leftwing activists from the process.