CIS: More on the Australian "dumb deal;" 'refugee' deal gets dumber by the day!

Nayla Rush at the Center for Immigration Studies has done us all a great service by pulling all the threads together on the “dumb deal” that could see the US taking over 1,000 ‘refugees’ that Australia does not want to take to its mainland.
Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily summarizes the key points and adds some comments by me and others:

According to a new report, President Trump is moving forward with a deal made by the Obama administration to resettle illegal-immigrant boat people whom Australia will not accept as “refugees” even though they have been classified as such by the United Nations.

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to implement the deal with Australia. Under the terms, the U.S. will accept hundreds of unwanted Muslims rejected for asylum by the Aussies in return for several thousand Central American refugees awaiting resettlement at a U.N. camp in Costa Rica.

The deal was negotiated last summer by Obama’s Secretary of State, John Kerry. And Trump famously tweeted that he was going to study the “dumb deal” before accepting it.


 
 

Now, Trump is reported to be moving forward with the deal.

There’s only one problem, say refugee watchdogs.

These really aren’t refugees at all. They are illegal aliens who tried to sneak into Australia, were interdicted at sea and taken to an off-shore detention center in Papua New Guinea. They migrated from some of the world’s worst jihadist strongholds – in Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Iran and Iraq.

The process of resettling these refugees, mostly men, is “well underway,” immigration analyst Nayla Rush reports for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.

“The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) referred for resettlement in the United States over 850 detainees who were granted refugee status,” Rush writes. “Those could be admitted by the end of October, after undergoing ‘extreme vetting.’ But, no matter how ‘extreme’ or dependable the vetting (and the data U.S. officials use to screen these refugees is transmitted from a private refugee-resettlement contractor), the question remains: Why resettle Australia’s unwanted refugees in the United States?”

Rush highlights that these “refugees” are, for the most part, from countries which the Trump administration is trying to ban travel.

“Most also suffer from serious mental health issues, are not keen on coming to the United States to begin with (Australia was and still is their preferred destination), and are likely to have nothing but disdain for President Trump,” she reports.

Continue here, and read Rush’s full report here it is loaded with more details on the “deal.” She has a follow-up here. See the role one of the nine federal refugee contractors is playing.

The CIS report is so loaded with nuggets of information, don’t be surprised to see me write about it again in coming days.

Tennessee: World Relief accused of not taking care of their refugees

When refugees were initially being placed in the county where I live (now more than 10 years ago), our community’s first impression was that the ‘Christian’ resettlement agency—the Virginia Council of Churches—was basically dropping off a couple hundred refugees, placing them in deplorable housing, and then not providing them with some of their basic needs.
I wanted to know what sort of program was this.  Did the government allow this? But, of course as we know now, nine major federal resettlement contractors (including World Relief)*** are federal government contractors who oversee a network of over 300 subcontractors.  The nine sign agreements with the US State Department laying out what services they will provide refugees in their care. Indeed the contractor is paid by the head for each refugee it is assigned.
Over the years, we have reported on many cases like this one being made in Tennessee that the contractor is not fulfilling its end of the bargain.
From The Tennessee Star:

During the March “Murfreesboro Muslim Youth” (MMY) meeting soliciting help for refugees brought to Rutherford County by federal resettlement contractor World Relief, it was disclosed that goods and services that the government paid for were not provided to the new refugees.

Abdou Kattih has been an outspoken critic of efforts by the legislature to keep Shariah law out of TN and to rein-in the refugee industry in the state. http://www.dnj.com/story/news/politics/2016/01/20/legislative-proposals-prompt-muslim-community-efforts/78809062/

According to Abdou Kattih, founder and president of MMY, were it not for his organization, special emergency needs such as getting medical care for the refugee who arrived with a broken jaw or simply providing household essentials and even clothing, would not have been addressed, explaining they had taken care of “someone that does not have literally anything but the clothes they had off of last month.”

Melissa Sohrabi, who merged her group “Roots for Refugees” with MMY, was more direct in detailing the deficiencies of the government contractor in this talk she delivered in March:

“There is an expectation of what should happen and there’s reality of what really does happen. . . Why didn’t World Relief give them a table and chairs? Why didn’t they bring them a couch? What’s going on? . . . Not only did it not happen but if it did happen, those families are charged for every belonging, every item that is donated to World Relief, the family is then charged for, for having it delivered to them.”

World Relief (WR), based in Baltimore, is one of nine national refugee resettlement organizations that sign a “Cooperative Agreement” with the U.S. State Department to receive federal funding to resettle refugees. This is taxpayer money allocated for each refugee brought to a community; the funds are split between the refugee and the agency. In addition, the resettlement agency is required to provide the goods and services as detailed in the signed agreement.

Between fiscal years 2016 -17, WR was paid over $40 million by the federal government to resettle refugees in communities where they operate local offices which also receive federal funding through grants administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Continue reading here.
One of several things that came to mind when I read this, is something I have been wondering about for some time.  Five of the nine resettlement contractors are ‘Christian charities’, one is Jewish and three are secular.
They all eagerly resettle Muslim refugees, but I have wondered when will some Muslim charity demand to get in on the federal gravy train? Laying the groundwork in this story?
***Here are the nine federal contractors that monopolize the US Refugee Admissions Program:

 

After initial disappointment, Ohio resettlement agency getting excited for higher refugee influx

The Trump Administration is on target to blow past its own 50,000 admission determination number in 2 weeks!

As we reported here, just as the Memorial Day weekend was getting underway, the US State Department announced to its contractors that it was  going to open the refugee spigot wide again for the remaining months of fiscal year 2017 (the year ends on September 30th).

A picture speaks a thousand words! Lavinia Limon is the CEO of federal resettlement contractor USCRI and on her left is the CEO of Chobani Yogurt which has been a leading ‘consumer’ of refugee labor in America. “Give me your tired, your poor…” willing to work for lower wages…”yearning to breathe free.”

That means some of the federal refugee contractors, like this one in Ohio, may need to hire back some employees they had earlier let go, but there is still a question about how quickly Trump’s State Department and Dept. of Homeland Security can get the processing ramped-up abroad.
I had been waiting for the Trump White House to correct the mistake about opening the spigot, but their silence now signals that the White House is in agreement with the ramp-up!
From WKSU.  The International Institute of Akron is a subcontractor of one of nine major contractors (USCRI***in this case):

President Obama authorized 120,000 [No! It was 110,000!—ed] refugees for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

President Trump cut that in February to 50,000. But the State Department sent a memo in late May telling refugee groups they would no longer be restrained by weekly quotas.

Liz Walters of the International Institute of Akron says resettlement numbers have always ebbed and flowed, with the agency resettling as few as 25 and as many as 130 a month. She says how many will be coming now depends on what happens overseas.

“The big question mark is how many folks have been in process overseas and how quickly they can start to schedule those folks for travel or at what point they finish up their security clearances and can get them here before the end of the fiscal year.”

[….]

Walters notes that Trump’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year [begins Oct. 1, 2017—ed] includes funding to resettle 50,000 refugees, the minimum under the law.

As far as I can tell, there is no legal minimum!
I’m not lawyer, and perhaps there has been some case law or regulations that I don’t know about, but as I read the Refugee Act of 1980, there is no requirement for any specific number after 1982.  Here (below) is the Act on admissions.  There is a lot of discussion about procedures if the President needs to ‘up’ the numbers, but I don’t see any prohibition about going below 50,000!
 

 
Be sure to read the law yourself and see that “consultation” is with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and as far as I can see only requires the President to supply them with information.
I repeat!
Do you see how clever the refugee industry propaganda machine is—we are only talking about admission levels, not reform of the whole program.
The only way to force Congress to scrap/reform the Refugee Act of 1980 is for Donald Trump to set the admissions number at zero for FY18 and tell Congress, no more until they get to work. Heck, make them work through the month of August!
He also has the power to stop the flow right now without any Executive Order.

Today the Trump admission level is at 47,434 (Wrapsnet) and, at the admissions rate announced on the eve of Memorial Day, he will thus blow past the 50,000 mark (set by him) in 2 weeks!

***By the way, USCRI is approximately 97% funded by you—taxpayers! See here.

Costa Rica: Are US taxpayers supporting HIAS office?

“What we’re doing here is unprecedented in the current system.”

(Kathya Araya)

 

HIAS dropped the word Hebrew from its name a few years back.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, one of nine federal refugee contracting agencies (largely funded by you), has a new office in Costa Rica (opened in February of this year!).
Normally I wouldn’t have noticed this item on their website but because Costa Rica is somehow part of that Australian “dumb deal” it piqued my interest.
Here and here are news items on HIAS’s website about the new office.
And, here is one of several posts of mine on the Australia deal where we will take up to 1,250 illegal alien boat people (mostly from Muslim countries) that Australia is holding in detention centers, and ‘refugees’ in Costa Rica will be shipped to Australia in exchange.
I’ll ask again, what do we get in this deal because illegal migrants and asylum seekers in Costa Rica are not our problem—or are they now that HIAS is there processing people?
Most of those in Costa Rica are economic migrants and others (some running from crime) who are really not persecuted people legitimately in need of refugee protection.
It sure looks to me like our US Department of State is getting out of control!
Is HIAS paying for this “legal” office with private charitable donations? Or, is this ‘program’ one more little gift the Obama Administration left for you—the US taxpayer! And, if Costa Rica’s immigration issues are of concern to the US government, why do we need middlemen NGOs there who are not accountable to taxpaying voters?
Here is my archive on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Since Trump/Tillerson have not yet chosen anyone to rein-in the bureaucrats at the DOS, I’m starting to wonder if the contractors, like HIAS, are running the show there!

Canada to expedite asylum claims from Yemen and Egypt

That is what Refugees Deeply is reporting here.  (To learn more about the pro-more-refugees site, go here.)

Trudeau and Trump earlier this year.

Obama junior (Justin Trudeau) is ‘welcoming’ the Muslim world to Canada while President Donald Trump has appealed the so-called travel ban case to the Supreme Court.
One of the countries whose citizens Trump would at least temporarily ban (as Trudeau welcomes them!) is Yemen.

Canada to Expedite Entry of Refugees From Yemen and Egypt

Canada has added war-torn Yemen and repressive Egypt to its fast-track asylum list. The inclusion of the two countries will mean swifter decisions on refugee status for nationals of those countries.

Egyptians and Yemenis seeking asylum will still have to secure a tourist or other visa to reach Canada and apply. It will mean a smaller hearing and quicker decision once they make it there.

Petra Molnar, a migration researcher, told the Middle East Eye that the expedited country list aims to recognize that conditions in certain countries may “require a faster processing.”

Canada’s existing expedited list includes Syria, Iraq and Eritrea, with Burundi and Afghanistan also expected to be added this month. [Yikes!–ed]

A claimant from one of the designated countries still has to prove his or her need for protection.

Yemen is in a state of civil war that has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, with 19 million of its 28 million people in need of aid. Egypt under the government of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has locked up hundreds of thousands of people in a crackdown on all forms of opposition.

Readers, most of those al-Sisi is trying to control are the Muslim Brotherhood agitators.  The ‘Brothers’ are banned in Egypt.  At one point Donald Trump talked tough about banning them here as well.
I have 196 previous posts on Canada, go here to learn more about what is happening north of our unsecured border.