Category: The Opposition

Lutherans and UN sign agreement to work together worldwide on refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Is it official then—that we no longer have poor and suffering Americans (or Europeans) who need the help of the Lutheran Church?

Here we learn that the Lutheran World Federation (expanding its power base among the religious Left?) has signed an agreement to help the UNHCR with refugee camps, etc.  And, we learn that the Lutherans had previously signed an agreement—the first ever—to join forces with an Islamic charity.

Lutherans signing earlier agreement with Islamic charity. http://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/world-lutheran-body-and-islamic-aid-group-sign-cooperative-pact-26168

From Ecumenical News:

The Lutheran World Federation and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide assistance to internally displaced persons and refugees.

“We are witnessing record levels of forced displacement globally, and this makes it all the more important that we and faith-based organizations work together for the sake of the world’s refugees and internally displaced,” Janet Lim, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner, said.

“LWF is a long-standing close partner, and we’re delighted to see the scope for our joint work expand.”

The LWF has worked with UNHCR for more than 50 years the LWF reported on its website.

“This MoU between UNHCR and LWF is not just about our two organizations” LWF general secretary Rev. Martin Junge emphasized. “It is about a dramatically increasing number of refugees and migrants that require concerted efforts and strategic partnerships as the one we have signed today.

Is this why they need more places (like Wyoming) in which to resettle refugees?

They joined forces with Islamic Relief Worldwide in August:

Junge said, “I look forward to exploring together with UNHCR and faith-based actors engaged in the humanitarian field the concrete value we add to humanitarian response in our world today.”

He referred to a similar agreement between the LWF and Islamic Relief Worldwide signed in August to cooperate in humanitarian work.

It is the first official cooperation between a global Christian and a global Islamic humanitarian organization.

In the news about the August agreement, Rev. Junge said “religion is not about violence…”    Tell that to ISIS!

We know the Catholic Bishops get their money from the US taxpayer.  Where does the Lutheran World Federation get its money—are Lutherans worldwide dumping their spare change into collection plates on Sundays?  Or, are they getting some of it from the UN (which is mostly US taxpayer money too!)?

Two refugee contractors awarded taxpayer $$$ to supply lawyers to the “children”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Eight regions of the US will be getting taxpayer funded lawyers.

The Obama Administration has come up with $9 million of your tax dollars so two of the big nine refugee resettlement contractors*** can get lawyers for some of the ‘Unaccompanied alien children’ who broke into America this summer.

Surely what the immigration lawyers will be trying to prove is that the kids are legitimate asylum seekers who can be declared refugees in the full sense of the word making them eligible for all forms of welfare and putting them on the fast track to citizenship.  Of course once the kids are declared “refugees” they will be able to bring in the extended family as well!

Lavinia Limon, CEO of USCRI (in green) and Clinton’s head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement must be jumping for joy at this windfall. Far left is Eskinder Negash, previously a VP at USCRI now heads the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Cozy huh! Wonder why people are sick of Washington! Photo: http://thehispanicblog.com/2012/04/14/who-is-lavinia-limon-meet-the-ceo-of-the-u-s-committee-for-refugees-immigrants/

Who says Obama isn’t creating jobs!

He is creating more jobs at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops special lawyers’ service and at the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI is already funded 99% by you!).

And, he is putting to work potentially hundreds of immigration lawyers who are pouring out of US law schools and looking for work (there is a glut of lawyers these days as any new law school grad will tell you).

From the Washington Times (hat tip: Erich).

Will the gutless wonders in Congress do anything about it?

The Obama administration will pay $9 million over the next two years to give taxpayer-funded attorneys to some of the illegal immigrant children who have surged across the U.S. border this year, the Health and Human Services Department said Tuesday.

About 2,600 immigrants will be able to be represented by lawyers thanks to the funds, which were awarded in two grants to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, according to a notice to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday.

Advocates cheered the decision, which they’d been demanding for months, saying it will not only help the children get a fair hearing on asylum claims, but it will also make the court proceedings go faster, which will end up saving the government money.

But administration critics in Congress said the move could violate federal law and will most likely prolong illegal immigrants’ time in the U.S., encouraging more children to make the dangerous crossing.

To end the surge at the border, the Obama administration should instead focus its efforts on deterring future border crossers and enforcing the laws against illegal entry into the United States,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican. “Without such actions, the flood of people attempting to cross the border illegally will only continue.”  [Blah, blah, blah, but will he do anything?—ed]

The administration’s move marks another effort to circumvent Congress.

Mr. Obama had requested $15 million to provide lawyers for the children in his emergency spending request earlier this summer, but Congress left town without approving the money.

The contractors will decide which children will be served, but there will be eight targeted areas in the US.

The Washington metropolitan region, with its high population of Central American immigrants, has taken an outsize number of the children, so it’s not surprising the Baltimore/Arlington region is one of eight areas that will get the money for lawyers.

The other seven are: Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, Dallas, Memphis, Tennessee, New Orleans and Phoenix.

All of our coverage of the Unaccompanied minors issue is here.
*** Two of the nine contractors hit pay dirt!  These are no longer non-profits, they are quasi-government agencies!

Obama creates new “refugee” program for Central American kids

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

White House double whammy! First the Syrians then the “children.”

In announcing his ‘Presidential Determination’ yesterday for Fiscal Year 2015 refugee admissions, the Administration set up a new and separate program to accommodate tens of thousands of mostly Central American teenagers waiting in Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras for their chance to get into the US.

Thanks to all who sent this story or a version of it.

Pope tells US to help the “children.” Obama obliges. Photo: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28303720

As you read this ABC News account, remember that expanding the definition of “refugee” has in my view been what the recent Southern border invasion was all about.

And keep in mind there are several hundred thousand Central Americans living in the US legally under Temporary Protected Status*** who presumably could, under Obama’s new plan, ask to have minor relatives declared “refugees” in order to join them in America.

ABC News:

The Obama administration is initiating a program to give refugee status to some young people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in response to the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Under the program, immigrants from those countries who are lawfully in the United States will be able to request that child relatives still in those three countries be resettled in the United States as refugees. The program would establish in-country processing to screen the young people to determine if they qualify to join relatives in the U.S.

In a memorandum to the State Department Tuesday, President Barack Obama allocated 4,000 slots for refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean for next year. The number is a fraction of the number of children who have already crossed the border into the United States and are awaiting deportation proceedings.

The program would not provide a path for minors to join relatives illegally in the United States, and would not apply to minors who have entered the country illegally.  [We don’t even know who is illegally in the US, so how will those illegals be identified?—ed]

Instead, it aims to set up an orderly alternative for dealing with young people who otherwise might embark on a dangerous journey to join their families in the United States.

The program is not likely to stop other minors or migrant families from seeking to cross the border. [Then why do it?—ed]

***TPS is perhaps the ultimate legal immigration scam because there is nothing temporary about it!

So where is Congress on all this? (Crickets?)

The next time you hear a dumb politician or a dumb friend say—“Legal immigration is good, but I don’t like illegal immigration”—I want you to pop them in the nose (gently of course) and tell them they don’t know what they are talking about!  Obama has just decreed that this is LEGAL immigration.

See all of our coverage of the ‘Unaccompanied minors’ crisis by clicking here.

Human rights activists complain about stricter asylum rules…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….but don’t get too excited about the possibility that the Obama Administration is seeing the light because as we learned last week, thousands of illegals who entered the country this past summer aren’t even showing up for court!

Thousands have just disappeared into the woodwork of America presumably planning to wait it out until Obama and Congress give them amnesty!

From the Wall Street Journal (hat tip Richard):

Watch Eleanor Acer of Human Rights First testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Asylum fraud last February. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mxDxtHAszU

Immigrants who enter the country illegally are becoming less likely to be deemed eligible for asylum, as federal authorities tighten standards amid an increase in Central American migrants this year.

As an initial step to request asylum, apprehended migrants who say they are scared to go back to their home country are screened to determine if they have “credible fear” of persecution or torture. In July, the most recent month available, 63% of those who claimed they were afraid to return were found to have met that criterion, down from 83% six months earlier, according to a report released to immigrant-rights groups by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The decline comes after the agency’s Asylum Division toughened the criteria its officers use during the interviews. The goal of the new guidelines, according to an agency official, is to ensure that immigrants with little to no chance of obtaining asylum in immigration court are quickly sent home.

Immigrant advocates say the tougher screening criteria are preventing many immigrants from being able to make a case for asylum before a judge.

“It’s turning away people who may very well have been entitled to asylum protection,” said Eleanor Acer, refugee protection director at Human Rights First, a New York-based nonprofit group.

The Asylum Division is one of many federal agencies that have been taxed by an influx of tens of thousands of immigrants who have illegally entered the country from Central America this year, many saying they were seeking refuge from gang violence and poverty. From October to June, the Asylum Division received 36,334 credible-fear claims from immigrants, surpassing the 36,035 in the 12 months of fiscal 2013, data from the office shows. Immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras accounted for the majority of the claims.

The office is responsible for screening migrants apprehended at the border, asking, for example, whether they are being persecuted because they belong to a specific social group or feel threatened because of their race or religion. If their claims are credible, the immigrants are referred to immigration court, where a judge ultimately decides whether they qualify for asylum or other protection. Immigrants who go through that process, which can take years, are sometimes released in the U.S. until their cases are resolved.

Unaccompanied children arriving from Central America don’t go through the credible-fear process, as they are routed to the court system directly.

Now be sure to see Hot Air last week where we learned that 70% of the families ordered to appear for a hearing never showed up!

DHS secret revealed: Tens of thousands of illegals released during the border crisis didn’t show up for their immigration hearings

Big smooch from Eleanor to Grover!

About the photo and Acer’s testimony to Congress:  I had to laugh when I watched the clip because she praises and enters into the record the Grover Norquist/Suhail Khan Republicans-want-more-refugees letter which we reported here.

International Rescue Committee study: refugees like cash better than services

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
“Mrs Clinton, (then) 62, spoke last year of her unlikely crush on Mr Miliband, 44.” Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260660/Move-Miliband-Hillary-Clinton-special-relationship-new-man.html#ixzz3EiTH4IZZ

They did not study refugees resettled in the US, but I’ll bet they would opt for cold hard cash over stuff too.

Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the CEO of one of our top nine resettlement contractors, the International Rescue Committee, who himself likes cash (and is paid nearly a half million dollars as CEO if the IRC), co-authored this piece that reveals refugees like money! 

The study apparently concluded that giving refugees money didn’t encourage alcohol consumption, drug use, or smoking (duh! most are Muslims who don’t have those infidel vices anyway).

The study also found that giving them cash was not a dis-incentive to work.  Really?

Are “humanitarian” bucks going to fund Jihadists?

They don’t drink or smoke it up but I wondered if they might give some of their cold hard cash to fund more terrorist activity.  I bet researchers at Yale didn’t ask that question!

Here is the article, read it yourself since I am out of time and energy right now!

I also wondered if the “refugees” might prefer cash to being resettled in your home town, but alas I assume they didn’t ask that question either.

Come to think of it, we might be able to save ourselves some serious money if we paid them to stay right where they are!