Category: The Opposition

Australian academic: the public is against asylum seekers arriving by boat!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Warns refugee activists that they are out of touch and have little chance of winning over the public!

Taking action! Fully-equipped Australian lifeboat reportedly used to ferry intercepted boat people back to where they came from!
By Timur Matahari/AFP/Getty Images

Meanwhile, in touch with public opinion, the government has proposed a significant decrease in the number of refugees permitted to stay in Australia annually.

From SBS.com (emphasis mine):

An academic says refugee advocates are out of touch with popular opinion, which is overwhelmingly against asylum seekers who arrive by boat.

Professor Andrew Markus is a member of the Scanlon Foundation which has been mapping public opinion on this issue since 2007.

He says asylum seeker advocates need to take notice of the fact that their opinions about asylum seekers are not shared by the majority of Australians.

Professor Andrew Markus from Monash University in Melbourne has researched widely in the areas of immigration and social cohesion.

Public concern for border protection second only to the economy!

He says in one recent survey of around 1000 people, border protection was rated as the second most important issue facing Australia after the economy.

Professor Markus adds that his own analysis suggests border protection is a growing public concern.

Young or old, educated or not so well-educated, less than 20% of those surveyed support boat people being allowed to stay in Australia.

“I’ve done all sorts of analysis by every different demographic you care to find. And one of the very unusual features on the asylum issue, it’s that normally by level of education or by age, there’s a big division. If you’re better educated you’re much more likely to be receptive to cultural diversity. But on the asylum issue you don’t get that just a marginal difference. Similarly young people are much more accepting and again we don’t get that normal split that we would normally get.”

The Scanlon Foundation has released a yearly report on immigration and social cohesion since 2007, based on surveys of around 2000 people.

Its most recent survey found that less than 20 per cent of Australians think asylum seekers arriving by boat should be given permanent residency.

Professor Markus says that’s a reality that refugee advocates can’t ignore.

But, of course they do, just yesterday the Refugee Council of Australia decried the plans by the  government to reduce the number of refugees permitted in Australia from 20,000 to 13,750 annually.  Imagine the furor in the US (from the resettlement contractors) if Congress said NO! to the President and cut US refugee admission by the same percentage!

Reports of asylum seekers rioting on Manus Island surely don’t help the Refugee Council’s public relations campaign!  Nor does news, like that we reported yesterday from multi-culti Blacktown, help their cause.  *Update: Asylum seeker dies in Manus Island escape attempt, here.

About the photo!  Read all about the “alien-looking” alien transport vessels reportedly purchased by the Australian government, here.  It sure looks like they mean business!

Federal contractor, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, lectures Israel

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Invasion of Rome! Been there, done that!
http://www.artclon.com/paintings/genserichs-invasion-of-rome-study-1833-1835_23625.html

I have a question for Mark Hetfield, CEO of one of nine major federal refugee resettlement contractors:  Is there any number of “asylum seekers” or “refugees” that is too many for you?   If 60,000 migrants wanting to stay in Israel is not very many in your eyes, where does it stop?  Would 100,000 be the upper limit?  How about a quarter of a million?

Is there any number of infiltrators that is too many?

Or, should Israel simply do away with borders altogether and let any Africans (or Arabs) who wish it, go to tiny Israel?

I get so ticked-off by these do-gooder big mouths telling another country what to do, whether it’s Israel, Bulgaria or tiny Malta.  Do those countries and their citizens simply say—come one and all and destroy our country?

Here is Hetfield at the Washington Jewish Week last month (Jewish values*, refugees, lost opportunities):

Nearly 60,000 Africans fleeing war, oppression and violence have sought refuge in Israel, a prosperous and democratic country established in 1948 by refugees themselves.

These asylum seekers were not just fleeing from oppression, but to a prosperous and
democratic country. While Israel’s courts have protected them and new Israeli friends have defended them, the welcome asylum seekers have received has been less than warm. In fact, the official government term for these individuals is “infiltrators,” and they are unofficially known as “illegal work migrants.” Concentrated in the poorest neighborhoods, supporting themselves by working only on the gray market, labeled a threat by the government, and living on the margins of society, their treatment has exacerbated social tensions in places like South Tel Aviv.

The Israeli government’s response was to build a fence to prevent new unauthorized border crossings. By all accounts, the fence has been a success, with crossings now close to zero.

The success of the fence, by limiting the potential for new arrivals, presented Israel with an opportunity to demonstrate the Jewish values of human dignity, refugee protection and treating the stranger among us as thyself. The Israeli government could have pursued this opportunity simply by ceasing to call asylum seekers “infiltrators,” and by allowing those already in Israel to remain and work legally, until it is safe to return home.

There is more if you care to read it.   And, Hetfield knows damn well they will never go “home” to Africa!

Come on Mark, what is YOUR upper limit?  And, where is your editorial about Saudi Arabia, did I miss it?  They deport tens of thousands of Africans weekly we are told.  Got a lecture for them too?

I wonder how many ‘leaders’ like Hetfield it took to bring down the mighty Roman empire.

For our complete archive on Israel and the problems it is having with economic migrants (faux asylum seekers), click here.

* LOL! Have you noticed that the latest hip word for the open borders crowd is “values.”  Grover Norquist used it here just this week as well.  “Jewish values!”  “American values!”  Blah, blah, blah!

Gov. Sam Brownback: Don’t bring those Somalis to Kansas!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, friend of Norquist, we love refugees, just not Somalis in Kansas!

A few days ago, likely spearheaded by Grover Norquist and his sidekick Suhail Kahn***, a group of Republican open borders enthusiasts made a public appeal to bring in more refugees and remove barriers (what? those terrorism bars) preventing them from entering the country. Said the ten:

Our policies toward refugees are at the heart of our American values.

One of those signing the letter, here, asking for more refugees, was none other than former Senator Sam Brownback, now Kansas governor, who, even as he sat on a key immigration subcommittee in the US Senate, said of the Somali Bantus whose resettlement he was advocating for some other communities in America—DON’T SEND ‘EM TO KANSAS!

You can read more about this Republican’s hypocrisy here at VDARE in 2003.   The New York Times obliquely referred to Brownback’s backpedaling here.

***Don’t miss the damning report on Norquist and Kahn just released by the Center for Security Policy—Islamists’ assault on the right, enabling the Muslim Brotherhood in America!

So, much for those American values—-just not in Brownback’s backyard!

Big lie! US detaining large numbers of asylum seekers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
23,000 Mexicans sought asylum in the US in first nine months of 2013 https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/10/25/more-than-23000-mexicans-sought-asylum-in-us-this-year-so-far/

One of many myths that the open borders crowd is trying to peddle is the notion that large numbers of poor persecuted asylum seekers are being locked up in American jails for years waiting for a court date for their asylum case.  Not true!

Just a reminder, there are two categories of “refugees.”  The term “refugee” is usually reserved for those largely designated by the UN around the world as in need of third country resettlement.  In other words, they have left their own country looking for refuge and the UN then determines they need to be sent to a Western country (or Australia/New Zealand).  The lions’ share of resettled refugees goes to the US.

Then there are the asylum seekers who get into the US on their own steam, either by overstaying a visa (tourist, foreign student etc.), or they come across a border by land, by sea, or by air and ask for asylum (usually after first being apprehended).  They are still illegal aliens!  If granted asylum, they become “refugees” for the purpose of getting taken care of through taxpayer funding, just like the refugees picked by the UN/US State Department.   Of course, as we know, a few states—-Maine for one—-give asylum seekers financial support even before they have been granted asylum/refugee status.

And, don’t forget we just learned that 70% or more of those granted asylum may be frauds!

The immigration lawyers, like those at the ACLU, are working overtime to make you think that large numbers of these asylum seekers are rotting away in American jails, but earlier this week, in one more story about Obama relaxing security screening for refugees and asylum seekers, comes this important bit of news!

Fox News:

Lawmakers, though, specifically cited a newly uncovered Immigration and Customs Enforcement document that showed thousands of asylum seekers were released while awaiting a decision. The document, obtained and reviewed by FoxNews.com, showed that in fiscal 2012, just 2,508 of the more than 24,000 asylum seekers were kept in custody.

[…..]

The ICE document showed that a total of 22,000 were released that year, though a few thousand were actually deported and a small percentage had their asylum requests granted. But thousands more were released on bond, released under supervision, or released under some other status. The document also indicates that officials may have lost track of some asylum seekers. Several hundred individuals are listed in a category that includes people who escaped.

Remember this number—20,000 and increasing each year are illegal aliens seeking asylum and are free to wander America and maybe show up for a court date.

‘Human Rights First’ praises ten open-borders REPUBLICANS who say ‘bring in the refugees!’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Bring in the Muslims! The Brotherhood too!
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/a-disturbing-event-the-american-conservative-union-embraces-an-islamist/

Or, in the case of Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan maybe it means ‘bring in the Muslims!’

Update February 12th:  Just released by the Center for Security Policy—The Islamist enablers, the case against Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan, here.

These open-borders Republicans must be mad as hell that Boehner and the boys backed-off of so-called ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ for this year and thus limited the flow of legal cheap labor!

From Human Rights First (hat tip: Richard Falknor of Blue Ridge Forum):

Washington, D.C. –   As Republican leaders in Congress work through the party’s immigration reform priorities, ten of the nation’s most prominent Republican leaders released a statement today that urges the party to recommit to upholding the United States’ position as an international leader in protecting refugees fleeing oppression and seeking asylum.   The statement is signed by former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez; former Florida Governor Jeb Bush;  former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge;  Kansas Governor Sam Brownback; former Senator Mel Martinez;  Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform;   Suhail A. Khan, chairman of the Conservative Inclusion Coalition; Jim Ziglar, former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the Navy; and Dr. Paula Dobriansky, former Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs .

“The United States has granted asylum and provided resettlement to thousands of refugees who have fled political, religious, ethnic, racial, and other persecution,” wrote the Republican leaders. “In some cases, they are people who stood with America, against tyranny, even when it was dangerous or unpopular in their own country.”

Today’s statement challenges American leaders to uphold the nation’s promise to oppressed people who yearn to live in freedom by expressing their commitment to the following principles:

*Fair and enforceable immigration laws that reflect our national interests and uphold core American values;
*Protection for refugees fleeing from persecution and elimination of unnecessary barriers and challenges that are preventing legitimate refugees from entering the country;
*A fair and timely decision-making process for those seeking refuge; and
*Implementation of the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The statement recalls the leading role the Republican Party has taken in these efforts.  [They use Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.”—ed]

[….]

The signatories noted, “It should be obvious to all that our immigration system is in dire need of an overhaul,” adding, “We must have fair and enforceable immigration laws that reflect our national interest and uphold core American values and our history as a country committed to humane treatment and dignity of the individual.”

Their full statement is here.  Very useful of the Republican refugee lobbyists to identify themselves!

We have an extensive archive here and at Potomac Tea Party Report on Grover Norquist (both go back for many years).  Someday all of those who got too close to Norquist will be running for the hills!

Related:  Another open-borders Republican is George Will.  I happened to catch Laura Ingraham and Will having the most heated discussion I’ve ever seen on Fox News Sunday, two days ago, here.  Will was arguing for the need for laborers and Ingraham asked ‘why have borders at all?’  He dodged the question.