Category: The Opposition

Republican Governors who Consented to Accept Refugees in FY2020 Scrambling to Explain

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

I can’t possibly write an all-encompassing post about all the feedback I’m getting from concerned citizens who are hopping mad that their Republican governor foolishly (and prematurely) jumped on the bandwagon to accept more refugees for their states just so the nine federal contractors*** could get their requests for MONEY into the US State Department ASAP.

Here are the 19 Rs who have thumbed their nose at the President’s effort to rein-in the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.

The first wave of governors to pander to the Left are marked in orange, and the second wave is in hot pink.

If your governor hasn’t caved yet, keep up the pressure.  Florida, Georgia and Texas are the big targets for Open Borders Inc.

 

Last night John Binder at Breitbart published a letter from Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to his legislators who want answers.

Since most of the governors are completely unfamiliar with this 4-decades-old program, we can only assume that someone is feeding them talking points like those in the memo Binder published.

Go here to read it all.

Exclusive: Memo Reveals How GOP Governors are Pitching Refugee Resettlement to Opponents

I want to just focus on a couple of points in the governor’s attempt to explain himself.  First this:

Refugees are eligible for 36 months of case management assistance and financial assistance when they first arrive through a combination of federal and private funds, which Canopy manages. They do not receive any other special financial assistance aside from typical public assistance available to other low-income Arkansans (Medicaid, SNAP, TANF etc.). 100% of refugee households have seen reductions or terminations of this public assistance because of income within the first 6 months of arrival in the state.

LOL!  They don’t get any public assistance other than Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), TANF, etc!  What is the etc.?

100% have seen reductions in their welfare use?  Where is the data governor? Or is the governor just parroting what the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service SUBCONTRACTOR is telling him.

I also want to bring to your attention this section of his talking points memo.

Who will be placed in Arkansas?

African nations and those countries in which the United States has engaged in military actions and cooperating nationals are at risk.

I would be asking the governor which African nations?  Somalia? And, then he is lumping the Special Immigrant Visas (mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq, but possibly soon Syria) in with the regular refugees.  I told you here that the Trump administration is predicting 10,000 SIVs on top of the 18.000 regular refugees for 2020.

And, get this!  According to the Funding Guidance I’ve been yakking about for days, we will be taking another 10,000 SIVs from Iraq and Afghanistan (maybe Syria!) in the 2020 fiscal year. That is over and above the 18,000 ceiling that the President determined for the year.

The FY 2020 ceiling for refugee admissions established by the President, after consultation with Congress, is 18,000.  In addition, applicants should include 10,000 Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients in their planning. Applicants should assume similar admissions and recipient numbers for performance periods beyond FY 2020.

Note that last bit—the contractors should expect similar numbers beyond 2020.

One more thing, don’t miss LIRS getting direct payola from Tyson Foods!

Starting later today (I hope), I’m starting a new series of posts I’ll call ‘Knowledge is Power’ to go back for many new readers and help you get up to speed on how the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program operates and how you can find out more about your state’s involvement (or lack of involvement) with the program.

 

***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.

A ‘religious’ message from CWS one of three federally funded contractors suing to stop the President’s effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.

And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.

The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?  

(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

Federal Judge Gives Warm Reception to Refugee Contractors and their Bid to Stop Trump Refugee Reform

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 7 Comments
LOL! Don’t miss “notable rulings” by Clinton-appointed Judge Peter Jo Messitte at wikipedia. He banned use of words “Redskins” from his court in 2014. I think you can see how the POLITICAL winds are blowing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jo_Messitte

Of course I wasn’t there and you can never completely believe the media spin by major news outlets like the Associated Press, but past experience informs us that, yes, the federal judge hearing the refugee contractors’ case is sympathetic to the three federal refugee contractors and not the Trump Administration.

In fact, he asked the contractors’ attorney if this was a political move by the President.

Did he ask the complainers if they were operating with political motives?  I bet not!

Why isn’t he simply looking at the LAW?

(By the way, be sure to see Michelle Malkin’s excellent piece on the President vs. the contractors yesterday to see the long list of the Open Borders activists expected to be in attendance for the political press conference the contractors held after the hearing.)

Here is the AP story about the case I told you about on Tuesday:

Judge weighs bid to stop Trump’s refugee resettlement limit

But of course this isn’t political for the contractors (ha!) as they held a press conference outside the court house after the hearing. Looks like they had a small crowd.

 

GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge on Wednesday pressed a government lawyer to explain why President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing state and local governments to reject refugees, questioning whether the change was politically motivated.

U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland didn’t immediately rule on a request by three national refugee resettlement agencies for a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from enforcing the order.

During a hearing on the request, the judge said the president’s order essentially changed a federal law governing the resettlement of refugees.

“On what authority is the president acting?” Messitte asked Justice Department attorney Bradley Humphreys.

Humphreys said the 1980 Refugee Act gives the president “ample authority” to make such a change.

“Why change it now?” Messitte asked. “Is it purely a political thing?”

Humphreys said the executive order is designed to enhance the involvement of state and local officials in the process of resettling refugees. But he insisted it doesn’t give them a “veto” over resettlement decisions.

The Trump administration announced in November that resettlement agencies must get written consent from state and local officials in any jurisdiction where they want to help resettle refugees beyond June 2020.

[….]

And, the contractors are not political? Here Mark Hetfield, CEO of HIAS, helped organize an anti-Trump rally along with then MN Rep. Keith Ellison less than a month after the President was inaugurated in 2017. Did the Judge ask HIAS about any political motivations? https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/02/14/breitbart-federally-funded-refugee-resettlement-contractor-hias-organized-ny-rally-against-trump/“

Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and HIAS — a Jewish nonprofit — filed the lawsuit in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Nov. 21. They are three of the nine national organizations*** agencies that have agreements with the federal government to provide housing and other services for refugees. [Notice AP won’t say that there is federal money involved for the contractors.—ed]

They have been providing these resettlement services for decades,” plaintiffs’ attorney Justin Cox said. [Makes it sound like it’s all being done with their private ‘religious’ charity.—ed]

At least 41 states have publicly agreed to accept refugees, but a governor’s decision doesn’t preclude local officials from refusing to give their consent.

For instance, the Democratic mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts, has refused to give written consent for refugees to be resettled in the city. [This especially grates on Hetfield because the subcontractor being shut out in Springfield is one of HIAS’s subcontractors.—ed]

HIAS President Mark Hetfield called it “unacceptable and un-American” that refugees could be banned from living in cities or even entire states. He said the executive order doesn’t explain how the secretary of state could override a governor or county official’s refusal to give consent.

“It’s even worse than a veto,” Hetfield said. “It’s very clear that we can’t even submit for a place unless we think that they’re going to consent.”

LOL! He says they can’t “submit for a place!”

That is code for ‘we can’t put our applications into the US State Department for our MONEY’—the money that flowed to them by the millions for decades from your (taxpayer) wallets to their salaries, overhead, travel and so forth.

More here.

 

***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.

A ‘religious’ message from CWS one of three federally funded contractors suing to stop the President’s effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.

And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.

The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?  

(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

 

Tomorrow Three Refugee Contractors Will be in Federal Court to Try to Kill Trump’s First Effort to Reform Refugee Program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 6 Comments

We have reported on the case several times recently, but thought that the details of tomorrow’s court date in Maryland would be of interest to you.

HIAS’s Mark Hetfileld (left) protesting the President along with Church World Service in front of the White House in 2018. https://um-insight.net/in-the-world/advocating-justice/faith-groups-sue-trump-administration-over-refugee-resettlem/

 

Three big fish representing the Refugee Industry will be available to the press following the hearing.

This whole effort by the President to solicit consents (on non-consents) of governors and county elected officials throws a monkey wrench in the works for the nine contractors*** who have for decades been able to place refugees in pretty much any place they chose to set up a subcontractor office (of course in consultation with their ideological partners in the US State Department).

They will be in court to argue that you, taxpayers and citizens of Anytown, USA, have no right to voice your concerns about their ‘religious’ work of placing impoverished third worlders throughout America. 

And, specifically that the President is blocking them “from fulfilling their faith calling and missions to ‘welcome the stranger,” says Church World Service’s Erol Kekic here.

Below is the news from something called Value Walk:

LIRS, CWS, HIAS vs Trump

 

This Wednesday [tomorrow!], on January 8, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland will hear arguments on the Trump Administration’s Executive Order allowing state and local officials to stop refugees from being resettled in their jurisdictions.

The new order was signed on September 26, 2019, and for the first time ever, requires resettlement agencies to obtain written consent from all localities and states in which they plan to resettle refugees. This could prevent refugees who have waited years from being reunited with their U.S.-based families, and communities from welcoming refugees, even if they have long-standing and successful resettlement programs.

On November 21, three faith-based resettlement agencies, HIAS, Church World Service (CWS), and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), filed a complaint against this new order, charging that it violates federal law and is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to restrict refugee resettlement in the United States.

WHAT:

The case being heard is:

HIAS v. Trump, brought by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), on behalf of HIAS, Church World Service (CWS), and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS).

WHEN:

Arguments: Wednesday, January 8, 2020, 10 a.m. ET

Immediately following the arguments, (approximately 12:30 p.m. ET), attorneys and plaintiffs will give statements and respond to questions outside the courthouse.

WHO:

Linda Evarts, Litigation Staff Attorney, IRAP

Mark Hetfield, President and CEO, HIAS [HIAS Federal funding from recent Form 990: $19,138,737—ed]

Erol Kekic, Senior Vice President, CWS [CWS Federal funding: $39,424,221—ed]

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO, LIRS [LIRS Federal funding: 45,316,561—ed]

WHERE:

United States District Court

District of Maryland

6500 Cherrywood Lane

Greenbelt, MD 20770

The case is in the same court where an Obama-judge slapped the President on the so-called travel ban, but the judge is not the same one who made that decision.

https://www.knkx.org/post/new-rulings-against-trumps-travel-ban-what-was-blocked-and-why

See the schedule here and note that the judge tomorrow is Peter Jo Messitte, a 79-year-old Clinton appointed judge.   The pious contractors are surely ‘praying’ for a quick decision with the hope that Trump’s refugee program reform can be frozen in its tracks and they can go back to business as usual—changing America by changing the people and being paid for it!

I’m sure this information was posted so they could make sure some press showed up and maybe a little gaggle of supporters holding ‘Refugees Welcome’ signs (supplied by the contractors!).

One more time—Any Republican governors who virtue-signaled and pandered to the contractors, rushing their consent, were downright dumb in my opinion.

I see that Alaska’s governor yesterday joined the bunch thumbing their noses at the President weeks before a flexible deadline—a deadline that could be moot depending on what happens with the contractors’ case tomorrow and in the coming weeks.

 

LOL! Now to my daily message for new readers….

***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.

A ‘religious’ message from CWS one of three federally funded contractors suing to stop the President’s effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.

And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.

The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?  

(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

 

Ten Governors (So Far) Silent on Whether they Will Welcome More Poverty to Their States

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

I am sick of writing about the governors and wasn’t going to start out with a tally this morning, that is until I saw this story about how the Lutherans are waiting on their big fish—Governor Abbott of Texas.

It is the same old boiler-plate BS, you can read it yourself at the Texas Tribune.

However, this made me laugh!

The reporter references the fact that Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) , one of nine federal refugee contractors***, headquartered in Baltimore’s posh Inner Harbor, has been keeping a tally of those who have consented (both the governors and the locals).  I directed you to it here on Friday.

Well get this! They now have it password protected! 

***Update*** A reader reported that they have removed the password protection.  LOL!  You think they might be reading RRW!

Only special people can access their website. No deplorables allowed!

And, think about it!  LIRS is 90% taxpayer funded!  They are paid nearly $50 million a year to do their ‘good works’! 

Requiring a password to access their website confirms once again that these Leftwing ‘religious’ charities take our money and then operate in secrecy!

(Because they are ostensibly private groups you can’t even use the Freedom of Information Act to get find out how exactly your money is spent.)

 

https://www.lirs.org/refugee-consents-2020

 

See what LIRS (new) CEO told the Texas Tribune:

LIRS new CEO, Krish Vignarajah, a former employee of Michelle Obama, took over at LIRS in the wake of a very messy internal battle that saw the previous CEO Linda Hartke eased out. Hartke was pulling down a salary and benefits package of over $300,000 as the scandal unfolded.  We reported the whole nasty business here. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/02/14/lutherans-announce-departure-of-ceo-hartke-amid-claims-of-financial-irregularities-poor-management/

I wonder if they are paying Ms. Vignarajah that exorbitant salary as she presides over a quasi-government agency that is 90% funded by taxpayers.

Below she is quoted at the Texas Tribune story (which of course doesn’t mention that these ‘humanitarians’ are funded, not by Christian charitable giving, but by the US taxpayers):

As of Thursday, 39 governors [actually 40–ed] and 86 mayors and other local authorities had provided consent, according to the Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a resettlement agency keeping a regular tally of the latest decisions. Krish Vignarajah, the group’s president, said she is hopeful Abbott will join the other GOP governors who have stayed in the program despite the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on immigration across the board.

However, just in case they can’t pull this off politically they have their ace-in-a-hole!

Lawsuit!

LIRS, which did I mention is 90% funded with your tax dollars, has filed a lawsuit in a friendly court against the President to stop this whole exercise.

They want to continue to place refugees in locations of their choosing as they have been doing for decades!

So, that is why I’ve been saying that the Republicans who have caved so far, virtue-signalling to their state’s Leftwing agitators, are dumb.

Before this month’s deadline, a federal judge could decide the matter for the states — at least temporarily. The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Church World Service sued the Trump administration in November alleging the executive order violates federal law.

[….]

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Wednesday.

 

***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.

CWS poster girl! CWS is one of three federally funded contractors suing to stop the President’s effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.

And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.

The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?  

(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

 

Maine: Writer Says Lewiston’s Somali Makeover is Good for the City; But Was She Completely Honest?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

Mainer Cynthia Anderson recently published a book about how 6,000 plus Somali refugees are busy resuscitating a supposedly dying Maine city.

No surprise that the Star Tribune, in the heart of Little Mogadishu, MN, reviewed Anderson’s book.  One quote in the review stands out and it makes my blood boil!

“I also think journalists, including me, sometimes don’t push for answers lest they appear insensitive or out of fear they’ll provide ammunition to haters.”

Just think about that, she is admitting she might have pulled some punches so as not to give us (haters! and Islamophobes!), critics of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, any ammunition. WHAT THE H***!

If so-called journalists were HONEST, for one thing there would be no need for me to write this blog and secondly if they were HONEST then maybe government programs like this one might be reevaluated, reformed or trashed.

From the Star Tribune:

Review: ‘Home Now: How 6,000 Refugees Transformed an American Town,’ by Cynthia Anderson

“Home Now” by Cynthia Anderson; Public Affairs (318 pages, $28)

“A moving chronicle of who belongs in America.” Guess you can see the bias right there at Amazon.

At a campaign rally in Portland, Maine, President Donald Trump linked worsening crime in Maine to the influx of Somali refugees there. He blamed their large community in Minnesota for straining the state’s social safety net and bringing potential recruits for Islamic terrorist groups.

“You see it happening,” Trump said. “You read about it.”

The above is a reminder to all those wimpy Republican governors who are ‘welcoming’ more Somalis, Iraqis, and Syrians to your states that the President wants to rein-in the program. Duh!

Long before Trump turned refugee resettlement into a national flash point, Cynthia Anderson was immersing herself in Lewiston, Maine, a small white town that came to host one of the largest populations of Somali-Americans in the country, for her timely, richly detailed book “Home Now.”

Anderson grew up in a village 45 miles away and recalled the area’s gradual decline leading up to 2001, when the first Somali refugees arrived in nearby Portland.

She reported on Lewiston’s transformation for more than a decade, moving from seeing Somali newcomers as passive victims traumatized by war to people with complex, resilient trajectories.

[….]

Fatuma Hussein at 2017 Women’s march. “We are the future of Maine. We are the face of Maine.” See one of my posts on the Somali community organizer here in 2014: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/01/11/maine-somalisothers-protest-welfare-rule-change-proposal/

Anderson also writes about Fatuma Hussein, a community leader and advocate for Somali women who admires Maine’s civility and is optimistic about relations between natives and newcomers. She speaks out in opposition to Trump’s election, yet she is also forthright about the challenges of merging different cultures in Lewiston.

The town is not prepared to absorb the arrivals so quickly; the mayor draws headlines for saying Lewiston is “maxed out.”

Anderson deftly sums up the tension by noting that the new refugees were not ungrateful but nor were they just grateful.

[….]

Though the book paints a mostly rosy picture of how refugees can revitalize a community, Anderson is honest [?—how honest?—ed] about her qualms.

There is a brief mention of the murder of Donald Giusti killed by a gang of African migrant teens in Lewiston’s city park. https://fraudscrookscriminals.com/2019/04/15/arrests-made-in-lewiston-me-death-of-white-man-at-the-hands-of-a-gang-of-african-refugees/

During debates over a state bill aimed at the Somali-American community to ban female genital mutilation (FGM), she admits to being conflicted. Anderson is initially opposed, and doesn’t want to see the Somali community hurt, but nor does she want harm to come to any Somali girls.

[What woman could possibly be conflicted about the brutal practice of slicing off a portion of a girl’s genitals?—ed]

Anderson also acknowledges that the refugee vetting process warrants examination, noting that records can be inadequate in war-torn countries.

She considers it fair to question how long refugees take to become self-sufficient, finding answers inconsistent and hard to find. [No kidding—this program is run in secrecy! The refugee contractors and the government don’t want anyone to find out how poorly the refugees are doing!—ed]

“I also think journalists, including me, sometimes don’t push for answers lest they appear insensitive or out of fear they’ll provide ammunition to haters,” she admits. “But not asking and not knowing provides fertile ground for rumors to flourish. It’s also patronizing; Lewiston’s newcomers can withstand the scrutiny.”  [Note that she deftly suggests that those of us with concerns are trafficking in rumors!—ed]

Anderson raises these questions through her portrait of Jared Bristol, driven after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to become an activist against Islamic extremism. Bristol advocates for the FGM bill during a hearing that’s one of the only times Anderson sees Muslims and anti-Islamists in the same place.

Such activists, Anderson writes, “are wrong if they believe I absorbed nothing they and other anti-Islamists said or that my thinking didn’t shift, however incrementally.”  [So what good is absorbing if she then pulls punches?—ed]

Scrutiny comes anew when a man dies of a fatal head injury after being attacked by several teens of African descent.

Nevertheless, and moving right along, the expert concludes:

….that Mainers feel that integrating refugees is worth the effort, even as it has taken time and money.

That is not what I’m hearing!!!

See my extensive, and I mean extensive archive on Lewiston here at RRW (there is more at ‘Frauds and Crooks.’)!

Gee, I wonder if Ms. Anderson used any of the material I’ve compiled over the years?  Did she get the story about the Somali teen who burned down four apartment buildings in 2013 for example? Or the one about the ISIS fighter whose wife lived in Lewiston?  Or the Somali health care scammers?  And, as far back as 2009 Somali ‘youths’ were roaming the streets and attacking people.

Maybe a journalist should write a book!