My alerts are filled to the brim day after day with stories from around the US featuring a sob story for some refugee who won’t be able to reunite with a family member because there is a meany in the White House.
Inevitably a sad tale anchors a story which tells readers in a state—in this case Idaho—about how bad the Trump Administration’s proposed refugee ceiling of 18,000 is going to be on the refugee resettlement industry that derives most of its funding from the taxpayer—from you and me.
At least this story does mention the fact that federal funding is tied to the number of refugees admitted. But, I got a laugh when I saw thatthe report from Idaho Press uses the International Rescue Committee as the example of an agency singing the budgetary blues.
Heck! TheIRC’s head honchomakes nearly a $1 million a year salary—a figure that has jumped at least a quarter of a million since Trump took office!
They simply can’t be that bad off!
Idaho IRC Director Tzul. https://www.eyeonsunvalley.com/Story_Reader/4359/Photographs-Chronicle-New-Step-for-Refugees/
The IRC’s Idaho representative Julianne Tzul told the Idaho Press:
Much of IRC’s funding comes from federal grants based on the number of refugees it serves, and Tzul expects to have “a wild ride to plan a budget when you don’t know if a major (funding) component is zero or is healthy.”
Still, Tzul said the agency has “no intention of going away.”
But, that isn’t the part that I want to tell you about. It is the part about their featured Iraqi refugee sob story.
(Virtually every article I’ve read in recent days features some family that has been separated. Instructions must have gone out to every resettlement office in America to find a family separation story to feed to the local press!).
What new refugee limit could mean for the Treasure Valley
BOISE — Under the Trump’s administration’s latest cap on refugee resettlement, Idaho refugees who have been separated from their families will likely have to wait longer to be reunited, and local resettlement agencies are expecting a dip in federal funding.
“We are going to see fewer refugees make it to Boise,” said Julianne Tzul, director of International Rescue Committee’s Boise office. “When total national numbers contract, they contract everywhere.”
The Trump administration last week announced an 18,000 cap on the number of refugees resettled in the U.S. this fiscal year, which started Tuesday. Trump’s final decision on the cap must include consultation with Congress, which could push for a higher total, according to the Associated Press.
Ahmed Al Abboodi wants his son to join him in Idaho, but Trump is standing in the way.
The historically low cap would affect people like Ali Al Abboodi, a 28-year-old from Baghdad who was separated from his family in 2014 while they were traveling to Boise to be resettled. His family has worked with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, in trying to secure his entry into the U.S.
.[….]
After seven years in Syria, the family moved back to Iraq to await permission to become refugees in the United States. They received refugee status and flew to Boise in January 2014. Ali Al Abboodi’s case was separated from the rest of his family, but the plan was he would follow the family to Boise a few days later.
I want to know why wasn’t he with the family as they were shuffling around between Syria and Iraq? Why was his case separated as the family left for Boise?
And then this: Are we really expected to believe that someone just dying to be reunited with his family in the US missed TWO scheduled flights that would take him to America?
Idaho Press continues….
Republican Senator Crapo to the rescue!
Ali Al Abboodi missed his first flight because of traffic and missed his second because of a car wreck, according to the family. After that, his case for refugee status was closed.
In 2017, Trump restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq, further hindering Ali Al Abboodi’s ability to travel to the U.S.
Ahmed Al Abboodi did not let the travel bans stop him from trying to get his son to Boise. He met with Crapo with his caseworker, and urged the senator to help his family. Crapo helped reopen Ali Al Abboodi’s case for refugee status.
What do you think? I’m thinking there is more to this story than we are being told!
No, not the one of the poor Italians in need of shelter and food, or the one of homeless veterans living on the streets of any major US city, or even the poor souls escaping the crumbling Communist economy in Venezuela?
It is a statue of migrants arriving with an angel in their midst to be welcomed wherever they decide has the best deal to supply their needs.
Migrants arrive with angels. Of course it is a political propaganda stunt!
Although the reporter, Erica Evans, at Deseret News gives her story a slight tilt toward the views of US federal resettlement contractors doing their usual spin about how they are driven entirely by their Christian zeal to help the stranger, she throws in some commentary from others who question the wisdom of hauling the third world (at great expense to taxpayers) to the first world every time there is a conflict somewhere on the globe.
The pope is making a statement about immigration with this new statue at the Vatican
SALT LAKE CITY — Pope Francis has repeatedly warned against exclusivist immigration policies and called for broader options for migrants and refugees to enter destination countries safely and legally at a time in which refugees are fleeing violent and unstable countries around the globe.
On Sunday, the Pope unveiled a new statue at the Vatican depicting 140 migrants and refugees traveling on a boat. He counseled people of faith to respond to displaced people with four words: “welcome, protect, promote and integrate,” The New York Times reported.
The pope’s outspoken views on refugees and immigration policies have raised questions about the role religious leaders play in debates about immigration.
Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says religious leaders are too narrowly focused on humanitarian needs and fail to consider nations’ rights and interests.
“My critique of them is that sometimes they implicitly conflate the purposes and mandate of the church with the purposes and mandate of the state.” said Tooley. “The church, of course, is called to offer aid and hospitality to all people in need, but the secular state’s primary purpose is to look after the interest of the nation and people over which it has jurisdiction.”
Tooley said there is nothing wrong with the statue if it is meant as a call for concern for people fleeing violence, but “inevitably” some will use it for political reasons to demand higher levels of immigration and refugee resettlement. [Exactly!—-ed]
[….]
The presence of the sculpture in St. Peter’s Square is meant to commemorate the 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, according to Vatican News. In his message for the occasion, Pope Francis said that extreme individualism is being reinforced by the media in rich countries and resulting in the “globalization of indifference” towards migrants, refugees and other people in need.
Tooley, however, doesn’t think that prioritizing national interest when it comes to immigration is a sign of “indifference.” He said religious people might think it’s selfish for a government to look after its own citizens first, but that is not the case.
“That’s not selfish,” Tooley said. “That’s similar to parents looking after their own children. Hopefully they treat other people’s children well, but they shouldn’t prioritize other people’s children over their own.”
According to Tooley, the pope and other Christians advocating for more lenient immigration laws should acknowledge that there are limits to the number of people who can be resettled in a given country, in addition to economic and security risks to be considered.
[….]
Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services are among the organizations listed as U.S. resettlement partners by the United Nations.
Here it is! Finally 29 paragraphs into the story (how many uninformed readers got this far)? These phony-baloney non-profit Christian groups get their funds from us—the taxpayers—not from their parishioners and church members!
Soerens [Matthew Soerens, the U.S. director of church mobilization for World Relief], said his organization, World Relief, has closed resettlement offices in seven cities, including in Boise, Idaho, Nashville, Tennessee, and Miami, Florida. He said the closures were a result of fewer refugees and a reduction in government funding.
In case you missed it, see how much payola the US Conference of Catholic BishopsMigration Fund lost in just the first full year of the Trump Administration, here.
It is no wonder they are squawking!
One day I hope to see the mainstream media shut up on the ‘welcome the stranger’ BS and tell the full story about how much of your money is doled out from the US Treasury to these supposed ‘religious charities’ (all hardcore Leftwing political agitation groups!) so they can brag about their compassion.
But he is not alone. Continue reading to see which other Republican Senators have joined with some of the most vocal Open Borders Dems in opposing (slamming!) the President on the refugee ceiling for the new fiscal year which began on Tuesday.
Lankford slams Trump plan to reduce refugee admissions
Sen. James Lankford on Friday came out against the Trump administration’s plan to reduce the number of refugees allowed into the United States.
“I’m disappointed to see that the administration has once again decided to decrease the number of refugees we allow into our country,” Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, said.
Lankford leader of the pack in 2018 as ‘faith’ leaders gather on the Hill to oppose the President and support ‘Dreamers’ and to push for more refugees for your towns and cities. https://stream.org/immigration-debate-lankford-faith-leaders/
“Over the last few months, the Department of Homeland Security implemented multiple policies that have resulted in a decrease in migrants at the U.S. southern border.
“While I appreciate the administration’s focus on curbing illegal immigration and caring for asylum seekers, that doesn’t mean we should continue to reduce the admittance of refugees who are fleeing from persecution in their home countries to support these policies.”
[….]
Lankford and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., sent a letter last month wrote a letter signed by other senators to three of Trump’s cabinet secretaries urging the refugee cap to be raised from this year’s level. [That would mean they were pushing for more than 30,000!—ed]
The letter, signed by several other senators from both parties, states, “At a time when we are facing the ‘highest levels of displacement on record,’ according to the United Nations Refugee Agency, we urge you to increase the refugee resettlement cap and to admit as many refugees as possible within that cap. America has a responsibility to promote compassion and democracy around the world through assistance to vulnerable and displaced people.”
The letter is here, but as I mentioned previously no specific number of refugees is proposed leaving them free to blast the President for whatever number he recommended. (The Open Borders agitators were pushing for 95,000 knowing full well that would never happen.)
Here are the signers of the letter in addition to Lankford and his sidekick, Senator Chris Coons (D) of Delaware.
I think it’s kind of handy to have this list of the hardcore promoters of more refugees in the US Senate. (Rs are on the Left and Dems on the right.)
Miliband a member in good standing of the “begging bowl barons!”
It looks like the UK Daily Mail has done some digging and noticed the same thing I did—that the International Rescue Committee’s head honcho, former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has almost reached the million dollar a year salary making him a member of what one British government agency called “begging bowl barons!”
Consider the fact that Miliband’s meteoric salary rise comes as the IRC is closing resettlement offices and letting staff go around the US while they whine about cuts in refugee admissions being made by the Trump Administration.
Million-dollar Miliband! Former Labour Minister’s pay soars to $911,000 at US refugee charity that takes huge sums from British taxpayer
Former Labour Foreign Secretary David Miliband is being paid almost $1 million a year to run a humanitarian charity that receives massive sums from British taxpayers.
David Miliband was one of Hillary’s favorite Brits when she was Secretary of State.
His astonishing pay package as chief executive of International Rescue Committee has soared to $911,796 (£741,883) – almost five times the salary of the British Prime Minister – according to the US-based organisation’s latest tax return.
Mr Miliband’s income has swelled by $240,047 (£195,314) over the past two years while he has toured the world demanding more support for refugees, migrants and victims of conflict, and hobnobbing with billionaires, royals and presidents.
Other senior figures at his organisation are also creaming in the cash, with the 12 top-paid officials pocketing more than £4 million between them – a collective rise of £1.1 million in just two years.
The revelation – the latest pay scandal in the aid industry exposed by The Mail on Sunday – provoked calls last night for the charity to stop receiving British cash until it curbs the huge salaries.
The IRC has been handed £107 million over the past two years by the Department for International Development to run refugee, health and poverty-relief projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. [That is peanuts compared to the over $415 million the US government gave the IRC in one recent year—ed]
‘They say charity begins at home and clearly it does for the top bosses in this organisation,’ said Tory MP Nigel Evans, a member of the Commons International Development Committee.
‘This is a grotesque waste of money given by British taxpayers to help the most vulnerable families around the world. Instead, it is being funnelled to the Miliband family – and until the IRC puts their house in order we should stop funding them.’
The revelation comes amid talk that Mr Miliband might return to British politics.
Here is a frightening statistic. Everyone of you should be careful about where you are sending your hard-earned charitable dollars.
‘This salary is in the middle of the range of New York’s non-profit CEO salaries,’ it added.
I have anextensive archive on David Miliband that extends back to his earliest days in 2013 as the CEO of the International Rescue Committee (the wealthiest of the nine federal refugee contractors). Actually the wealthiest as far as we know because it is pretty difficult to determine exactly how much the US Catholic Bishops get along with their extensive network of Catholic Charities.
***For new readers these are the nine federally-funded resettlement contractors:
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s esteemed foreign affairs columnist Trudy Rubinhas penned an opinion piece dripping with venom and bias against the President (and White House aide Stephen Miller) claiming we still owe US citizenship to thousands more Iraqi and Afghan “translators” who supposedly all helped the US military.
Trudy Rubin says we must admit thousands more Afghan and Iraqi ‘interpreters’ to America! I want to know when is enough enough?
The war in Iraq ended in 2011, so first let me ask why after 8 years we still must be giving anyone from Iraq (maybe with an exception for truly persecuted Christians) a taxpayer-funded new life in America?
We spent enormous blood and treasure giving Iraqis new leadership and a fresh chance at governing themselves, why must we move tens of thousands of the newly freed Iraqis (mostly Muslims) to a town near you?
Just a reminder here, dear readers, that when we go to war in a Middle Eastern country the Leftists will claim, now and forevermore, that we are morally bankrupt if we don’t bring that country’s nationals to America!
To hear Ms. Rubin you would not know that since the fall of 2006 through last week we admitted the following astronomical numbers from these two countries.
Afghanistan:
11,142 refugees and 59,104 SIVs (those that supposedly helped us)
(Below I’m going to show you all where Ms. Rubin can find accurate numbers so that maybe next time she won’t get all her facts from refugee contractors who make fat salaries off the US taxpayer and thus have a pecuniary interest in ever-growing refugee numbers.***)
So I guess Trudy Rubin doesn’t think we have already done enough!
And, by the way, by highlighting a sympathetic case she deploys the sob story method to play on her readers’ emotions. I can do that too….learn moreabout the convicted rapist Jasim.
For extra added measure she throws in the canard that our population is declining in America so we need all these new people to pay taxes.
Another Trump scandal: Blocking visas for Iraqis who saved American lives
Apart from Ukraine-gate, another White House scandal revved up recently, almost unnoticed.
The White House effort to block legal immigration shifted into overdrive. The State Department announced last week it would slash the already shrunken U.S. refugee program almost in half, to 18,000 admissions over the next 12 months, nearly eliminating America’s historic role as a safe haven. [I’m questioning why America always has to be a safe haven!—ed]
And the Trump team is trying to limit the impact of a recent D.C. District Court ruling that it end years-long delays in granting special immigrant visas (SIV) for thousands of Afghans and Iraqis who helped the U.S. military – as mandated by Congress.
The SIV mandate is a joke. Then Sen. Ted Kennedy added the provision for SIVs to a defense authorization bill and so there was never a Congressional debate on Iraq and Afghanistan SIVs.
What kind of moral bankrupts try to shut our doors to those who saved American lives?
Cry me a river!
Look who is talking!
“With one final blow, the Trump administration has snuffed out Lady Liberty’s torch and ended our nation’s legacy of compassion and welcome,” says the Rev. John L. McCullough, president of Church World Service,a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations.
Just a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations?
John McCullough pulls down a salary of over $300,000 a year as President and CEO of Church World Service, a federal refugee contractor that got over $40 million in federal tax dollars in a recent year to place refugees throughout America while acting as a leading far left Open Borders political agitation group!
(Ms. Rubin might want to have a look at CWS’s Form 990 here.)
Even more shocking is the White House willingness to betray Iraqis and Afghans who are at risk because they helped the U.S. military.
[….]
Administration callousness beggars belief. Many of these applicants and their families have been hiding for years under death threats.
Meantime, State Department data show that only 1,649 Afghans got SIV visas in 2018, a 60% drop from 2017.
See how she cherry-picks the numbers to put Trump in the worst light! Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, it is time to stop the SIV program? Haven’t we brought enough already? Isn’t 59,104 enough already!
As for Iraqis, the situation is far worse. Those in greatest danger – such as military interpreters and their families – have been tossed into a huge pool of applicants also entitled to visas because they worked for U.S. civilians. That backlog has reached 100,000.
Under Stephen Miller, only 51 Iraqis were admitted in 2018 (as compared with 10,000 in 2016). [LOL! Of course, gotta get their boogey man Miller in here. Don’t they call this dog whistling!—ed]
“They [the SIV applicants] served bravely in support of our missions abroad, and we promised them a pathway to safety in return,” points out Deepa Alagesan, the supervising attorney who brought the successful court case on behalf of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
Under pressure from Congress, 4,000 [more—ed] of the rare refugee slots will supposedly be reserved for Iraqis who worked for the U.S. military. But will they ever receive them?
161,665 refugees and SIVs moved to America isn’t enough?
Was our blood and treasure squandered for a country that eight years after the war ended isn’t safe enough according to the refugee industry agitators?
Are we expected to bring Iraqi ‘refugees’ to our American towns for the next ten years and ten after that?
*** For inquisitive readers, lazy reporters and for Ms. Rubin, hereis where you can find accurate numbers. This is the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center.
These particular data bases for Iraq and Afghanistan show placement for each state for refugee numbers vs. SIV numbers.
Just a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations?