Shortly after President Trump announced his travel ban, you will remember that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the world in a tweet that they would be welcome in Canada.
Well, Canada’s welcome is wearing thin and here is one more story, this time in the Wall Street Journal telling us that the public opinion tide has turned on Trudeau.
Although the article (hat tip: Cathy) is focused on the asylum seekers coming across their border with the US, I am sure that the 52,000+ Syrian refugees they admitted in less than three years had already strained Canada’s ability to provide shelter and welfare for that many needy people.
I’ve already posted a bunch of stories similar to this one from several different cities in what is an obvious media campaign to blast the President as he approaches his deadline to say how many refugees the US will ‘welcome’ in FY19.
I don’t intend to publish them all because it gets boring, but will note interesting points when I see them.
Iraqi refugees convicted on terror charges were arrested in Bowling Green, KY, but you never see that mentioned anymore. https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/exclusive-terror-worry-rises-al-qaeda-found-kentucky-20958004
We have written a lot on Bowling Green, KY over the years.
It is Senator Rand Paul’s home town. In 2011, two Iraqi Muslim refugees were arrested there and ultimately found guilty of attempting to help a terrorist group in Iraq. The arrest resulted in the US State Department temporarily halting resettlement from Iraq and rescreening thousands of potential refugees.
At that point, Senator Paul came out strongly against the program, but his criticism vanished when he ran for President in 2016.
You might call it refugee ‘cap wrangling season’ as the players in the refugee resettlement circles in Washington jockey for position for the coming fiscal year.
Everyone is waiting to see what Sec. of State Pompeo will say.
A lot rides on the ceiling, or cap, the President, by law, sets for the coming fiscal year—how many refugees could be admitted and where they might come from. It is a power assigned to the President by then Senator Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter as they pushed through, and Carter ultimately signed, the Refugee Act of 1980.
Besides the push from the Leftwing Open Borders gang for more diversity for America, and Dems for more voters, a lot of federal money for nine federal resettlement contractors*** is at stake.
I hope not to be talking about it every day (seeyesterday’s post), but when I saw this Politico story I figured it included a little nugget that you should know about, namely that the President threw out the number 5,000 in last years ‘cap wrangling season.’
From TripAdvisor, a Program to Help Refugees Get to Know the U.S.
In partnership with the International Rescue Committee, the Welcome Homeinitiative will offer tours and activities in New York City and Northern California for recently resettled refugees.
Interesting isn’t it: Trip Advisor has 3.61 million followers on Twitter, but could only generate 9 retweets in 17 hours for this tweet about their great refugee PR campaign. Hmmm! Makes me realize I’m not doing so badly on Twitter after all.
TripAdvisor wants refugees to the United States to explore and get to know their new homeland, and the hospitality company’s yearlong Welcome Home campaign aims to do just that: launched last week, Welcome Home gives recently resettled refugees in New York City and parts of Northern California the opportunity to book a tour or activity of their choice through TripAdvisor Experiences, a category that offers travelers things to do in around 1,900 destinations globally.
The International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental organization that provides services to displaced people globally, is TripAdvisor’s partner in Welcome Home and is responsible for reaching out to newly resettled refugees to tell them about the initiative.
I’ll be reporting the news below, but I first want to make my key points up front so that you don’t fall for the pity-party news story.
“Some call it charity!” Here is a charitable idea, some of those bringing in fat pay checks, like IRC CEO David Miliband, could send some of their boodle to staff in Kansas!
~The International Rescue Committee is ostensibly a private non-profit group and therefore the US State Department can’t dictate that it must close offices (supposedly they will be closing 3 of 28).
They might not be getting new refugees at the office in GC that was set up only 4 years ago at the heyday of Obama’s presidency, but they surely could pay for some staff and a small office to help those they already dropped off in the town whose major employer is Tyson Foods!
~The IRC is a financial giant as non-profits go. From its 2016 Form 990 we know they had revenue that year of $736 million and that $494 million was provided to them by you—-the US taxpayers!
~Some of their top expenses were salaries ($244 million), grants and other assistance to foreign organizations, foreign governments, and foreign individuals ($296 million) and office expenses ($20 million).
Their headquarters are in Manhattan, New York (not Manhattan, KS). I mention this because I wonder: how much could a small office to aid struggling refugees cost in Garden City, KS? (You will see that the GC Telegram story is all about how refugees will be left in the lurch.)
~Salaries of top staff we have reported previously are here:
The point I am making is that the IRC could very well have kept its Garden City office open even if new refugees (new paying clients) were not being sent there by the State Department. They could have continued to help the refugees they brought in during the first 4 years with other money from their ginormous pot of money.
But, instead, this news will be used as one more bit of media fodder to blast President Donald Trump.
