Category: Trump Watch!

First 50 of Australia’s failed asylum seekers have arrived in US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, yes, Mr. President, the deal was “dumb” and it makes you “look terrible.”

We have America’s hurricane refugees and you are bringing in ‘refugees’ that Australia does not want on its mainland!

Trump and Turnbull shitty grin
What is Trump grinning about?  He (we!) get nothing out of the deal that saves Turnbull’s political neck.

 

The news that they were leaving Australia’s detention centers en route  to at least five American states is two days old, so surely they have been delivered.

For new readers, see all of my posts on the Australian (dumb!) deal by clicking here.

Here is the news posted Wednesday at The Guardian:

More than 50 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru are on their way to the United States to be resettled there.

The first 52 refugees to be accepted for resettlement in the United States under a contentious agreement with Australia have left the Pacific island camps where they had been held for years.

Their move comes as reports from Washington indicate the US is preparing to announce it is further slashing its overall refugee intake to its lowest level in a decade.

The first 25 refugees from the men-only camp on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island had flown out of the capital, Port Moresby, on Tuesday for the United States via the Philippines and Qatar, Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said.

Another 27 refugees flew to Port Moresby on Wednesday from a camp in Nauru, he said, also bound, ultimately, for Los Angeles.

But, Los Angeles is not their final destination:

The refugees will be resettled across the United States, including in Georgia, Oregon, Colorado, Texas and Arizona.

They will be assisted with housing, physical and mental healthcare, English lessons, enrolment of children in schools, and in finding employment. [On the US taxpayer’s dime!—ed]

[….]

Obama’s administration had agreed to accept up to 1,250 of Australia’s refugees, mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, [earlier reports said that Rohingya Muslims were in the group too—ed] in exchange for Australia agreeing to accept refugees from the “northern triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, under a US-led resettlement program. [These are mostly economic migrants NOT even in the US.—ed]

It was dumb when Obama did it, and it is dumb now!

Trump lashed his predecessor’s deal as “dumb”, and complained in a phone call to the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, that it would “make me look terrible”.

[….]

Trump ultimately agreed to honour the agreement, subject to “extreme vetting” of refugees.

The US is under no obligation to take a set number of refugees. Australian officials are confident the US will resettle somewhere approaching the 1,250 figure publicly speculated…

The takeaway from this dumb deal is that the US is helping Australia protect its borders, and maintain its security and sovereignty while sacrificing ours!

Australia’s asylum policy mandates that no refugee who arrives in Australia by boat can ever be resettled in the country, a policy the government says dissuades asylum seekers from attempting the dangerous and occasionally deadly ocean crossing from Indonesia.

You can read the rest of the story, here.

Tell the President what you think by clicking here.

Phony outrage from Senators on Trump refugee consultation with Congress

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I can’t spend a lot of time on this, but it warrants a bit of attention.

These US Senators have no shame! 

 

Grassley and Feinstein
Senator Grassley has been there 36 years and Feinstein 25 years.  I would like them both to tell us when exactly was the Refugee Act of 1980 properly/legally carried out when it came to the provision involving the Presidential “determination” and “consultation” with Congress.

What the hell is Senator Grassley doing scolding the White House/State Department, complaining that the legal process was not followed on THIS year’s legally required consultation on the refugee CEILING/CAP.

For the last ten years (and probably the ten before I was watching), Congress never paid any attention to the law when it came to the President’s determination about how many refugees COULD be admitted in the coming fiscal year.

Someone from the Administration would come to the Hill in mid to late September, present the determination and report, and no one on the Hill said boo!

Whatever was sent up, even literally within days of October 1, Congress accepted.

Faux outrage!

Now, only now! are they screaming about how the process was subverted (because it is Trump?).

Go here where I told you almost a month ago what the process is (a process they never followed anyway!).

Here is the complaint initiated by REPUBLICAN Senator Grassley (chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee).  Maybe he is getting too old to remember that he gave Obama a pass for the previous 8 years!

From Talking Points Memo (hat tip: Joanne):

Grassley, Feinstein Blast State Dept. For Barely Consulting Them On Refugee Cap

In a blistering statement Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) called out the Trump administration for its rushed consultation of the committee before announcing it would lower the refugee cap next year.

Grassley and Feinstein complained that they learned of the refugee cap in the news before they had a meeting with the administration, despite asking months ago for a meeting on the issue. State Department officials met with the members of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday afternoon, and only scheduled the meeting on Tuesday, per Grassley and Feinstein.

“We are incredibly frustrated that the annual consultation for refugee admissions, which is required by law, was finalized just one day in advance. It is simply unacceptable to read in the press that the administration had reached its decision on the refugee cap before the mandated meeting with Congress had even been scheduled,” Grassley and Feinstein said in the statement.

This post is filed in my ‘Laugh of the day’ category, here. ROFLMAO!

One more thing:  A number of years ago I asked my Congressman to see if I could be allowed to attend the “consultation” and was told that the public cannot attend. And, besides, I was told, there isn’t much to see—just a perfunctory handing-off of the determination report sometimes by an Assistant Secretary and not the Secretary of State himself or herself.

HIAS leads the pack: wants Congress to admit more refugees than Trump’s 45,000 ceiling

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Nevermind, that the Refugee Act of 1980 gives the power to the President to set the CAP/CEILING*** for refugee admissions for the coming fiscal year which begins on Sunday.

I have to laugh because I can always count on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society to be the first of the nine federal contractors to break from the gate on the next political action the refugee industry will take.

mark-hetfield-hias logo
As CEO of HIAS, Hetfield makes an annual salary of $358,718 (doing well by doing good!). Will he take a pay cut if there aren’t enough paying ‘clients’ (aka refugees) entering the US this year?

For new readers, see how much of your money,  your tax dollars, goes to each of the nine to resettle refugees on a per head basis, here.

There can never be serious reform while the nine are rolling in your money using it to hold rallies and lobby on the Hill while the media tries to make the public think that this is all about ‘humanitarianism’ and ‘religious charity.’

As you surely know by the keening sound coming from contractors like HIAS they aren’t happy with the 45,000 cap announced this week. (I can see huge bidding wars between the contractors as they bid for bodies in a smaller pool of refugees.)

I’m very unhappy with the number too, as I said here.  The UN/US Refugee Admissions Program should be reviewed by Congress to determine if it is still even a program the US should continue.

If the President had suspended the program and said a ‘determination’ would not be sent until Congress reviewed the program, he might have achieved some important campaign promises.  Sending a determination of 45,000 was meaningless—splitting the baby—and will do very little, if anything, to bring about needed long term change.

I digress, more later on what Donald Trump should be doing on the issue.

Here is HIAS telling its followers what to do:

 

Screenshot (884)

Screenshot (885)
This is a screenshot, so links are not hot.  If you want to see the text of what they want their followers to send the Washington reps, go here: https://www.hias.org/stand-against-record-low-cap-refugee-admissions

 

This is what you should be doing today. 

Tell the President that you are unhappy with 45,000.  He clearly wimped out! And, tell your representatives in the House and Senate how you feel too because you are up against lobbyists, like those at HIAS (likely teamed up with global corporation/Chamber of Commerce lobbyists) working the halls of Congress.

*** You will be hearing more from me about the fact that the 45,000 is a CEILING (NOT A TARGET). Trump could stay well under 45,000 and still be operating within the law.

He doesn’t need an Executive order to stay under the ceiling—he never did!

Trump takes easy way out: says we will admit up to 45,000 refugees to begin arriving Sunday

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, no one is happy except maybe the Republican leadership in Congress—they will get some cheap labor for big business donors and the President has asked nothing of them in the way of trashing or reforming the system.

Trump shit eating grin
No one is happy when you split the baby!

They can go home to angry voters who wanted a lower number (or none at all!) and pass the buck to the Prez.

Looking at the wailing headlines this morning (quoting the refugee industry) about how Donald Trump, the meany, has slashed refugee admissions to an all-time low, it seems to me that only Breitbart got it right!

Trump Administration Misses Opportunity to Suspend Refugee Program, Sets FY 2018 Ceiling at 45,000

If Trump had suspended the program (Bush suspended it for two months at the beginning of FY02), it might have lit a fire under the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to begin seriously investigating the program and either trashing it or reforming it.  There is now zero incentive to do that.

And, does anyone think any serious effort will be made in Election year 2018?

The program can move along at this slightly lower level until Trump is no longer President and then they can kick it in to high gear again, and away they go.  They will push up the numbers dramatically to make up for lost time in demographically changing America.

BTW, Breitbart reporter Michael Patrick Leahy did a little calculation and points out that the average annual admissions under George Bush were guess what?  Under 45,000.

So, Donald Trump has done what politicians always do—tried to split the baby—and turned off his base of voters who wanted to see this program and other legal immigration programs reined in.

I’ll have more to say later (have a family gathering to host) when I may be able to calmly give some guidance on what we might do next.

Looks like deep state bureaucrats are blabbing to the New York Times on refugee ceiling issue

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If Donald Trump continues to make no move to replace the top levels in the US State Department with people supportive of him, he has more than three years of this c*** ahead of him.

Here are some snips from the New York Times yesterday:

miller at podium
It is worth reading the whole NY Times piece. You will see how they are gunning for Miller.

WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to cap refugee admissions at 45,000 over the next year, according to current and former government officials briefed on the decision, setting a historically low limit on the number of people who can resettle in the United States after fleeing persecution in their own countries.

Blabbermouth bureaucrats:

Administration officials plan to inform senior lawmakers of the decision on Wednesday, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to pre-empt a formal announcement.

Mr. Trump’s decision follows a fierce internal debate among senior members of his administration. Military and foreign policy officials pressed for resettling more refugees as a national security and moral imperative, while other top officials, led by Stephen Miller, his top policy adviser, and backed by John F. Kelly, his chief of staff and former secretary of homeland security, advocated slashing the number to as low as 15,000 based on concerns about cost and safety.

[….]

But Rex W. Tillerson, the secretary of state, ultimately lowered his recommended limit to 45,000, the people said, and that was the number presented to Mr. Trump.

The White House declined to comment on the decision or on the deliberations surrounding it.

Linda hartke 3
Of course the NYT will never tell you that Hartke’s Lutherans are paid by the head to resettle refugees and that her organization is 96-97% funded by you, the taxpayer.

I’ve been telling you, the refugee contractors are going to scream bloody murder over 45,000, so Trump should have gone for some really significant number—heck, even zero!

Refugee assistance groups reacted with outrage to the anticipated cap, calling it a departure from the American tradition of welcoming immigrants in times of need.

Partner! Partner! (grrrrr!) Does the NYT intentionally lie or are their reporters just lazy?

NYT reporters JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and MIRIAM JORDAN*** continue….

“Today a dark shadow has passed across the great American legacy and promise of protecting refugees,” said Linda Hartke, the president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine agencies — most of them faith-based — that partner with the United States government to resettle refugees. “The threat of a drastically low ceiling on refugee arrivals in the U.S. is contrary to American values and the spirit of generosity in American churches and communities.”

Just when I think I can’t do this anymore, I see the NYT write this deception (by omission) about the contractors and it energizes me to continue to get the truth out to you.

Here is the latest financial information on the refugee agencies (federal contractors) whose budgets are based on the number of refugees (aka “clients”) admitted each year. As the numbers decline, so too do their federally-funded budgets!

BTW, the outraged Hartke is pulling down a salary/benefits/related income package of over $300,000 a year—doing very well by doing good! 

(That is a government-funded salary larger than a US Senator or a Supreme Court Justice makes annually!)

Finally, here, toward the end of the article, is the PR stunt letter I told you about in my previous post:

On Monday, 34 senators — all Democrats except for John McCain of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — wrote to Mr. Trump pleading for a cap higher than 50,000, calling the refugee program “a critical pillar or our national security and our foreign policy.”

Read the rest of the NYT piece here.

It is not too late, Donald Trump could still suspend the program and send Hartke (WHO WORKS FOR HIM!) to Puerto Rico and help American refugees for a change!

***Update*** Jordan says on twitter that she wants to hear from you:  miriam.jordan@nytimes.com