US shuts the door on refugees, wails 'Think Progress'

07/13/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..and it is confirmed by their go-to commenter—Mark Hetfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society— who says of Trump’s ceiling that it is “lower than it’s been in history.”
But, what he doesn’t say is that even at 50,086 (the number this morning), that is not the lowest ADMISSIONS number in the history of the program as we pointed out here (and will show you below).
Here is Think Progress (John Podesta):

“We’ve reached a low point in U.S. history today with the Trump administration setting and enforcing a refugee admission ceiling which is lower than it’s been in history,” HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield told ThinkProgress in a phone interview Wednesday.

I just told you two days ago (something Think Progress will never tell you), that groups like HIAS are quasi-government agencies paying CEO salaries at major corporation levels. Hetfield makes $358,718 (doing well by doing good!) annually. Only one of the nine CEOs makes more, and that is David Miliband of the IRC ($591,846). https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/07/11/updating-financial-data-on-refugee-contractors-big-bucks-for-humanitarian-work/

HIAS, a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian assistance and aid to refugees, has long helped refugees resettle in the United States. Hetfield was immensely displeased that at least one HIAS client, who was approved as a refugee, will be unable to come in despite having a grandmother in the country. Others will also see their flight reservations cancelled.

[….]

“We’re at least grateful the Supreme Court prevented Trump from fully implementing his mean spirited executive order and that refugees will [with] ties to US will continue to be admitted,” Hetfield said. “It’s an embarrassment for our country to be taking in so few refugees when the needs are so great.”

Think Progress goes on to perpetuate a massive misunderstanding claiming that countries like Turkey (Lebanon and Jordan) take in more refugees than does the rich (mean-spirited) US.

Those countries do not take refugees permanently (another thing that Think Progress will never tell its readers!)

Those countries would never let large numbers of other ethnic groups (Iraqis, Syrians, Somalis, Pakistanis, Palestinians etc.) become PERMANENT VOTING CITIZENS. In our refugee program (the largest in the world even at 50,000) we do, and so….

….we are the number one country in the world admitting refugees for life!

Let’s look at historically low admissions levels (see charts here).

There were 4 years when we admitted fewer than Trump’s 50,086:

FY02: 27,070

FY03: 28,117

FY06: 41,279

FY07: 48,281

And, since the SCOTUS is allowing refugees with “bona fide” relationships to enter above Trump’s 50,000 ceiling, here are some other years that might easily be surpassed before September 30th (the end of FY17):

FY87: 58,863

FY04: 52,858

FY05: 53,813

And these next two are THE Man’s (Obama’s years):

FY11: 56,424

FY12: 58,238

I’m guessing that Trump will, in the end, be admitting in the low 60,000s, close to the average for the last ten years. The big question is—what will he propose for FY18???

First time in history of refugee program Presidential ceiling has been exceeded

07/13/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, you can thank the Supreme Court for unconstitutionally legislating in its decision late last month.

Refugees arriving after today are the responsibility of nine unelected justices.

I showed you here over the weekend that no ceiling has been exceeded in the over 35 year history of the program.
My worry is that what SCOTUS has done has been to literally obliterate the responsibility for refugees the law gives to the President and to Congress by defining a new standard for admittance—to those with “bona fide” relationships—ceiling be damned!
Even if one argues it is temporary, it is still an outrage! How dare the Supreme Court say that those in a newly coined category—those prospective ‘refugees’ with bona fide relationships—are not a security threat to us! That is the President’s job! Did the justices even read the Refugee Act of 1980?
But, how do you challenge the Supreme Court? And, are the contractors secretly cheering because they have longed for the day when the CEILING would become meaningless.
To top it off, there is another legal challenge before the rogue Hawaii judge that might further gum up the works (see Breitbart’s Michael Leahy on that potential legal quagmire, here).
Chaos and confusion reign, just as Clarence Thomas (with Alito and Gorsuch) predicted.
And, this was completely unnecessary because the Trump Administration could have simply lowered the ceiling when they came in to office without any Executive Order. The most they had to do was notify Congress!
As of yesterday afternoon, we have admitted 50,086 refugees to the US in this fiscal year.
Here is where the 50,086 were placed.

Here are the top ten ‘welcoming’ states. LOL! Hawaii is near the bottom as always with 3 whole refugees!

So much for Texas removing itself from the USRAP!

All of my posts on the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision are archived here.
There are many stories in the media today about the ceiling having been exceeded, if there is anything useful (other than the same old babble), I’ll update this post.

50,000 refugee cap should be reached today, then what?

07/12/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Then for the remainder of the 120-day ‘moratorium’ only refugees with certain relatives and certain “bona fide” connections to US entities will be admitted.

The Supremes—the US’s new legislative body!

Once we pass the CEILING for the first time in the history of the program, it is my view that the refugees will belong to the Supreme Court since it has taken it upon itself to unconstitutionally WRITE REFUGEE LAW!
Adding to the confusion going forward is the fact that the 120-day moratorium will run in to late October (Supremes will likely not have ruled on the merits of the case by then).

September will be the real test for Trump’s Presidency on the refugee issue….

Late October (when the 120 days will be up) is a month PAST the legally required deadline for the President to send his 2018 refugee determination to the Hill. (Here is one of many posts on the ‘determination’ for new readers.)
In September, how will the White House handle that wrinkle SCOTUS has handed them?

The real test for President Trump on refugees comes in September! What will he propose for FY18?

LOL! Of course one thing the President could do is send a Determination to the Hill for FY18 of zero and tell Congress to reform the program in a serious way during a year-long moratorium.

(The Labrador bill isn’t much.)
Here is the story at KPCC radio in Southern California that got me going on this subject again this morning:

Federal officials expect the national cap on refugee admissions for fiscal year 2017 to be reached Wednesday, ushering in the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban affecting refugees.

Once that happens, all refugees will have to prove they have close relatives in the United States or established ties such as a job before they can gain entry. The new rules will remain in effect for at least 120 days, starting from late June when the U.S Supreme Court ordered the partial reinstatement of the Trump travel policy.

[….]

The State Department posted guidance listing the accepted categories of relatives: “a parent (including parent-in-law), spouse, fiancé, fiancée, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sibling, whether whole or half. This includes step relationships. The following relationships do not qualify: grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, and any other ‘extended’ family members.”

A department spokeswoman told KPCC by email that refugees scheduled to travel to the U.S. will be allowed in until the end of Wednesday. Then, “beginning July 13, only those individuals who have a credible claim to a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States will be eligible for admission through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.”

A relationship with a U.S. entity, such as a university or employer, can also qualify a refugee for entry on a case-by-case basis. However, the spokeswoman said refugees are not likely to have such ties and are more likely to have connections to relatives.

The State Department made clear that a relationship with a U.S. resettlement agency does not count as a qualifying relationship.

Remember when Donald Trump rolled out his first Executive Order and wanted to prioritize Christians and the contractors*** went crazy and said that was not fair. The lead squawker was the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society!
Well, you need to know, before you read this next segment of the story, that we have been prioritizing Jews from, first Russia, and now Iran (processing them after they get to Austria as visitors) as refugees to America! Learn about Lautenberg here.

The agency that Castro directs settles many Iranian Jews who travel to the U.S. via Austria, arriving through a refugee program that benefits religious minorities. He said one of his agency’s refugee clients has been waiting in Austria. She is being vetted by U.S. officials but likely will be stuck in Austria because she has no close relatives in this country.

Resettlement agencies say they have yet to receive guidance from the federal government about what happens once the 120 days of the temporary refugee travel ban are up. [Again, the 120 days puts us in to the new fiscal year—what will Donald do in September?—ed]

“I suspect that what will happen is there will be a push to make this more permanent in some form,” Castro said. “I can’t imagine going back to the status quo prior to the order.”

I can’t imagine that either! It would be political suicide for Trump if he reverts to the old system of secret refugee seeding by phony ‘religious’ charities!
All of my posts on the Supreme Court’s overreach are here.
***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizers paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities. Because their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, the only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors from the process.

Supreme Court is giving permission for the refugee ceiling to be surpassed for first time

07/09/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know, I am a broken record on this issue and that it is more interesting to read about the rich kids at Harvard wanting refugees and about Muslim refugees facing trial skipping out on bail, but we have to address the boring numbers stuff too.
Here is what we know:
~The President sets the CEILING for refugee admissions each year (the ceiling is a cap!).

~President Obama set the ceiling for FY17 at 110,000 in his final months in office (he never set a ceiling that high in his previous 7 years).
~Donald Trump’s EO reset it at 50,000.
~As of today we are at 49,803 according to Wrapsnet.
~The Supreme Court confirmed the 50,000 with a caveat. Anyone who could prove a “bona fide relationship” with a relative in the US or to an “entity” could come in above the 50,000 cap.
~I contend that with that stipulation, the Supreme Court has taken it upon itself to rewrite refugee law because there is a mechanism in the Refugee Act to go above the cap, but it sure doesn’t involve the courts. The President must determine that there is an emergency and he must consult with Congress—not the courts—to go above the ceiling.

Tomorrow or the next day, we will cross the 50,000 mark.

Have we ever surpassed a refugee ceiling?

I wanted to know if we have ever gone above the ceiling and so I did some research and this is what I learned:

Since 1983 (over 30 years!), no President has exceeded the ceiling, but many of them came in way below the ceiling previously set.

From the 2007 ORR Annual Report to Congress a chart (p.4) showing CEILINGS and numbers actually admitted going back to 1983.

Do you see how far below the ceiling they were in a number of years. And, note the text at the top. There is no mention of any court having any role in determining the ceiling.

Now pick it up from 2007 to right now, end of June 2017 from Wrapsnet. Have they ever surpassed the ceiling in more recent years? NO!
But, I want you take note of the fact that the US State Department (Trump’s DOS!) cannot even bring itself to put the 50,000 in the CEILING column. I explained here about when it was removed. In fact the chart last month (for the end of May) left out the whole ceiling column!

Note that the ceiling column is blank for FY17 although the Supreme Court confirmed it is 50,000.

By the way, ignore all the wailing and moaning by the contractors. If you check the average admissions number for 20 years up to Obama’s huge FY16, the average admissions come in at just over 62,000. If the Supremes get their way, you can bet Trump will be forced past that number. (Congress has appropriated enough money for 75,000 by September 30th!)
If the President is serious, he can ask Congress for a rescission of those funds!
We will be watching every day! Any refugees over 50,000 are the responsibility of the Supreme Court having taken over the President’s constitutional authority to protect us!

State Dept. extends refugee cut-off date; Hawaii judge denies new request for clarification

07/07/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It was supposed to have been yesterday that the US State Department expected the President’s FY17 50,000 cap to be reached.
When the number is reached (a ceiling set for decades by the President under refugee law), as we know, the US Supreme Court owns it because they stepped in to rewrite law and the battle for the bona fides begins.
As of today we have admitted 49,793 refugees this fiscal year according to the State Department’s own Refugee Processing Center (aka Wrapsnet).
Here is the LA Times reporting that the deadline is extended because the 50,000 cap was not reached yesterday as expected.

Hetfield’s name turns up in most mainstream media stories about the US Refugee Program and Pres. Trump. The media must see him as the go-to guy for quotes! Did you know that he pulls down a salary of over $300,000—doing well by doing good? Learn more about him and HIAS’s finances here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/11/13/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-lectures-trump-never-mentions-its-pecuniary-interest-in-refugees/

Refugee resettlement agencies say the State Department has given them updated instructions on President Trump’s travel ban that extends the cutoff date for refugee admissions.

When the ban was put into place last week, the administration said refugees who had booked travel would be admitted through Thursday. After that, immigration officials would block all refugees, except those who could prove they had U.S. connections, such as close relatives.

The July 6 date was a government estimate of when the country would reach a 50,000-person cap on refugee admissions this fiscal year. Federal officials now estimate that the cap will be hit a week later, according to refugee groups.

[….]

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department would not confirm the change and said more information would come out Thursday.

“The cap could be hit earlier, so it could be earlier than July 12,” said Mark Hetfield, chief executive of the resettlement group HIAS, formerly known as Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

HIAS is among several refugee resettlement groups that have challenged the ban, which blocks travel from six Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and suspends refugee admissions from everywhere for 120 days.

The LA Times goes on to say that the Hawaii Open Borders advocates filed suit (again) looking for clarification about whether the contractors*** are bona fide entities for the purpose of bringing even more than 50,000 refugees in over the remaining roughly 2 months and 3 weeks remaining in this fiscal year.

Justices wrote that people with “bona fide” connections to the U.S. such as jobs, university admission and family could bypass the ban but left it up to the Trump administration to define which family members counted.

The administration has said that people with “close family” in the U.S. — such as a parent, spouse, fiance or fiancee, child or sibling — could go around the ban. But it blocked others, including grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Immigrant and refugee groups are challenging the definitions in a Honolulu federal district court, saying the administration is violating the Supreme Court’s orders. A federal judge there who previously ruled against the ban in one of the cases being considered by the high court could issue a decision on the matter this week.

Refugee advocates argue that their relationship to refugees should be enough for them to gain admission to the country despite the ban. The government disagrees.

Request denied!

See it here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3890325-Hawaii-v-Trump-Clarify-Order.html

Just as I am writing this post, I see that the same Hawaii judge has denied their request for clarification.
See here! Let the Supremes decide.
By the way, the other plaintiff in the case joining with the State of Hawaii is an Imam who wants more Muslims admitted to the US, here. But, Hawaii is normally at the bottom of the list of states taking any refugees!
Hey, maybe the State Dept. could put all those they bring in above the cap (it could be thousands!) in Hawaii!

Why not tell the President that when you write to him today! Give Hawaii its dearest wish—more third world diversity. Go here.

All of my posts on this topic are filed in my new ‘Supreme Court’ category.
***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizers paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities. Because their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, the only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors from the process.