Promises, promises: As we approach 100 days, Trump has dropped ball on refugee program reform

04/25/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a detailed story at Breitbart yesterday in which reporter Michael Patrick Leahy reminds us of what Donald Trump promised, especially in Minnesota, days before his victory in the 2016 Presidential contest.

With about a week to go until his administration reaches the 100-day mark, President Trump’s campaign promises to halt Syrian refugee resettlement and tighten up the refugee vetting process remain largely unfulfilled.

Trump has reduced the overall number of refugees resettled, something that he implied but did not specifically promise on the campaign trail, but the level of reduction falls far short of the virtual halt many of his supporters had hoped to see.

President Trump’s most explicit statements about the refugee resettlement program during the campaign came at a November 6 rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota, two days before the election.

“A Trump administration will not admit any refugees without the support of the local community where they are being placed,” he told a “crowd of more than 5,000 who greeted him at the Sun Country Airlines hangar of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport” (emphasis added):

“Hillary wants a 550 percent increase in Syrian refugees pouring into our country. And she wants virtually unlimited immigration and refugee admissions, from the most dangerous regions of the world, to come into our country and to come into Minnesota, and you know it better than anybody,” Trump said.

“Her plan will import generations of terrorism, extremism, and radicalism into your schools and throughout your communities,” he continued.

“When I’m elected president, we will suspend the Syrian refugee program and we will keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump announced.

“Here in Minnesota you’ve seen first hand the problems caused with faulty refugee vetting, with large numbers of Somali refugees coming into your state without your knowledge, without your support or approval, and with some of them then joining ISIS and spreading their extremist views all over our country, and all over the world,” Trump told the crowd.

“Everybody’s reading about the disaster taking place in Minnesota, everybody’s reading about it. You don’t even have the right to talk about it, you don’t even know who’s coming in, you have no idea. You’ll find out. You’ll find out,” he promised.

“And we will pause admissions from terror-prone regions until a full security assessment has been performed, and until a proven vetting mechanism has been established,” Trump added.

Continue reading here as Leahy lays out in great detail where Trump has dropped the ball.
We have extensive reporting in our ‘Trump Watch’ category on the many fumbles (if they are fumbles!) and the numbers the Trump Dept. of State is admitting with no sign of any “extreme vetting” having been put in place.
As of last Friday we have admitted 41,553 refugees in FY17, and, at the 900 a week rate, we could reach 60,000 (an average number since 9/11).
If I had to guess what caused the Trump big talk to fizzle, I bet it was the Chamber of Commerce Republicans who have convinced him that US companies need the cheap LEGAL refugee laborers now that the flow of illegals is slowing.
BIG MEAT needs workers willing to work for low wages, see here. (So does BIG POULTRY, and the dairy industry, and Marriott hotels, and airport support services, etc. etc.). What a business model—pay low wages and the refugee family is subsidized through taxpayer-funded welfare programs!
Never forget! Refugee resettlement is not first and foremost about humanitarianism!

Haitian 'temporary' refugees to test Trump's resolve on immigration

04/24/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve written about ‘Temporary Protected Status’ over the years as a side issue here at RRW. But, like the Diversity Visa Lottery, it begs for more attention from some intrepid wannabe blogger who should take on the issue as a sole priority and really do it justice.

TPS is basically a scam, it is rarely temporary!
The US, in its humanitarian zeal (supposedly), allows certain nationals who got in to the US in some other way (usually illegally) to stay if their home country cannot take them back for some extenuating reason (big storm, earthquake, civil war). Under TPS, these nationals become temporary refugees allowed to stay and work in America.
Then every 18 months, a TPS designation is extended for another 18 months and this can go on for years.
Click here to learn more and see the countries eligible for this special deal right now. Note that Hondurans have had their special status extended ever since 1999. El Salvador since 2001.
And, since we have such a huge refugee program from Somalia, I have never understood why Somalis have TPS.
At one point, during the Bush presidency (when he was extending again some TPS designation), I came to understand that those countries, like El Salvador, loved this program because their people working legally in the US were propping up the Salvadoran economy with their remittances (money sent out of the US economy to the third world country).
Here is the latest from the Miami Herald. You see what happens, after years and years in the US, these people have jobs, houses, kids in school and they use that argument—you can’t possibly be so mean to send us back now—against us!
BTW, all of those on TPS had their hopes dashed when the ‘Gang of Eight’ legislation failed in Congress a few years ago. They were hoping for amnesty so they would never have to leave.
Miami Herald:

Immigration attorney Little calls the proposal to not extend TEMPORARY status to Haitians “heartless and stupid.”

The Trump administration is recommending sending tens of thousands of Haitians back to their homeland because it believes conditions have significantly improved in the disaster-prone, poverty-stricken nation.

[….]

James McCament, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Temporary Protected Status, the immigration relief that has allowed Haitians to live and work freely in the United States, should be terminated. The Obama administration granted the status following the earthquake, which left more than 300,000 dead, 1.5 million injured and an equal number homeless.

“Conditions in Haiti no longer support its designation for TPS,” McCament said in a memo to U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary John F. Kelly obtained by the Miami Herald.

McCament’s recommendations came as a surprise to many, including Haitian and immigration advocates who have been pushing for the extension of TPS before July 22, when it is up for renewal.

Help OUR economy? Someone should do a study about how much of our money leaves our economy through remittances!

“TPS beneficiaries contribute greatly to our economy,” said attorney Cheryl Little, whose Americans for Immigrant Justice organization also represents some of the estimated 300,000 Central Americans who have been enjoying the special status since 1999. “They are growing our economy and to suddenly say, ‘There is a new sheriff in town, pack your bags,’ it’s heartless and it’s stupid.”

The Center for American Progress had been closely monitoring the decision on Haiti because it’s the “first test of this administration’s commitment to handle TPS determinations in an apolitical manner that respects human rights and the letter of the law,” said Tom Jawetz, the center’s vice president for immigration policy.

It is a test for CAP and a test for those of us who supported Trump’s campaign promises!
Continue here for lots more at the Miami Herald clearly advocating for Haitians to stay!
One last thing! TPS allows those so designated to live and work here as if they were legal immigrants. And, it allows them to get drivers’ licenses. It does not allow them to vote, but with drivers’ licenses, who is going to stop them?

Pence in Australia: Sure! We will be taking over 1,000 illegal aliens now held in Australian detention

04/23/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Donald Trump called it a “dumb deal,” but your American town may soon see some of the 1,250 illegal aliens, who attempted to get to Australia by boat and have been housed in detention centers, flown in and given apartments and homes where you live. They won’t be living next door to Vice President Pence for sure!

Some of these men will be coming to your town!

Here is what AP is reporting at the Japan Times (emphasis is mine) about a deal the Obama State Department left for Trump:

SYDNEY – Vice President Mike Pence and Australia’s prime minister brushed off any lingering hostility over a contentious refugee deal and joined forces on Saturday to urge China to take a greater role in pressuring North Korea to drop its nuclear weapons program.

Pence and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull repeatedly praised the decades-long American-Australian alliance following a meeting in Sydney, with the vice president thanking Turnbull for calling on Beijing to play a more active part in the international effort to de-escalate Pyongyang’s nuclear threat.

The two leaders appeared at pains to present a united front following an unusual period of tension between the longtime allies that was sparked by a spat between Turnbull and President Donald Trump over a refugee resettlement deal struck by the Obama administration.

Pence said Saturday that the U.S. would honor the agreement even if it didn’t agree with it. Under the deal, the U.S. would take up to 1,250 refugees that Australia houses in detention camps on the Pacific island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Trump’s anger over the agreement led to a tense phone call with Turnbull in January and an angry tweet in which the president called the deal “dumb.”

“President Trump has made it clear that we’ll honor the agreement — that doesn’t mean we admire the agreement,” Pence said during a joint news conference with Turnbull.

So some small American towns and cities are going to get illegal aliens (mostly Muslim men) who failed to be approved for asylum in Australia! Disgusting!
Here is a portion of a letter from the chairmen of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees sent to the Obama Administration in November identifying which countries the illegal aliens are from (the “stateless” are most likely Rohingya from Bangladesh or Burma).

All of our posts on the Australian “dumb deal” are here.
And, by the way, beginning in 2012, I testified at US Dept. of State hearings that there were ten reasons a moratorium on refugee admissions should be put in place. One thing I said must be done is to stop using the refugee program to move people around the world just to address some other foreign policy objective.
Only people who are truly refugees, in need of humanitarian assistance, should be considered for resettlement. This Australia deal is exactly what I had in mind when I presented my testimony. This deal is only to help the Turnbull government out of a sticky situation. Here is my #7:

7) Congress needs to specifically disallow the use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government,especially using certain refugee populations to address unrelated foreign policy objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come to mind.

Let the White House know how you feel by clicking here (do it even if you have done it before!).

And, Chairmen Grassley and Goodlatte are not off the hook either, they could pressure this White House (they were all too happy to pressure the Obama White House) on the subject!
All of my posts about Trump’s refugee policies are archived in Trump Watch!

Trump Admin comes in at just short of 900 refugees in past week; Syrian numbers way down

04/22/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

206 Refugees from DR Congo came in this past week. In 2013, Obama told the UN that we would take 50,000 from the DR Congo over 5 years. We are up to 38,490 right now. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/06/05/state-department-refugee-program-head-honcho-made-some-news-last-month/

We were shocked to learn here that, although Donald Trump said he wanted a 120-day moratorium on refugee resettlement so as to evaluate whether we are doing “extreme vetting,” the US State Department would be admitting 900 refugees a week.
I just checked the numbers at Wrapsnet and from last Friday (4/14) to yesterday, we admitted 882. So, they are sticking with that goal which we believe will put them on target for an average number of refugees for the fiscal year—somewhere just over 60,000.
Trump also had said he was lowering the ceiling for FY17 to 50,000.
Yesterday it was at 41,553.
We will be watching to see if he continues to bring them in when that number is reached, at this rate, in about 10 weeks. (The fiscal year ends on September 30th.)

The big winners this past week were refugees from the DR Congo (206), Iraq (149) and Burma (114). Syrians were way down at 27 and 66 Somalis came in over those seven days.

Reader: Why isn't Trump sending them all to Hawaii?

04/14/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That made me laugh and I said I would have a look at the numbers!
If you are new to the issue, the joke is that when Hawaiian judge, and Obama pal, Derrick Watson put a halt to Trump’s last Executive Order one month ago, we pointed out rightly that Hawaii has only taken a handful of refugees for decades, see here and here.

Judge Derrick Watson wants diversity—send him some!

I checked Wrapsnet just now. As of today Trump is at 40,671 refugees for this fiscal year which is way ahead of either George W. Bush or Barack Obama for this point in the fiscal year (see chart below).
2,565 refugees have been admitted to the US in the past 4 weeks when there was supposed to be a ‘moratorium’ on resettlement.

Hawaii? (Drum roll!)

Hawaii has taken ZERO refugees in those 4 weeks and only 3 Burmese in the whole of this fiscal year (out of the 40,671).
We should launch a campaign and call it ‘Send them all to Hawaii!’

Trump presiding over largest number of refugees admitted by mid-April in last ten years!

Check my math, have we admitted a number over 40,000 refugees by mid-April in the last ten years? I don’t think so!

Endnote: Remember it is Hawaii that was sending its homeless people to the mainland! So much for loving diversity!