Nebraska Republican Governor supports security screening, BUT wants refugee admissions to resume ASAP

02/18/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

My question is, so how much of the governor’s enthusiasm for refugees is because the meat and poultry industry in Nebraska has gotten addicted to cheap LEGAL immigrant labor?

nickerson_nebraska_downtown_1 — Last May we reported on tiny Nickerson, Nebraska where residents objected to a new poultry plant that wanted to locate there partly because they did not want the town changed with a huge influx of migrant labor. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/05/02/tiny-nebraska-town-says-no-to-chicken-plant-migrant-labor-one-important-objection/

There isn’t much different here than in dozens of sobs stories in recent days (that I can’t keep up with) about Refugee Resettlement contracting agencies having to reduce staff as the number of refugees arriving in the US begins to slow.
‘Religious charities,’ helping to supply BIG MEAT with laborers, are paid by the head (from the US Treasury) to seed refugees into your towns, and so obviously their money is drying up.
Nebraska was on my summer tour of states where meatpackers and poultry plants are changing the face of heartland towns with their greedy desire for cheap labor. Humanitarianism is only the cover!
Be sure to see Bloomberg’s ‘Big Meat Braces for a Refugee Shortage.’ I wrote about it here.

By the way, it is a fabulous business model for BIG MEAT (BIG TURKEY! BIG CHICKEN!) because US taxpayers bring the laborers directly to them, they pay wages much lower than they did 20 years ago, ‘religious charities’ get them settled in town, and then the refugee families’ lives are subsidized by taxpayers again in the form of social services (aka welfare).
This is the sob story from the Lincoln Journal Star yesterday:

pete-ricketts — Let’s get moving! “…so we can continue to safely welcome refugees from all parts of the world.”

Two of Nebraska’s three refugee resettlement agencies are cutting back their staffs in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration.

Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, the largest of the three, announced Friday that it will eliminate 15 jobs in anticipation of a significant decline in refugee arrivals. Six of those jobs are in Lincoln.

Omaha’s Refugee Empowerment Center has also experienced cutbacks.

[….]

Trump’s order reduced the overall number of refugees allowed into the U.S. this year from 110,000 to 50,000. [Here we go with the bs again. Obama only wished for 110,000 in the year he would no longer be in office, 50,000 is still higher than 4 of George W. Bush’s years!—-ed]

That will have a significant impact in Nebraska, which led the nation in the number of refugees it accepted per capita last fiscal year.

[….]

The president clamped down on refugee resettlement and other travel into the U.S. following a wave of questions, mostly from Republicans, about the vetting process for refugees from Syria and other war-torn Middle East countries.

Gov. Pete Ricketts has said he supports Trump’s efforts to “strengthen security screening in the refugee process” but urged the White House to “quickly put new vetting processes in place, so we can continue to safely welcome refugees from all parts of the world.”

Continue reading here.
I fear that with everyone focusing on the security screening that most Republicans, who are driven by corporate donations and Chambers of Commerce, will not have any desire to reform this program with its huge economic and cultural costs.
Grassroots investigators should be looking for evidence that your elected officials are being lobbied by, or funded by, the meat and poultry giants in your states.
See our Nebraska archive by clicking here. Note the problems Nebraska has with TB in the migrant population there.

WSJ explains (sort of) what that March 3rd date means for slowing US refugee admissions

02/18/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We reported on the “official” notification involving March 3rd, here and here and wondered what the significance of that date might be. It is this notification that caused the refugee resettlement contractors to go into a tailspin about their federal funding.
Thanks to Joanne for spotting this article in the Wall Street Journal that clarifies it (somewhat):

The State Department ordered its embassies abroad to delay booking travel for refugees resettling in the U.S. after March 3.

And below are some snips from the story by reporter Maria Abi-Habib (emphasis is mine):

The U.S. State Department has ordered embassies to slow resettlement of refugees for the next few weeks and delay booking travel for refugees after March 3 as the numbers approach the annual cap of 50,000 set recently by President Donald Trump, according to American officials.

tillerson-and-trump — Hopefully there will be more clarity early next week from Secretary of State Tillerson and the White House. BTW, sure hope they will pick someone who knows the program to be Asst. Sec. of State for PRM or else the careers will roll them!

What doesn’t make sense to me is that unless they bring them in at 1,000 a day they aren’t going to be near 50,000 by March 3rd.
WSJ continues….

U.S. officials from embassies in the Middle East said they received a directive Tuesday from the State Department’s Population, Refugee and Migration bureau to delay booking travel to the U.S. for refugees awaiting final resettlement after March 3. The directive said the numbers of refugees already admitted is close to Mr. Trump’s cap for 2017. [Not really, we are at almost 36,205 as of this morning. We added 371 since yesterday!—ed]

[….]

The same order also cut the annual limit for refugees for the year ending October 2017 to less than half of the previous administration’s 110,000 ceiling. [This is so annoying, this was Obama’s dreamland number, we have not been near that number for more than 15 years.—ed]

[….]

But the court ruling didn’t affect the 50,000 limit on refugees set out in the order, a State Department spokeswoman said. State Department officials said the refugee cap imposed by Mr. Trump is legal and isn’t being challenged as the constitution allows the president to set admissions numbers for refugees each year.

“In support of the president’s executive order, the department is preparing to reduce the number of weekly refugee arrivals such that we will admit no more than 50,000 refugees by the end of the fiscal year,” the spokeswoman said.

Some 35,000 refugees have already been admitted for the government’s 2017 fiscal year that ends in October, according to State Department figures. That leaves 15,000 slots open for the next 7-½ months. [Not 15,000 now, but 13,795 as of this morning.—ed]

[….]

“There were a lot of people stranded with the first executive order who were up for resettlement,” but their paperwork has now been delayed, said a U.S. embassy employee in the Middle East. The official added that the State Department directive told embassies not to arrange flights beyond March 3 for refugees until the State Department can determine which applicants will be given the remaining resettlement slots.

“For those that don’t make the 15,000 cut, they are out of luck until the next fiscal year,” he said.

Continue reading here.
Readers, the next fiscal year begins on October 1, 2017 and in September the Trump Administration will be sending its “determination” to Congress for “consultation.” The determination letter and report will set a ceiling for the upcoming year and designate how many and from which regions of the world we will take refugees. The 2018 fiscal year is 7 months and 10 days away.
They can’t possibly get that 13,795 in by March 3rd, so it looks like they will have to sort through many more than 13,795 and dribble them in over the remaining months. However,Trump’s original order called for a complete 120-day moratorium (4 months) and one presumes that is legal and still a possibility when he comes out with a new EO on Monday or Tuesday (or at least that is what is being reported—a new EO early in the week).
I wish I had more information for you. If something leaks out over the weekend, I’ll let you know (or you let me know!), otherwise, we will wait and see!

There is nothing set in concrete about that 50,000 number!

The President can reset it again! at say 37,000, or how about 39,554? That is the number George W. Bush admitted in 2003 as the Administration feared Islamic terrorists might be in the stream arriving in the wake of 9/11.

Go here and see why it is important for you to let Donald Trump know what you think!

This post is filed in my Trump Watch! category, here.

Too late for Trump to cap the Refugee Admissions Program at 35,000 for this year…

02/17/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..but, he can still go below 50,000!

I’ve been arguing that the Trump Administration could further reduce the ceiling for refugee admissions for FY17, something he can legally do and is not effected by the court wrangling over the ‘ban.’
Such an across-the-board cap would allow more months for the Administration and Congress to come up with a longterm fix for the out of control program because Trump’s ‘determination’ for FY18 would not be due until September 30th.
rpcLogoSmall [Converted]

This morning I see (at Wrapsnet) that we are now at 35,834 and climbing. Too late for 35,000!

See that lowering the numbers is not unprecedented because George Bush did it following 9/11, here.
Word is that the EO will be modified next week…it is not too late to drop the ceiling well below 50,000!

Go here and see why it is important for you to let Donald Trump know what you think!

This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’

NPR: Resettlement contractors claim they have been told that new arrivals will end March 3

02/14/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“You don’t need to have a moratorium to slow the refugee resettlement program to the point where it dries up and withers on the vine.”

(Bill Frelick)

We get some juicy news here from a National Public Radio story from yesterday ….

First reporter Deborah Amos tells us that the State Department has said there will be no more refugees arriving in the US after March 3. Is that because they expect to hit the 50,000 ceiling by then? Not likely unless they plan to haul them in at 1000 a day! (We were just short of 35,000 as of this morning.) So it is unclear if this is a hard and fast date.
The resettlement contractors “shared” the official guidance they received with reporter Amos:

More than 2,000 refugees, already vetted and approved for travel, have arrived since the ruling was handed down on Feb. 9. But over the weekend, according to refugee advocates who shared the official guidance with NPR, the State Department alerted resettlement agencies that new arrivals will end on March 3.

[Readers this is an example of what Trump is up against. Here you have federal contractors taking “official” documents to a friendly reporter at NPR!—ed]

Could this notice of a March 3 halt on the program mean there will effectively be a moratorium of 7 months (the new fiscal year doesn’t begin until October 1)? We can only dream! I’ve argued that in order to spur Congress to action to reform the program, the refugee spigot would need to be closed for longer than the original 120-day proposal.
Here is more of what Amos is reporting:

The federal appeals court that blocked the president’s travel ban on people from seven majority-Muslim nations did not directly rule out two provisions in the executive order. Refugee resettlement agencies are scrambling to figure out what they will do if those provisions survive.

bill-frelick-3 — Bill Frelick of Human Rights Watch

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges did not address perhaps the most sweeping provision in the Trump order — the deep cuts in the numbers of refugees allowed to come to the U.S. President Trump slashed the refugee quota for fiscal year 2017 by more than half, to 50,000. [This is so maddening! Just because Obama wished for 110,000 for this fiscal year doesn’t mean Trump cut our usual numbers in half. 50,000 is probably just slightly less than the average annual flow since 9/11—ed]

In addition, the court did not rule on a provision that would make it easier for states and cities to veto refugee placements.

“You don’t need to have a moratorium to slow the refugee resettlement program to the point where it dries up and withers on the vine,” says Bill Frelick, director of Human Rights Watch’s refugee program.

Let the wailing begin!
I’m too weary to write more, but if you have been working on the refugee program where you live and pushing for more transparency and involvement by state and local elected officials, you must read on.
The contractors are scared to death that state and local elected officials will play a greater role in the future, thus possibly messing up their cozy relationship with the feds. You will be especially annoyed about how they say they do extensive coordination with local officials. Yes, friendly ones!

For decades, the refugee resettlement program has been a partnership between the State Department and nine private, voluntary agencies; all but two are faith-based groups. Together, they form a nationwide bureaucracy for resettlement.

I’m going to have to remember that!—a “nationwide bureaucracy for resettlement.”
Actually three of the nine contractors are secular organizations while six are faux religious charities. True religious charities would be sacrificing their own private money to help the stranger, not reaching in to taxpayers’ wallets.

Where did the FY2017 refugees go so far; 34,825 as of this morning

02/14/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For new readers (and there are many of you!), refugees are admitted on a fiscal year basis. In September of each year, the President sends a determination letter (and report) to Congress and tells Congress how many refugees are proposed for the upcoming fiscal year that begins on October 1 and from which regions of the world they will be taken. Congress’ role is to “consult” only.
Here is Obama’s last determination.
President Trump has already lowered Obama’s ceiling from 110,000 to 50,000. We argue that Trump could go lower still and avoid the Constitutional challenges being raised right now, see here, by lowering the ceiling across the board, across all ethnic groups.
Here at Wrapsnet this morning we see where the 34,825 have been placed in the last 4 and 1/2 months (the US State Department added 395 since yesterday):

screenshot-288

screenshot-289 — Alaska got 32 and Hawaii 3. Texas did not save itself by withdrawing from the program, the Governor must sue as Tennessee is doing!

Here are the top ten receiving states (turning red states blue!):

screenshot-290
This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’