2,305 refugees admitted to US since Trump EO announced on 1/27

02/11/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, since October 1, 2016 (the first day of fiscal year 2017) we are up to 34,430—still time for the Trump Administration to cap entry for this year at less than 50,000 (my suggestion is 35,000).

I’m glad to see so many news outlets now tracking refugee numbers, something not done until the last year or so. (You will see some slight discrepancies in numbers depending on what parameters are entered at Wrapsnet and what time of day the reporter accessed the State Department data base.)
Here is what I have this morning:
Since President Trump’s Executive Order on the evening of 1/27, the State Department and its contractors have hustled and placed 2,305 refugees. (Remember that although the ‘ban’ has been stymied by court wrangling, the 50,000 ceiling, a reduction from Obama’s proposed 110,000, stays in effect.)
Of the 2,305, 1,051 come from the countries that were included in the ban as follows:

Iraq (341)

Iran (115)

Somalia (156)

Sudan (37)

Syria (402) (400 of the Syrians are Muslims and only 2 Christians)

Libya (0)

Yemen (0)

(We rarely bring refugees from those last two countries anyway)

Total: 1,051

Religions?

An Indonesia policeman distributes used clothes to migrants believed to be Rohingya inside a shelter in Lhoksukon, Indonesia's Aceh Province May 11, 2015. Nearly 600 migrants thought to be Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshis were rescued from at least two wooden boats stranded off the coast of Indonesia's northern Aceh province, authorities said on Sunday. REUTERS/Roni Bintang — It defies all common sense to believe Rohingya boat people can be security screened. Story and photo: http://www.thanhniennews.com/region/hundreds-of-refugees-arrive-in-malaysia-indonesia-after-thai-crackdown-52841.html

One thing you need to know is that all of those coming from places like Iran and Iraq are not Muslims, some are Christians and other minorities.
But the total number of Muslims in the group of 2,305 is 1,022.
In addition to those countries above, we admitted Muslim refugees from the following countries: Afghanistan, Burma, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan and Palestine.
In fact 19 of the 87 Burmese we admitted are Muslims. These are probably the Rohingya boat people who went illegally to places like Malaysia, and I maintain cannot be thoroughly vetted any better than Syrians or Somalis.
This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’

Dept. of State bringing refugees in at furious rate

02/09/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

President Trump could nip this in the bud by resetting refugee levels for this year from the 50,000 (he had already declared) down to 35,000 because the Refugee Act of 1980 gives him the legal right to do it.

That 50,000 is not a goal, it is only a ceiling not to be exceeded!

On January 28th, President Trump signed the Executive Order that called for a 120-day pause in the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program (RAP). That was before Washington State Judge James Robart, in a legally questionable ruling, halted the order a week later.
But, as CNN reported here, that 50,000 re-set of the refugee admissions ceiling was not addressed in the ban.

… a provision of the Trump administration’s order that was not overturned in Friday’s court ruling — a provision capping total refugee admissions at 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year, which ends October 1.

tillerson-and-trump — Busy, busy bureaucrats working against the clock and against the bosses?

Since the Judge stalled the ban causing a legal wrangle of epic proportions, the Trump State Department has been rushing refugees in as fast as they can.
This morning we see (at Wrapsnet) that 1,618 have come in since Trump first signed an EO to pause the refugee program for 120-days—and less than a week since Judge Robart’s ruled on a portion of the EO.
Of the 1,618, the following came from countries the Administration was particularly concerned about. And, remember, although there were 7 countries of concern (90 day pause from 6 of them) Syria was to be halted indefinitely:

Iran (84)

Iraq (151)

Somalia (68)

Sudan (24)

Syria (248)

No refugees came from Libya or Yemen, however, 78 came from Afghanistan in less than a week—a country I maintain should have been included from day one. (This notion that the 7 countries targeted had already been identified by the Obama Administration so, we are told, the Trump team thought they had some sort of PR coup with the media was a dumb idea. The media hardly mentioned it.)
Below is where the 248 Syrians were placed over the last week (since the rogue Judge’s decision). From Wrapsnet:
screenshot-269

screenshot-270 — New York now takes the grand prize! Alaska and Hawaii got zero.

Another way to skin the cat!
As we said above, not effected by the ban was President Trump resetting the overall resettlement levels at 50,000 for FY17 (too high in our opinion as we said here). As of this morning we are at 33,743.
To stop this rush he could reset the level to say 35,000 (a reasonable level to allow those with tickets to get here, but stop the rush (by the State Dept.) to hand out more taxpayer-funded airline tickets).

By resetting the overall ceiling again, down to 35,000, it would effectively stop refugees/immigrants from these terror hotspot countries. (Very few get in to the US LEGALLY from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Somalia through other programs other than the UN/US RAP anyway).
Endnote: Thanks to all of you who told me RRW was mentioned by Rush Limbaugh yesterday! I heard it too! He mentioned our post on the 100 Syrians rushed in on Sunday and Monday.

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

The White House is pushing back on false media narrative that no refugees have been arrested for crimes/terrorism

02/07/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve been telling you about them for years and recently chronicled ten cases of Islamic terror arrests and additional cases of refugees committing heinous crimes, see here.
This morning the media, at least Fox News (did not hear a word of it on CNN in the 5 a.m. hour) is reporting that the White House has a list of refugee criminals/terrorists.
Here is what Leo Hohmann said yesterday at World Net Daily:

Travel-ban judge makes decision based on whopping lie

The judge who granted an injunction against President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries based his decision on a blatantly inaccurate premise.

judge-james-robart-black-lives-matter — Short memory? Doesn’t read the news? Or deliberately whitewashing? Not good!

Judge James Robart, a federal district judge in Seattle, stated that no one from the seven countries on Trump’s list – Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya – has been arrested on terrorism charges since the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America.

His comment, made in open court on Friday, went unchallenged in the establishment media all weekend and into Monday, while WND reported it was inaccurate and gave a partial list of terror incidents that have been plotted or carried out by Somali and Iraqi immigrants since 9/11.

Where is Politifact? Where is Snopes? Where are all the other media fact-checkers to correct the mistaken judge?

“Judge Robart no doubt knows the mainstream media is a propaganda arm for the left’s globalist agenda, and so no one would report the falsity of his statement except ‘discredited’ or ‘right-wing’ news outlets,” said Robert Spencer, an Islam expert who blogs for the David Horowitz Freedom Center at JihadWatch.org.

Finally, on Monday afternoon, the Associated Press came out with a fact-check on Robart’s comment, debunking it as patently false.

“WASHINGTON — The federal judge who halted President Donald Trump’s travel ban was wrong in stating that no one from the seven countries targeted in Trump’s order has been arrested for extremism in the United States since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Just last October, an Iraqi refugee living in Texas pleaded guilty to attempting to provide support to the Islamic State group, accused of taking tactical training and wanting to blow himself up in an act of martyrdom. In November, a Somali refugee injured 11 in a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University, and he surely would have been arrested had he not been killed by an officer.”

[….]

So Robart either has a short memory, does not read the news, or was deliberately whitewashing the facts in an attempt to strike down Trump’s executive order.

More here.
And, see Hohmann here in 2015 reporting on a list of, at that time, 72 cases compiled by Senator Jeff Sessions!

Quickie numbers check this morning, now up to 956 refugees since EO signed

02/07/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

100 Syrians rushed in to US between Sunday and today!

You will remember that the Trump Administration gave a reprieve to 872 refugees who were on the way to America as of the date (1/28/2017) of the President’s signing of the Executive order on refugees from all over the world.
Remember also that there is a 120-day pause of the whole Refugee Admissions Program (RAP) and Syrians were completely banned in that EO. (120 days is not long enough in my opinion)
rpcLogoSmall [Converted]
Then when the rogue Washington State judge effectively re-opened the pipeline for all classes of immigrants entering the US, the Dept. of State re-started the RAP (to the delight of the contractors who are paid by the head to place them).
I see this morning at Wrapsnet that we have now passed the 872 (reprieved number) mark and are up to 956 refugees having arrived since the EO was signed.
But, holy cow!
100 Syrians have been rushed in here between 2/5 (Sunday) and 2/7 (early this a.m.) according to data at Wrapsnet!
The bureaucrats at DOS are still running the show apparently! Imagine the hustling that must have gone on at the UN, at IOM and in the Department of State on Sunday getting these Syrians on planes!
Where did the 100 go?
screenshot-263

screenshot-264 — New York followed by Virginia are the top two receiving states.

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

On refugee numbers permitted entry, Trump is on firm ground, he can stop resettlement now for this fiscal year

02/06/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..And, in September he can set the number for FY2018 at zero!

Just a reminder, the Refugee Act of 1980 gave the President great latitude in setting over all refugee numbers for a 12 month period.
In September, for Fiscal year 2017, Obama set the cap (ceiling) for this year at 110,000 (way higher than normal).

ted-and-joe — Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden were behind the bill that became the Refugee Act of 1980 signed in to law by Jimmy Carter. In over 3 decades Congress has never gone back to review it. It is time! And, nothing will get the chickens in Congress moving unless the number of refugee arrivals drop to zero.

In the 1980 law the ceiling was set at 50,000 (unless there was an emergency) and Congress must be consulted (which amounts to not very much) if the President wished to change (increase) the number during the year.
We showed you here in recent years that the ceiling proposed was often not met. (Not meeting the ceiling doesn’t require any consultation with Congress.)
In fact, George Bush had 4 years under 50,000. Two of those years followed the dramatic slowdown after 9/11 when the government feared Islamic terrorists could get in to the program.
In 2002 the number admitted was 45,896 and in 2003 it was 39,554 (from all the usual countries we took refugees from). Obama had a pretty relatively low year too in 2012 (58,238).

As I understand it, Trump’s new cap of 50,000 is not included in the Washington State court decision.

I’m arguing that 50,000 isn’t low enough and he could cap the level right now.

It would stop refugee admissions from all areas of the world, not just the seven terror hotspots identified in the so-called travel ban.
As of this morning Wrapsnet reports that (in a little over 4 months) we are at 32,968 admitted this fiscal year (not far off the level Bush admitted in 2003). The contractors are well-aware of the fact that they still have nearly 20,000 paying clients on the way, see here.
And here are the numbers of some of the groups of concern admitted in those 4 months:

Iraqis: 4,841

Somalis: 4,035

Syrians: 4,884