See my post, here, about how I have been tracking refugee arrivals since the morning of Inauguration Day.
Here is a recap of what I posted each day:
January 20th: 29,895
January 21st: 30,063
January 22nd: 30,063
January 23rd: 30,063
January 24th: 30,063
January 25th: 30,885
January 26th: 31,521
January 27th: 32,094
This morning the number is 32,125.
I’ll try to keep readers posted each day going forward. The President, in yesterday’s executive order, reset Obama’s ceiling of 110,000 to 50,000 (go here to see my explanation about why that is still too high).
Here is a map from Wrapsnet (Refugee Processing Center) this morning. How many have already gone to your state this fiscal year? If you can’t read Florida it is 1,047. Alaska is 32 and Hawaii is 3.
By the way, note that states that in recent months withdrew from the US Refugee Admissions Program have shown no reduction in the number of refugees they receive. Those states are Texas, Kansas, New Jersey and Maine. The federal government is simply turning the work of placing refugees in those states over to the (we believe) unlawful Wilson-Fish alternative which puts a non-profit refugee contractor in charge of the program in that state!
Governors in those states—all Republicans—should consider suing as Tennesseeis doing, or at minimum screaming to the Trump Administration! Wyoming has wisely never had a refugee program!
Trump Watch!
This (below) is the language that was sent out in a press release from the White House last evening. There is a lot to chew on here. As soon as I get a link to share, I’ll post it.
As I said to Breitbart, this is a good beginning. But, as I also said here, the Refugee Act of 1980must be completely reformed by Congress because whatever Trump does here (although extremely important) is not permanent. And, what is being forgotten in our concern about security is the enormous cost of the program to federal taxpayers and to state and local governments. I don’t know that Pres. Trump has a full understanding of how much of a financial drain the program is on federal, state and local governments!
For those of you working in your communities to demand more transparency from government agencies and the federal refugee resettlement contractors, you will find Sec. 5 (g) heartening.
Perhaps we can figure out a way so that what you have learned about the secrecy that has been the watchword of the program in your local communities gets to the Director of Homeland Security General Kelly. You know the refugee contractors are going to say they hold quarterly ‘stakeholder’ meetings, but will never admit how much they have tried to exclude you (concerned taxpayers!) from them until recently.
Maybe the Administration should hold field hearings so they can gather your information!
Sec. 5. Realignment of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for Fiscal Year 2017. (a) The Secretary of State shall suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days. During the 120-day period, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Secretary of Homeland Security and in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, shall review the USRAP application and adjudication process to determine what additional procedures should be taken to ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States, and shall implement such additional procedures. Refugee applicants who are already in the USRAP process may be admitted upon the initiation and completion of these revised procedures. Upon the date that is 120 days after the date of this order, the Secretary of State shall resume USRAP admissions only for nationals of countries for which the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence have jointly determined that such additional procedures are adequate to ensure the security and welfare of the United States.
Gen. Kelly, as Director of the Department of Homeland Security, will have a major role in advising the President on what should be done with the USRAP.
(b) Upon the resumption of USRAP admissions, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, is further directed to make changes, to the extent permitted by law, to prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality. Where necessary and appropriate, the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security shall recommend legislation to the President that would assist with such prioritization.
(c) Pursuant to section 212(f) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f), I hereby proclaim that the entry of nationals of Syria as refugees is detrimental to the interests of the United States and thus suspend any such entry until such time as I have determined that sufficient changes have been made to the USRAP to ensure that admission of Syrian refugees is consistent with the national interest.
(d) Pursuant to section 212(f) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f), I hereby proclaim that the entry of more than 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2017 would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and thus suspend any such entry until such time as I determine that additional admissions would be in the national interest.
(e) Notwithstanding the temporary suspension imposed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security may jointly determine to admit individuals to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis, in their discretion, but only so long as they determine that the admission of such individuals as refugees is in the national interest — including when the person is a religious minority in his country of nationality facing religious persecution, when admitting the person would enable the United States to conform its conduct to a preexisting international agreement, or when the person is already in transit and denying admission would cause undue hardship — and it would not pose a risk to the security or welfare of the United States.
(f) The Secretary of State shall submit to the President an initial report on the progress of the directive in subsection (b) of this section regarding prioritization of claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution within 100 days of the date of this order and shall submit a second report within 200 days of the date of this order.
(g) It is the policy of the executive branch that, to the extent permitted by law and as practicable, State and local jurisdictions be granted a role in the process of determining the placement or settlement in their jurisdictions of aliens eligible to be admitted to the United States as refugees. To that end, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall examine existing law to determine the extent to which, consistent with applicable law, State and local jurisdictions may have greater involvement in the process of determining the placement or resettlement of refugees in their jurisdictions, and shall devise a proposal to lawfully promote such involvement.
This Executive Order should eventually be posted here.
Post is filed in our Trump Watch!category.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-refugees-20170127-story.html
I happened to catch him signing as I came in just before 5 p.m. today. But, will have to wait for the exact details of the order’s text. ***Update January 28th*** Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart reported late last night about the details of the Executive Order, click here. Here is the language.
We believe it includes a 120-day moratorium, a cap on refugee resettlement for this fiscal year at 50,000 and some kind of inter-agency directive to improve the vetting process (the so-called extreme vetting). Earlier today we pointed out that 50,000 was not that great a reduction, here.
Now the ball must be placed in Congress’ court!
Every effort must be made in those 120 days to pressure Congress to begin to reform the entire Refugee Admissions Program.
I suspect many members of Congress gave a sigh of relief that Donald Trump was going to take the heat (and oh, there will be heat, more on that later), so they can pretend something is being done and THEY DON’T HAVE TO DO IT. Trump has taken the monkey off their backs, you must put it right back on!
I’m telling you that if the law is not changed we will be back to square one come the end of May! The President’s pen and phone can only do so much. The next President can undo it all, if the law is not rewritten. So Trump should threaten to extend that moratorium unless Congress begins the hard work of reevaluating and ultimately rewriting the Refugee Act of 1980.
And, if there are any brave Senators or Members of Congress willing to take the lead, that legislator should hold field hearings around the country to hear directly from citizens about the impact more immigrant labor is having on local workers, to hear about the economic challenges local and state governments are facing, and to assess the cultural upheaval communities are experiencing.
Do not stop doing whatever you are doing in your pockets of resistance, but make sure everything you do gets to the ears of your member of Congress and US Senators.
One more post on numbers and the rumored executive order on refugees, and then I am moving on to a lot of other refugee news that has gone unreported for days as we watch and wait for President Trump’s delayed order on the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. The Bush Administration was favorable toward refugees, and yet he had 4 years where the numbers admitted were under 50,000. Bush’s average was around 58,750. So, if Trump comes in at 50,000, it isn’t a shockingly unprecedented reduction. The rumor (and who leaked the draft executive order anyway?) is that Donald Trump will cap the refugee admissions for FY2017 at 50,000. Obama had proposed 110,000(and the refugee resettlement contractors have been busy finding new sites for their placement).
As of today we are at 32,094 (see previous post).
(Trump will be setting the numbers for FY2018 in September of this year.)
But this is what you need to know: 50,000 doesn’t represent a shocking reduction when you look at the history of resettlement since 2001. (These numbers, below, came from this chart, Wrapsnet, and from ORR annual reports to Congress).
Here are the numbers we admitted through the Bush and Obama Administrations (Bush had 4 years under 50,000!). Remember the resettlement agencies are paid by the head, so it is to their financial benefit to see high numbers:
2001: 87,259 (this year’s number would have been proposed by Clinton in the fall of 2000)
2002: 45,896
2003: 39,554
2004: 79,158
2005: 69,006
2006: 41,223
2007: 48,282
2008: 60,191
2009: 74,654
2010: 73,311
2011: 56,424
2012: 58,238
2013: 69,926
2014: 69,987
2015: 69,993
2016: 84,994
Again, 50,000 might look like a great reduction when compared to Obama’s 110,000 proposed number, but it isn’t that significant a reduction. I bet the media will report this as Trump cutting the refugee numbers in half!
See our Trump Watch!category for all the news about the delayed executive order.
Sorry, I got screwed up in my math last night and had to change the headline of my post.
For new readers, here is the Refugee Processing Center(Wrapsnet) website where you find the numbers of refugees entering the US—where they are from and where they are going. Click here and see the various choices you can make in pulling up data. Try it yourself!
By the way, this was information not available to the general public for many of the early years of RRW. It was a password protected site.
The problem (and one that caught me yesterday) is that we don’t know exactly when in the course of 24 hours data is being posted, so by going back later in the day on any given day, one can get deceptive results.
So, I’m going back to my previous (safe) methodology of checking numbers at only one time of the day, between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., and capture all the entries for a previous 24 hour period.
This is what I know: On the morning of President Trump’s inauguration the number of refugees admitted to the US this fiscal year (which began on October 1, 2016), the same fiscal year that Obama had proposed entry numbers of 110,000 *** (the highest since way before 9/11), it was 29,895. This morning, one week later the number is 32,094. That means 2,199 refugees arrived in the US since Inauguration Day. That is a daily rate of 314 per day!
Here are the numbers I recorded each day (all between 5 and 6 a.m.):
January 20th: 29,895
January 21st: 30,063
January 22nd: 30,063
January 23rd: 30,063
January 24th: 30,063
January 25th: 30,885
January 26th: 31,521
January 27th: 32,094
We added 2,199 refugees in the week. It is still a mystery why there were no refugees being recorded on those 4 days. The data began to be updated in the afternoon of the 24th.
If you play around with Wrapsnet, you can find out how many refugees of each nationality were placed in your towns (since 2002).
New readers looking for which resettlement agencies are working in your cities and towns, go here.
***Obama proposed 110,000 for this fiscal year, and as of today we are already at 32,094. If Trump changes the number to 50,000, yes that is a reduction from Obama’s proposal, but it is not that significant when looking back ten years. Obama had 2 years under 60,000 and Bush had 4 years under 50,000. (See my next post)
![rpcLogoSmall [Converted]](https://refugeeresettlementwatch.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/rpclogosmaller2.jpg)
See my post, here, about how I have been tracking refugee arrivals since the morning of Inauguration Day.
