Category: Trump Watch!

More on the President’s 18,000 Refugees for FY2020 Decision

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 4 Comments

Editor:  First, see my quickie post last night.  Also, note that I am now able (at this newly reconstructed RRW) to accept comments and I suspect more than a few of you might not like my analysis. So I will say at the outset, my hesitation to give a full blessing to the Presidential Determination in no way diminishes my support for the President. 

As the Leftists know so well, in order to move the needle on any political issue there has to be someone staking out a position who is willing to say it is not enough!  Heck, all of the groups included in the Refugee Industry were demanding 95,000 refugees knowing that was NEVER going to happen. They didn’t come in with anything that would appear reasonable—say 35,000-40,000—they went for the extreme.

However, I’m not saying that I wanted zero this year purely as a political ploy, but I am saying that simply reducing numbers and tinkering around the edges of an extremely flawed program designed in 1979 and 1980 by Senator Ted Kennedy and President Jimmy Carter is not going to fix how we admit refugees in the decades ahead.

Setting the level at zero would likely have forced a major national debate and Trump could have said to Congress—you don’t like it, then dump the Refugee Act of 1980 and reform the entire process by which we admit refugees.

And, yes, this is only the beginning you might argue, but only if Donald Trump is reelected in 2020!

As predicted, those organizations with a vested interest in admitting more refugees both as future Democrat voters and because they are paid to place refugees are furious.

Here is what the Refugee Council USA (an Open Borders lobbying consortium in Washington, DC) said last night.

Washington, DC – The Administration announced that it is proposing to set the Presidential Determination (PD) for annual refugee admissions for FY 2020 at 18,000. This decision is unprecedented, cruel, and contrary to American humanitarian values and strategic interests.

[….]

The US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) is built on nearly four decades of public-private partnership, bringing together nonprofits, faith groups, local communities, and the Federal and State governments for this essential community-building work. Refugees strengthen our communities and our country socially, culturally, and economically.

Public-Private Partnership mumbo-jumbo!

Of course, and as usual, there is no mention that nine of the members of RCUSA*** have a financial interest in keeping numbers high because they are paid from the US Treasury to place refugees into towns and cities of their choosing.

I continue to argue that the major flaw in the US Refugee Admissions Program is the fact that Left-leaning non-profit groups are paid for their ‘charitable’ work, so there is never any incentive to adjust the flow without those groups taking to the streets with anti-Trump placards held aloft.

Kennedy and Carter created a political structure funded by taxpayers that assures a continuous flow of third world poverty to American towns and cities. 

Those of us who object have no political organization with the financial resources of the nine resettlement contractors and their extensive networks, mostly through their church or synagogue infrastructure, to fight back. Not to mention the big bucks certain industries (meatpackers!) and the Chamber of Commerce are shelling out in order to keep a steady supply of cheap labor.

Although there was talk last year of dropping some of the nine federal contractors, that didn’t happen and all nine are still in place. But, even if this coming year’s low number forces a couple of the contractors to close their programs, it just allows the big ones like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the International Rescue Committee to further monopolize the process.

First, get rid of the contractors!

I have said and continue to maintain that if we are to admit refugees then there is no reason that these non-profits, including the churches, can’t still do their ‘humanitarian’ work in the old fashioned way—with true private charity, and not as paid agents of the federal government.

Geographic placement of refugees

Lawrence Bartlett, as far as I know, still runs the Refugee Program at the State Department. Here he proudly displays a map of the resettlement sites chosen with very little consultation with communities by the nine resettlement contractors. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-refugees/sidelined-state-department-official-returns-to-refugee-post-idUSKCN1NO2K6

The second important issue I’ve raised here for years involves the placement of refugees which has been largely dictated by the nine federal contractors for decades.

Yes, they coordinate with the US State Department, but it’s largely a game of pin the refugee on the map. 

Only when citizens of the ‘lucky’ chosen community organize and object does anyone pay any attention to concerns about a given location (a large part of my work here for a dozen years has been to show where citizens in “pockets of resistance” have objected to the US State Department changing their community by changing the people.)

I give the President kudos for an attempt to address the problem of placement with an Executive Order signed yesterday.  Read it here. But, honestly it has not been very carefully thought through and thus strikes me as a political bone thrown to critics of the program.

Why didn’t the President’s people call in some of us who are somewhat knowledgeable about how the program works on the ground to help craft a feasible way to give decision-making power to the states and local citizens who will be most affected by the arrival of large numbers of impoverished people?

This is getting too long, but let me give a few examples of why I say the order has not been thoroughly thought out.

So, governor number one (who might only have a year or so left in his/her term) says yes, we love refugees send more, but a neighboring governor says no thanks.  What is going to keep the refugees in welcoming state number one?

In America, all of us are allowed to move without government approval and that includes refugees.

You can run that same scenario involving mayors.  One mayor says we love refugees, but a town down the road isn’t on board with the idea. Refugees placed in town number one pack up and move to town number two anyway!

Then how about ‘welcoming’ governor number one is out of office in a year and is replaced by another governor who wants to stop the refugee flow to the state, how quickly could the feds put on the brakes to stop the flow to the now ‘unwelcoming’ state?   You can see the chaos that would ensue.

I do have some ideas that I think could work in terms of revamping the whole program (assuming Americans want to continue accepting some refugees), but no one has ever contacted me to ask.

There are so many other issues involving the Presidential Determination that need to be discussed and I’ll do that in the coming days—things like: we are going to continue to take Australia’s rejected asylum seekers!  Nuts!

Let me just say once again, maybe more clearly:  We can still support President Trump and criticize some of his decisions.

It is my view that Trump’s greatest downfall as President began on day one when he did not immediately clean out the deep state actors throughout the White House and federal agencies and move his genuine (and knowledgeable) loyal supporters into his Administration.

The best thing you can do now is work hard for Trump’s reelection so that he has four more years to get it right and solve this problem.

***For new readers these are the nine federally-funded resettlement contractors:

President Trump Sets 2020 Refugee Ceiling at Lowest Level in History of the Program—18,000

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 4 Comments

Here (below) are the key points (I’ll have more to say in the morning!).

***Update*** More on the President’s Determination, here.

LOL! And, by morning we should be hearing the wailing coming from the refugee industry mouthpieces!

By the way, all nine federal refugee contractors work to politically  undermine President Trump on a daily basis. Indeed they hate him just as much for 18,000 as they would if he said zero (as was being considered at one point), so he might as well have gone with zero!

Hot off the presses at the Washington Times this evening:

Trump to cut refugees to 18,000, give localities veto over resettlement

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed cutting the number of refugees admitted next year to 18,000, and called for a major revamp of the program to align it with U.S. interests, including giving localities a say in whether they can accommodate the new arrivals.

The new plan will also reduce the role of the U.N. in picking America’s refugees, and instead give priority to religious minorities and Iraqis who have assisted the U.S. government, and to refugees the U.S has agreed to resettle on behalf of Australia.

Officials submitted the proposal to Congress on Thursday, kicking off a consultation period that will conclude with President Trump making a final determination next month.

But based on past consultations, the 18,000 number is likely to hold firm.

It would be the lowest cap since the modern refugee system was created in 1980, and marks a 12,000 drop from the fiscal year 2019 cap, and a major reduction from the 110,000 refugee target the Obama administration tried to set for 2017.

[….]

As striking as the smaller refugee cap is, officials said the changes to the system are just as important.

Chief among those is an executive order Mr. Trump will soon issue giving states and localities the chance to consent before refugees are sent to their jurisdictions.

More here.

Don’t get overly excited, this isn’t the kind of real reform I’ve been looking for! It is a start, but it should have been made two years ago.  It is now too late in his term for it to produce any lasting change.

More tomorrow…..

Episcopal Bishops Lobby Lawmakers for Their Budgetary Survival

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) is one of the nine federal refugee contractors that the State Department hires to place refugees in your towns and cities.

A year ago their future as a federally-funded ‘non-profit’ was in jeopardy because the Trump Administration said some of the nine might not survive the cuts.  Well, all nine did survive to lobby for another day.

If Trump comes in with even lower refugee numbers for this coming fiscal year that begins next Tuesday, EMM’s millions of federal dollars could be in jeopardy again.

EMM is 99.5% funded with taxpayer dollars! See here. And, here.

Thus a group of Bishops trooped to Washington yesterday to make a plea to Congress for more refugees (and therefore more federal dollars for their ‘Christian charity!’)

Note that media accounts rarely, if ever, mention their is a monetary connection to their religious and humanitarian zeal.

From Episcopal News Service:

Bishops meet with federal lawmakers to advocate for Episcopal Migration Ministries, refugees

[Episcopal News Service] Five Episcopal bishops traveled to Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 24 for meetings with senators and representatives from their dioceses to advocate for preserving the U.S. government’s refugee resettlement program at a time when the Trump administration is considering cutting the program further.

Episcopal Bishop’s lobbying contingent

The bishops represent a diverse group of dioceses. Rio Grande Bishop Michael Hunn’s diocese touches 40 percent of the U.S. border with Mexico, and the group also included Maine Bishop Thomas Brown, West Virginia Bishop Mike Klusmeyer, Northern Indiana Bishop Douglas Sparks and Bishop Mark Van Koevering from the Diocese of Lexington in Kentucky.

They were accompanied by staff members from The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations, which organized the visits. They met with both Republicans and Democrats. And their appeals carried the weight of the church’s decades of experience resettling refugees in the United States through Episcopal Migration Ministries, or EMM.

“This is certainly not a partisan issue, from my standpoint,” Hunn told Episcopal News Service after concluding his meetings. “It’s a moral issue of how we care for the stranger among us.”

Okay, so care for the “stranger among us” with private dollars from your flocks!

EMM is shrinking and is getting desperate:

EMM once oversaw 31 resettlement affiliates in 26 dioceses, but now that number is down to 13 affiliates in 11 dioceses. The ongoing uncertainty over future resettlement levels poses additional challenges for EMM and the other eight agencies.

Now get this, the Bishops got their talking points from the Episcopal Church’s Government Relations (lobbying) office (are we paying for that too?).

The five bishops in Washington to advocate for EMM and the refugee resettlement program gathered in the morning for a briefing, in which Office of Government Relations staff members outlined talking points that invoked church policy positions as determined by General Convention resolutions. The bishops also received biographical information about the lawmakers they were meeting.

So who advocates for you, taxpayers, who don’t want your hard earned dollars going to ‘church’ groups advocating far Left political positions? No one!

Federal Refugee Contractors Complain as Some Refugee Flights to the US are being Canceled.

~ Ann Corcoran

CNN is reporting that as the 2020 fiscal year approaches (a week from tomorrow) some refugees who had plane tickets for October are being notified that their flights are canceled.

By the way, we are on the hunt every day for the Presidential Determination for how many refugees will be admitted as your new neighbors in the next fiscal year.  At one point, leaks (by deep state actors within the federal government) suggested the number could be zero.  That, of course, sent the contractors, whose budgets depend on your money, into fits of rage at the President.

Here is CNN today (hat tip: Joanne):

Flights to bring some refugees to the US are being canceled

Flights for some refugees who were approved to come to the United States have been canceled, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The move has sparked concern among resettlement agencies that have booked travel for refugees into October, anticipating the continuation of arrivals in the upcoming fiscal year. It also has the potential of leaving some refugees who were approved to come to the US in limbo.

Rachel Pollock

“It concerns me that our local offices have done a bunch of work and started to make plans for these cases to come. It’s so atypical,” said Rachel Pollock, director of resettlement services for United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, one of the nine resettlement agencies that work with the State Department to place refugees.

“No one really knows what’s coming or what’s going to happen. It seems like a further move away from what we’ve come to expect from this program,” Pollock added.

[Don’t miss my post yesterday about the Bishop’s “summer of discontent” with Donald Trump.  Come to think of it, wouldn’t you think the Bishops would cut Trump some slack since he is a staunch defender of the unborn!—ed]

The International Organization for Migration [an organization within the UN-ed], which is in charge of booking refugees on their travel, sent cancellation notices out Monday morning.

A notice obtained by CNN [leaked to CNN by a contractor or some denizen of the deep state most likely—ed] includes the travel itinerary for individuals whose travel was booked for October and canceled. The stated reason for cancellation: “FY20 moratorium extension.”

The notice doesn’t provide an end date for the extension.

The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration directed the International Organization for Migration to send the notifications, according to a department spokesperson, who added the moratorium is being extended through October 21. The department is working with the organization to rebook the flights contingent upon the refugee admissions ceiling for fiscal year 2020.

[….]

As a result of the declining admissions under the Trump administration, all nine resettlement agencies have had to close offices or pause their placement programs — chipping away at a system designed to not only place refugees but also help them integrate into communities across the country.

As of April 2019, around 100 offices have either closed entirely or suspended their refugee resettlement program, a third of offices nationwide, according to a Refugee Council USA report released this year.

Summer of Discontent for US Catholic Bishops! Why? Trump Not Listening to Them!

~ Ann Corcoran

The filthy rich US Conference of Catholic Bishops is at odds with the Trump Administration over immigration policy—so what else is new!

“America welcomes refugees; that is who we are, that is what we do.” Vasquez chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration is telling Trump.

Here is a long (too long) recitation of everything the President is doing to annoy Catholic Bishops, but one thing is missing and that is that the Trump Administration has reduced by tens of millions the boodle the Bishops get from the US Treasury!

Could that be the real reason they are so hot under the collar?

From America magazine,

Trump administration at odds with Catholic leaders on immigration policies

This has been the summer of discontent for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on U.S. immigration policy. Since June the U.S. bishops have released more than 10 statements reflecting their displeasure with a broad range of White House decisions on immigration.

The U.S.C.C.B. has criticized the administration’s treatment of migrant detainees, especially children, challenging policy that has resulted in the separation of families and led to inhumane conditions at detention sites. It has resisted White House plans to rewrite asylum rules and to allow temporary protected status for vulnerable migrant communities to expire, and it has deplored proposed cuts to foreign aid that bishops say will only drive more migrants to the U.S. border.

[….]

On Sept. 13 the U.S.C.C.B. weighed in on immigration again, this time on plans that critics charge will mean the end of the United States as a safe haven for the world’s refugees.

So get this, large numbers of Catholics are supporting the President!

Ethics professor Heyer with the Pope. Catholics who support Trump are “ignoring their bishops.”

Resistance to the president’s immigration policies is high when measured among all Catholics, but white Catholics offered Trump 56 percent of their vote in 2016 and a majority of white Catholics—51 percent—still maintain a favorable opinion of the president—many among them presumably support White House immigration proposals. Those who do are not only ignoring their bishops, said Kristin Heyer, discussing the subject via email, they are endorsing positions at sharp odds with church teaching on migration and its call to protect the lives and the human dignity of migrating people.

Ms. Heyer is a professor of theological ethics at Boston College.

“The Catholic social tradition recognizes the right of sovereign nations to control their borders,” Ms. Heyer said, “but the right is not understood to be absolute. In the case of blatant human rights violations, the right to state sovereignty is relativized by the tradition’s primary commitment to protecting human dignity.”

[….]

“As the Catholic Church prepares to celebrate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees” on Sept. 29, “we are reminded of Pope Francis urging us all to work for a ‘globalization of solidarity’ with refugees, not a globalization of ‘indifference,’” the bishops said.

It is long, so you can read the rest yourself by clicking here.  Catholics should definitely read it so you know the entire litany of complaints the Bishops have with the Prez.

Absent from the article is any mention of the fact that the USCCB is one of the largest ‘non-profit’ recipients of taxpayer dollars going to what they call their “migration program.”

Gee, I wonder how the humanitarians are managing with a budgetary loss of $24 million in one year!

From a recent financial statement (page 10).  This is only the federal tax dollars the USCCB receives for its migration services.  They receive many millions more for myriad programs they run for the federal government.

Holy moly! Their revenue received from the US Treasury dropped by nearly a third in one year ($24 million went poof!).

 

The disingenuous Leftwing media is never going to mention that there is TAXPAYER funded payola involved in the USCCB’s  supposed ‘Christian charity,’ so I guess I will just have to keep repeating myself!