As you know at this very moment, the Trump Administration is wrestling with the decision about how many refugees to admit to the US for FY2020 that begins on October first.
Reps. Nadler and Lofgren never blasted Obama for being late with his refugee consultation that always came in the closing days of September!
You would think Mr. Impeach-him-now Nadler would have enough to keep him busy but he has taken time, along with Rep. Zoe Lofgren, to pen a letter to the President demanding his administration consult with Congress about the number and ethnic makeup of refugees the US will ‘welcome’ this coming year.
I know this is an in-the-weeds discussion, but it is worth mentioning because once again we see the fake outrage from the Dems who claim that Trump is not following the law about the process of refugee admissions.
I’ve been yelling about the lawlessness of the process for years. The Obama Administration didn’t follow the law nor has Congress, both on the Democrat and Republican side, but now Nadler’s letter represents one more bit of hypocrisy we see regularly in Washington! No wonder voters are cynical!
The nerve of Nadler!
“We write to express our alarm that the Administration appears to be taking a cavalier approach to the statutory requirements and historic norms for the presidential determination for refugee admissions.”
“Statutory requirements” have been ignored for decades!
If going into the weeds interests you,go hereto just one of many posts I’ve written on the subject. You will see that no one has been following the law for decades, so that is the “historic norm.”
This is just more fake outrage from the kings and queens of fake outrage!
House Democrats demand administration consult with Congress before determining refugee admissions
(By the way, the President has full statutory authority to set the level, a ceiling, and then the State Department “consults” with Congress, but Congress has no authority to change the number.—ed)
Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the respective chairs of the House Judiciary Committee and Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee demanded that the Trump Administration administration consult with Congress before determining the number of refugee admissions to the country for the coming fiscal year.
In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Nadler and Lofgren pointed to a law mandating the administration discuss the refugee admissions with Congress, noting that fiscal year 2020 is 17 days away.
“We write to express our alarm that the Administration appears to be taking a cavalier approach to the statutory requirements and historic norms for the presidential determination for refugee admissions. For the past two fiscal years, the Administration has set historically low levels of refugee admissions while side-stepping or only nominally complying with critical legal requirements for consultation,” they wrote.
You are all aware now that the President is about to make a determination for how many refugees from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will be admitted to the US in FY2020 which begins in less than three weeks.
There had been talk the President could put the number at zero!
And, you also might have seen the news that the President had a win in the Supreme Court that could limit the number of asylum seekers coming into the country illegally and then requesting asylum which means asking for refugee status. (There is a backlog of hundreds of thousands yet to be processed!)
Yesterday we learned that USCIS Acting Director.Ken Cuccinelli linked the two and suggested that potentially fewer asylum seekers would allow for more third worlders from elsewhere to gain admission.
Oh joy! More “humanitarian space” said Cuccinelli!
But, heck, we won’t know for weeks or months if the Supreme Court decision will move the needle at all, but the refugees could be arriving beginning in 18 days.
This is nuts!
I sure hope someone in the White House has already swatted down the asinine idea!
Cuccinelli: Supreme Court ruling may boost refugee admissions
Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli suggested Thursday that contemplated reductions in refugee admissions might be scaled back following a Supreme Court asylum ruling Wednesday evening.
In a major victory for President Donald Trump, the high court gave his administration permission Wednesday to implement a sweeping ban on asylum seekers who pass through another country en route to the U.S. The third-country asylum ban is expected to choke off claims by Central Americans and other migrants who transit through Mexico.
With a reduction in asylum cases, Cuccinelli suggested, resources might be redirected to processing refugee claims.Asylum applies to migrants who seek refuge at the border or inside the U.S.; refugee status is sought by applicants from their home countries.
Speaking to several reporters after an event hosted by Axios, Cuccinelli said the court’s ruling could become a factor in discussions over where to set the coming year’s refugee ceiling. Trump cut refugee levels down to the 30,000 in the current fiscal year, a steep decrease over the 110,000 proposed by former President Barack Obama*** before he left office. Trump administration officials have considered slashing admissions again in fiscal year 2020 — possibly even reducing levels to zero.
“It hasn’t necessarily been connected yet, but last night’s Supreme Court decision does affect the humanitarian space,” Cuccinelli said Thursday morning.
***I am so sick of the mediareporting that Obama set the ceiling at 110,000 in his final year in office (in late 2016!) as a way of comparing his numbers in the most favorable light in contrast to Trump’s.
Obama never set a ceiling anywhere near that high in his previous 7 years and only came near that ceiling (aka cap) in a few of those years!
I am so sick of the lazy lying media! Note the ceiling numbers for the last ten years. They cherry-picked the one year that Obama dared to set the ceiling higher than normal in order to show the President’s numbers in the worst light. See the actual admissions column too!
The decision must be made in the next few days, but definitely by the end of September. You must contact the White Houseand let the President know how you are feeling about all of this.
Are we going to simply get more Africans and Middle Easterners when the Central American flow might be curtailed?
How about keeping the “humanitarian space” limited across the board for awhile!
As the White House wrestles with the US State Department over the refugee ceiling for the coming fiscal year (which btw begins in 21 short days!), I’m reminded of what Bill Frelick, Director of the Refugee Rights Program at Human Rights Watch told Newsweekin November of 2016.
In a story titled, ‘TRUMP ELECTION LEAVES REFUGEE ADVOCATES FEARFUL AND UNCERTAIN’about how the Open Borders activists were feeling in the wake of Trump’s win, Frelick said this:
During his presidential campaign, Trump said he planned to suspend the Syrian refugee program, which is “fairly easy for him to do because this is discretionary,” says Bill Frelick, director of Human Rights Watch’s refugee program, who described himself as “shell-shocked” when he spoke with Newsweek on Wednesday. “In the U.S., there’s not a quota that has to be filled. The U.S. has a budgeted amount of money to do refugee resettlement, but there’s no requirement that the U.S. resettle a single refugee, and there’s no legal obligation to do it.”
Editor: This is crossposted from ‘Frauds and Crooks’ this morning because I want this post archived here at the new RRW as well.
Michelle Malkin: Sixty Reasons Why the US Refugee Program is a Danger to Us!
Malkin’s timing is excellent because as I write this the Trump Administration is wrestling with an important legal requirement. In the coming weeks they must decide how many refugees (if any!) will be admitted to the US in FY2020 which begins in 21 days!
Every year since the Refugee Act of 1980 was signed into law by Jimmy Carter, the President determines how many UN-selected refugees will be welcomed to a town near you. Needless to say the refugee industry is in high gear putting pressure on the White House to get the numbers as high as they can (they are demanding 90,000) because the refugee contractors financial survival depends on high numbers!
Therefore, the timing of the release of Michelle Malkin’s new book couldn’t be better.
Here, at Breitbart, she pulls no punches and tells us about it and directs your attention to 60 reasons (60 Islamists we welcomed to become ‘new Americans’ while they came to do us harm.)
By the way, Trump can legally set the refugee ceiling for FY2020 at Zero!
Exclusive — Michelle Malkin: 60 Terrifying Reasons Trump Is Right to Reduce Refugees
Here are three facts that the most hysterical voices attacking the Trump administration’s proposal to radically reduce or freeze refugee admissions don’t want you to know:
1) They make billions of dollars off the federal refugee resettlement racket;
2) They are protected by the Open Borders Inc. media, which routinely whitewashes the gobsmacking financial self-interest of the “Let Them All In” leeches; and
3) They are never held accountable when untold numbers of the world’s most wretchedly violent and aggrieved refugees come here to sabotage the American Dream.
While left-wing religious groups, tax-exempt non-profits tied or allied to George Soros, and the amnesty-shilling Catholic Church scream “No hate, no fear, everyone is welcome here!” at the top of their lungs, American neighborhoods are being overrun by dangerous foreign criminals and jihad plotters.
David Miliband, president and CEO of International Rescue Committee, attacked the White House plan to slash refugee numbers from an Obama-era high of 100,000 to less than the current historic low of 30,000 as “inhumane.”
Is it because cutting the numbers would cut in to Miliband’s first-class travel and business lunch tabs? Malkin Truth-O-Meter: mostly likely true!
What Miliband neglects to mention in his diatribe against President Trump that his organization is one of 9 behemoth government contractors that works with the hostile United Nations and encrusted State Department social justice warriors to import thousands of new refugees every year with little input from the communities in which they are dumped. Miliband earns nearly a million-dollar salary*** and by one estimate, IRC has raked in nearly $900 million in refugee resettlement profits over the last decade. When you cut through the Statue of Liberty smokescreen of the open borders “charities,” the math is clear:
Reduced refugees means reduced cash flow.
Zero refugees means zero cash flow.
Why should taxpayers continue to see their hard-earned money siphoned away to feed the Trump Resistance Machine and Democrat Party’s Permanent Ruling Majority Project?
There are even more compelling reasons to throttle the refugee flow. According to the logic-twisting, ICE-doxxing cheerleaders at the New York Times, refugee reductions are the real threat to our nation because if we don’t keep importing hordes of Muslim translators from Iraq or Afghanistan, it would “undermine” our national security.
***And see mypost here at RRWa few days ago about the push to admit more Iraqi and Afghan translators. You will see the proof of Miliband’s obscene salary!
By the way, I am seeing a huge campaign by the contractors and their media lackeys to pressure the President at this very moment to agree to admit tens of thousands of UN-selected refugees to be your new neighbors.
We have admitted almost 240,000 refugees including interpreters and others who supposedly helped us in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2006 and some former military leaders say it isn’t enough and are pushing for more ‘new American’ Muslims for your neighborhoods.
It sure ticks me off!
Recently one of the nine federally-funded refugee contractors—the International Rescue Committee—crowed that former military leaders had sent a letter to the White House telling the Prez that it was imperative to bring in tens of thousands of additional refugees to help them—the military—around the world.
One of the signers of the letter to Trump is Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark who openly supported the Presidency of Barack Obama.
You cansee the letter here. For anyone who knows even a little about the refugee industry you will immediately recognize the language in the letter as boilerplate refugee industry lingo.
You might also notice that the military brass is mixing apples and oranges when discussing refugee admissions.
There are two major flows for legal ‘refugee’ admissions.
As CEO of the International Rescue Committee, the wealthiest of nine federal refugee contractors, Miliband crowed about the military support for more refugee admissions. Does he want to be sure to preserve his partially-federally funded salary of over $900,000 per YEAR?***
One is the original program set up by the Refugee Act of 1980 that is at present admitting around 30,000 refugees from places like the DR Congo, Burma, the Ukraine and some other African countries. Our military isn’t actively engaged in those places. That is the program approaching a critical decision point in the coming days and weeks.
Then there is the newer Special Immigrant Visa Program that admits the supposed military helpers from Iraq and Afghanistan. It seems that those are the primary places of concern to top brass who have made promises of a ticket to America in exchange for their help.
The numbers of Afghan and Iraqi SIVs are separate from the Refugee Act of 1980refugees.
[An aside: I argue that if you bring every last Iraqi and Afghan supporter of America to live in the US, what have you left in those countries—only those that hate us!]
Before I even get to the news—An important meeting is scheduled at the White House on Tuesday to discuss setting the cap for refugee admissions in FY2020—ponder these numbers.
Since October 1, 2006, we admitted 10,917 regular refugees from Afghanistan and 58,371 Special Immigrant Visas through August 26, 2019 for a total of 69,288.
During that same time period we admitted 143,082 Iraqi refugees and 18,508 SIVs from Iraq for a total of 161,590.
Total interpreters for the two hotbed Islamic countries was 76,879!
Really! That many were doing translation services for us? Or did anyone who took out the trash qualify to become your new neighbor?
Isn’t that enough? And, how many of the military brass who are shilling for the refugee contractors (like moneybags Miliband) are inviting Afghans and Iraqis to their homes, or to their neighborhoods?
Sorry this is getting long, but here is the story you need to read. From the New York Times(hat tip: Joanne):
Trump Administration Considers a Drastic Cut in Refugees Allowed to Enter U.S.
WASHINGTON — The White House is considering a plan that would effectively bar refugees from most parts of the world from resettling in the United States by cutting back the decades-old program that admits tens of thousands of people each year who are fleeing war, persecution and famine, according to current and former administration officials.
There is much discussion in the NYT article about Trump aide Stephen Miller and his dastardly deeds (like placing loyal Trump supporters at the State Department) to slow the refugee flow into America.
In meetings over the past several weeks, one top administration official has proposed zeroing out the program altogether, while leaving the president with the ability to admit refugees in an emergency.
Another option that top officials are weighing would cut refugee admissions by half or more, to 10,000 to 15,000 people, but reserve most of those spots for refugees from a few handpicked countries or groups with special status, such as Iraqis and Afghans who work alongside American troops, diplomats and intelligence operatives abroad.
Both options would all but end the United States’ status as a leader in accepting refugees from around the world.
The issue is expected to come to a head on Tuesday, when the White House plans to convene a high-level meeting in the Situation Room to discuss at what number Mr. Trump should set the annual, presidentially determined ceiling on refugee admissions for the coming year.
[….]
Advocates of the nearly 40-year-old refugee program inside and outside the administration fear that approach would effectively starve the program, making it impossible to resettle even those narrow populations. The advocacy groups say the fate of the program increasingly hinges on an unlikely figure: Mark T. Esper, the secretary of defense.
Barely two months into his job as Pentagon chief, Mr. Esper, a former lobbyist and defense contracting executive, is the newest voice at the table in the annual debate over how many refugees to admit. But while Mr. Esper’s predecessor, Jim Mattis, had taken up the refugee cause with an almost missionary zeal, repeatedly declining to embrace large cuts because of the potential effect he said they would have on American military interests around the world, Mr. Esper’s position on the issue is unknown.
The senior military leadership at the Defense Department has been urgently pressing Mr. Esper to follow his predecessor’s example and be an advocate for the refugee program, according to people familiar with the conversations in the Pentagon.
[….]
A senior Defense Department official said that Mr. Esper had not decided what his recommendation would be for the refugee program this year. As a result, an intense effort is underway by a powerful group of retired generals and humanitarian aid groups to persuade Mr. Esper to pick up where Mr. Mattis left off.
A reminder to all! Even if the number of refugees drops to nearly zero (it won’t!), the program will still be in place for a future President to simply put it on steroids to make up for what they will call the “lost Trump years.”
There must be a complete overhaul of the program while Trump is in the White House!
*** I hadn’t checked British national David Miliband’s salary for awhile so imagine my shock to see this from the most recent Form 990 for the IRC.
The IRC received over $500 MILLION from the US Treasury (from you!) in this one year!
Look at these salaries!
You shouldcontact the White Houseover this weekend and on Monday and tell the President what you think he should do!
Here are three facts that the most hysterical voices attacking the Trump administration’s proposal to radically reduce or freeze refugee admissions don’t want you to know:
