Clearly The Guardian doesn’t want to hear that bit of information.
Frankly, if there weren’t nine federal refugee contractors being paid on a per refugee head basis to bring refugees to your towns and cities, maybe then a realistic policy could be advanced to care for (legitimate) refugees near their homes so that returning them to their homes and to their familiar cultures would be the number one priority of humanitarian care.
Perhaps if this pattern could be broken now—Middle East wars=flow of migrants to the West—it would be a very important legacy for Trump to leave us with. Trump and Haley could break the pattern! No more knee jerk admission of ‘refugees’ with every Middle East conflict. HereNikki Haley says what the No Borders Left never wants to hear:
Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations on Sunday defended the president’s ban on allowing Syrian refugees into the US by claiming that people displaced due to the country’s civil war did not actually want to leave the region.
When asked how she justified the Trump administration admitting almost no Syrian refugees while also bombing Assad regime targets in the country, Nikki Haley cited conversations she said she had had with refugees at camps in Jordan and Turkey.
“Not one of the many that I talked to ever said we want to go to America,” Haley said on Fox News Sunday. “They want to stay as close to Syria as they can.”
More here.
In a related story at Hurriyetwe see that the bloom is off the rose as Germany begins restricting family members (limiting chain migration!):
Syrians leaving Germany to return to Turkey
A growing number of Syrian refugees in Germany are seeking to return to Turkey as a new German legislation has introduced new barriers to family reunification, local media reported on April 12.
Even Mama Merkel is beginning to understand limits.
The German government recently imposed stricter measures to curb family reunification for Syrian refugees, many of whom were granted “subsidiary protection.”
German broadcaster ARD reported that its correspondents documented the journey of several Syrian refugees who sought to return to Turkey by paying hundreds of euros to human smugglers.
The refugees wanted to return to Turkey because they could not receive permission from German authorities to bring their family members who had fled to Turkey after the Syrian civil war broke out, the report said.
The EU’s largest economy has accepted more than 700,000 Syrian refugees since 2015, but amid domestic political pressure, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government introduced barriers to family reunification. A cap of 1,000 people per month was imposed on who could come to Germany for family reunification.
We knew this was happening, but this article at The Indypendent has some useful nuggets of information on the internal turmoil involving the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program which began in 1980 as a supposed public-private partnership, but has evolved in to an almost entirely publicly (taxpayer) funded industry.
I’m guessing that the average uninformed reader of this story is scratching his or her head and asking, how can the federal government ask non-profits to close their doors?
It is because the ‘non-profits’ are really fake charities and they can’t survive without the continuous infusion of federal dollars.
Here are a few nuggets from the story:
The Trump Administration is Dismantling the Refugee Resettlement System
April 1 marked the halfway point in the federal government’s fiscal year and, so far, the United States has only admitted 10,548 refugees, placing it on track to fall far short of its already record low admission ceiling of 45,000 individuals. Resettlement workers and refugee advocates say that this is further evidence of the Trump administration’s deliberate efforts to sabotage the refugee resettlement system now and for years to come.
“The program is being torn down from the top!”
“The program is being torn down from the top,” says Dr. Shelly Callahan, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center in Utica, which works to resettle refugees.
[….]
The U.S. government works with nine private nonprofit organizations***, known as voluntary agencies, to assign refugees to host communities around the United States.
Voluntary agencies receive $2,125 in federal funding for each refugee they resettle and administer networks of local offices that provide services directly to the refugees. All of the approximately 320 local offices provide new arrivals with housing and social services including language training, job-search assistance, school-enrollment assistance and help integrating into the community during their first months in the United States. [They can never bring themselves to say they are signing them up for welfare, medical care and food stamps!—ed]
In practice, virtually all resettlement offices also provide a variety of services to other immigrant, minority, and vulnerable communities alongside refugees, and assist refugees beyond the first months of resettlement. [Yes, we know they are providing taxpayer-funded services to illegal migrants too!—ed] They rely on private donations for these programs. [No they don’t! Only small amounts!—ed]
[….]
Erol Kekic of Church World Service says they are trying to find a more sustainable model. Does that mean trying to raise private money now that the easy federal money, doled out on a refugee per head basis, is drying up?
In December, the State Department informed the voluntary agencies of its intention to close all local affiliate offices [aka subcontractors.—ed] that are not projected to receive at least 100 refugees in fiscal year 2018. According to a plan drawn up by the voluntary agencies and obtained by Reuters, some 74 offices are expected to be closed this year.
Eleven new offices that were in the planning phase at the time will not be opening, although some of them may still be able to operate as sub-offices dependent on other offices for cases and funding.
“We’re trying to look into what would be the best make up of our network and how do we change what currently exists into something more sustainable that can still meet its moral and legal commitments,” says Erol Kekic, executive director of Church World Service, one of the national voluntary agencies. Church World Service has closed 17 offices this fiscal year, bringing its total to just 19.
[….]
The layoffs and closures being engineered by the Trump administration will impact the refugee resettlement system for years to come.
More here.
The article references a cool Reuters interactive graph showing how many offices are closing in each state. See the whole thing here. This is just a portion of a screen shot. Hereis where the original list of over 300 subcontractors is archived, but it looks like the list has not been updated for over a year.
Partial screenshot. See full image here: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/USA-IMMIGRATION-REFUGEES/010060WC1Q2/index.html
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!). We are hearing reports that all nine might not survive the year.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services (welfare)! From most recent accounting, here.
Add “trickle” to our descriptive media word-list about this years’ refugee flow to America.
Previously we jokedabout “plummeting” numbers (dip, tumble, drop dramatically, drastically decline, etc.). Now we can add “trickle.” Back in the good ‘ol days, Lavinia Limon (USCRI) was sending Mr. Chobani Yogurt (Hamdi Ulukaya) his workers for Twin Falls.
Mr. Chobani Yogurt must be a bit annoyed as the refugee worker stream to his Twin Falls yogurt plant must be trickling too.
And, heck, he even lost pal, doyenne of the refugee contractors, Lavinia Limon last fall. See here.
This article is just another of the ho-hum planted media stories about that mean ol’ Donald Trump and how his refugee slowdown is hurting their refugee industry. It wouldn’t be worth posting except for the blatant admission that plummeting refugee arrivals are hurting the contractors’ budgets.
For longtime readers you are likely thinking—well we know that!
However, ten years ago, when I started writing this blog about the flawed US Refugee Admissions Program, the media didn’t know that refugee contracting agencies*** were paid by the head to place refugees, so I see this paragraph below as progress!
From the Idaho State Journal:
There are challenges that come with taking in fewer refugees. It’s hard to manage the Refugee Center’s budget, Rwasama said, because the center receives federal funding per refugee who arrives. “Everything is impacted when you don’t have funding to provide services.”
More here.
I was glad to see that they say they are taking better care of the formerly placed refugees since they are receiving so few new ones.
Rwasama is CSI Refugee Center director Zeze Rwasama. It has never been adequately explained just how the College of Southern Idaho became a subcontractor for USCRI, one of the nine (soon to be eight?) federal contractors.
Nevertheless, we are happy to see that the admission is being made regularly and the media is now reporting that:
Federal resettlement contractors (and their subcontractors) receive payment from you, the US taxpayer, on a per refugee head basis!
Progress!
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.
In a press release dated yesterday, the Manhattan-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) asks its followers to contact members of Congress and Senators to pressure the Prez to fulfill the 45,000 refugee CEILING set by Trump last fall. From his perch in Manhattan, Miliband pulls down a nearly $700,000 annual salary (doing well by doing good!) while he dabbles in UK politics, specifically the Brexit controversy. https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/856974/Brexit-news-Tony-Blair-EU-latest-news-Concordia-summit-David-Miliband
At the present rate the Trump State Department will admit about halfthat number and the resettlement contractors*** are shaking in their boots.
Each refugee admitted represents money, your money, to their budgets and reports are that at least one of the nine that have monopolized all resettlement to the US for a decade might not survive.
That is not true for the IRC, it is rolling in money….
Which reminds me (as I read this press release)—where is “moneybags” Miliband? Why is he not quoted? Too busy mucking around back home in the UK?
This press release wouldn’t be worth mentioning except for one nugget I found interesting (and for the fact that I love writing about this super rich Manhattan-based taxpayer-funded organization making decisions for small city/town America.). Here is some of it:
New York, NY, April 11, 2018 — Midway through the 2018 fiscal year, which ends September 30, just 10,584 refugees have been resettled to the United States. By contrast, 39,098 refugees were welcomed to the U.S. in the first half of the 2017 fiscal year—even with the slowdown on admissions due to the Trump Administration’s refugee bans. This decline in refugee admissions represents a stark 73 percent year-over-year drop. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) projects that a series of excessive red-tape vetting and processing changes will result in no more than 23,000 refugees being resettled in FY18, barely achieving 50 percent of the ceiling.
[They are so deceptive, the reason the number is so high, 39,098, for the first half of FY17 is because Obama presided over October, November, December and most of January and his outgoing State Department was pouring them in as fast as they could before Trump was inaugurated.—ed]
Now this next bit is rich! Here we have Hans (most likely still a Dutch national) who works for a British national (David Miliband) lecturing us about “core American values.”
Said Hans Van de Weerd, Vice President, US Programs, International Rescue Committee:
“Halfway through FY18, the U.S. is establishing a record on resettlement that runs counter to core American values of freedom and welcome and strategic interests abroad.
I can’t believe that they think they can still sell this silly notion, that somehow by curtailing immigration to the US from Muslim countries, we make Islamic terrorists angry (angrier?) with us. Hans Van de Weerd lectures us on “core American values!”
“Drastically diminished refugee arrivals have detrimental consequences for U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, including fueling the anti-American narratives of the very terrorist organizations we aim to defeat. The Trump Administration must change course in the second half of FY18 and meet its commitment to admit 45,000 refugees.” [For the umpteenth time, the 45,000 is a CEILING, a cap, NOT a target!—ed]
Now, here comes the part that interested me most.
We know that the contractors have been dependent on the large number of SIVs entering the US (Iraqi and Afghans who supposedly gave us support at some point) to help feed their budgets (see my recent post here). However, apparently even those numbers are dropping (eeeek!).
Shocking drop in March in admissions of those who assisted U.S. missions
Without explanation, only 510 Iraqi and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients arrived during the month of March, a more than 68 percent drop compared to average monthly arrivals in FY17.
Total SIV arrivals overall in the first half of FY18 have declined by 28 percent compared to the same time period in FY17.
I wonder (if there is a slowdown), if it is because they are running out of places to put them. Supposedly most go to San Diego or Northern Virginia where there is an overload of SIVs and as we reported here, they aren’t finding work.
U.S.-affiliated Iraqis (P-2s) left behind
These are supposed ‘beneficiaries’ and their family members. They always say they are translators, but they could have been taking out the garbage. See here.
U.S.-affiliated Iraqis are individuals who provided critical services, like translation, to U.S. missions abroad and now face persecution as a result.
Conservative estimates suggest that there are approximately 50,000 Iraqis with close affiliations with the U.S. government waiting for interviews to have their cases for resettlement processed.
Yet, only 36 U.S.-affiliated Iraqis have arrived in FY18.
Then here is Hans’ wrap-up:
It’s time to pressure the Administration to pick up the pace on refugee resettlement. Take action now.
Click here to see what they want their groupies to tell Congress.
You should tell your member of Congress and US Senators what you think too, but honestly I have little hope they will get off their duffs and do anything, so right now, it is best toContact the White Houseand tell the Prez to hang tough!
And, for fun, ask him why we pay David Miliband over a half a million a year so he can do his anti-Brexit political agitation work in his home country.
See my David Milibandarchive here. Waaahhh! What will I do when he finally goes home!
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.
This is really a kind of ‘nothing-burger’ articlefrom a policy wonk at the Brooking’s Institution attempting to influence the Far Left Dems to ask questions about refugees when Trump’s new pick to head the US State Department, Mike Pompeo, goes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today.
Trump: Mike Pompeo and I are on the same wavelength! https://www.today.com/video/trump-mike-pompeo-and-i-are-on-the-same-wavelength-1184613443805?v=b
Hereis a bit of it. We can definitely agree with Jessica Brandt‘s opener—the Trump Administration needs to staff-up at DOS. But, they must assure people loyal to the President and his policies are in those appointed jobs!
Tomorrow [today—-ed], former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s pick to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, will come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The hearing is an opportunity for congressional leaders to question him on a broad range of consequential subjects. Resourcing the State Department should be first on the list. It is difficult, if not impossible, to craft and implement an effective set of strategies on any foreign policy issue without the personnel in place to do so.
Jessica Brandt is “a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a David Rockefeller Fellow of the Trilateral Commission.”
But exploring Pompeo’s views on refugee policy should also be a high priority.That’s for three reasons.
First, Pompeo has a history of expressing deep distaste for refugee policies he views as lax. While in Congress, he cosponsored a bill calling for an immediate ban on the entry of all refugees, regardless of their country of origin. The measure would have gone farther than then-candidate Trump’s controversial proposal to bar Muslim immigration. Later that year, after returning home from a study tour focusing on the migration crisis in Europe, he argued in support of Trump’s instincts on these issues in the Wall Street Journal.
You can read the rest yourself by clicking here.
Then this closer made me laugh. These Leftists can’t help themselves. In an article at the venerable Brookings Institution, Ms. Brandt can’t resist the snark!
Pompeo’s answers to these questions could reveal a great deal about how he plans to approach a sensitive, consequential issue. I hope he plans to be more forward leaning than his predecessor. But given his record, I doubt it.
And, btw, what the heck is “forward leaning?” I think we know….
