On the morning we are getting news that the President is selling out American workers and sacrificing the safety of US citizens by soft talk on the border wall and DACA, we see this announcement.
First, readers may remember that the Heritage Foundation published a dreadful report, here, on the Refugee program demonstrating a total disconnect from what is happening in communities where refugees are secretly dropped off, and now this….
Here (below) we have a panel of bureaucrats and policy wonks who will discuss a bunch of esoteric BS in the Washington swamp about “reforming” the program. I don’t see one serious critic on the panel and not one person who knows what is happening in communities where the refugees are placed.
This is Larry Bartlett from the US State Department who is responsible for admitting refugees to the US. He is standing in front of a map showing more than a hundred resettlement towns and cities. That map from 2015 has since disappeared from the State Department’s WRAPSNET website.
There are several very very good spokesmen for our point of view in Washington who could get over to the Heritage Foundation in a heartbeat—at FAIR, at the Center for Immigration Studies and at NumbersUSA—why isn’t one serious critic of the program on the panel?
“Reform!”
These people will suggest tinkering, or worse!
And, to top it off the program is headlined by Larry Bartlett, pro-refugee bureaucrat extraordinaire. Just two of many posts on Bartlett you should review are here and here.
In the first post Bartlett went to Twin Falls, Idaho and told the audience a whopper—that they don’t place refugees in communities that don’t want them—and he went on to say that was not because of sympathy for the townspeople, but for the refugees (he feared for them, that some local yokels might hurt them!) (go here for more).
And, here, we see Bartlett tell Senator Jeff Sessions that communities are consulted, but failed to mention that citizens everywhere were being blocked from attending the “stakeholder” meetings where plans were being made for the community, while representatives of ethnic groups could attend.
Here then is the Heritage panel lineup scheduled for next Wednesday:
This is a screenshot, so links are not ‘hot.’ Here is the 800 number for them: (800) 546-2843
Readers are always asking what they can do. Here is something you can do….
Call Heritage and tell them to stop the propaganda about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.Or, better still tell them to have a follow-up panel of experts who know what real reform should look like! (Don’t hold your breath!).
Because Heritage touts itself as a “conservative think tank” that tells Congress what to think, it is up to you to tell Heritage what you think!
If you have been frustrated where you live about how the US Refugee Program is working (about the lack of transparency, crimes, the cultural upheaval going on, and the cost to taxpayers of welfare, etc) tell Heritage what you think!
Here is the Heritage Foundation contact page if you prefer to comment on line: http://www.heritage.org/contact
(whines Melanie Nezer of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)
Update:My friends at VDARE cross-posted this story and added an excellent chart that illustrates the ceilings and admissions over the years. See here.
The decision could come this week and the contractors*** are scared to death that the number could be 50,000 or lower. At least that is what VICE News is reporting and they clearly have an inside line to Leftist/Open Borders leakers in the administration if this report is to be believed, and I have no reason not to believe it.
It also confirms the vibes I got listening to the HIAS conference call last week—the contractors are out of the loop!
Before you read the VICE story, be sure to see my post yesterday entitled:
Consider the optics Mr. President! Thousands of impoverished people arriving in the US when Americans are homeless
The Trump administration is expected to drastically reduce the number of refugees that will be allowed into the United States in the coming year, VICE News has learned.
VICE reports that Stephen Miller is butting heads with Mattis and McMaster over refugee numbers for FY18 (which begins in a little over 2 weeks)
Multiple sources, including an official in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) with direct knowledge of the situation, say Trump plans to cap refugee admissions for the 2018 fiscal year at no more than 50,000. That limit would be the fewest in modern history, and less than half as many as President Obama authorized last year.
[….]
Trump hasn’t yet made a final decision on refugee admissions, the sources said, but according to the USRAP official, “it won’t exceed 50,000” and could even be fewer. White House officials and members of the National Security Council were scheduled to discuss the refugee cap Tuesday, and an official announcement could come as soon as this week.
[….]
A White House spokesman declined to comment on “internal discussions” about refugees. The State Department, which oversees U.S. refugee resettlement programs, told VICE News the cap would be set “after appropriate consultation with Congress” and before the start of the 2018 fiscal year on October 1, but declined to answer additional questions.
According to a source familiar with the discussions, Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior advisor for policy, has been the leading advocate for fewer refugee admissions, and has attempted to sideline other key players in the discussions, including Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
[….]
In his proposed budget for 2018, which is under consideration by Congress, Trump calls for slashing the budget for refugee resettlement from $544.7 million to $410 million. Overall spending on U.S. refugee programs, including ones that provide aid to refugees and displaced people overseas during humanitarian crises, would be cut by 13 percent, falling from $3.1 billion to $2.7 billion.
[….]
Under the Refugee Act of 1980, which established the current standards for screening refugees and admitting them into the country, the president has broad authority to dictate how many refugees the U.S accepts. In certain years the U.S. has admitted fewer refugees than allotted, but Trump’s proposed cap would be the lowest ever.
Transparency my a**!
This next bit should make your blood boil if you have been (for years) a citizen activist in your community and have been excluded from refugee planning meetings and denied documents about your towns/cities!
Humanitarian groups, which have typically been consulted ahead of a final decision by the president, complain they’ve been completely shut out of the process this year.
Melanie Nezer, senior vice president of public affairs at the refugee resettlement agency HIAS, said in past years there was transparency and an open dialogue between the White House, the State Department, and Congress, but uncertainty is now the status quo. [THERE WAS NEVER TRANSPARENCY FOR TAXPAYERS AND CITIZENS QUESTIONING HOW THEIR MONEY WAS BEING SPENT AND WHO WAS COMING TO THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS!–ED]
“We don’t really know who is driving this train,” Nezer said. “We’re guessing like everyone else. That’s very unusual. In prior administrations, both Democrat and Republican, we’ve been a real partner on this.”
Continue reading VICE here. However, have a look at accurate numbers for the ceilings and actual admissions here. Obama never set a ceiling anywhere near 110,000 until he was walking out the door in 2016. Also there were many years when admissions dropped below 50,000.
For new readers, the point to remember is that each refugee (client) comes with a pile of money (taxpayer dollars) attached that goes to the contractors, like HIAS, to keep their phony-baloney ‘non-profit’ groups afloat. See (here) how much they are being paid to do their ‘charitable good works.’
(BTW, HIAS is one of the plaintiffs in the ‘Travel ban’ lawsuit against the President while pocketing millions of federal dollars.)
We have been arguing for weeks that the President should suspend the program altogether for FY18 and tell Congress to investigate the program with an eye to reform it. Irma and Harvey have made that the most sensible course of action.
America First!
We have refugees of our own!
Tell the President what you think byclicking here to get instructions…Tell your members of Congress and US Senators too!
***The federal contractors paid by the head for refugee “clients” they place (secretively!) in your towns and cities:
Irma damage in Florida. This article says the cost of hurricanes Harvey and Irama to the US economy will be $290 billion. I’ve seen higher estimates. http://www.businessamlive.com/hurricanes-harvey-irma-damages-cost-us-economy-290-bn-accuweather-says/
As I have said until you are surely sick to death of it, President Donald J. Trump is expected to present to Congress a ‘determination’ within days about how many third world impoverished people will be admitted to the US beginning on October 1.
But, here is the thing—he has complete authority to say that NO refugees will be admitted in FY18because the Refugee Act of 1980 gives that power to the President!
In the last 2 days, three reporters (that I know of) wrote about suspending, or shutting down, the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program for this year.
Open Borders activist Sharry admitted that Trump can “zero the program out.”
First, Thomas Allen at VDARE wrote this (read it all, it is full of historical knowledge about the program). Allen mentions this:
But even Open Borders activists recognize Trump has the legal authority to set the number at zero for 2018. Frank Sharry [Email him] a leading Treason Lobbyist, told a group of activists at the National Partnership for New Americans conference in September 2017 [2016-ed] that Trump could “zero the program out” if he chose to.And Congress certainly could zero out the funding of the program if it chose to.
Not only did Sharry acknowledge this, but so did Bill Frelick from Human Rights Watch,here.
Bill Frelick of Human Rights Watch: “…there is no requirement that the U.S. resettle a single refugee….”
And, indeed HIAS executives reported (here) that George W. Bush delayed a Presidential determination in the wake of 9/11 without any legal consequences to him. (The administration must have been worried about Islamic terrorists getting in to the US even then!)
Harvey leaves American homes in Texas ruined by flood waters. Maybe the refugee contractors could get their volunteers busy helping Americans first!
And, finally don’t miss Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily where I am quoted saying this:
Ann Corcoran, who has followed refugee resettlement for more than a decade, said Trump has plenty of reason to do just that and still come across as a great humanitarian by focusing on needy Americans.
“The public should be outraged to learn that in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which have left tens of thousands of Americans homeless, that we are poised to take in thousands of impoverished refugees when we now have our own refugees, struggling people who have lost their homes, lost everything, with their lives shattered, living in tents, shelters and RVs,” Corcoran said.
“To bring in more from other countries in a time like this would be the ultimate insanity.”
The refugee industry (the resettlement contractors and the cheap labor lobby) want you to think that the President must submit a determination of at least 50,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, but it just isn’t so!
Tell the President what you think byclicking here to get instructions…Tell your members of Congress and US Senators too!
Of course it’s possible that Melanie Nezer and Mark Hetfield—two of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society‘s executives and DC insiders—aren’t being completely honest to those on last Thursday’s conference call, but since they were looking for help from supporters, I don’t know what they would gain by being cagey with them.
(I told you about the call here, but you can listen yourself here.)
To save me a lot of work, I’m going to simply list nuggets I learned while listening. Here they are in no particular order:
~Funding the USRAP continues for now at the FY16 leveland they say that is enough for 75,000 refugees a year.
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is pushing for 75,000 refugees to begin arriving on October 1st. HIAS is the smallest refugee contractor but appears to have the biggest megaphone. https://www.hias.org/welcome-least-75000-refugees-us-2018.
~75,000 is their minimum target number for FY18 in order to not “undermine [their] infrastructure” (code for keeping the federal money coming so they can pay salaries and rent, but of course they never admitted that to listeners on the call). Less than 50,000 would mean “long lasting erosion” of the program.
~Everything is very confused this year they say. No Presidential Determination (PD) yet. (I expected them to know more!)
~They say the Report to Congress (in advance of the PD) has come in June or July in some previous years. I have never seen it that early. It usually is mid-September because until the last couple of years, Congress didn’t care what the President sent up. Other than a few diligent staffers, it is likely that no members actually ever looked at the report. See last year’s report dated September 15th by clicking here.
~Mark Hetfield likened the PD to another kind of Executive Order. I think he wants to make it sound like its an Executive Order for future lawsuits.
~They admit they have a stable of lawyers readyand waiting for all possibilities from this White House.
~They even suggested there is a possibility that Trump would make no PD! Wow! One of their people remarked that Bush delayed his immediately after 9/11, but that was understandable they admitted (implying the Trump situation is not). So even they are considering the possibility of a suspension of the program.
~A caller asked if there was any way Congress could ‘punish’ the President if he simply doesn’t make a ‘determination’ or initiate a consultation in the coming 3 weeks. No, there isn’t, said one of the HIAS experts. But, their stable of lawyers is looking at all the legal angles.
~Until Trump was elected, they (contractors) were in “expansion mode” opening new offices in new towns. Bringing in more communities now is impossible.
~There was a lot of discussion about what refugee advocates could do. Top of the list was to tell their Congressmen and Senators that they want to “welcome” more refugees. Interestingly, I believe it was Hetfield who admitted the President sets the number not Congress, but important to try to get Congress to pressure Prez.
~They asked listeners to set up meetings with their Washington Reps in their own districts. But, surprisingly, could not give a caller the names of specific reps to target.
See Mark Hetfield and Melanie Nezer in action this time last year. https://www.hias.org/blog/video-hias-mark-hetfield-and-melanie-nezer-brief-foreign-press-members
~Some other action ideas included getting rabbis to sign their letter in support of more refugees. They have 48 states represented but no one from North and South Dakota.
~They want people to show up to demonstrate on the steps of the Supreme Court when it hears the so-called ‘travel ban’ case on October 10th.A caller asked how the timing of the case and the decision announcement (could be May or June) would affect refugee admissions, and the experts on the call could not say. As I said in my earlier post this morning, their own lawsuits have made such a hash of the program they have probably done more damage to refugee admissions than if they had simply let the 120 day moratorium run its course.
~They want people to plan demonstrations and to use social media to get the pro-more-refugees message out. And, they want donations.
~There were several mentions of all the eager volunteers who want to help resettle refugees, but alas they may be disappointed with few new ones coming. I felt like shouting—-put them to work helping your previously resettled refugees who are struggling, or better still tell them to help American refugees of Harvey and soon-to-be refugees from Irma.
There is a lot more, those of you in ‘pockets of resistance’ should listen to the 43-minute call, here. Then…..
A reader alerted us to an ad (from the Ad Council) running repeatedly on their childrens’ TV programing, specifically VeggieTales a show created to convey “Christian moral themes and [teach] Biblical values and lessons.”
We looked for more information on the ad directing viewers to something called Embrace Refugeesand found that the public service ad was a joint venture between the Ad Council and the US State Department released on World Refugee Day 2016.
Readers may recall that during this period, Obama was headed toward his big refugee pow-wow in the UN scheduled for September of 2016 and was setting the groundwork for Hillary to step in and continue a refugee flood to America.
See this news report at something called The Ralph Retort when the ad was released.
The ad directs viewers to Embrace Refugeesmaking it appear to be just one more private project by good-hearted charities instead of a US State Department engineered project.
Many of the usual cast of characters are here. Six federal refugee contractors are involved. Interestingly 3 Christian ones are absent from the Embrace campaign: US Conf. of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and World Relief. See how much of your money is redistributed to these contractors: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/07/11/updating-financial-data-on-refugee-contractors-big-bucks-for-humanitarian-work/
This is the sort of project taxpayers should question and frankly someone with investigative skills should attempt to follow the money and figure out how much of our money (I bet all of it is our money) was used to produce and distribute the propaganda.
You gotta hand it to the Left, they are working every day to change America by getting to your kids (and using your money to do it)!
