A reader knowledgeable about the ways of Washington, tells me we must send letters/comments to the Trump White House daily.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
You might think your comments fall on deaf ears, but she assures me that comments are tracked. Silence on your part sends the message to President Trump that you are satisfied with the way things are going with the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
One message I want you to send is to tell the President (politely, but firmly), that he must lead in reforming the whole refugee program, that just jiggering around with the numbers isn’t reform. He must this year send some reform language to the Hill and tell leaders there that he wants real reform, not tinkering!
In my view, there can only be real reform when we stop paying middlemen contractors*** to place ever increasing numbers of refugees in to your cities and towns with no input from you who are paying for it all.
There will be no real reform until the contractors (aka lobbyists, aka community organizers) are removed from the process. Readers ask me all the time what they can do, this is an easy project!
(This post is filed in my relatively new category—what you can do!—here.) Go here to send a comment, make it pithy (but polite). Do it every day, you can use posts I write for inspiration. For example, today the President is in Poland, so send a note about how the Polish leaders are standing firm to save their culture and country from the Muslim migration and you want him to do the same.
Honestly, if my 5000+ subscribers and tens of thousands of facebookfollowers wrote to the President every day, you would be noticed!
*** Contractors/lobbyists/community organizers supported by your tax dollars:
They do this every year. It is the sort of thing those of you concerned about an overload of refugees in your communities can’t really do, first and foremost because it is expensive to travel to Washington. And, our pro-reform side has no money!!!
I suspect your tax dollars helped pay for the lobbying organized each year through one of the nine major federal resettlement contractors—Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service(headquartered in a posh section of Baltimore). LIRS Leadership Academy last week. That is LIRS CEO Lynda Hartke in the bluish jacket in the front row. Learn about their finances here (they are 95% funded with taxpayer dollars): https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/02/28/south-carolina-lutheran-agency-cutting-staff-will-bigwigs-in-baltimore-see-pay-cuts/
However, this story from the Huffington Post that focuses on visits to Texas’s two US Senatorsconfirms what we have said and what you should do—keep up the political pressure on your Washington reps from back home! And, I mean, keep it up! Huffington Post:
WASHINGTON ― On a hot D.C. summer day on Tuesday, seven refugees from Texas made their way to the office of their home state senator, Ted Cruz, to do what one does in the nation’s capital: lobby.
[….]
The former refugees had come to Washington for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Leadership Academy, where they had spent the last few days training and strategizing on how to help new arrivals and convince politicians that it was right and humane to do the same. It was the fifth year of the program, with 48 former refugees from 17 states participating.
This year is different from the last four. Now they are operating in the age of Donald Trump, who wants to cut the number of refugees to be resettled in the U.S. and bar them from entry for at least four months.The Texas advocates are facing an anti-refugee wave at the state level that Trump tapped into nationally. Texas took in the second-highest number of refugees of any state in fiscal year 2016, but its Republican leadership has echoed the president’s approach, last year taking the extreme move of dropping out of the resettlement program, making it the largest state to do so. Gov. Greg Abbott has also tried to bar Syrian refugees from the state entirely. And while Republican officials in Texas can’t legally keep refugees out, they’ve done their best to say they are unwelcome.
Despite the open hostility that is exhibited by their state ― or perhaps because of it ― refugee advocates feel an intense urgency to change minds. That includes Cruz, who supported measures to bar certain groups of refugees and backed Trump’s travel ban, which is now blocked in the courts. The former refugees knew that having a positive reception from congressional staffers wouldn’t change much, if anything. But they felt that if they met the staff in person, they could work to maintain and grow relationships within the state. After visiting Cruz’s Washington office, Nsenga suggested that they reach out to Cruz’s offices in Texas as soon as possible to request meetings, since they take some time to schedule.
After visiting Cruz’s office they went on to meet Senator Cornyn’s staff and we learned a very important bit of information for Texas taxpayers concerned about the impact of refugee resettlement on the state:
This time they decided to also ask what they could do to win the senator over. They said the Cornyn staffer told them that his office gets a lot of calls expressing concerns about refugee resettlement and hardly any from people who support refugees. [Hint!—ed]
“She said, ‘You can help by educating fellow Texans about refugees,’” Emmanuel Sebagabo, a former refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said afterward.
It was a tangible bit of information that the former refugees felt could serve them well.
[….]
…. They [politicians] don’t base their policy positions on whether constituents set up apartments for people resettling in their states, and they haven’t been universally moved by protests against Trump’s executive orders. Politicians care about getting elected and reelected; they care about doing what their constituents call on them (literally and figuratively) to do.
It’s a basic principle of advocacy, but it can get lost when activists are focused on more immediate matters, like getting people resettled in a new country. Now up against Trump, Abbott, Cruz, Cornyn and other Republicans, the refugee advocates got a reminder that they can’t forget about the politics.They need to convince more fellow Texans that refugee resettlement is a good thing, but that requires combating messages from politicians who spread fear that refugees can be dangerous. They need to convince those who support refugees to not just offer places to stay, warm meals and social services. They need them to call politicians’ offices and show up at town halls.
Yup! Continue reading here.
Thanks to HuffPoreporter Elise Foley for giving us those important reminders!
By the way, this article focused on Texas, but you can be sure they were visiting YOUR Senators and members of Congress too!
This article is posted in my relatively new category ‘What you can do’ here.
I’m asked all the time: What can I do? What can I do?
This is an excellent example of the kind of thing you can do. This is a list of talking points thoughtfully prepared by Brenda Arthur of the Charleston, WV Act for America chapter. As a citizen activist, she put some serious time into preparing this point/counterpoint and made it available for all of you!
PROPONENTS OF REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT
WILL SAY :
1. Your town is losing population. Bringing refugees will revitalize your city.
+ Truth: Saying that Importing third world poverty into our city or state revitalizes it just defies logic and commonsense.
+The educational level of many refugees is low. They will only qualify for minimum or low wage jobs. Therefore, they will continue to qualify for some form of government assistance such as Medicaid and/or Food Stamps aka SNAP.
+ Big Business uses refugees for cheap labor thereby depressing wages for Americans with low education levels.
+ The cost of educating a refugee child is apprx $10,000+ per year not to mention the additional cost of English language assistance/interpreters and additional tutoring due to a lack of previous education.
+ Refugees often send some of their money out of the country to family left behind. Those remittances that leave the country are dollars unavailable to the local economy. This is never factored in.
+ As the refugee population grows more languages will be required to be provided by the school system. This erodes the quality of the schools and reduces teaching time for American kids whose parents are paying the bill.
+ In towns where the refugee population has grown, parents are finding 17-20 year-olds in class with their children.
+ Some school districts across the country have as many as 81 languages for which they must provide ESL teachers and interpreters.
2. Another selling point by the proponents is that “It is our moral obligation. That’s who we are as a country.”
+ Our tax dollars were never meant to be someone else’s charity .
+ We should aid refugees where they are. For every one brought here we can help 12 people there. The administration of mercy belongs to each of us individually—-not to the government.
+ Our first moral obligation is to our own people.
Arthur created this refugee crimes poster to use as a visual aid when she speaks to groups in West Virginia. You can do this too!
3. OVER 800,000 REFUGEES (since 9/11) HAVE BEEN ADMITTED TO THE U.S. AND NO TERRORIST PROBLEMS:
+ Proponents will present the picture that everything is “sweetness and light “. Not true. Many problems are occurring with refugee populations in towns all across America: Gangs, increased drug trafficking, sex slave trade, domestic violence, crime, drug resistant strains of TB, female genital mutilation, and more.
+ Cultural differences are often great and cannot be bridged. Some refugee cultures believe that “honor killing” and rape of non-muslim women is acceptable.
+ In addition, there have been terrorist acts committed by refugees as well as many crimes. Taxpayers pay for expensive trials, and for those who are sentenced we must bear the cost of imprisonment for many years.
4. NO STATE MONEY IS INVOLVED.
+ Yet another selling point of the proponents is that THERE IS NO STATE MONEY INVOLVED. IT’S ALL FEDERAL MONEY. WELL, FIRST OF ALL, FEDERAL MONEY IS OUR MONEY. SECONDLY, LET’S DISCUSS THE STATE COSTS: MEDICAID , STATE EMPLOYEES, EDUCATION, INTERPRETERS, AND LIKELY CASH WELFARE PAYMENTS.
DON’T TELL ME OR ANYONE ELSE THERE IS NO STATE MONEY INVOLVED WITH THIS PROGRAM. It’s a matter of how much.
TO RECAP:
+ Medicaid–Unreimbursed cost to the state
+ TANF–Cash Welfare payments –Unreimbursed costs to the state
+ Interpreters–Provided to students and other refugees as needed
+ Education–Cost for educating children K-12
+ State Employees’ salaries and benefits who work w/refugees
5. The vetting is very, very rigorous.
+ Former FBI Director, James Comey, Obama’s Special Envoy to the Middle East to fight ISIS, General John Allen, Former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, Mike McCaul, Chairman of Homeland Security in the Congress , and now we know from the leaked Wikileaks documents that even Hillary Clinton herself said at a private meeting in 2013 that the refugees cannot possibly be vetted.
+ Further, Leon Rodriguez, former Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, reluctantly told former Senator Jeff Sessions’ Senate Committee in September 2016 that some of the refugees get in based solely on their testimony alone.
+ Fraud is rampant in the refugee program. Many refugees come from failed states. They have no documentation. We are supposed to believe the lie that everyone is who they say they are.
+ ISIS has sworn to infiltrate the refugee population. They already have.
6. The refugees become self-sufficient within 5 years.
+ The fact is that the Office Of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) defines self-sufficiency in a way that is contrary to the common understanding of the word. A household is considered self-sufficient if it is not receiving “a cash assistance grant”. But other welfare programs do not count under the ORR definition. Thus, ORR considers and reports them as self-sufficient even if they are receiving other forms of government assistance such as: Food Stamps (SNAP), Housing subsidies, or Medicaid .
Don’t be fooled. Make them define their terms.
7. Refugees pay taxes.
+ Consider that the average educational level of a Middle Eastern refugee is 10.5 years. That is not even a high school diploma. This means that the likelihood of them earning more than $9-$12 /hour is pretty unlikely. Having a low wage job is most likely. Further, even if they work and pay taxes the fact that the earnings level is low will often make them eligible for continuing government subsidies. There are other points to consider:
+ Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is available to people whose income is low. Many, if not most, refugees would likely qualify for this.
+ Child Tax Credit up to $1000 per child would apply based on income guidelines. This credit is IN ADDITION to deductions for dependent children.
+ Once the Tax Credits are applied it is possible that they are getting back all or most of the taxes that were paid and potentially more than they paid.
So, there we have it for those of you looking for something to do. Use Arthur’s points for letters to the editor, arguing with ‘friends’ on facebook, or when corresponding with your elected officials.
This post is filed in two categories here at RRW: ‘Comments worth noting’ (here) and in my new category ‘What you can do’ (here).
And, for all of you interested in Arthur’s home state of West Virginia, go here for my archive on the state.
Thanks to reader Denise for making a very cool flyer to remind you to call your Washington representatives to counter the lobbying campaign by the refugee industry this week. They are ginning-up thousands of calls to Congress in advance of World Refugee Daytomorrow.
This is a very handy way to get the phone numbers for your representatives. I just tried it, and in addition to my reps in Washington, I received phone numbers for my state reps too! Post is filed in ‘What can you do’ because you asked!
I haven’t said much about this bill re-introduced in Congress last week mostly because it doesn’t go far enough to really reform the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. In my view anything that leaves the United Nations choosing our refugees and the non-profit ‘religious’ (and secular) charities being paid by the head to place those third world people secretly into unsuspecting towns and cities doesn’t go far enough. U.S. Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., reintroduced the Refugee Program Integrity Restoration Act on Thursday. Source: http://magicvalley.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/labrador-re-introduces-bill-limiting-refugee-program/article_0ac8aa8e-92e9-5e26-a081-1600491d5b93.html
The financial incentive (that per head payment) to unelected non-profit groups (who then lobby Congress) for more and more paying clients (aka refugees) must be completely abolished.
Halfway measures, as this bill represents, if it ever even got through Congress and to the President’s desk would take away any incentive for abolishing the Refugee Act of 1980 and rewriting the whole thing, so I’m not a believer in taking the ‘first steps’ as I am sure the advocates of this bill are calling it.
Read the text yourself, here, there are some bones thrown to states/communities to have some say in whether they will ‘welcome’ refugees or not, and there is some effort made to get at the fraud that we know is rampant overseas. The only hope for real reform is if the Trump Administration has the guts to send a determination of ZERO (refugees) in September for FY18 with the proviso that Congress undertake total reform of our refugee admissions policy before any more are admitted!
President Trump or Congress won’t have guts unless you bombard them!
That is what the well-organized and well-financed Open Borders crowd does all the time! See here….. Here is what the contractors*** and the Leftwing/social justice crowd are telling Congress about HR. 2826:
“….it would remove presidential authority to set the number of refugees who may enter the country per year.”
That last line of my screenshot (of a portion of the letter) made me laugh. So, they are worried about the President losing his authority to set the CEILING—any President other than Donald Trump I presume! So far they have made it clear that Trump is not permitted to have that power!
Quick! tell the Supreme Court! They are admitting that the President has the authority to set the number to be admitted to the US each year!
The letter continues…
Then here (below) are the groups that signed it. If you are involved in any of these groups/churches etc. let them know what you think.
Many of the federal contractors paid to place refugees in your towns are on this letter. The Ethiopian Community Development Council is not here nor is World Relief. Episcopal Migration Ministries is represented by the Episcopal Church (we learned here the other daythat they are one and the same).
Also not here is the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. I have noticed lately that they aren’t signing on to this type of joint political letter. Maybe you have gotten to them through your parishes?
LOL! You can tell how far Left this list is by the fact that SEIU signed it!
This post is filed in my relatively new category ‘what you can do’ in response to so many readers asking the question. You can bombard your member of Congress, your US Senators, and the White House about what you think should be done about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. Then tell your church leaders what you think if your church signed on to this letter in your name!
*** This is the list of the nine federal contractors being paid by the head to place refugees in towns across America. Those in red below signed this letter of opposition to the House Judiciary Committee.
