Late in September the word went outthat for the new fiscal year (2020) which began on October first, the CEILING on refugee admissions for the year would be 18,000 (not the zero I wanted!), and that arrivals would be delayed for three weeks.
The three weeks end on Monday, the 21st, but now comes word that more refugee flights have been cancelled and the new arrivals are expected to begin trickling in after the 28th of the month.
We also learn that the President has yet to sign-off on the 18,000!
Needless to say the refugee contractors*** are not happy.
Here is CNN where we learn a little bit more about the closed door meeting on the Hill this past Tuesday between Sec. of State Pompeo and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
More refugee flights to the US are being canceled
Flights for refugees who have been approved to come to the United States continue to be canceled, in some cases for the second time, CNN has learned.
Last month, CNN reported that travel for refugees who were told they could come to the US was postponed, due to a moratorium on travel that extended through October 21, raising concerns among refugee resettlement agencies.
The moratorium will now run until October 28, with arrivals expected to resume on October 29, according to a State Department spokesperson.
Senator Lindsey Graham appealed to Pompeo to bring in the already approved refugees—what thousands? Graham has been a long-time proponent of the refugee program.
[….]
The Trump administration has proposed capping the number of refugees allowed into the US at 18,000, a historic low. In a meeting this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the US admit refugees who are travel ready, in addition to the 18,000, according to a congressional aide who attended the meeting.
Graham appeared concerned about the situation in Syria, the aide said.
The proposed 18,000 refugee cap, coupled with the situation in Syria and postponed travel has fueled concerns.
“There were cases that were re-booked in September for October 8 and then re-booked for October 22 and now trying to rebook for October 29. You’re basically inserting about a month and a half of when someone was expected to travel and when they are,” said Jen Smyers, director of policy and advocacy for the immigration and refugee program at Church World Service, one of the nine resettlement agencies.
More than 200 refugees were expected to travel to the US next week, according to a source familiar. Their flights have been canceled.
[….]
“We will work with our implementing partners to plan for a resumption of refugee arrivals on or after October 29,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding: “This will include rescheduling travel for those affected by the extension of the refugee arrivals pause. By law, no refugees may be admitted this fiscal year until the President determines the number that may be admitted. When the Presidential Determination is issued, we will begin admitting refugees in accordance with its provisions.”
The President has not yet signed off on the 18,000!
The canceling and re-booking of refugee flights suggests that there may be a delay in the President signing off on the 18,000-person refugee cap.
See my post from Thursday about the Hill meeting with Pompeo, here.
It is not too late! You can still weigh in bycontacting the White House. You can be sure that thousands of open borders activists are pressuring the White House any way they can.
***For new readers these are the nine federal refugee contractors that not only place refugees in towns across the country, but lobby Congress and organize publicity against this President all while sucking down millions of your tax dollars! Cut them loose from the federal teat!
HIAS, for those new to refugee industry lingo, is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Societyand yesterday they launched a grassroots campaign to pressure Congress into passing legislation that would abolish Trump’s so-called Muslim ban, and make it harder for any future President to keep us safe.
Nevermind that there isn’t a Muslim ban as we reported here a few days ago.
Rohingya Muslims are entering the US as refugees by the thousands, and taxpayer-funded HIAS (about $25 million in one recent year!) and the other federally-funded refugee contractors are being paid to take care of the thousands of US-boundSpecial Immigrant Visa holders from Iraq and Afghanistan (mostly Muslims!)*** who supposedly helped our military (and NGOs!) in those terror-producing hotbed countries!
But, the propagandists in the Open Borders cabal never let facts get in the way of their get-Trump agenda.
They know the bill will never become law while Trump is in the White House, however they are using it as one more media stunt in advance of the 2020 presidential contest. And, they need to keep their followers/donors busy and engaged.
Not enough Muslims in America! HIAS with CAIR protesting the so-called “Muslim ban” at the White House in January 2018. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/
Hereis what HIASis telling its followers to do. (And lucky you! You can read their appeal in ten languages!)
Tell Congress to Support the NO BAN Act
On Tuesday, September 24, Congress will review H.R. 2214, the NO BAN Act. The NO BAN Act will repeal all versions of the Muslim Ban authorized through executive order over the past two years, and will amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit discrimination based on religion. Additionally, it will limit the broad executive authority that allowed the refugee and asylum bans by implementing stricter implementation requirements and greater congressional oversight.
Now, more than ever, it is critical that Members of Congress show their support against discrimination, and support this legislation.
Join us in telling Members of Congress to support the NO BAN Act.
STEP ONE: Find out who your representative ishere.
Continue reading here. They have kindly provided a script in case their followers need guidance about what to say.
Learn more about the bill here. See that it has 170 co-sponsors (all Dems).
If you disagree with HIAS, use their link above to find your representative (I suspect you already know who your representative is) and call your member of Congress to express your views in your own (polite please) words.
***A reader, who wished not to be named, told me that it was the large number of SIVs entering with the help of the contractors that were keeping the refugee ‘non-profits’ afloat during these lean Trump years.
Today when I saw one more story about some gathering somewhere meant to tell the public how bad the Trump administration is as it slows the flow of third worlders to unsuspecting middle America towns, my first thought was: blah! blah! blah!
However, for a change I had a good look at the comments to the story at Michigan Live, and I am glad I did!
‘America looks terrible’ with record-low refugee admissions, panelist says
ANN ARBOR, MI – The U.S. accepted a record low number of refugees in 2018, and now Michigan resettlement agencies are questioning their future.
This is Mark Hetfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society protesting the Trump presidency at a rally in New York shortly after Trump was inaugurated in early 2017. Last I checked he was pulling down a salary and benefits package of nearly $350,000 a year as HIAS CEO. Good work if you can get it! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/06/27/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-urges-followers-to-take-to-the-streets-in-wake-of-supreme-court-decision/
Right now America looks terrible because we are no longer out there defending the most vulnerable people in the world,” said Mark Hetfield, CEO of HIAS, the world’s oldest refugee resettlement agency, based in Maryland. “That’s something that we have done consistently across Republican and Democratic administrations, and we have stopped doing that and thrown refugee protection into reverse.”
Hetfield participated in a panel discussion on present and future challenges related to refugee resettlement on Monday, Oct. 22, at the University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School.
The panel was part of a two-day “Keeping Our Door Open” symposium in Ann Arbor coordinated by UM’s School of Social Work, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County.
Needless to say the panelists go on to complain about how the refugee program is being diminished by this president. See more here.
If readers simply look at the title and read a bit of the story one would think that the propagandists might actually be reaching people.
That is, until one looks at the comments.
Get a load of these (and this is just a sampling!):
Space Ace
5 minutes ago
Don’t we have our own poor people to be concerned about? Since when is it our moral imperative to alleviate all the suffering of the world? Homelessness is up 50%, FIFTY PERCENT, in many parts of the country from 15 years ago. How about we deal with that first, then maybe consider importing more poor people?
Xchips
8 minutes ago
“Right now America looks terrible because we are no longer out there defending the most vulnerable people in the world,” said Mark Hetfield, CEO of HIAS who’s nearly $350,000 compensation package is nearly wholey paid for by taxpayers.
So here’s a guy getting taxpayer dollars to help other people get taxpayer dollars. Nice racket.
Tom
1 hour ago
Refugee (noun): a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.
How many of these “refugees” are actually falling into one of these categories? How many are coming here because they just don’t like where they live and they heard you can get in by claiming refugee status.
According to the article – “Refugees are entitled to government assistance coordinating travel plans to get to the U.S. and then resettlement services that can include assistance with transportation, housing, English language classes, health care, food, education, employment and citizenship services.”
So if I lived in a very poor country – that sounds like a good deal to me.
So maybe consider those actual refugees are being turned around because they actually aren’t refugees.
E
1 hour ago
I’d say the lovely citizens of Ann Arbor sponsor refugees and house/feed/guarantee non-reliance on government programs to show their support.
Freedom Lover
1 hour ago
Have you noticed that most of the immigrants in the horde coming from Guatemala and Honduras are males in the 20 to 30 age group. They carry their country’s flag but refuse to stay in their country and make it better. I’m sure glad the colonialists were not like them. They stayed and fought to make a better country. Also many who are interviewed say they are coming to the USA for a job. A job is not a reason to seek asylum.
Shawn Letwin
updated 1 hour ago
Yep, you are at risk of losing your jobs and no longer living off the trough of the taxpayers…”Que Sera, Sera”
Rbg1
updated 1 hour ago
Did these opportunist mouthpieces disclose the taxpayer-funded profits (BILLIONS) involved with resettling and wrap-around assistance? This isn’t compassion, it’s greed. Everyone involved is making money off the scam. Except, of course, middle class taxpayers.
This is an encouraging example of how educated citizens are becoming about the US Refugee Admissions Program.
All of you should take the opportunity every chance you get to comment to news stories in your communities.
I was planning to write about the Daily Mail’s tirade against US Representative Steve King, calling him a white nationalist, today anyway, but oh joy! Donald Trump (with obvious pride) said he is a “nationalist” at his Texas rally last night.
The migrant caravan is not about the poor and downtrodden!
As we watch (in horror), the mostly young male migrant caravan heading to the US border intent on confronting our President’s authority, more Americans are seeing clearly that the battle (the worldwide battle!) is really one of nationalism vs. globalism with the marching human beings as the pawns in a gigantic war for world power.
Rep. King is vilified in the British press for daring to say what we all know.
And, Donald Trump last night reconfirmed why they hate him so much—he gives us all permission to speak!
If you love America and western civilization, and happen to be white, you are the scum of the earth to globalists—white nationalists!
Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King reveals his white nationalist views in shocking interview with far-right Austrian website saying immigration is ‘slow-motion cultural suicide’
Iowa Republican Representative Steve King has revealed his white nationalist views in an interview with an Austrian far-right publication.
King, an eight-term congressman up for re-election next month, has been linked to Neo-Nazism and the far-right before, but he laid out his extremely conservative views like never before in an interview with far-right propaganda website Unzensuriert, which translates to ‘uncensored’ in English.
Rep. Steve King: slow-motion cultural suicide!
He was interviewed when he stopped in Vienna in August and candidly called for stricter immigration policies, said Mollie Tibbett’s killer should have never been in the U.S., and claims Democrats are teaming up with radical Islamists to attack ‘Western civilization’.
He was interviewed by Caroline Sommerfeld, an intellectual in the European neo-fascist identititarian movement which is connected to the U.S.’s alt-right, to discuss how Muslim and Latino immigrants threaten the U.S. and Europe.
The interview was published in September and went unnoticed by American news outlets until the Huffington Post flagged it.
In the interview Sommerfeld asks: ‘In your opinion is Islam the problem or Western liberalism?’
King replies saying ‘it is like fighting a two front war. How is it, that the liberals, the leftists, on the one side, could build an alliance with the misogynistic hard core rightist Islamic people that have no tolerance for everything?’
This next bit really makes the heathen rage! Bringing up abortion and low fertility rates in the US, and in the west generally, is strictly verboten by the speech police.
He also slammed the U.S. low fertility rate saying ‘if we continue to abort our babies and import a replacement for them in the form of young violent men, we are supplanting our culture, our civilization.’
At multiple points in the interview he uses the phrase ‘Western Civilization’ which he seems to define as white America.
The two touched upon the theory of the Great Replacement – which is the idea that mass migration such as from Muslim-majority countries, could lead to the extinction of white European culture and identity.
King called it ‘slow-motion cultural suicide’.
The Great Replacement is a term used by anti-Muslim European networks who believe migrants and refugees are leading to the Islamification of Europe.
King, like Trump, is so vilified by the Daily Mail because he gives voice to sensible Europeans’ greatest fears and what they know in their hearts is true.
Readers, remember our enemies have no power when you take away their power to use words to silence you.
Racist, homophobe, islamophobe, white nationalist, whatever, are just words. Laugh and walk away.
Yesterday, the migrants numbering between 1,600 and 2,000, chanting “We have rights,” crossed the border from Honduras into Guatemala with the intention of illegally crossing in to Mexico.
Yikes! the caravan is made up of mostly young men! It looks just like the European invasion!
Just a reminder to all, these are not refugees.
(See my most recent discussionabout the misuse of the word ‘refugee.’)
They are mostly economic migrants, but the Leftwing Open Borders advocates will say they are seeking asylum from persecution for their race, religion, political view, and will call them refugees.
If that is the case, they are required to ask for asylum in the first safe country they enter.
I know you are saying as you read this that Mexico isn’t safe, but indeed it is considered so for the purpose of asylum. It will be a real test of the new Mexican government if they permit the movement of the Honduran caravan across Mexico and to the US border.
Just as Elizabeth Warren’s Indian heritage stunt isn’t good for the Dems three weeks out from the mid term elections, neither is this migrant caravan should it reach our border.
It will just be one more argument in favor of President Trump’s hardline immigration stance.
Hundreds of Honduran migrants surged over the Guatemalan border under a broiling sun Monday hoping to make it to new lives in the United States, far from the poverty and violence of their home nation.
Police stopped the migrants at a roadblock outside Esquipulas for several hours in the afternoon, but the travelers refused to return to the border and were eventually allowed to pass.
They arrived in town as night fell, exhausted by the day’s heat, hobbling on blistered feet. Few carried food and some local residents began to organize to help feed them. Some migrants asked for money, others passing a bakery were handed bread.
They crossed from Honduras and into Guatemala yesterday.
Earlier in the day, the migrants arrived at the Guatemalan border singing the Honduran national anthem, praying and chanting, “Yes, we can.” The group estimated at 1,600 or more defied an order by the Guatemalan government that they not be allowed to pass.
“We have rights,” the migrants shouted.
[….]
Local media coverage prompted hundreds more to join, and Dunia Montoya, a volunteer assisting the migrants, estimated Sunday that the group had grown to at least 1,600 people. Police gave their own estimate of around 2,000 on Monday. [Find out who the “volunteer” works for and find out who organized the march. Could it be the Catholic Church?—-ed]
The caravan formed a day after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home and not put their families in danger by undertaking the risky journey to the United States.
In April, President Donald Trump threatened in April to withdraw foreign aid from Honduras and countries that allowed transit for a similar caravan that set out from the Central American country. That caravan dwindled as the group approached the U.S. border, with some giving up along the way and others splitting off to try to cross on their own.
Historian Dana Frank, an expert on human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras, said the caravan could have political implications in the United States less than a month before the midterm elections.
