In Trump’s new mixed bag, most of the eight countries are not significantly represented in the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).
Editor: By the way, I assume you saw that the Supreme Court has cancelled arguments on the previous travel ban, here. I don’t know yet what that means for the refugee portion of the case.
Other than Somalia, Syria and Iran we don’t see many refugees from the other five countries. And, you should know, for Iran, that the vast majority of those we admit as refugees are Christians and other religious minorities.
As I remarked the other day, we do admit very large numbers of questionable refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma (Rohingya Muslims) and some additional African countries who will not be getting the extra scrutiny.
I checked Wrapsnet just now to see how many refugees we have admitted between FY07 and FY17 from the 8 ‘travel ban’ countries. But, don’t forget that many others from these countries get in to the US through other legal programs as well as illegally.
Refugees admitted FY07-FY17 (to date). Here is what I found:
Chad (182)
Iran (38,236 but only 405 of those are Muslims while over 20,000 are Christians)
Libya (12)
N. Korea (203)
Syria (21,110)
Yemen (146)
Somalia (67,158)
Venezuela (13)
The new vetting rules may have a large impact on Somalis entering the US….
Check out here where all those Somalis have been planted. Minnesota tops the list with 8,529. But that doesn’t tell the whole Minnesota story as Somalis resettled elsewhere move in large numbers as what the USRAP calls “secondary migrants” to MN.
Alaska welcomed 294, but Hawaii (the state that loves diversity) welcomed zero!
Throughout 2016 we reported on some of the proposed new “welcoming” communities that the Obama team was quietly targeting as new resettlement sites.
When you look through the guide, you will see that many ‘stakeholders’ in your community were engaged in planning for refugees even while you, the taxpayer, was kept in the dark
One of those was Pittsfield, Mass (here and here).
Today we have news that since the number of paying clients (aka refugees) was declining under Trump, some of those sites are being cancelled. One is Pittsfield. See Feds drop plan for Pittsfield,here.
And, recently we reported that the new Episcopal church office in Charleston, WV was also cancelled.
But, I did see that, although the Rutland, Vermont pro-refugee-welcoming mayor lost his election bid, the arrogant contractor USCRI has applied for 100Syrians and Iraqis again for FY18 (they likely won’t get them, but it makes for a media opportunity to bash Trump when they don’t).
For new readers, (assuming the DOS is keeping it up to date), go hereto see the available resettlement sites. They can resettle within 100 miles of each location.
For all of you trying to stay on top of the issue—-which towns are targeted AND WHY!—here is the Dept. of State’s New Site Guide introduced by none-other than Laurence Bartlett.
Note that it is undated, but I believe it was prepared in anticipation of an expansion of the program toward the end of the Obama Administration (an expansion that obviously didn’t happen).
Bartlett was the headliner at the recent Heritage Foundation event: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/09/14/is-the-heritage-foundation-selling-you-out-on-unus-refugee-admissions-policy/
One of the things in the document is the list of items that the local contracting agency must have available for its new clients—right down to the towels and kitchen utensils. So, if you get word that your local contractor isn’t meeting its contractual obligations, raise a red flag!
And, take note of the fact that in about 90 days the resettlement agency contractor is done with them, and they are in your town or city’s care.
For new readers, here are the nine major contractors which receive compensation on a per-head basis for each refugee they place in your town:
Yesterday I said that it is time for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to add one important detail to every press release or news story where they lecture us (or Donald Trump) about humanitarianism, about social justice, about “welcoming the stranger.”
That important missing piece of information is how much of your money (not freely given) goes to them directly from the US Treasury.
Thanks to reader Joanne for pointing us to recent audited financial reports for the Bishops, here. And, specifically the most recent oneavailable.
As you look at the numbers, don’t miss the millions going to the Bishops for the Unaccompanied Alien Children!
For fun I went back to the 2010 report for comparison. Wow!
During Obama’s time in office they went from $58 million to $95 million!
You need to know too, that individual Catholic Charities (usually through the local diocese) are also getting money separately from the feds for many activities. Use USASpending.govto research your local “charities.”
As we have said repeatedly: refugee resettlement is a business!
So why is that significant? Never in the history of the Refugee Act of 1980 has a CEILING been breached. That happened because the US Supreme Court unconstitutionally changed refugee lawwhen it set exceptions to its concurrence that Trump did have the legal right to cap refugee numbers.
As we wait for the Presidential determination for FY18, I thought you might like to see how many refugees we have as of this morning and where they went. We broke through the 50,000 ceiling in July. 2,282 have been added since.
Rumors were rampant that President Donald Trump would announce on Friday the Presidential “determination” on how many refugees could be admitted (it is a CEILING number) to the US beginning on October 1 (for FY18). Nothing happened.
Just looking around this morning I see that mid-week last week Senators Dick Durban and Dianne Feinstein (founding members of the ‘Jihad caucus’ who wanted 65,000 Syrians in addition to the usual 60-70,000 from other regions in Obama’s final full year), sent a letter to Trump asking him when this years’ ‘consultation’ could be expected.
The House and Senate, for the last 10 years (the years I have followed the program), could not have cared less about what the law said were the steps required in the consultation and Presidential determination (I outlined those stepshere recently).
LOL! But all that changes now that Trump occupies the White House.
It is maddening to know something about an issue and see the complete disdain by elected officials for the laws they themselves wrote!
Sighing…
Sohere is the Reuters story about Dick and Dianne getting all uppity about something (the legal process) they didn’t care about during Obama’s years.
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two high-ranking Democrats in the U.S. Senate asked the Trump administration on Wednesday to provide information on any plans to cut refugee admissions to historically low levels, saying Congress had not yet been consulted as required by law.
Suddenly Dick and Dianne are concerned with the steps laid out in the Refugee Act of 1980 for determining each years refugee admission ceiling.
“To date, we have not received a proposed refugee admissions plan for fiscal year 2018 or received any cooperation from your agencies in scheduling the refugee consultation,” Senator Richard Durbin and Senator Dianne Feinstein wrote in a letter seen by Reuters.
The letter was sent on Wednesday to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.
“We request that the proposed refugee admissions report be transmitted to Congress promptly and that we immediately begin the process of scheduling the consultation,” the letter said.
By law, the president is required to consult with members of Congress about the number of refugee admissions before the start of each fiscal year, which is Oct. 1.
Since the U.S. Refugee Act was signed in 1980, the ceiling has never been set below 67,000 and in recent years has hovered around 70,000 to 80,000. The number of refugees actually admitted to the country can fall below the cap, and dropped to its lowest level in the fiscal year after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks with only around 27,000 admitted. [No one went bonkers on Bush—ed]
Pay attention to the RAISE Act.
The proposed RAISE Act, which the White House has endorsed, calls for lower immigration overall and a statutory limit on the number of refugees offered permanent residency to no more than 50,000.
Reports that the 2018 cap might be set below 50,000 raised alarm bells for Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Final thought: Trump goes to the UN this week. The federal refugee contractors have been yammering for 75,000 refugees for FY18. Any number less than that announced this week will surely bring out screaming protesters and media hysteria. IMHO Trump should have announced numbers weeks ago (assuming they will be low!).
As you know, in light of American homelessness from Harvey and Irma, we have been advocating for a suspension of the programor at least a many-months delay in making a Presidential Determination.
Yesterday 
