I checked the numbers at Wrapsnet this morning and see that since I reported last on Wednesday (March 1) we had admitted 296 additional refugees.
The UN asked the US to help clear out their camps for the DR Congolese and as of today we admitted 37,913 in just over 3 years. 50 arrived since Wednesday.
Readers will recall that the US State Department notified its refugee resettlement contractors to expect the flow to stop on about March 3rd. Clearly it hasn’t stopped yet.
Of the 296 admitted since Wednesday, 105 were from four of the seven countries identified in the so-called “travel ban.”
None came in the last few days from Libya, Syria or Yemen (but readers should know that in the last few years only tiny numbers, if any, came from Libya or Yemen). But, it was a surprise to see that Syria was down to zero in the last couple of days.
The big winner in the gang of seven countries was Somalia which sent us a whopping 77 refugees since Wednesday.
Other big winners, among the usual sending countries, were Burma (97, 12 of those were Muslims) and 50 came from the DR Congo.
DR Congo! The UN said take 50,000 and we said yes, master!
Long time readers will remember that we promised the United Nations, here in 2013, to admit 50,000 from the DR Congo over 5 years. Only a small number of those are Muslims, but they represent some very traumatized women (with lots of children) who will require expensive mental health treatment,here. Their contribution to the US economy will surely be a negative one as we are clearly importing extreme poverty in this case.
I see that as of this morning we have admitted 37,913 from DR Congo since FY2013!
This is a prime example of a key reform we expect the Trump Administration to make. If we are going to admit some refugees….
We should decide which ‘refugees’ we take, not simply jump when the United Nations tells us to!
Did your state get Congolese? Here is a map from Wrapsnet showing where the DR Congolese were distributed since FY13:
If you can’t read Florida, it is 1,329. Alaska is 72 and Hawaii 0. A reminder: Wyoming is the only state that never started a refugee resettlement program.
The top three receiving states are Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina.
Tell President Trump to stop jumping when the UN tells us to help them clean out their refugee camps!
Endnote: I suspect the delay in the new travel ban announcement is that the State Department is waiting to clear the last refugees through airports world wide.
This post is filed in ourTrump Watch!category as well as ‘refugee statistics’and ‘where to find information.’
My DR Congo archive is here.
Yesterday, February 28th, was the end of the first 5 months of fiscal year 2017.
I checked the refugee admission numbers this morning (at Wrapsnet) and see that we admitted 37,026 refugees from all over the world since October 1, 2016. How low will they go for Fiscal Year 2018? In 6 months that determination will be made.
Two days ago we reportedthat 36,822 had arrived.
By two days from now (March 3), the flow should almost come to an end for now, although remember that President Trump has said 50,000 will be admitted by September 30th—a number that is too high in my opinion. It is obviously too late, but I had argued for 35,000.
I knew that for the time I’ve been writing this blog (since 2007), that 37,026 was much more than we had ever admitted in the first 5 months of a fiscal year, so I was able to go to this chart and confirm it.
If you live in one of over 100 resettlement sitesin the US, and felt that you were being swamped recently, you probably were!
37,026 is 7,834 more than the highest year below, and a whopping 24,782 more than the lowest year!
Here are the admission numbers for the first 5 months of the fiscal year going back to 2006:
2006: 16,287
2007: 12,244
2008: 14,224
2009: 22,809
2010: 29,192
2011: 25,680
2012: 18,581
2013: 28,078
2014: 26,925
2015: 26,717
2016: 22,827
Next big test for the Trump Administration!
In September, President Trump will make his ‘determination’ for the number (and regions of the world from which they will come) of refugees to be seeded in to your towns and cities in FY2018.
This post is filed in ourTrump Watch!category as well as ‘refugee statistics’and ‘where to find information.’
Ho hum! One more story about a federal resettlement subcontractor having to fire staff because this entire UN/US Refugee Admissions Program was so ill-conceived in the first place and because these supposed ‘religious’ charities became fat and happy on taxpayer dollars rather than raising private money for their “good works.” The Lutheran Center (LIRS headquarters) is a six-story structure constructed in 1999 on property owned by Baltimore’s historic Christ Lutheran Church. The building is located near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in the historic Federal Hill neighborhood, a charming area rich with history and an eclectic array of eateries and shopping venues. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/07/08/lutherans-may-be-operating-centers-for-unaccompanied-minors-in-your-state/
Here is the news from Charleston, South Carolina’s Post and Courier.
BTW, did you see the news about a town hall somewhere being opened with prayer and the Libs in the audience started shouting: “separation of church and state!” Well, where are they with the resettlement contractors? Where is the ACLU and its lawsuits claiming there should be a separation of church and state?
I digress, here is the news from South Carolina:
Refugee resettlement agency Lutheran Services Carolinas expects to layoff and reassign staff in the wake of President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order dramatically reducing the number of refugees who can enter the United States.
Federal courts have halted Trump’s order suspending the U.S. refugee admissions program. But the courts did not touch a provision of the order that slashed the cap on refugees from 110,000 to 50,000 this fiscal year. As of January 31, just under 40,000 refugees have been admitted to the U.S., including 28 in Charleston. [For the umpteenth time, there was no slashing in half! That 110,000 (ceiling!) was Obama’s last wish, nothing more! Average has been around 65,000 since 9/11.—ed]
Agencies such as Lutheran Services Carolinas, which resettles refugees in Charleston, Columbia and Raleigh, rely on federal money tied to each refugee they help resettle.
Yes! As I have been saying, it’s a kind of ponzi scheme built on ever-increasing numbers of refugees (paying clients!) being admitted to the US. Post and Couriercontinues….. LIRS CEO Hartke
Lutheran Services Carolinas is an affiliate of Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine national organizations*** working on behalf of the federal government to help resettle refugees. Linda Hartke, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, estimates between 70 and 80 positions so far have been cut at partner agencies across the country.
“We and all of the resettlement networks are looking at reductions of staff,” Hartke said. “There’s not funding to pay for staff if refugees aren’t arriving. There’s some work that needs to be continued, but if the arrivals are dropping by more than 50 percent, it’s not good stewardship of resources to try to maintain staff infrastructure.”
***Update*** Hartke to receive Maryland business award, here.
Now, let’s have a little look at LIRS financial situation….
Why does no mainstream media ever bother doing this?
First, see one of their pages at USA Spending. From 2008-2016 they received $358,862,898 of your money from the US Treasury. I’ve screenshot only 5 of 164 “transactions” here at USA Spending: https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?k=Lutheran%20Immigration%20and%20Refugee%20Service
This (below) is a page from the most recent Form 990 that I could find. Do you see that the federally-funded portion of their total revenue that year ($59,862,898) included $55,341,275 in federal grants and that loan servicing fee ($1,817,755) is likely the travel loan collection fee they receive from collecting money from refugees for their airfare (that was all your money too).
Thus 95% of their income comes from you—the American taxpayer!
Look at that paltry little bit of money they raised privately! http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2014/132/574/2014-132574854-0bc6c937-9.pdf Will any of the bigwigs in Baltimore see a pay cut or is Ms. Hartke preserving their resources at the top?
Is that good stewardship? I find it uncomfortable to report people’s salaries, and if this was a real non-profit group or a private business instead of a quasi-government agency, it would be none of our business what they pay their staff.
However, it isn’t a real non-profit group and since we pay the vast majority of their salaries, you should know what you pay them.
For comparison, go here to see what members of Congress make ($174,000 on average). Speaker of the House Paul Ryan makes less ($223,500) than Ms. Hartke! (You are paying for both of them!) http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2014/132/574/2014-132574854-0bc6c937-9.pdf So how many of you are crying for the contractors now?
For our complete archive on LIRS, click here.
***These are the nine federal refugee contractors:
In advance of a new EO supposedly coming out on Wednesday, checking the numbers this morning here are a few things I learned. Sec. of State Tillerson and Pres. Trump can still set the ceiling lower than 50,000! Total arrivals this fiscal year (which began on October 1, 2016) are at 36,822. Last time we checked on 2/23 we were at 36,637.
President Trump has set the ceiling for this fiscal year which ends on September 30th at 50,000 (a number we argue is not that low when one examines all of the post 9/11 years,see here. Bush’s lowest year was 39,554).
47% of the 36,822 are Muslim refugees of some stripe.
Here is how they break down:
Ahmadiyya: 130
Shiite: 2,152
Sunni: 8,659
Muslim (who apparently don’t designate a sect): 6,547
A couple of things that interested me in the numbers. First we are bringing in large numbers of Burmese Muslims now (Rohingya, I presume). 817 are recorded as from Burma. In reality we don’t know exactly where they came from. They could be from the Muslim country of Bangladesh. These are not our responsibility!
Then for Iraqis we admitted both sides of the warring factions: 1,472 are Shiites and 2,506 are Sunnis.
So, let me get this straight! From Iraq we must have Sunnis saying they are persecuted by Shiites and Shittes saying they are persecuted by Sunnis, and we bring them both to be resettled in your cities. How long before they go after each other on American soil?
So here (from Wrapsnet) is a map of where the 36,822were placed one day short of 5 months in to FY2017.
Wyoming remains the only state in the nation with no refugee program. Of course Washington, DC only gets a tiny number. Florida is 1,197. Alaska is 41 and Hawaii is 3.
Here are the top ten receiving states.
I repeat! Governor Abbott’s withdrawal of the state of Texas from the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program did not slow the flow to the state! If you want to help President Trump succeed, Texans need to focus their political activism on Senator John Cornyn as we explained here.
Did the Dems calculate that they need Hispanic voters more than Muslim voters?
Frankly I’ve been rooting for Rep. Keith Ellison to be the face of the Democratic National Committee. I think he would finally finish off the party.
The smooth Tom Perezis much more calculating, devious and dangerous. Perez was elected yesterday, and as I said on twitter the Hispanic beat out the Muslim for the face of the party….hmmmm!
Perez has been a longtime advocate for Open Borders who snookered Republicans in Maryland for many years.
I wrote probably 20 posts about him, here at my tea party blog shared with my friend Judy (when I had more time to write on subjects other than refugees).
He was most recently Obama’s Labor Secretary, but his years at Obama’s Justice Department saw him as an attack dog against states attempting to get voter ID laws in place. He vigorously ignored immigration law and saw it as his mission to weaken local police departments. I expect that AG Jeff Sessions will have to cope with Perez’s legacy there by rooting out lawyers installed by Perez.
Here are screenshots of just a couple of pages of posts atPotomac Tea Party Report:
Go here to learn more about new DNC chairman Thomas Perez. If anyone wants to write a lengthy expose’ on Perez, there is a lot of background information on those pages.
An afterthought: I have to laugh when I hear Democrat pundits say that Perez is a more mainstream Dem than is Ellison. Perez is every bit a Leftist as Ellison, just that he hides it better.
