2,305 refugees admitted to US since Trump EO announced on 1/27

02/11/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, since October 1, 2016 (the first day of fiscal year 2017) we are up to 34,430—still time for the Trump Administration to cap entry for this year at less than 50,000 (my suggestion is 35,000).

I’m glad to see so many news outlets now tracking refugee numbers, something not done until the last year or so. (You will see some slight discrepancies in numbers depending on what parameters are entered at Wrapsnet and what time of day the reporter accessed the State Department data base.)
Here is what I have this morning:
Since President Trump’s Executive Order on the evening of 1/27, the State Department and its contractors have hustled and placed 2,305 refugees. (Remember that although the ‘ban’ has been stymied by court wrangling, the 50,000 ceiling, a reduction from Obama’s proposed 110,000, stays in effect.)
Of the 2,305, 1,051 come from the countries that were included in the ban as follows:

Iraq (341)

Iran (115)

Somalia (156)

Sudan (37)

Syria (402) (400 of the Syrians are Muslims and only 2 Christians)

Libya (0)

Yemen (0)

(We rarely bring refugees from those last two countries anyway)

Total: 1,051

Religions?

An Indonesia policeman distributes used clothes to migrants believed to be Rohingya inside a shelter in Lhoksukon, Indonesia's Aceh Province May 11, 2015. Nearly 600 migrants thought to be Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshis were rescued from at least two wooden boats stranded off the coast of Indonesia's northern Aceh province, authorities said on Sunday. REUTERS/Roni Bintang — It defies all common sense to believe Rohingya boat people can be security screened. Story and photo: http://www.thanhniennews.com/region/hundreds-of-refugees-arrive-in-malaysia-indonesia-after-thai-crackdown-52841.html

One thing you need to know is that all of those coming from places like Iran and Iraq are not Muslims, some are Christians and other minorities.
But the total number of Muslims in the group of 2,305 is 1,022.
In addition to those countries above, we admitted Muslim refugees from the following countries: Afghanistan, Burma, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan and Palestine.
In fact 19 of the 87 Burmese we admitted are Muslims. These are probably the Rohingya boat people who went illegally to places like Malaysia, and I maintain cannot be thoroughly vetted any better than Syrians or Somalis.
This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’

Dept. of State bringing refugees in at furious rate

02/09/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

President Trump could nip this in the bud by resetting refugee levels for this year from the 50,000 (he had already declared) down to 35,000 because the Refugee Act of 1980 gives him the legal right to do it.

That 50,000 is not a goal, it is only a ceiling not to be exceeded!

On January 28th, President Trump signed the Executive Order that called for a 120-day pause in the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program (RAP). That was before Washington State Judge James Robart, in a legally questionable ruling, halted the order a week later.
But, as CNN reported here, that 50,000 re-set of the refugee admissions ceiling was not addressed in the ban.

… a provision of the Trump administration’s order that was not overturned in Friday’s court ruling — a provision capping total refugee admissions at 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year, which ends October 1.

tillerson-and-trump — Busy, busy bureaucrats working against the clock and against the bosses?

Since the Judge stalled the ban causing a legal wrangle of epic proportions, the Trump State Department has been rushing refugees in as fast as they can.
This morning we see (at Wrapsnet) that 1,618 have come in since Trump first signed an EO to pause the refugee program for 120-days—and less than a week since Judge Robart’s ruled on a portion of the EO.
Of the 1,618, the following came from countries the Administration was particularly concerned about. And, remember, although there were 7 countries of concern (90 day pause from 6 of them) Syria was to be halted indefinitely:

Iran (84)

Iraq (151)

Somalia (68)

Sudan (24)

Syria (248)

No refugees came from Libya or Yemen, however, 78 came from Afghanistan in less than a week—a country I maintain should have been included from day one. (This notion that the 7 countries targeted had already been identified by the Obama Administration so, we are told, the Trump team thought they had some sort of PR coup with the media was a dumb idea. The media hardly mentioned it.)
Below is where the 248 Syrians were placed over the last week (since the rogue Judge’s decision). From Wrapsnet:
screenshot-269

screenshot-270 — New York now takes the grand prize! Alaska and Hawaii got zero.

Another way to skin the cat!
As we said above, not effected by the ban was President Trump resetting the overall resettlement levels at 50,000 for FY17 (too high in our opinion as we said here). As of this morning we are at 33,743.
To stop this rush he could reset the level to say 35,000 (a reasonable level to allow those with tickets to get here, but stop the rush (by the State Dept.) to hand out more taxpayer-funded airline tickets).

By resetting the overall ceiling again, down to 35,000, it would effectively stop refugees/immigrants from these terror hotspot countries. (Very few get in to the US LEGALLY from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Somalia through other programs other than the UN/US RAP anyway).
Endnote: Thanks to all of you who told me RRW was mentioned by Rush Limbaugh yesterday! I heard it too! He mentioned our post on the 100 Syrians rushed in on Sunday and Monday.

This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’

Will Trump Department of State be more forthcoming in response to FOIA requests?

02/09/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“This is an opportunity for the Trump State Department to come clean and clean up this refugee welfare program.”

(Tom Fitton, President, Judicial Watch)

We sure hope so!
It is hard to get public information from the US State Department as Judicial Watch found out during this past year.

So, don’t miss this news about Judicial Watch (the government watchdog organization that first revealed the presence of Hillary Clinton’s home server) filing suit over failed public information requests involving federally-funded travel loans given to refugees.
The refugees are supposed to repay the taxpayer for the cost of their travel to the US, but those same nine non-profit agencies that place them in your towns do the collecting. And, for their work we pay them 25% of the loan dollars they collect. (See amount USCCB received below for one year.)
For years the DOS has been mum about the rate of return to the US Treasury of these and other loans to refugees.
Here is Judicial Watch earlier this week:

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State seeking records on the number of “Refugee Travel Loans” issued by State’s Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration to the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration from 2010 to the present. Judicial Watch is also seeking the number of loans defaulted on and the amount of money written off on each defaulted loan. The suit was filed on January 24, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:17-cv-00157)).

Judicial Watch filed the suit after the State Department failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on February 5, 2016, seeking the following:

All records reflecting the number of Refugee Travel Loans furnished by the State Department’s Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) per year; the number of travel loans that are defaulted upon per year; and the amount of money written off per defaulted loan.

JW also asked for information from the Department of Health and Human Services about special Microenterprise loans given to refugees to start businesses, etc.
Continue reading, here. Then this:

“The State Department has stonewalled our request for refugee loans and associated taxpayer losses for a year – an unlawful delay that screams ‘cover up’,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This is an opportunity for the Trump State Department to come clean and clean up this refugee welfare program.”

To citizen investigators: When you are looking at financial documents of the nine major refugee contractors, you will often see the special line item for the amount of money they get from the federal government (from you) for collecting the travel loan reimbursement from the poor refugees.
Here is an example from the 2014 Annual Report (page 10) of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration Fund. See that the “travel loan collection fee” for that year was over $3.4 million.

screenshot-266

So, while we are at it, please notice that 97% of the the Bishop’s funding in this year was provided by you! (Add travel loan collection fee and federal grants.) Not even $3 million came from private Christian charity.

It is because these supposedly non-governmental groups are being so heavily subsidized by our tax dollars we have every right to transparency about how our money is being spent!

Where is Congress? The Refugee Act of 1980 must be reformed!

News roundup February 8, 2017

02/08/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editor: Because the issue continues to be hot (and I’m getting so many new readers)—swamped with e-mails, facebook messages, phone calls to return, media requests to respond to, and comments to posts etc.—I am taking some time today to clean up my mess.
Update: LOL! I am reading e-mails including hate mail. One, who hates Trump and me, sent his screed with one of those privacy notices at the bottom and reminded me that I was not permitted to post it. What a chicken!
round-up-time
The number of articles involving refugees is exploding! Here are just some from the last day or so for your reading ‘pleasure.’
And, btw, a request for information from a grassroots activist reminds me to remind you to see ‘FAQs! Finding stuff’ at the top of this page, click here. You can find a link to your state refugee coordinators, contact information for your city’s refugee resettlement contractors, and a link to a post about ‘ten things town needs to know’ among other useful information.
To all of my new readers, you might want to use our search window and enter your state’s name to see what we have written about it over the years. Also, if you want to see everything I have said on the Trump EO, see my category Trump Watch! by clicking here. My statement to reporters is here.

Below are ten articles, in no particular order of importance, to see today! (I may add to this list as the day goes on!)

Judicial watch files suit for refugee travel loans

Sen. Tom Cotton: Time to Cut Immigration Levels, Shift Focus to Helping American Citizens First

EU blocks refugees from Libya, somehow Trump is attacked

Expert: Refugee ‘Chain Migration’ Puts Foreign Labor First

Nonprofits Formally Take Over Federal Refugee Program in Texas

Another 22 refugees brave cold to illegally cross U.S.-Manitoba border

Fake news on Christian ‘refugee’ numbers

Trump proven right: Media spinning terror stories

100 Syrian Refugees Rush into Country After Seattle Judge Halts Trump Executive Order

White House Weighs Terrorist Designation for Muslim Brotherhood

Update:

Travel ban could mean layoffs for Lancaster, PA Church World Service

Christian Churches work to increase refugee resettlement in Arkansas

Refugee Resettlement Fraud Part IV: Refugee Vetting And The Trump EO

Quickie numbers check this morning, now up to 956 refugees since EO signed

02/07/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

100 Syrians rushed in to US between Sunday and today!

You will remember that the Trump Administration gave a reprieve to 872 refugees who were on the way to America as of the date (1/28/2017) of the President’s signing of the Executive order on refugees from all over the world.
Remember also that there is a 120-day pause of the whole Refugee Admissions Program (RAP) and Syrians were completely banned in that EO. (120 days is not long enough in my opinion)
rpcLogoSmall [Converted]
Then when the rogue Washington State judge effectively re-opened the pipeline for all classes of immigrants entering the US, the Dept. of State re-started the RAP (to the delight of the contractors who are paid by the head to place them).
I see this morning at Wrapsnet that we have now passed the 872 (reprieved number) mark and are up to 956 refugees having arrived since the EO was signed.
But, holy cow!
100 Syrians have been rushed in here between 2/5 (Sunday) and 2/7 (early this a.m.) according to data at Wrapsnet!
The bureaucrats at DOS are still running the show apparently! Imagine the hustling that must have gone on at the UN, at IOM and in the Department of State on Sunday getting these Syrians on planes!
Where did the 100 go?
screenshot-263

screenshot-264 — New York followed by Virginia are the top two receiving states.

This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’