Refugee numbers "plummet" under Trump (so far)

03/26/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I laughed this morning as I noticed more new articles from all over the place using the word “plummet” in their headlines, a sure sign that talking points have gone out (probably from the Refugee Council USA) and the media lemmings have followed the instructions.

Trump and Pompeo — I have no idea how the numbers might go up or down as Mike Pompeo takes the reins at the US State Department. But, you know, we will be watching!

(I’ll report on the 6 month of FY18 numbers a week from today, but it looks like Trump’s State Department is on target to reach just over 20,000 this year far below the admission ceiling of 45,000 the Trump Admin set back in September. However, don’t forget that paying clients are coming in as SIVs from Iraq and Afghanistan to help put money in the contractors’*** pockets.)

This is the one today that got me thinking about that ‘P’ word:

Refugee resettlements in U.S., Maine plummet under Trump administration

Here are more:

San Diego County refugee numbers plummet following Trump’s block on arrivals

Trump lifts refugee ban, but admissions still plummet, data shows

Refugee admissions to U.S. plummet in 2017

Number of refugees moving to Buffalo plummets under Trump administration

Refugee Resettlement Agency Revenues Plummet Under Trump

Refugee Admissions Plummet to 1,242 in First Month of FY 2018

Refugee Resettlements Plummet Under Trump

Resettlement of Somalis in Minnesota plummets in wake of Trump policies

You get my drift! LOL! Even I have used the word to describe resettlement numbers since President Trump arrived in the White House.

US Refugee admissions plummet even further

Other words that are being used include: “tumble,” “dip,” and “dropped dramatically,” but none have the ring or impact of “plummet.” ***Update*** Add “drastic decline.”
Note to Minnesotans!
When I looked at the admission numbers (Wrapsnet) for this month so far—March 1 to today—I was surprised to see that MN was the top receiving state for refugees. Now remember this is only for a few weeks, but the top receiving states are usually California, Texas, Ohio, Florida, New York (big population states).
In the last 3 weeks MN ‘welcomed’ 124 new Minnesotans (only 10 were Somalis). The largest group were Burmese (78). When I do my monthly accounting a week from today I’m going to check to see how many Burmese Muslims (Rohingya) we are bringing in now. So far, our refugee flow from Burma has been dominated by Christian and other religious minorities, but the Rohingya numbers are picking up.

***For new readers, these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee resettlement contractors that work with over 300 subcontractors around the country to place refugees in your towns. They also are leading community organizing (political agitation) groups that outright oppose Donald Trump and his policies on, not just refugees, but all types of immigration including the fact that they support amnesty for illegal aliens.
Reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program is not possible until they are stripped of their power which you provide through your tax dollars.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.

Jewish groups disagree about Muslim migration to US; internal pact revealed

03/25/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It seems that the fifty or so Jewish groups operating in the US have a secret pact to not speak ill of each other. However, that agreement seems to be coming apart as complaints involving the more conservative Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) have been filed.
One of those complaints appears (no one is revealing complete details) to involve a possible complaint by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) which is not happy with ZOA pointing out HIAS’s financial incentive to admit and resettle more Muslim ‘refugees’ to America.

Hetfield in DC synagogue — Mark Hetfield, CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society speaking at one of many anti-Trump events he was involved in. See more on the schism among American Jews here: http://jewishexponent.com/2017/11/08/groups-see-surge-activism-since-2016-election/

(HIAS, for new readers, is one of the nine major federal resettlement contractors*** placing refugees as secretively as they can into your towns and cities. HIAS played a major role in filing lawsuits against the Trump Administration’s so-called Muslim ban.)
First here is information from Forward in a story entitled:

Presidents Conference’s Secret Rules Bar Jewish Groups From Attacking Each Other

(President refers to the Presidents of each of the Jewish advocacy groups.)

Top American Jewish organizations agreed last year to adhere to rules that ban them from attacking each other, the Forward has learned.

The rules, which regulate the discourse of American Jewish leaders, have never been publicized, and are unknown to the vast majority of the constituents of the organizations that have agreed to abide by them. First written in 1995, they were quietly revamped in early 2017.

All of the fifty-odd Jewish groups that belong to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations are subject to the rules, which now ban “insults, ad hominem attacks, and name calling” against the Presidents Conference or its member organizations, and statements that are “false, inaccurate or unfairly exaggerated.”

Alleged violations of the rules are referred to a committee that has the power to recommend that organizations guilty of serial violations be expelled from the Presidents Conference. The membership and procedures of that committee, which also were updated last year, have never been made public.

At least four alleged infractions of the rules are currently pending before the committee, the Forward has learned. Those four all involve the Zionist Organization of America, a hawkish pro-Israel group, which is the subject of two of the complaints and has filed two more.

“I criticize other organizations all the time,” said Mort Klein, the ZOA’s president. “You just can’t lie, and you can’t say don’t support them. You can’t call names.”

[….]

The Presidents Conference did not respond to a request for its current governing documents. It also did not respond to questions about what complaints are currently pending before the tribunal, and whether the tribunal had ever acted against a member organization.

[….]

According to one person active in the Presidents Conference, both the Jewish refugee aid organization HIAS and the Anti-Defamation League currently have complaints that have long been pending against the ZOA. The ZOA’s Klein told the Forward that his group has brought its own complaints against the ADL and Ameinu, a progressive Zionist organization.

None of the organizations would describe the content of their complaints. But that they relate to the ZOA is not surprising, given the organization’s willingness to publicly attack its colleagues. In a letter to the editor published in the Forward in 2017, Klein suggested that there was a “profit motive” behind the HIAS’s opposition to President Trump’s Muslim ban.

“Some refugee resettlement groups, such as HIAS, which have invoked ‘morality’ arguments….have been receiving millions of dollars of government grants to resettle refugees,” Klein wrote.

HIAS would not say whether the January 2017 letter, or some other public statement by the ZOA, was the subject of its complaint to the committee.

“I do not want to prejudice the proceedings in any way by commenting before the process has run its course, which I hope will be soon,” said Mark Hetfield, HIAS’s president and CEO.

More here.
The letter and the allegations against HIAS:

hetfield-at-wh — Here is Hetfield again protesting against the President. Hetfield pulls down an annual salary of over $350,000. Where is Congress? Cut their federal funding! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/03/05/dear-donald-give-bibi-a-gift-today-cut-federal-funding-to-hias/

This is a portion of the 2017 ‘Letter to the Editor’ by Morton Klein (supporting President Trump) that seems to have Hetfield steamed:

…. under Jewish law, someone with a potential “profit motive” to favor a particular position is in no position to judge. Some refugee resettlement groups, such as HIAS, which have invoked “morality” arguments to promote admitting poorly vetted refugees have been receiving millions of dollars of government grants to resettle refugees.

There is also no moral equivalence between Trump’s executive order and Franklin Delano Roosevelt slamming the doors on Jews trying to escape from Nazi Europe. The 1930s Jews posed no terror threat to the U.S., were in imminent danger of annihilation, and had nowhere else to go. By contrast, immigrants from the seven countries of concern are infiltrated by terrorists, are often already in Turkey or Jordan where there is no imminent danger, and have 50 other Muslim nations that can be pressured to accept them. (ZOA also favors safe zones in the Middle East.)

The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes survey (2009) found that over 90% of Muslims in surveyed majority Muslim nations held strongly unfavorable (anti-Semitic) attitudes towards Jews. Bringing more Jew-haters into the U.S., who will join surging vicious anti-Semitic activities on college campuses and the anti-Israel Congressional lobby, is dangerous and immoral.

More here.
Our complete Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society archive is here. HIAS is very close to the SPLC, by the way.

*** These (below) are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors and I say all of them have a profit motive (including Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, etc) to resettle more refugees including Muslim refugees.
And, I think one of the greatest insults to taxpayers is that these same groups, which are paid by us to take care of refugees, have become super-sized Leftwing community organizing and agitating groups. HIAS is the leader in attacking Trump!
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.

Venezuelans are not refugees, but you will be told they are!

03/25/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but people on the move because they need work and food (or their climate is changing some), or fear crime in their own countries are not legitimate refugees requiring resettlement.

Venezualans into Brazil — Venezuelans pour into Brazil. Photo: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brazil-declares-state-of-emergency-on-venezuela-border-over-migrant-influx-52fnsb7wg

By the internationally understood definition, a legitimate refugee must be able to show a credible fear of persecution—that they will be persecuted in their home country due to their race, religion, political persuasion and so forth.
The No Borders Left has for decades been trying to blur the definition suggesting that everyone moving for any reason is a refugee when the vast majority around the world are economic migrants.
Because the socialist government, in the once-rich Venezuela, has so ruined the country that people are starving is not a reason for refugee resettlement protection, nevertheless, watch for demands for resettlement as the crisis deepens.
Here Bloomberg headlines a story earlier this month with this choice of words:

Venezuelans, Go Home: Xenophobia Haunts Refugees

The story focuses on how Panamanians don’t want (poor and hungry) Venezuelans flooding in. Besides the word ‘refugees,’ you will be hearing that word Xenophobia more often too—-like in South Africa when the black South Africans are violent against their fellow black Africans. LOL! They can’t call it racism.
Xenophobia is the cool word, but what it really means is that humans are tribal, and horror-of-horrors no one wants to admit that!
Here are a few snips from the Bloomberg story with that headline:

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing economic collapse are crowding into cities and makeshift camps in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and throughout the region, the largest mass emigration in modern Latin American history. The resulting friction mirrors that in nations from the U.S., where immigration pervades the national debate, to Germany, where war refugees have upended politics, to Italy, where an anti-migrant party made stunning gains Sunday.

In Panama, the sympathy that greeted early arrivals from Venezuela, many wealthy professionals, is giving way to fear and resentment of the poor and desperate. It is evinced by outbreaks of nationalistic insults, harassment and even violence.

[….]

Venezuela’s slump since socialist autocrat President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013 is the deepest in the Americas in recent history. Oil output, the economy’s mainstay, has plunged as the state producer runs out of money — and as Maduro imprisons its officials and replaces them with military men. Hyperinflation has made the currency worthless, and malnutrition is now endemic.

Almost 2 million Venezuelans are living outside the country.

Here is where they are:

venezuelans to US

Much more here.
I haven’t been following the Venezuelan issue and wondered if there was a push for Temporary Protected Status for those in the US, and sure enough there was such a push last summer (even Senator Marco Rubio was pushing it), but I can only assume the Trump Admin is not entertaining it.
I have a little-used category on South America. This post will be archived there and I expect more news will be coming from that region of the world as time goes on.
Since Brazil is being overrun by Venezuelans will they be so eager to take in more Syrians?
Endnote: I wonder if the SPLC hate list creators will create a new hate category (in addition to racists and Islamophobes) for xenophobes? For example, do you remember a few weeks ago when Somalis were fighting with African Americans (tribalism!) in a Minneapolis high school? Did the SPLC refer to the Somalis as xenophobes? What a dilemma for the SPLC—two of their favorite protected groups hate on each other!

GAO: Huge numbers of Special Immigrant Visa holders not finding work

03/23/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But a big problem, says the Government Accountability Office , is that neither the US State Department or the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS are doing much to track the outcomes of those admitted to the US from Iraq and Afghanistan who supposedly worked for us as interpreters.

I told you here recently that the number admitted to the US from those two violent countries is pushing 70,000 in the last ten years.
As Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders they are treated as full-fledged refugees with all the welfare benefits other refugees receive.
We have been told that the resettlement contractors*** are relying on these paying clients to keep federal dollars flowing to their budgets as the refugee flow they hoped for is not materializing.
Some members of Congress must have requested this GAO study because problems are obviously brewing with this portion of our ‘welcome’ to Middle Eastern Muslims. I did not read the whole report, here, but it seems that there are some pretty disillusioned SIVs who thought they would have good jobs and decent housing when they got here.
Here are a few snips from the summary:
Not exactly a bombshell title:

AFGHAN AND IRAQI SPECIAL IMMIGRANTS: More Information on Their Resettlement Outcomes Would Be Beneficial

What GAO Found

Since fiscal year 2011, about [about?—ed] 13,000 Afghan and Iraqi nationals (excluding family members) have resettled in the United States under special immigrant visas (SIV), but limited data on their outcomes are available from the Department of State (State) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). State collects data on SIV holders’ resettlement outcomes once—90 days after they arrive. GAO’s analysis of State’s data from October 2010 through December 2016 showed that the majority of principal SIV holders—those who worked for the U.S. government—were unemployed at 90 days, including those reporting high levels of education and spoken English.

Screenshot (313) — Very high unemployment rate at 90 days. Why is 90 days important? That is when their resettlement contractor is done with them and has moved on to the next batch of paying clients (aka refugees). By 90 days the SIV is expected to be self-sufficient. BTW, don’t you wonder who the 1,760 “interpreters” without “good spoken English” are?

GAO continues…

Stakeholders [must be referring to the resettlement contractors—ed] GAO interviewed reported several resettlement challenges, including capacity issues in handling large numbers of SIV holders, difficulties finding skilled employment, and SIV holders’ high expectations.

Officials from local resettlement agencies in Northern Virginia reported capacity challenges for their agencies and the community due to the large increase of SIV holders. In almost all of GAO’s focus groups with principal SIV holders, participants expressed frustration at the need to take low-skilled jobs because they expected that their education and prior work experience would lead to skilled work. [You can bet they aren’t going to the slaughterhouse jobs where contractors like to place those in their care.—-ed]

State and HHS have taken steps to address some resettlement challenges. For example, in 2017 State placed restrictions on where SIV holders could resettle and HHS announced a new grant to support career development programs for SIV holders, refugees, and others.

In addition, State provides information to prospective SIV holders about resettlement. However, the information is general, and lacks detail on key issues such as housing affordability, employment, and available government assistance. Providing such specifics could lead to more informed decisions by SIV holders on where to resettle and help them more quickly adapt to potential challenges once in the United States. [I don’t think that GAO knows that the SIVs original resettlement location is not chosen by the refugees, but by the State Department in conjunction with contractors*** as they bid for bodies (aka paying clients).—ed]

In light of so many disillusioned and unemployed SIVs, I sure hope that someone is reporting that news to others in the pipeline on their way to America!

Why the discrepancy in the numbers?

I wondered if GAO is downplaying the numbers on purpose…. were they as shocked as we are to find these enormous numbers?
In the summary, GAO talks about 13,000 SIVs since 2011, excluding family members, but in the full report they describe the real numbers we have placed in your towns and cities.
And, rather than saying “over 60,000”, they could have said closer to 70,000! As I reported early this month, using data readily available at the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center (Wrapsnet), we admitted from FY2008-right up to my post on March 8th, the numbers as follows:

Iraq: 18,084

Afghanistan: 49,358

Total to March 8th: 67,442
When I went to the full report they say this (below) on Page 1, but once again use the word “about.” They do clarify one point: “about 20,000” are the people who worked for us or on behalf of us, the remaining, over 40,000! are their family members.

Afghan and Iraqi nationals who were employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan or Iraq and have experienced ongoing serious threats as a consequence of such employment, or who worked directly with the U.S. Armed Forces or under chief of mission authority as a translator or interpreter, may apply for a special immigrant visa (SIV) to the United States.

Upon securing a visa, the principal SIV holder and his or her eligible dependents may resettle in the United States and are granted lawful permanent resident status upon admission into the United States. Since fiscal year 2008, over 60,000 individuals—about 20,000 principal SIV holders and their families—have been admitted under SIVs and received federal resettlement assistance upon arrival.

SIV holders are authorized to receive resettlement assistance from the Departments of State (State) and Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as federal public benefits, to the same extent and for the same periods of time as refugees.

***These are the nine federal contractors working with the US State Department to place the SIVs and their families. Although GAO seems to have been fixated on how poorly the State Department and ORR are keeping track of the SIVs and their progress toward assimilation, it seems to me that the contractors should come in for more blame if their charges are doing so poorly.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.

German Chancellor Merkel still insists Islam belongs in Germany

03/23/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, she continues to defend her decision to admit a million or so, mostly fake, refugees to the country. I hope the historians of Western Civilization out there are writing this down (especially since it will be Muslim historians writing in the next century if this keeps up).

Invasion of Europe news…..

From Quartz:

Merkel insists Islam is part of Germany in the first speech of her new term

She’s been chancellor of Germany for 12 years, reduced to a caretaker for the past six months until she could form a new government. Today (March 21), Angela Merkel gave the first speech of her latest term to parliament, addressing the controversial topic of migrants and their place in German society.

GERMANY-EUROPE-MIGRANTS — Merkel v. Seehofer: What will historians say about them?

The chancellor directly contradicted her new interior minister—an old foe when it comes to the topic of refugees—Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union. Seehofer sparked a furor last week when he told the Bild newspaper that “Islam does not belong in Germany.”

“There is no question that our country is historically Christian and Jewish,” Merkel said.“It is also true that Islam has in the meanwhile become part of Germany.” She acknowledged, however, that some Germans find that hard to accept.

[….]

Merkel said the atmosphere in Germany had become “polarized,” and the refugee crisis of recent years had challenged the country “in an unprecedented way.” She noted that Turkish and Italian immigrants had played a vital role in the rebuilding of post-war Germany and that their families were part of mainstream life.

About 4.5 million Muslims live in Germany, and the majority rejects radicalism, the chancellor said.

Unusually for Merkel, she admitted that in retrospect, her initial hope that the chaos of the war in Syria wouldn’t harm Germany was naïve. It soon became clear that the country wasn’t prepared for an influx of displaced people, she said, describing the taking in of more than a million refugees was a necessary “humanitarian exception.”

More here.
My complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive is here (it goes back many years). My posts on Germany are here.