Sen. Smith (R-OR) seeks to extend SSI benefits for refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

Hearings held yesterday in the Senate Select Committee on Aging were aimed at supporting legislation to expand and extend the program that allows senior citizen refugees to receive Social Security Income benefits.    Presently benefits are available for 7 years, but Senator Gordon H. Smith thinks that is not enough time for them to become full-fledged citizens.

“The SSI benefit is a lifeline for elderly and disabled refugees. To penalize them because of delays encountered through the bureaucratic process of becoming a citizen is unjust and inappropriate. Only by increasing the time limit before their SSI benefits expire will the United States help to fulfill its promise to this most vulnerable population.”

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Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal income supplement program designed to help aged, blind and disabled people, who have little or no income by providing cash to meet basic needs for food, clothing and shelter. Congress modified the SSI program to include a seven-year time limit on eligibility for refugees, those granted asylum and other humanitarian immigrants.

According to this article in Senior Journal  7000 refugees have already lost benefits and 16,000 may soon lose them if revisions to the law are not soon made.

Diversity Visas questioned by GAO, potential security risk

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Since we have been talking about security screening for refugees, and since the deadline for the annual “diversity lottery” is this Sunday,   I thought it might be a good time to remind readers that besides refugee resettlement there are many additional immigration programs administered by the US State Department.   This highly questionable one came under fire from the General Accounting Office this past fall because of its potential security risk.   This was written by James Pinkerton and published at the Houston Chronicle a couple of days ago:

A little-known immigration lottery that grants 50,000 visas a year poses a ”pervasive fraud risk” and could be used by terrorists with false documents to enter the U.S., according to federal auditors.

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Called the “diversity visa,” the program is designed to bring variety to the stream of immigrants legally entering the country. The deadline to apply for this year’s lottery is 11 a.m. Sunday, and it is open to citizens of 170 countries that sent fewer than 50,000 immigrants during the past five years, according to the U.S. State Department.

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But at six of 11 consular posts reviewed by Government Accountability Office investigators, officers found ”widespread” use of fake documents, including counterfeit birth and marriage certificates and passports, according to the agency’s report in September.

I had to laugh about the need to “bring variety to the stream of immigrants.”  We don’t have enough variety in the Refugee Resettlement program?   In  Appendix A of the 2005 Annual report to Congress there are 24 differant countries and regions listed from which we receive refugees.  A couple of those are listed only as former Soviet Union or Yugoslavia which actually represent many additional countries.   This “diversity visa” demonstrates the grip multiculturalism uber alles has on our sappy State Department.

Asst. Sec. of State Sauerbrey giving Louisville a pat on the back

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As we write this Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, is in Louisville, KY—the city that is luring refugees to help big business according to the Wall Street Journal.   We previously wrote about Louisville in a post entitled, “Is big business driving immigration?”   It sure looks like this ‘pat on the back’ visit is right in line with the thinking of her boss, President George Bush and the federally funded “church” refugee employment agencies, otherwise known as volags.

Assistant Secretary Sauerbrey will meet with newly resettled refugees and with officials of the city’s resettlement offices: Kentucky Refugee Ministries and Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services. Kentucky Refugee Ministries, Inc. is the refugee resettlement office in the state of Kentucky for two national church-based programs: The Episcopal Migration Ministries and Church World Service. Catholic Charities is an affiliate of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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In the last 12 months, Louisville has welcomed approximately 637 refugees from some 18 different countries, including Iraq.

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During her official visit, Assistant Secretary Sauerbrey also will meet Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson.

Read more here.

Further analysis of Iraqi refugee press conference at ‘Us or Them’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The blog Us or Them has made some additional good points on the lengthy press conference report that both Judy and I posted on earlier today.    One of his points is also one I’m wondering about.  Just a couple of days ago it appeared that the Bush Administration pot was boiling over the security issue regarding these refugees, so much so that the controversy was going to be settled by the National Security Council. 

Then, in a press conference between State Department and DHS Officials, (a transcript of a press conference was released and is here) , all seems to be peachy-keen, hunky doory, and tikity-boo with no mention of any referral to the NSC..

One explanation I’ll throw out is that those reporters asking questions did not want to hear about a national security controversy.  They have their template story to write—Bush Administration dragging its feet, people suffering—and didn’t want to contemplate any messy ideas like terrorist infiltration through the program.  I noticed that not one of those reporters asked about the security controversy and the NSC.

More on Bush Administration Iraqi refugee brouhaha

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I missed the earth-shattering AP news on Friday night when the end-of-month numbers came out (I caught the drumbeat sooner last month)—the Bush Administration admitted a smaller number of Iraqi refugees in November than in October.   Wailing and knashing of teeth, the refugee industry and its minions in the press want to know how we are possibly going to reach the magic (albeit low still according to them) 12,000 Iraqi refugees to be admitted in this fiscal year.

WASHINGTON – The United States admitted only 362 Iraqi refugees in November, almost 100 fewer than in October, and far less than half the number it needs per month to meet a goal of 12,000 by the end of this budget year, according to State Department statistics obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.

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In the first two months — October and November — of fiscal 2008, only 812 Iraqi refugees have been allowed into the country, meaning the Bush administration must now accept more than 11,000 over the coming 10 months to reach the target it has set for itself, the figures show. 

You can almost hear the gasps of indignation and outrage.

The slow pace of admissions has sparked criticism from refugee advocacy groups and lawmakers.

[read Ted (bring’em to Hyannis) Kennedy]

Also on Friday, and missed by most, was a press statement released by the US State Department, a lengthy transcript of a press conferance jointly held by the State Department and Homeland Security in which the key players from each department lay out the the problems with identifying and processing Iraqis.  See our previous post on the on-going controversy here.

The transcript is very long but I highly recommend reading the entire document to get a better feel for the issue.   Although most of the press conferance focused on why the US government is not getting their admission numbers up,  one stunning problem is with all the yapping about the millions of Iraqi refugees in desparate need, we are having problems finding enough cases to process and are going to do a “public information campaign” to find people to bring here according to Ambassador James Foley, Senior Coordinator on Iraqi Refugee Issues at the US State Dept.:

But just to say this is not snap your fingers and here’s 12,000, let alone more. It is going to be a — it will require a concerted effort month in, month out between now and the end of the fiscal year to reach our goal.

There was only sketchy information on the issue of security screening that is also slowing things down according to the refugee industry.  But, here is what Foley had to say at one point:

…..we have an obligation, especially since September 11th, to apply rigorous screening, security screening to any refugees who aim to enter the United States. This is an obligation we have to the American people so that they have confidence in this program, because their support is critical to this program. Their welcome in communities around America is critical to this program. So that requires a very rigorous and yet streamlined procedure that we have now put in place.

So, Ambassador Foley, what is that “rigorous and yet streamlined” security screening?   The communities receiving these refugees would sure like to know.