Asst. Sec. Sauerbrey — hang tough!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

From a U.S. State Department press release today:

Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) Ellen R.
Sauerbrey has led diplomatic efforts to expand humanitarian space for UN
agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to humanitarian
needs of Iraqi refugees in the region.

——

By the end of 2007, the USG will have provided almost
$1 billion in humanitarian assistance for displaced Iraqis in Iraq and
neighboring states since 2003.

We should continue to care for Iraqis displaced by the war in the region, care for their needs as best we can, and plan to return them to a stabilized Iraq.    Hang in there Asst. Secretary Sauerbrey, resist the drumbeat from those seeking to undermine the war while adding to the immigrant population of America.

Iraqis heading to the West

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The United Nations said today that the number of Iraqi asylum seekers is up sharply.  The AP is reporting that 19,800 Iraqis are seeking asylum in 36 Western countries.

Sweden was the most popular destination for Iraqi asylum seekers, with nearly half of the applications filed this year in industrialized countries — 9,300 people, UNHCR said.

——

“The large Iraqi community and its strong social network in Sweden might be part of the reasons for the high concentration of Iraqi asylum seekers going to that country,” spokesman Ron Redmond said.

——

Greece was No. 2 with some 3,500 asylum requests, followed by Spain with 1,500 and Germany with 820. Only 385 Iraqis sought asylum in the United States.

Poor Sweden, see our earlier posts here and here.

Sauerbrey wisely reminds us of terrorist threat

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As the drumbeat intensifies to open our arms to Iraqi refugees,  Asst. Sec. of State Ellen Sauerbrey speaking at a hearing before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday stressed the point that seems to be lost in the discussion: 

…… a lesson learned from the 9-11 attacks was that “any program that allows people to enter our country must guard against terrorist infiltration.”

Tell that to drummer Church World Service actively lobbying to have S. 1651 attached to the Defense Authorization bill at this very moment.   I hope they have good accountants and are making sure they don’t use any of the millions they receive from the taxpayers for refugee resettlement for lobbying in Washington.  Busy aren’t they?

Additional comment:  When I wrote this yesterday I should have mentioned that this is a twofer for Church World Services.  The bills to open the floodgates to Iraqi refugees not only bring more refugees for CWS to place and collect their federal income, but it undermines the military surge by sending the signal that these people will never be able to go home to Iraq. 

For an analysis of the bill CWS is pushing see Center for Vigilant Freedom.

For a review of all of our coverage of Iraqi refugees, go to that category on the left.

It snowed in Hagerstown last night

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Whew,  finally a few minutes to report on the snow-job in Hagerstown last night.   O.K. I’ll say it, I’m naive.   I thought the forum would be a good idea to get facts out in the public and thus allow our community to weigh all sides of the issue.   To all of you who warned me that they wouldn’t give us straight answers, I apologize, you were right.   

But, the meeting wasn’t a complete waste.  Judy and I look forward to writing about it for weeks to come.   We will try to keep each post short adding it to a new category called September Forum, so that eventually a newcomer to RRW could follow our whole analysis.

This afternoon I’m commenting on the first, actually funny (sort of funny), non-answer.  Someone more knowledgable than I about refugee resettlement told me that if we asked about the repayment of the airfare loan (refugees fly here on the taxpayer’s dime and are expected to repay the loan) the response would be:  “The repayment rate is better than for student loans.”    Yup, you guessed it!  That is exactly the response we got the first time the question was asked of the US State Dept. representative.

The second time the question was asked the amount of the backlogged unpaid loans was not known (we hear hundreds of millions)  but it was confirmed that the volags can pocket 25% of the loans they can wring out of refugees, and afterall we are told that is the going rate for debt collecting.   Call me crazy, but I get an image of a mobster-minister-type putting the squeeze on some poor soul making $8 an hour who doesn’t even understand English well enough to read his dunning notice.  

Good morning from RRW

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This morning I want to make a statement to our readers.   First, to our national and international readers, sorry that we have been focused recently on the issues surrounding Refugee Resettlement in Washington County, MD.  Tonight we have a public forum which includes representatives from the US State Dept., Maryland Office for New Americans, and federal contractor Church World Services and its subcontractor Virginia Council of Churches.   We hope that much of what we have been bringing, although local in nature, may help you understand the issue better and help you put some ideas to work.  We will get back to covering more on broader issues shortly.

Since one of our goals at RRW is to “encourage reform of Refugee Resettlement policy at a national level”, we plan to have some suggestions for reform in the coming days.

For our readers who are here today to see what we are up to,  I am making one thing very clear.  This is a serious debate about public policy.  In fact, in my opinion, the subject of immigration, legal and illegal, is the most important issue facing our country.  I have not interjected anything about anyone’s personal lives into the debate,  but apparently my personal life is fair game.   All I can say is, it is easy for people to be charitable with taxpayers’ money.  It’s a lot harder to give out of your own pocket to help make the lives of people from the third world a little better.  Our contributions this evening will be based on policy, not how many points we can rack up on the “I’m so compassionate” scale.