We told you about Missoula County Commissioners’ invitation to the federal government and its contractor, the International Rescue Committee (IRC)here just the week before last. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard is a former Vice President of the International Rescue Committee. The Washington contractor revolving door is on full display. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/188212.htm
My suggestion for citizens of Montana, who have concerns about the United Nations picking refugees to be seeded in the state, is to call for a public hearing on the matter. If the county commission is bent on going down this slippery slope they should bring together all of those who will be involved in a public hearing format and require them to tell Montana citizens exactly how the program works.
The funniest part of the letter is that these naive local elected officials think they will have any say about the number to be resettled. That decision will be made in Washington between the IRC and the US State Department—just ask mayors of Manchester, NH, Springfield, MA, and Amarillo, TX if they have any say in the numbers!
Additionally taxpayers should be demanding a plan from the IRC/US State Dept and the Office of Refugee Resettlement at HHS.
Demand a plan!
In 2014, the mayor of Athens, Georgia demanded that these same agencies (IRC in Georgia) present a plan to the city of Athens before refugees would be resettled. They refused to give her a plan. Last I heard the stalemate was continuing.
And, you must now read this! The IRC head honcho in Georgia tells the mayor to take a hike—US State Department will be making the decisions, not you!
Have a look at the letter the Missoula County Commissioners have sent to Anne Richard, click here.
Somehow their ignorance about what they are getting into is so much more striking when you actually see the letter they sent. Go here for more on Montana, one of two states that has not received refugees in recent years.
Now that the mainstream media and the public are waking up to the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program and how it has been operating for the last 35 years, I thought it would be a good idea to re-post this testimony I gave to the US State Department (first in 2012 at its annual scoping meeting and repeated in 2013 and 2014). Anne Richard is the Asst. Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration. Here she testified last month at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Syrian refugees. She needs to produce the hearing record for the 2015 ‘scoping meeting’ which we believe was held in secrecy. Photo and story about Judiciary hearing: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/19/state-dept-official-syrian-refugees-less-threat-stops-tracking-3-months/
I just mentioned it in my previous poston annual reports. As far as we can tell, the US State Department did not hold a public scoping hearing in 2015 (for FY2016)because we never saw a notice for it this year. In these ‘scoping meetings/hearings’ they ostensibly seek public input on the size of the program for the upcoming year and they want to know what countries should be the focus of protection.
The ‘scoping’ meeting (like a hearing) was usually held in late spring/early summer of the preceding year. Prior to our attendance in 2012, these meetings/hearings were dominated by the resettlement contractors and their groupies. And, one more thing, the State Department does not keep and publish a hearing record for this meeting. The only way we could ever learn what others were saying was to obtain the hard copy testimony by attending in person! There ought to be a law!
Here is my testimony in 2012 (repeated in 2013 and 2014):
Ten Reasons there should be no refugees resettled in the US in FY2013—instead a moratorium should be put in place until the program is reformed and the economy completely recovers.
1) There are no jobs. The program was never meant to be simply a way to import impoverished people to the US and place them on an already overtaxed welfare system.
2) The program has become a cash cow for various “religious” organizations and other contractors who very often appear to care more about the next group of refugees coming in (and the cash that comes with each one) than the group they resettled only a few months earlier. Stories of refugees suffering throughout the US are rampant.
3) Terrorist organizations (mostly Islamic) are using the program that still clearly has many failings in the security screening system. Indeed consideration should be given to halting the resettlement of Muslims altogether. Also, the UN should have no role in choosing refugees for the US.
4) The public is not confident that screenings for potential terrorists (#3) or the incidences of other types of fraudulent entry are being properly and thoroughly investigated and stopped. When fraud is uncovered—either fraud to enter the country or illegal activity once the refugee has been resettled—punishment should be immediate deportation.
5) The agencies, specifically the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), is in complete disarray as regards its legally mandated requirement to report to Congress every year on how refugees are doing and where the millions of tax dollars are going that run the program. The last (and most recent) annual report to be sent to Congress is the 2008 report—so they are out of compliance for fiscal years 2009, 2010 and 2011. A moratorium is necessary in order for the ORR to bring its records entirely up-to-date. Additionally, there needs to be an adequate tracking system designed to gather required data—frankly some of the numbers reported for such measures of dependence on welfare as food stamp usage, cash assistance and employment status are nothing more than guesses. (The lack of reports for recent years signals either bureaucratic incompetence and disregard for the law, or, causes one to wonder if there is something ORR is hiding.)
6) The State Department and the ORR have so far failed to adequately determine and report (and track once the refugee has been admitted) the myriad communicable and costly-to-treat diseases entering the country with the refugee population.
7) Congress needs to specifically disallow the use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government,especially using certain refugee populations to address unrelated foreign policy objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come to mind.
8) Congress needs to investigate and specifically disallow any connection between this program and big businesseslooking for cheap and captive labor. The federal government should not be acting as head-hunter for corporations.
9) The Volag system should be completely abolished and the program should be run by state agencies with accountability to the public through their state legislatures. The system as presently constituted is surely unconstitutional. (One of many benefits of turning the program over to a state agency is to break up the government/contractor revolving door that is being demonstrated now at both the State Department and ORR.) The participating state agency’s job would be to find groups, churches, or individuals who would sponsor a refugee family completely for at least a year and monitor those sponsors. Their job would include making sure refugees are assimilating. A mechanism should be established that would allow a refugee to go home if he or she is unhappy or simply can’t make it in America. Short of a complete halt to resettlement-by-contractor, taxpayers should be protected by legally requiring financial audits of contractors and subcontractors on an annual basis.
10) As part of #9, there needs to be established a process for alerting communities to the impending arrival of refugees that includes reports from the federal government (with local input) about the social and economic impact a certain new group of refugees will have on a city or town. This report would be presented to the public through public hearings and the local government would have an opportunity to say ‘no.’
For these reasons and more, the Refugee admissions program should be placed on hold and a serious effort made by Congress to either scrap the whole thing or reform it during the moratorium.Myrecommendation for 2013 is to stop the program now. The Office of the President could indeed ask for hearings to review the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980-–three decades is time enough to see its failings and determine if reauthorization is feasible or whether a whole new law needs to be written.
Information on the three hearings we wrote about and attended are archived here, hereand here. (Those files include posts in which we referenced the hearings/meetings as well.)
By the way, Richard revolved into the State Department from her contractor job at the International Rescue Committee. She had a previous stint at the State Dept. The revolving door is alive and well between contractor and federal agency involving refugee resettlement.
Looks like the ACLUand the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)are on the same page.
The way to solve the latest argument by the Obama Administration and the NO borders gang is to defund all refugee resettlement in the upcoming ‘omnibus’ and not single-out the Syrians for special treatment. First Reema(from Jeh Johnson) and now this as the administration pulls out all the stops to get those 10,000 mostly Muslim Syriansresettled in your towns. All of this activity demonstrates that the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program is in the greatest crisis it has ever faced in 35 years since Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden, among others, sent the bill to Jimmy Carter for his signature.
The revolving door!
We wrote about Carey, at the IRC in 2013, out stumping for Syrians to be admitted to the US. Unfortunately, but no surprise, all links back to what Carey said have been removed and the IRC doesn’t allow you to check their employees list either. What are they hiding? https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/09/04/ircs-bob-carey-the-syrians-are-coming-soon-because-we-are-going-to-make-it-happen/
Before I get to ORR chief Bob Carey’s letter to governors, a little background on the revolving door for new readers (also go here to our recent fact sheet for general overview of program):
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees chooses most of our refugees. The US State Department admits them and Homeland Security screens them (as best they can). The State Department PRM (Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration) contracts with nine supposedly non-profit group contractors*** to resettle them through about 312 subcontractors (at one point the State Department was throwing the number 350 around) to most US states.
PRM is overseen by Anne Richard who was a former vice President of contractor—International Rescue Committee. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is in the Dept. of Health and Human Services and is the major dispenser of your money to the contractors through myriad federal grants.
The present director of ORR is Robert Carey who came over from one of the nine contractors (wait for it!)—International Rescue Committee (IRC)—where he served as a vice President. His predecessor at ORR was Eskinder Negash who had come over from another contractor the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
Negash has since returned to a perch at his former employer—US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).
Are you still following me?
Negash’s boss at USCRI, Lavinia Limon, was Bill Clinton’s director of ORR before she left to become President of USCRI. LOL! did you get that!
Both Carey and Anne Richard came from the International Rescue Committee headed by BRITISH former foreign secretary David Miliband, bff Clinton, Soros and Samantha Power. (We have anextensive archive on Miliband, brother of Britain’s “Red Ed.”)
Contractors enter government and become the dispenser of your tax dollars and then they leave government when administrations change and become the recipients of your tax dollars—and around and around they go!
Back to the Bob Carey letter to governors(remember he is relatively new at ORR and was pulling down a six-figure salary from the IRC before becoming the big shot now threatening governors).
From Breitbart: In April of this year, Carey moved from his job with super-wealthy contractor, IRC, and into the government where he dispenses your money to his former employer. Shouldn’t there be a law? http://www.acf.hhs.gov/blog/2015/05/an-interview-with-bob-carey-orrs-new-director
The Obama administration has warned states to comply with federal efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in communities around the U.S. or else find their states subject to enforcement action.
In a letter this week, the Office of Refugee Resettlement threatens states concerned about resettling Syrians with punitive responses if they refuse to accept the refugees.ORR explains that states may not refuse ORR-funded benefits for refugees on the basis of religion and national origin.
“Accordingly, states may not categorically deny ORR-funded benefits and services to Syrian refugees,” ORR Director Robert Carey wrote in the letter. “Any state with such a policy would not be in compliance with the State Plan requirements, applicable statutes, and their own assurances, and could be subject to enforcement action, including suspension and termination.” [I’m afraid of overloading you, but beware of termination because the feds and contractors may well make your state a Wilson-Fish state, if it isn’t already. They would like nothing better!—ed]
The agency also pointed to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination for federally funded assistance benefits. Refugees are immediately eligible for welfare and other benefits upon admission to the U.S.
“Thus, it is not permissible to deny federally funded benefits such as Medicaid or [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] to refugees who otherwise meet the eligibilities requirements,” the letter reads. “ORR is committed to ensuring that all refugees receive assistance and services vital to achieving their potential in the United States and becoming self-sufficient, integrated members of our communities.”
If nothing else comes out of this, we are pleased to say that the American taxpaying public is being educated about the huge costs this program places on our welfare system—nationally and locally! The contractor’s job is to get refugees their welfare benefits and then they move on to the next paying batch of refugee CLIENTS.
***Nine major federal contractors which like to call themselves VOLAGs (Voluntary agencies) which is such a joke considering how much federal money they receive:
This is a hearing we have been wondering about literally for months. What took them so long?
Trey Gowdy is Chairman of the Subcommittee,go here for details.
Here is the witness list (what is this “invited,” haven’t they agreed to show up?): Asst. Sec. of State for PRM Anne Richard. See bio: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/188212.htm
Ms. Anne C. Richard (Invited)
Assistant Secretary
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, United States Department of State
Ms. Barbara L. Strack (Invited)
Chief, Refugee Affairs Division, Refugee, Asylum, and International Operations Directorate
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
Mr. Seth Jones
Director
International Security and Defense Policy Center, RAND Corporation
Mr. Mark Krikorian
Executive Director
Center for Immigration Studies
Mr. Mark Hetfield
President and Chief Executive Officer
HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, one of nine federal resettlement contractors)
Go hereto our archives to learn more about Anne Richard, and herefor Mark Hetfield.
See Subcommittee members here. I’m assuming the hearing will be televised by C-Span.
As Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Anne Richard is the head honcho in the Obama/Kerry State Department responsible for the refugees admitted to the United States. Anne Richard (left) and UNHCR Antonio Guterres (former President of Socialists International): we both think that 18-24 months is too long for Syrians to wait to get into the US. NPR interview: http://www.npr.org/2015/10/22/450937841/why-does-the-u-s-accept-so-few-syrian-refugees
Tomorrow she isscheduled to testifybefore the House Foreign Relations Committee (Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa). See if your representative is a member of the subcommittee by clicking here.
If your ‘pocket of resistance’is located in one of the districts represented on this subcommittee make sure your Representative knows how important this testimony is to you.
By the way, this reminds me that there is a lot of foot-dragging going on over in the House Judiciary Committee (Goodlatte and Gowdy) which has jurisdiction and a LEGAL requirement to review the President’s Determination for FY2016 that is now already going on 4 weeks old. An oversight hearing had been planned weeks ago on the Refugee Admissions Program—what happened to it? Late last week Ms. Richard was pushing the Syrian resettlement at a college in Kentucky (it is about the children!)
What you see happening here is that the US State Department is sending out big-wigs like Richard to help spread the propaganda (to head off the development of ‘pockets of resistance’) and say that everything is going to be just peachy as we admit 10,000 (or more!) Syrians who cannot be properly screened according to the FBI.
The Obama Administration is going to be having a tough time finding enough “welcoming” communities for Syrians so they must get out to states like Kentucky—we reported that Kentucky had gotten the most Syrians so fartwo weeks into the new fiscal year. Apparently Mitch and Rand are too busy to pay attention to the colonization of Kentucky with Muslim Syrians! (See also first Syrians arrive in KYwith help of Islamic charity.)
Senator Rand Paul’s home town!
See Richard at Western Kentucky University and right under Senator Rand Paul’s nose, hereand here (at the Bowling Green Daily News—Rand Paul’s home town!***). Hat tip: Robin.
And, here she is giving an interviewto NPR this past week. Be sure to see it because the interviewer says thousands of you are sending e-mails to “advocates” opposing the resettlement of more refugees. That must be in reference to the ACT campaign, here.
You really need to know who these people are—-who are working to change America by changing the people. Anne Richard is one of those who moves in and out of government from federal contracting agency and back in to government (and will move back out as an activist advancing mass migration to America). See her bio here.
*** Bowling Green is also the location where the two Iraqi refugee terroristswere doing their ‘work.’ So how does Rand Paul propose to keep America safe if he isn’t watching what is going on in his own backyard!
