Update December 5th: Texas already backed down, here.
On Monday we reported that Texas was planning to sue the federal government and the International Rescue Committee, now they have done it. The state of Texas is suing the International Rescue Committee headed by Brit David Miliband bff Hillary! Hillary: ‘Well, if you saw him it would be a BIG crush.’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260660/Move-Miliband-Hillary-Clinton-special-relationship-new-man.html#ixzz3tGGETI4Z
Everyone wants to know if states have any rights under the federal Refugee Act of 1980, but since, as far as we know, no governors have even tried to test their rights, we can’t answer that.
We need more lawsuits like this one from other governors exploring different legal angles.
The consultation process required by the original Act is an important angle.
From The Hill:
Texas on Wednesday sued the Obama administration and an organization that resettles refugees over plans to bring six Syrian refugees to the state later this week.
In a filing, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission accused the two of violating federal law with its plans to bring the family to Dallas on Friday.
The state asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to block the resettlement and to order the defendants to “comply with their statutory and contractual duties to the state.”
Instead of working with the state to resettle refugees, as the law declares, the federal government and the International Rescue Committee “have left Texas uninformed about refugees that could well pose a security risk to Texans and without any say in the process of resettling these refugees,” the state said in its lawsuit. Texas on Wednesday sued the Obama administration and an organization that resettles refugees over plans to bring six Syrian refugees to the state later this week.
[….]
In its lawsuit, Texas points to the 1980 Refugee Act, which claims that the federal government must “consult regularly” with state and local governments about refugee resettlement plans before the refugees are placed within a state.
Action Alert: Call your members of the House and Senate at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vigorously oppose the Refugee Resettlement funding contained in the Omnibus Spending Bill that will be voted on by 12-11-15! Please call by this Friday, Dec. 4th.
The threat is directed at the International Rescue Committee***headed by the former British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. The lawsuit would pit Abbott against Miliband who came to the US in 2013 to head up the largest (financially) of the nine US resettlement contractors.
From the Houston Chronicle: Texas Governor Greg Abbott
AUSTIN – Texas officials are escalating their opposition to Syrian refugees with a new order aimed specifically at resettlement groups that have indicated they will accept people fleeing the war-torn country: change your mind or risk getting sued by the state.
Texas health commissioner Chris Traylor issued the first lawsuit threat over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in a letter to the Dallas branch of the International Rescue Committee, which said earlier this month that it supports accepting Syrian refugees.
Miliband bff Soros, Clinton and Samantha Power takes lucrative job as head of the IRC. Photo and story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2299583/David-Miliband-quits-Britain-280-000-U-S-charity-job-earning-DOUBLE-brother-Ed-gets-Labour-leader.html
“We have been unable to achieve cooperation with your agency,” Traylor wrote in the letter, which was released to the Houston Chronicle late Sunday, adding that, “Failure by your organization to cooperate with the State of Texas as required by federal law may result in the termination of your contract with the state and other legal action.”
Similar letters are expected to be sent to any refugee resettlement group that takes a similar position against Gov. Greg Abbott.
Go to the Houston Chronicle for more and to see the letter. Alas, it isn’t just Syrian Muslims going to Texas, but the state has been a target for the resettlement of large numbers of Somali and Iraqi Muslims as well.
Eight of nine major resettlement contractors operating in Texas:
Abbott may have to sue eight of the nine federal resettlement contractors (this is fromPart IIof my Texas trilogy of posts). These are the nine federal resettlement contractors:
Please go to this list of subcontractors everywhere and scroll down to Texas.
Texas is the number one resettlement state in the nation! And, never forget, Democrats and the No borders agitators are working day and night to turn Red states Blue—Texas is their number one target!
Recognizing how lucrative the ‘welcoming’ Texas turf is (contractors are paid by the head to resettle refugees), eight of the nine contractors have set up shop somewhere in Texas. The only one with no office there yet is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society!
For more on Texas, go hereto our three part series from earlier this summer.
And for much more on David Miliband and his friends in high places, click here. Hillary adores him!
***From this post:
International Rescue Committee (secular)
(From 2012 Form 990)
Total revenue: $456,122,865
Govt. grants and contracts (including travel loan income): $332,271,151
Percent taxpayer funded: 73%
Top salary: $485,321 (this is the salary of the former CEO, but we assume Miliband is pulling down similar numbers).
Action Alert: Call your members of the House and Senate at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vigorously oppose the Refugee Resettlement funding contained in the Omnibus Spending Bill that will be voted on by 12-11-15! Please call by this Friday, Dec. 4th.
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:
David Miliband is the former British Foreign Secretary being handsomely paid to head a US refugee resettlement contracting agency and Madeleine Albright was Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State, and here they jointly bemoan the state of affairs in the world regarding mostly Muslims from the Middle East wanting to come to American towns and cities or to the welfare states of Europe. Know the opposition! David Miliband and Madeleine Albright. Photo: Jared Harrell / BuzzFeed News
No wonder everyone is confused by the numbers as these two misspeakhere at BuzzFeed as well. (Emphasis is mine.)
NEW YORK — The United States has “not properly understood the breadth and depth” of the ongoing refugee crisis, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told BuzzFeed News on Friday, calling recent pledges to take in more refugees inadequate.
[….]
“So I’m sorry that we’re saying to everybody ‘do more’ and then we’re only taking in 100,000 over five years,when I actually think we could do more,” she continued, referring to an announcement from Secretary of State John Kerry in September.
100,000 over five years? Miliband knows exactly what the proposed numbers are, so I’m beginning to wonder if there is a purposeful attempt to confuse the public, or do they know something we don’t know?
In recent years the Obama Administration has invited 70,000 refugees from around the world to live in America. For FY2016 (which got underway on Oct. 1) he has increased the number to 85,000 with 10,000 of those supposedly to be reserved for Syrians (mostly Muslims).
Obama says he wants to increase the number from 85,000 to 100,000 (from all countries) for the last year (FY2017) for which he will have an opportunity to set the level. Miliband and his fellow contractorswanted Obama to admit 100,000 Syrians (on top of about 70,000 other refugees) this fiscal year. So where did the 100,000 over five years come from? No wonder the media is having a tough time sorting out the numbers (I see some crazy numbers out there!)!
Then this moaning about Europe…. where is the compassion? (Emphasis below is mine.)
Albright’s statement came during a sit-down interview in the BuzzFeed office alongside David Miliband, the British former Labour Party politician and current head of the International Rescue Committee, to discuss the influx that has seen more than 218,000 people attempt to enter Europe by sea in October alone, the same number that made the voyage in all of 2014 combined.
Albright says it’s all about the economy which keeps Angela Merkel from beating back the far-right. Really, nothing to do with the loss of culture and country German citizens are experiencing?
“It also seems to me there was more of a sense of compassion than there is now,” Albright said. “I think part of what’s happened is that the European Union has been under stress” due to the financial crisis, she continued, which makes it difficult for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others do deal with backlash from their far-right.
Continue reading here.
For more on Hillary/Soros pal David Miliband, click here.
I think they are mad at me—85,000 isn’t the 200,000 they wanted! Hereis the White House announcement (posted in full below).
(I’m still looking for the very detailed report, like this one for FY 2015, that is supposed to have been available weeks ago. If you see it let me know!)
One thing I would like to know, and you probably would too, is WHY ARE WE STILL BRINGING ANY ‘REFUGEES’ FROM CUBA? Human Rights First (first out of the box) criticizes Obama, here. The nerve of highly paid (by you, the US taxpayer) Brit David Miliband of the International Rescue Committee on Al Jazeera lecturing Europe and America to take more refugees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbAGZsJqYw International Rescue Committee next in line to criticize the O-man.
Presidential Determination — Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2016
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
SUBJECT: Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2016
In accordance with section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the “Act”) (8 U.S.C. 1157), and after appropriate consultations with the Congress, I hereby make the following determinations and authorize the following actions:
The admission of up to 85,000 refugees to the United States during Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest; provided that this number shall be understood as including persons admitted to the United States during FY 2016 with Federal refugee resettlement assistance under the Amerasian immigrant admissions program, as provided below.
The admissions numbers shall be allocated among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States in accordance with the following regional allocations; provided that the number of admissions allocated to the East Asia region shall include persons admitted to the United States during FY 2016 with Federal refugee resettlement assistance under section 584 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1988, as contained in section 101(e) of Public Law 100-202 (Amerasian immigrants and their family members):
(Editor: I have added the 2015 numbers in red for comparison)
The 6,000 unallocated refugee numbers shall be allocated to regional ceilings, as needed. Upon providing notification to the Judiciary Committees of the Congress, you are hereby authorized to use unallocated admissions in regions where the need for additional admissions arises.
Additionally, upon notification to the Judiciary Committees of the Congress, you are further authorized to transfer unused admissions allocated to a particular region to one or more other regions, if there is a need for greater admissions for the region or regions to which the admissions are being transferred.
Consistent with section 2(b)(2) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962, I hereby determine that assistance to or on behalf of persons applying for admission to the United States as part of the overseas refugee admissions program will contribute to the foreign policy interests of the United States and designate such persons for this purpose. Consistent with section 101(a)(42) of the Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 (a)(42)), and after appropriate consultation with the Congress, I also specify that, for FY 2016, the following persons may, if otherwise qualified, be considered refugees for the purpose of admission to the United States within their countries of nationality or habitual residence:
Persons in Cuba
Persons in Eurasia and the Baltics
Persons in Iraq
Persons in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador
In exceptional circumstances, persons identified by a United States Embassy in any location
You are authorized and directed to publish this determination in the Federal Register.
BARACK OBAMA
If you are wondering what that last bit is about, it is this: refugees by definition are supposed to have left the country of their persecution. We are not supposed to be plucking them from the place they claim to be persecuted, but over time this list has expanded (like everything else with this program!).
Don’t forget, the first hearing (since 9/11!) to address refugee resettlement in either the House or Senate will be tomorrow. Click here for more.
