Despicable USA Today says refugee numbers plummet under Trump, but were silent when Obama monthly numbers were low

05/05/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is so maddening to see how the Leftwing Open borders media spins the news!
Here USA Today trumpets:

Refugee admissions plummet under Trump, USA TODAY analysis finds

Before you even read their analysis, look at this chart we posted two days ago showing monthly admissions for the last ten years. We pointed out that at this point in the fiscal year (the end of April) we actually admitted more refugees than we did in that period for the last ten years. See also this morning’s numbers report.
Trump is on target (we are unhappy to say) to bring in just slightly less than the average number for the previous ten years, but you would never know that from reading the mainstream media!

Kay Bellor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services told USA Today: “The statements from this administration about refugees are shocking to me…It’s language I’ve never heard used with refugees…” Photo: http://lirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Kay_BellorBiography.pdf

See the chart that comes directly from the US State Dept. data below:
Notice that Obama had a month (FY2014) at 1,810 (did USA Today trumpet a plummet?)
Notice that Obama had two very low months in FY11, 2,034 and 2,190 (did USA Today trumpet a plummet?)
Notice that Obama had many months where the numbers were in the 3,000s. (did USA Today trumpet a plummet?)
And, don’t miss the fact that Obama, in many years did not reach his ‘ceiling’ and in fact never set one anywhere near 110,000 until he was on his way out of office!
Indeed, if Trump keeps his present pace he will exceed Obama’s years of FY11 and FY12.
Notice that George W. Bush’s numbers were in the 2,000s and 3,000s for many months.

Now here is how USA Today begins its story:

The number of refugees arriving in the United States has dropped sharply this year because of President Trump’s threats to bar their entry, even though his order for a total 120-day ban has been blocked twice by federal courts, a USA TODAY analysis of government figures shows.

The U.S. accepted 2,070 refugees in March, the lowest monthly total since 2013, according to State Department data. April ended with 3,316 refugees admitted, the second-lowest total since 2013.

The lying sacks only went back to 2013 where they could find a number that works for them, but how did they manage to overlook October 2014?
Read to the very end of the story and see what Mark Krikorian had to say. And, USA Today finally does get to the crux of the matter—-the contractors are worried about their cash flow if Trump does follow-through and cap resettlement at 50,000.
The big test for Trump comes in September when he sets the level for FY18 and we will be watching.
BTW, there used to be “scoping meetings” in May (held by the US State Dept) to ask the public what the numbers and nationalities should look like for the upcoming fiscal year. We will be watching to see if Tillerson’s DOS goes back to that practice. The Obama Administration curtailed those meetings in its final years because they really didn’t want to hear what the general public had to say!

Trump has admitted 13,224 refugees since January 20th, 5,135 since supposed moratorium began

05/05/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, Syrians, Iraqis and Somalis arrive by the thousands…..
I know I am sounding like a broken record! But….

They (Syrians) aren’t going back at all! Trump is admitting more Syrians every day!

We have not forgotten that Donald Trump announced earlier this year that on March 16th a 120-day moratorium on all refugee resettlement would commence for the purpose of assessing how well we are screening refugees. (That was ALL, across the board and not just the so-called banned countries).
Then the courts intervened to stop a completely unnecessary Executive Order on the matter and the Administration tucked its tail, and continues admitting refugees as if nothing was ever said (before or after the Presidential campaign).
Here are the numbers this morning:
Since FY2017 began on October 1, 2016, we have admitted 43,241 refugees, and are on target to have a slightly below average admissions year, as I reported here. However, we have admitted more refugees at this point in the fiscal year than any year in the previous ten.
Since Inauguration Day on January 20th, Donald Trump has admitted 13,224 refugees. Including:

Afghanistan (340)

Iraq (1,599)

Somalia (1,394)

Sudan (303)

Syria (1,534)

And, since the day the moratorium was supposed to begin to assess security screening (March 16th), Trump welcomed 5,135.
Here (from Wrapsnet) is where the 1,534 Syrians were placed from January 20th up to this morning:

This post is filed in our ‘Trump Watch’ category, click here.

At this point in the fiscal year, more refugees have entered US in FY2017 than in any of the previous ten years

05/03/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Trump is on target to beat Obama numbers in two of O’s fiscal years!

There are some fascinating statistics at the Refugee Processing Center for those of you interested in getting the facts.
Below is a screenshot graph at Wrapsnet showing this year and ten previous fiscal years. It doesn’t yet include the month of April, but checking that number separately I found we admitted 3,316 in April. So add that to the 39,098 on the chart (for the end of March) we see that we are now up to 42,414. That is the highest number for this time in the fiscal year (FY17 ends on September 30th) than in any of the previous ten fiscal years.

If Trump reaches the 60,000 refugee admissions mark (900 a week would get him there), for the remainder of fiscal year, he will have surpassed Obama admissions in FY11 and FY12!

I especially want to direct your attention to the column for ceiling and the one for actual admissions.
Note that we never reach the ceiling (although Obama came awfully close in his last year as he was driven to admit thousands of Syrian Muslims).
See that Obama never set a ceiling anywhere 110,000 until his final months in office. Why?
The average admissions in the previous ten years is around 66,000 and if Trump’s State Department does bring in 900 a week as they said they would, here, then Trump will admit just over 60,000 this fiscal year bypassing his supposed reset of the ceiling to 50,000.
If Trump reaches the 60,000 mark he will have surpassed Obama admissions in FY11 and FY12! I don’t remember any crying and moaning, or Obama bashing, in the media from the federal refugee contractors in those years.

Here is the chart.
Remember the ceiling is just that—a ceiling! Nothing in refugee law says the President must bring in that number!

The chart has not been updated for April yet. However, looking up data separately, we admitted 3,316 refugees last month. So if you tally up the columns you will see that as of the end of April (7 months in to the fiscal year), we have admitted more refugees, at this point in the year, than any of the previous ten fiscal years.

Since Inauguration day (as of today), Donald Trump’s Dept. of State has admitted 12,594 refugees. 43% of those are Muslim refugees from Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and even Burma (406 are Rohingya Muslims).

Congress seeks to fund US Refugee Admissions Program as if Trump didn't exist

05/02/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The so-called budget deal being ironed-out to fund the government to the end of the fiscal year commits billions to the refugee program. You might think that Obama was back in the White House and that Donald Trump never campaigned on slowing the flow of refugees from countries that produce terrorists.

President who? This budget “deal” makes me wonder if Obama is still in the Oval Office!

I can’t make heads or tails out of the budget bill language, but here Alex Pfeiffer at the Daily Caller tells us it is full steam ahead with refugees because if they have your money, you can bet it will be spent.
It isn’t too late….

Trump could flex his muscles this week and say to Congress, go back to the drawing boards.

He could say: we will do another continuing resolution for a couple of weeks until you get it right. (After all, it isn’t just with the refugee program that Congress is dissing the Prez).
You may have seen the Dems gloating about their apparent budget victory yesterday.
And, the RINOs are pretty slick too!
Look at it this way, the Dems and the RINOs join forces to make sure almost none of Trump’s campaign promises are fulfilled, voters blame it on Trump and Trump becomes a one-term President. The only question is, does Trump get that and will he show some muscle and fight back right now!
Here is what the Daily Caller says about refugees:

The budget deal to keep the government funded through September agreed upon by congressional leaders would continue funding the refugee resettlement program.

An agreement on the omnibus budget was reached by leaders from both parties Sunday, as a government shutdown looms on Friday. The proposed spending agreement includes no money to construct the president’s border wall, and continues funding Planned Parenthood.

[….]

The bill would include a total of $3 billion towards migration and refugee assistance, which is roughly the same that was spent in Fiscal Year 2016. It would also include $50 million towards the emergency refugee and migration assistance fund, which is also the same amount spent in the previous fiscal year.

With President Trump’s executive orders temporarily blocking refugee resettlement held up in court, 12,397 refugees have been resettled during his presidency.***

Pay close attention to the last line here, and below.
This is why I have been saying that Trump did not have to include changing the ceiling or language about a moratorium in the Executive Order. He has the power to stay anywhere under the ceiling! The Refugee Act of 1980 tells the President to set the ceiling in advance of the fiscal year, before October 1, and if he wants to raise the ceiling during the year he must inform Congress, but he does not have to reach the ceiling—few Presidents in recent times have reached the ceiling—or even inform Congress that he will be coming in under it!

The Obama administration set a goal in September of 110,000 refugees admitted in Fiscal Year 2017. A State Department official told The Daily Caller in early April that “this language represents a ceiling on refugee admissions – it is not a mandatory target.”

It isn’t too late for Trump to quietly institute the 120-day moratorium, as he originally planned, to assess whether our security screening is adequate. It gets much harder if the agencies are awash in money that they want to send out to government contractors!
***See my post here from a couple of days ago about Trump’s refugee admissions.

Tennessee Senator Corker wants refugee program back to 'normal' ASAP

05/01/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Republican Senator from Tennessee might be called out-of-step with his constituents in his home state where the Tennessee legislature voted to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement and filed suit in March. (Waiting now for the Trump administration response to the lawsuit.)

Besides “normalizing” the refugee admissions process, Senator Corker wants the US to send more foreign aid to Africa. http://africa-online.com/2017/04/18/us-senator-pushes-back-against-trumps-proposed-foreign-aid-cuts/

Over the Easter recess Corker went to Africa and declared that he wants Trump to “normalize” refugee resettlement which means he has zero interest in taking on the contentious issue of reforming the over 35-year-old flawed system where nine non-profit groups, funded by the federal government, determine how many refugees and from where are seeded in to a state (including his!).
BTW, we were relieved that Trump did not pick Corker for the top job at the US State Department, but we didn’t do any better (at least so far) with Rex Tillerson who is obviously continuing to rely on entrenched bureaucrats to make refugee resettlement decisions. (See Trump admits over 12,000 refugees, including Syrians and Somalis, since Inauguration Day, here)
Here is what Pajama’s Media told us last week about the Corker/Coons trip to Africa (hat tip: ‘Seneca the Elder’):

WASHINGTON – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he hopes the Trump administration begins to “move back to a regular process” and “normalize” the admission of refugees into the United States.

Over the Easter recess, Corker and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) visited the Bidi Bidi refugee camp in Uganda, which houses about 270,000 people who fled the civil war in South Sudan. Corker was asked if he has recommendations for the Trump administration on refugees after his experience on the trip.

“It’s my hope that what they’re going to do is go through a process of, as they’ve already stated, of understanding how people are being vetted, do the things they feel are necessary to ensure that when people are coming here they are coming in a way that continues to make sure our whole nation is safe – and then we’ll move on and move back to the regular process that we’ve been in for some time, or hopefully an improved process if there are issues that need to be dealt with,” Corker said on a Monday conference call.

Corker praised the Trump administration decision to remove Iraq from its list of countries covered by the revised executive order that restricted travel and the admission of refugees from some Muslim-majority nations. A federal court blocked the executive order.

“I was thankful they decided Iraq would not be a part of that. I hope they are actually, right now, going through a process of looking at this whole issue of travel. Hopefully, they are stiffening their resolve to make sure it’s done in an appropriate way, and then, hopefully, when that is done we can move on and more normalize what we have been doing in this regard for many years,” Corker said.

Coons said he respected and appreciated Corker’s comments about refugees.

More here.
Sure looks like no hope in Corker’s case for reform by Congress of the whole UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
And, if the US Refugee Admissions Program (as designed by the 1980 Act), is not reformed now, in the coming months (with leadership from Trump), it never will be. By early 2018, members of Congress and many Senators will be focused on only one thing—getting re-elected!
Just a reminder, in September the Trump Administration will send its ‘determination’ (the ceiling!) to Congress for how many refugees (and from which regions of the world) could be admitted to the US in FY18. What they send to the Hill for “consultation” (Congress does not have to approve, just consult) will tell us everything we need to know about whether Trump will have the guts to stick with campaign promises and get the program under control, or not!