Got guts! This is a good sign from Congress (a sign perhaps that Trump’s victory is providing some backbone!). Senator Chuck Grassley
Senator Chuck Grassley and Rep. Bob Goodlatte chairmen of their respective Judiciary Committees have sent a strongly worded letter to the Obama Administration telling them to release to the public information on a secret deal to admit to the US rejected asylum seekers held in Australian offshore detention centers.
We reported the news hereand herelast week.
Remember readers, these are mostly Muslims (who attempted to break into Australia by boat) who have had their asylum claims rejected—Australia does not want them!
Here is the letter dated yesterday (hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum):
Setting precedents!
There are many important concerns in this letter, but one issue in particular caught my eye—the idea of setting a precedent which is something I’ve been hammering for years.
Deals like this are going on elsewhere in the refugee program and it is wrong. I’ll direct you to the issue of Malta and the FACT that we have been admitting aliens who arrived on the EUROPEAN island of Malta from Libya and other African hellholes (surely undocumented with only their personal stories to rely on!) by transforming them into refugees and placing them in your American towns ever since the Bush Administration. These are Europe’s illegal aliens and not our concern! (just as this new batch is Australia’s problem).
Congress and the new President can quickly plug this hole (See our 8-year-old Malta archive here), and we must stop these foolish “deals” wherever they are occurring.
Of course, deal implies we get something in exchange, but what we get is never clear!
For new readers, this was point #7in my ‘Ten Reasons there must be a MORATORIUM’ on refugee resettlement (first published in 2012!).
Our Australia category is here.
Update November 22nd: Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart investigated and found more details. In an update to his earlier article, he reports that the US State Department claims they did not organize or participate in the conference call, see here.
They are worried. And, as my good friend Richard (Blue Ridge Forum) would say, it has a lot to do with rice bowls. What? you ask! Have you ever heard the phrase ‘breaking rice bowls?’ It happens a lot when a new administration comes in to power and a lot of people have their livelihoods placed on the line perhaps for the first time ever!
In a story ostensibly about what is going to happen to the new resettlement site of Northampton, Massachusetts, the head of the local Catholic Charities tells us a good bit about what went on when 452 worried refugee resettlement workers got on a conference call with presumably leaders of the two main federal agencies that administer the program and dole out the federal bucks in Washington.
BTW, as we have mentioned previously, both the Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration and the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (as political appointees) will soon be on their way out.
Here is Masslive.com:
NORTHAMPTON — Asked if she thought a city refugee resettlement program would be subject to change under President-elect Donald Trump, Catholic Charities Executive Director Kathryn Buckley-Brawner pulled no punches.
“Of course it is,” Buckley-Brawner said. “Because Trump will be president. It’s less a question about ‘is’ as opposed to ‘will.'”
Kathryn Buckley-Brawner has been resettling refugees in Springfield, Mass. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/kathryn_buckley-brawner_named.html
Buckley-Brawner participated in a 452-person nationwide “post-election national refugee advocacy” conference call Friday headed up by people in government. [Advocacy on the taxpayers’ dime!—ed]
The call leaders said “don’t overreact,” prepare to advocate and argue in favor of refugee resettlement programs and hold steady until something changes, Buckley-Brawner said.
But feelings of uncertainty permeated the discussion, according to Buckley-Brawner.
“People whose job it is to have their finger on the pulse of what’s going on in our government don’t have a clue,” Buckley-Brawner said in a MassLive interview following the call. “If they don’t have a clue, the rest of us are in the same position.”
Members of the call seemed to think the most likely way a Trump administration might impact U.S. resettlement efforts would be by blocking refugees from certain places — like Iraq and Syria. [LOL! If Trump asks me, I’ll say Somalia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Burma (Rohingya) need to be on the list too!—ed]
Trump told CNBC on Monday he felt more against allowing Syrian refugees into the country than ever, calling the prospect “one of the great Trojan horses.”
[….]
Several different scenarios were discussed during Friday’s conference call, Buckley-Brawner said.
Among these, a complete shut-down of funding for refugee resettlement — thought very unlikely. A tightening of vetting procedures and slow-down of refugee intake — thought very possible. Finally, a dramatic decrease in refugee intake across the board.
“We’re simply going to keep on doing what we’re doing until somebody says ‘stop,'” Buckley-Brawner said.
Continue reading here about the elected libs in Northampton and their enthusiasm for taking Syrian Muslim refugees.
Be sure to visit our archive on Springfield, Mass. where the mayor called for a MORATORIUM and begged for relief from Buckley-Brawner’s resettlement of refugees there for years.
Northhampton is fresh territory and I will bet that although it is only 20 miles north of Springfield, the folks in Northampton likely have no clue about all the problems Springfield has had (unless they have been reading RRW for years!).
Endnote: My apologies to the good citizens of Northampton! I have been spelling the name of your town wrong for months! Sheesh, just found that I had spelled it wrong above!
Schwartz, the Humphrey School dean, said the 110,000 national number for the year is a ceiling, not a legal obligation binding the new government.
Actually I don’t think they will have to worry about taking their share of the huge number Obama proposed for FY2017—110,000—because Trump will surely reduce that number one way or another.
For our readers in Minnesota this is a very useful article with lots of details about the contractors and the cities in which they are placing refugees. Seems one big limiting factor is affordable housing! I sure hope one of the Trump Admins first actions will be to kill Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering FAIR Housing initiative!
Here is the latest from Minnesota at the Star Tribune (emphasis is mine):
Minnesota, one of the nation’s busiest resettlement destinations, is aiming to keep its refugee arrivals steady in 2017.
Eric Schwartz was Obama’s first Asst. Sec. of State for PRM and thus Anne Richard’s predecessor. Both of them were Soros’ proteges. Go here for our file on Schwartz: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/?s=Eric+Schwartz
Faced with a housing shortage and other constraints, the state is forgoing a larger role in an almost 30 percent national increase the Obama administration announced earlier this fall.
Now, that Obama goal and the nation’s longer-term approach are in question as a Donald Trump administration prepares to take over. On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to pause resettlement from “terror-prone regions” and took aim at Somali refugees in Minnesota. But he has not addressed the overall number of refugees the country resettles each year.
“There is complete and total uncertainty,” said Eric Schwartz, dean of the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a former federal official who oversaw refugee admissions in the Obama administration.
In the fiscal year that ended in September, Minnesota took in 2,630 refugees, a 15 percent increase over previous year.
[….]
Kristina Hammell of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Winona says her agency is running into housing shortages in the Rochester area as well.
“If we can’t find affordable housing, we aren’t doing refugees any great favors,” she said.
See my recent post: Obama’s 110,000 is a CEILING and Trump can turn off the spigot on January 21, 2017. He can PAUSE THE WHOLE PROGRAM!
Schwartz, the Humphrey School dean, said the 110,000 national number for the year is a ceiling, not a legal obligation binding the new government. Although Trump has criticized resettlement from countries including Syria and Somalia, he has not discussed the United States’ role in addressing the global migrant crisis.
Presumably, the administration could block resettlement from some regions and shift admissions to others, but that would be a significant logistical challenge, Schwartz said.
This last is wishful thinking I believe. Since the contractors are paid by the head and their salaries, office rent etc. depend on your tax dollars, I think they are hoping if Trump suspends resettlement from say Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and so forth that he will make it up with numbers from non-Muslim countries. I doubt it.
It is best to pause the whole program on January 21st and then “find out what is going on!” (As Trump frequently intoned on the campaign trail!)
“I don’t think they should be brought here, period!”
(citizen activist Brenda Arthur)
As Itold you a few days ago a Charleston ‘Interfaith’ group was planning a rally to push for the resettlement of Syrian refugees to the state capitol. And, as I mentioned then, I am struck by the fact that the rally for refugees was so specific about Syrians when we bring refugees from all over the world (and resettlement contracting agencies don’t get to pick only those ethnic groups they prefer).
Why are they so concerned about Syrians? Why is the Charleston, West Virginia group so discriminatory against other ethnic groups?
And here are my bigger questions: Where is Alex? Where is Shelley? Where is Joe?
Come on Joe! Even if the Republicans are too squishy to speak up, surely you get it!
Considering that the controversy about the resettlement of Syrian refugees in American towns is one of the major issues that pushed Donald Trump over the finish line last week, shouldn’t we expect elected officials like Rep. Alex Mooney (R) in whose district this rally occurred and US Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R) and Joe Manchin (D) to have the guts to say where they stand on the issue!
Are they for or against this plan from Washington?
One story about the rally is here. There was a counter-rally, so no one can say any longer that there is no opposition to the plan to expand the resettlement of Syrian Muslims (99% of all Syrians entering the US are Muslims) in to West Virginia.
See some of the opposition’s arguments reported at the Charleston Gazette-Mail:
During last year’s rally supporting Syrian refugees, Brenda Arthur stood across the street in protest. She learned of the rally only hours before it was scheduled to begin. She was then one of only two people protesting against it.
This time, she brought a few friends. To them, the reasons to not bring refugees seem endless.
“We had the June flooding disaster, we’ve lost jobs, there have been cuts in school funding and then there’s the drug epidemic,” Arthur said. “We’ve got all of these major problems to deal with. How does it even make sense to bring people here from halfway around the world that are going to need every form of government assistance?”
Arthur, 65, gathered with about a dozen other people in protest of the rally. Their main complaints about settling refugees in Charleston is the fear that they might be sent by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and that tax money would be used to resettle them.
But even if it didn’t cost taxpayers anything to bring refugees to West Virginia, and even if officials could be completely sure that the refugees weren’t sent by ISIS, Arthur still doesn’t want them here.
“I don’t think they should be brought here, period. We should take care of them in their homeland,” Arthur said. “A lot of these people, you know, they’ve been in their tribal land for thousands of years, and now they’re uprooted, brought to a new culture — in many cases a culture that has nothing to do with them. Our values are antithetical to a lot of things that they believe.”
See our complete archive on the West Virginia controversy by clicking here.
As you have figured out by now, I am a one issue voter. What we do about immigration/refugees is all that matters for the future of this country, so I’m judging Donald Trump’s choices for high office based on that issue alone.
Needless to say I was shocked and disappointed to see that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was headed to New York today for consideration for the job of Secretary of State. See Townhall here. If Trump puts Nikki Haley at the top of the US State Department it will give Senator Lindsey (Open Borders) Graham a direct pipeline. Refugee resettlement will not be stopped, slowed or even reformed in that case.
First, correct me if I’m wrong, but does she have any foreign policy experience? I sure hope Trump isn’t looking to ethnicity and gender to balance his cabinet. If so, put her at the head of the Labor Department or something like that.
A couple of years ago when the refugee resettlement industry turned its eyes to South Carolina, a state which has not received very many refugees over the years, Haley didn’t do anything to slow its arrival.
See our huge archive on Spartanburg by clicking here. And, go here for everything we have said about Haley. See here for my discussion of why NC is a purple state and SC is still (for now) a conservative red state. Warmonger Senator Lindsey Graham would have his ally in a very high place. (See Graham on bringing in Syrians, here).
Readers will remember that Haley and SC Rep. Trey Gowdy*** were early supporters of Senator Marco (Gang of Eight) Rubio and that Graham (Gang of Eight) endorsed Jeb Bush. If Gov. Haley runs the US State Department she will be in charge of immigrant visa programs and refugee admissions to the US, and in the case of refugees, choosing where they go. It will be her budget that pays refugee resettlement contractors for the initial resettlement. Senator Lindsey Graham will never let her restrict the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. I urge my South Carolina readers to weigh-in and tell me if I am wrong about Haley. Has she done anything to indicate concern about massive numbers of refugees especially from countries that hate us entering the US?
***By the way, Gowdy is chairman of the House subcommittee responsible for the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program and has done nothing to begin to examine the RAP with an eye to reforming it. He didn’t even hold the legally required hearing, as Senator Sessions didin his Senate subcommittee, on Obama’s determination to bring 110,000 refugees to the US in FY2017. So for all of my friends who think that Gowdy is God’s gift to America, think again!
Rumor has it that Lindsey Graham plays a large role in keeping Gowdy quiet on immigration issues.
