Tag: Donald Trump

Waiting for Abbott, while Idaho Governor Little Caves, Becomes 16th Republican to Rebuff the President

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments
Jen Smyers of Church World Service: “The impact if Texas doesn’t allow refugee resettlement to continue will be really dismal.”

The Leftwing federal contractors *** are on pins and needles waiting to see if they can reel in their big fish—Texas Governor Greg Abbott.   

Texas is their most desired catch because although Abbott tried to get out of the program several years ago, the state remains the top refugee placement state in the nation (the Left is turning Texas blue!).

Smyers told reporters that many church groups on the ‘religious’ Left and advocates for Open Borders have met with Abbott’s staff.

Here is the Statesman headline from yesterday:

Abbott silent as refugee resettlement deadline approaches

The article suggests that the deadline is “looming.”  It isn’t! as I explained here when I told you about the dumb Republican governors who jumped on the consent bandwagon prematurely when they obviously hadn’t read the guidance from the US State Department.

Smart governors are keeping their powder dry.

But up in Idaho….

We can add another governor to our dumb governors list.

I wonder, did Governor Little get a call from Pompeo too? Did he get any suggestion from anyone in Washington that his MONEY depended on his consent?

Governor Brad Little joins the list of governors thumbing their noses at one of the the President’s major goals—reforming the dysfunctional UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program and reducing refugee admissions.

Although Idaho doesn’t receive the massive number of refugees that Texas does, it nevertheless has been one of the major controversial locations in the country where many citizens there do not want to see more diversity and more poverty moved from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to their rural state.

(See my extensive Idaho archive here.)

Here is a headline yesterday from The Neighbor:

County, Little offer support for refugee resettlement, but questions over jurisdiction remain

You can read the story yourself, but I want to be sure you see the Governor’s letter to Secretary of State Pompeo:

You should consider this a weasel letter. The Governor is saying (sigh) if Twin Falls County wants it, it’s okay with me.

 

Twin Falls County

Three cheers for a government body that actually read the rules.

More important than the governor’s weak letter is this letter that Twin Falls County sent to the Dept. of State.  In the opening paragraphs, commissioners criticize the Funding Guidance for its lack of clarity, but toward the end of the three-page letter, they penned an important few paragraphs.

Don’t forget, this whole exercise is about whether federal contractors will get MONEY (your tax dollars) later in 2020.

Shut out of so-called ‘stakeholder’ meetings!

They want to be included in consultations in the future (having been shut out so far) and if this exercise is to be repeated they want to hold “robust public hearings.”  That is exactly what should be happening across 49 states (Wyoming has never been in the program).

Don’t forget the 100-mile radius rule! 

When a contractor is ‘hired’ by the feds and approval is given by, in this case, Twin Falls County (and the governor), contractors may place certain refugees in a 100-mile radius of the resettlement office.

With its consent, Twin Falls County has granted permission for refugees to be placed in these locations within a hundred miles. See radius calculator.

This region includes 11 counties: Blaine, ID; Butte, ID; Camas, ID; Cassia, ID; Elmore, ID; Gooding, ID; Jerome, ID; Lincoln, ID; Minidoka, ID; Power, ID; Twin Falls, ID

 

***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.

Church World Service poster girl!

For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political activist groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!

And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.

The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?  

(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

 

 

 

Massachusetts Interfaith Council Attacks Mayor who Says NO to More Refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

If you wonder why more local elected officials aren’t brave. See what the Leftists do to those who go against them—mayors like Springfield, Mass  Mayor Sarno!

Mayor Sarno has been trying tor years to get the State Department to stop the pipeline of refugees to Springfield.

The Open Borders Leftwingers are ruthless and this is the type of in-your-face agitation they have no fear of launching, but LOL! I think this one backfired.

The Interfaith Council of Springfield Mass placed a full-page ad in the Sunday edition of a local paper to shame the mayor—they don’t want Springfield to be the first city in America to say NO! to more refugees.

(If you are confused, according to the US State Department’s Funding Guidance it is county governments that must officially opt-in or opt-out of refugee resettlement under the President’s plan, but the Open Borders activists are going after cities probably because they think that mayors are an easier target.  For the record, the first county to say NO is Appomattox County, Virginia.)

Here is the news, and then I’ll get to why the resettlement contractors’ (in this case primarily HIAS***) aggressive action, via the local Interfaith group, is backfiring!  (I’ve warned you before about ‘Interfaith groups’  as primary promoters of refugee resettlement.)

From Masslive:

Interfaith Council challenges Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno on refugee resettlement

SPRINGFIELD – A full page taken by the Interfaith Council of Greater Springfield in the Sunday Republican today is requesting that Mayor Domenic J. Sarno bring unity rather than refusal around the issue of refugee resettlement in the city, saying in what it calls an open letter “no human is a burden.”

“Springfield is now the first city in the country whose mayor has refused to issue a letter of consent to allow refugee resettlement to continue,” reads the council’s letter.

“This is not a distinction we bear lightly.”

The statement, whose dozen signatures include those of the Western Massachusetts Conference of the Evangelical Church of America, Sinai Temple and the Islamic Society of Western Massachusetts, adds, “Instead of assigning blame to a small and already marginalized group, what if we were to bring people together – across our divides – to create real solutions? If, as the Mayor suggests, neighboring communities need to do more, one wonders what can be done to bring people together around such a solution. Many or us are ready to step forward.”

Following a unanimous City Council vote Dec. 16 supporting local involvement in refugee resettlement, Sarno issued a statement of opposition and in a Dec. 18 letter to MassLive and The Republican outlined why he would not issue a letter of consent permitting refugees to be resettled in the city.

[….]

In his letter explaining his refusal to do so, Sarno said, “It’s time for other much more affluent communities to take on their fair share.”

“My position has been very clear on that this issue taxes our city and school services and calls into question the accountability and follow-through aspects of refugee agencies, who not too long ago, placed a number of refugees in condemned housing units,” Sarno wrote.

“We have a number of residents in Springfield who need assistance and that will continue to be the concentration of my efforts. Springfield has proudly done more than its fair share on this issue.”

In an Dec. 18 interview about its work with refugee resettlement, Maxine Stein, president and chief executive officer of Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, the largest area agency doing such work, said, “Refugees are not taking services from our city.”

[…..]

JFS is the oldest and largest refugee resettlement agency in Western Massachusetts and works in partnership with the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society or HIAS and the State Department in what, prior to the Trump administration, had been resettling some 240 refugees annually in the area.

HIAS is among the organizations that have filed suit against the administration over Executive Order 13888. [We expect that case to be heard in a Maryland court in early January—ed]

There is much more, please read it all.

So why do I say their aggressive ad backfired?

See the comments!!! 

As of this writing there are 98 of them, and based on a quick look the vast majority are in support of Sarno.

And, this is the ‘peoples’ republic of Massachusetts.’

Here are some screenshots of just a few recent ones (there are many more, but I had to quit for the sake of time!)  Go read them yourself and maybe consider adding a few more.

 

If Allwornout is referring to refugees, they are here legally. Readers need to understand that our LEGAL immigration system is massively flawed and must be reformed. The UN/US Refugee Admissions Program in my view should be entirely repealed. We must not in the future turn over the power to place refugees where un-elected fake non-profits (funded by taxpayers) choose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***Don’t miss yesterday’s post where I explained that this exercise is all about MONEY for the contractors.

It is kind of funny, in the Bible Belt, the contractors are using Leftwing Evangelicals to carry their water.  In Minnesota it is Leftist Catholics and Lutherans, but in the more liberal north east they turn to extremely Leftwing Interfaith groups symbolizing multicultural mush—love and peace for one and all.

WV Governor Jim Justice Disses the President, Wants More Refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Suck-up Jim Justice hugs the President, but follows the dictates of the ‘religious Left’ opposing the President on refugee resettlement for his poor state. Guess they have run out of poor Americans in WV, they will now import more from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Jim Justice the West Virginia governor who has been a Republican, then a Democrat and now a Republican again, not only joined the fab-15 dumb governors who came out of the chute long before they needed to and declared their support for more refugees, but also foolishly embraced (in writing) the leading activists in the West Virginia Open Borders Left with plans to include them in mapping out a future for the state “in the interest of all West Virginians.”

West Virginia has gotten only a tiny number of refugees over the years.

So I guess the governor plans to change that—so much for supporting one of Trump’s major campaign promises of 2016 to rein-in the dysfunctional UN-driven Refugee Resettlement Program.

WV won’t get its MONEY?

By the way, the word is that the governor thought he must consent ASAP in order to get his funding.  Funding for what—is there a rat in the administration telling governors that some funding will be cut off if they don’t agree to ‘welcome’ refugees.  What exactly is that funding?***

Here below is the text of the governor’s press release earlier this month:

Gov. Justice responds to presidential executive order concerning refugee resettlement

CHARLESTON, WV – Gov. Jim Justice today sent a letter of consent to Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo in response to an executive order issued by President Donald J. Trump on Sept. 26, 2019, concerning enhanced state and local involvement in refugee resettlement.

“I am grateful for the Trump Administration’s consideration of states’ rights with this Executive Order and with other policies that impact what happens in West Virginia,” Gov. Justice said in the letter.

“Further, I understand that refugees who come to West Virginia will have been vetted and approved by the appropriate federal agencies, including the Department of State, and be granted legal entry to make a new home in America before settling here. [This is your usual refugee contractor lingo. He didn’t write this on his own!—ed]

“West Virginia has had great success with our refugee resettlement agency, which has been in operation since 1978. Refugees who have resettled here have become productive citizens and are welcomed into our West Virginia family. Therefore, as Governor of West Virginia, I consent to refugee resettlement in West Virginia, as per the terms of the Executive Order.”

Gov. Justice has reached out to Catholic Charities of West Virginia, The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, The Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, The West Virginia Council of Churches, and Temple Israel and Congregation B’nai Jacob in Charleston to set up a meeting in the coming weeks to further determine the best way to move forward in the interest of all West Virginians.

Does the good Mr. Justice think it is in the “interest of all West Virginians” to invite third world poverty and cultural tensions to West Virginia?

I have an extensive archive on West Virginia, click here, to see how patriots there have held back the tide so far.

***On this issue of losing federal funds, if you live in a state where your Republican governor has caved, see those governors here, try to find out if they were threatened with the loss of some sort of funding.  Clearly WV gets a tiny number of refugees—none in the last year—so they surely weren’t being threatened with any loss of federal money for refugees.

Alert! Dumb Republican Governors are Jumping to the Tune of Refugee Contractors!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 14 Comments

The Orange X marks those dumb governors who have caved to the Left and are opposing the President in his effort to slow the flow of refugees to American towns and cities.

 

So far, we know of 15 Republican governors who have been foolish and obviously railroaded by the federal resettlement contractors*** to rush to tell their voters that they have capitulated and are opposing the President on Trump’s signature issue of the 2016 presidential election—getting the dysfunctional UN/US Refugee Admissions Program under control.

It is increasingly clear that those who have said they are consenting to more refugees and thus going against the President didn’t even read the Funding Guidance.

According to those US State Department guidelines, that the resettlement contractors must abide by in order to get their funding for the latter part of FY2020 (yes, this entire exercise is set up as part of the funding mechanism for the nine contractors), they must have the governor’s consent along with the approval in writing from the county commissioners where they want to place the refugees in order to get their payola in June.

Although there is supposed to be a January 21st deadline, on careful reading one can see that governors and counties have months until the new program begins on June 1 to say whether they are ready for more destitute third-worlders or not.

The Republican governors with the big X across their faces are the dumb governors so far who fell for the contractors’ lobbying push when they claimed the deadline was Christmas.

Is Texas Governor Greg Abbott going to play it smart?  Or how about Florida’s Ron DeSantis, or Georgia’s Brian Kemp?  

You can help make that happen by continuing to pound them —tell them you want no more refugees in late 2020 (the program as it has been run for decades is in effect until June!).  Tell them we already have enough of our own poor and vulnerable citizens who need help.

And, if the governor is smart and doesn’t care about pandering to the Left, especially to the ‘religious’ Left, or being pushed around by Secretary of State Pompeo (I have more to say on that later, but no time at the moment), he or she will just stay silent if the answer isn’t a resounding NO right now.

 

This is Church World Service’s poster girl. The resettlement contractors are not just pushing for more legal refugees, but are politically active pressing for more immigration of all stripes.

***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.

For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political activist groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!

And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.

The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?  

(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

 

Tennessee Counties Feeling Betrayed by ‘Biblical Bill’ Planning Rebuke

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

When Tennessee Governor Lee foolishly caved to pressure from Leftwingers and asserted that Yup! Tennessee would welcome a fresh batch of refugees in the coming year, many Republicans who elected him felt betrayed.

TN Gov Bill Lee joins ‘religious Left’ in opposition to the President on refugee resettlement!

In other states where your Republican governor has turned against the President on refugees, you might feel betrayed too, but in Tennessee passions are apparently much higher.

During the term of Tennessee’s previous governor, the state filed a Tenth Amendment lawsuit against the feds over the refugee program there and Lee said, while campaigning for his new job, that he supported that case still winding its way through the courts.

Now, Lee (dubbed ‘Biblical Bill’  by a Tennessee-based website), conservatives feel has double-crossed the people who put him in office.

Breitbart  reporter John Binder reported late last night that action against the governor is underway.

Exclusive: Tennessee Counties Consider Rebuking Gov. Bill Lee’s Approval of More Refugee Resettlement

About a third of Tennessee’s 95 counties, thus far, are considering rebuking Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s approval for the State Department to resettle more refugees in the state next year, Breitbart News has exclusively learned.

[….]

Last week, Lee gave official approval to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to resettle more refugees in the state of Tennessee next year despite a high-profile Tenth Amendment lawsuit that questions the constitutionality of the refugee resettlement program.

Now, at least 31 counties in Tennessee are considering adopting a resolution that rebukes Lee’s approval for more refugees and demands that refugees not be resettled in non-consenting counties. The resolution contends that even if some counties do not consent to refugee resettlement, neighboring consenting counties will be allowed to resettle refugees in those non-consenting counties’ borders.

That reference to non-consenting counties potentially receiving refugees refers to the US State Department rule that contractors may place refugees within a one-hundred-mile radius of their local subcontractor’s office.

The Dailyrollcall.com published this map to show how the 4 federally contracted resettlement offices operating in the state in fact are allowed (according to the feds!) to spread refugees in almost the entire state!

I reported on the map here.

Breitbart continues….

Breitbart News exclusively obtained the resolution, which reads:

BE IT RESOLVED that [County Name] does not want to be forced into participating in the federal refugee resettlement program due to either Governor Lee’s consent and/or being within the permissible placement radius of a resettlement agency office. [Emphasis added]

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that [County Name] requests that Governor Lee retract his consent for initial resettlement in Tennessee for both the one year period of time as stated in his letter and/or the actual consent period required by the Funding Notice. [Emphasis added]

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that [County Name] requests that in the event Governor Lee does not retract his consent for initial refugee resettlement, that [Lee] submit a revised letter of consent to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and to Lt. Governor Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton exempting non-consenting counties from forced participation in the initial resettlement of refugees in Tennessee. [Emphasis added]

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that [County Name] requests that Governor Lee by written notice inform the resettlement agencies which maintain offices and operations in Tennessee that they may not place arriving refugees in non-consenting counties. [Emphasis added]

Read it all.  

Whether you live in a Democrat run state or in one of the 15 states where the Republicans have turned on the President, you too could use this resolution model where you live. Obviously change the names and some of the facts.

I wasn’t going to list the states where Republican governors have gone against the President until they appeared on the US State Department’s official list, but since the DOS is dragging its feet getting its list up-to-date, below is the list of Rs who are welcoming more poverty to your state.

You might well characterize these Republicans as particularly dumb for consenting long before they have to according to the Funding Guidance, but I suspect they thought they might get brownie points from the Open Borders agitators led by the refugee resettlement contractors in their states.

I’m hoping that you won’t hold back in telling them what you think!

BTW, I should have made it clear above that according to the Funding Guidance, counties must opt-in as well as the governor.  If the governor is out, than that settles it for a small portion of FY2020 (from June to end of September), no refugees would be permitted placement (with a few exceptions).

From Daniel Horowitz here yesterday:

There could be more weak Republicans this morning turning on the President on a key 2016 campaign promise.  I haven’t looked yet.