Just So You Know! There is No Muslim Ban

09/26/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

Muslim refugees from 35 countries arrived in the US this fiscal year!

Granted fewer Muslims are entering the US right now as refugees compared to when Obama was in office, but yesterday I checked the data for this fiscal year (the one that is ending this coming Monday night) and was surprised at the great ethnic diversity of refugees from 35 countries representing several sects of Islam we have ‘welcomed’ this year.

Find the whole report here: **http://www.rcusa.org/report**

What got me interested in checking the data maintained by the Refugee Processing Center was a report released in June by the lobbying arm of the refugee industry—the Refugee Council USA.

It’s one of those reports meant to draw media attention to—you guessed it—that meany Donald Trump.

By the way, the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) is a consortium of twenty plus Open Borders groups that includes the nine federal contractors and the Muslim charity Islamic Relief USA, see here.

RCUSA has a lobbying office in Washington, DC and their finances are handled by Church World Service.

On page 8 of the report, they published a chart that caught my eye. They want to show how few Muslims the Trump Administration is admitting to the US compared to the huge numbers Obama admitted.

Here it is. FY16 is definitely Obama, but FY17 was already underway when Trump moved into the White House. FY18 is, of course, Trump’s, and the numbers for FY19 are only up to June (8 months of FY19).

(These are just the refugee numbers and do not include all of the other programs that admit immigrants to America.)

Even I was surprised at the huge number of especially Syrian Muslims admitted in Obama’s last full year!

But, their chart doesn’t tell the whole story!

First their column for FY19 through today is updated here:

Egypt 4

Iran 31 (no explanation for the discrepancy, I found 31)

Iraq 353

Libya 0

Mali 3

Somalia 230

Sudan 220

Syria 503

and Yemen 3

Okay, still not a lot you say. But, surely enough to prove there is no Muslim ban!

However, there is more. We admitted Muslim refugees from 35 different countries (not just the eight or so singled out by RCUSA).

In addition to those above:

Afghanistan came in at number one with 1,113, then Burma Rohingya (931), DR Congo (519), Eritrea (343), Central African Republic (165), Pakistan (78) and dozens more with smaller numbers for each.

The grand total of Muslim refugees admitted in FY19 up to yesterday is 4,759!

There is NO MUSLIM BAN!

Episcopal Bishops Lobby Lawmakers for Their Budgetary Survival

09/25/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) is one of the nine federal refugee contractors that the State Department hires to place refugees in your towns and cities.

A year ago their future as a federally-funded ‘non-profit’ was in jeopardy because the Trump Administration said some of the nine might not survive the cuts. Well, all nine did survive to lobby for another day.

If Trump comes in with even lower refugee numbers for this coming fiscal year that begins next Tuesday, EMM’s millions of federal dollars could be in jeopardy again.

EMM is 99.5% funded with taxpayer dollars! See here. And, here.

Thus a group of Bishops trooped to Washington yesterday to make a plea to Congress for more refugees (and therefore more federal dollars for their ‘Christian charity!’)

Note that media accounts rarely, if ever, mention their is a monetary connection to their religious and humanitarian zeal.

From Episcopal News Service:

Bishops meet with federal lawmakers to advocate for Episcopal Migration Ministries, refugees

[Episcopal News Service] Five Episcopal bishops traveled to Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 24 for meetings with senators and representatives from their dioceses to advocate for preserving the U.S. government’s refugee resettlement program at a time when the Trump administration is considering cutting the program further.

Episcopal Bishop’s lobbying contingent

The bishops represent a diverse group of dioceses. Rio Grande Bishop Michael Hunn’s diocese touches 40 percent of the U.S. border with Mexico, and the group also included Maine Bishop Thomas Brown, West Virginia Bishop Mike Klusmeyer, Northern Indiana Bishop Douglas Sparks and Bishop Mark Van Koevering from the Diocese of Lexington in Kentucky.

They were accompanied by staff members from The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations, which organized the visits. They met with both Republicans and Democrats. And their appeals carried the weight of the church’s decades of experience resettling refugees in the United States through Episcopal Migration Ministries, or EMM.

“This is certainly not a partisan issue, from my standpoint,” Hunn told Episcopal News Service after concluding his meetings. “It’s a moral issue of how we care for the stranger among us.”

Okay, so care for the “stranger among us” with private dollars from your flocks!

EMM is shrinking and is getting desperate:

EMM once oversaw 31 resettlement affiliates in 26 dioceses, but now that number is down to 13 affiliates in 11 dioceses. The ongoing uncertainty over future resettlement levels poses additional challenges for EMM and the other eight agencies.

Now get this, the Bishops got their talking points from the Episcopal Church’s Government Relations (lobbying) office (are we paying for that too?).

The five bishops in Washington to advocate for EMM and the refugee resettlement program gathered in the morning for a briefing, in which Office of Government Relations staff members outlined talking points that invoked church policy positions as determined by General Convention resolutions. The bishops also received biographical information about the lawmakers they were meeting.

So who advocates for you, taxpayers, who don’t want your hard earned dollars going to ‘church’ groups advocating far Left political positions? No one!

Federal Refugee Contractors Complain as Some Refugee Flights to the US are being Canceled.

09/23/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran

CNN is reporting that as the 2020 fiscal year approaches (a week from tomorrow) some refugees who had plane tickets for October are being notified that their flights are canceled.

By the way, we are on the hunt every day for the Presidential Determination for how many refugees will be admitted as your new neighbors in the next fiscal year. At one point, leaks (by deep state actors within the federal government) suggested the number could be zero. That, of course, sent the contractors, whose budgets depend on your money, into fits of rage at the President.

Here is CNN today (hat tip: Joanne):

Flights to bring some refugees to the US are being canceled

Flights for some refugees who were approved to come to the United States have been canceled, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The move has sparked concern among resettlement agencies that have booked travel for refugees into October, anticipating the continuation of arrivals in the upcoming fiscal year. It also has the potential of leaving some refugees who were approved to come to the US in limbo.

Rachel Pollock

“It concerns me that our local offices have done a bunch of work and started to make plans for these cases to come. It’s so atypical,” said Rachel Pollock, director of resettlement services for United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, one of the nine resettlement agencies that work with the State Department to place refugees.

“No one really knows what’s coming or what’s going to happen. It seems like a further move away from what we’ve come to expect from this program,” Pollock added.

[Don’t miss my post yesterday about the Bishop’s “summer of discontent” with Donald Trump. Come to think of it, wouldn’t you think the Bishops would cut Trump some slack since he is a staunch defender of the unborn!—ed]

The International Organization for Migration [an organization within the UN-ed], which is in charge of booking refugees on their travel, sent cancellation notices out Monday morning.

A notice obtained by CNN [leaked to CNN by a contractor or some denizen of the deep state most likely—ed] includes the travel itinerary for individuals whose travel was booked for October and canceled. The stated reason for cancellation: “FY20 moratorium extension.”

The notice doesn’t provide an end date for the extension.

The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration directed the International Organization for Migration to send the notifications, according to a department spokesperson, who added the moratorium is being extended through October 21. The department is working with the organization to rebook the flights contingent upon the refugee admissions ceiling for fiscal year 2020.

[….]

As a result of the declining admissions under the Trump administration, all nine resettlement agencies have had to close offices or pause their placement programs — chipping away at a system designed to not only place refugees but also help them integrate into communities across the country.

As of April 2019, around 100 offices have either closed entirely or suspended their refugee resettlement program, a third of offices nationwide, according to a Refugee Council USA report released this year.

NBC: Pentagon vs. Stephen Miller on Refugee Admissions for FY2020

09/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran

I’ve already reported that our US military wants to give tickets to America to more Iraqi and Afghan ‘refugees’ as rewards for helping us in those long wars—one more reason not to go to war in Islamic terrorist-producing countries.

And, I would like to know for how many years after we’ve ended a war are we responsible for moving their nationals to our towns and cities?

See the staggering numbers of Special Immigrant Visa holders we have admitted from Afghanistan and Iraq already! Over 56,000 from Afghanistan and over 18,000 from Iraq!

Why doesn’t NBC report that information?

Here NBC characterizes this year’s battle over the annual presidential determination as one of Stephen Miller vs. America’s mighty military!

Pentagon is last holdout as Stephen Miller tries to slash number of refugees allowed in U.S.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is fighting against proposals by White House officials to drastically cut the number of refugees allowed into the U.S., and has called for reserving visas for Iraqis who risked their lives working for U.S. troops, according to five people familiar with the plan.

Miller vs. the military

In internal discussions, the Defense Department has expressed opposition to any further reductions to the current annual ceiling of 30,000 for refugee admissions, which already is at a historic low for the 40-year-old U.S. refugee program, the sources told NBC News.

Defense officials also proposed setting aside about 6,000 slots specifically for Iraqi applicants who worked for U.S. troops as interpreters or in other jobs, according to one current U.S. official, one former U.S. official and three refugee advocates briefed on the deliberations.

The Pentagon has emerged as the lone voice in internal debates defending the traditional role of a refugee program overseen by the State Department, an unusual twist that reflects the administration’s aggressive stance on immigration and refugees.

The Pentagon’s stance is at odds with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller — the architect of the president’s sweeping crackdown on immigration — and his allies at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, who are all proposing deep cuts or even a halt to refugee admissions for the next fiscal year starting in October.

It is not likely to be zero as the White House floated here in July sending the refugee industrial complex into panic.

The White House, however, is weighing one option that would reduce overall refugee admissions — possibly lowering the cap to 15,000 or lower — while setting aside a certain number of openings for Iraqi applicants, similar to what the Pentagon has proposed, the sources said. [Someone must be blabbing to the media!—ed]

Keep reading and then see this:

Evangelical activist Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council and a strong supporter of President Trump, said earlier this month he was “alarmed” that the administration was considering more dramatic reductions in refugee admissions.

In a letter in July, nine evangelical leaders appealed to the administration to back up its frequent public statements on religious freedom and helping persecuted Christians abroad by raising the cap on refugee admissions.

Of course, Perkins wants more Christians, but those the military wants are mostly Muslims!

Then here, without mentioning that World Relief is one of nine federally-funded (and UN approved) refugee contractors that can’t survive without a steady flow of your tax dollars to their coffers, NBC quotes them as a representative of concerned evangelicals in America.

“The drastic decline in the number of refugees we are resettling in the U.S. is really troubling and it goes against everything that we believe about what our faith teaches us,” said Jenny Yang, vice president for advocacy and policy at World Relief, an evangelical organization that helps resettle refugees in the United States.

“It’s extremely concerning that the administration is not heeding the views of a lot of evangelicals.”

More here.

Just a reminder, FY2020 begins in ten days, on October first.

HIAS Spearheading Effort to Repeal Muslim Ban in Anti-Trump PR Stunt

09/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran

HIAS, for those new to refugee industry lingo, is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and yesterday they launched a grassroots campaign to pressure Congress into passing legislation that would abolish Trump’s so-called Muslim ban, and make it harder for any future President to keep us safe.

Nevermind that there isn’t a Muslim ban as we reported here a few days ago.

Rohingya Muslims are entering the US as refugees by the thousands, and taxpayer-funded HIAS (about $25 million in one recent year!) and the other federally-funded refugee contractors are being paid to take care of the thousands of US-bound Special Immigrant Visa holders from Iraq and Afghanistan (mostly Muslims!)*** who supposedly helped our military (and NGOs!) in those terror-producing hotbed countries!

But, the propagandists in the Open Borders cabal never let facts get in the way of their get-Trump agenda.

They know the bill will never become law while Trump is in the White House, however they are using it as one more media stunt in advance of the 2020 presidential contest. And, they need to keep their followers/donors busy and engaged.

Not enough Muslims in America! HIAS with CAIR protesting the so-called “Muslim ban” at the White House in January 2018. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/

Here is what HIAS is telling its followers to do. (And lucky you! You can read their appeal in ten languages!)

On Tuesday, September 24, Congress will review H.R. 2214, the NO BAN Act. The NO BAN Act will repeal all versions of the Muslim Ban authorized through executive order over the past two years, and will amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit discrimination based on religion. Additionally, it will limit the broad executive authority that allowed the refugee and asylum bans by implementing stricter implementation requirements and greater congressional oversight.

Now, more than ever, it is critical that Members of Congress show their support against discrimination, and support this legislation.

Join us in telling Members of Congress to support the NO BAN Act.

STEP ONE: Find out who your representative is here.

Continue reading here. They have kindly provided a script in case their followers need guidance about what to say.

Learn more about the bill here. See that it has 170 co-sponsors (all Dems).

If you disagree with HIAS, use their link above to find your representative (I suspect you already know who your representative is) and call your member of Congress to express your views in your own (polite please) words.

***A reader, who wished not to be named, told me that it was the large number of SIVs entering with the help of the contractors that were keeping the refugee ‘non-profits’ afloat during these lean Trump years.