Trump and Pence show ignorance about Rohingya situation in Burma

09/22/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I saw the virtue-signaling by Vice President Pence on Fox News yesterday and wanted to throw something at the TV. The Fox reporter had swallowed the Leftwing media meme (built over the last decade) hook, line and sinker that the Rohingya are victims (just peaceful Muslims minding their own business).

Mike Pence smug — Pence finds Muslims to love (those bad ol’ violent Buddhists, not so much).

Here is my recommendation to him and to Trump on the decades-old conflict in Burma between the Buddhists who run the country and the increasing numbers of devout Rohingya Muslims who the Buddhists say are really illegal migrants from Bangladesh….

Shut up!

I didn’t see the Burmese government chastising you, Mr. President, when you (fearing for the safety of Americans) initiated your ‘travel ban’ aimed at migrants from Muslim countries. Aren’t the Buddhists allowed to protect their people?

Until you have put someone to work studying the complex problem, someone who can fully brief you, simply don’t say a word!

***Update*** Journalists who know the facts call for balanced reporting (instead of constant pro-Muslim biased stories from AP, Reuters, BBC, etc), see here (hat tip:Joanne).

Here is Aljazeera thrilled to report what Pence (and Trump) said out of ignorance this week:

US President Donald Trump wants the UN Security Council to take “strong and swift action” to end violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya.

Speaking at a Security Council meeting on peacekeeping reform, Vice President Mike Pence accused the Myanmar military of responding to attacks on government outposts “with terrible savagery, burning villages, driving the Rohingya from their homes”. [Those attacks came from armed Rohingya militants!—ed]

Pence repeated a US call for the Myanmar military to end the violence and support diplomatic efforts for a long-term solution for the majority-Muslim Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in a country where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants. [Did he call for the Rohingya to stop their violence?—ed]

[….]

It was the strongest US government response yet to the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that has forced more than 420,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, fleeing a military offensive the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing.

More here.

Get the facts…..

I bet Trump and Pence don’t even know that we have admitted almost 20,000 Rohingya to live in your towns and cities in the last ten years, including this upstanding future American citizen in New Hampshire.

Or how about this one agitating in Arizona (once their population gets high enough, the political agitation begins).

Just checked Wrapsnet and found that Donald Trump admitted 715 Rohingya (likely picked up in Malaysia or Thailand) since inauguration day. They couldn’t have been screened any more easily than the Syrians!

And, we are going to ‘welcome’ more Rohingya for Pence to love in that batch of failed asylum seekers from Australia.

See my Rohingya Reports category here—-it includes over 200 posts going back ten years—if anyone seriously wants to try to understand some of the facts buried by the mainstream media!

More blabbing by State Department on refugee determination

09/21/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As you know, we expected President Donald Trump to announce his refugee admissions ceiling for FY18 at least a week ago. But, if CBS has it right from the State Department blabbers, we learn his decision will come after this weekend.

In fact, by law, this whole process should have been started at least a month ago, as I told you here. Unfortunately, like all Presidents before him (and Congress which is supposed to be consulted in advance), following the law is the least of their concerns!

So Donald, as you think about this over yet another weekend, consider the optics!

America First!

There are Americans hurting—in Texas, in Florida and now Puerto Rico. They need housing, medical care, and food.

Are you going to tell the nation, tell taxpayers, they will, in addition to our refugees, be shelling out for another 40,000-50,000 third world impoverished people to begin arriving on October 1?

Suspend the program for at least 6 months—it is the politically sensible thing to do!

(George Bush already set a precedent in 2001 by delaying the determination due that September!)

And besides, the Open borders Left and the contractors are going to scream bloody murder over 40,000-50,000 anyway (they want 75,000)!

Here is CBS reporting on the blabbers at the US State Department:

Simon Henshaw bio — Simon Henshaw is the acting assistant secretary for refugees because (shamefully) Tillerson/Trump have not replaced him.

The Department of Homeland Security has been pushing for a reduction beyond the 50,000 maximum-entry mark set by Trump earlier this year as part of his travel ban executive orders – a number that is already the lowest in modern American history. In a proposal submitted late last week, the department called for a reduction to 40,000 refugees in the next budget year starting Oct. 1, citing concerns about its workload and ability to adequately vet those seeking entry.

The State Department, which oversees the program, has formally recommended that the number be kept at 50,000, according to Trump administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.

Agencies had been given until the close of business Wednesday to submit formal recommendations for consideration.

State Department “officials” virtue-signalling!

State Department officials would have been inclined to set their recommendation higher, several of the people said, but were taking their cues from the president’s executive order and felt that 50,000 was the highest number that would be palatable to him.

Trump has until Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to determine how many refugees to admit under the Refugee Act of 1980. He is expected to consider the issue over the weekend, after he finishes up at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, one White House official said.

[….]

Simon Henshaw, the top State Department official for refugees, said the decision was ultimately Trump’s.

CBS must have been talking to Henshaw.

It looks like we have a few more days—tell Donald Trump what you think!

DHS says they can’t handle 50,000 refugees for FY18, but 40,000 is okay!

09/20/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is not okay with me and thousands of American taxpayers who want to see the program abolished or reformed! Just dickering over numbers is a fools errand—unless of course the White House and Congress have no intention of seriously investigating the program, ever!

Donald Trump announces his Candidacy for President — Dumb political move: 50,000 (or 40,000) third worlders beginning to arrive in 10 days gets Trump nothing! The Left will still hate him and it will do nothing to satisfy Americans looking for relief from the financial and cultural burdens the program creates.

This is a huge disappointment.

Suspending the program in light of Harvey, Irma and Maria (when Americans are hurting and need housing and help) would have been the sensible thing to do in this non-election year.

Does bringing more poverty to America at this time make political sense?

And, does anyone really think that when the entire Congress and a third of the Senate is up for election in 2018, they will lift a finger to investigate and reform? Of course not!

This article at Politico (thanks to Joanne) tells us why the White House has been remiss in following refugee law and getting the decision made in a timely fashion. Here we are right up to the deadline and the dickering continues….

And, Trump doesn’t get it!

He will get s* at 40,000, or 50,000, anyway. He might as well suspend the program and tell Congress to review the law! He has the power to do that!**

Politico:

Department of Homeland Security officials have warned the White House that they may have trouble processing 50,000 refugees next year, putting additional pressure on President Donald Trump to lower the cap on refugees entering the United States to the lowest point in decades.

In private meetings with White House officials in recent weeks, DHS officials have raised logistical concerns about handling 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2018 if the president decides to maintain the cap that he imposed as part of the travel ban, according to two administration officials.

One of the administration officials said the department was swamped with a backlog of asylum applications, which have skyrocketed in recent years. In June, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had roughly 275,000 pending “affirmative” asylum cases — when someone arrives in the U.S. and requests safe haven. The figure amounts to a more than 600 percent increase in the backlog compared with December 2013.

The pressure from DHS comes as Trump faces a vanishing window to make the decision on refugee admissions. According to the statute that governs the program, the president should determine refugee levels before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Though administration officials say Trump has not yet made up his mind, they expect him to lower the refugee cap below 50,000.

DHS has recommended setting the fiscal year 2018 refugee ceiling at 40,000, the administration officials said.

You can read the rest yourself, here. I have to go get a tooth pulled—highly preferable to reading more about this huge political blunder!

Trump State Dept. gives Aussies information we don’t have….

09/20/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..that the first of Australia’s illegal alien detainees have been notified that they will be coming to your towns within weeks!

Trump grin and Tillerson — Australian media learns before we do that Australia’s rejected asylum seekers will begin arriving in unsuspecting American towns within weeks.

That news tells us that the White House has determined to begin admitting a new batch of third worlders on October 1 and thus clearly has chosen to not suspend the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program while Americans are suffering (Harvey, Irma and now Maria).

As of this writing the Presidential determination and accompanying report (which would outline how many we will take from Australian detention centers) has not been released to us—those paying for it and those who will have to live with the arrivals, reportedly from Bangladesh, Sudan and Burma (Rohingya Muslims)!

Was all of Trump’s ‘America First’ rhetoric at the UN yesterday just that—rhetoric?

Here is the Reuters news this morning about the Obama deal Trump called “dumb,” but nevertheless is apparently honoring starting today in order to save Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s political skin!

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday the first group of about 50 men and woman held in two controversial detention centers for asylum-seekers on remote Pacific islands will be resettled in the United States within weeks.

Nauru refugees — America! Here we come! The detainees are mostly men who have lived in a men-only camp, some for as long as four years.

The comments mark the first official timetable for when the United States will begin resettling up to 1,250 people held in Australian-run centers on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus island as part of a refugee swap deal struck by former U.S. President Barack Obama late last year.

Australia will begin resettling several dozen Central American refugees within weeks under the deal that U.S. President Donald Trump has described as “dumb” but has nevertheless said Washington will honor.

“There will be about 25 from both Manus and Nauru will be going to the United States and I just want to thank again President Trump for continuing with that arrangement,” Turnbull said in a video statement.

Three sources familiar with the process said about 25 men from countries such as Bangladesh, Sudan, and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar held on Manus island were the first to be told on Wednesday, with a similar number on Nauru to be told Thursday.

One Sudanese refugee approved for resettlement told Reuters he would leave Manus Island in a few days. [If they are being notified, you know its a done deal!—ed]

Continue here.

This is something we would have expected from Obama, but we didn’t expect Trump to agree to this extremely unusual arrangement—taking another country’s rejected asylum seekers (and mostly Muslims to boot!).

In exchange some Central American economic migrants not even in the US will go to Australia as the benefit we get from the ‘deal.’

For new readers, my extensive archive on the Trump “dumb deal” is here.

If you want to tell the White House what you think, click here. Tell him you should be notified about which cities and towns will be ‘welcoming’ them.

Get ready for Rohingya! Refugee flavor of the year…

09/19/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Burma OIC — In 2013 the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (57 Muslim countries), which has a powerful UN presence, wanted to open an office in Burma to ‘aid’ the Rohingya. Here fearless Buddhist monks said ‘no way.’ Read those signs! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/11/18/the-oic-does-not-need-an-office-in-burma-myanmar/

Maybe you haven’t noticed yet, but Syrian refugees are last years’ refugee poster children.

Now the media is moving on to the Rohingya (click here for what I think is the best pronunciation). Everywhere I turn there is media coverage of the Burmese Buddhist government attempting to limit the expansion and disruptive influence of its Muslim minority population.

I want to move on to other topics this morning, so I can’t possibly fill you in on ten years of posts I’ve written (203 so far) on the Rohingya problem. Someone should write a book and I’ve done a lot of research for wannabe authors in my category called Rohingya Reports, here.

But, I want you to know this morning that the strife in Burma (aka Myanmar) with the Muslim Rohingya (fleeing to Bangladesh, a Muslim country) is being placed front and center at the UN just as President Trump speaks there today.

Here is Amnesty International taking its whack. Surprisingly, there is one little line in this article that you don’t usually see as most reports depict the Rohingya as pure as the driven snow. And, of course, it is ALL Trump’s fault!

“The USA’s policy towards refugees has to be viewed in a global context. In the shadow of Trump’s cruel policies, other countries around the world have continued to dehumanize refugees and turn their backs on them,” said Salil Shetty.

**Salil Shetty: “…Trump’s cruel policies…”**

“Whether it’s the EU condemning refugees to abuse and exploitation at the hands of criminal gangs in Libya, or Australia subjecting refugees to severe physical and psychological damage in its offshore detention centers, rich countries have contributed substantially to the alarming deterioration of refugee rights.

“It is against this backdrop of governments’ callous treatment of people fleeing conflict and violence that the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis is unfolding before our eyes in Bangladesh.”

Bangladesh is a Muslim country and most Burmese believe the Rohingya are just a Bangladeshi ethnic group that illegally inserted itself in Burma decades ago.

Trump is getting an earful in New York this week, but he likely will never be told about the last few words in this paragraph….

World leaders gathering in New York for this year’s UN General Assembly are expected to discuss the spiraling situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, from where the long-persecuted Rohingya population have been forced to flee because of an unlawful and totally disproportionate military response to attacks by a Rohingya armed group.

Gotta give Amnesty a little credit, they are at least reporting that the Rohingya have been agitators of recent waves of violence.

You need to know! This is not about some far off Asian country!

We have admitted 19,110 Burmese Muslims to the US since FY07 (according to Wrapsnet).

One of the contractors welcoming the devout Rohingya to your towns and cities is the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. See my story, here, in 2013.