The United Nations holds its fall general assembly in September. This is when ‘diplomats’ from all over the world come to New York for really what amounts to one big party on the town.
Ivanka had lunch on Friday with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Long time readers know Guterres as the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees who has been a leading proponent of moving Muslim refugees to the west. Did he lobby Ivanka on funding for the UN and for the US to ‘welcome’ more refugees? See my extensive archive on Guterres by going here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/?s=Antonio+Guterres
It is also a time when the UN has an opportunity to bash America (except for when Obama was prez).
Here we learn that to save money, the Trump Administration will be limiting the number of State Department and other DC bureaucrats who will be attending the confab on the taxpayers’ dime.
Not mentioned here, but just a reminder to readers, September will be the time of Trump’s big test on the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program because according to the Kennedy/Carter Refugee Act of 1980, the President submits his annual ‘determination’ for the upcoming fiscal year to Congress.
Just about the time Trump speaks to the UN, he will have determined how many refugees will be admitted in the year beginning October 1 for FY18, and from what regions of the world they will come.
The State Department plans to scale back its diplomatic presence at this year’s annual United Nations gathering of world leaders in September as a cost-saving initiative, according to four well-placed diplomatic sources. [Those leakers again?—ed]
For more than seven decades, American presidents from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama have attended the fall U.N. General Assembly general debate in New York to project their vision of American foreign policy to the world. They have been accompanied by a growing entourage of American diplomats, lawyers and technical experts who negotiate a wide range of issues, from nuclear arms treaties to climate change pacts and conflicts.
We are told that Obama and his entourage stayed at the New York Palace. Trump will go to his New Jersey golf club.
President Donald Trump does plan to address other world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, and he will be accompanied by other top advisers, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his daughter Ivanka Trump, who stopped by U.N. headquarters Friday for a private lunch with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
But the ranks of professional diplomats, aides and officials who attend the event to promote American policy priorities on a range of issues will be thinned out.For now, it remains unclear precisely how large of a cut in U.S. staff is envisioned, but two officials said the State Department is seeking to keep a ceiling down to about 300 people, including everyone from the president to support staff who schedule meetings and copy speeches.
[….]
The diplomatic culling is being enforced by Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil chief who has shown little interest in U.N. diplomacy during his first six months on the job. It comes at a time when the White House is seeking as much as a 30 percent cut in U.S. funding to the State Department and even deeper cuts in U.N. operations.
Will Donald Trump seek to cut the State Dept. budget by 30%? Will he cut even deeper in to the pile of money we give the UN? And, will he cut refugee numbers and seek to abolish or reform the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program?
Answers will come in September!
Your job is to let the President know what you think on a daily basis! Click here.
I’ve told you a few times over the years about how the open borders left rejects the word and the process for immigrants to assimilate and instead has focused on integration for immigrants—most recently here(Sarsour says Muslims must not assimilate).
In Michael Patrick Leahy’s Breitbart storyyesterday about this subtle, but important, use of words by the Trump Department of Homeland Security, we see one of the best descriptions of the difference between assimilation and integration described by a Trump critic. Here it is and then I’ll give you the news:
Author Justin Gest tells us that going back to the idea of assimilation is not a good thing. Photo: https://wp.stolaf.edu/blog/lecture-to-examine-trump-and-the-white-working-class/
Justin Gest a professor at George Mason University told Newsweek (emphasis is mine):
“The history of the words assimilation and integration are not necessarily that different,” Gest says, but “through selective use, and adoption by different idealogues and commentators, they have developed divergent connotations.”
“Integration implies a two-way process, whereby the immigrant adapts to their new environment, and those in the new environment attempt to facilitate the adaptation and co-evolve with immigrants themselves.”
“Assimilation has come to connote a one-way process, where there is a monolithic understanding—a static understanding— of what society is like, and that the immigrants hold all responsibility for adapting to it, and society is subject to no obligation to change to welcome or facilitate the arrival of newcomers.”
Now here is what Leahy is reporting about the change in focus at the Dept. of Homeland Security:
The Trump administration has changed the focus of a Department of Homeland Security immigrant citizenship training program managed by USCIS to “assimilation,” a significant shift from the Obama era focus on “integration.”
The change of focus was made official in the announcement on Tuesday that “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting applications for two competitive funding opportunities under the Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program.” (emphasis added)
“Both funding opportunities aim to prepare lawful permanent residents for naturalization and promote civic assimilation through increased knowledge of English, U.S. history, and civics. Through these two funding opportunities, USCIS will offer up to $10 million in competitive funding for citizenship preparation programs in communities across the country,” the announcement said.
The program, which began in 2009, President Obama’s first year in office, was previously called the “Citizenship and Integration Grant Program” (emphasis added) and “has awarded $63 million through 308 competitive grants to immigrant-serving organizations*** in 37 states and the District of Columbia. The program has helped more than 170,000 permanent residents prepare for citizenship.”
The name change appears to have taken place this month. A screenshot taken from the Internet Wayback Machine shows the word “integration” was used to describe the grant program as recently as July 3.
This is a very good sign that at least internally things are moving in the right direction inside the administration, but here comes my wet blanket question and comment!
Will the far left federal refugee resettlement contractors continue to receive some of the millions of grant dollars? Aren’t there local government agencies that could do a more balanced training program? And, who will be policing their training sessions to assure they are teaching the New Americans about the need to ASSIMILATE?
***Who are the “immigrant-serving organizations?”
Catholic Charities raking in federal bucks to give “free” workshops. This one, probably 2016, in New Bern, NC. LOL! How many of their “New Americans” then register as Republicans?
You guessed it! Some of our nine major refugee resettlement contractors and their subcontractors are getting some of that grant money. You will see five of the nine represented in the FY2014 grantees list I posted here in 2015.
I’m sure you have been scratching your heads about how the contractors can survive on only a per head amount received for each refugee they resettle. The answer is that they all get myriad federal grants for all sorts of things including training refugees for their citizenship tests.
For new readers:
The Federal contractors/middlemen/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizerspaid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities are below. Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors.
The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, but they also receive myriad grants to service their “New Americans.”
The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/propagandists/community organizers from the process.
I’m sorry to keep repeating myself, but this whole refugee controversy has devolved in to a discussion about two issues—the number of refugees we admit and security screening.
What happened to the idea that communities would be informed about refugees arriving in their neighborhoods? What happened to any discussion about the enormous costs of resettling refugees with little education who will be dependent on welfare most likely for life even as they take jobs from low-skilled Americans? What happened to any discussion about massive cultural disruption in some locations? What happened to any discussion about the fact that health screening of refugees seems virtually non-existent with cases of TB and HIV Aids stressing local health departments?
In short, what happened to any discussion about dumping or reforming the whole UN/US Refugee Admissions Program? Or, getting rid of the contractor middlemen***?
Are we simply going to battle over numbers?
Sure sounds like it!
I’m told I should be heartened by the news that someone in the White House (Stephen Miller) will be the point man on refugees, but really, can we expect Anthony Scaramucci to peg him as a f****** racist tomorrow? (If Scaramucci is crazy enough to say something about Miller like that, Trump can forget about his base!).
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) is taking the lead on a decision about how many refugees to admit to the United States next year, two current and three former officials said, a move that may empower those who wish to reduce immigration. [Who are Reuters sources—the leakers in Tillerson’s State Department and its hangers-on?—ed]
Rebecca Heller, Yale law 2010, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project tells Reuters that we have to help Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon by permanently resettling refugees in your towns. She says it will make us safer. Go figure!
The council, which reports to U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for policy Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump’s initial travel ban, is adopting a role traditionally handled by National Security Council and State Department officials.
The shift may strengthen the hand of officials who, like Trump himself, wish to cut the number of refugees resettled in the United States, against foreign policy experts who view the issue through an international humanitarian lens and say taking them in is vital to getting others to keep their borders open.
The bureaucratic maneuver appears to be part of a wider Washington fight over steps that the Trump administration has taken to limit immigration to the United States.
Again, if we see simply a slight reduction in the number of refugees to be admitted in FY18 (Trump will announce in September), and no effort to tell Congress to reform the monstrosity—Ted Kennedy’s Refugee Act of 1980—Trump will have (hugely) let us down.
***Federal contractors/middlemen/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizerspaid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities. Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors. Every week representatives of the nine meet with DOS officials and literally divvy up the refugee dossiers deciding where in 49 states (WY takes zero!) they will be (without your knowledge) placed.
The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US. Those Aussie rejects (I told you about here yesterday) come with a dollar value to the contractor and they have no obligation to tell community leaders/police who they are placing in US towns and cities.
The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors/propagandists/community organizers from the process.
…..and American towns will see as many as 1,250 mostly Muslim detainees secretly dispersed and set free in Anytown, USA.
(Your town will not be notified if you have been chosen by the US State Department and its contractors*** to be the lucky recipients).
Illegal alien swap!
This swap of what amounts to illegal aliens (Australia’s for Salvadorans in Costa Rica) is “insane” as I told reporter John Binder at Breitbart,here yesterday.
And for regular readers I apologize for posting on the ‘Australia deal’ again, but frankly it epitomizes the foolishness the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program has come to demonstrate.
First, just so you know, Australia (rightly) said to illegal alien wannabes—if you try to break in to Australia by boat, you will NEVER get to the mainland, and they are sticking with that as a major deterrent to future attempts. Fine and dandy!
Trump: Let’s see, do I save my political skin or Turnbull’s with “dumb deal” on illegal alien swap?
However, by the US now agreeing to take as many as 1,250 mostly male and Muslim illegal aliens, we save Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s political skin.
Also, this case is a prime example of using the supposed refugees for other purposes of US diplomacy, something I have been raging against for years.
We should only accept refugees in extreme need of humanitarian protection, not because it benefits some politician/government somewhere else in the world. These are Australia’s problem asylum seekers, they are not ours!
Here is the latest from Reuters. And, remember readers, September is it! We will see then, when President Trump submits his refugee plans for FY18 to Congress, whether he was serious when he campaigned on reining-in the monster the program has become.
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will accept several dozen Central American refugees within the next few months, two sources familiar with the process told Reuters, the first transfers under a controversial refugee swap arrangement agreed with the United States. [Note the clever Aussies are going to bring in a few of their part of the “deal” as more pressure on Trump—ed]
Canberra pledged to take an unspecified number of Central American refugees under a deal struck with former U.S. President Barack Obama late last year.
Will Trump go through with the Obama deal?
In exchange, Washington said it would accept up to 1,250 asylum seekers held in Australian immigration centres in the Pacific Island nations of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru that Australia wants to close.
A group of approximately 30 refugees from El Salvador currently being held in Costa Rica will move to Australia in the next couple of months, the two sources said, with a second group of a similar size to follow shortly afterwards.
Read the discussion about those Salvadorans. Frankly, they are not refugees. Obama unilaterally wrote refugee law and created a new ‘refugee’ program for Central Americans who have no claim on asylum status in America. Our supposed ‘gain’ in the Australian deal is that they take these wandering Central Americans which are not legitimate refugees, nor are they our problem, off our hands!
The other day we reported that the processing had stopped,here. Now Reuterssays this:
A U.S. State Department spokeswoman said although the United States has reached a 50,000 cap on refugee admissions this fiscal year, the U.S. government continues to process refugee applications from Nauru and Manus.
“United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has not yet concluded its adjudications of any refugees being considered for resettlement out of Australian facilities in Nauru and Manus islands,” the spokeswoman said. “USCIS does not make public the exact schedules of their interview teams, but they are planning return trips to the islands.”
Australia turning up the heat on Trump!
The transfer of the Salvadoran refugees to Australia will focus attention on U.S. steps to uphold its end of the agreement, described by President Donald Trump as a “dumb deal” for America.
Turnbull’s open borders agitators (the girls) want the detainees (mostly young male Muslims) to be free in Australia!
None of the refugees on PNG’s Manus Island or Nauru – mostly men from the Middle East and South Asia – have been approved to move to the United States yet.Earlier this month, U.S. officials halted screening interviews after the United States reached its annual refugee intake cap.
[….]
Turnbull, under pressure in opinion polls and from within his own party, can ill afford for the United States to renege on the agreement, said Sean Kelly, an adviser to former Australian Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
“The deal has become yet another test of (Turnbull’s) leadership,” Kelly said. “If it fails, that will be a big black mark against him, and he knows that.”
In September, the President, by law, will submit his FY18 ‘determination’ to Congress for consultation. This whole 50,000 cap/ceiling will go away, as will the Supreme Court (families can get in above the cap) unconstitutional rewrite of refugee law. It will be a new refugee year. It will be Donald Trump’s first determination—his first ceiling.
The Aussie’s are fully expecting to move hundreds of these detained men (who have in the past burned down their detention facilities!) to America in the first month of the new fiscal year which begins October 1. We will be watching.
If Trump goes through with this “insanity,” this writer will know just who we elected President and whether any serious reform will ever happen.
Go here for our complete ‘Australia deal’ archive.
***Federal contractors/middlemen/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizerspaid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities. Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors. Every week representatives of the nine meet with DOS officials and literally divvy up the refugee dossiers deciding where in 49 states (WY takes zero!) they will be placed.
The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US. These Aussie rejects come with a dollar value to the contractor and they have no obligation to tell community leaders/police who they are placing in US towns and cities.
The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors/propagandists from the process.
I’m not an economist, but what exactly is growth—is growth more houses being built that gobble up open space? Is growth putting more cars on the road? Building more roads? Is growth constructing more schools and hiring more teachers? Building more Walmarts or more low-income housing? Does growth require more government agencies including for more services such as welfare and police? And, does growth mean that we generally need more government to control everybody and every thing?
You betcha! The refugee slowdown is effecting this resettlement contractor’s “growth.” It is all Trump’s fault says its executive director Jane Graupman. Five of nine federal refugee contractors share the refugee pie in MN because business is good (for them). Or, has been good for them until now!
I know, call me an economic ignoramus, but why is all that a good thing—that we must haul in more and more (culture challenging) immigrants to fuel the growth? Seems like it’s a vicious cycle to me!
The more immigrants we admit to work for mostly big global corporations, the more we need to supply them with things. Is that what growing the economy means?
(See yesterday’s post about how the UN is a driver for mass migration and globalization.)
Anyway, here is a meandering story (worth reading!) from the Twin Cities Business Journalthat basically boils down to yet one more whack at Donald Trump for cracking down on immigration of all sorts.
It begins with a whinefest about those good (upstanding!) Minnesota workers illegally crossing in to Canada as they scamper to get out of Trump’s way. (Emphasis below is mine)
A dramatic shift in global migration patterns is unfolding this year on Minnesota’s border with Canada. Refugees—typically from African countries, motivated in part by fears they are not welcome in the United States—have been moving from and through Minnesota to seek asylum in Canada. While their ranks are still small overall, their numbers began spiking last winter as they walked north across the sparsely populated border near Emerson, Manitoba, often risking their lives in sub-zero temperatures.
[….]
Janzen says many asylum seekers have overstayed their U.S. visas, while others have criminal records. [Canada is welcome to them as far as I’m concerned!—-ed]
Both groups fear imminent deportation under the newly instituted zero-tolerance policy. Initially, Janzen says, a majority were Somali, but increasingly they represent a diverse array of ethnicities and national origins. The situation is unprecedented in recent memory.
“I’ve been here for 27 years and I’ve never heard of refugees leaving Minnesota or the [U.S.] to go to Canada,” says Jane Graupman, executive director at the International Institute of Minnesota, one of five refugee resettlement agencies in the Twin Cities. “The tone from the White House is something I’ve never heard before.” [The International Institute is a subcontractor of primary contractor USCRI***—ed]
Here it is! It is not about humanitarianism, it is about labor! In Minnesota the poultry industry is a leading consumer of cheap migrant labor, including refugees!
Minnesotans beware of these two spinning news! I had to laugh about the Chamber honcho touting ‘economic studies’ about immigrants starting businesses at a high rate in states other than Minnesota. Is it possible the data is wrong in other states?
All of this is part of a larger economic picture that has caught the attention of Susan Brower, Minnesota’s state demographer. “I’m concerned,” says Brower, who worries that the rising anti-immigration sentiment will lead to a growing labor shortage in Minnesota.
And, for those scratching your heads about why Republicans supported the ‘Gang of Eight’ amnesty bill and refuse to reform the US Refugee Admissions Program, here it is—the Camber of Commerce wants the laborers and the new consumers!
The ongoing failure of both Republicans and Democrats to fix the system frustrates Bill Blazar, a longtime executive at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. About a decade ago, the chamber, concerned about looming worker shortages, formed the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition. The alliance, which works with business lobbies, unions, attorneys, religious groups, social service agencies and professional groups—43 organizations in all—continues to press for an overhaul of the immigration system.
Blazar points to a stream of reports showing that newcomers, who often take big risks coming to the U.S., are generally more likely to start companies than native-born Americans are. (Minnesota is a notable exception to this trend.) But he says the number of Minnesota businesses founded and/or led by immigrants has grown since the 1990s.
[They love to talk about immigrants starting little businesses because that sounds so all-American, but they really want the sweat laborers such as poultry workers who then rent apartments, buy used cars, and buy stuff at Walmart!—ed]
[….]
Brower and Blazar’s concerns are based on data that underscore the importance of workforce growth to the state’s economy. In January, a University of Minnesota analysis predicted the state will fall to zero growth after 2020. This forecast assumes that robust numbers of newly arriving immigrants will continue, but doubts are growing about that assumption. The report also showed that Minnesota has become more dependent on immigrants for workforce growth in recent years. [Of course they don’t have to pay higher wages when a steady supply of labor is always arriving—ed]
More ‘diversity hires’ will surely be needed in law enforcement going forward.
“Immigration has been fueling our growth,” says Brower. “We would expect to see increases in immigration to Minnesota, overall, under the projections we have out right now.”
But she notes pointedly that if the flow of foreign-born workers tails off, “we’d see no growth, or contraction” in the workforce.
Thus, she concludes, the new hard line doesn’t square with the needs of employers or the prospects for the state’s economy.
There is even more here. And, there is lots of data!
***Federal contractors/middlemen/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizerspaid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities (and to find them jobs at places like airports!).
Because their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, they work very hard to promote news that refugees fuel the economy, start businesses etc.
The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors/propagandists from the process.
