Refugees lobby Congress for more refugees/a more “welcoming” America

12/22/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (which selects refugees for the US) and the US State Department partnered to bring refugees to Washington, DC earlier this month to lobby Congress (you probably paid their expenses!). To tell you the truth it’s not exactly clear what they told Members of Congress as they traveled around the Hill on “Advocacy Day.” I’m guessing they want more stuff from taxpayers and more of their people to be admitted to the US.

Amnesty lobbyist Frank Sharry, pal of Grover Norquist, told the gathering to “hurry up and take over.”

From Reuters (a submitted opinion piece?) thanks to reader Joanne:

WASHINGTON, DC, United States, December 13 (UNHCR) – Refugees and asylum-seekers from Syria, Sudan and 20 other nations took steps this week in Washington, DC, to ensure their voices become an integral part of United States policy discussion on how best to protect people fleeing violence and persecution around the world.

At the end of the 2013 Refugee Congress, organized by UNHCR on Monday and Tuesday, the 48 delegates each signed a letter calling on the US authorities to “invite refugees and other affected persons to participate meaningfully in discussions” on refugee and asylum policy issues. [I sure hope that Congress also invites the other “stakeholders”—the US taxpayer!—ed]

The letter was handed by the delegates to their representatives in the US Congress during meetings on the “Advocacy Day” that followed the gathering, an action that participants said underscored the drive to push refugee advocacy forward from the conceptual to the practical.

“UNHCR supports the Refugee Congress as a way for refugees and asylum-seekers in the United States to help themselves and to develop a credible voice for advocacy,” said Shelly Pitterman, UNHCR’s regional representative. “I think that this year’s Refugee Congress took an important step in the right direction,” he added.

“You belong here!”

Assistant Secretary of State Richard, in an address to the gathering, said the refugee story of courage and resilience was quintessentially American. “You are not strangers. You belong here!” she stressed.

The congress participants agreed that fortifying that fact of belonging must be central to their future work. This meant not just feeling confident of their status as full-fledged members of American society but of exercising that status in practical ways to advocate for an issue they know better than anyone. [In other words just living and blending in isn’t enough, they must become political activists.—ed]

Then long-time amnesty activist Frank Sharry told the gathering it was time for them to “hurry up and take over.” Now what the heck does that mean? The charming Mr. Sharry made news recently when he teamed up with Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform to say they where cooking up a scheme for REVENGE against Speaker Boehner and any Republicans who did not want to go to conference with the Senate-passed S.744.

In a rousing address on the first day of the congress, Frank Sharry, executive director of the America’s Voice immigration reform advocacy organization, stressed the need for all people in the United States to understand that refugees and asylum-seekers are as much a part of the fabric of American society as any other group in the country.

“My vision of an America that I love and that I will fight for is an America that is welcoming to refugees,” Sharry said, before calling on refugees and asylum-seekers to take the lead in that cause: “Hurry up and take over!” he said.

I continue to be amazed that the federal refugee contractors and the refugee “activists” themselves don’t get it that if the so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill should become law, there will be FEWER jobs for legal refugees because the millions of newly legalized Hispanics, who are increasingly conversant in English, will be first in line for the jobs at places like Marriott hotels (one of the financial backers of the amnesty lobbying push).

Frankly, for Sharry (America’s Voice) and Norquist and even the federal contractors it’s all about the $$$$ (while changing America!).

An appeal! As of this writing we are only 4 short of 1000 subscribers/followers of RRW. Help us find 4 more before the end of the year so we can reach a new milestone! It may not seem like a large number compared to the big blogs, but because our subject is a narrow one, we are thrilled with the growing number of readers!

George Soros flying in “conservatives” to lobby for amnesty

10/19/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editors note: This is cross-posted from Potomac Tea Party Report, here. We have an extensive Grover Norquist archive here for your further edification.

And, it will be one big happy lovefest with Ali Noorani’s National Immigration Forum and surely with Noorani’s pal Grover Norquist hovering in the wings (or, he might be right out front).

Here is the Breitbart news story. And, then I’ll direct you to a couple of posts at Refugee Resettlement Watch where we have more details on Noorani and where Norquist and Noorani intersect.

Pakistani Ali Noorani began his open borders activism as head of the Massachusetts Immigrants and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

When you read about the ‘Evangelical’ lobbying push (below), the strategy has Grover written all over it (although his name does not come up in this article).

I honestly think that Norquist is a sleeper long-ago planted in the Republican Party, I just can’t figure out yet who he is a sleeper for! Or, is it all about the payola?

Matthew Boyle at Breitbart:

The George Soros-funded National Immigration Forum (NIF) is organizing a “fly-in” of what it calls conservatives from across the country aimed at lobbying House Republicans for an amnesty bill.

According to USA Today’s immigration beat writer Alan Gomez, NIF is planning to organize the fly in with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Partnership for a New American Economy.

“The fly-in is being organized not by conservative groups, but organizations that have focused on legalizing millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally and changing the legal immigration system to bring in more foreign workers,” Gomez wrote on Monday. He noted that the 300 activists for an immigration grand bargain were looking to make what he described as a “conservative pitch” for amnesty.

Gomez noted NIF’s Executive Director, Ali Noorani, who “has advocated for changes in immigration law to help legal and undocumented immigrants for three decades,” claimed “the broad collection coming to Washington represents ‘the conservative base of the Republican Party.’”

[…..]

Soros is heavily involved in funding the lobbying for amnesty. After Breitbart News exposed NIF for being Soros-funded while running a campaign to make it appear as though evangelicals support granting amnesty to illegal immigrants, Noorani admitted his group accepts funding from Soros. Noorani denies that the funding was being used for the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT), a project that his group runs the operations of, but admits that millions of NIF’s dollars come from Soros and that about 10 percent of its budget this year comes from the leftwing billionaire.

There is more, with links to follow, read it all.

Here are all of our posts in which we mention Ali Noorani at RRW. See especially this post from last February. This is what I said:

This closing section of the Politico story has Norquist written all over it—Ali Noorani is Grover’s Pakistani buddy (big smooch from Noorani to Grover ), and this is classic Norquist strategy:

It’s not just religious leaders looking to help galvanize support from social conservatives. The National Immigration Forum has created its “Bibles, Badges and Business” effort that targets conservative lawmakers by bringing in pastors, law enforcement and business owners into the debate. The group helped facilitate more than 70 meetings on Capitol Hill in December, of which 56 were with Republicans.

NIF is preparing to roll out a formal network to help provide a vehicle for sharing and strategy.

Ali Noorani, head of the forum, said it just makes sense when looking at how immigration reform is going to get passed.

“A conservative voter is going to listen to a conservative leader, especially in conservative states,” Noorani said. “From our perspective, this is about voters hearing from their pastor police chief or business — why their Republican member of Congress needs to be supported in this push for immigration reform.”

Be sure to read this piece (it is linked above also) by Noorani in which he begins his Evangelical Christian push by quoting Norquist.

There have been rumblings that Norquist has met with Soros, maybe they cooked this whole thing up together.

See also our recent post on Norquist here.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing things I learned over the years of researching the refugee program was that many so-called Christian and Jewish groups have their hands deeply planted into the pockets of federal and state taxpayers—Catholics, Lutherans and Evangelicals alike. They help facilitate more immigration to America and benefit big business interests (and their own as they are paid by you to help the immigrants get set up with social services). The so-called “comprehensive immigration reform” bill passed by the Senate is larded with goodies for the “churches.”

How is this any different than what angered Christ so much with the Temple moneychangers?

Refugee advocates! Just so you know, you are in bed with Grover Norquist and big business

09/30/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 23rd: More news on Norquist at Potomac Tea Party Report today, here.

This is an article about “amnesty” but it reminds me to remind the human rights gang and you “church” people that you are working side-by-side with big business interests looking for cheap labor (it is not about having a humanitarian heart!) and that Grover Norquist is a ring-leader of the cabal.

We first reported on Grover Norquist in 2007 when he was pushing for the importation of Iraqi refugees and we wondered how that would benefit the US taxpayer.
AP photo

For new readers, type ‘Grover Norquist’ into our search function. We have been following his activities for years. Here is one post I wrote at Potomac Tea Party Report in 2011 about Rep. Frank Wolf linking Norquist to the Islamic infiltration of the US Government. As Wolf admonished his fellow Members, “you can never say again that you didn’t know!”

From Policymic:

“People are an asset, they’re not a liability” were the words with which Grover Norquist chose to commence his Immigration Reform Coming Out Party at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing back in April.

Known as the man who launched his political career by founding Americans for Tax Reform and led the right on its anti-tax agenda through the fiscal cliff and sequestration, Norquist is now proposing that conservatives “[get] past this sense [of being] anti-immigrant.”

Norquist’s sentiment is echoed by many Republicans, in particular the very donors who raised the most funds for last year’s presidential election. Charlie Spies, the founder of Restore Our Future, the most prominent super PAC behind Romney’s 2012 presidential bid, also happens to the leader of a new super PAC, Republicans for Immigration Reform. Another such group, Partnership for a New American Economy, has seen a great influx of conservative businessmen including independent and GOP members. It is backed by the likes of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, the head of Marriott International hotel company Bill Marriott Jr., and the CEO of Overstock.com Jonathan Johnson, both of whom are Republicans. With a majority of members evidently boasting ties to Wall Street and large businesses, this growing network is putting its money and influence behind what other GOPers dub “amnesty.”

Why do you think CEOs like Marriott want amnesty and refugee resettlement? Can you say chamber maids, baggage handlers and kitchen help? Or, why are the meatpackers pushing amnesty? Think of it, with refugees they don’t even have to feel guilty about paying low wages because the refugees lives are being subsidized by the taxpayer via food stamps, Section 8 housing, health care etc.

Compared to the many Republican politicians and media figures who pulled a fast one when they saw the demographic tides changing, Norquist’s and Republican business leaders’ immigration activism seems unexpectedly genuine. As early as 2010, Norquist demonstrated his pro-immigration stance while toeing the line on traditional GOP values.

And, why is it “unexpectedly genuine”—they genuinely want to increase their bottom line as the reporter makes clear at the end of the article.

However, it is no coincidence that Norquist and well-off GOP businessmen share two central tenets in their political agenda — one, preventing tax increases, and two, giving immigrants a path to citizenship.

[….]

As such, it should come as no surprise that business-minded Republicans, usually strong advocates of low taxes, are now the spokespeople for creating a path to citizenship. For big business owners, what is not to like about an increased supply of labor, driving competition in the job market up and wages down?

So we shuffle poor people around the world in the name of humanitarianism disrupting their cultures (and ours!) so they can make beds for the wealthy (or cut meat) and the church do-gooders (the resettlement contractors who are also, by the way, pushing amnesty) can convince themselves that they are good people.

If one wants to be a “good” Christian or Jew, then support some poor individual or family on your own dime, either here or abroad.

Rubio gets pounded!

04/28/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, you landed some of the blows!

Update! April 30th: Word goes out to the pro-amnesty crowd to get their comments in too! (see report at VDARE)

Remember on last Wednesday we asked that you tell Senator Marco Rubio what you think of the “comprehensive immigration reform” bill otherwise known as the Gang of Eight Amnesty bill and ask him to strip out the refugee/asylum program changes the bill makes. (We need Congressional hearings specifically on the Refugee Program!).

Yesterday Byron York writing at the Washington Examiner sums up the bad news for Rubio—most respondents are furious! (emphasis mine)

Senator Marco Rubio, the leading Republican behind the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform proposal, has often challenged those who criticize the bill to come up with ways to improve it. And not just his fellow lawmakers; Rubio has opened a new page on his Senate website asking for help from the public. “Visit our website and submit your ideas to ‘Help Us Improve the Bill,’” says an announcement from Rubio’s office Friday. “Since the immigration legislation was introduced, Rubio has received over 1,100 suggestions for how to improve the bill. Rubio encourages the public to continue reviewing the bill and sharing their ideas on ways to make the bill better when the time comes to amend the legislation.”

What is the hold-up? Why aren’t the other one thousand or so posted? York continues:

A visit to the “Help Us Improve the Bill” page shows the senator has posted just 147 out of the 1,100 suggestions he has so far received. Rubio’s staff is reviewing each one — a wise move, given the emotions that the immigration issue can involve and the tendency of some people to say nasty things on the Internet. But even after screening for foul language and general content, the suggestions Rubio has so far received are remarkably negative. Actually, they are overwhelmingly, crushingly negative, criticizing a wide spectrum of issues included in the Gang of Eight bill. The commenters Rubio has invited to speak really, really, really don’t like what he has done.

Read York’s whole juicy piece!

Check out the 100 plus comments posted so far and see that there is a good representation of ones telling Rubio to dump the Refugee/Asylum sections—thank you!

More comments on Rubio’s comments:

VDARE has more useful commentary on Rubio’s gambit. Patrick Cleburne says it’s a dumb move and proves Rubio is dumb. I had the same feeling about Rubio as I watched his dreadful pro-bill TV spot in which he looks like an earnest kid trying to suck up to the big bully boys—like Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, who are probably enjoying watching Rubio commit political suicide.

Then last evening VDARE reported from a reader who says his reasonable suggestion for changing the bill has not been posted. (My reasonable one has not been posted and I did it mid-week last week). The reader speculates that the Rubio team is selecting the ones that impugn Rubio’s character so that he might treat them dismissively. The readers ends with this:

One can only hope, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, that the Senator is more intelligent than he may appear, and that these comments be a welcome pretext for him to withdraw his own support for the bill: he tried valiantly, he reached out to the opposition, but the people have spoken.

He/she has expressed my thoughts (hopes!) too, that Rubio will respond to the passion out there and gracefully back out. My blog partner, Judy, expressed misgivings about whether Rubio would make such a brave move. In an e-mail this morning she asked:

Once you’ve joined the ruling class, do you ever leave?

In fact, I would bet at this very moment, the Rubio staff (comrades of Grover) are running to the master and asking Norquist to please help gin-up comments in praise of the bill to balance out what has to be 90-plus percent of commenters who are furious with Marco Rubio.

If you haven’t yet commented, it appears that Rubio’s comment thread is still open even though they have posted nothing new in days!

Go here and tell him what you think! I know you probably hate the whole thing, but tell him specifically to strip-out, dump! the references to refugees and asylees (especially in light of the Boston horror!).

Are you on twitter? If so, please tweet this! And, follow me at Ann C @RefugeeWatcher!

Abdurahman Alamoudi, the Boston bombers, Grover Norquist, and the GOP

04/25/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Michelle Malkin is on a roll. Yesterday, she reminded us again of Grover Norquist’s connection to Islamists, like the now imprisoned Alamoudi. My title above is hers.

I wonder if Norquist sends Alamoudi gift packages to his prison cell?

Someone please tell Senator Marco Rubio that his buddy Norquist is an open borders pusher because he is also an Islamist which some on the right have been pointing out for going on ten years. But, this is one more case where the mainstream media is doing a great disservice to its viewers and readers by never mentioning the controversy.

Human Rights First, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, LaRaza—Norquist is all yours now!

By the way, Norquist even has a connection to refugee resettlement. As early as 2007, we reported on Norquist pushing for Iraqi refugees to be admitted to the US, here. See our entire Norquist archive here, and a more extensive archive on Norquist here at my other blog. (Just in case some real investigative reporter for a mainstream outlet is interested in helping America.)

Here is Malkin yesterday:

Gee, maybe now someone will listen.

For years, I’ve warned about the GOP’s Grover Norquist problem. Just last week, he was front and center at the Gang of 8′s amnesty press conference — despite longtime concerns expressed on this blog and by national security advocates and activists about his dangerous Islamist alliances and progressive proclivities.

Now we learn that Norquist’s convicted terrorist pal and former funder, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was the first president of the radical mosque attended by the Boston bomber brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev…

[….]

Alamoudi, as I’ve documented repeatedly here, provided seed money to Norquist’s Muslim outreach effort during the Bush years.

Malkin flashes back to 2003:

Norquist’s lobbying firm is registered as a lobbyist for Alamoudi. Alamoudi provided seed money for Norquist’s Islamic Institute, which shares space with Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform group. The institute is run by Alamoudi deputy and former AMC government relations director Khaled Saffuri. Saffuri and Norquist have worked closely with Bush senior adviser Karl Rove to give radical Muslim activists access to the White House.

Read it all, there is much more and lots of links!

Hey guys, where are you? We have had some great work done in the last few days by Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and Michelle Malkin.

Actually the guys are out there too—here is Andy McCarthy on the jizya. This is a great time to educate Americans about Islamic supremacism.

OOPS! One more thing! To my knowledge Grover has never apologized for his association with Alamoudi.