Villanova law students help one of the first gay Russians receive asylum, more on the way

12/30/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story published last week in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette gives us some insight into the asylum process in the US especially as it relates to illegal aliens coming across our Mexican border and declaring themselves gay and persecuted. We see how legal clinics, NGOs and refugee contractors work to get as many granted asylum as they can.

Villanova law professor Michele Pistone has helped 125 aliens receive asylum since 2000.

Also, the article answers one of my questions—-where are all these detainees being housed? Turns out that some police departments rent bed space to the feds.

I still have one big question plaguing me—how do we know someone isn’t pretending to be gay just to get into the US?

Pittsburgh-Post Gazette (emphasis mine):

A gay man last month became one of the first Russian citizens granted asylum in the United States since their home country adopted a ban against gay “propaganda.”

The man was granted asylum Nov. 20 by a U.S. Immigration Court judge in York, Pa., thanks to the efforts of a team of students working with Villanova University School of Law’s Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services, or CARES.

He took a “vacation” to Cuba then made his way to the Mexican border! If he was so persecuted, why didn’t he ask for asylum in Cuba. It looks like the Cuban government is in on the scheme though because they clearly let him leave for Mexico (and did not send him back to Russia).

The Russian, whose name was redacted from court documents, took advantage of the visa reciprocity between Russia and Cuba, taking a “vacation” to Cuba. From there he made it to Mexico and then used the compass on his phone to cross the Rio Grande into the United States, where he was picked up by border patrol in June. He immediately sought asylum.

The man ended up in the York County detention facility and the case was referred to CARES, which is directed by law professor Michele Pistone.

Since the mid-1990s, the York County jail has rented out space to the United States to house immigrant detainees. Early on, it became clear the detainees were too far from legal assistance, Ms. Pistone said. So the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center was set up right down the road. PIRC offers detainees seminars on their rights and the Russian refugee attended one such seminar and was connected with CARES, Ms. Pistone said.

Being in “jail” can actually speed up the asylum process:

While it may have been a traumatic experience for the Russian refugee, Ms. Pistone said being in jail may have sped up the asylum process. Ms. Pistone said the backlog for a hearing in immigration courts for those not in jail can be two years.

Ms. Pistone’s client, meanwhile, had his hearing less than six months from when he entered the country.

50 more such cases! All gay Russian cases pending in courts?

Ms. Majkut (a law student) worked with Immigration Equality and the Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center for research on this case. She said those organizations have seen an influx of gay Russians calling with questions about asylum as well as the number of Russians defensively seeking asylum, meaning they are already detained and are facing adversarial proceedings.

Ms. Majkut said those organizations have upwards of 50 cases similar to her client’s that are pending in immigration court.

Now that the Russian gay man has received asylum, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (a federal refugee contractor) has stepped in to get him his “benefits” (welfare goodies)! Coincidentally, when I went to the refugee pow-wow in Lancaster, PA last June I sat in on one session involving HIAS’s leading work with gay “refugees.”

The client has been working with the immigration-focused public interest firm HIAS Pennsylvania to get benefits the government pays to refugees. He has since found an apartment and is looking for work, Ms. Pistone said.

Photo is here along with Ms Pistone’s bio. Oh geez, I see she went to Malta in 2006. I wonder if she was ‘helpful’ in making Malta a gateway for African refugees to the US because it began about that time? See our entire ‘Malta’ archive by clicking here.

WaPo: Reader questions motives of Hetfield and Schwartz

08/11/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The other day I posted on the Israel-bashing by American Jewish elitist Leftwingers here. Now I see that a WaPo reader from Maryland has some good questions for the pair of refugee advocates.

Tiny Israel will die if Hetfield and Schwartz get their wish.

This letter to the Post is from Melvin Farber of Silver Spring:

In reading the Aug. 4 op-ed “Strangers in Israel,” I wondered what point authors Eric P. Schwartz and Mark Hetfield were making. The column wasn’t a call to action by the United Nations, the United States or the world to help Eritreans. Except for two sentences about Sudanese refugees in Egypt, it didn’t ask why Eritreans weren’t seeking asylum in the Arab world, on the African continent or in the Muslim and Christian worlds. The point seemed to be to single out Israel for criticism.

The authors singled out Jews for not living up to the authors’ view of Judaism, as mentioned in the Bible or as promoted by Israel in general terms about refugees. There are more than 190 countries in the United Nations, representing 7 billion people, living on nearly 58 million square miles of land. Israel has a population of about 7 million, living on 8,300 square miles of land. Why are these authors not criticizing the world, the United Nations, the United States, the Arab League, the European Union, the African League, the Christian world or the Muslim world for the tragedy in Eritrea and elsewhere and the plight of their refugees, rather than criticizing Israel?

Yes! I’ve never heard this pair say boo! about Saudi Arabia for instance when that country sends asylum seekers packing! I repeat: Why do they hate Israel so much? Or, like good hypocrites everywhere on the Left, are they just using the refugee issue to bash Netanyahu?

Why do American Leftwing Jews hate Israel so much?

08/10/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 11th: A Washington Post reader asks Hetfield and Schwartz, why the Israel bashing?

Honestly, I don’t get it. Why would the likes of Mark Hetfield (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and Eric P. Schwartz (formerly the Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration for Obama) want Israel to become overloaded with African migrants? Anyone in their right mind can see that a small country (no matter how prosperous) overwhelmed by needy people will eventually fall.

Why do they want Israel to die?

Eric P. Schwartz, a George Soros groupie

Those Israelis working and paying taxes will not be able to sustain the social services needed by large numbers of poor and uneducated migrants as the numbers grow and they begin to vote. The destabilization of government (this is the Cloward-Piven strategy) will happen in Europe (is happening!) and in the US too, just over a longer time frame.

Here Hetfield and Schwartz pen a joint scolding of Israel in the Washington Post. (Israel Turns its back on African refugees) The Op-ed is a week old (I don’t see where it got much attention). You might first want to visit our category on ‘Israel and refugees’ to get an idea of the huge problems and public tension being created by the African illegal aliens there.

There is a lot of boiler-plate guilt-tripping in the piece (kind of like the ‘nation of immigrants’ propaganda we get in the US), so you can go read most of it yourself.

Hetfield and Schwartz:

The Israeli government sent 14 Eritreans back to their country of origin last month after they formally abandoned their requests to remain in Israel. Many more such returns are expected. Israel is seeking to address its refugee challenges by promoting the fiction that it hosts few, if any, Africans fleeing persecution, only “infiltrators” and “illegal work migrants.” The action is a troubling departure from Israel’s proud tradition of refugee protection.

Gee, maybe this is about whacking the Netanyahu government? Hetfield and Schwartz surely don’t like the fence! The two continue:

With the Netanyahu government’s recent construction of a 144-mile Sinai border fence between Israel and Egypt, the flow of asylum seekers has been reduced to a trickle. But Israel must still deal with the 55,000 asylum seekers within its borders, and the government’s statements, record and plans are troubling. Eli Yishai, who served as interior minister until this year, recklessly stoked anti-immigrant sentiment and xenophobia by repeatedly referring to asylum seekers as “infiltrators” and urging large-scale detention of migrants. In May 2012, he declared that south Tel Aviv, where many migrants reside, “has turned into the garbage can of the country.”

Read it all (if you feel like it).

Taking the sugar off the table!

As for the detention business, recently a commenter to one of RRW’s other posts said a country must “get the sugar off the table” in order to stem the illegal migrant tide and that is exactly what detention could do.

The WaPo gives us this bio for Hetfield and Schwartz:

Eric Schwartz was assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration from 2009 to 2011. He is dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a board member of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). Mark Hetfield is president of HIAS.

We have written a lot on Schwartz (another Soros protege’) over the years, click here. And, Hetfield (President of one of the top nine federal refugee contractors) has become increasingly visible and vocal especially as he has taken a leading role in backing the Gang of Eight amnesty legislation (before and after some donors questioned whether HIAS should be involved in pushing amnesty).

Report from North Carolina gives us inside look at refugee resettlement there

08/04/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars!

North Carolina is one of the country’s leading refugee resettlement states (and one of its leading illegal alien-populated states), here.

Also, in 2010, refugee contractors were criticized and shut-down by the State Department for poor handling of the large refugee load being placed there. Here is the third of three posts in which we chronicled the problems there.

Today’s post is about Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency a subcontractor of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. I’m guessing CRRA picked up more of the refugee load in NC after the Lutherans got the boot over in the Triad region of the state. However, this interview gives us a little idea of how the program is operating there now (after a long introduction to help set the mood for readers).

From WFAE-Charlotte and reporter Briana Duggan (No debate about refugees! Really?):

There’s a lot of debate surrounding immigration, but there is one kind of immigration that receives bipartisan support– that of refugees. More than 2,000 refugees resettled in North Carolina last year. We often hear about what refugees have to leave behind – war and persecution – but what is waiting for refugees when they get here?

I don’t know why a radio reporter is interviewing another reporter and not the resettlement agency itself, but here is the exchange I found interesting (emphasis is mine):

Briana Duggan joined Morning Edition Host Marshall Terry to talk more about refugee resettlement.

TERRY: Briana, we just met a family of refugees the moment they arrived. What are the next steps for refugees after they land?

DUGGAN: Well, a resettlement caseworker – like Rebecca in the story – signs them up for social services. So that’s food stamps, whatever cash or medical assistance they’re eligible for, enroll any children in school. [This made me laugh, remember Rand Paul said their job was to bring’em in and sign them up for welfare and took a lot of criticism for saying it, here—ed]

And then, there’s finding a job – with help from refugee resettlement agencies. There are two in Charlotte, and they told me it takes refugees around here about three to four months to find a job. [“Later, many refugees will find physical work, often at a poultry plant or greenhouse “(Duggan earlier in the article)—those meat packers again!—ed]

TERRY: And you said refugees get welcome money from the federal government. What does that pay for?

DUGGAN: Yeah, so the welcome money is about a $1,000 per person. And it’s meant to cover the basics while refugees are looking for those jobs. So rent, utilities, deposits, a bit of food. [The resettlement contractor actually gets $1850 per refugee with CRRA and HIAS taking their cuts—ed]

TERRY: A thousand dollars—for the three to four months it takes to get a job? That couldn’t cover rent alone.

DUGGAN: Right, but you have to remember that most refugees do arrive in families. So, for example- Khup Than Lun who was in my story – she came to the U.S. with a family of five, so that comes out to be $5,000. If they run out of money before they find a job, they’ll get welfare cash assistance. And it’s also important to note that many refugees come to Charlotte because they have family or close friends here. So they may live with their sponsors while they get on their feet.

TERRY: But what about those refugees that come alone?

DUGGAN: That is more complicated. It’s not all that common, but in that case, resettlement agencies have to dip into any donations or extra funds they may have. Agencies will sometimes group together single refugees from the same country to save on rent. But ultimately, it means that those single refugees will need to be quicker on their feet when they arrive to their new country.

Click here for our North Carolina archive.

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society: not so many Jews to resettle, moving on to other refugees

07/17/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, cooling their push for amnesty!

Update July 23: Maybe they lied to their donors, but they are not backing off lobbying in DC for illegal aliens. Here is a tweet HIAS sent out today:

We need to stand firm + stick with our message that we want a vote on citizenship for ALL #11million aspiring citizens #DREAMers #HJC

They don’t say it specifically here, but we have long known that HIAS (one of the top nine refugee resettlement contractors for the US State Department) resettles Muslims. But, that isn’t mentioned here. There is, however, other more interesting news.

It seems they are searching for relevance (to donors) and in order to do that, they are planning to back-off their up-until-now very visible presence in Washington pushing for “comprehensive” immigration reform.

From JTA:

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (JTA) — The new HIAS is not your grandmother’s Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and it’s certainly not the one that brought her mother over from the Pale of Settlement.

After decades as the Jewish community’s foremost voice on immigration — first in leading the resettlement of Jews who arrived here at the turn of the 20th century, then in absorbing hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews in the 1980s and ’90s — HIAS is making formal its shift to refugee care and resettlement overseas.

The vast majority of its work will not be with Jews, and most of it will not be in the United States.

Pres. Hetfield told attendees that ‘immigration reform’ was too partisan. That is incredible since he (or HIAS) tweeted every other minute on the subject throughout the lead-up to the Gang of Eight’s bill (S.744) passing the Senate! And, besides haven’t we been told all along that the Gang is bi-partisan?

I’ve been wondering why these contractors are pushing for the legalization of 11 million job competitors for their refugees—refugees they are supposed to be helping to find employment. Is it possible some are wising up?

By the way, Hetfield spoke at the May State Department hearing where we also testified.

JTA continued:

Underscoring the shift are challenges that are not unique to HIAS: the search for a message appealing to younger Jews considered less parochially minded than their parents, and the dangers of associating with a particular issue — in this case immigration reform — seen as partisan.

“The same stakeholders who were interested in immigration issues were not the same stakeholders who were interested in refugees,” HIAS President Mark Hetfield told the group’s worldwide staff at a retreat last month just north of New York City.

Not too many Jews at risk any more?

The shift culminates a 15-year period in which HIAS has expanded its operations in refugee camps overseas, where it has accrued a strong reputation for service. And it comes at a time when there are few at-risk Jews in totalitarian countries that potentially require rescue.

HIAS directors say the quest for relevance does not mean it is entirely abandoning the infrastructure it has built to rescue Jews at risk should the need arise. But faced with a choice between satisfying an older generation willing to support an organization focused narrowly on Jewish needs and a younger generation more inclined to see itself as citizens of the world, HIAS chose youth.

Going to tone-down their push for amnesty for illegal aliens, so as not to tick-off potential donors!

HIAS is not abandoning immigration reform. It remains one of 26 members of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, which has made immigration reform a priority this year. And its website calls for comprehensive immigration reform that creates a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers in the United States and establishes border policies that enhance security while protecting human rights.

But HIAS officials hope the de-emphasis of the group’s immigration work in favor of refugee resettlement will help smooth the edges of HIAS’ relations with potential partners put off by its reform agenda.

“People would say to us, are you for illegal immigration?” Spinner said, describing the reaction of certain Christian groups. “The issues that are around refugees are much more intense and critical.” [Of course that is a little confusing because most of the Christian groups (Catholics, Lutherans, Evangelicals) HIAS would be associating with are all pushing for amnesty too!—ed]

Interesting: Check out their most recent Form 990, click here, and note that they had a revenue stream of about $23 million that year and $13 million came from you—the US taxpayer. I guess they do have to fund raise, they aren’t getting as big of a piece of taxpayer pie as some of their fellow contractors who are receiving upwards of 95% of their funding from the federal treasury.

Hmmm! If other contractors had to raise more money privately, maybe they too would get off the amnesty bandwagon.

I wonder if HIAS is still getting their million dollar grants from the feds to teach refugees how to have healthy marriages? (click here)

Addendum: I am having cable internet problems at my location, so if you don’t hear from me in a reasonable time, suspect that my internet is down again.