Tag: HIAS

Maryland judge to hold hearing on Tuesday regarding FY2017 refugee ceiling issue

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For background, see my post here about the annual refugee admissions ceiling and my contention that the President had (still has!) the authority under the Refugee Act of 1980 to stay under the ceiling set by Obama (110,000) or the new ceiling he has set (50,000).  There is nothing in the Act which compels him to bring in numbers approaching the ceiling.
The judge in Hawaii seems to think the judiciary has the right to set numbers, and apparently the Maryland judge is headed in the same direction.

One of the main plaintiffs in the case being heard on Tuesday is Mark Hetfield of HIAS. See here how much of your money HIAS lives on: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/11/13/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-lectures-trump-never-mentions-its-pecuniary-interest-in-refugees/

(BTW, we reported yesterday that Trump’s Dept. of State is still admitting refugees and another 31 came in since yesterday.)
Michael Patrick Leahy (Breitbart) thoroughly addresses the subject of whether courts can set the refugee admissions ceiling in an article entitled:

Federal Judge Who Blocked Trump Travel Ban Will Rule on Plaintiffs Request to Double Number of Refugees in FY 2017

Leahy explains the role of Congress in appropriating money, but the 1980 Act itself placed most of the power in the hands of the President.  I’m guessing that in 1980, Senators Kennedy, Biden and President Jimmy Carter never envisioned a President like Donald Trump, or the degree to which American citizens would object to admitting such poverty to the country, so it is silent on the subject of how low a Prez can go.
Anyway, here is Leahy:

Judge Theodore Chuang of the U.S. District Court in Maryland, who issued a temporary restraining order on March 15 halting part of President Trump’s Executive Order 13780, has scheduled a hearing on March 28 to consider the merits of a request made by the plaintiffs in their complaint to revoke the section of that exec order that limited the maximum number of refugees authorized to enter the United States in FY 2017 to 50,000.

Several legal scholars and political commentators have questioned Chuang’s impartiality, in part because he served as deputy general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, as Breitbart reported.

In the very first sentence of his March 15 decision, Chuang makes an error of fact which may indicate how he will rule on March 28.

“On March 6, 2017, President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order which bars, with certain exceptions, the entry to the United States of nationals of six predominantly Muslim countries, suspends the entry of refugees for 120 days, and cuts by more than half the number of refugees to be admitted to the United States in the current year,” Judge Chuang writes. (emphasis added)

With this statement, Judge Chuang makes it clear that he accepts the argument made by plaintiffs HIAS (formerly Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) about refugee resettlement numbers in FY 2017. The plaintiffs argue that former President Obama’s September 22, 2016 “presidential determination” that he wanted Congress to fund the resettlement of up to 110,000 refugees in the United States in FY 2017 means that Congress must fund the resettlement of 110,000 refugees this fiscal year, and that President Trump has absolutely no say in the matter.

The facts and the law say otherwise.

Leahy follows here with great detail about the role of Congress in appropriating money for resettlement.  Just a reminder that we argue that 50,000 is NOT THAT LOW when analyzing all years since 9/11.

Congress, however, has, of now, only appropriated funding sufficient to resettle 48,901 refugees in the United States in FY 2017, which is 1,099 below the limit of 50,000 President Trump established in Executive Order 13780.

Officials at the Department of State as well as all the refugee resettlement agencies–including HIAS–are well aware that their funding for FY 2017 is about to run out, and that circumstance is entirely unrelated at this time to President Obama’s September 22 “presidential determination” that set the maximum limit of refugees authorized to resettle in the United States in FY 2017 at 110,000.

[….]

The HIAS/IRAP complaint on which Judge Chuang will hold a hearing on March 28 is all about continuing the flow of federal funds to these VOLAGs who are almost completely reliant on the taxpayers to pay for their operations, and their salaries.

Much, much more here.
Go here to see, in my view, what HIAS is worried about!
This is going to be a week in courts involving refugees, more tomorrow.

Not everyone in the Jewish community thinks it is wise to import Middle Eastern Muslims to US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You know there has to be anxiety in the Jewish community about whether Jews should, without reservation, promote the resettlement of Muslims from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan in the ME or Somali Muslims from Africa.
Here at the The Jewish Chronicle we see at least the beginning of some honesty about the friction.

Longtime readers know that we have extensively chronicled the activities of the only Jewish federal resettlement contractor HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) on these pages.  When you read about local Jewish resettlement groups know that most are subcontractors of HIAS (see their subcontractors here).
Here is the story:

By and large, Pittsburgh’s Jewish community — in line with the American Jewish community in general — has rallied behind efforts to bring Syrian refugees to the United States. Formal statements in support of immigration have been issued by area institutions, winter coats for newly arrived families have been collected, and outraged discourse on social media protesting the Trump administration’s attempts to thwart immigration from Syria and other Muslim-majority nations is common.

But despite the outcry from so many in Jewish Pittsburgh that it is imperative to “welcome the stranger,” others argue that Jewish funds and resources should not be going to help bring Syrians here.

Syrian refugees arrive in Pittsburgh in February. http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/02/07/Syrian-refugees-Pittsburgh-International-Airport-Donald-Trump-immigration-ban/stories/201702070214?pgpageversion=pgevoke

“How can Jews be so smart and yet so stupid at the same time?” said Lou Weiss of Squirrel Hill. “Everyone loves the immigration of people to our country to become Americans. But who’s in favor of bringing in immigrants from a country where they hate gays, where women are subjected to female circumcision and honor killings, and they hate Jews?”

While Weiss may hold the minority opinion on this issue, he certainly is not alone.

“From our perspective, 99 percent of the responses we’ve gotten have been positive,” said Jordan Golin, president and CEO of the Jewish Family & Children’s Service, which so far has resettled 51 Syrian families in Pittsburgh and is scheduled to bring in additional families. “We are aware, though, that there are other members of the Jewish community that have different feelings about this issue.”

You have to go to the end of a longish story to hear more from Weiss:

But for Weiss, the issue of whether Jews should be supporting the effort to bring Syrians to this country is pretty cut and dried.

“Take a look at what’s going on in Europe; that’s what will happen here,” Weiss said, noting the mass migration of Jews from European countries who feel threatened by Islamic immigrants there. “Jewish people are people of immigration. But we have to see who it is we’re welcoming into the United Sates. Syrians are taught Holocaust denial. They are taught that Jews are the sons of apes and pigs. There are blood libel books written by their leaders. Only the Jews would pay to bring them to this country.

“You have to think about this rationally,” he continued. “Who are the immigrants? They hate gays, and they subject women to horrible second-class treatment — not every single person, but as a group. And if you bring them here, ultimately, they will vote. If you think they’ll vote to support Israeli interests, you’re sadly mistaken.”

While Weiss is not one of the individuals who has complained to the Federation or to JF&CS, he nonetheless feels strongly about the issue.

“The anti-Semitism of Syrian Muslims is not a quirk,” he said. “It’s a feature of their culture. I love immigrants. But I don’t love the immigration of people that are anti-gay, anti-women, and anti-Semitic.”

Go here for more of The Jewish Chronicle story, and here for our archive on HIAS.

Call the White House to support President Trump's plan to keep us safe!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Not surprisingly, here is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) out with its action alert e-mail minutes after today’s Trump Administration press conference asking the Leftwing open borders gang to call the White House to oppose more vetting and to do more for refugees (HIAS’s paying clients).
See my post earlier today about how HIAS supports a religious test for refugees—the ones they want admitted to the US!

See the phone numbers HIAS has kindly supplied for us. Call the White House and thank the President for keeping us safe and for slowing the flow of expensive refugees to your towns and cities.

 

And, send us a donation! We have a lot of big salaries to pay! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/11/13/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-lectures-trump-never-mentions-its-pecuniary-interest-in-refugees/

More later………….

Trump's re-written Executive Order on immigration expected today; will it kill Lautenberg?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Who is Lautenberg?  You will see below. First the news that CNN is reporting this morning (that the new EO will likely come today).
And, the Wall Street Journal was suggesting last evening also that the newly revised Executive Order (the so-called travel ban) could come today.

christians-under-islam
If early reports are correct, the new EO will express no preference for saving Christians of the Middle East and Africa.

Here are a few highlights that involve the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, from the Wall Street Journal:

The new version is expected to still ban travel from several Muslim-majority nations, but unlike the original, it will leave Iraq off the list, several people familiar with the planning said. [The irony is that the refugee terrorists we have caught in the US were mostly Iraqis!—ed]

No preference for Christians?

The new order is expected to remove a provision giving preference to refugees who are members of religious minorities, which was expected to benefit Christians coming from Muslim nations, several people said. It is unclear if this or possibly other changes would be enough to address those concerns.

The revised order is expected to again temporarily suspend the admission of refugees to the U.S., but unlike the original, it is likely to treat Syrian refugees the same way as those from other countries, people familiar with the planning said. The original executive order suspended the entire refugee program for four months and indefinitely suspended admission of Syrian refugees.

Let’s talk about this issue of a religious test!

We have had a religious test for certain special groups since 1990!

Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat from New Jersey, chats with an attendee after chairing a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on U.S. rail travel in in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011. The House Appropriations' Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development approved a proposal last week to cut $357.7 million from Amtrak's operating subsidy next year. Photographer: Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat from New Jersey, served in the US Senate beginning in 1982. He died in 2013. He put into federal law a provision to FAVOR religious minorities from Russia, later expanded to include those from Iran. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lautenberg

You will hear representatives of the federal resettlement contractors scream that we can’t possibly favor Christians because our Muslim friends will get mad at us, but…….
We have been giving special treatment and  admitting certain religious minorities AS REFUGEES for decades under a law commonly referred to as the Lautenberg Amendment!
How do you think we justified admitting religious minorities from Russia including since FY03, 1,965 Jews and 11,410 Russian Muslims known as Meskhetians (out of a total of 19,440 ‘refugees’ from Russia)! (Numbers from Wrapsnet)
What on earth made them “refugees?”
Lautenberg was later extended to include Iranian religious minorities.
Our old pals at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society have been patting themselves on the back for decades for their work under Lautenberg!
From their website (emphasis mine):

The Lautenberg Amendment, first enacted in 1990 as part of the U.S. foreign operations budget to facilitate resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet Union, allowed HIAS to bring tens of thousands to safety. As the worldwide refugee situation changed, the Lautenberg Amendment was expanded to include persecuted religious minorities in other countries, such as Jews, Christians, and Baha’is from Iran.

Despite being a crucial part of U.S. refugee policy, it expires each year and must be reauthorized.

They then direct readers to a pdf, here.
This is a screenshot of the opening page of the document:

screenshot-404
https://www.hias.org/sites/default/files/lautenberg_amendment_backgrounder.pdf

 
I had a quick look at Wrapsnet for just this fiscal year (10/1/2016 to today) and learned that we admitted 1,637 ‘refugees’ from Iran (635 processed through Vienna, Austria as of January 31, 2017, data not yet available through February).  Of those only 122 were Muslims, so the remainder (1,515) were religious minorities including 26 Jews.
We have a religious test!
We processed from Russia from the first day of fiscal year ’17 (October 1, 2016) to January 31, 2017, 251 so-called ‘refugees.’  29 were Russian Jews.
We have a religious test!

I’m not a lawyer, but if the courts don’t allow a Trump Executive Order to give preference to African and Middle Eastern Christians, how is it that the Lautenberg Amendment (recently extended by Congress) is legal?  And, has been legal and Constitutional for going on 27 years?

Can we rightly expect HIAS to stand in support of Trump’s original concept of a religious test that would allow Christians in majority Muslim countries to have access to the US Refugee Admissions Program? Don’t hold your breath!

ADL twitter campaign #ThisIsARefugee is an opportunity for fun!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Anti-Defamation League, pushing back on the Trump Administration’s efforts to slow the flow of potentially dangerous refugees to America, has launched a twitter campaign titled #ThisIsARefugee.
Putting a face on the refugee issue….
Announced on February 12th, their campaign isn’t getting much traction except from Pamela Geller and yours truly. I posted some of my refugee criminals including Esar Met, Fazliddin Kurbanov, Jasim Ramadon, and today’s newest member of the refugee criminal hit parade Abdirhman Ahmad Noor.

Here is the ADL website with their press release:

New York, NY, February 12, 2017 … Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt announced the start of the #ThisIsARefugee campaign on the heels of today’s National Day of Jewish Action for Refugees rally in New York sponsored by HIAS***.

As the pre-eminent Jewish civil rights organization, ADL is launching the effort to bring to light how much refugees have given to make America the country it is today and underscore how short-sighted and contrary to American values a ban on refugees is.

Continue reading here.
Still trying to get traction just 4 days ago:
 
screenshot-378

We can play the story game too!

As I have said repeatedly, for every refugee violinist or Harvard grad story, I can give you a story about a refugee terrorist or a criminal.
If you are on twitter and have some refugee stories, post them here #ThisIsARefugee!
***Learn more about HIAS here.