Update April 18th: Biden himself commits to increasing the numberof refugees to be admitted; references the border saying we couldn’t do two things at once, but now we can (oh really! so what changed?).
“This is a breathtaking betrayal of the plan to ‘build back better.’”
(Matthew Soerens World Relief, a refugee contractor)
Don’t get me wrong. I am just fine with it. In fact, I find it hilarious.
However, Biden/Harris have now so screwed-up the US Refugee Admissions Program (which I know a little about) with their ham-handed incompetence that it makes me ask how badly are they screwing-up elsewhere—-like handling the pandemic or dealing with Russia and China?
We know they are creating a catastrophe and angering most Americanswith their policy, or lack of a policy, at the southern border!
And, that is not so funny.
Now, by not going forward with his promise to reset the annual refugee cap to 62,500 for what remains of the 2021 fiscal year, RRW readers know that Biden has been pissing-off his friends in the NO Borders community.
Leading the pack of the pissed-off are the refugee contractors*** whose business it is to place third world clients in your towns and cities while being paid by you, the taxpayer, to do it.
And, see here that the final straw for those who helped Biden steal the White Housewas when a contractor, the International Rescue Committee, published a report saying Biden was ‘welcoming’ fewer refugees than President Trump.
If that wasn’t bad enough, yesterday all hell broke loose when the White House announced it would leave TRUMP’S CAP of 15,000 (or fewer) refugees to be admitted by September 30th in place.
The “faith groups” (aka contractors) were “outraged.”
Nothing Trump did should ever be left in place!
A few hours later Biden/Harris backtracked and said they would set a new higher cap/ceiling in mid-May.
Keep in mind that while running for the presidency Biden promised his 80 million (ha! ha!) voters that he would admit 125,000 annually.
There is a lot of coverage of the “betrayal.” Here is one account at Religion News Service:
Biden reverses course on refugee cap after faith groups express outrage
WASHINGTON (RNS) — President Joe Biden’s administration has reversed a decision to keep in place a historically low cap on refugee admissions left by Donald Trump, saying it will raise the ceiling next month after faith-based groups initially decried the move as an “abandonment of our ideals.”
Matthew Soerens of World Relief
Biden signed a memorandum Friday (April 16) aimed at speeding up refugee admissions this year — but that memorandum does not increase the so-called refugee ceiling, something the president has pledged to do when speaking to religious audiences.
Although the memorandum leaves open the possibility of raising that number should the United States resettle the maximum 15,000 refugees this year, news that the ceiling will at least temporarily remain at that historic low was met with disappointment by many religious communities, including the faith-based groups that partner with the federal government to resettle refugees.
By Friday afternoon, TheAssociated Press and CNN reported the Biden administration has reversed course, announcing plans to lift the Trump-era refugee cap next month in the wake of widespread pushback from allies.
The White House confirmed to Religion News Service on Friday that officials intend to revisit the refugee ceiling sometime in the coming days, saying in a statement, “We expect the President to set a final, increased refugee cap for the remainder of this fiscal year by May 15.”
Keep reading hereto see what the other Christian contractors, in addition to Soerens, had to say about their man Joe yesterday.
In a more tempered response, see what the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is saying about the flip-flopping from the White House.
‘Relieved but disappointed’: How America’s Jewish refugee aid agency is doing 3 months under Biden
“We’re relieved but disappointed,” said HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield following Friday’s initial announcement that the cap, also known as the refugee ceiling, would not be raised.
Following the second statement, Hetfield added, “There’s no reason to delay raising the refugee ceiling. It’s just a ceiling, it’s not a floor. They should be focused on what’s the goal and how are you going to reach it?”
It is all Trump’s fault!
The fight over the refugee cap encapsulates a dilemma confronting HIAS as the agency moves from Trump to Biden. On one hand, HIAS leaders are glad that the United States no longer has a president who opposes refugees, separates families at the border and fires up his base with anti-immigrant rhetoric.
On the other hand, they say that Trump did so much harm, and made immigration so heated an issue, that it will be a challenge just to bring the immigration and refugee systems back to where they were before Trump.
Returning to a point in which the U.S. allows hundreds of thousands of refugees a year, and passing immigration reform through Congress, these leaders say, feels even more daunting. [HIAS was heavily involved in lobbying for failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform some years ago.–ed]
“It’s just a relief to have that administration in the rearview mirror,” said Melanie Nezer, vice president for public affairs at HIAS. She dubbed the Trump era “the fire swamp.”
But Nezer is cognizant as well of “the sheer amount of time, effort and creativity it’s going to take for the new administration and those of us who work on these issues to unravel and fix it.”
“The prior administration really decimated our infrastructure, our systems, our staffing,” she said. “It’s stunning to think about the damage that was done.”
[….]
Trump’s actions on immigration, beginning with the travel ban, spurred a flood of donations to HIAS.Since Trump’s term, the agency more than doubled its annual budget to $90 million. But resettling refugees — how the organization had once spent the majority of donations — became unprecedentedly controversial and difficult.
With its windfall, HIAS sued the Trump administration over its travel ban, increased its advocacy work and shifted its weight outside the U.S.
For refugee resettlement nerds there is a lot of useful information in this article, sokeep reading.
Here is the data from the State Department showing the paltry number of refugees admitted in the first half of the fiscal year.
This is what has the contractors hopping mad.
Notice (sorry the screenshot isn’t clear, but take it from me) that although we are admitting hundreds of thousands of illegal border jumpers from Central America, more are being admitted as refugees through this legal avenue.
2050 total for six months. They will have a hard time getting to even 15,000 at this rate.
***In case you are new to RRW, here are all of the unhappy contractors.
They worked to ‘elect’ Biden/Harris and lobby for open borders. As taxpayers you pay them millions annually to change America by changing the people.
“We’ll do all we can to help [get to 125,000] — and to hold the administration accountable.”
(Did you get that Joe? A little threat from Melanie Nezer!)
I guess they aren’t too annoyed that he isn’t going to flood America with poverty at least for the next few months. Maybe even Biden is wise enough to know that it would be a bridge-too-far for MOST Americans who are suffering due to the China virus hysterics.
Biden’s promise of 125,000 is for next fiscal year (2022) which begins on October 1, 2021. We haven’t admitted that many refugees since 1992, so Biden will be beating Barack on that score.
Prior to the Trump administration, HIAS and the other eight resettlement contractors*** resettled large numbers of Somali Muslims living in Kenya and chosen for the US by the UN.
However, for policy wonks who have followed the Refugee Admissions Program for over a decade, the flow will be creeping in shortly because there is a provision in the Refugee Act of 1980 which allows the Prez to change the cap during the year if he/she sees a need.
HIAS says Biden will follow the law and “consult” with Congress as he makes a case that he should begin raising Trump’s 15,000 cap right now. Consult does not mean Congress can say no, but they won’t say no anyway.
An astute readers suggested that Biden will use the coming months to send massive amounts of federal money (your money!) out to the contractors so they can get their offices up and running to ‘welcome’ the New Americans.
Biden Administration Announcements on Refugees Are Welcome News
WASHINGTON — In the first days of the Biden administration, HIAS has been encouraged by the new president’s swift and positive actions to welcome refugees. His pledge today to raise the annual refugee admissions cap in consultation with Congress is another much-needed step toward repairing the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and making our immigration system more humane.
HIAS’s Melanie Nezer. Gee what is that little symbol in the left hand corner of the pic?
The annual refugee admissions cap — also called the Presidential Determination, or PD — was cut during every year of the Trump administration, setting a new record low each time.
For Fiscal Year 2021, the PD stood at just 15,000. President Biden has promised to consult with Congress and raise the PD before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, allowing more people in desperate need of safety to come to the United States as quickly as possible. The administration has said it will fulfill President Biden’s campaign promise to raise the PD to 125,000, its highest level in more than two decades, during FY22.
“President Biden has stated formally and in no uncertain terms that U.S. humanitarian leadership is back,” said Melanie Nezer, HIAS’ senior vice president of public affairs. “Rebuilding the resettlement system the prior administration nearly broke won’t be easy. The refugee resettlement program must bring people to safety, protect national security, and integrate people across the country, all in a contentious political environment and during a global pandemic. Despite these challenges, the president has made clear he intends to get there. We’ll do all we can to help — and to hold the administration accountable.”
*** For new readers here they are, the America Lasterswho want more refugees as the ones they previously resettled are struggling in the Chinese virus lockdown (as are many low income Americans!).
Never mind that we are learning that the refugees already in the United States are suffering during the Chinese virus crisis, losing jobs, being evicted and sometimes not finding enough to eat, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Societywants more (to suffer?).
The web is exploding with stories about Biden and refugees and I am bringing you this one because I thought a comment by one of the resettlement contractors was informative.
It is about Columbus, Ohio activists jumping for joy that more migrants of all stripes will be staying and that Biden will admit more refugees than that mean old (Americans First!) Trump.
But, see what refugee contractor Angie Plummer says about the 125,000 number.
Columbus Activists Hope President Biden Will Rebuild Refugee Resettlement Programs
After years of cuts and crackdowns under President Trump, immigrants rights activists are hopeful that the Biden administration will mean fewer deportations and a larger number of refugees settling in Columbus and the rest of the country.
“While our local government is very supportive of our work, our overall government funding continues to diminish.” https://www.crisohio.org/newyear2019/
Former President Trump limited the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. to lows of 15,000 a year. During the campaign, President Joe Biden promised to raise that to 125,000.
Angie Plummer, executive director of Community Refugee and Immigration Services, says that number is aspirational.
“The refugee processing pipeline has been severely damaged, there’s a lot that needs to be rebuilt,” Plummer says.
“So we’re not anticipating that huge number, certainly not this fiscal year.”
By the way, Plummer’s organization in Ohio is a subcontractor of Church World Serviceone of the nine major federal resettlement contractors.*** HIASis also one of the nine.
So with Plummer’s words in mind, why is HIAS telling its supporters to pressure Chairman Joe to set a ceiling of 125,000 this year?
It makes no sense to bring in more impoverished refugees as Americans suffer with joblessness due to Covid-19.
Previously I thought that HIAS and the others in the open borders movement simply wanted to add more Socialist leaning voters to the voter rolls as a primary objective, but heck they have now figured out how to win without real voters.
So why do this….
HIAS Hype!
That is a screenshot. See what they want their followers to do by clicking here.
Last Friday “faith based” groups huddled (virtually) with demented Joe‘s proposed head of Homeland Security and declared themselves “refreshed” by promises from their dear leader.
According to Religion News Service, here are the attendees, in addition to Mark Hetfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), who are especially thrilled at the prospect of more impoverished Muslims and other third worlders expected to arrive in the US beginning in January:
(I have highlighted some of my personal favorites)
According to a Biden transition official, the meeting also included representatives from Catholic Charities USA, Emgage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[Mormons—ed], Code Legal Aid, Christian Churches Together, Jesuit Refugee Services USA, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Arab American Institute, Bridging Cultures Group, Esperanza, the Ismaili Council for the USA, the Secure Community Network, the Islamic Society of North America and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Those are ‘faith’ groups along with HIAS that DO NOT PUT AMERICANS FIRST.
As I told Neil Munro at Breitbart (and I plan to post this comment every time I write about the America Lasters, fake humanitarians):
There’s no sense trying to argue with [progressives] except to turn it back and say; ‘What about our own poor people? Why aren’t they interested in taking care of our poor Americans? Our homeless? Why are refugees and immigrants somehow cooler and more desirable to take care of than our own poor people? Have we run out of poor Americans to take care of?’ No, clearly, we have not run out of poor Americans.
Biden DHS nominee has ‘refreshing’ meeting with faith groups about immigration, refugees
WASHINGTON (RNS) — President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security held a roundtable meeting with an array of faith groups on Friday (Dec. 18), a gathering participants described as “refreshing” and a shift away from the Trump administration’s combative relationship with religious organizations regarding immigration and refugee policy.
The long list of attendees huddled virtually with Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban American Sephardic Jew and former refugee Biden has tapped as his DHS nominee.
They are especially jazzed at Biden’s promise to open America’s gates to migrants from Muslim countries that hate us!
A Biden transition official noted there was significant energy at the meeting created by Biden’s promise to overturn President Donald Trump’s travel ban, which advocates characterize as a “Muslim ban.” They also discussed laws and regulations governing asylum claims.
Biden says he will one-up Obama!
Biden recently announced at a gathering of the Jesuit Refugee Service that he would raise the refugee ceiling to 125,000, above even the 110,000 cap former President Barack Obama set in his final year in office.
“The door just has not been open for discussion for the last four years for many of us in the human rights community,” Mark Hetfield of HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, told Religion News Service after the meeting. “It was nice to actually have a meeting where you can discuss issues — that’s a 180 degree change from what we’ve been enduring for the last four years.”
HIAS has been the ringleader of the anti-Trump ‘faith’ groups since before the President was elected in 2016. They sued the President over Trump’s attempt to give local governments a say in refugee placement. HIAS, Church World Service, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service want to decide if your town will be a resettlement site. They have been making those decisions for decades!
Last year, three faith-based groups, including HIAS, sued the Trump administration over an executive order granting state and local officials the authority to block refugee resettlement.
“I honestly feel there is no better person in the country to serve in this role than Alejandro,” Hetfield said of Mayorkas, who has served on HIAS’ board.
First, HIAS and the United Nations have formalized their relationship according to apress announcement from the UN yesterday. Supposedly it is the first ‘faith’ group to do so.
Zionists zing Hetfield!
Also, yesterday, a press release from the Zionist Organization of America trumpets that HIAS misleads its supporters and the public on several fronts:
ZOA Urges HIAS: Stop Misleading Statement That HIAS Is “Jewish Refugee Agency” and That “HIAS’ Board is 100% Jewish”
HIAS Falsely States Its Partner “Islamic Relief” Is “Apolitical Humanitarian Group” When IR Is On Israel’s and UAE’s Terrorist Lists
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) released the following statement:
The ZOA urges HIAS and HIAS’ President, CEO, and Board member Mark Joseph Hetfield to stop falsely stating that “HIAS’ Board is 100% Jewish”; to stop misleadingly implying that Hetfield is Jewish and speaks for Jews as a Jew; to stop misleadingly claiming that HIAS is a “Global Jewish Refugee Agency,” when in fact approximately 99% of HIAS’ refugee clients are non-Jews (largely Muslim); and to stop falsely stating that HIAS’ partner, “Islamic Relief,” is an “apolitical humanitarian group.” In fact, Israel, the UAE, and others designateIslamic Relief as a terror organization.
As Americans continue to struggle due to the Chinese virus, I figured it is time to highlight once again the salaries of those who are doing well by doing good.
Parents tell your children to grow up to be charity workers.
Again, if HIAS was a legitimate private ‘charity’ it would be none of our business what they pay their employees. However, since they took in over $20 million in taxpayer dollars reported in this Form 990, nearly half of their income for the year, it is our business.
This is too funny! They are worried that they will not be able to whip up a public frenzy to demand more migration to American towns and cities once they have installed their man—Joe Biden—in the White House.
This is just one of many stories I’ve read in recent days in which the Socialist Dems worry that either Biden can’t possibly unwind all of the changes the Trump Administration made to our immigration system that slowed the invasion at the border, increased vetting for refugees, limited refugee numbers to help American low wage workers***, restricted the flow of migrants possibly carrying the Chinese virus, and saw the deportation of criminals who should not have been here.
What will Biden do when this happens? And, it will!
And, they are in a pickle if the flow across the border picks up (it has already started). Images of border wall crashers will be a public relations nightmare for the Biden team. The vast majority of Americans do not want to see an invasion repeat.
If Biden can’t or won’t act quickly to reverse what Trump has done to limit immigration, how on earth are they going to whip up a public frenzy after they destroyed our election system to get their candidate installed in the White House?
Here is a story that had me rolling on the floor laughing….
Let me be clear this is about Leftwing Jews! Just as there are Leftist Catholics and conservative Catholics, there are many conservative Jews who do strongly support the Trump Administration’s immigration restriction stance.
Jews rallied behind immigrants under Trump. Will they stop once Biden is president?
Alain Mentha, co-chair of the New Jersey Jewish Coalition for Refugees, watched with dismay last week as the board of Hudson County voted to extend a contract to hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at the local jail. The board consists entirely of Democrats, many of whom had pledged to stop working with ICE during the Trump presidency, and yet it approved the extension in a 6-3 vote.
Mentha’s frustration with the vote mirrors the concerns of some immigration advocates across the country who were heartened by Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, but fear it may not be enough to reverse Trump-era policies — especially if the public pressure over the issue dies down.
“I’m very worried, to be honest,” Mentha said in an interview. “I don’t want to be cynical or pessimistic, but I think it’s fair to wonder whether our elected officials are going to become complacent or suffer from inertia.”
Or, is it possible that even Democrat elected officials know that the general public will not tolerate loosening immigration policy!
The Trump administration took more than 400 executive actions over the last four years to break apart and reconstruct the nation’s immigration system, the Migration Policy Institute said in a recent report.
Liberal Jewish groups mobilized in opposition to these changes, which included the practice of separating children from their parents at the Mexican border, and the decision to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for their court hearings. Many advocates are optimistic that President-elect Biden will follow through on his campaign promises to reverse these policies, but they also fear that a Democratic administration may not face the same scrutiny that turned arcane border and refugee policy into frontpage news over the last four years.
What they are really saying is that they won’t have the orange monster to beat up (with the help of the media) and how on earth are they going to beat up Biden!
“There is that possibility that in January people feel like, ‘OK, everything is back to normal,’” said Melanie Nezer, a senior vice president at HIAS, the leading Jewish immigrant aid group.“We really have an opportunity here, but it won’t happen without intense pressure.”
Biden has pledged to resettle 125,000 refugees per year, more than in all but seven years since the program began in 1980 and well above average of 70,000 per year under President George W. Bush and 80,000 per year during the Obama administration. The ambitious goal would also be 10 times the 12,000 allowed to enter the United States during the past year.
He has also committed to end the current policy requiring asylum-seekers to await their hearings in Mexico; restore the program that allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children to receive legal residence; and prioritize the deportation of people who have committed crimes unrelated to their immigration status.
But Nezer said the immigration system has been so thoroughly altered by Trump and his senior adviser, Stephen Miller, that it will take years to repair. [LOL! She is lowering expectations to protect Biden.–ed]
No kidding!
Mentha said he fears that Biden may not prioritize immigration policy early in his term, as the country continues to grapple with a public health and economic crisis that could make Americans skeptical of allowing in foreigners.
“I’m very concerned that the climate as a whole isn’t very receptive,” he said.
It’s certainly not all doom and gloom for those active in the Jewish immigration-rights world, most of whom are optimistic about the next four years. Several activists interviewed cited Biden’s nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas, who arrived in the United States as an infant, to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Mayorkas, who is on the board of HIAS, comes from a family of Cuban-Jewish refugees. He helped craft DACA while serving in the Obama administrationand pledged after his nomination last week to protect “those who flee persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones.”
*** Here is one storyfrom recent days about how difficult it is going to be to unwind Trump’s policies.
Refugees under the Obama Administration were coming in in vast numbers to supply low wage workers for big business and the service industry (you know maids and janitors). But, the Chinese virus crisis has limited those jobs and here we see former Obama refugee honcho make that point:
“There are challenges that were not present during the Obama administration that are going to complicate or present obstacles to expanding the program,” Carey said. “And I think refugees generally enter entry-level jobs in the service industry, and that’s an area that’s been particularly hard hit in the economic downturn.”
So will Biden (if he makes it to the White House!) just bring in larger numbers than we have seen admitted for decades and simply put them all on welfare?
If you are new to RRW, you might want to learn more about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. I have an extensive archive on the federal government contractor (taxpayers pay them millions for their ‘work’) that has probably worked the hardest of the nine federal refugee contractors to remove President Trump from the White House.
“We’re relieved but disappointed,” said HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield following Friday’s initial announcement that the cap, also known as the refugee ceiling, would not be raised.
Returning to a point in which the U.S. allows hundreds of thousands of refugees a year, and passing immigration reform through Congress, these leaders say, feels even more daunting. [HIAS was heavily involved in lobbying for failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform some years ago.–ed]
Here is the data from the State Department showing the paltry number of refugees admitted in the first half of the fiscal year.
By the way, Plummer’s organization in Ohio is a subcontractor of Church World Service one of the nine major federal resettlement contractors.*** HIAS is also one of the nine.
“There is that possibility that in January people feel like, ‘OK, everything is back to normal,’” said Melanie Nezer, a senior vice president at HIAS, the leading Jewish immigrant aid group. “We really have an opportunity here, but it won’t happen without intense pressure.”