Trump refugee admissions slowdown shows US refugee program built on budgetary quicksand

The structure of the US Refugee Admissions Program as designed by then Senator Ted Kennedy (with his sidekick Joe Biden) and signed in to law by Jimmy Carter in March 1980 is crumbling (crumpling, whatever) and I want to know—

Where is Congress?

The original concept—non-profit groups being paid by the head to place refugees—is flawed.  How do you run an organization and create an annual budget when the program is almost wholly dependent on that per head government payment?
 
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Any legitimate advocate for refugees, should be asking Congress to reform the entire program.
But, of course the leadership (with fat salaries!) of the nine non-profit contractors*** isn’t urging Congress to reform the program and instead is working tirelessly, through the media, to show how mean Donald Trump is to have reduced the number of paying clients (aka refugees) with the assumption that in a few years they will get rid of him and go back to the good ol’ days.
Continue reading “Trump refugee admissions slowdown shows US refugee program built on budgetary quicksand”

Messy business as Miliband and refugee agency embroiled in fraud and sexual harassment charges involving DR Congo

Two days ago I wondered why the International Rescue Committee*** statement on Trump’s budget cuts did not feature newshound David Miliband (IRC CEO) making the comments against the President.
Look at this!
Headline from the UK Daily Mail yesterday. I guess he had bigger problems bubbling up than Trump’s budget this week:

Charity fronted by former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband ‘hushed up 37 allegations of fraud, sex abuse and bribery’

 

Government ministers froze funding to a charity led by David Miliband after it silenced 37 sex abuse, fraud and bribery allegations, it has been claimed.

The International Rescue Committee, which is headed by the former Labour foreign secretary, was given millions in taxpayers’ cash before the allegations were made.

hillary-and-miliband (1)
He said he loves Hillary’s smile. She called him cute.  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/03/31/david-miliband-loves-hillarys-smile/

A team from the IRC was sent to probe claims of wrongdoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [Readers should know that refugees from the DR Congo are among the top numbers arriving in the US right now.—-ed]

This is the first time I learned that the IRC, besides getting nearly a half a billion US dollars in less than five years from US taxpayers, is also feeding off UK taxpayers.

Yet a leaked report from the Department of International Development (Dfid) shows the funding to the charity was cut after ‘direct reporting of sexual harassment and fraud’.

A Dfid spokesman told The Sun: ‘DFID became aware of serious allegations relating to this programme in August 2016.

‘The Department acted swiftly to ensure the reported misconduct was fully and comprehensively addressed by the IRC and relevant authorities.’

Mr Miliband left politics and joined the IRC in 2013 shortly after losing the Labour leadership election to his brother Ed [Ed’s nickname is ‘Red Ed’—ed]. He remains in the post today.

miliband and soros 2
Here Miliband is awarding George Soros the IRC’s highest honor—Freedom Award—in 2013.  Soros’ son Jonathan is on the left.

He is mentioned by name in the report, although there is no suggestion he is involved in any alleged wrongdoing.

More here.
Doing well by doing good!
The Daily Mail mentions Miliband’s huge salary (in the last reported tax year it was $671,749)!

Any real investigative reporters out there?

We have a very large archive on the life and times of Moneybags Miliband as head of the IRC in Manhattan, click here.
Do not miss this post: Miliband: We must embrace political Islamism.
And here he was the first contractor in 2015 to call for the US to resettle 65,000 Syrians (vast majority are Muslims).

The ol’ gang is breaking up, is Miliband next to depart?

***The International Rescue Committee is the largest (financially) of the nine contractors that resettle refugees in the US.
Recently, we reported that two of the nine have lost their CEO’s under questionable circumstances, see USCRI (Lavinia Limon) here and then just yesterday we learned that Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service CEO Linda Hartke is out.

Refugee ban lifted, but extra vetting for Muslims denounced by refugee contractors

Clearly! the Christian, Jewish and secular federal resettlement agencies do not want extra vetting for Muslims from terror-producing countries. Oh no!
The Homeland Security Department announced Monday that it was lifting the outright ban on refugees from these eleven countries, but certain individuals would undergo greater scrutiny before they would be admitted to the US for you to take care of with your tax dollars.
Here is Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will resume admissions for refugees from 11 countries identified as presenting a high security risk, but with extra vetting for these mostly Middle Eastern and African nations, senior U.S. officials said on Monday.

Hans bald
Dutchman Hans Van de Weerd wants your towns to have more Muslims. Bio here:   http://www.phocuswrightconference.com/Whos-Coming/Speakers/2016/Hans-Van-de-Weerd

The changes came after a 90-day review of refugee admissions from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen by the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies. [Note that Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Burma never were slowed in their flow to your towns.—-ed]

The new rules are the latest changes to the U.S. refugee program made by the administration of President Donald Trump to address what it sees as national security issues.

Some of the administration’s actions, including an executive order to temporarily ban all refugees, have sparked lengthy court battles. Refugee advocates*** have said they see the administration’s actions as intended to reduce the number of refugees, particularly those from Muslim countries.

Reuters reporter Yeganeh Torbati didn’t quote her go-to guy, Van de Weerd, this time, but the NYT did.
Here the New York Times quotes Hans Van de Weerd of the International Rescue Committee (see moneybags Miliband) and the Refugee Council USA (that is lobbying arm of the refugee industry which has been protesting along with CAIR and hired the Podesta Group to lobby Republicans for them in the Senate).

“This administration disproportionally targets Muslims,” said Hans Van de Weerd, a senior official at the International Rescue Committee. “Today’s announcement does not change this for the better.”

And, Hans (is he a US citizen?) is working against the President to be sure that American towns ‘welcome’ more Muslims.  What else can you conclude?
Dear readers, Extra vetting is something to cheer about, but remember it is not permanent.  When Donald Trump leaves the White House in three or seven years, everything can revert back to the free-for-all we witnessed in the Obama years—unless Congress makes changes to the law!
***These are the primary “refugee advocates.”  They are also the federally funded resettlement agencies you pay to act as community political activists secretively placing refugees in your towns and cities.
The number in parenthesis is the portion of their budget that you involuntarily pay! The Washington Post, Reuters, LA Times and the New York Times will never tell you about their conflicts of interest!

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see some big media outfit actually take a serious look at the structure/finances of the refugee industry (heck! I could retire!). Hey! Yeganeh! How about you?

San Diego IRC office gets slap on wrist from US State Department

I reported the news here.  The giant New York City-based International Rescue Committee was found to be placing refugee families in housing that violated local codes and surprise! a local reporter investigated the story.

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The original investigation was posted on KPBS (not a rightwing news outlet!).

Over the ten years I’ve been writing about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program I’ve rarely seen investigations of any of the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors***.

There were a couple of cases elsewhere in the country where a contractor failed to deliver on their DOS contract, left refugees in the lurch in bug infested housing, and where the story was picked up by the mainstream media, but they are rare.

This update by reporter Tarryn Mento is posted at something called inewsource housed, we are told, inside KPBS.

 

That is where we pick up the story….

The national headquarters of the International Rescue Committee says it has found problems with the way its San Diego branch placed refugees in homes. The announcement follows a KPBS investigation into allegations that refugees were told to sign falsified rental documents to get their large families into apartments.

[….]

In a statement to KPBS Tuesday, the IRC’s national office in New York said: “We unfortunately have identified housing placement practices in San Diego which were inconsistent with the IRC’s policies and code of conduct. In response, we have taken steps to reinforce housing-related policies and practices with local staff and we have engaged with and are supporting families who may have been impacted.”

Of course the arrogant IRC isn’t going to talk! Reporters will learn that secrecy is the watchword when it comes to the placement of refugees.

KPBS repeatedly requested a phone interview with the IRC’s national office to learn more about its findings and how it was helping families, but the agency has not replied. San Diego IRC Executive Director David Murphy has also not responded to requests for comment.

David-Miliband-and-Hillar-001
In 2014, IRC CEO David Miliband traveled to San Diego and announced that they were sending more Syrians there.  Miliband, a pal of Hillary and Bill, is a Brit making decisions for American towns and cities. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/03/01/brit-who-heads-international-rescue-committee-lets-send-some-more-syrians-to-san-diego/

A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, which awards federal dollars to resettlement agencies, said in an email that the agency was satisfied with the measures taken by the IRC.

“The State Department requested that IRC conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations, and they have communicated to us that they have taken appropriate action to ‎ensure that all refugees resettled through IRC in San Diego are served in full compliance with all relevant programs, guidelines, and codes,” the spokeswoman said.

The State Department simply took the word of its contractor! (I think the contractors lead the DOS around by the nose!).

But, see what the reporter found out when she went back to the families!

Continue reading here.

One of the stories I hear repeatedly is that the refugee contractors have special inside deals with landlords and owners of inner-city housing.  Let’s have some more disinfecting sunshine on that issue!

Tell the President and Congress that the US Refugee Admissions Program should be suspended and the contractors thoroughly investigated!

 

*** For new readers, these are the Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizers? paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities listed 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.”

If you are a good-hearted soul and think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again! Big businesses/global corporations depend on the free flow of cheap (some call it slave) labor.  It is for this reason that Republican leaders of Congress are supportive of an uninterrupted flow of refugees into America.

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/Leftwing activists/big business head hunters from the process.