Although as you know by now the arrival of refugees has all but stopped due to travel restrictions put in place worldwide.
The UN halted refugee travel a few days ago and the US State Department has reported that no new refugees will arrive now before April 6th.
However, I have been on the hunt to find out if Special Immigrant Visas are still coming in and sure enough they are.
Thanks to a reader for spotting this e-mail from Lutheran Social Services National Capital Area:
Now check this out! They want a piece of a House goody bag! You’ve been reading that Nancy and her Democrat pals are working on a massive giveaway that apparently the refugee contractors expect to benefit from!
I have been checking the data at Wrapsnet (Refugee Processing Center) and sure enough 211 Afghans (who receive all the benefits regular refugees are entitled to) arrived this week bringing the total for the month of March (3 weeks) to 660 from Afghanistan.
That brings the overall total to over 66,000 since FY2008 when this effort to bring Afghan ‘interpreters’ to American towns began.
Although there is no data readily available on where the 211 were placed in the last week, one might expect they were placed in the usual top sites—obviously in Virginia and Maryland as LSS reported in its e-mail.
In this fiscal year (FY2020) that began on October 1, 2019 these are the top five states that ‘welcomed’ Afghan interpreters and their relatives.
California (2,697)
Texas (1,280)
Virginia (730)
Maryland (510)
Washington (489)
So, as your travel is being restricted, planes are still in the air bringing Afghans here for American taxpayers to support!
And, btw, Afghanistan has COVID-19. Are the arriving special refugees being tested?
One of the reasons they hate Trump so much is that he has put them on defense and doesn’t let up.
Joy to behold: President Trump putting the Leftists on the defense daily!
After having watched the nine federal resettlement contractors*** operate for going on 13 years I’m laughing as I watch them spin in circles with each new move by the Administration to slow the flow of immigration to America.
And, I long ago learned that they don’t have the best interests of their clients (refugees) at heart, but are really agitating for ever more migrants of any sort as they work to change America by changing the people.
Further confirmation comes in the wake of the latest Trump Administration effort to restrict travelfrom countries that are not apparently doing their share in weeding-out bad actors who are coming to the US through various legal avenues.
Here is what I said on Saturday when I reported that refugees are exempt from the new travel restrictions:
…if any of the nine federal refugee contractors (whose salaries we, taxpayers, pay) run out and hire lawyers or even open their mouths in opposition to protecting our safety when refugees are not banned, then they show themselves as nothing more than partisan anti-Trump agitators advancing an open borders agenda while hiding under their white hats of phony humanitarianism.
Of course they can’t control themselves and are flailing at the Trump Administration.
They take our tax dollars and agitate daily against our President!
First out of the chute, we have Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (85-90% funded with taxpayer dollars in any given year, for decades) taking their whack at Trump.
FromCrux(a Catholic publication). Where are the Bishops on this?
Administration imposes travel restrictions on six African, Asian countries
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, CEO of LIRS, and former staffer for Michelle Obama
“This policy has been devastating to thousands of men, women and children whose only beacon of hope is the safety and prosperity that America can offer,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. LIRS is one of the largest refugee resettlement agencies in the nation.
“How can we look at ourselves in the mirror knowing that we are doing less and less, especially when an unprecedented global refugee crisis calls for swift, bold action from the world’s humanitarian leader?” she added in a Jan. 31 statement.
[….]
In her statement, O’Mara Vignarajah said LIRS is “particularly concerned about Burmese refugees who may see America’s doors closed to them at a time of desperate need – including thousands of ethnic Chin, Karen and Muslim Rohingya, who have fled severe persecution.”
“Nearly 5,000 Burmese refugees started to rebuild their lives in America last year, many of whom seek to reunite with family still in harm’s way,” she added.
What she doesn’t tell you is that after they get the original seed communities planted in America they begin working to bring in the relatives.
178,395 Burmese isn’t enough!
I just checked the Refugee Processing Centerdata and see that since 2002 (when this data base was set up) we have admitted 178,395 Burmese to the US.
21,000 are Muslim Rohingya which we did not admit to the US when I first began writing RRW.
We, didn’t start any wars in Burma! Their internal ethnic squabbles are their problem. We have no responsibility to do more for the Burmese!
They take our tax dollars and agitate daily against our President!
Now here comes Church World Service telling its groupies to support the No Ban Act being heralded by Rep. Ilhan Omar and Speaker Pelosi who, we are told, plans to push it through the House shortly. Even if it were to pass the House and Senate, the President surely won’t sign it.
So once again we see the typical Democrat tricks to undermine the President, agitate through the media and all the while using their members and followers to push for a bill that is nothing more than a media generating anti-Trump tool.
Rep. Ilhan Omar Dems go-to gal for all things Muslim (Tlaib in the wings)!
URGENT: Tell Congress to Oppose New Muslim Ban Expansion and Protect Our Muslim and Refugee Neighbors
The administration continues to repeatedly attack refugees, asylum seekers, and our Muslim neighbors, prolonging family separation, undermining our moral and legal obligations to the most vulnerable, and discriminating against people based on their faith or nationality.
Then they give their followers a script for a message to Congress. You could have fun using the basic outline of the script and tell your member to oppose Rep. Omar’s NO BAN ACT bill.
Sample Script: “I’m your constituent from [CITY/TOWN], and [as a person of faith], I urge you to strongly oppose the cruel and harmful expansion of the Muslim ban that the Trump administration announced today, which will restrict entry to the United States from six new countries. I also urge you to cosponsor the NO BAN Act (S.1123 / H.R.2214), which would ensure that no one is banned from our country based on religious or nationality-based discrimination. My community is still feeling the negative impacts of this administration’s immoral and wrongful bans that continue to tear apart families. No one should be blocked from entering the country just because of their faith tradition or where they come from. My community welcomes refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants, and I urge you to do the same.”
They take our tax dollars and agitate daily against our President!
*** For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.
Church World Service one of the ‘religious charities’ responsible for changing America by changing the people with a ‘Christian message.’
And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.
The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?
(I try to post this information once a day, or at least every few days!)
I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.
[Correction: In my first headline I said 43 governors said yes. 42 said yes, and one, Texas, has said no.]
When I saw this story at the New York Timesthis morning bashing some local communities for saying no to more refugees, it reminded me to tell you where the consents stand to date.
The NYT reporter, besides slamming elected officials like Mayor Sarno of Springfield, Mass (a Dem. who echoes Trump) also informs us that the federal refugee contractors are still pushing for more consents to come in even as the Trump refugee reform effort has been stalled by a friendly liberal judge.
To see who exactly has said yes so far to accepting more financial responsibility for state and local taxpayers (and increased societal tension) I went back to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s website.
LIRS, which has a lot to lose since it is 85-90% federally funded in any given year, has been keeping track. They are also one of three contractors that filed the lawsuit to stop the President’s reform effort because they want to place refugees in locations they choose as they have been for decades. You, local citizens, should have no say!
I see they have listed over 100 local consenting elected bodies and governors in 42 states.
So it seems to me that all refugees coming in should be directed to those 100 local communities (assuming the governor has said yes as well).
Isn’t 100 enough?
Here is their most recent map of governors:
Wyoming has never been part of the refugee program and note that liberal Hawaii has not yet opened its arms to more diversity! LOL! Readers have been asking me where they might move. I see some good options.
And here below are the local governments that have said yes so far.
You would have to exclude any from Texas because the governor has said no, and unless governors of Georgia and Florida say yes, the local governments from those states would be blocked from ‘welcoming’ refugees.
I just did a quick scan of the list and am interested to see that there may be states where the governor has said YES, but no local community has acted. Take New Jersey or Vermont for example—has any local government said yes?
That is the response to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s suggestion on Fox News earlier this week that groups like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Servicefocus their ‘Christian’ charity on vulnerable Texans.
Governor Abbott’s plea: ‘Humanitarian’ groups should take care of Texans first!
Abbott is the only governor who has said his state needs a break from the massive influx of illegal aliens, asylum seekers and refugees the state has received (like it or not!) for a decade or more.
He suggests that the ‘non-profit’ groups that are pushing refugee resettlement reprioritize and take care of Texans first, especially the homeless, because he says he does not want Texas to be California.
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service‘s new CEO, former Michelle Obama staffer, shot back in a story at theTexas Tribune on Wednesday:
Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas nonprofits helping refugees should focus on homelessness. Refugee groups say it doesn’t work that way.
Former Obama staffer, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, became President of LIRS when Linda Hartke was pushed out over some sort of mismanagement scandal.
Gov. Greg Abbott dug his heels in Tuesday in a TV interview explaining why Texas will be the only state in the nation to reject refugees seeking resettlement, saying that aid groups working with refugees should instead prioritize other Texans in need, including the state’s homeless population.
[….]
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said money for resettlement can’t be spent on homelessness or any other safety net programs.
“The federal funding that nonprofit resettlement agencies administer limits its use so it can only be spent through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program,” she said in an email.
Well, this is interesting! Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) has in the last 12 months received as much as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops!
And, although the Bishops have experienced a steep reduction in their federal taxpayer provided ‘gifts’ since their top Obama year, LIRS has not!
Haven’t they been crying the blues that the President is causing them to close offices?
One reason for their steady stream of funding appears to be that the Lutherans’ budget is being propped up via $38 million from Unaccompanied Alien Children grants, while the USCCB in the same time period received $21 million for what should be more accurately labeled Unaccompanied Alien Teens. 84% of the ‘children’ crossing the border without a parent are above the age of 13. Two thirds of the teens are males.
Yup! Ms. V is right, all of their federal funding is to take care of foreigners, many here illegally, so, silly Abbott, why on earth would the humanitarian Christians bother with Americans, with vulnerable Texans—there is no MONEY in it!
From USA Spending:
Note that they are down only about $3 million from their top Obama year while the US Catholic Bishops were down by $50 million. Why? I don’t know.
See that 60% of their federal boodle is for whatever they are doing with the Unaccompanied Alien Teens (illegal aliens). Close the border and save the taxpayers millions!
BTW, I’ve been told by a reliable source that it was the Obama Administration that made this revealingUSASpending.govresource available to us.
Now, it is always fun to have a look at a recent IRS Form 990 for these ‘religious charities.’ This is the salaries page for the most recent one I found for LIRS which is 85%-90% FEDERALLY FUNDED in any given year.
Former CEO Linda Hartke was hitting the $400,000 mark just as she was headed out the door. You were paying 85-90% of that salary and the salaries of the other six-digit employees. I wonder if they are paying Ms. Vignarajah that much? (We will find out when their next Form 990 is made public).
This is fun. I can’t wait to have a look at the other ‘religious charities’ which use our money to “welcome the stranger” rather than to take care of Americans.
I sure hope good Lutherans are speaking up and making it clear that LIRS does not represent them!
Oh, and I should have mentioned that LIRS is one of the three federal contractors that filed a lawsuit and successfully halted, for now, President Trump’s first effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.
LOL! Don’t miss “notable rulings” by Clinton-appointed Judge Peter Jo Messitte at wikipedia. He banned use of words “Redskins” from his court in 2014. I think you can see how the POLITICAL winds are blowing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jo_Messitte
Of course I wasn’t there and you can never completely believe the media spin by major news outlets like the Associated Press, but past experience informs us that, yes, the federal judge hearing the refugee contractors’ case is sympathetic to the three federal refugee contractors and not the Trump Administration.
In fact, he asked the contractors’ attorney if this was a political move by the President.
Did he ask the complainers if they were operating with political motives? I bet not!
Why isn’t he simply looking at the LAW?
(By the way, be sure to see Michelle Malkin’s excellent pieceon the President vs. the contractors yesterday to see the long list of the Open Borders activists expected to be in attendance for the political press conference the contractors held after the hearing.)
Judge weighs bid to stop Trump’s refugee resettlement limit
But of course this isn’t political for the contractors (ha!) as they held a press conference outside the court house after the hearing. Looks like they had a small crowd.
GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge on Wednesday pressed a government lawyer to explain why President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing state and local governments to reject refugees, questioning whether the change was politically motivated.
U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland didn’t immediately rule on a request by three national refugee resettlement agencies for a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from enforcing the order.
During a hearing on the request, the judge said the president’s order essentially changed a federal law governing the resettlement of refugees.
“On what authority is the president acting?” Messitte asked Justice Department attorney Bradley Humphreys.
Humphreys said the 1980 Refugee Act gives the president “ample authority” to make such a change.
“Why change it now?” Messitte asked. “Is it purely a political thing?”
Humphreys said the executive order is designed to enhance the involvement of state and local officials in the process of resettling refugees. But he insisted it doesn’t give them a “veto” over resettlement decisions.
The Trump administration announced in November that resettlement agencies must get written consent from state and local officials in any jurisdiction where they want to help resettle refugees beyond June 2020.
Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and HIAS — a Jewish nonprofit — filed the lawsuit in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Nov. 21. They are three of the nine national organizations*** agencies that have agreements with the federal government to provide housing and other services for refugees. [Notice AP won’t say that there is federal money involved for the contractors.—ed]
They have been providing these resettlement services for decades,” plaintiffs’ attorney Justin Cox said. [Makes it sound like it’s all being done with their private ‘religious’ charity.—ed]
At least 41 states have publicly agreed to accept refugees, but a governor’s decision doesn’t preclude local officials from refusing to give their consent.
For instance, the Democratic mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts, has refused to give written consent for refugees to be resettled in the city. [This especially grates on Hetfield because the subcontractor being shut out in Springfield is one of HIAS’s subcontractors.—ed]
HIAS President Mark Hetfield called it “unacceptable and un-American” that refugees could be banned from living in cities or even entire states.He said the executive order doesn’t explain how the secretary of state could override a governor or county official’s refusal to give consent.
“It’s even worse than a veto,” Hetfield said. “It’s very clear that we can’t even submit for a place unless we think that they’re going to consent.”
LOL! He says they can’t “submit for a place!”
That is code for ‘we can’t put our applications into the US State Department for our MONEY’—the money that flowed to them by the millions for decades from your (taxpayer) wallets to their salaries, overhead, travel and so forth.
***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.
A ‘religious’ message from CWS one of three federally funded contractors suing to stop the President’s effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.
And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.
The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?
(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)
I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.
I just checked the Refugee Processing Center data and see that since 2002 (when this data base was set up) we have admitted 178,395 Burmese to the US.
