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

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.

Supt. Montgomery County Schools says it is federal govt. that screens unaccompanied minors

Thanks to Joanne for spotting the answer to our question from earlier this morning.

Montgomery County, MD, Superintendent of Public Schools, Jack R. Smith held a press conference yesterday about the “tragedy.” The tragedy is that the Obama Administration allowed creeps like these to enter the US and with the government’s help be spread out throughout America.

The Conservative Tree House reported the following when describing the press conference yesterday about the  alleged Rockville rapists from Central America:

Mr. Smith does acknowledge during the latter part of the presser that these predator suspects were indeed part of the Unaccompanied Alien Children relocation program.

Go to the Conservative Tree House and watch the video of the press conference led by MoCo Superintendent of Schools Jack R. Smith.
If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, go to 20:10 and see that in response to a question about screening, Smith says they don’t screen those who are part of the “unaccompanied minors” program where the federal government places the children with families.  He implies that the feds screen them.
To get to the bottom of whether they were part of the program housed in the Office of Refugee Resettlement, real investigative reporters should try and get information out of them.
Unfortunately, the place is still being run by Obama bureaucrats, so chances are slim anyone there will fess up to having processed the alleged rapists.

Central American Minors (CAM) program

God forbid that these perps came in through Obama’s illegal expansion of the US Refugee Admissions Program known as CAM where instead of the ‘child’ aliens coming across our southern border on their own steam trying to claim asylum, we go and get them!
I’ve been meaning to report that Wrapsnet has catalogued hundreds coming in from Central America as refugees already in this fiscal year, but will try to get to that later.
THESE ARE NOT REFUGEES.  People escaping poverty or violence do not fit the definition of a refugee who must prove he/she will be PERSECUTED for one of several reasons if returned home. Obama vastly expanded the refugee definition and Trump’s team needs to get to work immediately and rein-in the expansion!

Legal experts question impartiality of Obama Maryland judge ruling against Trump EO

Looks like Maryland has become the California of the East Coast (see our earlier news about Montgomery County coddling illegal aliens) and now see Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart with an analysis of why the Maryland judge who ruled against Trump’s refugee EO should have disqualified himself.

Theodore Chuang, the Federal District Judge for the District of Maryland who halted most elements of President Trump’s latest executive order temporarily banning travel from six Middle Eastern countries, as well as refugees from all countries, served as deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2014.

Senator Chuck Grassley opposed Chuang for the federal bench mostly due to his role in defending the Obama Administration over Benghazi. https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-prepared-floor-statement-theodore-david-chuang-be-us-district-judge

His March 15 ruling in the case, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) v.Trump, in which DHS, the State Department, and President Trump are defendants, raises legitimate questions about whether he should have recused himself from hearing the case in the first place.

Title 28, Part I, Chapter 21, Section 455 (a) “Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge” of the U.S. Code Annotated reads as follows: (28 U.S. Code § 455 )

Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

The Public Advisory Opinions concerning ethical standards of federal judges offer little further guidance on this particular standard.

As former deputy general counsel at DHS under an administration that pursued policies that are diametrically opposed to those of President Trump, it is not surprising that many legal scholars and political commentators have written articles which, taken as a whole, suggest that the impartiality of Judge Chuang’s March 15 ruling “might reasonably be questioned.”

Continue here to see what legal experts are saying.
And, go here to learn more about the role of federal refugee contractor, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and this case.

Are alleged Rockville rapists Unaccompanied Alien Children?

That is the question I have about the story you can’t possibly have missed over the last day or two.
Were the pair (one from Guatemala and the other from El Salvador), who are behind bars in Maryland for dragging a 14-year-old girl into a boys bathroom and raping her considered ‘refugees’ by the Obama Administration that would have been in charge of them if they turned themselves in at the border as part of the flood of ‘children’ that invaded our border for years during the Obama presidency, so-called UACs?

Questions abound! Is he older than 18? Did he arrive among the waves of so-called ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children? Was he in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement or one of its contractors? And, of course, why had he not been deported? Did MoCo, MD sheriff protect him?

Keep an eye out for any news about whether they were actually under the protection of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. 
***Update*** Montgomery County Superintendent of schools implies they were federally-screened “unaccompanied minors,” see here.
BTW, some question whether the 18-year-old (9th grader) was 18, or indeed much older.
As a Maryland resident, I can assure you that Montgomery County, Maryland, where the alleged assault occurred, has long been a county famous for coddling illegals who get to the state.
***Update*** to see what we are really up against in Maryland, go here and watch Tucker Carlson interview Baltimore city council member.
Here is Leo Hohmann’s shocking report at WND:

Two illegal-alien teenagers who were placed in ninth-grade classes at Montgomery County Schools, Maryland, have been arrested and charged with the brutal rape of a 14-year-old girl, and at least one of the boys had a pending deportation order from ICE.

The boys, identified as Henry Sanchez, 18, of Guatemala and Jose Montano, 17, of El Salvador, approached the young girl in the hallway near the gymnasium inside Rockville High School during school hours about 9 a.m. on Thursday.

[….]

Maryland is perhaps the most welcoming state for illegal aliens and refugees in the Eastern United States, with Montgomery County the most welcoming county in the state. Maryland gives in-state tuition rates to illegal-alien college students, and its legislature is considering a bill that would declare Maryland the country’s first sanctuary state. Montgomery County is already a sanctuary county, denying 63 ICE requests to turn over illegal-alien criminals last year, Fox News reported.

These policies helped create a culture that allows a young girl to be raped and sodomized in a bathroom stall by two illegal-alien boys, at least one of whom was ordered to be deported, border hawks told WND.

[….]

Sanchez and Montano were living in the Aspen Hill neighborhood of Rockville, and they have been charged with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense. They were denied bond by a judge who said they were dangerous and a flight risk.

If convicted, they could get life in prison. [What an investment for American taxpayers, two more in the slammer for life!—ed]

[….]

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, said this is a rare case where the news of a rape of a student on school property managed to leak out into the local media.

Much more here with details of the police report and quotes from Marylanders.
Well the story did break out of the local news and made it to at least Fox News. I haven’t seen it reported on CNN broadcast news, have you?
We have an extensive archive on the so-called Unaccompanied Alien Children mostly teenage boys from Central America. Although they had been coming for years, a huge flood of them crossed our southern border in 2014, with another huge wave in 2016.
Their ‘care’ is through the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (in Health and Human Services) and consumes the largest portion of that agency’s budget.  Two federal refugee resettlement agencies—US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services—get millions each year to manage the ‘children.’ Other contractors have gotten in on the lucrative federal grants awarded for really what amounts to care for illegal aliens.  These ‘children’ are NOT legitimate refugees!
I’ve long suspected that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which sent an envoy to Central America in 2013, and then wrote a report warning of the flow coming, actually lit the fuse for the 2014 border invasion, see here.

Trump’s people now run ORR, someone should be able to find out if these two alleged Rockville rapists were on ORR’s radar screen or in their care.

Click here for more on UACs.

So what happened at yesterday's solidarity-with-mosques day?

Leo Hohmann (author of the best selling book ‘Stealth Invasion) tells us here at World Net Daily. See my post on their plans here a couple of days ago. And, see what I said here (below)!
Hohmann at WND:

‘Christian’ activists head to mosques to resist Trump

A national coalition with ties to George Soros was behind a national day of “solidarity” with Muslims Friday that included rallies at airports and prayer vigils at mosques.

stealth-invasion
Must read! Hohmann’s ‘Stealth Invasion’ which is moving up on Amazon’s best sellers lists.

The National Partnership for New Americans sponsored a “day of action” to protest Donald Trump’s 90-day moratorium on travel from seven countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen – which the groups are calling “unconstitutional” and a “Muslim ban.”

The NPNA was funded with a $200,000 grant from Soros’ Open Society Foundations in 2011.

Friday’s action is to be followed up by another on Feb. 22 when the NPNA coalition plans to flood congressional offices with protesters at the district level, sending an army of advocates for immigrants and refugees.

But Friday’s event was no ordinary protest. Many non-Muslims entered mosques and joined Muslims in the Jummah prayer, which is the most heavily attended prayer of the week at mosques around the world and widely referred to as the “Friday call to prayer.”

Some of the secular and ostensibly Christian activists posted on social media that they felt “inspired” to join in the prayers to Allah.

One mosque that attracted ‘Interfaith’ supporters yesterday was  the Islamic Society of Western Maryland!

At some mosques, such as the Islamic Society of Western Maryland in Hagerstown, visitors observed Islamic gender rules.

This was reported by the Hagerstown Herald Mail:

“We are extremely grateful and appreciative for this show of concern,” Faruq Post, the society’s resident scholar, told the men, women and children, who were asked to segregate by gender. Most women covered their heads with scarves.

By the way the Herald Mail story says 100 were in attendance, but never tells us how many were regulars at the mosque. Three from the INTERFAITH group are quoted.

The NPNA coalition includes a large swath of the interfaith movement in America – a blend of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups – teaming up with immigrant rights activists.

Federally-funded refugee contractors were involved in organizing the solidarity event.

Hohmann continues….

Allying themselves in this project with Muslim groups such as CAIR and the Council of Muslim Organizations are various Christian organizations such as Church World Services, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, World Relief and others involved in the resettlement of refugees in the United States. These volunteer agencies, also called VOLAGs, are paid $2,050 for every refugee they resettle in America, with more than half of that fee flowing into their coffers and the balance going to the refugee. [For new readers it was Church World Service subcontractor, the Virginia Council of  Churches that brought refugees to Hagerstown in 2007 and inspired me to write this blog!—ed]

[….]

These groups present themselves as charitable advocates for the downtrodden when in fact the vast majority of their budgets are funded by federal grants, not donations by church members.

muslim-mafia
If you missed it in 2009, it is not too late to read it. In fact, the timing could not be better!

“It’s not charity if you are taking other people’s money by force, through public tax dollars, and using it to do what you consider to be the Lord’s work,” says Ann Corcoran, who follows the refugee industry and blogs at Refugee Resettlement Watch.

[….]

“They will whine about refugees but when you look at this list and know what they are planning, it is open borders they are really pushing for—illegals, legal immigrants, it is all the same to them,” wrote Corcoran. “In fact, on the call they said they would link their national policy agenda to emotions by using individual refugee sob stories. Refugees as pawns for their radical political agenda?”

As of Friday there were 14 states and the District of Columbia listed as hosting rallies in support of Muslims. Cities on the list included Chicago, New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, Miami, Greensboro, North Carolina; Fairfax and Alexandria, Virginia; Reading, Pennsylvania; Billings, Montana; Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Silver Spring and Hagerstown, Maryland; and Boise, Idaho.

The Hagerstown Herald Mail could never bring itself to write about allegations made in 2009 in ‘Muslim Mafia’ even though CAIR has never been able to prove any of the information is false having been taken directly from documents CAIR had warehoused.
WND’s story continues…..

One of the participating mosques that welcomed non-Muslim supporters to join it for Friday prayers was the Islamic Society of Western Maryland in Hagerstown. This mosque was identified as having connections to radical Islamic elements in the undercover investigative book “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America” by David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry.

The FBI was investigating this predominantly Pakistani mosque for suspicious activity in 2004 and the imam immediately brought in a CAIR lawyer Shama Farooq to help coach him on how to answer the investigators’ questions.

To learn what happened, continue here.
As we know well, citizens have every right to support mosques and organize protests, but when it comes to federally- funded organizations possibly using tax dollars to do it then we have every right to demand an accounting.
By the way, Esam Omeish former head of the Muslim America Society (a Muslim Brotherhood spin-off group) is a member of this mosque. Look what he said in Hagerstown in 2008:

In a sermon during Monday’s holiday prayer service, Omeish encouraged Muslims to establish themselves and break new ground where they live in much the same way Abraham is said to have founded monotheism in Arabia.

Yahya Hendi has spoken here as well. See what Hendi told the Saudis in 2007. Why would Muslims be pushing for the election of Muslim mayors across America? If they are here to assimilate why do they need Muslim mayors?