Strong reactions (fear too!) from federal refugee resettlement contractors/supporters in wake of Trump win

“I do believe that future flows will be affected significantly!”

(Doris Meissner reacting to Trump win)

Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart has a good piece yesterday, a compendium of views from the refugee contractors and immigration industry activists.  Check it out here.
I’ve got a couple more stories I want to mention this morning.  The first is one focusing on Rutland, VT which has just recently been chosen by the US State Department as a new site for Syrian Muslim refugee resettlement after months of strong opposition that roiled the political waters in the town.

I Love Rutland keck vpr 2016
Will Rutland get its 100 Syrians, or not? http://digital.vpr.net/post/how-will-trump-presidency-impact-us-refugee-resettlement#stream/0

The article at Vermont Public Radio features quotes from Doris Meissner, a woman who is the doyenne of the Washington DC refugee/asylum/immigration circles.
Meissner was around for the passage of the original Refugee Act of 1980 and I’ve heard her speak a couple of times over the years.  (Her bio is here)
The first time was at the ‘celebration’ for the 30th anniversary of the Refugee Act at Georgetown University in 2010.  I was struck by one thing Ms. Meissner said at a conference that seemed heavily weighted toward a discussion of the asylum portion of the Act and the opportunities it afforded to get more people in to the US.
She told the audience that the original discussions about asylum were geared toward the odd ballet dancer (referencing Russians I presume) who would ask for asylum when performing in the US. But, she and the audience seemed to be pleased that asylum was now a process that was getting tens of thousands in to the US each year as they feared the normal channel for refugee resettlement was constricting and not fast enough for their purposes.
In 2011, I wrote this post about asylum-seeking-Somalis at our southern border and suggested a Congressional investigation (where are you Trey Gowdy?) to determine if non-profit groups were actually aiding and abetting illegal aliens coming across the world and who miraculously (who pays for the travel?) got the the US southern border and knew to ask for asylum.  Meissner is quoted as saying that they have to wait too long in our normal process so they come here illegally. Congress should call Meissner to testify.

The specter of Donald Trump was haunting them already on October 29, 2015:

Again at Georgetown University, this time in October 2015, Meissner was the moderator of a panel on the upcoming 2016 Presidential election. Trump was on their minds and here is what I said in my post:

The “Trump phenomenon” has them obviously shaken and they are trying to figure out how to cope with it.  The phrase “Trump phenomenon” was practically the first words out of Ms. Meissner’s mouth when she opened the session. They expected immigration to be an important issue in 2016, but with a different tone to the discussion, not Trump’s outright “anti-immigrant tone.” The whole presentation that followed was based on the understanding that this audience was all pro-Democrat/pro-Hillary.

The refugee resettlement industry needs your money (less money=fewer refugees)!

Back to the article at Vermont Public Radio and what Ms. Meissner told them…

Doris Meissner is the former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute*** in Washington. She says given the strong language Trump used about refugees in the campaign, she expects big changes.

“It will not be business as usual where refugee resettlement is concerned once he’s in office, and that might in particular affect the Syrian program,” Meissner says.

doris-meissner
Doris Meissner of the Migration Policy Institute is obviously pessimistic about future of US Refugee Admissions Program under President Donald Trump. Will she and her cohorts encourage more to come illegally and apply for asylum?

[….]

Meissner says that while it’s possible Trump would send back refugees now living in the United States, she thinks that would be a very costly and difficult. And given the deplorable conditions in Syria, she believes it’s unlikely.

“But I do believe that future flows will be affected significantly,” she says.

[….]

Meissner says U.S. immigration law sets a benchmark of allowing 50,000 refugees a year into the country. But she says the president has the power to come to Congress on an annual basis to propose boosting or cutting that number, and she expects Trump to call for reductions.

Funds for the coming year’s refugee resettlement programs are currently included in the federal budget. But that budget is part of continuing resolution, which means it needs to be renewed by Congress on Dec. 9.

Meissner says she expects those funds will remain, but admits nothing is certain.

Meissner gets it, they can’t function without the money Congress appropriates so once again I am pleading with you to call your member of Congress and your two US Senators and tell them to DEFUND the RAP in the lame duck session that is now upon us!

And, beware!

Look for larger numbers of border crashers to be asking for asylum. I’ll bet a buck that massive numbers of immigration lawyers are on standby waiting to process asylum claims especially if the RAP is slowed or stopped.
*** See what I said about the Migration Policy Institute here in 2011.

Comment worth noting: Trump answers question about repealing Refugee Act

Editor: If you are a regular reader, you know that occasionally we post a comment from a reader that we don’t want to lose buried at a specific post.  This is from Joe Newton of Georgia’sRefugee Resettlement Relief’ a citizens’ group (a pocket of resistance!):
Trump in Georgia

“This morning our Ex. Dir. of Refugee Resettlement Relief spoke with the presumptive Republican nomineeDonald Trump at the Trump Victory event. Our director raised his hand and was acknowledged by Mr. Trump, then stated: “Mr. Trump please repeal the Refugee Resettlement Act.*** That is how the terrorist are getting into the country.” Trump responded, “I agree” and then pointed out several recent acts of Islamic terrorism committed by refugees and their families.

Mr. Trump had already spent most of his time talking about terrorism. With regard to the mass shooting in Orlando at the Pulse nightclub he said a high ranking representative in the gay community told him that the LBGT community was going to support him because “they know I am the only one who is going to protect them.” He went on to say that this is not only true for the gay community, but for all of us.

He again committed to building the wall and reminded us that the 16,000 Federal Border Patrol employees have endorsed him—-something they have never done in any other presidential race.

Trump emphasized the immigration issue at the Mexican border.  He dwelled on the massive amount of illegal drugs coming across the border, and claimed that the wall would help stem the flow of the drugs.

Trump was calm, well spoken and reasonable. He was a very pleasant, but a firmly committed gentleman. This is not the Donald Trump the media is describing. Donald Trump is thoroughly a gentleman, knows where he is going and what he wants to do when elected president.”

LOL! Check out this story about the event. Trump left empty seats for the banned Washington Post Reporters!
***Of course we all know it takes Congress to repeal the Act (Trump can press Congress from the bully pulpit), that is why it is so important that Speaker Ryan be given the heave-ho. Under his leadership it will never happen!
For all of our comments worth noting and guest posts, click here.

Traveling to Washington, DC soon? Check out the Refugee Act of 1980 on display!

refugee-act-page-one
Wow!  I didn’t know, but since I’ll be in DC next week I might just have to stop at the National Archives for this important display.
I sure hope it is still there since it opened last November (but could find no information when the display would close).  Got to give them credit, they are working hard on their PR campaign!
By the way, you might want to have a look at what Senator Ted Kennedy had to say about his baby—the bill that was ultimately signed into law by Jimmy Carter, here.
Kennedy wasn’t alone, here are the other chief Senate sponsors of the bill:

Sen Biden, Joseph R., Jr. [DE] –
Sen Boschwitz, Rudy [MN] –
Sen Hatfield, Mark O. [OR] –
Sen Javits, Jacob K. [NY] –
Sen Levin, Carl [MI] –
Sen McGovern, George [SD] –
Sen Moynihan, Daniel Patrick [NY] –
Sen Pell, Claiborne [RI] –
Sen Randolph, Jennings [WV] –
Sen Ribicoff, Abraham A. [CT] –
Sen Riegle, Donald W., Jr. [MI] –
Sen Sarbanes, Paul S. [MD] –
Sen Tsongas, Paul E. [MA] –
Sen Williams, Harrison A., Jr. [NJ]

I wrote about the law here in 2013.
If you plan to visit, call the archives first to be sure the law, that is changing your cities and towns, is still being showcased!

Alabama files suit to rein-in refugee program, but…..

….some legal observers say that Alabama’s (and Texas before it) legal arguments are off track.
There are two excellent articles this morning that go into detail about what Alabama alleges in its lawsuit and what a better alternative legal attack might be.
First we have Michael Patrick Leahy writing at Breitbart (click here) and Leo Hohmann here at World Net Daily, both must have given Richard Thompson (at the Thomas More Law Center) a busy afternoon fielding questions!
Truth be told, my head hurts on these legal points and so I’m leaving it to you, my dear readers, to sort through these articles. I’m going to say a bit more at my other blog, American Resistance 2016!
Here are the opening paragraphs of Hohmann’s article at WND:

Richard-Thompson
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel, Thomas More Law Center. https://www.thomasmore.org/about/president-chief-counsel-1/

Alabama has become the second state to sue the federal government alleging that it has failed to “consult” with state officials while secretly placing foreign refugees into communities.

The suit claims the Obama administration has violated the terms of the Refugee Act of 1980, which says the federal government “shall consult regularly” with states before placing refugees.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Robert Bentley told the Associated Press the lawsuit was filed Thursday, following a similar suit by Texas a month ago.

But an expert on the 1980 law governing refugee resettlement told WND that neither suit stands a chance of stopping the flow of refugees into Texas or Alabama.

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, said his organization is not involved in either the Texas or the Alabama cases because he believes there is a stronger case to be made on the grounds of the 10th Amendment.

“They filed a suit on the grounds that the feds have failed to consult with the state on the location of refugees in the state, and failure to consult is a term that has no real definition to it. Texas has filed a similar suit that thus far has not gone anywhere,” Thompson said. “Thomas More Law Center’s position is that there is a constitutional claim and that claim is based on the 10th Amendment.”

Continue reading here.
Go here to our post a month ago about how the search is on for one brave governor!

Comment worth noting: Hey, Grover Norquist, Reagan did not sign Refugee Act into law

Norquist and Republican friends should have been praising Jimmy Carter in their recent letter!

Update March 1:  Even the head of Human Rights First accepts Grover’s rewrite of history, here.

I should have noticed this myself!

Yesterday when we wrote about Georgia and Jimmy Carter, reader ‘tomasrose’ sent us this comment (below).   ‘Tomasrose’ is referring to the letter that has the earmarks of a Grover Norquist project written all over it, signed by Norquist’s sidekick Suhail Khan and 8 other Republican open-borders agitators asking for more refugee resettlement.

We reported the story here, and here is the letter itself.

We know about Reagan’s 1986 amnesty (which must have made Norquist happy, or maybe he was behind it!), but let’s not ‘credit’ him with the Refugee Act of 1980 as well!

‘Tomasrose:’

According to Grover Norquist, Jason Carter needn’t feel any family kinship with the 1980 refugee act since it was Ronald Reagan who signed it into law, not Jimmy Carter. The reason the Refugee industry is so robust is because of general ignorance about the program. Exhibit A of this ignorance is found in Grover’s letter to Republicans asking them to let more questionable refugees in.

In the letter he states:
“President Reagan’s belief in America’s role as a refuge for the persecuted went
beyond his words. Thirty three years ago, he signed into law the Refugee Act of 1980…”

To set the historical record straight, here is Carter’s signing statement on March 18th, 1980 (the bill had been spearheaded by Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden in the Senate):

It gives me great pleasure to sign into law S. 643, the Refugee Act of 1980, which revises provisions for refugee admissions and assistance. This legislation is an important contribution to our efforts to strengthen U.S. refugee policies and programs.

The Refugee Act reflects our long tradition as a haven for people uprooted by persecution and political turmoil. In recent years, the number of refugees has increased greatly. Their suffering touches all and challenges us to help them, often under difficult circumstances.

The Refugee Act improves procedures and coordination to respond to the often massive and rapidly changing refugee problems that have developed recently.

It establishes a new admissions policy that will permit fair and equitable treatment of refugees in the United States, regardless of their country of origin. It allows us to change annual admissions levels in response to conditions overseas, policy considerations, and resources available for resettlement. The new procedures will also ensure thorough consideration of admissions questions by both the Congress and the administration.

Moreover, the Refugee Act will help refugees in this country become self-sufficient and contributing members of society. Until now, resettlement has been done primarily by private persons and organizations. They have done an admirable job, but the large numbers of refugees arriving now create new strains and problems. Clearly, the Federal Government must play an expanded role in refugee programs.

The Refugee Act is the result of close cooperation between the administration and the Congress, with important support from those who work directly with refugees in State and local governments and private groups. Everyone who worked so long on its passage can be proud of this contribution to improved international and domestic refugee programs and to our humanitarian traditions.

Note: As enacted, S. 643 is Public Law 96-212, approved March 17.