Tag: Refugee Council USA

Refugee Council USA busy lobbying on S.744

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  More on yesterday’s amendments—come and get it!  Welfare for one and all (for the children)!

If you have been following RRW for the last few weeks, you know that S. 744 (The Gang of Eight plus Grover bill) isn’t just about amnesty for 11 million plus illegal aliens in the US,  it’s also about expanding our refugee and asylum system as well.  (Gang of Eight archive is here)

Yesterday we told you about Senator Grassley’s efforts to strip the refugee/asylum provisions from the bill until there had been a full accounting of how our asylum system is failing us as tragically demonstrated in Boston and the aftermath of the horrific April 15th terror attack by Muslims we “welcomed” with a grant of asylum.

Somalis waiting in refugee camps in Africa for their turn to come to America thanks to Refugee Council USA members.

You need to know more about the Refugee Council USA, the Washington lobbying consortium for the Refugee industry.

We have no one representing our views in Washington.

The big immigration restriction groups concerned with amnesty for illegals—FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA—have little time left over for countering the push to expand the refugee program which is really the root of  multi-culti conflicts, problems with Muslim extremists, and is a drain on social services as the US State Department and its contractors bring diversity from the third world to your towns and cities.

Refugee resettlement and asylum accounts for the largest percentage of our annual importation of 100,000 Muslims, here.

Here is what the RCUSA says they are about:

Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), established in 2000, is a coalition of U.S. non-governmental organizations focused on refugee protection.  RCUSA provides advocacy on issues affecting the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons, victims of trafficking, and victims of torture in the United States and across the world.  The coalition also serves as the principal consultative forum for the national refugee resettlement and processing agencies as they formulate common positions, conduct their relations with the U.S. government and other partners, and support and enhance refugee service standards.

Yesterday the Refugee Council USA was lobbying against Grassley’s amendments.  This is from their action alert:

OPPOSE GRASSLEY AMENDMENTS #25, #26, #27, and #52

These amendments would strike most of the positive refugee and asylum provisions from the base bill, including provisions that would improve access to life-saving protection to religious minorities in Iran and other vulnerable populations,stateless persons, and asylum seekers. Grassley #52 in particular would delay positive changes to the asylum and student visa provisions in the bill by falsely conflating them with the Boston Marathon bombings.

The mark-up continues today, but Grassley has already lost a couple of his amendments (no surprise, he and Senator Sessions are basically shut out on every amendment they propose).  Go here and see the results so far.  Two of the Grassley amendments have already been defeated.

Grassley is right!  The refugee program should not be expanded in this monster bill, but a separate review of the program should be undertaken immediately!

Here are the member organizations of the Refugee Council USA (all nine of the major federal refugee contractors are here).  To add insult to injury many of these groups are funded with your tax dollars. They could not exist without federal and state grants:

Human Rights Gang not happy with Senator Grassley

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Senator Grassley has submitted amendments to the Gang of Eight plus Grover bill (S.744) regarding the loosening of our already pretty loose asylum system (remember Boston way back last month before all the latest crises of the Obama Administration have taken everyone’s eyes from it).  Grassley wants to dump some proposed provisions in the bill that will give more asylum seekers more time and an easier process to apply.

Human Rights First and its gang at the Refugee Council USA (lobbying arm for refugee contractors) are ginning up opposition to Grassley.

See all amendments here.

Here is the latest from the “humanitarians:”

Last week members of the Senate Judiciary Committee filed potential amendments to the bipartisan immigration bill (S. 744) negotiated by the “Gang of 8” – Senators Michael Bennet, Richard Durbin, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Robert Menendez, Marco Rubio and Charles Schumer.  Among the proposed amendments are two sponsored by Senator Grassley (Grassley 27 and Grassley 52) that would eliminate or substantially delay two targeted reforms to the U.S. asylum system included in the bipartisan bill:  section 3401 which would eliminate a filing deadline bar that prevents genuine refugees from receiving US asylum; and section 3404 which authorizes some asylum cases to be resolved through a full asylum office interview conducted by trained Department of Homeland Security –U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS-USCIS) asylum officers.

Refugee Council USA, a coalition of faith based and other organizations (including Human Rights First) ,  sent a letter on the amendments to the Senate Judiciary Committee members specifically asking them to oppose Grassley 27 and Grassley 52 as well as other amendments that would impact refugees and asylum seekers.

Grassley wants to delay changing the asylum program until he has a full accounting of what went wrong with our asylum system in Boston.  Sounds reasonable to me.  We don’t need any more murdering welfare moochers like the Tsarnaev family.

One of Senator Grassley’s amendments seeks to delay the reforms outlined in the Gang of 8 bill until a year after the Director of National Intelligence submits to Congress reports, and sub-reports, on the government’s handling of the Boston Marathon bombing.   The Boston bombing was a tragedy, and the government should certainly take steps to address and prevent another attack.  There is no reason to use the Boston tragedy to derail or delay reforms to strengthen the asylum system.

I’ll add Grassley’s office to my list of Hill visits today.  I want them to strip out all references to refugees and asylum from the Gang’s bill until there are full hearings on the whole refugee program.  Maybe we have to go back and re-write the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980.