Longtime readers know that Anne Richard(originally a Vice President at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), one of the nine federal contractors*** that monopolize all refugee resettlement in America), was Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration. (Trump, btw, never chose anyone to fill that spot).
For inquisitive readers, we have an extensive Anne Richard archive, here.
Yesterday she penned an informative pieceat Georgetown University’s Berkeley Center where she describes how she is energized by all of her gal pals working to advance refugee resettlement in US towns and cities.
By the way, since Richard references the women leaders in her piece, I wondered where are all the men in her industry who are making the big bucks as CEOs of the ‘non-profit’ contractors? Weren’t they at the confab she describes?
Refugee Experts Express Hope for Refugee Resettlement in America
Anne Richard
As the moderator of a panel on “The Future of U.S. Refugee Resettlement Policy” at the “Current Challenges in Refugee Policy” conference, I asked a stellar lineup of experts the sad question:
Is there a future for Refugee Resettlement in America?
They and I knew that the number of refugees being resettled in this country has dropped drastically under the Trump administration.
[….]
Jen Smyers “Where prayer meets politics”
Jen Smyers, director of policy and advocacy for the immigration and refugee program with Church World Service, pointed out that 18,000 is an historic low point for the program and pronounced the Trump policy “shameful,”noting: “this is being done in the worst displacement crisis that the world has ever seen….There are more than 70 million people who are displaced across the globe, including more than 25 million refugees.” [And, so why is this our problem?—ed]
Jenny Yang, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, reported, “Last month in October it was the first month in over 30 years that we didn’t receive a single refugee, which is a startling statistic.”
All of us recognized that deep cuts in the numbers of refugees would translate into resettlement offices being forced to shut down across America. These closures would mean letting staff go, reducing services to refugees already here, cutting long-term relationships with schools, employers and landlords—and would be exceedingly hard to reverse.
[….]
I figured the panelists were, like me, utterly demoralized. So, I was taken aback when each panelist in turn talked about the energy now being devoted to defending the program and fighting back against efforts to kill it.
Smyers mentioned a three-pronged approach, based on (1) rebuilding bipartisan support in Congress, (2) organizing at the local level so that refugees can share their stories with Congressional district offices, and state and local officials, and (3) escalating tactics, such as a recent protest and coordinated act of civil disobedience at the U.S. Capitol,which included the arrests of 18 leaders including Amnesty International USA Executive Director Margaret Huang and yours truly.
Jen mentioned the Bipartisan Congressional Refugee Caucus in the House of Representatives and multiple letters signed by both Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate as evidence that the White House did not speak for all elected officials. [I’ll have a follow-up post on the Congressional Refugee Caucus—ed]
[….]
Jenny Yang explained the work World Relief is doing with evangelical churches in many communities across the United States. Over 1,400 local volunteers that have signed up as Good Neighbor Teams that are “walking alongside” these refugees that are coming in, and helping them transition into their communities. In 2017, more than 9,000 evangelical pastors signed on to a World Relief petition supporting refugees. World Relief later issued a letter showing evangelicals in every state in the country support refugees and immigrants.
[….]
Ash: Refugee Admissions Program benefits businesses.
Nazanin Ash, vice president for public policy and advocacy at the International Rescue Committee and a visiting policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, shared how over 100 pieces of anti-refugee state legislation have been defeated.
I have no idea what she is talking about — where were 100 pieces of anti-refugee state bills defeated?
Ash went on to describe growing numbers of advocates. “Alongside traditional community organizations and faith groups…,” she said, “what’s been wonderful to see are strong and emerging partnerships with business, strong and emerging partnerships with the national security sector.
Because big global corporations are on the hunt for cheap labor, your community will be changed forever! Likewise, since some of our military leadership is demanding we hand out more tickets to America to Afghans, Iraqis and soon Syrians, we are expected to stay silent as our rural towns and small cities are transformed (big cities are gone already!).
These new sectors that…declare their support and talk about how the refugee admissions program benefits business, makes America stronger, promotes our values, and serves our humanitarian leadership goals, and our strategic interests. She went on to describe a network across the country in red, blue, and purple states which is now approaching 250,000 people.
The states where she sees the largest constituencies of advocates include Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Idaho.
[….]
“I really do have a lot of hope,” said Ash, “and that’s in no small part due to the panel I’m sharing here with this group of really extraordinary women, and their really extraordinary organizations and communities and constituencies that they represent, and the way in which this community has come together and has joined forces with broader advocacy groups, human rights, immigration, business, military, a growing constituency of grass tops [WTH?—ed] and grassroots, who have been given the opportunity in this oppositional environment to plant their flag for refugees and for humanitarian leadership, and they really are.”
And, of course, they hide their desire to change America by changing the people behind their supposed humanitarian do-gooderism and do it with your tax dollars!
***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America. For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!
As I have been saying ad nauseam for days now, the President has given you an opportunity to say whether you want your town/city/county to be a resettlement site for impoverished refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East and if you don’t act now, there may never be another time!
If you’ve looked at my maps from a week agowhere I show you the existing resettlement offices*** and have said, thank goodness my town/city/county isn’t on the map, so I don’t have to do anything, you are very wrong!
Here we see that a website in Tennessee, did a very simple little exercise using the information that resettlement contractors can place refugees within a hundred mile radius of their offices (we are told not across state lines, but I know for a fact that they are ignoring that supposed prohibition).
The stars indicate where existing resettlement offices are located and the shading demonstrates that almost the whole state of Tennessee is in play.
Here is a bit of their story:
Tell Greedy Refugee Contractors to Keep Their Hands Off Your Community!
But you’ll need the help of your mayor and your city council and/or commission.
President Trump’s Executive Order is giving power back to Tennessee citizens to decide whether they want federal refugee contractors to “transform” their communities with imported refugees.
Here are the rules of this game:
~both the Governor and the “locality” for refugee placement, have to say “yes” we want refugees. This means they also agree to pay any and all short and long-term costs imposed by the federal program.
~however, if either the Governor or the “locality” say no thanks, then supposedly, newly arriving refugees from overseas won’t be placed in that “locality.”
~however, the Governor may consent to resettling refugees in only certain consenting localities within the state. This option is a total fiction and is as good as agreeing to put almost ALL cities and counties in Tennessee up for grabs for resettlement – even if they’ve never been an initial resettlement site.
FEDERAL RESETTLEMENT CONTRACTORS ARE ALLOWED TO PLACE REFUGEES ANYWHERE FROM 50 TO 100 MILES FROM THE REFUGEE CONTRACTOR’S OFFICE.
This is just one of the many dirty little secrets that the federal contractors keep to themselves.
And it’s been going on in Tennessee for years. Here’s the proof – the State Department’s reports show that over the years refugees have been resettled in Clarksville, LaVergne, Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Mt. Juliet, Franklin, Spring Hill, Shelbyville, Gallatin, Johnson City, just to name a few.
A few years ago, Catholic Charities of TN employee and federal contractor Holly Johnson who became the state refugee coordinator after the State of Tennessee withdrew from the voluntary refugee program, insisted during testimony to a legislative committee, that refugees were never directly resettled in Bedford County.
Well oops!!! A report subsequently issued by TIRRC about the victimization of Muslims in Tennessee, disclosed that in fact, at least 13 refugees had been directly resettled in Bedford County during the time period Johnson was asked about.
Have you taken 15 minutes to call your local government offices—call county commissioners and mayors! Instructions are here. No excuses accepted!
*** Since President Trump took office some resettlement offices have closed, so fewer offices are shown on the map I posted than were on it in the waning days of the Obama Administration. I hope to go back and post an earlier map so you know that the contractors will likely be seeking permission in those other towns/cities so that they have those “permissions” for future expansion by their dozens of subcontractors.
For new readers these (below) are the nine refugee contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America. For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!
Just so you know—most of the country ‘welcomed’ some refugees in the first group of arrivals for FY2020.
Resettlement will continue as it always has until June 2020 when supposedly the Trump EO will be in effect.
As Open Borders Inc. continues on its quest to turn Texas blue, Texas is again numero uno in ‘welcoming’ Africans, Asians and Middle Eastern impoverished refugees to its towns and cities.
If (when!) the contractors convince Texas Governor Abbott to send a permission letter to the US State Department, the contractors will achieve a great victory. So, I sure hope you Texans are working hard!
(See previous post Kansas has thrown in the towel! Taxpayers will pay the price just so some meatpackers will get cheap labor!).
Below is where the US State Department and its nine contractors*** placed 1,488 refugees in the last month.
Nothing I can do about the tiny type. Itold you all herehow to use the Refugee Processing Center data.
The top ten ‘welcoming’ states have a few additions. I haven’t seen Indiana or Minnesota in the top ten in recent times, and Kentucky is climbing up the ladder.
Texas, California, New York, Kentucky, Arizona, Washington, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Florida are the top ten in that order.
Here is the map where 1,488 refugees were placed between November 1 and December 1, 2019:
Below are the top sending countries (in parenthesis after each is the number of Muslims in the group). Take note of the fact that we are only bringing in a tiny number of Middle Eastern Christians from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
There is no Muslim ban.
DR Congo 509 (M: 17) It is maddening when you consider that Obama said more than six years ago that we wouldlimit our intake of DR Congolese to 50,000 and we are now at or near 60,000!
Burma 337 (M:37)
Moldova 94 (M: 0)
Afghanistan 91 (M:82)
Ukraine 78 (M: 0)
Iraq 50 (M: 35)
Syria 37 (M:32) So much for saving the Syrian Christians!
Somalia 31 (M: 31) Sixteen of these went to Minnesota over the last 4 weeks.
*** These are the nine federally funded contractors, all political Leftwing organizations, that at present are deciding where the UN-chosen refugees are being placed in America.
If you didn’t know, I have a category entitled, ‘where to find information.‘ You might find it useful to follow some of my recent posts on the President’s Executive Order.
On October 16th, refugee contractor the International Rescue Committee sent out a call to action to Kansans. https://www.rescue.org/announcement/how-make-sure-kansas-welcomes-refugees
The list is growing ever so slowly with the most recent addition being Kansas Democrat Governor Laura Kelly. In agreeing to take an in determinant number of refugees she has agreed that she is okay with the high cost of the care of more impoverished people coming into the country from Africa, Asia and the Middle East and placing that cost on Kansas taxpayers.
When the Refugee Act became law in 1980, Kennedy/Biden and Jimmy Carter said the cost would not fall on the states that ‘welcomed’ refugees, but over the years that is exactly what happened. The feds have shifted the cost to state and local taxpayers.
Incoming refugees are eligible for all forms of welfare and the primary job of the contractors*** who place them is to get them signed up for their services—medical, housing, food, education, and English language/citizenship training—a large portion of which is funded by state and local taxpayers.
Governor Laura Kelly joins seven other governors (by my count) who have said to the UN/US State Department (or to the media), sure send us any number of refugees you want to send us and we will pay for them!
Kansas Joins Other States in Accepting Refugees Under New Trump Rule
Kansas is the latest U.S. state to commit to resettling refugees under a new Trump administration rule that requires cities and states to opt in to the government’s refugee program.
The ultimate example of elections having consequences: Democrat Laura Kelly decides for Kansas rather immigration hawk Kris Kobach.
“I not only consent to the initial refugee resettlement in Kansas as per the terms of the Executive Order, I also welcome them into our state,” Democratic Governor Laura Kelly wrote to President Donald Trump in the letter, made public Wednesday.
With the letter, Kelly joins a small bipartisan list of governors to quickly respond to the new rule, issued in September.
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington state — headed by Democratic governors — and Utah, led by a Republican, previously submitted similar letters to Washington officials.
Pay attention here! For nearly 40 years the US State Department and its contractors (nine today) have called the shots about which would be refugee target towns and cities and the contractors are now fighting tooth and nail to keep that power!
Prior to the Sept. 26 executive order, refugees were either reunited with family or assigned a destination based on a quarterly meeting near Washington, D.C., between government officials and the non-profit organizations that handle resettlement.
They generally placed refugees in communities around the country where the non-profits have offices and staff to help refugees, especially during their first year in the U.S. [The Leftwing contractors have been deciding which communities to turn blue—ed]
While there have been some cities and states, like Tennessee, that in previous years attempted to block refugees, such cases are rare. Resettlement had occurred in every U.S. state, territory, and the District of Columbia since 2003, according to U.S. State Department arrival records. [Wrong here! Wyoming has never taken refugees, Hawaii gets very few and Biden’s Delaware is near the bottom of the list.—ed]
By requiring consent, the Trump administration is allowing states and localities to bar refugee resettlement in their areas.
If you thought that maybe your governor could say that you would take a certain number of Middle Eastern Christians, you are WRONG! Again, by agreeing to ‘welcome’ refugees, your governor is saying your state will take any number from anywhere in the world!
Despite the consent requirement, state and local governments will not be able to choose which refugees it wants to accept, or to exclude certain groups.
[….]
The new rules will affect resettlement beginning June 1, 2020, according to an emailed statement from an agency spokesperson.
Written consent will be required from the state governor’s office and the chief executive officer of the county or county equivalent for each jurisdiction where refugees will be resettled, the spokesperson added.
Any cut-off date for the consent letters is unknown. The State Department did not respond to a request for clarification Thursday. [You need to get on this immediately, don’t wait to contact your governor and your county government.—ed]
Go to the VOA piece and see some of the governors’ letters.
I am keeping a list of governors who have publicly announced (some may not have sent their letter) that they will take on the financial burden of more impoverished people for their states in my right hand side bar here at RRW.
***These (below) are the nine federal resettlement contractors who might not get their funding for the later part of this fiscal year without approvals from the governor and the county in which they want to place incoming refugees. I say might not because the funding guidelineshave some squishy language.
These are the fake charities funded largely with your federal tax dollars to place refugees and they want to keep the federal money spigot flowing. And, that is why their lobbying arm, Refugee Council USA, has created a “toolkit”for Open Borders agitators.
They could help refugees and immigrants out of their good hearts and private wallets, but heck then they wouldn’t have the financial power to oppose the President.
Turn off the damn faux impeachment hearing! And, for goodness sake forget about shopping and whether Prince Andrew did something to a blond girl whenever.
The President heard your concerns about refugees being placed in your towns with no warning and no local approval and did something about it! Are you going to let him down now?
For those of you who spend the day reading news to inform yourself, stop reading for 15 minutes and do something—I’ll tell you what shortly.
The President listened to your concerns about having no role in the decision making process about where refugees are placed in America.
He has gone out on a (another) political limb and created an Executive Orderback in September with the lowest determination for the number of refugees to be admitted to the US since the Kennedy/Biden/Jimmy Carter refugee program became law in 1980.
And, in that Executive Order, although imperfect, he directed the US State Department to collect approvals in writing from governors and county/city elected officials saying they will opt-in (and accept refugees) so that the federal contractors can get their funding to move the Africans, Middle Easterners, Asians, etc. to your towns.
The deadline is approaching and…
….those approvals are now coming in!
Open Borders Inc. and the federally-funded refugee resettlement contractors are turning the process into a referendum on the President and the Refugee Program and have pulled out all the stops as I have been reporting here for days.
My analysis:
Every county in America is up for grabs!
This is the National Association of Counties map that the lobbying arm of the refugee industry is directing its followers to use in order to find the contact information for county government leaders. https://ce.naco.org/
Even counties that haven’t previously received refugees are on their hit list.
They are not sticking with the established resettlement sites I posted herea few days ago. And, mark my words, those approvals from far flung counties will be held by the contractors and used as political cudgels no matter who is President.
By the way, there are 3,242 counties and county equivalents available to be resettled! And, that is how they are turning red states blue—one county at a time.
Both the governor and the local elected body (county government seems to be the primary goal) or possibly a mayor, especially for big cities, must agree to the placement of the impoverished refugees in order for the refugee contractors to get their plans to the State Department and to ultimately be paid to do their work.
(See myright hand sidebarfor the governors who have already said yes, or at least the ones we know of.)
The contractors are pushing to obtain the approvals by Christmas in order to get their proposals to the State Department by January 21st.
This is what the Refugee Council USA is telling its followers to do (I told you about it here). You should follow their model except obviously with a different message:
Your State & Local Officials Need to Hear From You
When you engage your local officials, we encourage you to educate them about the existence and content of the EO and ask whether they will provide written consent to resettle refugees. Here are the top two ways to take action:
Tell Your Governor to Declare Welcome for Refugees: Click here to contact your governor and tell them to declare that they welcome refugees in your state. Ask them to provide the necessary written consent to the federal government stating that refugees are welcome. A template letter that can be adapted to your state isavailable here.
Letters should be addressed to: Secretary Michael R. Pompeo, U.S. Department of State; and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Carol T. O’Connell, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State.
This is what Refugee Watchers Must do ASAP
For the sake of time, focus on your county government and your governor.
You can keep your message simple (choose any or all you like):
~Tell your elected officials that by agreeing to accept refugees they are agreeing that state and local taxpayers pick up the financial burden (refugees are eligible for all forms of welfare) that Kennedy once said would be a federal responsibility.
~Tell your elected officials that we have enough of our own poverty in America and that vulnerable Americans should come first.
~Tell them there are hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers (wannabe refugees) that must be processed first.
~Tell your elected officials that security screening is inadequate and that safety is an issue.
~Tell them that the ‘religious’ ‘charitable’ groups placing those refugees are actually federal contractors who depend on high numbers of refugees to receive their pay from the US Treasury.
~Tell them that the original law created an opportunity for states to opt-in or opt-outthat has been ignored for decades.
~Tell them politely about any other concerns you have about the UN program that moves impoverished third worlders to your towns/cities.
If you haven’t been following RRW in recent days, go here, here, and here for more information.
Please spread this post far and wide, honestly if we can’t muster at least some small showing of support for the President’s efforts to slow costly, disruptive and possibly dangerous refugee resettlement to the far corners of America, then speaking for me, why should I bother to continue investigating and writing!
Endnote to readers in Ohio:A story here in Septembersays your governor is on board with MORE refugees, but I haven’t seen anything in the last week or so. Assume he hasn’t sent an official letter yet.
As I have been saying ad nauseam for days now, the President has given you an opportunity to say whether you want your town/city/county to be a resettlement site for impoverished refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East and if you don’t act now, there may never be another time!
***These (below) are the nine federal resettlement contractors who might not get their funding for the later part of this fiscal year without approvals from the governor and the county in which they want to place incoming refugees. I say might not because the 
