And, guess what? You, who either don’t want to see any more refugees coming to America or at least want a say in who we are accepting and whether they are placed in your town, are screwed.
Sorry to sound vulgar, but it is true, because the other side is highly organized and you have no national voice helping to guide you on what to do locally to push back.
It is make or break time! You’ve got a few more weeks to get your message to your local mayors, city councils, and governors.
And, locally is where the refugee contractors are making their big move now (in addition tosuing the President over the September EOthat supposedly will give states an opportunity to opt-out of resettlement).
I’m not naming names, but for those of you hoping a national immigration control organization located in Washington, DC (or anywhere in America) will focus on the refugee issue and tell you what to do, forget it!
You are on your own.
And, notice where the debate is! It isn’t on the issue of whether we should be bringing tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands!) of refugees to the US annually from countries that hate us; it isn’t on whether the whole program is unconstitutional and needs to be dumped and rewritten (if we even want more refugees); it is on which of your towns will be changed forever and who gets to decide that!
Trump’s EO was far from perfect, but he is concerned about the secrecy that has heretofore been the watchword of refugee resettlement decision-making in America. The contractors, which have monopolized all resettlement in the US for decades, love calling the shots from Washington and are fighting tooth and nail not to lose that power.
The nine federal contractors*** and their friends throughout the Open Borders Industry are highly organized with an extensive grassroots network, so when Trump opened the door with his September Executive Order about local and state governments having some say in the decision-making process they have turned on their networks and their people have gone to work.
Indeed, they expect Trump to be gone so they can go back to business as usual of changing America one town at a time, their Executive Order pushback has become a key element in their strategy.
I’ve always hated the expression, but since Trump handed them a lemon they are making lemonade!
Here is the first of many examples, Mary Poole the refugee advocate who opened the door to a new resettlement office in Montana says it best.
Missoula refugee resettlement agency wades through Trump order
Missoula is one of roughly 190 communities in the U.S. that resettle refugees. Only a handful of states don’t. So far none has banned further resettlement, and letters of support are reported from city councils in the likes of Decatur, Georgia; and Alexandria, Virginia.
In 2016 Mary Poole successfully pushed for the opening of an International Rescue Committee subcontractor office for Missoula.
Gary Herbert, Utah’s Republican governor, wrote Trump a letter requesting he “allow us to accept more international refugees in Utah.”
Democratic governors Jay Inslee of Washington and Kate Brown of Oregon have voiced support for resettlement, and on Tuesday Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, announced North Dakota would continue to receive refugees “as long as local governments agree to it,” the Grand Forks Herald reported.
Such responses underline what Soft Landing Missoula’s Mary Poole sees as a bright side to the executive order.
“While it makes an additional hurdle and roadblock, and it’s unfortunate, I think what we’re really going to see are people going to bat for (accepting refugees) in a way we haven’t seen before,” she said. “I’m pretty excited to see that visual representation nationwide to show how important this is.”
And so they are!
Their people are pushing local governments everywhere to shove it back at Trump and put in writing that they WANT MORE REFUGEES!
Some examples that have come across my desk in recent days:
And, in Tennessee the Tennessee Office of Refugees run by Catholic Charities has sent out an e-mail with contact information for TN mayors to make it easier for their anti-Trump EO supporters to weigh in:
Contact your local elected officials to let them know their constituents support refugee resettlement.
Chattanooga City Mayor
Andy Berke
(423) 643-7800
mayor@chattanooga.gov
Hamilton County Mayor
Jim Coppinger
(423) 209-6100
Email: hamiltontn.gov/Mayor/form.aspx
Knoxville City Mayor
Madeline Rogero
(865) 215-2040
mayor@knoxvilletn.gov
Knox County Mayor
Glenn Jacobs
(865) 215-2005
Email: knoxcounty.org/email/email_new.php?email_name=county.mayor
Memphis City Mayor
Jim Strickland
(901) 636-6000
mayor@memphistn.gov
Shelby County Mayor
Lee Harris
(901) 222-2000
officeofthemayor@shelbycountytn.gov
Nashville Metro Mayor
John Cooper
(615) 862-6000
You can be sure that information like that is going out in your state too!
Because you aren’t going to hear it from any organization giving you marching orders….
…. my message to you is get to your local government and speak up before they do—a big challenge because they have a huge head start on you!
Contact your governor too!
Even if you think that your voices won’t be heard, tell your local and state elected officials what you think anyway, otherwise they will assume that supporting the idea of more refugees for your town or city is a political freebie for them!
Oh, and if you want to make a big splash—challenge your local elected officials in the next election. Even if you think you can’t win the first time out, your local media will be forced to report on your platform.
A very simple message to your elected officials is this: care for refugees where they live in the world, and let’s take care of poor and vulnerable Americans here first!
***The nine federal contractors listed below have dozens of subcontractors working under them around the country. So although your local resettlement agency has a name not listed here, you can be sure they work for one of the nine major contractors.
They are all very Leftwing political organizations, but the most actively anti-Trump in recent months are in red. You might argue that the Bishops are very political and they are, but I’ve noticed that they are laying low these days (there are a large number of Catholic Trump supporters) and USCRI has been unusually quiet.
I told you about this collaborationwhen it was happening, US refugee resettlement contractor, the International Rescue Committeecompeted for a $100 MILLLION prize and won by joining with Sesame Street to produce a Middle Eastern version of the show being produced in Jordan. Characters will of course be speaking Arabic.
Too funny that we have the IRC’s CEO David Milibandcrying the blues to CBS’s Leslie Stahl that there isn’t enough money to solve the refugee crisis in the Middle East.
Bringing home the boodle?
I wondered if somehow Miliband’s huge salary jump from $600,000 in 2017 to over $900,000 now was somehow related to winning this multi-million dollar prize? Just wondering?
Sesame and the IRC join forces to help Syrian refugee children
It’s [Sesame Street] been using television to educate kids in the U.S., including tackling tough subjects like racism and death, for five decades. And it’s done local versions in other countries. In 2016, Sesame Workshop and the IRC had been strategizing about how they could collaborate to help refugee children when a new competition was announced. The prize: a stunning 100 million dollars.
British press called Miliband a member in good standing of the “begging bowl barons!” https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2019/10/02/the-british-press-notices-million-dollar-miliband/
David Miliband: The MacArthur Foundation offered $100 million to any organization who was ready to, quote-unquote “solve a big global problem.”
Lesley Stahl: A global problem that was intractable.
David Miliband: We defined the global problem we wanted to tackle was trauma, toxic stress among refugee children in the Middle East.
In the final pitch to the competition’s judges, Miliband and his Sesame Workshop counterpart Sherrie Westin presented a two-pronged plan: Sesame Workshop would create a new show for the Middle East and the IRC would dramatically expand its services to young refugee kids directly, including where they’re living.
Lesley Stahl: And they gave you $100 million.
David Miliband: Yeah, $100 million is not as much as it sounds. Because it’s–
Lesley Stahl: It isn’t?
David Miliband: It’s over–
Lesley Stahl: It sounds huge.
David Miliband: It’s over (LAUGH) five years. And we’re delivering in-person services to over a million kids and educational content via TV to nearly 8 million kids. So it’s a big enterprise.
The IRC receives nearly a half a billion a year from you, the US taxpayer.
So, I guess the good news is that the money is coming from a filthy rich private foundation and the plan is for it to take care of the refugees where they are—intheir own cultural zone.
Fiscal year 2020 began on October first, but President Trump only signed the final determination two days ago.
The primary reason given for the lower than normal number is that there exists a massive backlog of asylum claims for those who are already in the country and are insisting they are refugees too!
Suffice it to say the wailing in the refugee industry has begun!
Their PR machines have been working overtime for 4 weeks in an attempt to get the President to change his mind on the 18,000 cap announced in the closing days of September.
Why?
Because refugees chosen by the UN and flown-in represent paying clients that keep the nine major contractors afloat. Asylum seekers, may eventually seek the ‘services’ of the contractors, but there is no per head grant money coming with them (at least not yet!).
If the ‘humanitarians’ are looking for immigrants to love and help, there are plenty of asylum seekers they could help with their own private charitable donations, right—not to mention poor and vulnerable Americans!
The United Nations quickly put out a statementsaying the UN High Commissioner for refugees is “troubled” by the final decision by the US government to admit ‘only’ 18,000 third world refugees over the next 11 months.
Inhumane Presidential Determination Banning Refugees is Signed
Historic low admissions goal will dismantle the life-saving refugee program and America’s legacy of welcome.
New York City–Last night President Trump signed his discriminatory and cruel Fiscal Year 2020 refugee admissions goalthat will cap admissions at 18,000 and limit arrivals based on category and country of origin. The signing of the presidential determination will now end the unprecedented moratorium on refugee arrivals that has blocked refugees from arriving in the United States since October 1st of this year.
CWS President and CEO Rev. John L. McCullough issued the following statement:
“President Trump has ripped our country’s welcome mat out from under the most at-risk refugees in the world, people we have pledged to protect. The dire consequences of this refugee ban will last for years if not decades to come as the refugee resettlement program is dismantled and our nation’s legacy of compassion and welcome is finally snuffed out.
Families who have waited years to be reunited have little hope of ever being together again. Refugee communities within the U.S. will lose their support systems as the infrastructure in place to support them disappears.
“While we are thankful that some refugees who have had their cases put on hold while we awaited this policy to be signed will now be able to arrive, the number of people who will find protection is tragically low and simply unacceptable. Thousands of lives are at stake. People of faith across the nation implore Congress to step in and block the destruction of the life-saving refugee resettlement program, and restore it to historic norms before it is too late.”
Thanks to a reader for sending me the State Department’s press announcementyesterday!
Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2020
President Trump signed the Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2020, following consultations with Congress conducted by the State Department, along with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services. Our Departments will work closely to implement the President’s program, which provides for the resettlement of up to 18,000 refugees in the United States this fiscal year.
America’s support for refugees and other displaced people extends well beyond our immigration system. It includes diplomatic efforts around the world to find solutions to crises, like our support for the legitimate government in Venezuela against Maduro’s tyranny. Addressing the core problems that drive refugees away from their homes helps more people more rapidly than resettling them in the United States.
Keep refugees close to home until they can return and rebuild their countries!
Our support for displaced people also takes the form humanitarian assistance, and in Fiscal Year 2019 the United States contributed nearly $9.3 billion to supporting crisis response globally, the largest contribution of any country in the world.Helping displaced people as close to their homes as possible better facilitates their eventual safe and voluntary return. Their efforts to rebuild their communities help restore affected areas to stability, which is always in America’s interest.
[….]
Indeed, the security and humanitarian crisis along our southern border has contributed to a burden on our immigration system that must be alleviated before we can again resettle large numbers of refugees. Therefore, prioritizing the cases of those already in our country is simply a matter of common sense.The diplomatic agreements the United States has reached with our Western Hemisphere neighbors to address illegal immigration and border security will allow us to refocus resources on reducing the current backlog of asylum cases that now encompasses more than an estimated one million individuals.
One thing that never made sense to me is the fact that supposedly the contractors are so worried about saving refugees and yet are at the border egging-on more economic migrants to come in illegally.
If your concern is truly for refugees and their well-being, it makes no sense that one would support importing competition for refugee admissions. But it makes all the sense in the world if your goal is to change America by changing the people and that begins with hauling in more future Democrat voters.
Get the report!
One of the most useful documents available on the program each year is the report to Congress that accompanies the Presidential Determination. For serious students of the US Refugee Admissions Program it is worth reading and saving.
I admit I haven’t read it all yet, but will! Here are a couple of charts that jumped out at me. They support the President’s assertion that asylum claims are swamping the system (many will turn out to be illegitimate).
(For newbies, asylum seekers get here on their own and say they will be persecuted if returned to their home country. They go through one of two legal processes and if determined to have a legitimate claim to refugee status they are given all the welfare goodies and services that refugees flown-in receive.)
Incredible! Look at the column on asylum grants!
And, then below see the charts on the backlog in the two systems available for migrants to claim asylum (to say they are refugees). Many of these migrants came across our southern border, applied for asylum and disappeared!
So what happened to considering the views of citizens when placing refugees?
I see no reference in either the statement from the White House on Friday or from Secretary Pompeo about local communities and state governments having any say in the placement of refugees as the President had announced on September 26th, see here.
I’ve been writing here for so long (12 years) that I forget that new readers come along all the time who have never heard that there are nine federally-funded refugee resettlement contractors with a few hundred subcontractors*** working under them.
Here are the nine (we thought we might be down to seven by now, but the Trump Administration funded them all for another year even as the number of arriving refugees is dropping):
DFMS is Episcopal Migration Ministries. They have two names. Note the drop in revenue after Obama was gone!
RRW builds on itself, so I recommend that if you really want to know what is happening, either visit every day or subscribe, because it is hard (and boring!) for me to continuously repeat old news. Reporting on juicy new news is much more fun!
You might want to check my category ‘Where to find information‘ where I post most stories about, you guessed it, where to find information! However, there are at the moment 665 post archived there!
See all categories located in a drop-down in right hand side bar on my home page. (If you just read posts in e-mails or on your phone, you are missing important information.)
*** If you have an agency resettling refugees where you live and its name doesn’t match any of the nine major contractors, then know that you have a subcontractor of one of the nine because your taxpayer dollars flow through the nine and down to a local subcontractor. If you search that local agency’s website you will most likely find out who its mothership is!
The nine contractors work with the US State Department to decide where to place (with which subcontractor) the incoming refugee cases.
Any day now, the Administration will send a delegation to the Hill to consult with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on the President’s plan to admit a maximum number of 18,000 refugees to the US in FY2020 (the fiscal year began on October 1).
A reminder: Trump set the level for FY19 at 30,000 and reached that ceiling on September 30th. An 18,000 ceiling for FY20 would be the lowest in the program’s history.
Over the last couple of weeks there have been dozens and dozens of stories planted throughout America each one showcasing some poor refugee family that would not be reunited if the ceiling is that low. And, without fail, the articles tell us which of the resettlement contractors had to close subcontractor offices.
Frankly I have read so many of these whiny stories I want to barf. That said, I would like you to have a look at this one from Twin Falls, Idaho where the local resettlement subcontractor is expected to continue in operation for another year at least and my guess is that is in order to keep a refugee worker flow going to Chobani Yogurt. See my Twin Falls archive here.
However, when quoting the director of the program there, the reporter, Megan Taros, says something that is not factually correct and I want to mention that to you:
A new executive order issued by President Trump last month that cuts the number of refugees the U.S. will accept from 30,000 to 18,000 this fiscal year threatens the center’s funding. The center receives federal money based on the number of people it takes in. With the new order its approved intake, which is now 140, may drop. Congress will meet on Tuesday to decide what the final nationwide cap on refugees will be.
Maybe the consultation will happen today as the reporter suggests, but Congress will NOT DECIDE ON THE FINAL NATIONWIDE CAP. Congress’ only role under the Refugee Act of 1980 is a consultation role when it comes to setting the upcoming ceiling/cap (but of course they do appropriate the funding for the President’s plan).
That said, it will be interesting to see if over the last few weeks, the massive media PR campaign (like the one here in Twin Falls) by the refugee industry has succeeded in getting the administration to up its original number of 18,000!
The article also reminded me to direct you to the Refugee Council USA‘s (lobbyists for the refugee industry) report which lists the subcontractor offices that have been closed since the Trump Administration began reducing the number of refugees being admitted.
Please take a minute andgo hereto see if an office has closed in your city.
Scroll down to page 23 to see the list. Here is a screenshot of the first page:
Trump can’t do this alone!
If you want to see the Refugee Program dumped or reformed, you must get involved now where you live. This is no time to sit back and assume the President is taking care of this. The refugee industry is extremely well funded and has a massive media network.
As soon as the Trump Administration ends—it will sooner or later—they will be back full steam ahead and they have been laying the ground work with the sob-story news reports spread throughout small city newspapers everywhere.
One thing you can do right now is to send letters or opinion pieces to papers like this one to express the theme I think is most powerful—why aren’t we taking care of our own vulnerable people first? After all, we the taxpayers are paying for all of this! Use some statistics or sad stories about your community.
And, it goes without saying, you absolutely must attempt to elect people to local offices that represent your views on the subject of mass migration! Start now by dogging candidates for the 2020 Elections and press them on their views on immigration!
A reader asked me just the other day to post about how much money each gets to change our US towns and cities.
