As I have been reporting, September is the month when the President normally sends a “determination” to the Hill (for consultation only) in which he reports what the refugee admissions ceiling will be in the upcoming fiscal year which begins October 1. However, he is not required by law to agree to admit any refugees.
There are rumors that President Trump will simply not send anything to Congress effectively signaling a suspension of the program.
Editor: BTW, regular readers of RRW might be interested in seeing two posts at Frauds and Crooks that could easily have been posted here because they are refugee related. See hereand here.
Below we havenews from ABCabout a letter to Pompeo from mostly a bunch of people you (or I) have never even heard of who participated in changing America by changing the people for decades.
Trump admin urged to accept refugees amid concerns it will indefinitely delay admissions
A group of prominent former U.S. officials is joining state and local governments, U.S. lawmakers, religious leaders and resettlement agencies in urging the Trump administration to increase refugee admissions in fiscal year 2021 amid historic need around the world.
The administration is supposed to consult with Congress and make a decision by the end of the fiscal year, in one week. But there is growing concern that President Donald Trump will decide to zero out refugee admissions, delay them indefinitely, or reduce the admissions cap even further.
[….]
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on Trump’s cap and “the internal discussions or the timeline related to its development,” but told ABC News it was ultimately the president’s decision.
Reutersreported earlier this month that the administration is considering postponing or further cutting admissions.
Seven former U.S. officials who ran the refugee admissions program under both Republican and Democrat administrations urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeoto express alarm at such a suspension and call for a “substantial increase” in admissions.
Do we believe for a second that this letter will hold any sway with the President?
Here is the nothingburger letterand the signatories (Purcell and Dewey are reportedly Republicans):
The Honorable Frank Loy
Former Director of the Bureau of Refugee Programs (1980–1981) Former Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs
James N. Purcell, Jr.
Former Director of the Bureau of Refugee Programs (1982–1986) Former Director General of the International Organization for Migration
The Honorable Phyllis Oakley
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (1994–1997) Former Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research
The Honorable Arthur Dewey
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (2002–2005) Former United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees
Samuel Witten
Former Acting Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration (2007–2009) Former Deputy Legal Adviser for the U.S. Department of State
The Honorable Eric Schwartz
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (2009–2011) Former NSC Senior Director for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs
The Honorable Anne C. Richard
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (2012–2017) Former Director of the Secretary’s Office of Resources, Plans, and Policy, Department of State
As you know if you follow RRW, the Refugee Admissions Program came to a grinding halt in March due to the worldwide travel restrictions in the wake of the Chinese virus pandemic.
However, the US State Department announced on July 29th that our welcome mat had once again been put out for third world migration to Anytown, USA.
Refugee admissions to the US resume after being on pause due to coronavirus
(CNN)Refugee admissions to the United States have resumed after being put on pause for five months due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the State Department.
In March, the US put a temporary pause on refugee admissions after the International Organization for Migration, which is in charge of booking refugees on their travel, and the United Nations refugee agency announced a temporary suspension of resettlement travel. Both organizations have since moved to restart admissions.
Sec. of State Mike Pompeo Opens Refugee Admissions Program as COVID (supposedly) continues to sicken and kill Americans and destroy the economy. What’s a few more mouths to feed!
In a statement to CNN, a State Department spokesperson said Secretary Mike Pompeo approved the resumption of admissions on July 29.
“This program is a vital lifeline for the world’s most vulnerable refugees who have no other alternative and who are made even more vulnerable by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the spokesperson said, adding that the program “resumed arrivals for approved refugees effective July 30 with significant COVID health measures in place as required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The spokesperson didn’t provide additional details on what extra health measures entailed. Refugees are usually heavily screened before arriving in the US.
We have admitted 196 refugees and spread them out among 22 states in the two weeks since Pompeo made the announcement according to data compiled by the Refugee Processing Center.
The top three welcoming states are Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Of the 196, 41 are Muslims (there is no Muslim ban). The 41 include 15 Burmese Rohingya people and 15 Syrians.
Just a reminder, next month the President is required by law to submit his determination (ceiling) for the number of refugee arrivals for FY2021 that begins on October 1, 2020.
We will be watching!to see what the President does. He can, of course, postpone any decision, or he can set the ceiling at zero.
As you know Republican governors*** are turning against the President on the issue of refugee admissions and the President’s Executive Order that permits governors and county commissioners to say no thanks to refugee resettlement later in 2020.
‘Send us more poverty we have run out of poor people for the churches (and taxpayers!) to care for,’ said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee when he said his Christian faith led him to decide to reach out with open arms to the third world in order to move more poverty closer to home.
“Bill and Pompeo working on the refugee resettlement issues.”
Thanks to the ever-watchful dailyrollcall.com, a website in Nashville, we learned that Secretary of State Pompeo visited the governor (dubbed ‘Biblical Bill’) in October to “canoodle” about the refugee program. That was only a few weeks after the release of the President’s EO.
Because Tennesseans are better organized to resist refugees and have maintained strong and vocal support for a state’s rights lawsuit the state filed against the federal government, citizens are alert and learned of Pompeo’s visit to the governor.
Frankly I smell a rat! Was Pompeo looking for a key governor (some might argue the most important governor because of the lawsuit) to lead other Republican governors to consent to refugee placement in their states?
Or, is it possible that Pompeo was out having additional chit-chats with governors that we don’t know about.
By the way, any Republican governor who jumps on the consent bandwagon this early is dumb, because according to the Funding rulesthat are the guidance for the President’s concept to allow governors to opt-in or opt-out, they have well into 2020 to decide because of the leeway granted by the loose language of the guidance.
The big lie!
Could the Secretary of State be telling Lee andhis ‘evangelicals’ that they will be admitting mostly the persecuted Christians of the Middle East to your towns and cities?
Does the President know what Pompeo is doing?
Because I’m sick of hearing that we need refugee resettlement to save Christians, I had a look at the numbers this morning.
If you thought the Trump State Department was saving Christians in the Middle East, you are wrong!
I checked the Refugee Processing Centerdata and learned this about the three major Middle Eastern Islamic countries from which we admit refugees. I went back to Trump’s inauguration day to today, Christmas eve 2019, and learned this:
Afghanistan
We admitted 2,831 refugees. 2,714 of those are Muslims (96%)
In addition to the regular refugees we admitted 37,570 Special Immigrant Visas(get the same benefits as refugees) for those who supposedly helped us there since Trump came into office. They would naturally all be Muslims, but there is no data on those (that I know of).
Iraq
We admitted 2,944 refugees. 1,891 of those are Muslims (64%)
In addition we admitted 3,341 SIVs from Iraq.
Syria
We admitted 2,674 refugees. 2,549 are Muslims (95%)
If Gov. Lee thinks we are saving Syrian Christians, we are not! And, I sure hope that Pompeo wasn’t telling him that we are!
And, by the way, there is a bipartisan effort in the Senate that includes Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to expand the SIV program to Syrians and Kurds (Muslims),see here.
Over the years, Blackburn has talked big about slowing the flow of refugees, so why has she now done a 180?
A story for another day! At least the State Department is putting on a show of opposing it!
*** So far besides Lee, that we know of, REPUBLICAN governors of Utah, New Hampshire, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and Nebraska have abandoned Trump. The official list of governors who have consented is here. Clearly many governors have not gotten their consent letters into the State Department.
“It’s a bargaining tool: We’ll take a certain number of refugees. These are the things you will do for us.”
(Melanie Nezer, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)
This is just a quick post as I am researching WTH Secretary of State Pompeo was doing when he had a little chit-chat about refugees with the now under- fire Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in October.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Before I get to the little nugget I discovered in a 2018 Politicoarticle about Pompeo, I want to remind long time readers, and inform new readers, that way back seven years ago (and long before that) the US State Department annually invited comment on the coming years refugee plans.
However, when those so-called scoping meetings began to be dominated by those of us who want the refugee program dumped or reformed, they stopped having the annual (albeit phony) ‘hearings.’
The Trump State Department has had no such opportunity for public input.
I regularly sent in testimony demanding a moratorium on the program and listed ten reasons, most are still applicable today. See them here.
Here is my Number 7:
7) Congress needs to specifically disallow the use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government,especially using certain refugee populations to address unrelated foreign policy objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come to mind.
“Pompeo is the critical stakeholder,” one refugee advocate said.
Melanie Nezer of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. (One of nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.)
Now that he’s served both as CIA director and secretary of state, activists hope that Pompeo has earned an appreciation for the diplomatic leverage having a robust refugee program can give the U.S. in negotiations with other countries.
“It’s a bargaining tool: We’ll take a certain number of refugees. These are the things you will do for us,” explained Melanie Nezer, a top official with HIAS, one of several organizations that helps refugees.
It is time to shut up about the humanitarian BS! A refugee should be someone who is in legitimate need of protection, not a chip in a foreign policy poker game.
Think about that! Your community will be changed forever (while you pay for it with your tax dollars) because refugees being admitted to the US are pawns in US foreign policy wheeling and dealing!
It is Secretary of State Pompeo who is collecting letters from governors and local elected officials about whether they are opting-in or opting-out of the US Refugee Admission Program.
(Yesterday I posted a sample letter that you might use as a template when you write to your governor or county commission.)
Since the governors who have already said YES (how many we don’t know) to ‘welcoming’ more poverty for local and state taxpayers to support are likely round-filing (trashing!) your letters, why not send a copy directly to the Secretary of State.
If your governor has, or hasn’t, opted-in or out, then still send a letter to the US State Department.
Frankly, this whole exercise is a barometer for the President. We assume he will be reelected, and so during the next five years we expect him to make serious changes to how we resettle refugees (if we resettle refugees). He needs to know that you care.
Send your letters to:
Secretary Michael R. Pompeo
U.S. Department of State
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Carol T. O’Connell
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State
We have admitted 196 refugees and spread them out among 22 states in the two weeks since Pompeo made the announcement according to data compiled by the Refugee Processing Center.
I checked the Refugee Processing Center data and learned this about the three major Middle Eastern Islamic countries from which we admit refugees. I went back to Trump’s inauguration day to today, Christmas eve 2019, and learned this:
