Late in September the word went outthat for the new fiscal year (2020) which began on October first, the CEILING on refugee admissions for the year would be 18,000 (not the zero I wanted!), and that arrivals would be delayed for three weeks.
The three weeks end on Monday, the 21st, but now comes word that more refugee flights have been cancelled and the new arrivals are expected to begin trickling in after the 28th of the month.
We also learn that the President has yet to sign-off on the 18,000!
Needless to say the refugee contractors*** are not happy.
Here is CNN where we learn a little bit more about the closed door meeting on the Hill this past Tuesday between Sec. of State Pompeo and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
More refugee flights to the US are being canceled
Flights for refugees who have been approved to come to the United States continue to be canceled, in some cases for the second time, CNN has learned.
Last month, CNN reported that travel for refugees who were told they could come to the US was postponed, due to a moratorium on travel that extended through October 21, raising concerns among refugee resettlement agencies.
The moratorium will now run until October 28, with arrivals expected to resume on October 29, according to a State Department spokesperson.
Senator Lindsey Graham appealed to Pompeo to bring in the already approved refugees—what thousands? Graham has been a long-time proponent of the refugee program.
[….]
The Trump administration has proposed capping the number of refugees allowed into the US at 18,000, a historic low. In a meeting this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the US admit refugees who are travel ready, in addition to the 18,000, according to a congressional aide who attended the meeting.
Graham appeared concerned about the situation in Syria, the aide said.
The proposed 18,000 refugee cap, coupled with the situation in Syria and postponed travel has fueled concerns.
“There were cases that were re-booked in September for October 8 and then re-booked for October 22 and now trying to rebook for October 29. You’re basically inserting about a month and a half of when someone was expected to travel and when they are,” said Jen Smyers, director of policy and advocacy for the immigration and refugee program at Church World Service, one of the nine resettlement agencies.
More than 200 refugees were expected to travel to the US next week, according to a source familiar. Their flights have been canceled.
[….]
“We will work with our implementing partners to plan for a resumption of refugee arrivals on or after October 29,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding: “This will include rescheduling travel for those affected by the extension of the refugee arrivals pause. By law, no refugees may be admitted this fiscal year until the President determines the number that may be admitted. When the Presidential Determination is issued, we will begin admitting refugees in accordance with its provisions.”
The President has not yet signed off on the 18,000!
The canceling and re-booking of refugee flights suggests that there may be a delay in the President signing off on the 18,000-person refugee cap.
See my post from Thursday about the Hill meeting with Pompeo, here.
It is not too late! You can still weigh in bycontacting the White House. You can be sure that thousands of open borders activists are pressuring the White House any way they can.
***For new readers these are the nine federal refugee contractors that not only place refugees in towns across the country, but lobby Congress and organize publicity against this President all while sucking down millions of your tax dollars! Cut them loose from the federal teat!
What’s his fault you ask? Everything to do with immigration and why Graham/Schumer can’t get a deal!
“As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating on immigration, we are going nowhere.”
(South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham)
Senator Graham of course is an advocate for amnesty and was one of the Gang of Eight in 2013 that managed to get their huge amnesty through the Senate that ultimately died when it went no where in the House.
Trump adviser Stephen Miller was then Senator Jeff Sessions’ chief staff person on the issue and as such was Graham’s nemesis.
Hey, Mr. President! A new nickname for you—Grumpy Graham! Photo from Politico which was also overjoyed to report Graham’s comments about Miller. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/21/government-shutdown-immigration-graham-miller-354747
Graham, who was an outspoken advocate for Syrian refugees here in 2015, blasted Miller over the weekend and of course the Leftwing media (like Newsweek, here) was delighted to report:
During the second day of the United States federal government shutdown, a GOP senator said that President Donald Trump’s Senior Policy Advisor Stephen Miller was holding back Republicans and Democrats from striking a deal on immigration.
“Every time we have a proposal, it is only yanked back by staff members,” Senator Lindsey Graham (SC-R) told reporters on Capitol Hill Sunday.
Miller with then Senator Jeff Sessions
“As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating on immigration, we are going nowhere.”
The senator blamed Miller and the White House staff for continued disagreement over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) and immigration issues that were at the heart of the spending bill’s failure to pass in the Senate on Friday. “The Stephen Miller approach to immigration has no viability,” Graham told MSNBC on Friday.
[….]
Miller was a staffer for then-Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions in 2013 when Sessions voted down a bipartisan bill for immigration reform that would have helped 11 million undocumented American immigrants get citizenship. “It’s no secret that he’s an obstacle to getting anything done on immigration,” an unnamed House Republican told McClatchy earlier this month.
More here.
Here is my bellwether on how the President is doing on immigration issues, including the refugee issue. If Senator Graham is happy with the White House then that is bad news for us.
And, if for some reason, Miller leaves the Administration, it will be a sign that we are done!
As long time readers know, immigration/demographic change is, in my view, the only issue that matters for the future of our great country!
Go Lindsey! Go! Cut them off!
Longtime readers know that the good Senator from South Carolina has not been a favorite here at RRW mostly because he has been an advocate for more Syrian refugees being admitted to the US. However….
Maybe the despicable hit by the outgoing Obama Administration (including by UN Ambassador Samantha Power***) against Israel in the UN on the eve of the Jewish holiday (and Christmas!) is a blessing in disguise, and will be looked upon as a major turning point in our involvement with the world body (what a joke it is!).
We should all use this opportunity to pound the incoming Trump team to cut our ties with the increasingly pro-Islam United Nations.
Outgoing Secretary General Ban Ki-moon admitted in his farewell speech tens days ago that the UN had become disproportionately anti-Israel and it would hurt efforts going forward to forge peace.
I predict that the bias will be getting worse under the leadership of Antonio Guterres.
Remember that the UN is responsible for choosing the vast majority of our refugees! That is why the Syrians entering the US are virtually all Muslims! This is a perfect time to cut them off!
(If we are going to admit refugees to the US, there is no reason we can’t pick our own!)
From CNN yesterday:
(CNN)Sen. Lindsey Graham will propose a measure to pull US funding for the United Nations unless the UN Security Council repeals the resolution it passed condemning Israeli settlements.
“It’s that important to me,” he told CNN. “This is a road we haven’t gone down before. If you can’t show the American people that international organizations can be more responsible, there is going to be a break. And I am going to lead that break.”
[….]
He later told CNN’s Dana Bash that US funding accounts for 22% of the UN’s budget.
Trump has tapped South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to replace Samantha Power. Maybe Graham can lead the charge to cut funding and Haley can preside over the effort to disentangle the US from the world body! Wouldn’t that be fun to watch! And, it would surely rehabilitate their images for me!
***If you want to know more about pro-Palestinian Samantha Power (may she disappear from the world stage), just search her name here at RRW. We have followed her career since she was named ‘Iraqi refugee czar’ by Obama when he first entered the White House. She and Hillary were all for the overthrow of Col. Qaddafi which has directly led to the massive invasion of Europe from No. Africa.
In addition to the fact that Haley snubbed constituents worried about the newly expanded refugee resettlement program when it arrived in South Carolina two years ago, here is an articlein the Post & Courier (Charleston, SC) about Haley arriving in DC to meet with many on the Hill who will have to confirm her as Donald Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations. The article contains a bunch of red flags for me!
See my previous post,here. ***Update*** December 11, 2016. Keeping up with all things Haley. One advisor tells her not to fall into Trump’s “nationalist trap.” What the h***! She will be working for Trump, she better not stray off the reservation!See here.
Yikes! She will be in DC to get the annual award at the Kemp Leadership Award dinner.
He [deputy chief of staff] said she would already be in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to attend the Kemp Leadership Award Dinner.
Haley is receiving the conservative organization’s annual award in recognition of “exceptional leadership in public policy or private enterprise in advancing the American Idea.”
Kemp, conservative on economics, was an open borders advocate. See hereat VDARE in 2014 ‘The Strange Rebirth of Jack Kemp Republicanism.’ Be sure to see Ann Coulter: Save us from Paul Ryan and the Kemp boys! http://www.vdare.com/articles/ann-coulter-save-us-from-paul-ryan-and-the-kemp-boys VDARE also tells us in that same article that Rep. Paul Ryan worked for a think-tank created to promote Kemp’s ideas and considered Kemp a mentor!
Rep. Paul Ryan is leading Republican efforts to pass Amnesty in the House of Representatives. Ryan actually worked for Kemp at Empower America (a now defunct and largely unremembered think-tank) and cites him as a mentor.
And, today! Haley is getting a big award in Kemp’s memory!
The Post & Couriergoes on to report that she will visit with Tennessee Senator Bob Corker (Mr. Iran deal!) who (like Haley) has done nothing to slow the flow of refugees to his state and has also snubbed constituents concerned with the influx of Somali and other Muslim refugees to the state.
On Tuesday afternoon, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he anticipated talking with Haley in the days ahead.
“I had a very constructive conversation with her when she was appointed and look forward to talking to her this week,” Corker said.
Continuing with the report in the Post & Courier, we learn she is meeting with the man she really preferred as President, Senator Marco Rubio, who we know will forever be known as one of the Gang of Eight which attempted to get amnesty through Congress while Obama was President.
During her visit this week, she will likely meet with other members of the Foreign Relations Committee, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who Haley endorsed for president during the Republican primary. She could also drop in on the offices of some Democrats, such as the committee’s ranking member, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland.
And, Cardin is about as far left as anyone in the Senate, what could she possibly say to him to make him not oppose her (that is what scares me, what will she say!). Two Swamp Monster pals of Nikki Haley! Senators Rubio and Graham
And the final nail in her coffin from my point of view is her close relationship to Lindsey (Bring’em all in) Graham. In 2015, before Obama opened the Syrian floodgates, Graham was introducing legislation to do just that, see here. Post & Courier continues:
Recently, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he looked forward to introducing Haley to his colleagues when the time came for her to come to Washington to make the rounds.
So much for draining the swamp! I admit Trump is a lot smarter than I am, but I still don’t get this pick for the United Nations, unless reining-in the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program is NOT a top agenda item.
If Trump wanted a woman, two tough loyalcandidates come to mind: Gov. Sarah Palin and former Rep. Michele Bachmann, who would not have taken one second of politically-correct crap from the likes of Antonio Guterres. Or, any pressure from the all powerful Organization of Islamic Cooperation!
One of my readers suggested this job is a “nothingburger” job, and I respectfully disagree!
We will be keeping a close watch on Turtle Baywhen Haley gets there.
All over the country, as we have been reporting, refugee advocates are having pow-wows and crying sessions about what Donald Trump might do about refugees on January 21st.
Many of those advocates have gotten comfortable, and felt safe in their jobs, through several Presidents including Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama, but all that is expected to change.
This is a story fromNew Hampshire Public Radio (Clinton country) where experts try to predict what is coming.
The first quotes are from Chris George from the New Haven, CT resettlement agency. We told you about him here last week. He is hoping we still take in Obama’s last wish—110,000 this fiscal year. Asst. Professor Ruxandra Paul (Amherst): Trump on solid ground to cut flow of refugees, but she worries that other countries will follow suit. However, one thing never mentioned is that we are far and away the world leader in PERMANENTLY resettling refugees, most countries, including most European countries, do not admit permanent refugees.
Then we hear from a law professor who argues that we have given Presidents too much power. As far as the Refugee Act of 1980goes, the crafters of the law (all Dems) gave the President power. Congress was expected to “consult” and weigh in, but that body has until very recently ignored its role.
(Only Senator Sessions held a required hearing on Obama’s plan, the House has been silent under Rep. Trey Gowdy’s chairmanship of the immigration subcommittee.) New Hampshire Public Radio:
“A president can exercise the highest level of authority, when it comes to border control or foreign policy,” says Sudha Setty from Western New England University Law. “So in terms of setting that refugee ceiling for future fiscal years, future President Trump does have the authority to set that ceiling very low.”
Setty said Trump’s freedom to exercise sweeping decisions, like banning Muslims from entering the U.S. continues a disturbing trend of the last two administrations.
“The lesson of the last 15 years has been that we have given the president a tremendous amount of power. And we have not put into place a lot of accountability measures when it comes to anything that is deemed to be national security or terrorism or national security related, and that’s not changing any time soon.”
Next up is another assistant professorwith a little nugget that is useful. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees gets $1.5 BILLION a year from us (and not mentioned here is the fact that the UN is choosing most of our refugees).
Amherst College Political Scientist Ruxandra Paul is watching both sides of the Atlantic right now. She says if U.S. leadership changes direction on its decades long commitment to refugee resettlement, more global uncertainty is sure to come.
“Donald Trump has been suggesting that the US has contributed too much and that allies from western Europe are not covering their share of the burden.”
Last year the U.S. gave the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) more than $1.5 billion. The European Union next in line, followed by several European countries, gave in the hundreds of millions. [We gave a half a billion here just in July—ed]
From a legal perspective President Donald Trump will be on solid ground if he chooses to lower the refugee ceiling. If he does, Paul says, it’s possible other countries will do likewise.
Nikki Haley?
In light of that bit of information, that the UNHCR gets $1.5 billion a year from us, is Nikki Haley going to be tough enough and would she be able to deal with the refugee issuewhich The News & Observer, a North Carolina paper, says is one of four major UN issues she will have to confront?
Will Senator Lindsey (Open Borders!) Graham be coaching from behind the curtain?
Ambassador to the UN is not a little out-of-the-way job and will depend greatly on who Trump picks for the Secretary of State which she will be reporting to! Placing Haley there is not putting her in a place to simply keep enemies close. A deputy assistant job in the Labor Department would have been a better fit. If Trump does go hardline on refugees and wants the UN funding cut would Haley resign and cause him a PR embarrassment down the road? I think she would (and the likes of Senator Lindsey Graham will be cheering her on from the sidelines as they prepare for 2020)!
Trump wants to end Muslim migration to the U.S. until terrorist threats are addressed, banning refugees fleeing violence in countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. This policy directly violates international law, which stipulates that other countries have an obligation to take in people seeking refuge from persecution in their home country and cannot bar refugees based on origin. [Trump (we hope) will follow US law which gives him the power to limit refugee flow, not international law!—ed]
Although Haley opposes Trump’s outright Muslim ban, she was among 30 governors who demanded Syrian refugees not be resettled in their states, citing security concerns. A spokeswoman for the governor said last year that until refugees can be properly vetted “it’s not appropriate for them to be sent to South Carolina or any other state.” [Just words and they all knew it!—ed]
New UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, is, from our point of view, the worst possible UN leader they could have chosen.
Refugees are not allowed into the country until they pass a series of background and health checks, a process that can take up to two years. Governors can’t legally stop refugees from being resettled in their states. [For the umpteenth time, the Syrian screening has been reduced to 3 months and we do admit refugees with TB and other diseases.—ed]
Incoming U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is likely to resist any American efforts to dismantle refugee programs. He formerly served as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and is a strong advocate for wealthy countries doing their fair share to help the most vulnerable. He will take office Jan. 1.
This last makes me wonder (again) whether the Trump transition team has any idea of what they are up against at the UN and how those of us who voted for Trump feel about the ‘world body.’ Endnote: If you were digesting your Thanksgiving meal and didn’t read my post last night, here it is. Islamists say their long game is to take America down through immigration and out-breeding us!
In addition to the fact that Haley snubbed constituents worried about the newly expanded refugee resettlement program when it arrived in South Carolina two years ago, here is 
