Every day I get up eager to find more interesting stories about our out-of-control Refugee Resettlement program, and I definitely avoid the nitty-gritty tedious work of digging through documents so that the average American wondering where all these third-worlders are coming from and who is paying for it (mostly you) might be better informed.
Today, I made myself do some digging.
An aside: Readers you’ve probably noticed that government at all levels thrives on secrecy. If you’ve ever questioned a local boondoggle project or any sort of government program you know what I mean. They, government officials at any level, fear that the taxpayer will raise questions and they frankly hide stuff as best they can. In fact, it is easy to do because the government is a leviathan and they don’t even need to purposely hide stuff, we private citizens just don’t have the time to dig for it.
And, by the way, their ability to hide stuff has been made easier since real investigative reporting is rare. The mainstream media now appears to be on the side of government rather on the side of the citizens. So, I’ve learned over the years that the first step in any battle with government is to find their documents—any documents! It’s actually funny, you may never find a smoking gun, but just having their documents makes them nervous and is your first step to bring about change.
Today I found something I’ve been wondering about for years—some of the Legislative history of the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 (really 1979). It is here, at the Library of Congress and I can tell this bill summary is filled with all sorts of juicy things you will be hearing more about as time goes on.
Who do we thank for the Refugee Resettlement Act?
Top honors go to Senator Ted Kennedy and President Jimmy Carter!
I’ve written about this before, but along with Chief Sponsor Ted (don’t bring them to Hyannis) Kennedy we have the following co-sponsors (remember these guys—mostly Dems!):
Sen Biden, Joseph R., Jr. [DE] –
Sen Boschwitz, Rudy [MN] –
Sen Hatfield, Mark O. [OR] –
Sen Javits, Jacob K. [NY] –
Sen Levin, Carl [MI] –
Sen McGovern, George [SD] –
Sen Moynihan, Daniel Patrick [NY] –
Sen Pell, Claiborne [RI] –
Sen Randolph, Jennings [WV] –
Sen Ribicoff, Abraham A. [CT] –
Sen Riegle, Donald W., Jr. [MI] –
Sen Sarbanes, Paul S. [MD] –
Sen Tsongas, Paul E. [MA] –
Sen Williams, Harrison A., Jr. [NJ]
And, I always thought it was funny that Jennings Randolph’s and Bobby Byrd’s West Virginia and Joe Biden’s Delaware resettled only a tiny fraction of the 3 million refugees resettled since 1975! The top year for resettlement was 1980! with 207,000! 1980 was also the first year we admitted refugees from Africa.
In 1981 we resettled 159,000 and in 1982 it was 97,000. Reagan must have caught on and we saw a big drop to 62,000 in 1983.
Refugee Council USA (a lobbying group for the contractors):
Since 1975, the U.S. has resettled over 3 million refugees, with annual admissions figures ranging from a high of 207,000 in 1980 to a low of 27,110 in 2002. The average number admitted annually since 1980 is 98,000. [That low year (2002) was because 9/11 happened and they were all scared that a refugee might be a terrorist—that did happen eventually, but not right after 9/11.—ed]
But then get this!
The law specified that the refugee cap for 1980, ’81 and ’82 was set at 50,000 a year unless the President determined there was a great crisis—-did Ronald Reagan actually agree with this? Although fiscal year 1980’s 207,000 would have been Jimmy Carter’s gift to America (along with having signed the bill into law on March 17th, (St. Pat’s Day) 1980!).
Library of Congress summary, here:
Provides for up to 50,000 annual refugee admissions for fiscal years 1980 through 1982. Authorizes the President to exceed such 50,000 admissions level if, at the beginning of a fiscal year and after appropriate consultation, he determines it to be for humanitarian purposes. Provides that these admissions shall be allocated to groups of special concern to the United States.
Funds were only authorized for those three years as well. Wonder if they have been just operating ever since without formally reauthorizing the funding?
Endnote: Ann Coulter reminded the audience at CPAC of Ted Kennedy’s role in changing America with immigration, here, on Saturday. Readers! They are changing the people!
We have a “where to find information” category that is chock full and this post will be archived there.