Priscilla Alvarez writing at The Atlantic runs through a partial list of the nine federal refugee contractors and tells us how many staffers have been fired because of that mean old Donald Trump not sending them enough refugee paying clients.
Doing well by doing good! Writer Alvarez features the International Rescue Committee. Bet she doesn’t know its head honcho, Brit David Miliband, makes a cool nearly $700,000 annual salary. He won’t be losing his job!
There really isn’t much new here (like so many of the fear-mongering stories the lapdog media is publishing these days, there isn’t much here that you haven’t heard over the last few months), however, it is worth posting for a couple of reasons.
First, we are reminded that the US State Department is rumored to be preparing to cut one of the nine federal contractors completely off the federal dole!
Which will it be?
My guess is that they might cut out the smallest—The Ethiopian Community Development Council. It surely won’t be the giants: International Rescue Committee or the US Conference of Catholic Bishops!
It could be one of the others (besides ECDC) that is almost COMPLETELY funded by you through your tax dollars. See the list below.***
I can’t spend a lot of time on this, but it warrants a bit of attention.
These US Senators have no shame!
Senator Grassley has been there 36 years and Feinstein 25 years. I would like them both to tell us when exactly was the Refugee Act of 1980 properly/legally carried out when it came to the provision involving the Presidential “determination” and “consultation” with Congress.
What the hell is Senator Grassley doing scolding the White House/State Department, complaining that the legal process was not followed on THIS year’s legally required consultation on the refugee CEILING/CAP.
For the last ten years (and probably the ten before I was watching), Congress never paid any attention to the law when it came to the President’s determination about how many refugees COULD be admitted in the coming fiscal year.
Someone from the Administration would come to the Hill in mid to late September, present the determination and report, and no one on the Hill said boo!
Whatever was sent up, even literally within days of October 1, Congress accepted.
Faux outrage!
Now, only now! are they screaming about how the process was subverted (because it is Trump?).
Go herewhere I told you almost a month ago what the process is (a process they never followed anyway!).
Here is the complaint initiated by REPUBLICAN Senator Grassley (chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee). Maybe he is getting too old to remember that he gave Obama a pass for the previous 8 years!
Grassley, Feinstein Blast State Dept. For Barely Consulting Them On Refugee Cap
In a blistering statement Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) called out the Trump administration for its rushed consultation of the committee before announcing it would lower the refugee cap next year.
Grassley and Feinstein complained that they learned of the refugee cap in the news before they had a meeting with the administration, despite asking months ago for a meeting on the issue. State Department officials met with the members of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday afternoon, and only scheduled the meeting on Tuesday, per Grassley and Feinstein.
“We are incredibly frustrated that the annual consultation for refugee admissions, which is required by law, was finalized just one day in advance. It is simply unacceptable to read in the press that the administration had reached its decision on the refugee cap before the mandated meeting with Congress had even been scheduled,” Grassley and Feinstein said in the statement.
This post is filed in my ‘Laugh of the day’ category, here. ROFLMAO!
One more thing: A number of years ago I asked my Congressman to see if I could be allowed to attend the “consultation” and was told that the public cannot attend. And, besides, I was told, there isn’t much to see—just a perfunctory handing-off of the determination report sometimes by an Assistant Secretary and not the Secretary of State himself or herself.
….and it puts you at risk because they are not being properly monitored! Update February 23: Here is a link to the critical GAO report.
Hot off the press this morning is this Washington Post storyabout a GAO report released today that is highly critical of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement’s care of the ‘children’ who have been flooding our borders for many years now (the numbers are expected to rise,see here). UAC ‘children’ in Texas in 2014. Where are they now and what are they doing? Breitbart photos: http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2014/06/05/leaked-images-reveal-children-warehoused-in-crowded-us-cells-border-patrol-overwhelmed/
No surprise for those of us who have been following the Refugee Program for years that the contractors hired to take care of the kids are doing a rotten job.
BTW, the UACs are NOT refugees even if Obama and the contractors want them to be. They want them to be designated as refugees so they can get in line for welfare goodies and apply to bring their families to America.
Here is one recent story about how the contractors are squabbling over Obama payola for legal services for the UACs (mostly teenage boys!).
According to the WaPo story 125,000 ‘children’ have been distributed around the US since 2011.
I don’t know if any contractors are mentioned by name in the report, but we know that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops andLutheran Immigration and Refugees Services, both federal refugee contractors, receive millions of dollars to care for the ‘children.’ Also, we learned in 2014 that there were two other HUGE contractors: Southwest Key Programsand Baptist Child & Family Service. Senator Grassley initially wanted answers from HHS here in 2014.
This is the Washington Post story this morning. I’ve just snipped a bit of it, but you should read it all.
The government agency tasked with placing thousands of Central American children into communities while they await immigration court decisions has no system for tracking the children, does not keep complete case files and has allowed contractors to operate with little oversight, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.
“Based on the findings in this report, it’s no wonder that we are hearing of children being mistreated or simply falling off the grid once they are turned over to sponsors,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). “The Obama administration isn’t adequately monitoring the grantees or sponsors whom we are entrusting to provide basic care for unaccompanied children.”
[….]
The report also criticized the agency’s oversight of nonprofit groups that it pays to operate shelters for the children and locate sponsors.
[….]
Grassley sharply criticized the lack of follow-up for released children.
“Beyond the risks to the children created by these shortcomings, our communities are left to cope with the crime and violence from gang members and other delinquents who are not identified or tracked because of HHS’s haphazard and porous practices,” he said.
BTW, it is still a mystery about why the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (Eskinder Negash) resigned abruptly in December 2014. Rumors are flying that it had something to do with the UACs.
Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on this report. Go here for more information.
For more reading pleasure, all of our posts going back many years on the UACs are archived using the words ‘unaccompanied minors.’
And you will see there (among those posts) that Europe is having the same problem with ‘unaccompanied children’ flooding the Continent. In their case, they are mostly from the Middle East and Africa. One of the children recently murdered a care giver in Sweden.
As we reported earlier, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees have a responsibility under the Refugee Act of 1980 to “consult” with the Administration on the size and scope of the refugee program for the upcoming fiscal year which begins on October first. Senator Chuck Grassley: How many?
Obviously Senator Grassley isn’t letting the Administration get away with the vague information they have been giving out on exactly how many Syrian refugees Obama plans to admit to the US.
And, by the way, we wouldn’t have security concerns if we were saving the Christians. We have reported repeatedly that the vast majority, 95% entering the US so far are Sunni Muslims. The number jumps to 97% when you consider only those who came this year.
Here is Grassley’s press release from Friday thanks to Chris:
Grassley Seeks Details on Administration’s Refugee Announcements
WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley today pressed Secretary of State John Kerry to clarify the administration’s plans to increase the number of refugees allowed into the United States in fiscal 2016, including up to 10,000 additional refugees from the war torn country of Syria. Grassley raised questions about the administration’s plans to admit additional refugees and whether adequate safeguards and background checks are in place to handle the influx.
While the administration proposed raising the refugee ceiling from 70,000 to 75,000, Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard admitted that administration officials are considering increasing the cap later in 2016. White House Spokesman Josh Earnest also said that the administration is considering allowing 10,000 refugees from Syria in 2016, an increase from earlier estimates.
In a letter to Kerry, Grassley asked how the administration will screen Syrian refugees to ensure they were not involved with terrorist organizations, whether the influx of refugees will strain the vetting process, and how the administration plans to respond in the event that refugees are determined to be involved in terrorist organizations after they have been admitted to the United States. Further, Grassley asked Kerry to explain what the administration is doing to assess the willingness of other countries to admit Syrian refugees.
The letter follows a consultation earlier this week between Kerry and leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to discuss the proposed annual number of refugees to be admitted to the United States. The State Department must consult with these congressional committees regarding the refugee cap each year as well as any time an increase in allowable refugees is proposed.
Following the consultation, Grassley emphasized that America’s security must remain a top priority when admitting refugees, especially when violent terrorist groups like ISIS are committed to finding ways to enter the United States and harm Americans.
Full text of Grassley’s letter to Kerry follows (click here).
September 11, 2015
Senator Grassley needs to call for a hearing required by the Refugee Act and put Secretary of State Kerry and Asst. Secretary Richard on the hot seat!
And, the next question is…where might the Members of the House Judiciary Committee be hiding?
Obama is getting it done with his pen and phone while everyone yaks about the Republicans possibly winning the Senate in a few weeks and while we follow shiny objects—like the Ebola mess.
Obama getting it done!
Folks I hate to break it to you, but Obama will have two years to do his unlawful work because even if Republicans take control of the Congressional branch there appear to be few leaders who have any guts there to stop (or undo) any of the outrageous executive actions he is getting done.
I don’t understand why more Republican Senators and Congressional leaders don’t speak up now and thus assure their victory in November.
We better hope the 80-year-old Senator Grassleystays in the Senate and stays healthy!
By the way, there are already tens of thousands of Haitians here legally under Temporary Protected Status. See our category on Haiti, here, to learn how that came about. Since they are here legally I expect their families will be applying for family reunification under the new Obama plan.
I’m also guessing that these new Haitians will come under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlementand their contractors thus making this another expansion (in addition to the UACs) of the definition of the word ‘refugee’ and further broadening the refugee resettlement program thus giving the new Haitians immediate access to welfare, one of the plums that comes to those designated as “refugees.” (Someone correct me if I am wrong!).
The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee took the Obama administration to task Friday for its “irresponsible” plan to allow as many as 100,000 Haitians to immigrate to the U.S. without a visa.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said the administration’s Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program — which will allow thousands of Haitians awaiting a U.S. visa to enter the country and legally apply for work permits — is “an irresponsible overreach of the executive branch’s authority.”
Which countries are next on President Obama’s list?” Mr. Grassley said. “Will there by medical screenings before entry? Will work permits be granted automatically? How will this affect American workers?”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the branch of the Department of Homeland Security that handles immigration benefits cases, announced Friday the program to unite Haitians already living in the U.S. with family members abroad will ramp up in 2015.
At that time the State Department’s National Visa Center will begin notifying families who may be eligible to take part in the program. Those immigrants will allowed to apply for work permits while waiting for issuance of their permanent visas.
The agency said the program will expedite “safe, legal and orderly migration.”
