WaPo: Stirring the pot, highlighting controversy between White House and DOS on refugees, etc.

We told you about the discussions (supposedly) on-going in the administration to possibly shift the refugee program and consular affairs from the Dept. of State to the Dept. of Homeland Security, here.
The Washington Post describes the battle lines as Tillerson/Democrat (the ‘good guys’ in the Senate) vs. Stephen Miller (leader of the “Nativist strain”) in the White House.  Who knows what is really going on! I don’t.

Stephen Miller, we are told, crafted that historic Warsaw speech last week (the save Western Civilization speech!). Here he is during the campaign with his former boss and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Left (including the WaPo) would like nothing better than to put the two on the President’s wrong side. See WND here when Trump tapped Miller: http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/trump-snags-top-aide-to-jeff-sessions/

However, Washington Post opinion writer Josh Rogin has got it all figured out and it all goes back to that Poland speech the left is having hissy-fits over—the LOL! Nationalist speech and its boogeyman author.
Here is what Rogin says in his closing paragraphs after trying to make a case that bureaucratically the refugee program should stay at the State Department.

That nativist strain in the White House is represented by Miller, who was the principal author of Trump’s travel ban, which targeted six Muslim-majority countries, as well as of Trump’s speech last week in Poland, which cast the mission of U.S. foreign policy as one based on threats, not relationships.

“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” Trump said. “Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”

I would like to think that there is a great battle of ideals happening around the subject of moving one bureaucratic function from one federal agency to another, but it is more likely that the little fiefdoms and power structures built around certain federal agencies (and their friends in Congress) are simply protecting turf and their MONEY!
Earlier Rogin tells us this which I think is closer to the truth about what the concern is—there are little fiefdoms to protect at Foggy Bottom and the bureaucrats/Senate lackeys are trying to not have their little world rocked or any power removed from the State Department, a bastion of liberalism in Washington.

Although the State Department’s internal reorganization plans are still under review, spokeswoman Heather Nauert told me that Tillerson believes the two bureaus should remain where they are and he views consular and refugee work “as essential to the Department’s mission to secure our borders and protect the American people.”

State stands to lose not only the 12,000-plus personnel billets associated with the work but also the more than $3 billion annually that consular fees bring in.

Tillerson’s position runs counter to the “Listening Report” he commissioned to review the State Department’s organizational structure, which actually recommended handing over all consular functions to DHS. The report, compiled by the private firm Insigniam, claimed such a move “would elevate security at our borders and remove a source of dissatisfaction and frustration.”

Read it all here.
As for those fiefdoms!  Such a move could upset the little fiefdoms developed between the State Dept. Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and its nine federal contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America.
Someone once told me that one must repeat the same message seven times before people listen.  I’m probably up to at least that many on this subject!
There can never be real reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program as long as these nine fake non-profit groups, functioning as contractors, lobbyists, and community organizers, are being paid with taxpayer dollars to seed refugees in to unsuspecting towns and cities. 
A move of the program from one federal agency to another won’t be enough, but it might be a good start.

Politico: Sec. of State Tillerson arguing with White House's Miller over refugees?

A word of caution! All of these reports being leaked out about conversations between the White House and the State Department must be viewed with a skeptical eye.
That said, this story sounds plausible because we know that Stephen Miller, a longtime Trump aide and expert on immigration and refugees, is a key White House strategist on the subject.

The 31-year-old Miller has been at Trump’s side since the earliest days of the Trump campaign.

We also have gotten previous suggestions that Tillerson aide Brian Hook (a Bushie) is soft on the refugee program, see hereCould Hook be the source for the discord story?
Now that the Supreme Court has added a new wrinkle by doing away with the whole concept of a Presidentially-designated CEILING that is a cornerstone of the Refugee Act of 1980, we can imagine that disagreements are surfacing between the White House immigration hardliners and the DOS which is largely being run by career bureaucrats who loved Obama and Hillary.
I suspect it is the ‘careers’ who put together the bragging graphic, here. Ten Pittsburghs is going to sell the USRAP? Did the Secretary’s office ever eyeball it before it was posted?
Here is what Politico is reporting:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued with senior White House aide Stephen Miller over immigration issues last week in a second recent clash with the White House.

Miller pushed Tillerson and the State Department to be tougher on immigration and make changes to the programs they control, according to four people familiar with the conversation in the West Wing. John Kelly, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, was also present.

It is pretty outrageous to attribute the news of  discord to “four people familiar with the conversation.”  One person might have leaked it back to the DOS and three career bureaucrats are then “familiar with the conversation” and presto! Politico has a story with four sources!

The lead Politico reporter, Josh Dawsey, quoting “four people familiar with the conversation” says on his twitter page that he is a “cigar & bourbon” kind of guy (what is that on his shirt?). Politico welcomed him in December with this comment: “We are very excited to welcome Josh to the newsroom on December 12, and to turn him loose on Washington and the incoming Trump administration.” http://talkingbiznews.com/1/wsj-reporter-dawsey-hired-by-politico-to-cover-white-house/

[….]

Miller has been holding meetings to address how to further curb the entry of refugees into the United States, per two administration officials, and has closely worked with senators on legislative proposals to sharply cut other forms of legal immigration. [ I sure hope to learn that reform of the US Refugee Admissions Program is on the Administration’s list of legislative proposals! If it isn’t than we will never see any real reform!–ed]

[….]

This week, CNN reported that the White House has proposed moving the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs to the Department of Homeland Security, along with its bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. [See my post here.—ed]

Those are among the State Department’s biggest functions and are among the government’s largest immigration arms. They control refugee vetting and releasing passports, among other issues.

[….]

Tillerson has grown increasingly frustrated at the White House and chafed at taking direction from younger Trump aides and not being able to implement State Department policies and offices like he would like, people familiar with his thinking say. [Who the heck are “people familiar with his thinking?” Dawsey could be making up this whole story!—ed]

Tillerson has grown especially agitated that less experienced figures like Miller – who previously worked on the Hill for attorney general and former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions – have been giving him commands.

The former ExxonMobil CEO was promised autonomy by Trump and is fond of reminding others of that.

More here.
Politico reporter Dawsey has a lot of nerve reporting that Miller is somehow less experienced than Tillerson about immigration and immigration law!
Endnote:  I think it’s time for all of us in the blogosphere to start highlighting especially young reporters (Dawsey is only 5 years out of Journalism school!) who act like kingmakers (or destroyers) and report stories based on ‘sources familiar with someone’s thinking!’

White House and anonymous leakers at DOS (and outside DOS) in battle over refugee costs

Can you believe it!  Reuters is reporting on four anonymous leakers (inside and outside the Dept. of State) who are saying chief White House aide Stephen Miller is trying to skew numbers to make the refugee program look more expensive than they claim it is!

Former Asst. Sec. of State Anne Richard is still in DC. Is she getting inside info. from her old pals at PRM? Just wondering!

Most interesting to me is that a former State Department “official” is in on the effort to skewer Miller (and Trump of course!).
Can you say ‘Obama shadow government’!
Editor: Sorry I’m giving you a quicky post here.  I am preparing for something this evening and have no time for more comment and analysis, except to say that getting at the true cost of the overall migration of impoverished third world refugees to middle America is almost impossible because in most states, the welfare offices do not track and separate out the different classes of immigrants using social services, medicare, or sending kids to school.
For federal budget planning, I’m guessing Miller is trying to get at the true cost to admit the refugees in the first place which is where the federal budget costs are initially incurred for decision-making needed by September.

Here is  Reuters on the ‘Deep State’ undermining the White House (again!), getting more cocky by the day aren’t they!
Is Simon Henshaw leaking?

Two studies that President Donald Trump hopes will buttress his case to cut the number of refugees are at the heart of a fight between senior White House adviser Stephen Miller and career U.S. government officials over immigration policy, four current and former officials said.

Trump in March ordered the U.S. State Department and other agencies to tally only the costs of resettling refugees but not the benefits that policy experts said refugees can also bring, including tax revenues, professional skills and job creation. [Virtually impossible, and are we going to tally medicare, schools, housing, SSI and criminal justice system costs for how many years?—ed]

Is Larry Bartlett leaking?

A current official said Miller had convened meetings with State Department staffers to discuss the refugee cost reports. When department specialists proposed including refugees’ economic contributions in the studies to produce a more balanced assessment, Miller rebuffed the idea, one current and one former U.S. official said.

The White House said Miller did not hold meetings on the specific subject of the cost reports and that Trump’s overall fiscal year 2018 budget proposal sought to “make transparent the net budgetary effects of immigration programs and policy.”

The current and former officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they believe, however, that the administration wants to help make a case to restrict refugee flows by creating a skewed analysis.

“It’s a policy outcome in search of a rationale,” said a former U.S. official familiar with the debate.

Continue reading here and prepare to be outraged!
Endnote: If Henshaw and Bartlett are not the leakers, they better find out who is! They are responsible for whoever is talking to the press!  Like it or not, they work for President Donald Trump!

Waiting! Will Trump lower refugee ceiling further?

If so, how low will he go!
Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily talked to several experts here:

stephen-miller
Learn more about Miller from David Horowitz here: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/07/david-horowitz-stephen-miller-a-second-thoughts-warrior/

If President Donald Trump wants to curtail migration into the U.S. from some of the world’s most dangerous hotspots of jihadism, he has options that would effectively navigate an end-run around the courts.

“We will keep our country safe. That’s what I’m here for… I will give it the best security, so it will happen very rapidly,” Trump said Friday.

His top policy aide, Stephen Miller, said essentially the same thing in appearing on all the major Sunday morning news shows.

One of the options is to simply lower the ceiling on refugee resettlement for fiscal 2017, which began four months ago on Oct. 1.

Trump has already partially exercised this option in his first executive order when he lowered the annual ceiling from 110,000 refugees set by Obama to 50,000. Interestingly, this was the one part of his executive order that was not struck down by the lawsuits filed in Washington state and Minnesota.

[….]

By cutting the ceiling to 35,000, Trump would effectively end refugee resettlement for the rest of the fiscal year extending over the next seven and a half months. That would allow his administration to decide on a better vetting system and determine how high to set the ceiling for fiscal 2018. [And, I would argue that such a moratorium would give Congress the impetus to begin to reform the program! First step would be to remove “church” contractors from federal payroll—ed]

Continue reading here.
See what the experts say.  I am quoted too!
Don’t forget, even though there is a vocal minority, the majority of your fellow citizens think protecting America is the first priority, here.
Here is where the 2,305 refugees have been placed since the Executive Order was signed (up to this morning). I see we are still at the 34,430 level for the fiscal year, so there is still time to cap at 35,000! From Wrapsnet.
 
screenshot-282

screenshot-281
None were placed in Alaska and Hawaii since the EO on January 27th.

 
This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’

Go here and see why it is important for you to let Donald Trump know what you think!

Senator Sessions' immigration aide chosen as White House Senior Advisor

This should give us all some peace of mind! 
Donald Trump has chosen one of the most knowledgeable people in the country on the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program (and how it has been administered for years) as a chief White House policy advisor.
From Politico:

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Stephen Miller, a top policy aide from his campaign, to serve in the White House as senior adviser to the president for policy, the transition [team] announced Tuesday.

stephen_miller_27726700476_539_360_c1
Miller, an expert on immigration, could be seen warming up the crowds at many of Donald Trump’s early rallies.

“Stephen played a central and wide-ranging role in our primary and general election campaign,” Trump said in a statement. “He is deeply committed to the America First agenda, and understands the policies and actions necessary to put that agenda into effect.”

Miller has served as Trump’s top policy adviser since January 2016. Miller previously worked for Sen. Jeff Sessions, another early Trump supporter and Trump’s pick for Attorney General.

“Stephen Miller is the best person President-elect Donald Trump could have chosen to be his senior advisor for policy,” Sessions said in a statement released by the transition. “He has understood the Trump Movement from the beginning and has a unique understanding of the very real and honest concerns of the American people.”

Like his former boss, Senator Jeff Sessions, Miller saw Trump’s potential early and has been at his side for at least a year.
Creating a new tag for ‘Stephen Miller.’