One more reason for foreign nationals to legally stay in US—Ebola

Every time we turn around we find one more legal reason foreign nationals can stay in the US.

The one federal program (besides refugee resettlement/asylum) we have noted most often on these pages is Temporary Protected Status a ridiculously named program since it is rarely temporary.  We still have Central Americans living here legally ten years and longer after some storm/earthquake roughed-up their landscape.  Their “temporary refugee” status (allowing them to work and do anything a legal immigrant can do, and since they get drivers licenses, they probably vote!) simply gets extended every 18 months or so. See our complete TPS archive by clicking here.

In fact, Liberians have been begging again for an extension of their legal status in the US, guess they will get their wish.

I didn’t know we had this program—Humanitarian Special Situations—-which reader Robin alerted me to last week.

Here is a press alert from USCIS entitled: Ebola Outbreak-related Immigration Relief Measures to Nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone Currently in the United States.

From a July CNN story. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/03/health/ebola-outbreak-west-africa/
Release Date: August 15, 2014

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. USCIS offers relief measures to nationals of those three countries who are currently in the United States.

Immigration relief measures that may be available if requested include:

  • Change or extension of nonimmigrant status for an individual currently in the United States, even if the request is filed after the authorized period of admission has expired;
  • Extension of certain grants of parole made by USCIS;
  • Expedited adjudication and approval, where possible, of requests for off-campus employment authorization for F-1 students experiencing severe economic hardship;
  • Expedited processing of immigrant petitions for immediate relatives (currently in the United States) of U.S. citizens;
  • Expedited adjudication of employment authorization applications, where appropriate; and
  • Consideration for waiver of fees associated with USCIS benefit applications.

To learn more about how USCIS provides assistance to customers affected by unforeseen circumstances in their home country, visit www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/special-situations.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov, call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283, or follow USCIS on Facebook (/uscis), Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon.

 

Senators urge extension of (sham) Temporary Protected Status for Liberians

Demonstrating once again what a sham Temporary Protected Status is, Senators want Obama to extend temporary refugee status to Liberians who have been here “temporarily” since the late 1980’s!   Seems to me that the civil war in Liberia is over and this “LEGAL” status for those here originally illegally should just end.

There must be one hell-uv-a lot of Liberians in Rhode Island because I saw Senator Jack Reed spearheading this same effort several years ago.  Here he is joined by the usual Senate Open Borders gang.

Senators Jack Reed and Elizabeth Warren, working for the middle class (must be middle class immigrants!).

Check out here what other countries enjoy this “temporary” protection.  Liberia is in the Deferred Enforced Departure category.   Reed’s press release and letter to the White House on Friday are here.

From Political News:

WASHINGTON, DC – In an effort to preserve the status of Liberians living legally in the United States, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) led a letter signed by fourteen of his colleagues to President Obama urging an extension of Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). The current DED extension is set to expire on September 30, 2014, which could cause Liberians living here legally on temporary status to be deported.

The usual suspects, but where is his pal Elizabeth Warren?  Come to think of it, why isn’t Warren here?

Senators joining Reed in sending the letter include: Charles Schumer (D-NY), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chris Coons (D-DE), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Al Franken (D-MN), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

[….]

Since 1991, Liberians have relied on short-term provisions of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or DED from Presidents of both political parties to extend their legal right to remain in the United States. These individuals, many of whom have been in the United States since fleeing Liberia in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, have retained a legal status that allows them to live, work, and pay taxes in the United States.

Reed and the Liberians were expecting that “comprehensive immigration reform” would resolve their problem with its blanket amnesty.

The senators wrote: “the current system of short-term DED renewals leaves Liberians and their families with perennial uncertainty about whether they will be able to remain members of the communities they have come to call home. For this reason, while we urge you to grant a lengthy extension of at least two years and to make this announcement well in advance of the current DED expiration, we continue to call for comprehensive immigration reform that includes an adjustment to permanent resident status for qualifying Liberians and their families.”

The next time you hear one of your friends say:  “Legal immigration is o.k., it is illegal that I object to” remember TPS and pop them one (gently!).  Yes, it is legal (forever)Once granted a temporary stay in America, they never go home.  Check out that list again—it includes Syrians now.

US immigrants send billions of dollars out of the country

They are officially called remittances and have made the news lately, here, because American banks are increasingly refusing to send money to Somalia fearing it will end up in the hands of terrorists.

Rep. Keith Ellison (right), with Somali president, wants to keep the “hawalas” hopping and the money flowing. http://www.twincities.com/ci_22619932/minnesota-rep-keith-ellison-arrives-mogadishu

The Pew Research Center earlier this year calculated that approximately $123,273,000,000 is sent out of the US every year.  Hat tip:  Jim.

The first five receiving countries in descending order are:  Mexico, China, India, Philippines, and Nigeria.   By the way, number 9 is El Salvador.

We’ve written about El Salvador previously in relation to remittances because the Salvadorans’ legal right to be in the US and work is continually renewed in the Temporary Protected Status program.  Even George Bush renewed their status here (again and again) and said we needed to continue to prop up the economy back home through remittances.

One of the major arguments of the open borders crowd is that immigrants work and fuel our economy, or is it the economy back home that they are fueling?

Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota has been the leader in charge of making sure money flows to Somalia, here.  It is estimated that $120 million goes to Somalia from the US every year, but note that Pew has no idea of what the real number is.

Is this why the Somalis of Minnesota are so poor?

See all of our earlier posts on remittances, here.

Syrians by the “hundreds” arriving in North Jersey, thousands more expected in 2015 and 2016

“Hundreds?” Well, how could that be I wondered, since we are constantly reminded that the unwelcoming US has only admitted a hundred or so Syrian refugees.  It turns out that “hundreds” of those being granted ‘temporary protected status‘ are choosing to go to established Syrian communities, like those in North Jersey, to be with their people.

I continually find it amusing that no one ever questions the desire of ‘immigrants’ to congregate with their ethnic and religious groups in certain sections of cities or states, yet if any people of European background (you or me) would say I want to live with my kind of people we would be excoriated by the diversity-is-beautiful crowd as racist, rednecked boobs!  But, I digress.

Mahmoud Alzouabi, one of the stars of this story, traveled to Jordan with his wife and 8 kids and got a visa to the US. How did he pull that off when several hundred thousand others couldn’t? CARMINE GALASSO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Back to North Jersey and the Syrians.  Emphasis below is mine.  From North Jersey.com:

Syrians fleeing war and devastation in their homeland have settled in North Jersey by the hundreds since turmoil broke out three years ago. While family members, houses of worship and a social services agency offer support, many struggle to find work, afford housing and deal with grief amid harrowing experiences in war.

Then we hear about the first star of the story (there are always the sad tales in these articles designed to pull the heartstrings of your unwelcoming racist heart!):

Mahmoud Alzouabi, a 42-year-old Syrian refugee now living in Paterson, fled to a refugee camp in Jordan before getting a U.S. visa. Alzouabi saw a close friend shot to death at a demonstration.  [So how did this man with his family, of all the “refugees” arriving in Jordan get a visa to America?—ed]

They want to be with Syrians:

Drawn to North Jersey by long-established Syrian-American communities, many arrive with little more than the clothing they are wearing and with bitter memories of the life-threatening conditions that drove them from their homes.

[…..]

The Syrians who have come to North Jersey are largely unrecognized as they blend into Arab-American neighborhoods in a diverse state that is home to more than 9,000 Syrian-Americans, according to the Census Bureau.

Thousands being approved to stay in US under ‘Temporary Protected Status’ but as we have reported here at RRW over the years—no one ever goes home!  Just ask the over 100,000 Salvadorans here “temporarily!”  It is a joke.  However, unless they can figure out some fraudulent way to do it, those on TPS are not allowed to dip into welfare (maybe in Maine!) while refugee status confers on those lucky people a whole array of social services.

The United States offers financial aid and transitional help to Syrians who are accepted into its refugee resettlement program, but only 108 Syrians have been officially designated as refugees. Many others are stymied by stringent U.S. security concerns over people arriving with no identification papers. Others face a high legal barrier in the requirement that they prove they are victims of persecution and not merely people displaced by war.

Many of the Syrian refugees have arrived with visitor’s visas and extended their stays, legally, through what is known as temporary protective status, which allows them to get Social Security numbers and authorizes them to find employment.

No work!  (Someone please tell Grover that there are LEGAL Syrians over here looking for work!):

With temporary protected status, he has work authorization and a Social Security number, but he cannot find work. He [another star of the story—ed] applied for health care coverage but did not understand the responses he got. His wife is eight months pregnant.

“Everything is difficult here. Everything is complicated. There’s no help,” said Askar, who has applied for refugee status, fearing religious persecution back home.

They want refugee status so they can get taxpayer-support!

Syrians who are granted asylum are eligible for help from programs funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, including cash and medical assistance, job preparation and placement and English-language training. But only 108 Syrians have been granted official refugee status by the U.S.

TPS numbers:

Most have come to this country as visitors and stayed. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has accepted 5,261 applications for temporary protected status from Syrians already in the U.S., approving 2,038 of those and denying 59; the rest are pending. Of those, 335 applications came from Syrians in New Jersey; 150 were approved, three denied and the rest are pending.

Big rush of Syrians expected in US in 2015 and 2016.  Will Mr. Open Borders himself, Chris Christie, be welcoming them on the tarmac at Newark’s Liberty International airport?

With no end in sight to  the war, more Syrians can be expected to arrive in North Jersey. The U.S. government expects to receive thousands of referrals for resettlement from the United Nations’ refugee agency in 2014, with arrivals expected in 2015 and 2016, according to the State Department. It is not known how many will be accepted.

Some elected officials and human rights groups have called for the U.S. to do more and take in 15,000 Syrians refugees. According to news reports, the Obama administration expects to take in only as many as 2,000.

For years we watched the media drumbeat to bring in the Iraqis (and they are coming by the tens of thousands now) and henceforth we will see one story after another, like this one, as the media and the open borders movement builds their Syrian “refugee” PR campaign.  And, just watch, even if their ‘civil war’ ends before 2015, the flood gates to Syrian refugees will be open and they will keep coming (just as the Iraqis are still coming to this day)!

Addendum:  Check out the story we posted recently about one Syrian family getting into the US via Cuba, here.  They too are in North Jersey.

Filipinos lobby hard for ‘temporary’ refugee status

Meeting in NYC to plan strategy to lobby US State Department. DENNIS CLEMENTE/INQUIRER.net US Bureau

It just takes one big storm, like Typhoon Haiyan, to get the engines going in the open borders lobby to seek Temporary Protected Status for anyone from that country who happened to have a foot in the US door already—a legal or an illegal foot.

The problem with TPS is that the “temporary” refugees never go home!  How do you think we happen to have a couple hundred thousand Salvadorans here!   And, they are all waiting for Comprehensive Immigration Reform to become law!

After a two hour panel session on the topic in NYC, the ‘advocates’ for TPS designation for Filipinos set their sites on a letter writing campaign to Secretary of State John Kerry and Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard.  They don’t seem to know that it is the Dept. of Homeland Security that makes the final call.

From Global Nation Inquirer:

NEW YORK—Getting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted for the Philippines now depends on a letter-writing campaign addressed to the US Secretary of State John Kerry or his assistant, Anne Richard, supporters concluded during a two-hour long panel discussion on Jan. 28 at the Philippine Consulate.

The Filipino American Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc. (Faldef) is encouraging people to ask as many prominent individuals and organizations to sign letters that will be sent to the Secretary of State’s office.

Consul General Mariano de Leon and City Council member Dr. Eugene Matthieu called on Filipinos to work together and spread the word through Filipino-friendly messages about the need for TPS.

There is more, read it all!

Why does the Philippine government care so much?  Because they will reap the windfall as Filipinos working legally in America will send “home” millions in remittances.  

For more information, our archive on TPS is here.  And, check out the TPS website for the countries that have TPS now:  El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Syria.