Recently we reported on the news from Reutersthat a massive fraud investigation is underway involving the admission of Iraqi so-called ‘refugees’ to the US.
Now a former State Department officer comes forward with a first hand account of the Iraqi fraud and charges that the entire program involving refugees from many continents is riddled with fraud.
The Iraqi refugee fraud is just one of many scandals
The State Department’s recent admission that thousands of Iraqis likely filed fraudulent refugee applications for resettlement in the United States is not a surprise. Instead, the actual shock is that the State Department is finally admitting to what has long been known.
Disturbingly, in terms of the fraud-laden U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, history is simply repeating itself — as it appears that the massive deception inherent in the Iraqi resettlement program can no longer be willfully ignored. According to the Reuters report, U.S. authorities are pursuing what they termed a “sweeping fraud investigation” of potentially more than 100,000 Iraqis. At least 500 Iraqis have already entered the U.S. as “refugees,” while tens of thousands of others are pending resettlement.
The inquiry, although being called one of the “biggest fraud investigations in recent history,” is only one in a long line of resettlement scandals. As early as the 1990s, fraudulent refugee claims werecommonplace in the in-country refugee program in Cuba, which ultimately resettled more than 90,000 Cubans, and among the over 36,000 Somalis who entered the U.S. in the early 2000s under false identities. Similarly, as many as 1,700 individuals who posed as Burmese “refugees” gained fraudulent entry into our country a decade later by falsifying their own data or using the personal information of other persons. To date, at least for the Somalis, it appears that none of these fraudsters have been prosecuted or deported despite violating federal law and swindling the refugee program.
These are but a few of the scandals that have plagued the USRAP since its inception more than 40 years ago. Sadly, the refugee resettlement industry, which morphed into a numbers-driven, financially motivated business, grew blindly at the expense of the public and our national security.During my eight years as a State Department refugee admissions coordinator who served throughout the Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Cuba, I saw firsthand the flagrant abuses and scams that permeated the resettlement program. I witnessed widespread exploitation and misuse from identity fraud and marriage and family relation scams to private individuals profiting from their involvement in USRAP and the distortion of the actual refugee definition to ensure greater numbers of people who were simply migrants were admitted as refugees.
Is Hetfield saying that the ends justify the means?
Far too often, both the governmental and semiprivate power brokers within the industry consistently found ways to ignore, and at times cover up, the fraud and abuse.
Commenting on the Iraqi investigation, Mark Hetfield, the president of HIAS, one of the nine federally funded refugee contractors that implement refugee resettlement, called resettlement a scarce and valuable commodity.
“People … are going to do anything they can to access it,” he said to Reuters.
There is more, but please visit the Washington Examinerand help drive their numbers.
One of my astute readers pointed out the failure in logic of this line from the June Reuters story:
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the scope of the investigation and internal government deliberations, but said the fraud scheme did not affect security vetting of refugees.
If they are finding that the Iraqi refugee wannabes are liars, then how do they know if “security vetting” is not affected. Hmmmm!
See Doetsch’s earliest attempt (in a letter to the Chicago Tribune) to reveal the extent of the fraud she witnessed. And, as far as I know, no one in authority in Congress or even in the Trump White House in 2017 had asked to debrief her.
However, now the international corporate media is admitting it.
But, you need to know that this isn’t the first and won’t be the last admission that fraud is rampant in the US Refugee Admissions Program.
Longtime readers may remember the moratorium on Somalis entering the US that began back in 2008 when the State Department uncovered fraud in the family reunification program—oopsy the Somalis claiming to be family members weren’t even kissing cousins.
In 2007, I first told readers about how Ted Kennedy secretively tacked the Special Iraqi program onto a must-pass Defense Authorization bill in the dark of night.
From Reutersthis morning just in time for UN-designated World Refugee Day on Sunday:
Mark Hetfield, CEO of HIAS (formerly Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) one of nine federal resettlement contractors*** is quoted as saying:
“Resettlement is a very scarce and valuable and lifesaving commodity,” said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency.
“People … are going to do anything they can to access it.”
EXCLUSIVE U.S. suspects 4,000 cases of fraud in Iraqi refugee program -documents
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) – U.S. authorities pursuing a sweeping fraud investigation suspect some 4,000 Iraqis of filing fraudulent applications for resettlement in the United States as refugees, and they are re-examining cases involving more than 104,000 others, according to State Department reports reviewed by Reuters.
More than 500 Iraqis already admitted as refugees have been implicated in the alleged fraud and could be deported or stripped of their U.S. citizenship, according to one document sent to members of Congress. It said there was “no indication to date that any of these 500+ individuals have ties to terrorism.”
The probe – one of the biggest into refugee program fraud in recent history – is fueling reservations among some in Joe Biden’s administration as they debate whether to create a similar program to assist Afghan refugees as American troops withdraw after 20 years of war, U.S. officials told Reuters.
The reports show the investigation is more far-reaching and serious than U.S. officials have disclosed since announcing in January a 90-day freeze of the Iraqi “Direct Access” refugee program. The suspension, which in April was extended indefinitely by the State Department, followed the unsealing of an indictment accusing three foreign nationals of fraud, records theft and money laundering.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the scope of the investigation and internal government deliberations, but said the fraud scheme did not affect security vetting of refugees.
“The discovery, investigation, and prosecution of individuals involved in the scheme demonstrated the U.S. government’s commitment to ensuring the integrity of the program while upholding our humanitarian tradition,” the spokesperson said. “Those who would seek to take advantage of America’s generosity in welcoming the most vulnerable people will be held accountable.”
The spokesperson did not give a timeline for the investigation, but said the agency would work “as quickly and thoroughly as possible” to complete the review and make any necessary security changes.
Now this next part doesn’t make any sense to me because we are already bringing tens of thousands of Afghans here in the Special Immigrant Visa Program, the same one that the Iraqis used.
Under pressure from lawmakers of both parties and advocacy groups, the Biden administration is considering a similar program for Afghans facing Taliban retribution, according to a State Department official, a congressional aide and a lawmaker.
But there “are a lot of reservations” about expediting the resettlement of Afghans as refugees in the United States, said the State Department official, citing the problems with the Iraqi program.
I just took a trip down memory lane and see that I have a lot of posts on the Special Immigrant Visa Program and here is one in particular you should see. Obama Judge rules that we aren’t bringing sufficient numbers of Iraqis and Afghans!
***In case you are new to RRW, here are the nine contractors that have monopolized all refugee distribution in the US for decades.
When President Trump reduced the number of regular refugees being admitted, he did continue the Iraq and Afghan special refugees program and the contractors, we learned, were surviving off their payouts to resettle them.
And, so does Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott who has (according to the AP) asked Harris/Biden for more refugees!
It is surprising isn’t it that Vermont, the homeland of Bernie Socialist Sanders really hasn’t ‘welcomed’ very many refugees compared even to other states of a similar size, but all of that might change starting in October.
What is happening in October?
The Harris/Biden team says they will increase refugee admissions for FY2022 which begins October first to 125,000. That would be the highest annual refugee cap in decades—more than Obama ever dreamed of! And, now the hunt is on for their new homes.
This article from the Associated Presswould have you believe small cities were never the lucky recipients of third world diversity, but that just isn’t so.
And, by the way, know also that the AP reporter has transposed the words in the name of the organization. It should be the Ethiopian Community Development Council known widely in the refugee industry as ECDC, a long time member of the big nine contractors*** that monopolize all resettlement and have done so for decades.
Targeted Brattleboro, VT, population 11,000
Readers may remember that an effort to make Rutland, Vermont, another small city in the white state, a home for impoverished refugees exploded into a huge controversy in 2016 that ultimately saw the pro-refugee mayor ousted.
Know that this hunt for fresh territory is going on everywhere (except maybe Wyoming, but folks there need to be on the look-out) as the contractors must submit their plans to the US State Department by late summer so they can be competitive with other refugee contractors and get their allotment of paying clients (aka refugees) starting October first.
Wausau, Wisconsin is also on the target list according to this report.
Refugee Resettlement Nonprofit Plans New Programs in Vermont
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — A refugee resettlement nonprofit has plans to start a new program in Vermont to relocate refugees in smaller, more rural communities across the United States.
The Ethiopian Development Community Council, a nonprofit agency that partners with the State Department to resettle refugees in the U.S., wants to launch its program in Brattleboro because of the city’s support. The first families should arrive in the city before the end of the year if the program is approved by the federal government, Vermont Public Radio reported Monday.
The nonprofit has also chosen Wausau [Wisconsin–ed] to test out the program, pending federal approval.
The nonprofit is preparing for an influx of refugees since the Biden Administration has promised to increase the number of refugees allowed in the country and reopen the refugee resettlement program that the previous Trump Administration imposed restrictions on, the radio station reported.
Tsehaye Teferra
“If we want to create integration of refugees, having them only in big cities where they would be congregating among themselves, only, is not going to help long-term integration,” said Tsehaye Tefera, the founder of the Ethiopian Development Community Council.
That may sound like a nice sentiment but in reality refugees resettled in smaller cities generally migrate after a few months to larger cities because they want to live in enclaves with their own kind of people!
The most visible of the ethnic groups, partaking of what the industry calls secondary migration, are the Somalis loading up Minnesota.
Back to AP at US News….
Social and economic organizations in Windham County have been supportive, but efforts to resettle refugees in Vermont have been controversial in the past, Vermont Public Radio reported.
Elwell was formerly the manager in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Brattleboro town manager Peter Elwell said he knows there could be opposition to the resettlement program, but regardless, the plan is in line with the town’s priority to improve equity in one of the whitest states in the country.
Earlier this year, Gov. Phil Scott asked the State Department to increase the refugee cap in Vermont.
Scott called refugee resettlement “an integral part of our efforts to grow Vermont’s economy.”
However, see this report from FAIR which examined the ten smallest immigrant population states and determined that increasing the percentage of migrants going to the state would have an outsized negative impact on the economy and on the social fabric of the state.
You might be interested to know that ECDC is likely the smallest of the big nine resettlement contractors and generally over the years has kept a low political profile as others of the contractors, most notably HIAS, LIRS and Church World Service, were out making political noise and suing the Trump Administration.
However, much to my surprise Teferra took a public swipe at Trump here in July of 2020.
You will see in that post that the ‘non-profit’ organization is effectively a government agency as almost the entirety of its $13 million budget comes from you, the US taxpayers.
***In case you are new to RRW, here are all of the nine contractors that have monopolized all refugee distribution in the US for decades.
They worked to ‘elect’ Biden/Harris andlobby for open borders. As taxpayers you pay them millions annually to change America by changing the people.
Two of the contractors, the USCCB and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are also paid to find locations for the Unaccompanied Alien Children.
At this very moment they are all out scouting for new, fresh territory in which to place their refugee clients. See Winchester, VA.
Noyes, a career diplomat, seems a surprising pick.
I was fully expecting a hardened Leftwing ideologue like Obama’s former Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), Anne Richard, or possibly the insider Lawrence Bartlett, a bureaucrat, who wouldn’t have a long learning curve.
And, then another likely choice could have been Mark Hetfield of HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), but he would have to take a hefty pay cut if selected and confirmed.
I expected Anne Richard to be back joining the others of Obama’s orbit populating the O-man’s third term.
Indeed the lobbying arm of the refugee industry was pushing hard for someone with “robust experience” in the complex workings of the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) so they can immediately get to work to bring in as many refugees as possible before Trump, or someone with Trump’s concerns about mass immigration, returns to the White House.
Know that President Trump never filled this position and he likely would have not been able to get someone (who might do any good for us) confirmed.
Julieta Valls Noyes
Of course, it is possible that Ambassador Noyes is experienced with the USRAP, but I’ve never heard of her. And, maybe that is the point—Biden wants to get someone past the Senate confirmation that looks and sounds reasonable.
LOL! But that can’t make the refugee pushers happy unless they plan to manipulate her as they did George Bush’s recess appointment Ellen Sauerbrey who they came to love.
Here is Foreign Policy on Biden’s expected choice to head PRM:
Biden to Tap Career Diplomat as Top Official on Refugee Policy
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to name three new nominees to senior diplomatic and foreign aid positions, including the top State Department official on refugee issues, a White House official told Foreign Policy.
Julieta Valls Noyes, a veteran career diplomat, is expected to be nominated as the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration—a senior post that could play a key role in the Biden administration’s efforts to reverse Trump-era sharp restrictions on the number of refugees entering the United States. Noyes, the acting director of the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute and former ambassador to Croatia, is a first-generation American whose parents entered the United States as refugees from Cuba.
[….]
If confirmed by the Senate, all three nominees would join agencies widely perceived as hollowed out and damaged by politicization and mismanagement under former President Donald Trump.
The State Department’s top post overseeing refugee issues was left unfilled during the Trump administration’s four years in power, though lower-level officials assumed the job in an acting capacity.
Several senior career diplomats in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration who defended refugees were reassigned or temporarily sidelined during a shake-up in 2018 as the Trump administration worked to slash refugee admissions to record lows.
Refugee lobbyists at the Refugee Council USAwanted someone with “deep understanding” of “complex issues.” See their letter to Biden here.
Nothing less than “robust experience” is acceptable. (I want to barf every time they use the word “robust!”)
Refugee advocates had been urging Biden for several weeks to swiftly nominate someone to the population, refugees, and migration assistant secretary role. In April, John Slocum, interim executive director of Refugee Council USA, a nonprofit advocacy organization, sent Biden a letter obtained by Politico urging him to pick an assistant secretary “who has a deep understanding of the complex issues surrounding forced displacement, refugee resettlement, and other forms of humanitarian protection.”
She is the daughter of Cuban refugees and we know most Cubans sensibly loathe communism and loved Donald Trump in 2020.
She also has strong (we might say robust!) feelings about the Islamic State as well. Here in 2014:
“The financing of this barbaric organisation allows it to continue its operations. What we have to do is degrade its abilities and ultimately to destroy it.”[7]
Hmmmm! Sounds like something Donald Trump would say.
If confirmed, the biggest problem she could have is to avoid being rolled by the career bureaucrats and their contractor pals***.
As soon as the contractors begin to weigh-in, we will have a better idea of who this woman is and how she might run the program as Biden promises it will soon be on steroids to admit 125,000 refugees beginning on October first.
***In case you are new to RRW, here are all of the nine contractors that have monopolized all refugee distribution in the US for decades.
They worked to ‘elect’ Biden/Harris andlobby for open borders. As taxpayers you pay them millions annually to change America by changing the people.
Two of the contractors, the USCCB and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are also paid to find locations for the Unaccompanied Alien Children.
At this very moment they are all out scouting for new, fresh territory in which to place their refugee clients. See Winchester, VA.
I’ve seen a couple of news reports lately mentioning that Joe Biden’s refugee numbers are picking up. But, will he admit 62,500 by September 30th?
So, I checked the little bit of data still available at the Refugee Processing Centerand see that as of April 30th, he isn’t even up to Trump levels for Fiscal year 2021 (FY21 ends on September 30th, 4 and 1/2 months from now).
For new readers, the Refugee Processing Center, until the Fall of 2020, provided a treasure trove of information about refugees arriving in the US.
However, for some reason the Trump Administration took down most of the database and we are left with only scanty information that you can find on this page.
You can seehow many refugees came from which countries and went to your state, but only for this fiscal year and only up until the end of the previous month.
We have admitted 2,334 refugees in the regular program from October 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021.
Top ‘welcoming’ states are: California (355), Washington (210), Texas (186), New York (154) and North Carolina (100).
We admitted another 2,237 Special Immigrant Visa holders from Afghanistan (a few from Iraq are included in that number)!
That huge number includes a large percentage of dependents who are all treated to the same resettlement benefits regular refugees receive, and are “clients” of the nine federal refugee contractors.
Top Afghan SIV ‘welcoming’ states are California (828), Texas (484), Virginia (270), Washington (143) and Maryland (73).
Have a look at the monthly columns and see that the Trump Administration brought in higher numbers than Biden is admitting so far.
From 
It is surprising isn’t it that Vermont, the homeland of Bernie Socialist Sanders really hasn’t ‘welcomed’ very many refugees compared even to other states of a similar size, but all of that might change starting in October.
So, I checked the little bit of data still available at the Refugee Processing Center and see that as of April 30th, he isn’t even up to Trump levels for Fiscal year 2021 (FY21 ends on September 30th, 4 and 1/2 months from now).