A reader alerted us to an ad (from the Ad Council) running repeatedly on their childrens’ TV programing, specifically VeggieTales a show created to convey “Christian moral themes and [teach] Biblical values and lessons.”
We looked for more information on the ad directing viewers to something called Embrace Refugeesand found that the public service ad was a joint venture between the Ad Council and the US State Department released on World Refugee Day 2016.
Readers may recall that during this period, Obama was headed toward his big refugee pow-wow in the UN scheduled for September of 2016 and was setting the groundwork for Hillary to step in and continue a refugee flood to America.
See this news report at something called The Ralph Retort when the ad was released.
The ad directs viewers to Embrace Refugeesmaking it appear to be just one more private project by good-hearted charities instead of a US State Department engineered project.
Many of the usual cast of characters are here. Six federal refugee contractors are involved. Interestingly 3 Christian ones are absent from the Embrace campaign: US Conf. of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and World Relief. See how much of your money is redistributed to these contractors: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/07/11/updating-financial-data-on-refugee-contractors-big-bucks-for-humanitarian-work/
This is the sort of project taxpayers should question and frankly someone with investigative skills should attempt to follow the money and figure out how much of our money (I bet all of it is our money) was used to produce and distribute the propaganda.
You gotta hand it to the Left, they are working every day to change America by getting to your kids (and using your money to do it)!
No it isn’t. Local governments want to pretend they have no role so as to get the monkeys off their backs!
St. Cloud on Monday evening. http://knsiradio.com/news/local/residents-sound-refugee-resettlement#.WYvzdZCv3y8.twitter
First, here is the newsabout citizens appealing to the city council for a study about the costs of resettlement. The council voted the proposal down by one vote and said this isn’t a local government issue.
Memory lane! In 2015 we learned that the US State Department had only begun holding so-called “stakeholder meetings” with local government agencies in 2013!
It has only been in the last year or so that we have been made aware that QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS with community “stakeholders” were being held quietly, out of public view. In fact, I wondered why I hadn’t heard about them and now I know why!
Here Lawrence Bartlett, US State Department Refugee Program, told Senator Sessions that of course they consult communities and elected officials about numbers and impacts! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/10/02/senate-oversight-hearing-on-refugee-program-very-revealing-senator-sessions-did-a-masterful-job/
The citizens of St. Cloud, MN, here and here, brought the issue of exclusion of taxpaying citizens from the meetings where the ‘non-profit’ refugee resettlement agency meets with local elected officials, fire/police, education, health departments etc. to assess how things are going with the refugees, and they discuss how many to bring in the upcoming year.
According to a State Department spokesman (unnamed!) doing a press briefing for reporters on September 11th [sorry, the briefing has been removed!—ed] we learn that they have only been doing these QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS since 2013! WTH!
And, they are lying! “Private citizens” have not been welcome.
These agencies (‘non-profit’ resettlement subcontractors) work very hard to hold these meetings secretly and out of the view of local concerned citizens—the ultimate stakeholder, the taxpayer! Yet, we have a State Department official (why no name?) telling the mainstream media that private citizens can attend!
Such meetings are required under the Refugee Act of 1980 as succinctly outlined here at Let Freedom Ringblog (hat tip: Katherine). This is a must-read. No time to pull quotes from it because I’m going away for a few days and dashing around this morning.
There is a local government role whether the city council of St. Cloud likes it (admits it!) or not!
No time to read it, but thought you should know this new General Accountability Office (GAO) study came out yesterday in Washington. Let me know if you see anything useful!
My experience with past GAO studies on the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) is that, other than media like RRW which could use their findings to confirm a point we have made, they result in not much change in the actual operation of the the program.
Maybe I will be surprised this time.
Click here: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-706 (there will be a place to click for the full report).
https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/686310.pdf
By the way, if you have never looked at it, I have a whole category entitled: ‘where to find information.’ This post is archived there.
Some of you asked me what I think of the idea floated by the Trump teamto move the US Refugee Admissions Program from the State Department to the Dept. of Homeland Security. This letter helped me decide!
If these are the supporters for keeping it at the DOS, then I vigorously support moving it! Obama Asst. Sec. of State for PRM does not want the USRAP moved out of the DOS.
The letter reported by the Washington Posthereyesterday was spearheaded by none other than Eric Schwartz(the Soros protege who is now heading Refugees International, see here). It is also signed by eight of the nine federal refugee contractors*** who have over the years established a cozy relationship with the bureaucrats at State. They are counted among the 58 “foreign policy experts.”
In fact there are 40 ‘experts’ and then 18 non-profit open borders activist groups.
Experts include Anne Richard(see our extensive archive here) and Ellen Sauerbrey (don’t miss this 2007 post!). Both are former Asst. Secretaries of State for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). Sauerbrey, from Maryland, ran the refugee program for several years under George W. Bush. Hereis the WaPoon the letter (hat tip: Joanne):
A group of prominent foreign policy experts on Monday called on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to keep the office responsible for managing refugee inflows a part of the State Department instead of moving it to the Department of Homeland Security.
Last month, a leaked memo showed the administration contemplating a relocation of the Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration. Such a change, says a letter signed by 58 former diplomats and national security advisers, would adversely shift the bureau’s focus from humanitarian and policy concerns to solely security issues.
Ellen Sauerbrey, Bush’s Asst. Sec. of State for PRM, helps make this a “bi-partisan” letter.
“We are convinced that the elimination of PRM’s assistance functions would have profound and negative implications for the Secretary of State’s capacity to influence policy issues of key concern to the United States,” the letter states. “It would also be ironic, as this is one of the bureaus at State that has enjoyed strong bipartisan support over many years.”
The signatories include former officials who served in Republican and Democratic administrations, as well executives from numerous religious and humanitarian organizations that work with newly arrived refugees.
[….]
Eric Schwartz, the president of Refugees International who helped organize the letter sent to Tillerson, said DHS plays an important role in security screening. But he said it does not focus on foreign policy considerations, such as support for host countries where refugees are awaiting admissions and encouraging other nations to take in more displaced people. [Why is it our job to nag other countries?—ed]
See the letter by clicking here. Your homework assignment for today is to write to Trumpand tell him you like the idea of breaking up the cozy cabal at the DOS by moving the US Refugee Admissions Program to the Dept.of Homeland Security! ***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizerspaid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities. Because their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, the only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors from the process.
Eight of the nine signed the letter to pressure Tillerson. Noticeably absent as a signatory is the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. I’ve noticed that lately they aren’t signing on to these overtly political letters. Maybe parishioners are getting to their priests! Keep it up!
This latest was predicted and reportedhere by Michael Leahy at Breitbart two days ago. Update: Here is Leahy’s (Breitbart) take on this latest legal mess the Supreme Court is responsible for creating! Judge Derrick Watson
Judge Derrick Watson took advantage of the mess the Supreme Court made in its recent ruling (as Justice Thomas predicted) to once again attempt to stop President Trump from carrying out a simple 120-day moratorium on refugee resettlement in order to analyze the program and determine whether security screening is sufficient.
The Supreme Court literally unconstitutionallylegislated when it created a way to go around a Presidentially-determined ceiling as defined by over 3 decades of refugee law and said refugees with a “bona fide relationship” to a family member or to an “entity” could come in over the 50,000 ceiling reached yesterday (here). BTW, today we have now exceeded the 50,000 ceiling by 168. We are at 50,168 this morning.
Before I give you Politico’s version of the judge’s decision in Hawaii yesterday, let me be clear!
The US State Department under Sec. of State Rex Tillerson must ignore this decision!
(They should have ignored this rogue judge’s earlier decision as well! You should write to the White Houseand tell Trump to stand against this runaway judiciary!)
One Hawaiian judge deciding for one Imam (and the refugee-rejecting state of Hawaii!) should not be the one to define “bona fide” a wholly new legal term and a new construct for resettlement thanks to the overzealous SCOTUS. Where the hell is Congress, btw? Writing law is their job! Here is Politico:
A federal judge in Hawaii ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to allow grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and other relatives of people in the U.S. to circumvent the travel ban policy, dealing a temporary blow to one of the president’s signature initiatives.
In an order issued Thursday evening local time in Honolulu, Judge Derrick Watson also prohibited the administration from blocking refugees with a commitment from a resettlement agency in the U.S., a move that could revive the flow of refugee admissions this year.
Along with the State of Hawaii, Imam Ismail Elshikh is a plaintiff in the case (again). In case you missed it, Hawaii is at the bottom of the list of states resettling refugees having only ‘welcomed’ 3 this entire fiscal year so far.
The decision was a victory for opponents of the travel ban, who hoped to broaden the universe of people who could bypass the president’s policy, which temporarily bars travelers from six majority-Muslim nations and suspends the refugee resettlement program.
The Supreme Court issued an order on June 26 that allowed the embattled measure to go into effect, but included the caveat that affected travelers with “bona fide” ties to a person or entity in the U.S. should not be subject to the ban.
[….]
In the realm of refugee resettlement, the administration stood by the contention that a connection to a resettlement agency alone would not meet the criteria to avoid the ban.
[….]
The federal judge added that a refugee with a commitment from a resettlement agency met the standard for a “bona fide” relationship spelled out in the Supreme Court order.
[….]
“It is formal, it is a documented contract, it is binding, it triggers responsibilities and obligations, including compensation, it is issued specific to an individual refugee only when that refugee has been approved for entry by the Department of Homeland Security, and it is issued in the ordinary course, and historically has been for decades,” he wrote. [Don’t let the refugee contractors*** fool you, here we have it, this is about their compensation by you, the American taxpayer!–ed]
“Bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that.”
[….]
On Twitter, an attorney for the plaintiffs, the state of Hawaii and a local imam, celebrated the momentary legal win, which could be met with appeals by the federal government.
Appeals! The Administration better simply ignore this single judge and the Imam!
This post is filed in my ‘Supreme Court’ category,click herefor other stories on the hash the Supreme Court has made of refugee law.
***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizerspaid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities. Because their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, the only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors from the process.
