And, they suggest that the big reform effort with the program should be around the issue of “assimilation.” Yikes! Didn’t Ms. Enos see what Linda Sarsour said recently—no assimilation for Muslims coming to America! Olivia Enos http://www.heritage.org/staff/olivia-enos
When Richard (Blue Ridge Forum) brought this article to my attention last evening, I found I couldn’t even cope with the title late at night:
“5 Reasons The U.S. Refugee Program Serves American Interests”
Now with my morning coffee I’m ready to blast away at this fluff!
Enos sounds like she is auditioning for a job at the US State Department where she would join like-minded bureaucrats who want nothing to stand in the way of more refugees for America!
Yet, on paper, she would come with the ‘conservative’ stamp of approval—from the vaunted Heritage Foundation! Here is Heritage on why the US Refugee Admissions Program only needs a little tinkering around the edges! I swear this sounds like the verbiage that came out of the mouths of Obama’s refugee pushers! Five flimsy, fluffy reasons that the American taxpayer should shell out billions a year (a large chunk of which goes to the religious LEFT, see here, working against conservatives), to seed welfare consuming third world poverty and diverse cultures many of which don’t plan to assimilate in to unsuspecting towns and cities across 49 states. (But Ms. Enos doesn’t have to face any of that, according to her bio she lives on Capitol Hill.)
Her five reasons….
#1. USRAP enables the U.S. to assert American leadership in foreign crises.
#2. USRAP provides the U.S. with a way to respond positively to intractable crises.
#3. USRAP enables the U.S. to assist allies and partners in crisis.
#4. USRAP strengthens American public diplomacy.
#5. USRAP alleviates human suffering.
I admit I didn’t read Heritage’s entire report, I mentioned one portion of it here. I stopped reading when it became clear that the authors had no firm understanding of how the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program really works.
Ms. Enos is working on a Master’s degree at Georgetown University, could she be studying with Anne Richard? Perish the thought!
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 Postdescribes 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.
It was supposed to have been yesterday that the US State Department expected the President’s FY17 50,000 cap to be reached.
When the number is reached (a ceiling set for decades by the President under refugee law), as we know, the US Supreme Court owns it because they stepped in to rewrite lawand the battle for the bona fidesbegins.
As of today we have admitted 49,793 refugees this fiscal year according to the State Department’s own Refugee Processing Center (aka Wrapsnet).
Here is theLA Times reporting that the deadline is extended because the 50,000 cap was not reached yesterday as expected. Hetfield’s name turns up in most mainstream media stories about the US Refugee Program and Pres. Trump. The media must see him as the go-to guy for quotes! Did you know that he pulls down a salary of over $300,000—doing well by doing good? Learn more about him and HIAS’s finances here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/11/13/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-lectures-trump-never-mentions-its-pecuniary-interest-in-refugees/
Refugee resettlement agencies say the State Department has given them updated instructions on President Trump’s travel ban that extends the cutoff date for refugee admissions.
When the ban was put into place last week, the administration said refugees who had booked travel would be admitted through Thursday. After that, immigration officials would block all refugees, except those who could prove they had U.S. connections, such as close relatives.
The July 6 date was a government estimate of when the country would reach a 50,000-person cap on refugee admissions this fiscal year. Federal officials now estimate that the cap will be hit a week later, according to refugee groups.
[….]
A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department would not confirm the change and said more information would come out Thursday.
“The cap could be hit earlier, so it could be earlier than July 12,” said Mark Hetfield, chief executive of the resettlement group HIAS, formerly known as Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
HIAS is among several refugee resettlement groups that have challenged the ban, which blocks travel from six Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and suspends refugee admissions from everywhere for 120 days.
TheLA Timesgoes on to say that the Hawaii Open Borders advocates filed suit (again) looking for clarification about whether the contractors*** are bona fide entities for the purpose of bringing even more than 50,000 refugees in over the remaining roughly 2 months and 3 weeks remaining in this fiscal year.
Justices wrote that people with “bona fide” connections to the U.S. such as jobs, university admission and family could bypass the ban but left it up to the Trump administration to define which family members counted.
The administration has said that people with “close family” in the U.S. — such as a parent, spouse, fiance or fiancee, child or sibling — could go around the ban. But it blocked others, including grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Immigrant and refugee groups are challenging the definitions in a Honolulu federal district court, saying the administration is violating the Supreme Court’s orders. A federal judge there who previously ruled against the ban in one of the cases being considered by the high court could issue a decision on the matter this week.
Refugee advocates argue that their relationship to refugees should be enough for them to gain admission to the country despite the ban. The government disagrees.
Request denied!
See it here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3890325-Hawaii-v-Trump-Clarify-Order.html
Just as I am writing this post, I see that the same Hawaii judge has denied their request for clarification. See here! Let the Supremes decide.
By the way, the other plaintiff in the case joining with the State of Hawaii is an Imam who wants more Muslims admitted to the US, here. But, Hawaii is normally at the bottom of the list of states taking any refugees!
Hey, maybe the State Dept. could put all those they bring in above the cap (it could be thousands!) in Hawaii!
Why not tell the President that when you write to him today! Give Hawaii its dearest wish—more third world diversity. Go here.
All of my posts on this topic are filed in my new ‘Supreme Court’ category.
***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizers paid 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.
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 here. Could 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!’
Charleston, WV citizen activist, Brenda Arthur, pointed us to this interesting and useful pageat the US State Department website—it is a review of the work of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) for 2016.
By the way, PRM is still being run by career bureaucrats who have close ties to the resettlement contractors*** and have longtime ideological leanings toward ‘welcoming’ large numbers of third worlders to America.
This graphic (below) is very useful. Remember though that the US State Department (DOS) share of the costs for refugee resettlement is only a portion of the cost of admitting an average number (about 64,000 is the average over the last ten years) of refugees to the US each year.
Greater amounts of your tax dollars go to the Dept. of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement for refugee welfare and for awarding grants to contractors for myriad activities. There is another chunk that goes to the Dept. of Homeland Security for ‘screening’ refugees around the world. Go here, the artwork is useful! But, 10 Pittsburghs? And, this is Trump’s DOS bragging!
More than ten times the population of Pittsburgh!
*** Resettlement contractors receive the majority of their funding from taxpayers via PRM and ORR. One of the contractors is 99.5% funded by you, others are well up in the range of 95% plus. There can be no real reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program if these ‘non-profits’ continue to call the shots. The minute a new Administration signals a slowdown for a few years, the contractors, which receive funding on a per (refugee) head basis, put their community organizer hats on and run to the Leftwing media screaming bloody murder.
