The word on the cable networks, as I got up this morning, is that the President will not sign his refugee executive orders today. I’ll have more on the news I’m seeing in the next post.
As you know I have been tracking the refugee admissions since themorning of January 20th(Inauguration day). On that morning Wrapsnet (also called the Refugee Processing Center)reported that we had admitted 29,895 refugees since the first day of the 2017 fiscal year (October 1, 2016). This morning the number was 31,521, a gain of 1,626 since Donald Trump became President less than a week ago. The US State Department and its refugee contractors are on a mission to get Obama’s 110,000 in here by September 30th!
We see now that there was a one day jump of 512 since yesterday, a rate that puts them well on their way to that 110,000 goal for the year.
This morning I ran the numbers for 1/25/2017 to 1/26/2017 and got 512! You can bet that every day the Trump team drags this out, you will see astronomical numbers like that and you can be sure that the UN/IOM is handing out plane tickets like pez candy around the world.
They will then wail and moan that Trump couldn’t possibly dash the hopes of all those with a seat on a plane.
Here is where the 512 were distributed: Florida is 8 (number cut off in screenshot). Alaska and Hawaii are zero.
Here are the top ten receiving states over the last 24 hours: And, here is a list of the nationalities and the numbers admitted in those 24 hours:
Afghanistan (1)
Bhutan (97)
Burma (68) By the way, 25 of these are the Burmese Muslim RohingyaI told you about yesterday.
And, if the New York Times is right, a 50,000 cap for this fiscal year doesn’t cut numbers enough in my view!
Both Fox News and CNN are reporting this morning that today’s executive orders will deal with The Wall and other ways of beefing up immigration control. They report, contradicting what Reuters saidlast evening, that refugees will be later in the week. It is probably best to just wait and see rather than speculate. Trump Watch! Does the New York Times have its facts straight? Trump capping at 50,000?
But, I believe he can’t wait much longer because as we speak the US State Department has been bringing them in at an unprecedented rate since Inauguration day.
With no Secretary of State or any deputies, the bureaucrats are scrambling, and word is coming back from resettlement contractors that they have geared up for a massive flow to the established resettlement sites (see those sites here). Trump must act this week!
Wrapsnet is back!
Yesterday Ireported that the US State Department’s database where refugee entries to the US are logged by date of arrival, nationality, religion etc. had been down Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday making it impossible to find out how many refugees were coming in since Inauguration Day.
(See my introductory post to this watch, here.)
This is what we know. On the morning of Inauguration Day, January 20th, we had admitted 29,895 refugees since the first day of the 2017 FISCAL year (October 1, 2016). (This fiscal year runs from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017). 29,895 is itself an extraordinarily high number, a rate not seen since before 9/11.
This morning, January 25th, Wrapsnetreports that we have now admitted 30,885. That means of course that since Inauguration day, 990 refugees have been placed in your towns and cities.
As of today, and for this fiscal year we have admitted the following from some countries of concern:
Afghans: 810 (up 62 from Inauguration day)
Iraqis: 4,733 (up 173)
Somalis: 3,894 (up 88)
Syrians: 4,754 (up 166)
This is new!
The New York Timesreported yesterday that President Trump is talking about capping the number of refugees for this year at 50,000.
Before I get to that, for new readers, under the Refugee Act of 1980, the President (each year) sends a determination letter to Congress in September, in advance of the new fiscal year. In it, the President tells Congress how many refugees he wishes to admit and from what regions of the world they will come for the upcoming fiscal year.
Congress’s only role is that of consultant and for at least the first 8 years I’ve been writing about the refugee program, Congress did nothing. In 2015 and 2016 Senator Jeff Sessions’ Immigration Subcommittee held rigorous hearings, but without passing legislation there isn’t much they can do. Bottomline, the Prez has the power.
Now here is what the New York Times is reporting, thanks to reader Theodore for sending it.
Mr. Trump’s refugee directive is expected to target a program the Obama administration expanded last year in response to a global refugee crisis, fueled in large part by a large flow of Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war. Mr. Obama increased the overall number of refugees to be resettled in the United States to 85,000 and ordered that 10,000 of the slots be reserved for Syrians. He set the number of refugees to be resettled this year at 110,000, more than double the 50,000 Mr. Trump is now considering.
By the end of last month, more than 25,000 refugees had been resettled, according to State Department figures, meaning the plan Mr. Trump is considering would admit only 25,000 more by the end of September. [Yes, the NYT is using the fiscal year numbers—ed]
We reported above that as of today, the DOS has admitted 30,885 refugees.
Is Donald Trump really considering capping the number at 50,000 for FY2017?
If so, that is not cutting the numbers greatly in my view. Yes, compared to Obama’s wished-for 110,000 it seems substantial, but examine the chart below and see that it is not out of the ordinary and definitely is more than we admitted in 2002 and 2003 (in the wake of 9/11). In FY02 we admitted 45,850 and in FY03 it was 39,177(see my research here).
When you look at this chart from Wrapsnet, in addition to looking at total refugee admissions, add up the months of Oct, Nov, Dec and Jan and you will see that the numbers admitted in this fiscal year far surpass any year on this chart. (By the way, the column for “ceiling” is what the President proposed in his September determination letter.)
Couldn’t find the updated version of this chart. We admitted just under 85,000 refugees in Obama’s last full fiscal year. But please see that the lowest admission year reported here is 2006 (We admitted smaller numbers in 2002 and 2003.) See that in addition to FY02, FY03, FY06 and FY07, those Bush years are lower than this 50,000 number the NYT is reporting Trump might be shooting for.
To find more useful information, visit our ‘where to find information’ categoryhere. And, Trump Watch! is here.
I sent a message to the White House, here, yesterday. Have you?
And, LOL! now that I have spent 2 hours writing this, I’ll find out that the news has changed again!
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/580e4274e58c624696efadc6/t/5840cf7ecd0f683f8478095c/1480642433272/PRM+New+Site+Development_28Nov2016.pdf
Just now when I was updating RRW with information on finding resettlement officesnear you, I came across this guideprepared by the US State Department showing refugee activists what they must do to make your city or town a new site. Laurence Bartlett (DOS) with an earlier version of the resettlement sites map we can no longer find. I haven’t had time to read it carefully, but if you are in a pocket of resistance, or fear for your town, you better have a look at this.
I don’t know when it was posted, but it looks like it was after the November election.
The undated letter of introduction is written by Laurence Bartlett, one of the career bureaucrats Trump’s people will have to deal with. See here.
If you are a new reader and just beginning to try to understand the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program, you might want to visit our ‘Where to find information’ category, here.
We had for years been able to visit the list maintained by the US State Department Bureau of Populations, Refugees and Migration of “affiliate” offices. These are the subcontractors’ offices in hundreds of US cities. When the website Wrapsnet was recently remodeled, I couldn’t find the list at first. Just now I looked again and it is back (it may have been there the whole time!). The list is somewhat updated. For instance it includes the newly opened offices in Rutland, VT, Fayetteville, AR, and Ithaca, NY, but I don’t see the new USCRI office in Reno, NV.
You would think that if they were updating they might put Nebraska in the proper alphabetical order. LOL! So if Nebraskans are looking for the offices in your state, don’t get excited when at first you can’t find Nebraska! They have Nebraska after North Dakota. Remember too, that refugees can be placed within a hundred mile radius of these cities.
This (below) is a screenshot of the first page. Note the abbreviation in the left hand corner. The data base you are looking at lists contact information for subcontractors, but the abbreviation indicates the major federal contractor (there are nine of them, see below) which is passing your money through to the subcontractor.
The office was approved in the closing days of the Obama Administration. How many more did they push through right at the end? Pittsfield is in Western Massachusetts
They have set it up so that if Trump stops or slows the flow, in all of these towns which were promised refugees, there will be open borders activists ready to wail and moan. If he doesn’t slow the flow, more United Nations diversity/third world poverty will be foisted on unsuspecting towns.
According to the Berkshire Eagle, the citizens of Pittsfield are ready and willing to ‘welcome’ the arrival of their first Muslim Syrians and Iraqis!Does Pittsfield have a mosque yet?
PITTSFIELD — A proposed refugee resettlement plan in Pittsfield is set to become a reality.
Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts this week received official approval for the resettlement program from the federal Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The program will resettle up to 50 refugees, primarily from Syria and Iraq, in the Pittsfield area.
An official commencement date for resettlement has not been determined. But the organization is hopeful that the first family will be settled sometime in the spring, said Maxine Stein, president & CEO of Jewish Family Service.
Hias***, a Jewish resettlement organization, had identified Pittsfield as a relocation community for refugees. Since July, the organization has been meeting with local community members about the program.
Maxine Stein, president & CEO of Jewish Family Service. http://www.wmassjewishledger.com/2015/10/maxine-stein-leads-jfs-of-western-mass-with-strong-jewish-voice/
“[This is] an amazing opportunity for Pittsfield to once again became a welcoming community for refugees,” Stein said. Between 30,000 and 35,000 immigrants, primarily refugees, came to cities and towns in Western Massachusetts — including Pittsfield — from Russia and other former Soviet bloc countries in the 1980s and 1990s.
The organization had its first meeting with local stakeholders last July. Since then, the community has largely responded with overwhelming support for the program, Stein said.
[….]
State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier
State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, also expressed support for the project.
“The people of Pittsfield have made it clear that they [are] eager to open their hearts and welcome new neighbors to our community,” she said in a press release.
Jewish Family Service will work in collaboration with Hias to identify refugees to resettle in Pittsfield.
The organization plans to hire new staff members — a refugee resettlement coordinator, a caseworker and likely a volunteer/donations coordinator — and open up a local office in preparation for the refugees’ arrival. Its office is located in Springfield.
More here.
Apparently no pocket of resistance formed in Pittsfield.
Reminds me, whatever happened to that Syrian refugee in Lowell, Mass. who allegedly committed a sexual assault in a swimming pool there?
***We wrote about HIAS just this morning. They helped organize anti-Trump pussy protests in DC yesterday!
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We had for years been able to visit the list maintained by the US State Department Bureau of Populations, Refugees and Migration of “affiliate” offices. These are the subcontractors’ offices in hundreds of US cities. When the website Wrapsnet was
