Well, well, apparently this happened two months ago as the House Appropriations Committee finished its work on the budget for FY2017. I don’t understand the whole process myself and maybe this is in the House report only as a bargaining chip, but to assign the Dept. of State a 2015 spending level for the Refugee Admissions Program (RAP) would necessarily freeze the number that could be resettled at 70,000. Our so-called religious charities (over 90% funded by taxpayers) don’t work for nothing!
Just so you know! Richard is a political appointee, and as such, she should be out of the DOS at the end of January if Donald Trump is elected President.
Although it is too much money to suit me, it is no where near enough money to accommodate 200,000 refugees (or even the 100,000 Obama was yakking about previously for this coming year).
Here is what the report(published 2 months ago) says. When you look at the numbers below remember that the DOS sends your money elsewhere in the world for refugees too, but it is the Refugee Admissions Program portion that interests us in this discussion.
(Looking for an expert on the Hill to tell us that this is what will go in to the ‘Continuing Resolution.’)
The Committee recommendation includes $771,096,000 for
Migration and Refugee Assistance. When combined with additional
funds for Migration and Refugee Assistance provided under title
VIII, the amount recommended is the same as the fiscal year
2016 enacted level.
Of the funds made available under this heading in this
title, the Committee recommendation includes not less than
$35,000,000 to respond to small-scale emergency humanitarian
requirements, $7,500,000 for refugees resettling in Israel, and
not more than the fiscal year 2015 level of $394,254,000 for
the United States Refugee Admissions Program.
Nowgo here where I previously reported on what the committee is recommending for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in HHS), also well below the numbers needed to resettle 100,000 or 200,000 refugees. The committee set the funding for ORR for FY17 at the 2016 level of $1.6 billion and not the $2.2 billion Obama is requesting.
Bottomline, if these numbers still hold (2 months after the committee report came out), the Administration (which ever it is in 2017) would only have enough to accommodate (dole out enough money to contractors) for 70,000 or less refugees.
No wonder the Open-borders-refugee-industry-post-card-dumpers on Thursday, here, are so worried. With no extra cash, can the contractors open all the new offices they are proposing? I doubt it!
Don’t you let up, tell your members of Congress and US Senators to DEFUND the whole Refugee Admissions Program until a new administration and a new Congress can begin to reform our entire LEGAL immigration system. A moratorium for a year is in order!
No Syrian Muslims have been placed in Washington DC!
There isn’t much new and useful in this AP story from Saturday, but wanted to mention it only because once again the feds are telling concerned governors to go fly a kite—the UN/US State Dept. is speeding up the Syrian refugee processing in Jordan and Turkey. Governors are impotent to stop it is the message. Remember Simon Henshaw as the State Department official charged with assuring you that Syrians they admit are all good and decent people (like the sexual deviant arrested in Massachusetts last week?) Henshaw’s bio is here: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/bureau/213334.htm
There is a little nugget here that I didn’t know about: Apparently the DEMOCRAT mayor of Roanoke, VA did not want Syrians resettled in an already refugee-overloaded city. We’ve written a few times about Roanoke perhaps most famous for the refugee gang found guilty there for planning to kidnap and ransom some prominent women in the town, here in 2009. (Gee, I wonder if they were deported when they were released after their short prison sentence?) Associated Press(at the Washington Post):
Dozens of Syrian refugees were settled in Maryland and Virginia in June, part of a sharp nationwide increase as the U.S. government scrambles to meet its goal of admitting 10,000 refugees in fiscal 2016.
The surge has come despite opposition from more than half of the nation’s governors, including Maryland’s Larry Hogan (R), all of whom say they are not satisfied with the federal government’s assurances that refugees are carefully vetted and screened.
[…..]
The pace of refugee resettlement has quickened in part because processing facilities in Istanbul and in Amman, Jordan, have been upgraded and more Department of Homeland Security teams have been deployed to interview refugees, a State Department official said.
“We pushed all those things together so they would happen sequentially and more quickly,” said Simon Henshaw, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
In Maryland, 78 Syrians were settled in June – bringing the total to 115 since October. Sixty-seven arrived in Virginia last month, out of 87 resettled in the state this year. Fifteen of them have been placed in Roanoke, where the Democratic mayor attracted national controversy last fall for citing the internment of Japanese citizens as a reason to bar Syrian refugees.
No refugees have been brought to the District of Columbia, according to the State Department data. [No, of course not!—ed]
Continue reading here.
Photo: My reference to the Syrian charged with sexual assault refers to this story. And, here, Breitbart has Pamela Geller’s reaction to the latest refugee sex crime. Regarding my title!In truth, Gov. Hogan and other of the governors concerned about the program could do something about it if they had the political will, but most don’t. It is easy to say they don’t like what is happening to satisfy voters, but quite another to put on the state’s rights fight that would be necessary.
The citizens of Rutland, VT who have expressed anger at their mayor for secretly working with a federal refugee resettlement contractor to bring 100 Syrians to the small city, have been busy. They garnered enough signatures on a petition to put the issue on the ballot, but the Mayor and Board of Alderman will have the final say (this Tuesday) on whether it can be put before the voters.
(Of course the feds can shove the refugees down their throats anyway, but that is besides the point!) Rutland City Alderman Matt Bloomer frets in an op-ed about the really tough decision he has to make on Tuesday. Oh well, isn’t that what leaders have to do—make tough decisions!
Not unlike the issue surrounding resettlement of refugees in Twin Falls, Idaho where the controversy has been swirling for years (by the way, it is the same federal contractor making $$$ on a per head basis in Vermont and Idaho—US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants), the citizens in both places are demanding full public debate on the “plans” for the new (Rutland) or continued (Twin Falls) resettlement of third worlders to their communities.
But, therein lies the rub, the feds and their contractors have no plans as such. In Athens, GA in 2014 the Democratic Mayor said give me a plan—-where will the refugees work, and live? Does Athens have adequate subsidized housing, can our schools handle large numbers of illiterate children? How about our health department, is it ready for communicable diseases and parasites not often seen in American cities? In other words, she was asking for the feds and the contractor to essentially prepare an economic and social impact statement before giving a green light to the arrival of refugees.
I don’t know if things have changed since I learned this past April that Athens still has no resettlement office. Why? My guess is that the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement(in HHS) don’t want to set a precedent and prepare a plan (with public hearings etc.) because secrecy has worked so well for the last 30 plus years to slip refugees into unsuspecting towns, why change anything now!
Sorry to go on so long. To catch up on Rutland, go here and here. Don’t forgetour previous poston Tuberculosis in Vermont. Our previous posts on Rutland are here.
A vote on refugees would screw-up the “positive narrative about our county.”
Then see where one Alderman (Matt Bloomer a Rutland Young Professional) says he plans to vote against placing a referendum on the ballot, here. His biggest fear isn’t who might come into Rutland, what poverty or diseases they might bring in, whether the town could afford the costs necessary to educate the refugee children, whether there are security worries or increased crime, etc. He is worried that, by simply voting, Rutland might get a bad reputation!
People from around the state and country will be left with the perception that we are a closed and unfeeling community, rather than the welcoming and compassionate community that we actually are.
These misconceptions would be spread at a time when many dedicated people have worked hard to build positive momentum for our community. They would be spread at a time when we’ve recognized the need to proactively recruit people and businesses in order to sustain the size of our community and the quality of life we enjoy. Rutland County legislators from both sides of the aisle have told us that these misconceptions would set back their successful efforts in creating a positive narrative in Montpelier about our county.
Readers ask me all the time what can they do to stop this. You can be sure Washington isn’t going to help you. Besides what you are already doing—demanding transparency and thoughtful deliberation—I’ve come to the conclusion that as much as you don’t want to do it, you will have to change your local elected officials, maybe run for public office yourself. Even if you can’t win the first time, you will help raise the issue before voters. Endnote:Has USCRI ever given the Mayor and Aldermen the R & P Abstract which they surely prepared for the US State Department? Just wondering! (See the one they prepared for Reno, here. There is one for Rutland!).
…..Feds expect Texas to take 25% more refugees in FY2017—a whopping 11,020—and Texas is saying NO!
Texas is the number one state in the nation for refugee resettlement (the goal is to turn red states blue!) and frankly I believe it got that way because previous governors weren’t paying attention, but that is water under the bridge so they say. The Texas Commissioner is corresponding with BARBARA DAY, the Domestic Resettlement Section Chief at the DOS Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration. She is the person in charge of resettling refugees into your towns and cities. Day is also an example of the revolving door between federal contractors and the agencies from which they get their federal funds. Day came originally from Lutheran Social Services of SD and then to a perch at headquarters—Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) —before getting her present position at the US State Department in 2005. There really should be a law against this contractor/federal agency revolving door! LIRS gets over 90% of its funds from the federal government. http://2001-2009.state.gov/documents/organization/77949.pdf
You probably saw the news that Governor Abbott’s recent lawsuit was dismissed.But, what the Abbott administration is doing now bears watching.
We’ve told you before (here) that states must submit a plan to the federal government each year about how the program will be run in the state. They can get away with not renewing the plan if nothing has changed.
Most plans are just rough bureaucratic blue prints (that they probably don’t follow anyway). But, back in April of last year, I wanted you to get yours mostly to send a signal that you were watching.
Now we see that Texas is taking this plan seriously and is attempting to use it to keep the US State Department from increasing the numbers to be sent there.
(BTW, a reminder! When hundreds or thousands (like in TX) of refugees have been resettled and the State Dept. is working to bring in their extended family members you can see how the numbers will mushroom exponentially. The DOS wants to get the relatives into the same towns (or at least nearby) where their family members have been placed (seeded!). This is why I say in ‘Ten things your town needs to know’that once they open an office and bring in the first refugees, your town is cooked!)
From the Houston Chronicle(emphasis below is mine):
AUSTIN – The federal government wants Texas to accept more than 2,000 additional refugees this year. Texas’ response: No thank you.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is putting the federal government on notice that the state will refuse to take in more refugees than it did last year and will accept only those who do not pose a security risk.
Texas on Friday submitted to the U.S. Department of State a 2017 state plan for refugee resettlement, rejecting the federal government’s proposal to increase the number of refugees moving to the Lone Star State by 25 percent.
“Texas continues to have concerns about the safety of its citizens and the integrity of the overseas security and background vetting process of the federal resettlement program,” Executive Commissioner Charles Smith wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of State. “Americans face an undeniable terrorist threat that is imported through new manipulations of our national security protocols each day.”
According to Smith’s letter, the federal government is proposing to place 11,020 refugees in Texas during fiscal 2017, an increase of 25 percent over the projected fiscal 2016 figure. Smith wrote that the proposed funding is insufficient, as well, and concludes the state could accept a maximum of 8,605 refugees. It is unclear how many refugees have been placed this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. [One could easily find out how many refugees have been resettled in Texas this year until just a few days ago. It appears that the Dept. of State has removed its data basethat reporters have been using for months from public view.—ed]
Rewriting their plan to add security requirements for the feds!
Smith sent his letter and the state’s 2017 plan for handling refugee settlements in response to an email from Barbara Day, chief of domestic resettlement for refugee admissions at the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in the state department.According to Smith, the letter to Day outlined the agency’s plan to boost the number of refugees settling here, although the Texas commission could not produce the letter late Friday.
Texas will accept only refugees who can be certified to Congress that they do not present a security threat, according to Texas’ 31-page version of a resettlement plan that would take effect in the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. According to the proposal, the FBI must certify to the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence that potential refugees have received a background check sufficient enough to determine whether the individual is a security threat, and may only be admitted to the U.S. after all three agencies certify to Congress the individual is not a threat.
Very interesting! Continue reading here.
See our complete archive on Texas here. More on Barbara Day….Here she is working with National Immigration Forum (Soros!) honcho and Muslim rights activist Ali Nooraniwhere they are teaching Wilson-Fish grantees how to craft a positive message about refugees to make them more accepted in reluctant communities. And, you can watch her here explain how wonderful the refugee program is.
This invasion of Europe story leads to the invasion of America!
The story makes me sick. I have been writing about it for EIGHT years. George Bush started it and of course Obama continued this abrogation of international refugee law. Here is one of the earliest posts I wrote (from 2008) about Bush’s Ambassador to Malta who first broke the law!
Illegal aliens who arrive on Malta could hit the jackpot and get a ticket to America!
In just one recent year, 500 ILLEGAL aliens made their way from North Africa across the Mediterranean to the island nation of Malta. Then, to help Malta out, our US State Department said ‘presto-chango’ and these ECONOMIC migrants who had launched from lawless Libya and elsewhere in North Africa magically became refugees and they now live in your towns in America somewhere! And, this has been going on for eight years!
Legitimate claims for asylum are supposed to be made in the first safe country where the LEGITIMATE refugee lands—in this case Malta (making them Europe’s problem). Are we asking Europe to take some of our illegal alien Mexicans? Of course not! Do you understand the full import of what this means—any of the phony asylum seekers reaching Europe could be simply moved to America now that the precedent has been set.
From the Independent:
Some 500 immigrants who arrived in Malta in search for a better life have been resettled in the United States of America between March 2015 and March 2016. This information emerged in a reply to a Parliamentary Question. Minister for Home Affairs Carmelo Abela explained that 355 out of the 503 were Somali, 138 came from Eritrea, 17 from Sudan, two from Ethiopia and one from Iraq.
The resettlement exercise was possible following an agreement between the Maltese authorities, the American government and UNHCR.
You know it makes me so mad when I know that Congress, if it had the will, could do so much to reform this program with a few simple fixes that could make it safer and not so insane until real reform could begin. Simply disallowing this lawbreaking would be a good start! Click here for more on Malta. I’ve never counted them, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see 50 posts here on just our policy relating to the island nation.
