Tag: US State Department

Re-post: Ten reasons there should be a moratorium on refugee resettlement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Now that the mainstream media and the public are waking up to the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program and how it has been operating for the last 35 years, I thought it would be a good idea to re-post this testimony I gave to the US State Department (first in 2012 at its annual scoping meeting and repeated in 2013 and 2014).

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Anne Richard is the Asst. Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration. Here she testified last month at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Syrian refugees. She needs to produce the hearing record for the 2015 ‘scoping meeting’ which we believe was held in secrecy. Photo and story about Judiciary hearing: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/19/state-dept-official-syrian-refugees-less-threat-stops-tracking-3-months/

I just mentioned it in my previous post on annual reports.
As far as we can tell, the US State Department did not hold a public scoping hearing in 2015 (for FY2016) because we never saw a notice for it this year. In these ‘scoping meetings/hearings’ they ostensibly seek public input on the size of the program for the upcoming year and they want to know what countries should be the focus of protection.
The ‘scoping’ meeting (like a hearing) was usually held in late spring/early summer of the preceding year. Prior to our attendance in 2012, these meetings/hearings were dominated by the resettlement contractors and their groupies.
And, one more thing, the State Department does not keep and publish a hearing record for this meeting.  The only way we could ever learn what others were saying was to obtain the hard copy testimony by attending in person! There ought to be a law!
Here is my testimony in 2012 (repeated in 2013 and 2014):

Ten Reasons there should be no refugees resettled in the US in FY2013—instead a moratorium should be put in place until the program is reformed and the economy completely recovers.

1)    There are no jobs. The program was never meant to be simply a way to import impoverished people to the US and place them on an already overtaxed welfare system.

 2)     The program has become a cash cow for various “religious” organizations and other contractors who very often appear to care more about the next group of refugees coming in (and the cash that comes with each one) than the group they resettled only a few months earlier. Stories of refugees suffering throughout the US are rampant.

3)   Terrorist organizations (mostly Islamic) are using the program that still clearly has many failings in the security screening system.  Indeed consideration should be given to halting the resettlement of Muslims altogether.  Also, the UN should have no role in choosing refugees for the US.

4)    The public is not confident that screenings for potential terrorists (#3) or the incidences of other types of fraudulent entry are being properly and thoroughly investigated and stopped.  When fraud is uncovered—either fraud to enter the country or illegal activity once the refugee has been resettled—punishment should be immediate deportation.

5)     The agencies, specifically the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), is in complete disarray as regards its legally mandated requirement to report to Congress every year on how refugees are doing and where the millions of tax dollars are going that run the program.  The last (and most recent) annual report to be sent to Congress is the 2008 report—so they are out of compliance for fiscal years 2009, 2010 and 2011.  A moratorium is necessary in order for the ORR to bring its records entirely up-to-date. Additionally,  there needs to be an adequate tracking system designed to gather required data—frankly some of the numbers reported for such measures of dependence on welfare as food stamp usage, cash assistance and employment status are nothing more than guesses.  (The lack of reports for recent years signals either bureaucratic incompetence and disregard for the law, or, causes one to wonder if there is something ORR is hiding.)

6)    The State Department and the ORR have so far failed to adequately determine and report (and track once the refugee has been admitted) the myriad communicable and costly-to-treat diseases entering the country with the refugee population.

7)   Congress needs to specifically disallow the use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government,especially using certain refugee populations to address unrelated foreign policy objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come to mind.

8)   Congress needs to investigate and specifically disallow any connection between this program and big businesseslooking for cheap and captive labor.  The federal government should not be acting as head-hunter for corporations.

9)     The Volag system should be completely abolished and the program should be run by state agencies with accountability to the public through their state legislatures. The system as presently constituted is surely unconstitutional.  (One of many benefits of turning the program over to a state agency is to break up the government/contractor revolving door that is being demonstrated now at both the State Department and ORR.)  The participating state agency’s job would be to find groups, churches, or individuals who would sponsor a refugee family completely for at least a year and monitor those sponsors. Their job would include making sure refugees are assimilating. A mechanism should be established that would allow a refugee to go home if he or she is unhappy or simply can’t make it in America. Short of a complete halt to resettlement-by-contractor, taxpayers should be protected by legally requiring financial audits of contractors and subcontractors on an annual basis.

10)   As part of #9, there needs to be established a process for alerting communities to the impending arrival of refugees that includes reports from the federal government (with local input) about the social and economic impact a certain new group of refugees will have on a city or town.   This report would be presented to the public through public hearings and the local government would have an opportunity to say ‘no.’

 

For these reasons and more, the Refugee admissions program should be placed on hold and a serious effort made by Congress to either scrap the whole thing or reform it during the moratorium.  My recommendation for 2013 is to stop the program now.  The Office of the President could indeed ask for hearings to review the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980-–three decades is time enough to see its failings and determine if reauthorization is feasible or whether a whole new law needs to be written.

Information on the three hearings we wrote about and attended are archived here, here and here.  (Those files include posts in which we referenced the hearings/meetings as well.)
By the way, Richard revolved into the State Department from her contractor job at the International Rescue Committee. She had a previous stint at the State Dept.  The revolving door is alive and well between contractor and federal agency involving refugee resettlement.

423 Syrians admitted to US in first two months of fiscal year; 99% are Sunni Muslims

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I love it, so many reporters are on the case now!  This morning I see Drudge is prominently featuring a CNS news story about how all of the Syrians admitted to the US after the Paris terror attack are Sunni Muslims, click here for that story.  Lots of good information there!
Below is a map (from the Refugee Processing Center) of where the Syrians have been resettled in the US since October 1 (the first day of fiscal year 2016 until yesterday November 30th, assuming the data is up to date as of yesterday).
Two months into the fiscal year, the Obama Administration has 9,577 to go to reach its goal of 10,000 Syrian (mostly Muslims) for this year.
Top five states where the Administration is seeding Syrian Muslims:  No surprise California is numero uno, but that they are pouring them into PA is a surprise, and then KY, OH, and TX round out the top five.  (Hey Mitch and Rand, where are you?)
 
map Syrians end Nov. 30
 
 
Checking the religion numbers for the first two months of fiscal year 2016, it is even worse than two weeks ago.  Of the 423 admitted so far, 418 are Sunni Muslims.  That comes to 99% Muslim and you can expect numbers like that to continue because the UNHCR is picking our refugees and he told an audience at Georgetown Law School recently (here, we were there), that the Christians are not persecuted because the “regime” (Assad) protects them.  I guess for the UNHCR, ISIS is not a persecutor!
Go here if you want to play around with the US State Department data base (called the Refugee Processing Center).

Action Alert:  Call your members of the House and Senate at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vigorously oppose the Refugee Resettlement funding contained in the Omnibus Spending Bill that will be voted on by 12-11-15! Please call by this Friday, Dec. 4th.

Barnett: Contractors monopolize US resettlement as it is all about money, not what is best for America

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Don Barnett, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies reports on how the resettlement contracting business works in an opinion piece in the Washington Times, here on Sunday.

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Don Barnett, a resident of Tennessee, is a longtime expert on the US Refugee Admissions Program, and is a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

In his opening paragraphs he reports on a little known (declassified) report for the National War College published in 2000.  The author was (and may still be) a longtime employee of the US State Department and intimately involved in refugee resettlement.
I urge all of you to read the Robinson study, we reported on it here in 2010 (you will find a link to the study in that post), because it demonstrates how supposed ‘refugees’ became political pawns for the Clinton Administration’s justification for its phony-baloney Bosnian war, and how the contractors looking for more paying clients (aka refugees) urged an airlift of Kosovar ‘refugees’ who didn’t even want to come to America!  The airlift was a twofer!
The report is entitled: ‘How public opinion shaped refugee policy in Kosovo.’
Barnett at the Washington Times:

Despite the exposure refugee resettlement has received lately, there has been little discussion of how the program actually operates.

Each year the administration establishes source regions and numbers for next year’s quota. The U.N. refugee agency refers most of the refugees that come through the system, though embassy staff and State Department contractors may also make referrals. An influential network of private contractors implements the program.

Speaking of the contractors running refugee resettlement, David M. Robinson, a former acting director of the refugee bureau in the State Department, wrote in 2000,

“The agencies [the resettlement contractors—ed] form a single body [that] wields enormous influence over the Administration’s refugee admissions policy. It lobbies the hill effectively to increase the number of refugees admitted for permanent resettlement each year and at the same time provides overseas processing for admissions under contract to the State Department. In fact, the federal government provides about ninety percent of its collective budget. If there is a conflict of interest, it is never mentioned.”

“[Its] solution to every refugee crisis is simplistic and the same: increase the number of admissions to the United States without regard to budgets or competing foreign policy considerations.”

Continue reading here.
Readers!  For the first time in 35 years you are helping to create a serious roadblock to these nine federal contractors that have ruled the roost and called the shots for decades, please keep up the pressure.

The most important thing  you can do today is laid out for you in our post yesterday on the Omnibus funding bill before Congress!

Addendum:  As I reread my post from 2010, I was reminded that one of the terrorists arrested as part of the Ft. Dix Six terror plot was a refugee—add him to the list of refugee terrorists that the contractors say do not exist!
And a note to any reporters reading this: we have an enormous body of work here—over 7,000 posts—use our search function for key words for anything you are working on!

Action Alert:  Call your members of the House and Senate at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vigorously oppose the Refugee Resettlement funding contained in the Omnibus Spending Bill that will be voted on by 12-11-15! Please call by this Friday, Dec. 4th.

Fact sheet provided to House of Representatives briefing November 12, 2015

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editor:  Have a Happy Thanksgiving.  I’ll be away from the computer for a couple of days, so that means no comments will be posted until I get back to work. Here is a little weekend pleasure-reading for you!

You’ve heard me mention several times that on the day before the Paris Islamic terror attack, Don Barnett and I briefed staff of Congressmen and Senators on Capitol Hill on the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.  The briefing was organized by ACT for America.  Again, this was before Paris and the whole refugee world was turned on its head.
 
House of Representatives Briefing
November 12, 2015

~Refugee definition:   The 1951 Refugee Convention spells out that a refugee is someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

However, there has been an intentional expansion of the definition. (Unaccompanied Alien Children is an example).

Zaatari
This is Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, one of the camps where the UNHCR is choosing our Syrian refugees.

~The Refugee Act of 1980 created the Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) presently being administered to resettle approximately 70,000 refugees each year (in recent years) to the US.

~The Obama Administration increased the projected ceiling to 85,000 for FY2016.  10,000 of those slots are earmarked for Syrian refugees presently being referred to the US by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which says it has selected 20,000 for consideration so far.

~When the President sends his “Determination” to Congress in advance of the fiscal year (two weeks in advance is required!) it is accompanied by a report (Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2016). There is supposed to be a legally required consultation with Congress.

~There will be large increases this year from Africa including (but not limited to) DR Congo, Eritrea and Sudan.  The largest number of refugees arriving in recent years are from:  Burma (Myanmar), Bhutan/Nepal, Iraq, and Somalia.  We admitted 120,000 Iraqis since 2007.

~In FY2015, we admitted 1,682 Syrian refugees, less than 40 were Christians/other minorities.

~In 2014, the United States took in 67% of the refugees resettled around the world.  The next closest country was Canada with 9.9%.

~The UNHCR refers most of our refugees.  The Department of Homeland Security is charged with doing the security screening.  The Dept. of State (Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration) works with nine major refugee contractors who along with the State Dept. determine their placement in America.  The Dept. of Health and Human Services (Office of Refugee Resettlement) provides grants and additional federal funding mostly through those nine non-profit agencies.

~The anticipated cost to the US Treasury of the resettlement process (not including welfare/Medicaid/education costs) is projected to be just short of $1.2 billion for FY2016.

~The nine non-profit agencies contracted to resettle refugees include:  US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, World Relief (Evangelicals), Church World Service, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, International Rescue Committee, Ethiopian Community Development Council, and the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

~There are 312 subcontractors working under the nine major contractors in 185 locations around the country.   There are 24 offices located around the country for the processing of Unaccompanied Alien Children.  A placement site map is available on line (attached).

~The states receiving the highest number of refugees in FY2015 were in descending order: TX, CA, NY, PA, FL, GA, MI, AZ, WA, and NC.

~States receiving no refugees in 2014 or 2015 were:  WY, MT.  Delaware received none in 2014.

~State and local elected officials have virtually no say in the resettlement process. This is especially so in the so-called Wilson-Fish states where the state doesn’t even have a refugee office under state government and the program is completely run through the US State Department and a non-profit organization.  Those states are:  AL, AL, CO, ID, KY, LA, MA, NV, ND, SD, TN, VT and San Diego County.

~Refugees are a special class of legal immigrant which permits them to receive virtually all forms of welfare upon arrival.

~Grassroots opposition is growing throughout the US to the resettlement process mostly due to the lack of transparency and the fear of Islamic radicals who might get in through the program.

Some points regarding the proposed Syrian resettlement and the European migration crisis:

~Only about 50% of the migrants flooding Europe today are Syrians.  The next highest number are from Afghanistan.

~These are a mix of asylum seekers and economic migrants.  Asylum seekers must prove that just as refugees, they fear returning to their homelands for fear of persecution (escaping war per se has never been a part of the refugee definition).

~We are not expected to get refugees from the European flow (Malta exception).  Ours will come through UN referrals from mostly UNHCR camps and regional offices.

~The refugee resettlement contractors (NGOs mentioned above) working with the US State Department began advocating several years ago for the resettlement of 15,000 Syrians per year for each of the next 5 years.  They then modified their request to 65,000 Syrians before Pres. Obama leaves office.  Subsequently they have demanded 100,000 Syrians before 2017.

~Earlier 14 US Senators wrote to the President asking for 65,000 Syrians.  A total of 84 Senators and Members of Congress have subsequently urged the President to speed up security screening.

~FBI Director James Comey has told Congress that Syrians cannot be thoroughly screened because the Administration has no access to data (biographic or biometric) on most of them.

This post is filed in our category entitled ‘where to find information’ which now contains 401 previous posts.

White House secret: Governors (even Democrat govs) can't find out where refugees are being resettled

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

However, the non-profit resettlement contractors*** and the US State Department key staff know because they sit down together every week and divvy them up as the cases come in!

Representatives of non-profit federal contractors are deciding which towns will “welcome” refugees.

Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown gestures as he campaigns supporting Proposition 30 at James Lick Middle School in San Francisco, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012. As Brown kicked off his campaign for Proposition 30 last week, he sought to emphasize that most of the revenue from the tax increases would come from Californians who are among the wealthiest; an extra $4,500 a year for millionaires, he said. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
California Gov. Jerry Brown was on the call and couldn’t get information, but apparently says CA will take them anyway! CA is the top receiving state so far in FY2016: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/11/17/syrians-entering-us-in-first-six-weeks-of-2016-fiscal-year-98-sunni-muslim/

Think about how outrageous this is—governors can’t find out, but un-elected NGO operatives have the information!
As I have been saying for eight years, one of the major problems with the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program is its SECRECY!
First here is the story at Bloomberg.  Obama Administration keeping it secret!

In a call with senior Obama administration officials Tuesday evening, several governors demanded they be given access to information about Syrian refugees about to be resettled by the federal government in their states. Top White House officials refused.

Over a dozen governors from both parties joined the conference call, which was initiated by the White House after 27 governors vowed not to cooperate with further resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states. The outrage among governors came after European officials revealed that one of the Paris attackers may have entered Europe in October through the refugee process using a fake Syrian passport. (The details of the attacker’s travels are still murky.)

The administration officials on the call included White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, State Department official Simon Henshaw, FBI official John Giacalone, and the deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center John Mulligan. [Henshaw definitely knows where they are going!—ed]

On the call several Republican governors and two Democrats — New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan and California’s Jerry Brown — repeatedly pressed administration officials to share more information about Syrian refugees entering the United States. The governors wanted notifications whenever refugees were resettled in their states, as well as access to classified information collected when the refugees were vetted.

“There was a real sense of frustration from all the governors that there is just a complete lack of transparency and communication coming from the federal government,” said one GOP state official who was on the call.

Now this is what you need to know!  Directly from the US State Department’s own website (emphasis is mine):

The Department of State works with nine domestic resettlement agencies that have proven knowledge and resources to resettle refugees. Every week, representatives of each of these nine agencies meet to review the biographic information and other case records sent by the overseas Resettlement Support Centers (RSC) to determine where a refugee will be resettled in the United States.

*** The nine major federal resettlement contractors determining the futures of your cities and states and which like to call themselves VOLAGs (short for Voluntary agencies)—a joke considering how much federal money they receive: