Tag: US State Department

Congress questions Syrian refugee resettlement plan; Obama Administration appears to be back-peddling

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Wow!  I missed this story while I was away.  It is from Newsweek last Thursday entitled:  ‘U.S. Congress Questions Plan to Admit Syrian Refugees.’

Less than two months ago, Asst. Sec. of State for PRM, Anne Richard, said that the US would be bringing in 10,000 Syrians THIS year, so what gives? The UN is going to be very very unhappy to hear the latest news! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/12/23/asst-secretary-of-state-anne-richard-we-have-1000-1500-syrian-referrals-coming-in-a-month/

This is very big news because I haven’t heard a peep out of Congress on Muslim Somalis or Iraqis in more than five years, and so wonder why the Syrian Muslims are now drawing fire.  I think we may have turned a corner!  Was Paris the final straw?

The other amazing news in here is that the Administration is vigorously back-peddling from a promise made recently by the US State Department to admit 9,000-10,000 Syrians THIS FISCAL YEAR (we are already 4 months into FY2015 which began on Oct. 1, 2014).

We followed closely the beating George Bush took from reporters shilling for the ‘humanitarian industrial complex’ back in 2007 and into 2008 when the Bush Administration was nervous about security issues involving Iraqi refugees and now find it amusing that no one is beating on Obama about his Administration’s (fortunate-for-us!) foot-dragging on Syrians.

From Newsweek (hat tip: Joanne):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-led House Committee on Homeland Security is challenging an Obama administration plan to admit Syrian refugees to the United States, saying it could allow potential terrorists to sneak into the country.

In a letter sent to the White House, Michael McCaul, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee and Peter King and Candice Miller, who chair subcommittees, said the administration’s plan “raises serious national security concerns.”

The letter, dated Wednesday, said the United States lacks the resources to fully investigate the backgrounds of refugees from Syria, a base for Islamic State militants, before they are admitted to the country.

Anne Richard, an Assistant Secretary of State, said on Dec. 9 that the United States resettled nearly 70,000 refugees from nearly 70 countries in 2013 and that the administration’s refugee plans would lead to “resettling Syrians as well.”

Richard said the United States was already reviewing around 9,000 Syrian refugee cases referred by a United Nations agency and was receiving “roughly a thousand new ones each month.”

I would not trust this next paragraph. This could very well be a head-fake:

A State Department official said that the United States was likely to admit 1,000-2,000 Syrian refugees this government fiscal year and a few thousand more in Fiscal Year 2016. The official said that Syrian refugees applying for admission to the United States will “undergo additional screening specific to this population.”

LOL! We can be sure they are screening Muslims because there would be no reason to fear, and to vigorously screen, the Christian Syrians.

Remember folks!  The contractor cabal (led by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) is asking for 15,000 Syrians each year for five years!

Americans sign letter to Saudi Arabia, offer to take lashings for “blasphemy” blogger

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Now at the Univ. of Minnesota, former Asst. Secretary of State Eric P. Schwartz oversaw the resettlement of tens of thousands of Muslims to the US in the early Obama years.

I found this little bit of news interesting for one reason, one of the signatories of a letter from the American Islamic Forum for Democracy to the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US is former Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration (in the early Obama years), Eric Schwartz, a Soros protege who we discussed here at RRW on many occasions.

Click here for many critical posts we have written about Obama’s original choice to head the refugee program at the US State Department, clearly a representative of the Hard Left.

Now at the AIFD he has put his name on the letter spearheaded by Islam reformer Zuhdi Jasser.   Read all about it here (hat tip: Cathy).

I don’t know if there is any significance to this laudable PR campaign to help save the Saudi blogger being flogged for blasphemy, but could we be turning a corner where some in politically-correct academia are beginning to understand the threat shariah law poses for the world?  Or, do they just hate Saudi Arabia?

From the American Islamic Forum for Democracy:

PHOENIX (January 20, 2015) – Five notable religious freedom advocates, including Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, AIFD President, have signed and presented a letter to the Saudi Ambassador calling on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), to immediately release Raif Badawi. If they do not release him, they are asking that the Kingdom take them in the place of Raif Badawi in the meting out of his corporal punishment. Badawi was sentenced to prison, a monetary fine, and 1000 lashes for “blasphemy” based on his website which allowed the free exchange of religious and political ideas. His 1000 lashes are being delivered on a weekly basis every Friday in front of a mosque in Jeddah by the Saudi regime. His health was compromised by the first 50 to the point that last Friday the second 50 were delayed.

The signatories to the letter are Princeton Law Professor Robert P. George, Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Daniel I. Mark, who teaches political science at Villanova University, Eric Schwartz, Dean, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Hannah Rosenthal, CEO, Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and Katrina Lantos Swett, President of The Lantos Foundation. The letter requested a remittance of his punishment but further stated that in the absence of a full dismissal, each was requesting to receive 100 lashes in the place of Mr. Badawi.

Hmmmm!  What do you make of this?

Washington Post does the warm and fuzzy Syrian refugee story, so what else would you expect?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Reporter Julie Zauzmer does the stereotypical report on a Syrian family in fear of Assad who have just managed to be in the first batch of Syrians “welcomed” to America.

You can read the lengthy early paragraphs about the family’s long ordeal until they were rescued by America (through the UN), by the US State Department and by the State Department’s resettlement contractor Catholic Charities all geared to get your mind right before we get to the all important question—how are these people going to make it in America without enormous taxpayer support?  He was a journalist who can’t speak English, she a hairdresser who can’t speak English.

Anne Richard Asst. Secretary of State (left) and Antonio Guterres (UNHCR): We take those that the UN sends us and run this whole program on a shoestring (over $1 billion a year) budget!

Washington Post (emphasis is mine):

The State Department has promised that the United States will take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next two years.  [Seems to me she said 10,000 annually here—so what is the truth?—ed]

[….]

The United States takes in a set number of refugees — 70,000 a year — no matter what troubled part of the world they come from.

The UN picks our refugees!

Candidates for resettlement are nominated by the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, then interviewed by State Department officials. The rigorous process involves a background check, review of any documents the refugees can provide to prove their lives are at risk and numerous interviews to make sure the refugees’ accounts of their hardships remain consistent.

“Their stories have to hold water. They can’t be dishonest or criminals or would-be terrorists,” said Anne Richard, the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.  [She assumes they never lie, but she knows better.  We have admitted terrorists through the refugee program.—ed]

One reason they got in, the teenage daughters were candidates for sexual assault (in a Muslim country, but they never say that).

US State Department Daniel Langenkamp: The vulnerable teenaged girls in the family helped move them up the list. Photo: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-langenkamp/1a/197/563

In the Smaisems’ case, State Department spokesman Daniel Langenkamp said that the specific threat against Khaled, as well as the fact that the family had two teenage daughters in an environment known for its sexual-assault hazard, may have contributed to moving them up the list.

Richard said that 105 Syrians were resettled in the United States in fiscal 2014. In fiscal 2015, which began on Oct. 1, 112 have arrived.

If she now says it’s going to be 9,000 over two years she is going to really tick-off the contractors who want 15,000 per year!

As of mid-December, 9,972 Syrians had been nominated by the U.N. office and begun the process of applying for U.S. resettlement, Richard said. She said nearly all likely will be accepted within the next two years.

Once refugees arrive, they are assigned to a private organization that partners with the State Department to get the families settled. In the case of the Smaisems, it was Catholic Charities, the largest such group. [Partners!  They are contractors and why can’t these reporters for the mainstream media ever say that! Or, don’t they even know!—ed]

Refugees receive U.S. government stipends for up to three months, and federal grant programs help states support them for longer. But the money quickly tapers off.  [Federal grant money goes to the contractors who then launder it through their offices.—ed]

“This is not a luxurious program. This is very challenging,” Richard said. “It’s kind of run on a shoestring budget.”

Shoestring budget!  It is over $1 billion just to get 70,000 in the door!  That does not include most of the social services they will live on for years and years!

Khaled is keenly aware of that. His family’s initial cash aid has ended. According to Derek Maxfield, the associate director of Catholic Charities of D.C., the family is receiving food stamps, which will end after they have been in the country for eight months; local government cash assistance that amounts to $200 to $300 per month; and $1,000 monthly per family member through a Catholic Charities program. [There is no reason the food stamps will end! And, haven’t we been told many times that refugee resettlement doesn’t cost local taxpayer dollars?—ed]

The large Catholic Charities stipend is not charitable Catholic money—it is federal taxpayer money!   Come on reporters, stop being lazy, or is this to mislead?

That large Catholic Charities stipend, which will end after about four months, is predicated on the family’s efforts to become self-sufficient. Smaisem has been looking for work, though he says that his lack of English hampers him.

After you’ve read the long mushy (superficial) story, tell me—any chance this family is going to be “self-sufficient” any time soon?

Isn’t it about time that publications like the Washington Post and the New York Times begin to do some serious and careful reporting?  I know, I know, stop laughing!

Fun with numbers! How many Somali refugees have come to your city in FY 2015, so far?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Minneapolis Somali women angry with sentencing in 2013 terror-funding case. More fun on the way! http://www.komonews.com/news/national/2-Minnesota-women-sentenced-in-Somali-terror-case-207813961.html

In the previous post we gave readers the tiny Syrian resettlement numbers (so far!), but check out the Somali numbers—2,801 new Somalis have arrived in America in just the first three months of Fiscal Year 2015!   At this pace they will surely be approaching the high George Bush Somali “welcoming” years!

Once again, see the very cool data base maintained by the US State Department’s Refugee Processing Center.  (I use the fiscal year, but you might find it more understandable to use the calendar year option).

Somalis were resettled in about 115 cities large and small, but here are the top ten with the numbers in parenthesis.  Again, these numbers are for three months (October, November and December 2014, the first three months of Fiscal Year 2015).  And, it is possible that all December data has not yet been entered.

1.  Minneapolis, MN (148)

2.  Columbus, OH (127)

3.  Phoenix, AZ (123)

4.  Portland, OR (108)

5.  Buffalo, NY (103)

6.  Salt Lake, UT (100)

7.  Louisville, KY (92)

8.  Erie, PA (89)

9.  Nashville, TN (81)

10.  Three-way tie with (77) each

Seattle, WA

Houston, TX

St. Cloud, MN

(You might want to check my numbers, go to the data base, and see if I missed some top ten city and see if your city ‘welcomed’ Somalis!  By the way, Anchorage, Alaska got 30 more mosque worshipers).

New readers:  See ‘Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis?’ our top post of 2014 (even though it was written in 2011)—thank three ‘Christian Charities’ for flooding Minnesota with Somali Muslims.

Refugee contractor Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society re-brands, drops the “Hebrew” ….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

.…and moves its headquarters closer to Washington so as to be closer to the federal money it depends on for survival.  It will also boost its advocacy role with Congress and federal agencies.

Hetfield: The word “Hebrew” is so outdated, like using the word “colored” to refer to African Americans.

They will go by the name HIAS, Inc instead of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society which is probably better anyway since they have so many Muslims to resettle (who probably got skittish when they heard the word “Hebrew”).  One of nine major federal refugee contractors***, HIAS wants the US to resettle 75,000 Syrians (who will be mostly Muslims) over the next five years.

From Washington Jewish Week (hat tip: Michelle).  Emphasis is mine:

The announcement last week that HIAS, the century-old Jewish immigrant and refugee aid organization, will relocate its headquarters from New York City to Silver Spring is just another sign that the Jewish organizational universe is changing.

Once known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the agency has responded to the end of Jewish refugee immigration into the port of New York by refocusing on refugee advocacy Washington, D.C.

In doing so, HIAS is joining an exodus of religion-based immigrant agencies, said Mark Hetfield, HIAS president and CEO.

“All of us started in the Ellis Island days when almost all immigrants came through New York and all migration organizations and refugee organizations were based in New York,” he said. “Then, over the 1990s, that gradually started to change, and now five of the nine refugee organizations [sanctioned by the U.S. State Department] are already based in the Baltimore-Washington area.”

Those organizations include: Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service (LIRS), World Relief (Evangelical), U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, Church World Service (mainline Protestant), Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), and the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

In the Jewish community, HIAS’ shift is part of a growing trend of organizations shedding old identities when their original missions have been filled. That often includes streamlining names to avoid referring to those outdated missions. Most people already commonly refer to the Anti-Defamation League as the ADL, and years ago, the American Jewish Committee rebranded itself as the AJC, not to be confused with the American Jewish Congress.

Hetfield said that one of the motivations for the upcoming move was a belief that HIAS could have a greater impact by being closer to Congress, the State Department and other federal agencies where immigration and refugee policy is made.

Although HIAS already has a small advocacy contingent in Washington, bringing the leadership, experts and program staff to the area is intended to better assist this advocacy wing shape immigration and refugee policy, he said.

According to Charity Navigator, which gives HIAS its highest rating for transparency and accountability, 65.3 percent of the agency’s annual budget of $25 million comes from government grants – from the State Department, the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  [When we started RRW 7 years ago, no mention was ever made of the amount of federal money these contractors lived off of by any mainstream publication—wow!—ed]

 [….]

HIAS’ expansion and rebranding included making the group’s acronym its official name. Hetfield said the word “Hebrew” is exclusionary and outdated, much as the word “colored” is to refer to African Americans.

There is much more, read it all.   And, reader Michelle sent other related links that you can see as comments to this post.

We have many posts on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, click here to learn more.

Who is next?  Will the US Conference of Catholic Bishops become the USCCB? Will Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services become LIRS?  Or, how about Church World Service, just CWS, so as to keep their Muslim “clients” mollified? And, to assure those government grants keep coming (so they can continue to lobby with your money and no one will raise the issue of separation of church and state)?

***For those readers arriving here for the first time, these are the nine major federal resettlement contractors which are in control of refugee resettlement in America: