Late in September the word went outthat for the new fiscal year (2020) which began on October first, the CEILING on refugee admissions for the year would be 18,000 (not the zero I wanted!), and that arrivals would be delayed for three weeks.
The three weeks end on Monday, the 21st, but now comes word that more refugee flights have been cancelled and the new arrivals are expected to begin trickling in after the 28th of the month.
We also learn that the President has yet to sign-off on the 18,000!
Needless to say the refugee contractors*** are not happy.
Here is CNN where we learn a little bit more about the closed door meeting on the Hill this past Tuesday between Sec. of State Pompeo and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
More refugee flights to the US are being canceled
Flights for refugees who have been approved to come to the United States continue to be canceled, in some cases for the second time, CNN has learned.
Last month, CNN reported that travel for refugees who were told they could come to the US was postponed, due to a moratorium on travel that extended through October 21, raising concerns among refugee resettlement agencies.
The moratorium will now run until October 28, with arrivals expected to resume on October 29, according to a State Department spokesperson.
Senator Lindsey Graham appealed to Pompeo to bring in the already approved refugees—what thousands? Graham has been a long-time proponent of the refugee program.
[….]
The Trump administration has proposed capping the number of refugees allowed into the US at 18,000, a historic low. In a meeting this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the US admit refugees who are travel ready, in addition to the 18,000, according to a congressional aide who attended the meeting.
Graham appeared concerned about the situation in Syria, the aide said.
The proposed 18,000 refugee cap, coupled with the situation in Syria and postponed travel has fueled concerns.
“There were cases that were re-booked in September for October 8 and then re-booked for October 22 and now trying to rebook for October 29. You’re basically inserting about a month and a half of when someone was expected to travel and when they are,” said Jen Smyers, director of policy and advocacy for the immigration and refugee program at Church World Service, one of the nine resettlement agencies.
More than 200 refugees were expected to travel to the US next week, according to a source familiar. Their flights have been canceled.
[….]
“We will work with our implementing partners to plan for a resumption of refugee arrivals on or after October 29,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding: “This will include rescheduling travel for those affected by the extension of the refugee arrivals pause. By law, no refugees may be admitted this fiscal year until the President determines the number that may be admitted. When the Presidential Determination is issued, we will begin admitting refugees in accordance with its provisions.”
The President has not yet signed off on the 18,000!
The canceling and re-booking of refugee flights suggests that there may be a delay in the President signing off on the 18,000-person refugee cap.
See my post from Thursday about the Hill meeting with Pompeo, here.
It is not too late! You can still weigh in bycontacting the White House. You can be sure that thousands of open borders activists are pressuring the White House any way they can.
***For new readers these are the nine federal refugee contractors that not only place refugees in towns across the country, but lobby Congress and organize publicity against this President all while sucking down millions of your tax dollars! Cut them loose from the federal teat!
On Tuesday while representatives of the Refugee Industry did their “civil disobedience” stunt and got arrested, see here, a legally required consultation occurred with Secretary of State Pompeo and Acting USCIS Director Cuccinelli meeting with the leadership (or at least one leader) of the Senate Judiciary Committee to formally tell Congress that refugee admissions for FY2020 will be capped at 18,000.
Not from any media publication, but only from a press release from Senator Dick Durbin’s office where he chastises the Trump team for being late with their consultation.
I know this is likely boring as heck for most of you, but there is a process required by the Refugee Act of 1980 that has been given short shrift for decades.
For years there was only a perfunctory consultation, often in the closing days of September, where members of Congress never suggested any changes— indeed why bother when both Democrat and Republican presidents were proposing hefty refugee admission numbers.
The House and Senate Judiciary Committees are required to hold hearings as well. However, only Senator Jeff Sessions ever held any type of real substantive hearing on the program in the last decade.
So it is rich that here (press release) Durbin is so obsessed with a process that few on the Hill ever cared a wit about (before Trump!):
In Consultation After Legally-Required Deadline, Durbin Presses Trump Administration On Dismal Refugee Resettlement Goal
In A Meeting With Secretary Pompeo And Acting USCIS Director Cuccinelli, Durbin Called Out Trump Admin’s Decision To Further Erode U.S. Role As Worldwide Leader On Refugees
U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, today met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ken Cuccinelli to press the Trump Administration on its dismal refugee resettlement goal of merely 18,000 to the U.S. in the coming year.
Prior to any presidential determination on the number of refugees to be admitted in the upcoming fiscal year, the law requires that Cabinet-level officials representing the President engage in an in-person consultation with Senate and House Judiciary Committee leaders.
The law is clear that the consultation must occur before the start of the fiscal year. This consultation, on October 15, is after the start of the new fiscal year and in violation of the statute. For the third year in a row, the Trump Administration willfully disregarded the law regarding their obligation to consult with Congress prior to the end of the fiscal year.
Muslim refugees from 35 countries arrived in the US this fiscal year!
Granted fewer Muslims are entering the US right now as refugees compared to when Obama was in office, but yesterday I checked the data for this fiscal year (the one that is ending this coming Monday night) and was surprised at the great ethnic diversity of refugees from 35 countries representing several sects of Islam we have ‘welcomed’ this year.
It’s one of those reports meant to draw media attention to—you guessed it—that meany Donald Trump.
By the way, the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) is a consortium of twenty plus Open Borders groups that includes the nine federal contractors and the Muslim charity Islamic Relief USA, see here.
RCUSA has a lobbying office in Washington, DC and their finances are handled byChurch World Service.
On page 8 of the report, they published a chart that caught my eye. They want to show how few Muslims the Trump Administration is admitting to the US compared to the huge numbers Obama admitted.
Here it is. FY16 is definitely Obama, but FY17 was already underway when Trump moved into the White House. FY18 is, of course, Trump’s, and the numbers for FY19 are only up to June (8 months of FY19).
(These are just the refugee numbers and do not include all of the other programs that admit immigrants to America.)
Even I was surprised at the huge number of especially Syrian Muslims admitted in Obama’s last full year!
But, their chart doesn’t tell the whole story!
First their column for FY19 through today is updated here:
Egypt 4
Iran 31 (no explanation for the discrepancy, I found 31)
Iraq 353
Libya 0
Mali 3
Somalia 230
Sudan 220
Syria 503
and Yemen 3
Okay, still not a lot you say. But, surely enough to prove there is no Muslim ban!
However, there is more. We admitted Muslim refugees from 35 different countries (not just the eight or so singled out by RCUSA).
In addition to those above:
Afghanistan came in at number one with 1,113, then Burma Rohingya (931), DR Congo (519), Eritrea (343), Central African Republic (165), Pakistan (78) and dozens more with smaller numbers for each.
The grand total of Muslim refugees admitted in FY19 up to yesterday is 4,759!
Pittsburgh’s Jewish refugee resettlement agency, HIAS vow to continue work after threats, Squirrel Hill shooting
The story paints a picture of a ‘non-profit‘ group that is all about welcoming the poor and downtrodden to America, but never mentions the fact that it is more than 50% funded by US and state taxpayers many of whom do not share its open-borders views and would prefer their tax dollars be spent on America’s needy people.
HIAS received $186 million from taxpayers in the last ten years, here. Its CEO is paid over $300,000 annually.
And, like virtually all mainstream media stories about the horrific attack on innocents, The Post-Gazette, mentions not one word about that fact that HIAS is paid to do its ‘good works’ by the US government.
It is fine and dandy if HIAS wants to hold anti-Trump political rallies, sue the President and organize for the Tuesday midterms, but doing those things while accepting millions of taxpayer dollars every year strikes most people as fundamentally unfair!
This is from an anti-Trump protest in January of this year put on by Church World Service, HIAS and CAIR https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/
Here is a bit from the deficient Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story:
The Jewish refugee resettlement agency in Pittsburgh remains defiant in its work despite the connection Saturday’s mass shooting at a Squirrel Hill synagogue shared with its mission.
[….]
“These [sites] are echo chambers where people just get angrier and angrier and angrier about falsehoods,” said Mark Hetfield, CEO and president of HIAS — formerly the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society. “I mean, what harm was this congregation doing by welcoming refugees in a religious service?”
Charity Navigator reports that in 2016, HIAS was 58.5% funded by government grants mostly to resettle refugees. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3820
Mr. Hetfield said that he’s aware of several “hate sites and hate sites masquerading as issue-oriented sites” that have attacked the work of HIAS and JFCS.
“But they’ve just been words so far, but as we see now, words lead to action.”
Mr. Hetfield said HIAS has in the past had a designated person monitor social media for threats but the organization will be “totally changing” its strategy.
“I mean we did not know about this murderer on Gab, we were not following Gab.We do not follow these hate-filled fora, but we need to,” he said. “And then we need to figure out what do we do when we see things. We see things every day against us.”
That is an example of how out of touch with most Americans these open borders leftwing groups are, they didn’t know about Gab? This is a prime example of why the Dems were so shocked at the 2016 election of Donald Trump.
Mr. Hetfield said the physical security strategy has changed as well since Saturday. Armed guards now surround HIAS offices in New York City and Silver Spring, Md. He likened the change to how he felt after 9/11.
JFCS has begun closely monitoring social media and re-evaluating security since the attack happened; it had also not known about Mr. Bowers prior to Saturday.
See if you can find one word about how HIAS is a US State Department contractor that is paid by the head to place refugees in towns and cities of their choosing (behind closed doors in conjunction with the US State Department).
If HIAS, the US State Department, and the mainstream media were transparent and honest about how refugee resettlement is carried out in America, citizen taxpayers wouldn’t get so frustrated.
So, why aren’t they more transparent?
I have a guess, but I would like to hear what they say for a change!
Endnote: I did see an AP story sometime in the last week that did mention (briefly!) that HIAS receives taxpayer dollars, but couldn’t find it again.
We reported recently that the nine federally-funded non-profit groups that have monopolized all resettlement in the US for the last decade (some of them for three decades) will see their numbers diminished as the President continues reducing refugee resettlement.
By becoming almost completely dependent on federal dollars, they built a house of cards.
Love it when I see stories about the IRC crying over its loss of federal boodle. I can tell readers again that its CEO, British national David Miliband, pulls in a cool nearly $700,000 annual salary. Here in Manhattan where they are headquartered. Is this socialist sharing his good fortune with employees who are let go?
In this post two days ago we reported that two so-called VOLAGS would likely not receive contracts. I expect the reporter got it wrong when he suggested as many as seven could be booted off the federal gravy train.
Another story designed to tug on your heartstrings, this time from San Diego, wasn’t really worth posting except for a few paragraphs deep within the story.
With fewer refugees coming, resettlement agencies may be forced to close
The International Rescue Committee was able to reunite at least one person — a Rohingya refugee fleeing Myanmar — with family here, according to Duvin [Donna Duvin, executive director of the International Rescue Committee in San Diego.—ed]
The agency also began receiving refugees being held by Australia on Nauru Island. [This was a bit of useful news. We wondered where they might be going—ed]
The process, based on an agreement the U.S. made with Australia before Trump took office, has been slow, Duvin said, but she was happy that some were making it through.
Resettlement agencies like Jewish Family Service and International Rescue Committee have had to restructure their programs because of the lower numbers of arrivals. When staff positions fell vacant, they often went unfilled. Those who remained shifted to providing longer-term services to refugees who had already arrived, and agencies became increasingly reliant on private donations to fund their work. [Well, it is about time. It was supposed to be a 50/50 partnership but as you see below here*** it has become a program almost exclusively funded by US taxpayers!—ed]
Waiting for the ax to fall!
While resettlement agencies prepare for the possibility of even fewer arrivals in fiscal 2019, they still don’t know how much money they will receive to do their work or whether they will be allowed to stay open. Since the Trump administration is still working out details about the 2019 resettlement efforts, it has not yet released its budget for the program for this year.
Leftover money! Leftover money! Your leftover money!
Local resettlement agencies are operating through December with leftover money from the fiscal 2018 budget because the number of resettled refugees didn’t reach the 45,000 cap. They have been told that some of the nine agencies nationwide may be asked to close their doors once the 2019 budget is finalized.
A State Department official confirmed that the administration is expecting to fund a smaller number of resettlement agencies.
***Below are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.
The present US Refugee Admissions Program will never be reformed if the system of paying the contractors by the head stays in place and the contractors are permitted to act as Leftwing political agitation groups, community organizers and lobbyists paid on our dime!
And, to add insult to injury they pretend it is all about ‘humanitarianism.’
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees into your towns and cities and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)! And, get them registered to vote eventually!
