Presidential determination for the number of refugees that COULD be admitted to the US in coming fiscal year “due Sept. 30”?

Actually, no, it is due weeks before the 30th of September as we told readers here in 2015!

Is Congress shirking its duty to America on refugee admissions? Yes, and has done so for more than 2 decades!

Although the President is tasked by law with setting the CAP (aka CEILING) for the number of refugees that could be admitted in the coming fiscal year, his administration is supposed to hold a consultation with Congress (House and Senate Judiciary Committees) after those committees have held hearings on the President’s proposed plan.

You might be saying, well yes, but if Congress holds hearings, the Open Borders Left will turn them in to a circus.  That could happen, but it is no reason for the Refugee Act of 1980 to be ignored as it has been for decades!  Either follow the law or dump it!

What got me thinking about this today is a news story from the National Catholic Reporter which says the plan is due on September 30th (new refugees would be arriving the next day!) and where we learn that Catholic lobbyists are on the Hill trying to get the attention of lawmakers so they might rain hell down on Trump.

Rumors are that Trump may set the refugee CAP for FY19 at 15,000-25,000 the lowest since the Ted Kennedy/Jimmy Carter law came in to being in 1980 and the contractors which include the US Conference of Catholic Bishops*** are steaming mad.

As usual, the report never mentions that the contractors are paid on a per refugee head basis, and so a huge drop in numbers means a lot less of your money will flow to the Bishops’ bank account.

 

Advocates prepare for possible cuts in refugee admissions to the US

 

Amid reports that this trend [low admission levels—ed] could continue, with a possible presidential determination of 15,000-25,000 for fiscal year 2019 when the decision is due Sept. 30, Catholic groups are combatting misinformation about refugees and advocating to members of Congress and administration officials in an effort to convince Trump to raise the cap.

BishopJoeVasquez
Most Reverend Joe Vásquez, Bishop of Austin is chairman of the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services Office.   http://www.usccb.org/about/migration-and-refugee-services/who-we-are.cfm

A refugee ceiling of 15,000 during an unprecedented refugee crisis “would be so low it’s laughable,” said Donald Kerwin, executive director of Center for Migration Studies of New York, an educational institute connected with the Scalabrini International Migration Network.

During past refugee crises, “the United States’ response was central to the global response and to resolving the situations of these massive levels of refugees and it’s not playing that role right now,” Kerwin added, calling reduced support for refugees “totally antithetical to our own history and our own values.”

[….]

Although the decision of how many refugees to admit is up to the president, the administration is required to consult with members of the House and Senate judiciary committees. Congress authorizes funding for the program.

Bill Canny, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ conference’s Migration and Refugee Services and Joan Rosenhauer, executive director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, both said their organizations have been engaging with Congress and administration officials in an effort to influence the decision.

The Justice for Immigrants webinar called on participants to visit or write their representatives in Congress, or sign a letter from Catholic leaders calling for a higher presidential determination.

More here.

I’m suggesting that 15,000-25,000 is too high. It should be ZERO until Congress undertakes to reform the whole US Refugee Admissions Program.

 

***These below are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.

You might be sick of seeing this list almost every day (it has been 4 whole days since I posted it!), but a friend once told me that people need to see something seven times before it completely sinks in, so it seems to me that 70, or even 700 isn’t too much!

And, besides I have new readers every day.

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!

From my most recent accounting, here.  However, please see that Nayla Rush at the Center for Immigration Studies has done an update of their income!

US Catholic Bishops launch campaign to pressure Trump to admit large number of refugees

This is one more in a stream of news stories about how the federally-funded refugee resettlement contractors are fighting for their lives as their budgets shrink under this President.

USCCB fy19
See the toolkit here:   https://justiceforimmigrants.org/2016site/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/JFI-Share-the-Journey-Toolkit-Only-for-FY19-PD-final-7.27.pdf

It is no surprise that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops—the largest resettlement agency of the nine NGOs hired by the US State Department *** to place refugees in your towns and cities, is launching this campaign directed at Donald Trump.

For years, I have searched in vain to discover the numbers of refugees each of the nine resettles, but this article at least (thanks to reader Joanne for sending it) tells us that the Bishops must be number one!

“The USCCB, along with a national network of Catholic partners, has resettled nearly one-third of all refugees to the U.S. since 1980.”

 

As usual, no where in this appeal to parishioners do they mention that they are PAID BY THE HEAD FOR EACH REFUGEE THEY PLACE!

Continue reading “US Catholic Bishops launch campaign to pressure Trump to admit large number of refugees”

New data from Pew: Americans turning more negative on refugee resettlement

My subtitle:

Nearly half of US Catholics believe it is not our responsibility to resettle refugees

Most of the media blames the change in attitude on Trump’s rhetoric, but I think there has been a sea change in media reporting.  There is more and more news available to the general public about the kinds of things I mentioned in my previous post this morning—stories about refugees scamming our welfare programs for example that previously were not published, but are now spread widely by social media!

Erol Kekic with mug
Erol Kekic of Church World Service:  “We have seen an unfortunate rise in xenophobia globally.”

Ten years ago (nearly 11 now) when I first began writing this blog, stories in the media about refugees were in the genre I called ‘Refugees see first snow’ stories!  All were meant to paint refugees in only the most glowing terms.
Now we do see more crime stories like food stamp fraud, Medicaid fraud etc, but also stories about refugee-perpetrated violent crimes and terrorism in the US and around the world.
Here is USA Today on the Pew numbers:

Fewer Americans believe U.S. should accept refugees

Fewer Americans believe the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees, a shift that has been spurred by President Trump’s efforts to limit them from entering the country, according to a poll released Thursday.

More than half of Americans — 51% — still believe the United States should welcome immigrants fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries, according to the poll conducted by the non-partisan Pew Research Center. But that number is down from 56% during a similar survey in February 2017.

Continue reading “New data from Pew: Americans turning more negative on refugee resettlement”

State Department considering not renewing contracts with all nine resettlement agencies

That headline is the important takeaway from this story at NorthJersey.com.
Although largely built around the demise of a recently established resettlement site—Newark! Newark! Yes, Catholic Charities was gearing up to place impoverished third worlders in Newark—the long article is pretty informative.

Newark catholic charities
My first thought: So they have run out of poor Americans in Newark.

It begins with a whinefest about all the used clothes and furnishings the new office had collected for the needy people they planned to welcome to the city.
I’m sure you will have the same reaction as I did—what! No poor people in Newark who could use these items!

Why are foreign poor people so much more deserving (and attractive) than our own poor and homeless?

 
Continue reading “State Department considering not renewing contracts with all nine resettlement agencies”

Playing the Catholic card at the Supreme Court last week

Update April 30th: Jihad Watch: Bishops to Americans: Drop dead!
Did you know that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops filed an amicus brief against the Trump Administration in the travel ban case before the high court?
I didn’t, but it really isn’t a surprise.

trump, obama, pope
You know where this Pope stands!

Of course, they are free to file briefs, but I just wish they would for once admit that they receive millions of your dollars from the US Treasury every year for their Migration Fund (nearly $100 million to the Bishops alone, not including the other millions that go to Catholic Charities to ‘care’ for those migrants).
Just once I wish they would admit they have a pecuniary interest in how the travel ban is resolved.
See Catholics close 20 offices as government revenue dries up.
Do you, my Catholic friends, know that the Bishops want more migrants admitted to the US from terror-producing countries?
Continue reading “Playing the Catholic card at the Supreme Court last week”