01/13/2020
See also: Rep. Omar Inadvertently Proves The Case For Banning "Refugees"
Texas’ Greg Abbott just became the first GOP governor to take advantage of President Trump’s executive order that allows states to opt out of refugee resettlement. Disgracefully, most have decided to keep accepting them [Republican Governors who Consented to Accept Refugees in FY2020 Scrambling to Explain, by Ann Corcoran, Refugee Resettlement Watch, January 10, 2020]. A few, such as Georgia’s Brian Kemp and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, are hesitating. But this issue is a litmus test for the GOP: Do you stand up for the Historic American Nation or do you betray your core constituency and further enable the Great Replacement?
Abbott’s refusing refugees was a brave move. The Texan said his state shoulders too much of a burden from a broken immigration system to accept more free-loading foreigners. Since fiscal 2010, he explained, “more refugees have been received in Texas than in any other state,” with “10% of all refugees resettled in the United States have been placed in Texas.” He plans to direct his state’s refugee resources to the people already here [Gov. Greg Abbott Says New Refugees Won’t Be Allowed To Settle In Texas, by Vanessa Romo, NPR, January 10, 2020].
Of course, Abbott drew the ire of the Main Stream Media and the Refugee Racket. “This is a shameful decision by Gov. Abbott which is unworthy of the great state’s reputation for being big, bold and hospitable,” said Mark Hetfield [email him], president of the HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Other refugee lobbyists asserted that migrants boost the economy: “At a time of historically low state unemployment rates, why would Texas turn away refugees with an entrepreneurial spirit that contributes to local communities and economies?” said Ali Noorani [email him], executive director of the National Immigration Forum and by an amazing coincidence is a Pakistani immigrant, “Turning away those seeking safety and opportunity isn’t just disheartening — for Texas, it’s bad business.”
Bunk. Refugees are a crushing public burden. Fifty-six percent of refugee households receive food stamps and 27 percent receive cash welfare. Twenty-nine percent of refugees 25 years or older are unemployed. On top of that, incredibly, most adult refugees who have lived in America for about five years are not fluent in English. So they aren’t the all-star Americans the refugee lobby claims [Refugee Resettlement Is Costly, by Jason Richwine, Center for Immigration Studies, August 10, 2018]. It costs $64,370 — more than the average American’s yearly salary — to settle one Middle Eastern refugee [The High Cost of Resettling Middle Eastern Refugees, by Steven Camarota, Center for Immigration Studies, November 4, 2015].
Refugees have also debauched communities in Maine, Minnesota, and other states. In just more than 20 years, Lewiston, Maine, went from a nice New England town to a Third World slum thanks to Somali refugees. Portland, Maine is on the verge of financial collapse thanks to the large number of asylum seekers it has welcomed. And Minneapolis is now the jihadi capital of the U.S., thanks to Somali refugees [How Minneapolis' Somali community became the terrorist recruitment capital of the US, by Hollie McKay, Fox News, February 19, 2019].
President Trump has taken a firm stance against refugees. Resettlement is at record lows. In fiscal 2020, the United States will accept a maximum of 18,000 refugees, many fewer than Barack Obama’s planned 115,000 refugees for fiscal 2017. And in September, Trump signed an executive order that requires jurisdictions to request refugees. In other words, your state can say no to them.
Yet in response — perhaps Trump’s cut-back has left room for virtue-signaling — eighteen of 26 GOP chief executives have requested refugee resettlement, ignoring the will of Middle America. Only two jurisdictions besides Texas — Beltrami County, Minnesota and Appomattox County, Virginia — have rejected the government-subsidized settlers from the Third World [Second County to Vote NO for More Refugees is in Minnesota, by Ann Corcoran, Refugee Resettlement Watch, January 8, 2020].
This is a remarkable reversal from 2015, when nearly every Republican governor demanded a halt to Syrian refugee resettlement and many of them vowed to not take a single migrant from the war-torn nation. [30 Governors Call For Halt To U.S. Resettlement Of Syrian Refugees, by Arnie Seipel, NPR, November 17, 2015]
Additionally, nine Republican senators signed a pathetic letter to Trump in September pleading for more refugees.
The most curious example of this GOP betrayal: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. His state has sued the federal government over the costs refugees impose on Tennessee taxpayers. Lee supports this lawsuit — yet wants to accept more refugees anyway.
Understandably, the majority of state Republican lawmakers are furious. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton issued a rare joint statement saying they opposed Lee’s decision [Tennessee will continue accepting refugees, Gov. Bill Lee says, as legislative leaders signal disapproval, by Natalie Alison and Joel Ebert, The Tennessean, December 18, 2019]. Several counties may rebuke Lee and refuse to accept any refugees [Exclusive: 8 More Tennessee Counties to Rebuke Gov. Bill Lee’s Refugee Inflow, by John Binder, Breitbart, January 12, 2020].
America must obey a “biblical mandate” to help the “oppressed,” Lee said in defending his decision, a justification that did not, strangely, provoke the usual howls of outrage from Leftists about “injecting religion into politics.” America “has generations of a history of providing opportunity to those who are oppressed,” Lee assured Tennesseans, adding that because refugees suffer persecution, they are “very different” from illegal aliens.
Lee does have a personal reason to support refugee resettlement: His wife works with Kurdish refugees in Nashville [Impassioned Gov. Lee defends refugee resettlement participation before GOP activist group, by Andy Sher, Chattanooga Times-Free Press, January 7, 2020].
Refugee Resettlement Watch’s Ann Corcoran doesn’t buy Lee’s and the other GOP governors’ rationale for betraying their states. “I think it’s primarily because they are afraid of being called ‘racists’ ‘nationalists,’ etc.,” she told VDARE. “They are jellyfish.”
Corcoran says:
Somehow they [GOP governors] have been convinced by someone (several choices) that they will have more control over who comes if they consent, but they won’t. The funding guidance specifically says they will not be able to choose. Also, many are shilling for giant companies that need the cheap captive labor refugees represent. For example Tyson Foods. Additionally refugees are used as bargaining chips for other business of the State Department so the DOS doesn’t want the flow stopped completely. And the VOLAGs [volunteer agencies] have a huge grassroots network developed over decades and they are pounding the govs with Christian guilt.
Top candidates for convincing GOP gubernatorial grug-brains: World Relief and Evangelical Immigration Table, both linked to Leftist subversive George Soros, have aggressively lobbied Republican governors to accept refugees [Soros-Linked Group Gets Six GOP Governors to Resettle More Refugees, by John Binder, Breitbart, December 11, 2019]. And powerful Christian groups, such as the Southern Baptist Convention and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, reflexively support refugee resettlement. In Texas, 340 evangelical ministers urged Gov. Abbott to take in refugees [Blindsiding Trump, most Republican governors have agreed to accept refugees, by Laura Strickler and Dan De Luce, NBC News, January 10, 2020].
Question is, will the handful of Republican fence sitters follow Texas governor Abbott’s lead? They have until January 21, the deadline to request financial assistance from the State Department.
This is why Florida’s DeSantis and Georgia’s Kemp are so important. Both won election in 2018 on immigration patriotism in states threatened by demographic transformation. Both could be presidential contenders in 2024. The refugee issue is a test they cannot afford to fail.
DeSantis is most likely to reject, especially with Abbott setting the precedent. DeSantis has cracked down on sanctuary cities, gotten tougher on illegal immigration, and wants mandatory e-Verify. He’s also a close Trump ally and wants to build credentials as the Trumpist candidate for 2024.
DeSantis won a nailbiter election against a black socialist in 2018. A few more thousand immigrants moving to his state could doom the Florida GOP. He made the right choice to make immigration one of his top election priorities. It would be a major surprise if he bucked Trump and consented refugee resettlement.
Kemp is more of a mystery. He campaigned in 2018 as an immigration hawk who (according to his commercials) would personally round up illegal immigrants in his pick-up truck. Demographic change affects his re-election chances; he barely won in 2018 despite receiving 74 percent of the white vote.
But even though Kemp embraced Trump in 2018, he has bucked the president while in office. Last month, he angered Trump by refusing to appoint Rep. Doug Collins, a Trump ally with an A Numbers USA rating, to the U.S. Senate. He instead chose Kelly Loeffler, a WNBA team owner with unknown policy views. That decision casts doubt on whether he will follow the president’s wishes on refugees.
Kemp’s and DeSantis’ rejecting refugees would be a huge win for two reasons.
No longer will phony Christian charities and unelected bureaucrats decide. State and local authorities, and, more importantly, citizens, would have a say.
America does not deserve the fate of Lewiston, Maine
Washington Watcher II is an anonymous DC insider.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.