By Paul Nachman
08/30/2018
Mary Doetsch, a retired U.S. State Department employee, worked extensively in "refugee" admissions. (See what follows to understand my use of those quotation marks.) The first five paragraphs of her current piece at The Daily Caller are a terrific, hit-them-over-the-head-with-a-2-by-4 overview of the disgraceful U.S. "refugee" program:
As refugee contractors — who make money on every refugee they resettle — break into hyper-lobbying mode to demand that the Trump administration resettle “at least 75,000” in the coming fiscal year, the recent lies and criminal activity of five refugees who were resettled via the fraud-laden U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) are, once again, being willfully ignored.
Four improperly deemed “refugees” were charged with murder, lying to gain admission into the United States, and immigration benefits, among other crimes, while a fifth was charged with attempted murder.
In each case, the approved refugee likely would have been subjected to the much-touted, though often feckless, “enhanced vetting” that advocates say both ensures the legitimacy of the refugee claim and protects U.S. security interests. Nonetheless, at least four of the five successfully lied their way through what advocates claim is the “most vetted” interviewing process, duping refugee officers with their fabricated stories.
Sadly, these cases are simply the tip of the iceberg. As a Refugee Coordinator who covered the Middle East, Africa, Russia, Europe and Cuba for eight years, I had first-hand knowledge of country conditions and political realities, and I saw and read hundreds of fraudulent refugee claims. Disturbingly, the majority of refugee claims are ultimately approved, despite serious questions regarding the applicants’ reliability and truthfulness, often based solely on their testimony.
A blatant example is Iraqi refugee Omar Ameen, an accused long-time ISIS member, wanted for the murder of a police officer in Iraq, a crime he allegedly committed after he was approved as a refugee through the USRAP. In fact, during his so-called robust interviews with U.S. refugee officials, he admitted that he traveled back to Iraq on multiple occasions.
[Failures In Refugee Vetting Process Lead To Criminal Activity In Our Hometowns, August 27, 2018; links in original]
As you can see, Ms. Doetsch uses quotation marks strategically, too, and the case of Omar Ameen is the perfect poster child, so to speak — here’s an Iraqi who was granted refugee status in the U.S. even though he made trips back to the country he was supposedly fleeing. This is not a rare phenomenon.
Ann Corcoran, the hyper-productive proprietess of Refugee Resettlement Watch, has been pounding away at the point that it’s about time for President Trump to set the refugee-intake number for the 2019 federal fiscal year (October 1, 2018 — September 30, 2019), so he needs to hear from us immigration patriots. Because he’s, for sure, hearing from the refugee industry, as Ms. Doetsch said above. (The number set by the president is a cap for the fiscal year.)
Ann (whom I've known since 2007) wrote recently:
I continue to advocate for the Trump Administration to pressure Congress to reform the entire process.
And, frankly time is running out! If the Republicans lose the house in November, then it is all over for years.
And, if the Republicans survive and Trump is not our president after 2020, there will be no reform.
So it is now or never!
Message to the White House:
Think big!
Go on the offense!
You are going to be blasted for any number lower than the 75,000 refugees the contractors are demanding. So, my recommendation is that you set the level at zero and tell Congress to reform the program. If they want refugees, then review and reform the law! (And, we know that the White House could send recommended legislation to The Hill right now!)
There is no legal requirement that we take even one refugee!
And, there is no legal requirement that American taxpayers support these nine supposed non-profit groups!
[Pennsylvania: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society rep says Trump low admission numbers could end the program, August 23, 2018]
The law needing reform that Ann referred to is the 1980 Refugee Act, yet another of the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s gifts to the American people.
Ann’s point about the "nine supposed non-profit groups" is one she makes repeatedly. These prominent organizations, such as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, have names that make them sound like they're charities, funded by the benevolence of generous individual Americans donating to their churches or other civic groups. In fact, their funding comes predominantly from us taxpayers, via the federal government. It’s classical "compassion," using other people’s money.
Nayla Rush at the Center for Immigration Studies assembled the financials for the Big Nine in a recent blog entry ('Private' Refugee Resettlement Agencies Mostly Funded by the Government, August 10, 2018). Using her numbers, I found that eight of these organizations received, in aggregate, annual grant support of about $1,220 million, of which about $865 million or 71 percent came from the U.S. government. (The data are individually for either 2015 or 2016. And financials aren’t available for the ninth agency, Episcopal Migration Ministries, since it’s a church.)
As Ms. Rush noted, "[It’s] important to keep in mind that, for these organizations, lower resettlement admissions mean less federal funding."
Prompted by all this, I phoned the White House public-comments line (202-456-1111) on Tuesday, August 28, to speak for the interests of us citizens. After a few minutes on hold, one of the operators greeted me. Recognizing that these folks are volunteers, I first thanked her for her civic service and then launched into my point, working off the following script:
Hi, I’m calling from Montana. As a refugee from southern California, I’m an expert on what immigration is doing to the country. It’s a huge subject, so here I just want to bring up one aspect: refugees.
It’s up to the president to set the number of refugees allowed in for the next fiscal year, and there’s no actual legal requirement that we take ANY.
Here are two pertinent facts:
- The refugee agencies like the Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society are overwhelmingly NOT charities; instead, they’re federal contractors, charging us taxpayers for every supposed refugee they import.
- Second fact: I said “supposed refugee” because the incidence of fraud is enormous.
So my obvious conclusion: President Trump should set next year’s “refugee” — in quotes — intake at ZERO and tell Congress to fix the program, so it isn’t a black hole of fraud and expense for us citizens. He should actually suggest legislation to that effect.
I encourage everyone reading this to take a few minutes and convey a similar message to the president, so he’s not hearing solely from the refugee industry and their henchpeople. You might use what I said as a rough example, but there’s an enormous amount of material at Ann Corcoran’s blogsite that should get your blood pressure surging and furnish material for your own personalized message.
If you'd like an audio example, you can listen below to the MP3 clip of my end (only) of my phone call to the White House. It lasts for about 110 seconds.
If you've resolved to do your part but are petrified at the prospect of actually saying your piece aloud to a stranger, you can send a written message via their web form.
Either way, the important thing is: DO YOUR PART!
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