refugees

Can the U.S. handle a wave of Ukrainian refugees?

Article title: 
Can the U.S. handle a wave of Ukrainian refugees?
Article subtitle: 
Article author: 
Joe Guzzardi
Article publisher: 
Daily Journal
Article date: 
Sat, 03/12/2022
Article expiration date: 
Mon, 09/12/2022
Article importance: 
High
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Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine has brought devastation or death to hundreds of thousands of people.

Whenever and however the brutal war ends, millions of Ukrainians will be displaced, as well as Russians vocally opposed to the war who fear President Vladimir Putin’s retaliation. Between the invasion’s beginning and March 6, more than 13,000 anti-war protesters were arrested. Russia’s crackdown on dissenters includes blocking access to Facebook and Twitter which could disseminate anti-war news that Putin wants hushed up. In early March, Putin signed legislation under which people suspected of spreading “fake news” about Russian forces could face up to 15 years in prison.

The U.N. Refugee agency reported that 2 million Ukrainians have fled their country, mostly to Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. But the news agency Reuters found that, at the U.S.-Mexico border, a growing number of Russian and Ukrainian nationals have been encountered. In Mexico, the migrants buy “throwaway” vehicles and drive across the border into the United States to seek asylum. Assuming the Russian invasion continues, tens of thousands more displaced Eastern Europeans could eventually reach the U.S. to make their asylum claims.

Illegal entry attempts could increase as visas become increasingly difficult to obtain. A Miami immigration lawyer fluent in Russian, Andrey Plaksin, said he is overwhelmed with calls and emails inquiring about the visa process and their availability. One option that might help Eastern Europeans get to the U.S. would be if they applied for a nonimmigrant tourist or work visa, assuming they could find a U.S. consular post open and accepting appointments.

Once inside the U.S., they would face minimal chance of deportation. Almost immediately after the invasion began, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas granted Ukrainians living in the U.S. before March 1 temporary protected status for 18 months, protecting them from deportation for that period. Historically, TPS is quasi-automatically rolled over in 18-month increments for periods as long as two decades.

By an overwhelming margin, Americans and Congress wants to help Ukrainian citizens and other countries that Putin may be determined to destroy. Eight in ten voters are following the Ukraine crisis closely, and 70 percent favor strong sanctions against Russia.

But with the Russia-Ukraine war coming just weeks after the U.S. airlift that took Afghan nationals to overseas U.S. military bases and the American homeland, and with the illegal immigration invasion ongoing, many question how the country can environmentally sustain itself.

Projecting Biden’s first year immigration totals over his four-year term — about 2 million illegal immigrants, 650,000 “got aways,” 1 million-plus lawful permanent residents and tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees — and the U.S. will have about 8 million illegal immigrants that Customs and Border Protection processed, and roughly 2.5 million “got aways” now in the interior, safe from deportation. The Afghan resettlement is over, but a Ukrainian surge could surpass those numbers.

To the existing totals, remember that demographers must include the roughly 3.1 family members that lawfully present immigrants, including refugees/asylees, will petition to be admitted to the country, as well as the families that they’ll start or add to once in the U.S.

Republican State Rep Wes Cantrell to introduce bill to remove one-year wait for refugees to access instate tuition *Updated

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Georgia GOP State Rep. Wes Cantrell to introduce bill to remove one-year wait for refugees to access instate tuition *Updated
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Newly arrived refugees and SIV holders would be put ahead of Americans and legal immigrants who live in other states in the line for lower tuition rates.
Article author: 
D.A. King
Article publisher: 
IMMIGRATION POLITICS GEORGIA
Article date: 
Thu, 01/13/2022
Article expiration date: 
Fri, 07/01/2022
Article importance: 
High
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Photo: Axios

The below from an email forwarded here from a concerned reader who follows a leftist, open borders agency here called Coalition of Refugee Service Industries (CRSA).

The immediate take-away is that the newly arrived refugees and SIV holders would be put ahead of Americans and legal immigrants who live in other states in the line for lower tuition rates. If the goal is for increased levels of Dem-voting refugees in Georgia, this is a good way to get there.

For academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for instate and $17,008 for out-of-state according to experts at collegetuition.com.

–>*Update: Rep Cantrell’s bill is now online. Along with at least two Democrats and some usual liberal/Georgia Chamber of Commerce GOP suspects, the Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Rep Jan Jones is a cosponsor. These politicians want to change state law so that refugees and Afghans who move to Georgia don’t have to endure the current one-year residency wait to access instate tuition rates.

GA House Speaker ProTem Jan Jones. Photo: Ga General Assembly.

Americans and legal immigrants who move here are not affected by the legislation – your U.S. citizen cousin who moves here from Ohio or Arizona or any other state would still be required to pay the out of state tuition rate for a year. This is a product of the Ga Chamber organized sham House special committee hearings I followed last Summer & Fall. I wrote about them here.

If you are short on time, just read #4.

It’s HB 932.

Why I think a refugee cap of 30,000 was a bad decision

Article title: 
Why I think a refugee cap of 30,000 was a bad decision
Article author: 
Ann Corcoran
Article publisher: 
Refugee Resettlement Watch
Article date: 
Tue, 09/18/2018
Article expiration date: 
Mon, 12/31/2018
Article importance: 
Medium
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I’m going to try to be brief because faithful readers have heard this all before.

The President was going to be vilified if he had come in anywhere under the 75,000 the ‘humanitarian’ refugee industry was pushing for anyway.  (See Pompeo announces 30,000 cap here yesterday.)

He should have, in my opinion, halted the entire program until it was completely reformed. *

Simply cutting the numbers for a few years will do NOTHING. If the basic flawed structure is left in place the big contractors will simply hold out until Trump is no longer in office. They have already said so!

Yes, one or two of the contractors might go belly-up with a paying client number of 30,000 or less to be divvied up by the present nine contractors, but the giants, like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the International Rescue Committee, will survive.

Why do political activists who want to see lower immigration numbers always play small-ball?

Church World Service employee in Lancaster, PA

If the President said no refugees will be admitted until the program is reformed that would be the hammer to get the job done because those in Congress who want the cheap labor and those who want more Democrat voters would have been forced to cooperate with the White House. 

Trump administration in ‘informal’ talks with allies to take more Venezuelan refugees

Article title: 
Trump administration in ‘informal’ talks with allies to take more Venezuelan refugees
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Article author: 
Franco Ordonez
Article publisher: 
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Article date: 
Thu, 04/12/2018
Article expiration date: 
Sat, 09/01/2018
Article importance: 
Medium
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WASHINGTON 

The Trump administration has begun informal talks with partner countries in Latin America about the United States taking in some refugees from Venezuela, a potential turnaround from its tough stance on accepting refugees from conflict-torn countries.

A senior administration official told McClatchy that while no agreements have been struck and details were scarce, U.S. officials have begun these talks “informally” as part of a larger strategy to address the hundreds of thousands of fleeing Venezuelans whose numbers threaten to destabilize partner countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Those conversations are happening,” a senior administration official said. “I’m not prepared to speak to where we’re going with those yet, but it’s certainly something that we’re looking at in terms of how the region generally is going to be absorbing all of these people flowing out of Venezuela.”

 

US Catholic Bishops received over $95 million from US taxpayers in 2016 for refugee/migrant care

Article title: 
US Catholic Bishops received over $95 million from US taxpayers in 2016 for refugee/migrant care
Article subtitle: 
Article author: 
Ann Corcoran
Article publisher: 
Refugee Resettlement Watch
Article date: 
Sun, 01/07/2018
Article importance: 
Medium
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Yesterday we reported on the Bishop’s 2014 dollars received from the US Treasury, see here.

USCCB

Now, thanks to reader Joanne (who did some digging!) we see that the USCCB is approaching $100 million federal dollars for their ‘charitable good works’ on behalf of immigrants of all stripes.

Unfortunately, this data doesn’t show us the percentage of private money raised for their migration program, but I suspect it isn’t much more than 3% of their overall migration budget as it was in 2014.

Buried in the USCCB Financial Statement and audit reports, here:

 

Search for a better life is not grounds for asylum

Article title: 
Search for a better life is not grounds for asylum
Article subtitle: 
Article author: 
Kausha Luna and Bryan Griffith
Article publisher: 
Center for Immigration Studies
Article date: 
Fri, 12/22/2017
Article importance: 
Medium
Article body: 

After a sharp decline in illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border, the numbers have started to increase again. The Trump administration is considering measures to stop the new influx of families and youths taking the dangerous journey to the border. Kausha Luna, CIS research associate, identifies the majority of these Central American migrants as economic migrants – a population not facing a credible fear of persecution and therefore not qualifying for asylum.

Refugee industry wants Trump to admit 75,000 refugees this fiscal year, and another 75,000 in FY18

Article title: 
Refugee industry wants Trump to admit 75,000 refugees this fiscal year, and another 75,000 in FY18
Article subtitle: 
Article author: 
Ann Corcoran
Article publisher: 
Refugee Resettlement Watch
Article date: 
Wed, 05/24/2017
Article expiration date: 
Sun, 10/01/2017
Article importance: 
Medium
Article body: 

 

The President’s budget for next year is out, but I have to be completely honest with you, going through these numbers is not my thing!

And, consider that it is Congress that will in reality set the agenda and budget for refugee admissions by how much money they are sending to the program and ultimately out to the federal resettlement contractors.

In searching around this morning, I’ve found several indicators of what Trump might do, what he has done, what the budget might dictate, and how the contractors are reacting, and I will leave it to you (who have more patience to wade through numbers than I) to analyze the numbers.

Just so you know, as of today (5/24/2017), note (from Wrapsnet) that Trump is now at 45,172 admitted refugees for this fiscal year (FY2017 ends on September 30th). (Average refugee admissions for the last ten years is around in the low 60,000s.)

Wisconsin temporarily stops taking Syrian refugees

Article title: 
Wisconsin temporarily stops taking Syrian refugees
Article subtitle: 
Joins other states in blocking Syrian admissions
Article author: 
Jason Stein
Article publisher: 
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Article date: 
Mon, 11/16/2015
Article expiration date: 
Wed, 06/01/2016
Article importance: 
High
Article body: 

Madison— Joining GOP officials from other states, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican here said Monday that they would oppose the settling of Syrian refugees in the state.

"Along with governors across the country, I have deep concerns about (President Barack Obama's) plan to accept 10,000 or more Syrian refugees, especially given that one of the Paris attackers was reportedly a Syrian refugee. In consultation with our (Wisconsin National Guard) Adjutant General (Donald Dunbar), who also serves as my Homeland Security Advisor, it is clear that the influx of Syrian refugees poses a threat," Walker said in a statement.

"I am calling upon the president to immediately suspend the program pending a full review of its security and acceptance procedures. The state of Wisconsin will not accept new Syrian refugees."

Likewise Monday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said that he opposed the proposed settling of the refugees in the wake of Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris that left more than 100 dead.

Questions have been raised about the potential role of refugees in the killings, for which the Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility.

Vos said he and other lawmakers would be sending a letter later Monday to the Obama administration asking them not to allow Syrian refugees into Wisconsin. He said he hoped Gov. Scott Walker would also speak out on the issue.

"Our state and our country must do everything we can to protect freedom-loving people around the globe," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) told his colleagues.

You can see here which states thus far are refusing to admit any more Syrians.

Q & A with Rep. Mark Pocan ignores the real issues

Given the seriousness of the threat to the nation's sovereignty and rule of law posed by the federal government's irresponsible immigration policy, you would think that the Wisconsin State Journal's September 20 Q&A with U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-2nd) might have chosen far more serious issues to discuss than gay rights, Pocan's opinion of the GOP presidential candidates and why he moved to a rural area from Madison. Read more about Q & A with Rep. Mark Pocan ignores the real issues

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