Tag Archive for: Syrian refugees

VIDEO: What not to tell the Canadian taxpayers about Syrian refugees

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This is an excellent use of 6 minutes of your time!

I don’t know this program, but thank Paul for sending the youtube clip from The Rebel.

I’m guessing that what Faith Goldy learned about Canada’s new 40,000+ Syrian population applies to America’s flow as well.

We have followed Boy Trudeau’s rash Syrian resettlement program since it began in 2015, see our Canada archive for previous posts.

The Rebel learned that they can’t speak the language, that they are sick (TB!), and that they use large amounts of welfare because they aren’t finding work, but worst of all it was revealed that the documents, obtained by investigators, are littered with admonitions to not tell the taxpaying public the bad news!

If the video doesn’t play below, then watch it here.

RELATED ARTICLES: 

HuffPo: U.S. Refugee processing pipeline being restarted, contractors optimistic

Falls Church, Virginia Mosque Dar al-Hijrah to Host Pro-Brotherhood Egyptian Imam

15,726 refugees admitted to U.S. since Inauguration Day, see where they went

Read the Confidential David Brock Memo Outlining Plans to Attack Trump

Another Reason not to Admit Syrian Refugees: Anti-Semitism

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On Monday, February 22, 2016, Dr. Charles Jacobs of Americans for Peace and Tolerance stood at a lectern in the rotunda of the Rhode Island State house in Providence explaining to Governor Gina Raimundo why “unconditional welcome” of Syrian Refugees was dangerous:  anti-Semitism. Jacobs assisted by former US Rep.  Pete Hoekstra couldn’t complete his remarks given the outcries from 100 protesters.

Dr. Charles Jacobs, President of Americans for Peace and Tolerance with Former US Rep. Pete Hoekstra

Dr. Charles Jacobs, President of Americans for Peace and Tolerance with Former US Rep. Pete Hoekstra State House Rotunda in Providence, February 22, 2016. Source: Americans for Peace and Tolerance

The jns.org news service reported the evidence behind Jacobs’ rationale, Citing anti-Semitism; Jewish leader urges Rhode Island to reject Syrian refugees:

We are proud that America is a country of immigrants. We welcome people who come here to join us and bolster our way of life. We do see and we do sympathize with people fleeing war and violence. But an influx of Syrian refugees may pose a significant danger to Rhode Islanders, and especially to the Jewish and certain other communities, specifically gays and women, that exist in Rhode Island.

Jacobs said that amid the national debate on Syrian refugees, “no one has raised…the very serious question of the deeply ingrained hatred of the West and our way of life that is embedded in Syrian cultural values.”

“Then too, over and beyond the threat to all Americans, this migration represents a unique and specific threat to the Jewish community posed by a near genocidal hatred of Jews that is inculcated in all Syrians,” he said. “This animus is taught through Syrian educational intuitions, starting from childhood, and finds continual expression in the broader Syrian culture. Sadly, even Jewish community leaders have failed to take note of this danger. I am here to break this dangerous, politically correct silence.”

Jacobs explained that studies of Syrian school curricula “show that practically every Syrian will have been taught to hate the West and the Jews. This is the sad consequence of growing up under a Ba’athist regime—a violent authoritarian movement with its roots in 1930s European fascism.”

Those studies, according to Jacobs, include: “The schools of Ba’athism: A study of Syrian schoolbooks,” by Meyrav Wurmser via the Middle East Media Research Institute; “Islam in Syrian textbooks: monolithic and nonpluralistic,” by Muhammad Faour via the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and “Jews, Zionism and Israel in Syrian school textbooks,” by Dr. Arnon Groiss via the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, among others.

“The Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace published a report [by Groiss] in 2001 that revealed Syrian school textbooks teach that Jews ‘are portrayed as enemies of Islam since its inception, enemies of all mankind, and enemies of God himself.’ Syrian textbooks teach that, ‘The Holocaust is justified, though its magnitude is exaggerated by the Jews,’” Jacobs noted.

He added a description of the “famous case of [Syrian] defense minister Gen. Mustafa Tlass, who wrote a book titled ‘The Matzah of Zion’ in the 1980s that claims that Jews living in Damascus in 1840 killed two Christians and used their blood in preparing the unleavened bread called matzah. In consequence, since the Jewish religion is one of ‘vicious deviations’ and ‘black hatred against all human kind and religions,’ no Arab country should ever sign a peace treaty with Israel.”

Addressing Gov. Raimondo, Jacobs asked, “Do you really want to welcome hundreds or thousands of people who think that their religious duty is to make jihad, who think that Jews are the sons of monkeys and pigs, or Nazis, and who are believed to kill gentile children to make matzah? We need to heed the lessons of Europe. We are inviting in people from a radicalized culture that rejects tolerance and teaches hatred of women, gays, Christians, Jews, and democracy. Jewish leaders in Europe have spoken about the growing violence against the Jewish community emanating strongly from Muslim immigrants. Sexual assaults and violent anti-Semitism now affect much of western Europe. Before we can admit hundreds of similar refugees, who come from the same deeply disturbing culture, surely we must first gauge the threat they pose and examine the ideas they support.”

What was Jacobs talking about before his free speech was denied by the raging protesters in the rotunda? He was giving chapter and verse of why bringing Syrian refugees to the US would stoke the fires of anti-Semitism. Why, you ask? Because they have been marinated in Jewish hatred under both secular Ba’athist school materials and Muslim Brotherhood doctrine. He cited studies attesting to incitement of Jewish hatred in doctrinal Islam as well as use of ancient blood libels produced in TV series broadcast far and wide during Ramadan.

Hopefully, not all Syrians are predisposed to this, but many have been and still harbor such noxious beliefs. Let us not forget that the Assad regime under the late Hafez gave safe haven to Adolph Eichmann’s deputy, Alois Brunner, who considered Jews as human garbage to be disposed of. Or that Bashar Assad and his Ba’athist minions ‘honored’ former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke in Damascus for spreading his white supremacist hate toward the Zionist controlled government in Jerusalem and Zionist ‘occupied’ America.

Jacobs is concerned because Europe with an influx of millions of Syrian refugees has experienced a major spike in Anti-Semitism. That has caused 700,000 European Jews to seriously consider making Aliyah to Israel or more secure climes, if there are any these days. Jacobs does not hate Muslims. That is reflected in the composition of APT and his alliance with M. Zhudi Jasser and others in the leadership of the Muslim Reform Movement.

So ask Governor Raimondo and Rhode Island voluntary agencies and other American Jewish organizations like HIAS why they are denying Jacobs free speech drawing attention to Syrian historic blood libel and Anti-Semitism. In the case of HIAS, they are making money from processing these Syrians refugees for resettlement here.

Now, if you think that Jacobs is dusting ancient academic studies on Syrian anti-Semitism from the bygone era. Think about his experience in Buffalo shutting down a benighted Synagogue Mosque “twinning program” with participation of Syrian anti-Semitic clerics engaged in classic duplicity.  Here is the story from our February 2011 interview with him Fighting Muslim Brotherhood Lawfare and Rabbinic Fatwas:

We were contacted by a grandmother in Buffalo who told us that her synagogue was twinning with a Muslim group. She had researched on the internet some of the people involved and found them problematic and was seeking help from us. Our APT research director Ilya Feoktistov does superb research. Regarding the Muslim dialogue partners in Buffalo, he found a typical disconnect. On their English websites it was all kumbaya, brotherhood and Abrahamic relationships. However, on their Arabic sites it was quite different. The Jews and Israel were horrible. Ilya prepared a Power Point presentation based on his research. We flew to Buffalo. We met privately with the ADL, the Federation, other Jewish leaders, and school teachers. We held a public meeting with the Jewish leadership and concerned citizens. We had over 40 people in attendance, among them were two of the three Rabbis who had signed on to twin with Mosques under the FFEU program. Ilya presented his documentation. It turned out that the revered mentor of the Muslim partner [in Syria] had hosted Nazis and Farrakhan in his mosque and wrote terrible things about Jews in his book

The protesters at the Rhode Island State House in Providence have no shame shutting down Jacobs’ presentation to Governor Raimundo. If they only knew about the Buffaloed in Buffalo incident and discovery of Syrian Jew hatred do you think might have changed their minds? Doubtful. Kol hakavod to my chaver Charles Jacobs for taking this valued stand in Rhode Island.

Hopefully, this article might be sent to Governor Raimundo and the head of HIAS one of the Volags processing Syrian refugees being sent to 190 communities in America, with thousands more to follow carrying anti-Semitic baggage.

Kol hakavod to my chaver Charles Jacobs for taking this valued stand in Rhode Island.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

PODCAST: The War against the Infidels

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LISTEN to this podcast of the January 10, 2016 Lisa Benson Show on KKNT 960 The Patriot.  Lisa Benson and New English Review Senior Editor Jerry Gordon co-hosted this show with the assistance of Board of Advisors member, Richard Cutting.

Col. Richard Kemp, (ret.) CBE, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and noted commentator on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, discussed why Israel is the outpost of civilization in the Middle east. He urged Queen Elizabeth to visit Israel in 2017, the 100th Anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem from the Turks to honor ANZAC fallen.  He drew attention to British Prime Minister Cameron who has spoken before Israel’s Knesset and his designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.  He suggested that perhaps the Administration might follow suit.

He considers the Muslim Brotherhood as an evil organization seeking to spread Islamist hatred of Israel Europe and the West. Hamas he pointed out had links to the Muslim Brotherhood with objectives similar to that of ISIS.   An ISIS he said was spreading its barbaric Islamic doctrine across the Muslim Ummah from Syria and Iraq to North and sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia.

With regard to the resurgence of the Taliban in a 14 year war in Afghanistan with NATO forces, he said that some of it was attributable to the role of Pakistan intelligence service.  The Pakistanis and Afghans he noted are enemies.  He called attention to the internecine war between the Taliban and ISIS endeavoring to gain power as enemies of the democratic government in Afghanistan. A government plagued with corruption hobbling the country’s security forces.  He called attention to a generational long struggle against Islamist Jihadism in which the West cannot relax. It must stand up and fight.   He noted in passing that the US Administration has taken its eye off the ball with outreach to an enemy, Iran. He attributed some of the present difficulties in the Middle east and South Asia to both the pullout of US forces in Iraq and pull down of ISAF troops in Afghanistan.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka addressed the number one issue in polls taken of Americans, national security and domestic Islamic terrorism.  He suggested that the Administration had to jettison the canard of lone wolf terror acts. The Boston Marathon Bombers, the shooting in Chattanooga, the massacre in San Bernardino and the recent attempted murder of a police officer by a convicted felon and convert to Islam in Philadelphia he said was reflective of the connective tissue of Global Jihad doctrine. That doctrine viewed America and the West as antithetical to Jihadist aims.

He viewed the ability of the US and the EU to vett the millions of migrants and refugees flooding the west as well nigh impossible.  While referencing the intense scrutiny of his parents, refugees from the 1956 Hungarian rebellion against Soviet Communism, he suggested that could only be done under intense and repeated questioning by counterterrorism security echelons using a data base to check documents and bona fides.  He suggested that the US is hobbled by the lack of manpower and a data base to vett, for example, the stream of Syrian Refugees.

Having visited a Syrian refugee camp during the recent Christmas New Year’s holiday, he was struck with two takeaways. He commended the Kingdom of Jordan, without the resources of oil revenues of an incredible job of s country of 6 million handling an influx of 1.5 million Syrian refugees. He tasked the oil rich Gulf States and Saudi Arabia to offer financial and resettlement assistance.  He said there was no sense to send Syrians to the EU or the US. Rather it was incumbent on the contending powers, especially the US, to resolve the conflict, hereby enabling the Syrians in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon to return home.

Regarding the recent settlement between New York City and Muslim and civil liberties advocacy groups ending  the NYPD Muslim community profiling program, Gorka  said in a recent House Armed  Services Committee testimony  that after 9/11, the NYPD had been let down by Federal law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies. The NYPD he noted undertook to build perhaps the best counterterrorism intelligence and surveillance program to monitor and protect the Muslim community in New York against Islamist inroads. Effectively he commented to the House Committee that politics continued to get in the way of national security.

When asked about the current rising Sunni Shiite divide between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he referred to a comment from Israeli PM Netanyahu, who said it was a Game of Thrones pitting the Saudi Wahabbist Sunni Caliphate against the Mullahs of the Shia Mahdist Caliphate in Nuclear Iran.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

White House: Secret meeting with George Batah, who wants 65,000 Syrians admitted to U.S.

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I told you about this White House petition here, and I know that the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and possibly the International Rescue Committee (two federal resettlement contractors) were initially involved, or I wouldn’t have mentioned USCRI (their affiliation with the petition must have been removed) in my original post.

George Batah

George Batah (right) invited to White House but prohibited from saying who he met with.

However, now we are told that it was one Syrian immigrant guy from Chicago, one stalwart young activist, who single-handedly came up with the idea and succeeded in getting over 100,000 signatures.

Of course all of those open borders activists who signed the petition have been identified by the White House as potential future allies for the Democrat party.

And, as a secondary benefit, the resettlement contractors and others pushing for more (mostly Muslim) Syrians to enter the US get a news hook (and more media pressure for Obama to raise the number of refugees to be admitted).

Here is the Huffington Post reporting on young George Batah:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has responded to a petition calling on the U.S. to resettle tens of thousands of Syrian refugees within its borders, inviting the man who started the petition to the White House for a meeting.

George Batah, 23, came from Syria in 2013 and now lives in Chicago. He said he started the petition in late August because he felt the United States has a moral obligation to continue being “the leader in refugee resettlement.”   [What is young George’s immigration status? It doesn’t say he is a refugee.—ed]

His petition asked the White House to accept at least 65,000 Syrian refugees by 2016. The administration did not commit to that number in its response Thursday, instead reiterating that it intends to bring at least 10,000.

[….]

Batah told The Huffington Post Thursday that while he was pleased to see the administration’s response, he intends to keep pushing officials to take more refugees.

“Ten thousand by 2016 is very meaningful, because 10,000 people’s lives would be saved,” Batah said. “But at the same time, I feel that a country like the U.S., with its resources, can contribute more in terms of the number.” 

[How many readers here are infuriated that young George (here since 2013 with immigration status unknown) “feels” that you can spend more of your hard-earned tax dollars on Syrians running from THEIR civil war?—ed]

Why the secrecy?

After Batah started his petition, administration officials invited him to the White House for a meeting in mid-September. He met with staff members from the National Security Council and other departments, but said he wasn’t allowed to disclose exactly who was there.

“When we met, they clearly cared about the issue and wanted to help address the crisis overall,” Batah said. “I’m not in politics, it’s not my strength, but I felt they genuinely care about it.”

Now young George (“not in politics”) wants to start more petitions to get U.S. mayors to ask for more Syrian refugees for your towns and cities.

Readers, beware of signing any petitions at Change.org!

Batah said he is continuing his activism on the issue, recently working with Change.org to encourage people to start petitions calling on their mayors to welcome more refugees.

Grrrr!

Don’t forget to help ACT pound those 18 mayors who have been demanding Obama admit 100,000 Syrians, here.

RELATED ARTICLE: Iraqi interpreters given refugee status, not pure as the driven snow

Dutch citizens riot! Won’t stand by and watch cultural suicide!

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Geert Wilders is right, Europe is being invaded and it looks like the average Dutchman is going to stand and fight.  The latest riot is over the Dutch government’s decision to give housing to refugees before Dutch citizens.  Here Wilders warns the Dutch Parliament about the Hijra—the Islamic migration to Europe.

Here is news from Michael van der Galien writing at Pajamas Media yesterday (hat tip: Judy):

Hundreds of thousands of self-proclaimed refugees from the Middle East (many of them are actually gold diggers who are coming to Europa in order to live off the government’s dime) have arrived in Europe in recent months. This mass exodus out of especially Syria has been partially fueled by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s promise that her country would take in all the refugees it had to take in.

The only problem? She got more than she bargained for. Much more. And the same goes for the rest of Europe.

In fact, so many “refugees” have made their way to the Old Continent that West European governments are having a hard time dealing with them. In the Netherlands alone, refugee centers are overwhelmed. As a result, the Dutch government has now announced that many refugees with a residence permit will be moved into normal homes. This means that these newly arrived immigrants will live in houses originally meant for Dutch citizens. The latter may have been waiting on waiting lists for years, but to no avail; refugees are given priority.

Read it all, it is quite extraordinary!

And, btw, refugees in America are gobbling up government subsidized housing at a rapid rate leaving low income Americans and the disabled on long waiting lists for help.

For all of our posts on the ‘Invasion of Europe’ go here.

RELATED ARTICLES:

It is official! Fiscal year 2015 Syrian resettlement: 97% Muslim

Sec. of State John Kerry: Climate refugees our next move to erase borders

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) advances bill to bring in MORE Syrian refugees, more quickly

FBI Director confirms (again) that they can’t thoroughly screen Syrians entering the U.S.

Senator Ted Cruz: Syrian refugee flow a national security threat

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2016 Presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz has joined Donald Trump and Ben Carson* in expressing alarm about the Obama Administration plans to begin a large scale movement of Syrian (mostly Muslim) refugees to your towns and cities.  However, he has gone one step further and has written to key players in the decision-making process and wants answers to many of the questions we have.

Ted Cruz serious

Cruz: Taxpayer dollars should not be spent to import terrorism.

Remember that the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest will be holding a hearing on the Obama Administration’s Determination for FY 2016 that has as of this writing declared that we would be taking 10,000 (or more) Syrians to become permanent residents and ultimately citizens of the US starting a week from today.  Senator Cruz is a member of that subcommittee.

Here is his press release yesterday on the matter:

Sen. Cruz: The Refugee Flow Out of Syria Must Be Treated as a National Security Risk

Sends letter to department heads requesting information on policies admitting Syrian refugees to the U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey. In his letter, Sen. Cruz acknowledges the need to address the humanitarian crisis in the region, but also shares grave concerns regarding the Administration’s intent to import tens of thousands of individuals from Syria and elsewhere who have not been properly vetted for ties to ISIS, al Qaeda, al Nusra and other radical Islamic terrorist groups.

“In the current threat environment – with an Administration that seems more intent on responding to the interests of the world than the needs of the American people – Congress has an obligation to be vocal and, if necessary, resist this effort. To be clear, this has nothing to do with immigration policy and everything to do with national security. Congress needs much more information before we can allow the United States to engage in a process that could wind up spending taxpayer dollars to import terrorism, much less fund that process,” Sen. Cruz wrote.

I urge all of you to read his 6-page letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry and to the heads of the Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and the FBI seeking detailed information on how this decision was made and especially on the security screening practices used that would assure the safety of the American people.

I’m going to be checking to see if the Senate hearing, a week from today, will be live-screened and will let you know.

Get involved!

Is your US Senator on the Subcommittee?  Go here and have a look. If so, you need to express your concern about Obama’s plan which could see your town (go here for cities that have already begun receiving mostly Muslim Syrians) become a resettlement site for refugees from the Middle East.  By the way, see Daniel Greenfield yesterday—best way to assure we don’t get terrorists, halt Muslim immigration to America!

And, don’t forget the on-going grassroots campaign, here, to halt funds in the CR (Continuing Resolution) for the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

*Does anyone know of any other 2016 Presidential candidates besides Trump, Carson and Cruz who have made their position clear on NOT admitting (or going cautiously on admitting) Syrian refugees at this time?

Democrat Senators want to Admit 65,000 Syrian Refugees

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Dhimmi Democrat Senators Durbin of Illinois, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and 12 others have signed a letter calling for  the Obama Administration to admit  a flood of 65,000 Syrian Muslim Refugees ‘suggested’ by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  Their suggested acquiescence to this UNHCR amounts to fulfilling the Dar al Hijrah imperative in the Hadith (alleged sayings of Mohammed) to use migration to conquer the whole world for Islam. In our  upcoming June NER interview with Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch she notes that fully 92 percent of the small number of 800+ Syrian Refugees admitted to the U.S. under the 1980 Refugee Act were Sunni Muslims , the balance were Christians and other religious minorities. Be sure and watch her Center for Security Policy YouTube video which has now reached 530,720 hits:

How will the DHS under Secretary Jae Johnson vet Syrian refugees in camps in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan when it couldn’t do that for Somali, Iraqi and Bosnian refugees letting hundreds if not thousands of terrorist supporters in the U.S.?  Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon reported Friday that the DHS admitted that several hundred terrorist supporters entered the U.S. illegally, and subsequently were admitted as refugees giving rise to Congressional demands for information and a likely hearing:

Congress is demanding that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) release documents detailing how many foreigners seeking asylum in the United States have been found to have ties to terror groups, according to a recent letter sent to the agency by leading lawmakers.

The letter comes on the heels of revelations by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that at least 638 aliens seeking asylum in America have been found to have connections to terrorists.

This “recent disclosure regarding the numbers of aliens found to have a ‘credible fear’ in cases where the terrorism bar to asylum eligibility may have applied raised the concern that hundreds of known and suspected aliens with terrorist connections may be attempting to take advantage of our country’s asylum system,” according to the letter, sent by leaders of four House committees on national security, the judiciary, and government reform.

The USCIS found that “the terrorism bar to asylum eligibility may be applicable to 299 aliens who were found to have a ‘credible fear’ of persecution in the first four months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, and to 339 aliens who were found to have a ‘credible fear’ in FY 2014,” the lawmakers disclosed.

The Hill reported on the Democrat Senate group support for the flood of 65,000 Syrian refugees nearly double the current allotment of 70,000 refugees from all countries being admitted under the ‘humanitarian refugee program”:

A group of Senate Democrats is urging the Obama administration to allow at least 65,000 Syrian refugees to settle inside the United States.

“While the United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees, we must also dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees that we accept for resettlement,” the group of 14 lawmakers — led by Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) — said Thursday.

The group letter noted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) wants to resettle 130,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years and has thus far submitted more than 12,000 resettlement cases to the United States for consideration.

“Following the international community’s tragic failure to shelter Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi genocide, the United States played a leadership role in establishing the international legal regime for the protection of refugees,” they wrote. “In keeping with this history, we urge your Administration to work to accept at least 50 percent of Syrian refugees whom UNHCR is seeking to resettle, consistent with our nation’s traditional practice under both Republican and Democratic presidents.”

On the same day, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) called the resettlement effort a “serious mistake” because of the security risks it poses.

[…]

[The Democratic group of Senators] said they understood the security concerns about the program.

“We must continue to carefully screen refugee applicants for all national security and terrorism concerns, but we urge you to devote sufficient resources and staff to ensure that this process does not hinder resettlement for legitimate refugees, many of whom are living in difficult, even life-threatening, situations,” they said.

Senators concluded by saying “it is a moral, legal, and national security imperative for the United States to lead by example in addressing the world’s worst refugee crisis of our time by greatly increasing the number of Syrian refugees who are resettled in our country.”

The UN suggestion for the U.S. taking in a massive wave of displaced Muslim Syrian refugees coupled the Democratic Senators appeal should vault this issue to the forefront of debate in the 2016 Presidential contenders’ debates. It is past time for Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security and Sen Jeff Sessions R-AL)  chair of the Senate Immigration and National Interest  Sub Committee to hold oversight hearings on the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and place a moratorium on UNHCR allotments of refugees from countries that hate us.  Gowdy was prompted to write letters to Secretary of State Kerry asking why contractors for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program have targeted Spartanburg, South Carolina for placement of Syrian refugees in his home congressional district.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is of Syrian refugee children.

FRAUD ALERT: Obama Loosens Asylum Restrictions, Claims Skyrocket!

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Asylum in the US was the political topic  de jour in Washington  today given a  Congressional  immigration report  and  publication  of  change  in  Administration rules.  The Washington Times (WT)  published  an exclusive report on government revelations  of massive fraud in asylum applications, “Audit finds asylum system rife with fraud; approval laws broken with surge of immigrants”.  The Obama Administration announced that  it was unilaterally lifting certain restrictions against asylum seekers with possible inadvertent relations with terrorist sponsoring groups. That may be the  Administration clearing the way  to grant Asylum to an estimated 2,000 Syrians.   A Fox News report, “Administration” cited   Senator  Jeff Sessions (R-AL) who found  the Administration’s move “alarming”, while Patrick Leahy (D-VT) , Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee that has oversight of the Refugee Act  welcomed  it.

Syrian Christian refugees

Endangered Syrian Christians

In December 2013, the  Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report that indicated “asylum applicants are at the highest level in two decades and triple the number of claims from 2012”.   The CRS noted that for the 2013 Fiscal year that ended in September “36,026 immigrants have expressed credible fear — a preliminary step in determining asylum — stating that they would like to remain in the U.S. because going back to their countries of origin would put them in harm’s way”. Individuals reaching the US at border crossings, ports of entry and landing at airports can requests asylum for fear of threats in their home country . They are placed in detention for disposition through a hearing process.  The US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) approved 30,393 asylees immigrants in 2013. In 2012 44,170 requests for asylum were received and  11,978  were granted. Based on data for 2012 the  leading countries of origin for asylum seekers were  China, Egypt and Ethiopia.

A December 2013, Los Angeles Times (LAT) article on the surge in asylum indicated  the magnitude  of the spike in requests:

Most asylum applications are still made from inside the country, rather than by claiming credible fear at the border. People who are in the U.S. legally — on a tourist or business visa, for example — file “affirmative” applications, which have also increased, though not as rapidly as credible fear applications. Combined, the two categories have more than doubled in the last five years, exceeding 80,000 in fiscal year 2013

Statistics show that an immigrant’s chance of winning asylum depends largely on where he or she is from.

In 2012, more than 10,000 people from China were granted asylum, compared with just 126 Mexicans and 234 Hondurans, according to federal data. Immigration court figures, which do not include cases approved in an initial hearing by an asylum officer, show a success rate of nearly 50% for Chinese versus 1% for Mexicans.

Still, the process buys time. Almost 90% of credible fear applicants pass an initial screening interview, which allows them to live and work in the U.S. until their cases are resolved — often a matter of years.

In a House Judiciary hearing in December 2013, Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and Trey Gowdy (R-SC) suggested that the rise in asylum claims may have reflected possible abuse of the immigration system. Chaffetz  said, “these credible-fear claimants almost always get approved and are released into our communities … when their asylum claims are ultimately denied, they simply add to the fugitive population in the U.S.”.

CRS immigration experts suggested otherwise.   Ruth Wasem of the CRS indicated the increase in asylum  claims “alone does not signify an abuse of the claims.”

Today’s  WT report affirms the December 2013 immigration hearing allegations with the release of a heretofore confidential government report by the House Judiciary Committee. It noted “at least 70 percent of asylum applications showed signs of fraud, according to a secret 2009 internal government audit that found many of those cases had been approved anyway”.  The WT report cited:

The 2009 internal report, which looked at claims made in 2005, found extensive evidence of fraud.

Investigators said 12 percent of the cases they reviewed showed clear evidence of fraud. In some cases, adjudicators missed the evidence, and in other instances, the adjudicators weren’t using tools available to the fraud investigators so they couldn’t have known.

House Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlette (R-VA)  commented:

 Asylum fraud undermines the integrity of our immigration system and hurts U.S. taxpayers. Once individuals are granted asylum, they receive immediate access to all major federal welfare programs. Our immigration system should be generous to those persecuted around the globe, but we must also ensure our compassion isn’t being abused by those seeking to game the system.

The LAT report cited the example of  Chinese asylum seekers in a New York fraud case:

Fraud has been an issue, with underground asylum industries thriving in some ethnic communities.

In New York in 2012,  26 people, including six attorneys, were indicted on charges that they manufactured asylum claims and coached Chinese clients on how to lie to immigration authorities. One church employee allegedly provided religious training so applicants could pass as Christians.

Thomas Mayer, a San Gabriel immigration attorney, said Chinese immigrants sometimes ask him to make up a persecution story for them. He refuses, but the demand is growing.

To weed out impostors, Mayer administers a quiz: “Name two important Christian holidays. What is baptism? Who was John the Baptist?”

The Fox News report noted  the publication of new  rules in the Federal Register on Wednesday loosening restrictions:

The change, approved by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secretary of State John Kerry, was announced Wednesday in the Federal Register. It would allow some individuals who provided “limited material support” to terror groups to be considered for entry into the U.S.

Supporters of the change, including Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., argued that the current ban on anyone who has ever aided terrorists has unfairly blocked thousands of refugees.

“The existing interpretation was so broad as to be unworkable,” Leahy said in a statement. “It resulted in deserving refugees and asylees being barred from the United States for actions so tangential and minimal that no rational person would consider them supporters of terrorist activities.”

This  and the House Judiciary  release of the  asylum fraud report prompted Sen. Jeff Sessions  (R-AL) to respond:

In light of these and other facts, it is thus deeply alarming that the Obama administration would move unilaterally to relax admissions standards for asylum seekers and potentially numerous other applicants for admission who have possible connections to insurgent or terrorist groups. We need to tighten security standards for asylum, not relax them even further.

What is the point of Congress passing a law if the administration abuses its ‘discretion’ to say that law simply no longer applies?

In May 2013, we  asked in a post, Can We Stop Refugee Terrorism? Ann  Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch noted  in a blog post how alleged suspect Igrahim Todashev, killed by the FBI in a shootout in Tampa, Florida,  entered the US:

From the Boston Globe:

In 2008, the US government granted Todashev asylum, a protection granted to foreigners with a credible fear for their safety in their homelands ­because of religious, political, or other specific forms of persecution.

But Reuters reports that Todashev’s father is a government official in Grozny and has close ties to  Chechen  regional  leader Ramzan Kadryov.

Todaschev was the alleged accomplice of  the late Boston Marathon Bomber Tamerlane Tsarneav in the grisly murder of three men in a Waltham, Massachusetts apartment on 9/11/11.

Mark Kirkorian of the Center for Immigration Studies said  the LAT report:

Giving asylum to all kinds of people who are just using it as a path to a green card is not right. Only by keeping the bar high, so the only ones who get asylum are the ones who are really, really deserving, can it remain politically viable.

For Kirkorian that means those fleeing repressive governments and genocide.  Now we have an Administration relaxing the bar for asylum that might  let in  terrorists like Todaschev; this time from war-torn Syria.  Any priority for admittance of Syrian refugees should be granted to those meeting Krikorian’s criteria; Armenian and Orthodox Christians facing ethnic cleansing by Al Qaeda affiliates and Islamist opposition militias.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.