Refugee Slush-over

What is the holdup? Now over 500 more refugees have been recorded entering US today, by Ann Corcoran, 1/26/17

Trump Watch! I told readers this morning that 521 refugees were recorded today by the Refugee Processing Center and now as I check the numbers again at 6:30 p.m. I see it has risen to 1,073. They added 552 more refugees since this morning! [Correction, I am told this 1,073 would be for roughly a 36 hour period.]

Update - See my explanation of how I screwed up with my numbers last night and my methodology going forward, here.

Also watching the numbers all day, as the administration dithered and delayed again the highly anticipated executive order on refugees, was reporter Michael Leahy at Breitbart!

Leahy posted this headline story a few minutes ago:

Bureaucrats Gone Wild, Bring In 526 More Refugees on Thursday

And, so from 5 p.m. until I checked at 6:30 p.m. another 26 were recorded!  This is insane! What is holding up the Trump announcement? Let me guess! could it be the globalists in Congress—Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell pressuring the White House?

Here is Leahy: Bureaucrats at the State Department brought in an additional 526 refugees in the seventeen hours between midnight and 5 p.m. eastern on Thursday.

The continued inflow is a bureaucratic challenge against President Trump’s campaign promise to temporarily ban refugees from Syria and other countries hostile to the United States.

Press reports on Tuesday said Trump was expected to sign an executive order announcing a four-month temporary ban on refugees from all countries, starting sometime this week.

An additional executive order, reports indicated, is expected to block visas from seven Middle Eastern countries: Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Iran, and Iraq.

Trump has signed a number of other executive orders in an action-packed “shock and awe” first week on the job, but the expected temporary ban on refugees has not been among them.

Since Tuesday, when reports of the impending refugee ban were first published, bureaucrats at the State Department have brought in a total of 1,613 refugees to the United States: 575 on Tuesday, 512 on Wednesday, and 526 up to 5 p.m. eastern on Thursday.

Of the 526 refugees who arrived in the United States in the seventeen hours between midnight and 5 pm Thursday, 47 percent, or 250 out of 526, arrived from the seven Middle Eastern countries in which President Trump is expected to block visas. The countries were Syria (79), Sudan (11), Somalia (85), Yemen (0), Libya (0), Iran (46), and Iraq (29).

How many more around the globe are holding plane tickets for tomorrow? And, the day after as Trump’s team delays.

Here comes General Kelly - General Kelly, the Director of Homeland Security was in position to make this move on the DHS portion of the Refugee Admissions Program, while the State Dept. is still in the hands of the Obama bureaucrats.

One bit of good news (and confirmation that a slowdown has begun) reported by Reuters this evening is that refugee interviews abroad have been halted. Thanks to reader ‘heymister24’ for the tip!

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has temporarily halted trips by staff to interview refugees abroad as it prepares for a likely shakeup of refugee policy by President Donald Trump, two sources with knowledge of the decision said on Thursday.

The decision effectively amounts to a pause in future refugee admissions, given that the interviews are a crucial step in an often years-long process.

The DHS leadership’s decision to halt the interview trips was communicated to those involved in the U.S. refugee admission process on Wednesday, one of the sources said.

It means that though Trump has not yet ordered a temporary halt to the refugee program, future admissions are likely to be delayed. More here.

That is good news, but again how many refugees around the world are holding plane tickets? See all posts in our Trump Watch! category, here.

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/what-is-the-holdup-now-over-1000-refugees-have-been-recorded-entering-us-today/