Secretary of State announces refugee cap for fiscal
year 2019—30,000! by Ann Corcoran,
9/17/18.
Will the Administration
and Congress follow the law in the next few weeks? The Refugee Act of 1980 requires
the US State Department, in conjunction with the President, to present a
detailed Report to Congress explaining
how many refugees they would like to admit and from where they will come.
So,
I guess Church
World Service can
get off its “pins and needles!” It was only this morning that we
reported that
a Church World Service employee announced that there
would be no CEILING (aka CAP) announced until December. They sure seem to
have gotten their facts wrong, or did they?
There
will be much wailing from the usual contractor gang (they wanted the number to
be 75,000!), but remember readers that we are under 30,000 this year—we should
come in at less than 25,000. (Update: as of today we have admitted 20,919 refugees with only 2
weeks to go in the fiscal year.)
Here
is the brief news posted a little over an hour ago at Politico:
Trump administration intends to slash refugee cap.
The Trump administration will admit no more than 30,000 refugees to the
U.S. in the coming year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, down from the
current cap of 45,000.
Pompeo
announced the lowered ceiling during a press conference Monday at the
Department of State headquarters in Foggy Bottom.
Pompeo
said the 30,000 cap “must be considered in the context of the many other forms
of protection and assistance offered by the United States” and should not be
“sole barometer” to measure the country’s humanitarian efforts.
The hawkish turn demonstrates President Donald Trump’s willingness to
push hard-line immigration policies in the run-up to the November midterm
elections ….
When
Trump took office, the refugee cap stood at 110,000. He lowered that to 50,000,
and subsequently to 45,000.
It is my opinion that the program won’t be reformed as it should be
until the number is ZERO with the understanding that Congress and the
Administration must reform the entire program during a moratorium.
Without
real reform, as the Lancaster, PA Church World Service employee said: they will just wait out this president and claim they need huge numbers
in 2021 or 2025 to make up for Trump’s lost years.
The
report should arrive in Congress weeks before the end of the fiscal year
(September 30th) and BEFORE refugees begin arriving in the new year.
The
House and Senate Judiciary Committees are supposed to hold PUBLIC hearings and
“consult” with the Administration on that report. Where is the report? Has it been made public?
How can they go forward with resettlement on October first with no guide as to
which refugees will get priority?
After consultation with Congress about The
Report, the President then is supposed to make his final determination.
Of
course they haven’t been following the law for years, so it remains to be seen
if they will this year or not. We
will be waiting with great anticipation to see if the first of the new batch of
30,000 begins arriving on October first (2 weeks from today!).
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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