Refugee resettlement industry held emergency
conference call on Friday: What will Trump do? by Ann Corcoran 11/21/16
They are worried. And, as my good
friend Richard (Blue Ridge Forum) would say, it has a lot to do with rice bowls. What? you
ask! Have you ever heard the phrase ‘breaking rice bowls?’ It happens a lot
when a new administration comes in to power and a lot of people have their
livelihoods placed on the line perhaps for the first time ever!
In a story ostensibly about what is
going to happen to the new resettlement site of
Northamption, Massachusetts,
the head of the local Catholic Charities tells us a good bit about what went on
when 452 worried refugee resettlement workers got on a conference call with
presumably leaders of the two main federal agencies that administer the program
and dole out the federal bucks in Washington.
BTW, as we have mentioned
previously, both the Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and
Migration and the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (as political
appointees) will soon be on their way out.
Here is Masslive.com: NORTHAMPTON — Asked if she thought a city refugee
resettlement program would be subject to change under President-elect Donald
Trump, Catholic Charities Executive Director Kathryn Buckley-Brawner pulled no
punches. “Of course it is,” Buckley-Brawner said. “Because Trump will be
president. It’s less a question about ‘is’ as opposed to ‘will.'”
Buckley-Brawner
participated in a 452-person nationwide “post-election national refugee advocacy” conference call Friday headed up by people in
government. [Advocacy
on the taxpayers’ dime!—ed]
The call leaders said “don’t
overreact,” prepare to advocate and argue in favor of refugee resettlement
programs and hold steady until something changes, Buckley-Brawner said. But feelings of uncertainty
permeated the discussion, according to Buckley-Brawner.
“People whose job it is to have their finger
on the pulse of what’s going on in our government don’t have a clue,”
Buckley-Brawner said in a MassLive interview following the call. “If they don’t
have a clue, the rest of us are in the same position.”
Members of the call seemed to think
the most likely way a Trump administration might impact U.S. resettlement
efforts would be by blocking refugees from certain places like Iraq and
Syria. [LOL! If Trump asks me, I’ll
say Somalia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Burma (Rohingya) need to be on the
list too!—ed]
Trump told CNBC on Monday he felt
more against allowing Syrian refugees into the country than ever, calling the
prospect “one of the great Trojan horses.”
Several different scenarios were discussed during Friday’s conference
call, Buckley-Brawner said. Among these, a complete shut-down of funding for refugee
resettlement thought very unlikely. A tightening of vetting
procedures and slow-down of refugee intake thought very
possible. Finally, a dramatic decrease in refugee intake across the board.
“We’re simply going to keep on doing
what we’re doing until somebody says ‘stop,'” Buckley-Brawner said.
Continue reading here about the elected libs in Northampton and their
enthusiasm for taking Syrian Muslim refugees. Be sure to visit our archive
on Springfield, Mass. where the mayor called for a MORATORIUM and begged for
relief from Buckley-Brawner’s resettlement of refugees there for years.
Northhampton is fresh territory and
I will bet that although it is only 20 miles north of Springfield, the folks in
Northampton likely have no clue about all the problems Springfield has had
(unless they have been reading RRW for years!).
Endnote: My apologies to the good
citizens of Northampton! I have been spelling the name of your town wrong for
months!
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