PANIC BUTTON: REFUGEE
ARRIVALS TO 'DRY UP' IN MARCH, Resettlement
agencies scrambling to cut staff or close entire offices, by Leo Hohmann,
2/15/17, WND
Refugee-resettlement agencies are
scrambling to cut staff and, in some cases, close entire offices as they
prepare for a reduction in refugee arrivals to the U.S. under President Donald
Trump’s unfolding policy.
A pro-refugee group leaked an
“official guidance” from the U.S. State Department to
NPR Wednesday that said refugee
arrivals will begin to dry up after March 3.
As WND reported last week, the one
part of Trump’s embattled executive order that was not blocked by the Ninth
Circuit Court, was his reduction of the fiscal-2017 cap on refugees from
110,000 set by Barack Obama to 50,000. The fiscal year ends Oct. 1.
Since 35,000 refugees have already
arrived, that would mean another 15,000 would be allowed in by Oct. 1. The fact
that the State Department is now saying new arrivals will end by March 3 means
Trump could be planning to lower the ceiling further since it would be nearly
impossible to hit the 50,000 cap in a little over two weeks.
“I guess it could be done, but they
would have to ramp up from about 300 or 400 a day to 2,000 a day, and that’s a
monumental task,” noted Ann Corcoran, who runs the watchdog website Refugee Resettlement
Watch.
The court also did not rule on a
provision of Trump’s executive order that would make it easier for states and
cities to veto refugee placements.
After the jihadist attack on Paris
in November 2015, more than 24 U.S. governors, most of them Republicans,
notified the Obama administration that they did not want to receive any
refugees from Syria, since two refugees from that country were implicated in
the coordinated attacks that killed 130 and wounded more than 300.
But Secretary of State John Kerry
quickly informed the governors that they had no authority under the Refugee Act
of 1980 to block the placements of refugees in their states. Trump wants to
give them that authority, which would mean the refugees would continue to
arrive at “welcoming cities” but not those putting up barriers.
Of the 85,000 refugees resettled in
U.S cities and towns last year, a record 40,000, or nearly half, were Muslims.
260,000
Muslims per year entering U.S. - Of course, the
refugee program is not the only avenue through which Muslims migrate to the
U.S. Muslims also come to the U.S. on various other visa and green-card
programs. According to Center for Immigration Studies, about 130,000 Muslims
come to the United States every year on green cards, which offers them
permanent lawful status. At least that many more come on temporary visas,
including student visas, work visas, entrepreneurial visas, religious visas for
imams, fiancé visas, the diversity visa lottery and family related visas. That
makes for a grand total of about 260,000 foreign nationals entering the U.S.
from Muslim-majority nations every year.
So refugee resettlement is a fairly
modest but still important slice of the overall pie, especially for people from
Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan who come from illiterate backgrounds and have no
job skills, meaning they can’t get to the U.S. on a student or
work-related visa.
The average annual number of
refugees entering the U.S. has been around 60,000, so the 50,000 target set by
Trump is not far from the historic norm. Corcoran has suggested he cut it
further, down to 35,000 this year, and even lower for fiscal 2018, which starts
Oct. 1.
Closing
offices, cutting staff - Meanwhile, the nine volunteer
agencies, or VOLAGs, which get paid by the State Department to resettle
refugees in more than 300 U.S. cities and towns, often without the knowledge of
local officials, are scrambling to downsize before the funds run dry.
http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/panic-button-refugee-arrivals-to-dry-up-in-march/
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