100,000 Haitians could be fast-tracked for visas to come to US

A few noteworthy Republican members of Congress are backing the idea—-Senators Scott Brown and Marco Rubio and Representative Illeana Ros-Lehtinen.

One of the primary reasons they say they want to speed up the migration—the immigrants will work (and maybe not work) and send lots of money back to Haiti.  Florida’s unemployment rate is still above 10%, so how much working will they be doing?   Massachusetts’ unemployment rate is much better at around 7%, so I suppose they can all go live there.

From the Palm Beach Post:

MIAMI — With the two-year anniversary of Haiti’s massive earthquake approaching next week, members of Congress are joining Haitian-American community leaders to push the Obama administration to help more Haitians get visas to live and work in the U.S.

They want to fast-track visas for tens of thousands of Haitians whose petitions to join relatives in this country already have been approved. A cap on the number of visas that the U.S. grants each year, though, means it can take a decade for a visa to be issued.

It’s estimated that more than 100,000 Haitians are on the waiting list for visas to join their families in the U.S., and more than 15,000 of them are the spouses and children of U.S. citizens, according to the Dec. 22 letter sent by eight members of Florida’s congressional delegation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio both signed, as did six U.S. representatives, including Democrat Frederica Wilson, whose Miami district represents more Haitians than any other in Congress, and Republican Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

[....]

Some members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, including U.S. Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown, and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick sent similar messages to Napolitano in the fall.

Read it all.

Arab activists ask for Temporary Protected Status for Syrians!

Here we go again.   A couple of decades ago we granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Salvadorans, Hondurans and Liberians.  More recently it was granted to Haitians, but as Mark Krikorian at the Center for Immigration Studies famously said in 1999—there is nothing quite so permanent as temporary protected status.

Readers this is one more back channel way for foreign nationals to stay in the US beyond the limits of the visas that got them here in the first place.  A “crisis” happens at home and the US government says, oh, poor thing, we can’t send you back to a country in crisis.  So the alien stays and stays and stays (with a right to work) and eventually buys a home or a business and then the politicians say, we must extend TPS because heck they are all settled in!

The only thing these immigrants can’t do is vote (but you can bet they are figuring out how to do that too!).

Now we have James Zogby of the Arab American Institute (AAI) petitioning Obama to give TPS status to Syrians.   Well, using his logic Egyptians should stay, and Libyans, and Iranians, and Yeminis, and the list goes on.

Here is what AAI is reporting at its website:

Yesterday, the Arab American Institute, in a formal request to the Obama administration, asked for Temporary Protected Status privileges to be extended to Syrian citizens currently residing in the United States. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a procedure by which the Secretary of Homeland Security may provide temporary asylum to individuals who are in America and who cannot safely return to their home countries.

As the Syrian uprising nears its 10th month, the situation on the ground has grown increasingly dangerous for average Syrian citizens. Questions continue about the safety of Syrian nationals upon their return home from visits to the U.S. As a result, many Syrians currently in the U.S. are deeply concerned for their personal safety and the safety of their families if they return home.

If granted, TPS will allow Syrian citizens who are currently here – mostly as students and tourists – to stay in the U.S. until they can safely return home. It does not contribute to granting an immigrant permanent residence, and reverts the beneficiary to his or her previous immigration status as soon as the temporary protection ends.   [But, ahhhhhhh! it never ends!--ed]

Those original nearly 200,000 Salvadorans that live in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area have been here for two decades (growing their population) and are now looking for an extension of TPS AGAIN this March—a topic which I’ve extensively covered at Potomac Tea Party Report (here is one recent post).  Oh, and by the way, during their TPS they can figure out just how to make permanent asylum claims (or find a US citizen to marry!).

International Organization for Migration: managing the movement of people around the world

We’ve written about the International Organization for Migration (IOM) before because they get big bucks from us (the taxpayers) to process refugees into the US.  They are also largely responsible for teaching refugees abroad how to live in the West.  In its sixtieth year this year, they do more than that according to the New York Times.

The way I see it, the IOM is funded largely by US taxpayers to help manage the flow of labor for businesses around the world—they are kind of like glorified ‘head hunters.’  The article tells us in glowing terms how they have come to rescue various nationals when the labor situation went sour —like Bangladeshis sent to Libya to work and needing to get back home when Obama’s Libyan war broke out.   We pay for this.

This article shows how frustrating it is for the average US voter to understand who is running the international migration racket and get a handle on it.  It’s  not like you can call your Congressman and say stop the funding because we are dealing here with a body that is operating outside US jurisdiction (even though the NYT says the US calls the shots).  Add IOM and the UN and it’s no wonder immigration is out of the control of our federal government.

From the New York Times:

DHAKA, Bangladesh — As global migration has rapidly expanded, so has the influence of a little-known group whose eclectic work shapes migrants’ lives across six continents.

[....]

Part research group, part handyman crew, the International Organization for Migration has become the who-you-gonna-call outfit for 132 member countries grappling with the surge in migration, both legal and unauthorized. Its rapid growth is a sign that migration has outgrown most countries’ ability to manage on their own. “I haven’t made it to a country yet where migration hasn’t been high on the list of priorities,” said William L. Swing, the director general.

Yet even as its duties grow, the group operates under tight constraints that reflect the special worries migration can arouse. The United States [who in the US calls the shots?] and other rich donors largely dictate its agenda and ensure that it does not erode their power to decide which migrants they admit and how many.

“It helps them bring in the people they want and keep out the people they don’t,” said Joseph Chamie, a researcher at the Center for Migration Studies in New York.  [It looks like they want cheap third world laborers and not well-educated Europeans or other westerners---ed]

[....]

The migration group was formed in 1951 under a different name to resettle Europeans displaced by World War II. It had plans to quickly disband, but migration kept growing. Starting in the 1970s, it helped resettle 1.5 million Indochinese refugees, and brought home 218,000 workers during the first Persian Gulf war. In the past two decades, the group has added 89 member countries and undertaken increasingly varied work.

What!  Who decides immigration policy these days—governments or meatpackers (or both in collusion)?  Canadian readers should find this next paragraph interesting.

Canada tapped it to recruit meatpackers. Britain used it to screen would-be migrants for tuberculosis. The United States used it to run a jobs program in Haiti, deterring Haitians from illegally immigrating.

Gee, I wonder how that jobs program worked out for Haiti because if it was successful in keeping the Haitians home, maybe Obama could import it to the US!

IOM: The movement of people causes more concern than the movement of money or goods!  You got that right!

“If the range of our activities has expanded, it’s because migration has taken on much more importance in our globalized world,” said Gervais Appave, a senior official at the group’s headquarters in Geneva.

But the movement of people causes more concern than the movement of money or goods, and Western powers are unwilling to cede authority to an international group.  [sounds like they already have to a large degree--ceded power!]

I’ll bet you a buck that the average US Senator or Congressman has never heard of the International Organization for Migration.  LOL!  We are always surprised every time we learn another Member of Congress has NEVER heard of the Refugee Resettlement Program even.

Big budget funded with boatloads of your money:

Virtually all its work is financed on a project-by-project basis, giving donors control. Together, the United States and Europe provide half the $1.4 billion budget, and every director has been American.

A few years ago I was able to find at USA Spending our “contribution” to the IOM and it stood at over $301 million (before Obama).  Today I can’t find anywhere what the US gives the IOM.  Readers:  Let me know if you find it.

Then there is the UN

I’ve had this article kicking around for days, so just to save the link, I’ll note here that a Republican bill in the US House of Representatives is seeking to scale back our contribution to the UN and bring its policies more in-line with US policy.  The bill would limit funding to the special UN Palestinian refugee agency:

The legislation also would limit the use of U.S. contributions to only the specific purposes outlined by Congress and would withhold U.S. funding for any UN agency that upgrades the status of the Palestinian observer mission or any agency that helps Palestinian refugees.

Boston: Haitians living in hotels as wards of the state

Ho hum.  It’s a year since a massive earthquake devastated Haiti and by all the news accounts this week, international aide did not pour into Haiti, Bill Clinton and George Bush were not successful in raising money to re-build the country and where is the Obama Administration?   No where according to this article in the Boston Globe!  Critics say the Obama US Citizenship and Immigration Services is responsible for not moving fast enough to give “deferred action” status to all those Haitians who got in here by hook or by crook after the quake and now want to stay.

By the way, the Obama Administration did make Temporary Protected Status available to all Haitians illegally in the US before the quake.

The people discussed in this article, got in somehow after the quake and live in limbo.  Some got in through a need for medical treatment and don’t want to leave, others were probably snuck in across our borders with the help of NGO’s and now live in hotels or are homeless in Massachusetts (elsewhere probably too).

This is how the story in the Globe begins:

BROCKTON — The young schoolteacher fled Haiti after the powerful earthquake, the day she spent four terrifying hours pinned under a car and a pile of rubble. In Massachusetts, she found medical care to heal her grotesquely swollen leg, counseling to quiet her nightmares, and hopeful messages from the US government that it would help her start over.

But today, the one year anniversary of the quake, she is homeless, with no documentation to work or drive, and living in a Brockton shelter with her husband and two daughters, aged 3 and 2 months. She is among a flood of Haitians silently adrift across the United States. Many fled the horrific disaster, using visitor visas to enter the United States and stay with friends or relatives, hoping to stay, at least temporarily, to work and rebuild.

In April, a top federal immigration official said Haitians who fled the earthquake could apply for deferred action, a rarely used immigration benefit that could allow them to stay and work for a fixed amount of time. But hundreds of applications are still unresolved nationwide, and advocates say that many Haitians are still unaware that the option exists.

Because they are not permitted to work, many are becoming burdens on their families or finding themselves homeless, according to Catholic Charities and other advocates. In Massachusetts, some are reluctant wards of the state, which pays for food stamps, apartment shelters, or hotel rooms for destitute families.

“I just want to have legal status. I need to start over,’’ said the woman, who asked not to be identified because she has applied for deferred action and fears deportation.

No kidding, she and millions of others just want to start over in the US.

But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that favors tougher restrictions on immigration, said the Haitians should return to their homeland, because the visas were supposed to be for temporary travel. He pointed out that other nations in dire straits, such as Congo, do not receive special treatment.

If the truly charitable leaders of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities, World Relief, Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society can’t find it in their hearts to find private charitable money for all those they help get across the border, then maybe it is time for them to go home.   Kind of makes you wonder if there really is a Cloward-Piven strategy to create chaos and bring down our welfare system—ultimately as well our form of government.

 

Increasing number of Haitians coming across US southern border…

…..and arriving in San Diego.   Gee, why San Diego?

From SignOn San Diego:

A record number of Haitians have arrived on America’s southern doorstep, asking for asylum or temporary parole just as the United States is set to resume deportations to Haiti next month — one year after the catastrophic earthquake in the island country.

About 150 Haitian families are accounted for via local charities or border enforcement. While the number is not huge, the growth compared to previous years is astonishing to immigration experts and local advocates and could signify an oncoming wave.

“Historically we have never seen that many,” said Michael McKay, director of refugee services for Catholic Charities, which is assisting 30 families who have applied for asylum or temporary parole. “My suspicion is the door is closing in other places and the word is out that they may be able to get help through the border here.”

Previously, the organization saw one or two Haitians a year, he said. Christ Methodist Church in San Diego is also sponsoring families awaiting immigration proceedings, McKay added.

Currently, 108 Haitians are being detained in San Diego. The majority of those individuals had presented themselves to port of entry officers, said Barbara Gonzales, southern regional spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In January, there were only four Haitians in custody.

[....]

Haiti has been in turmoil since a devastating earthquake Jan. 12 killed more than 230,000 people. Almost immediately, the Obama administration halted deportations and offered a temporary-stay program to those already in the U.S. when the temblor occurred. So far, 61,000 applications for temporary stay have been processed, according to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services.

61,000 Haitians have applied for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) so far!  Whew!  TPS was granted by the Obama Administration after the Earthquake in Haiti and allowed anyone already (at that time) illegally in the US from Haiti to stay until some date in the future when the TPS would be lifted.   But, guess what, TPS is usually just extended over and over, so they never go home, they become part of the amnesty lobby.

I don’t see how this new wave can get TPS.  It seems to me they would have to apply for asylum and prove some sort of persecution.

Why San Diego?  I think the word is out. Open borders activists are encouraging Haitians to come to San Diego and they probably have lawyers waiting to help them get into the US.

Also, Catholic Charities and not the City, County or State of California is running the refugee/asylee program in San Diego County.  See the Office of Refugee Resettlement list of states and the one county whose refugee programs are now being run by a “church” group federal contractor and the US State Department (we learned about it here just two days ago).  I still don’t get it—why doesn’t the ACLU see a separation of church and state issue with the refugee program.   And, I continue to be amazed that CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) doesn’t squawk about all the Christian and one Jewish federal refugee contractors.  Shush! I bet the State Department is hoping and praying CAIR doesn’t figure it out!

Endnote: Just a reminder that San Diego is also the city with the recent Somali terror probe.  Here we have a whole bunch of stories archived on San Diego Somalis and terror investigations and arrests.  It appears also that San Diego was a point of departure for some of the Somali missing youths who left Minnesota beginning in 2008 (maybe earlier) to return to Africa for jihad training with Al-Shabaab.

Two American women dead in New Hampshire….

….brutally murdered by men who are recent immigrants.   One alleged murderer is an illegal Haitian, the other a supposedly legal Kenyan.  Frankly, I am getting lost in my immigrant diversity is strength crime stories that need posting.  I have some from Washington State as well and a reader sent me some other recent events in New Hampshire besides these two heinous murders.   Hat tip to two readers for these New Hampshire stories.

In the first case, reported in the Concord Monitor, the illegal Haitian just took a gun next door and shot a married nursing student at point blank range as she got him a drink of water.  Apparently the confessed murderer gave a motive to authorities but that has not been released to the public.

The Haitian national accused of killing a 31-year-old nursing student in her Henniker home was in the United States illegally and confessed to shooting her in the head after investigators showed him forensic evidence that linked him to the murder weapon, according to a newly unsealed police affidavit.

Roody Fleuraguste, 22, told investigators that he took a .357-caliber revolver belonging to Molly Hawthorn-MacDougall’s father-in-law, loaded it with six bullets and walked next door to her home at 18 Rand Road, where he shot her the morning of April 29, according to an affidavit filed by the state police to support an arrest warrant.

“I did it. . . . I did it,” Fleuraguste said, according to the court filing.

Partially redacted versions of two affidavits in the case were unsealed yesterday by a Merrimack County Superior Court judge. The Monitor and the New Hampshire Union Leader filed motions asking that the documents be released to the public.

Read all the sad details.

In the second case, the supposedly legal Kenyan* was the father of the murdered woman’s child.   The child may have witnessed the brutal murder that involved stabbing, and possibly a beating with a hammer and being run over by a car.

From WMUR-9:

BRENTWOOD, N.H. — A man has been charged with stabbing and killing the mother of his son.

Police found Randi Huntley, 25, suffering from stab wounds near her home in Danville, N.H., on Tuesday afternoon. She died a short time later.

According to court paperwork, investigators believe Huntley died after being repeatedly stabbed and/or hit with a metal hammer, and she may have been run over by a car.

On Wednesday, police charged Jackson Mwangi, 28, with first-degree murder. He was arraigned in Exeter District Court, but no motive for the killing was discussed.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley said afterward that at one point, Mwangi and Huntley had been romantically involved. Mwangi and Huntley had a 4-year-old son together but were no longer a couple.

[....]

He also said that Mwangi, a Kenyan national, is in the country legally, although he couldn’t say how long he had been in the United States.

* I bet we find out he was just as “legal” as Obama’s Kenyan Aunt Zeituni.

And to all the readers who are fuming and spluttering about how white American men are murderers too.  Yes, they are, but that is not the subject of this blog.  You are welcome to write a blog about evil white American men at any time.

Fear of rape enough to get refugee status in Canada?

A recent decision by a Canadian court could open the door for any Haitian woman believing she might be raped to seek asylum in Canada.

From The Star:

A groundbreaking Federal Court ruling has opened doors to Haitian women who are seeking refugee status in Canada because they are afraid of being raped in their own country, where sexual violence is a growing problem.

“It means a Haitian woman making a refugee claim on that basis should succeed, as long as conditions in Haiti remain as they are now,” said lawyer Raoul Boulakia.

Boulakia represents Elmancia Dezameau, a Haitian-born mother of four who sought refugee protection after arriving in Toronto in 2007, arguing she and her four daughters were at risk of being targeted for rape if she were returned home.

In support of her case, Boulakia filed reports from several international aid agencies, including Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders, which identified rape as a systemic problem in Haiti, one that has worsened since January’s earthquake.

Does this mean all Haitian women are eligible for refugee status in Canada?  It sounds like it to this lawyer.

Lawyers for the federal government argued that if Dezameau won her case, all female refugee claimants from Haiti would automatically be granted refugee protection simply because they are women.

Pinard [a Justice] rejected that argument, saying female refugee claimants from Haiti will still have to prove their risk of being raped is more than a mere possibility.

According to this story from The Star at least, it sounds like she didn’t have to submit anything in court besides general reports that rape in Haiti was widespread.  So is the Justice saying she still has to prove she is personally threatened?

Rape as a weapon to terrorize women is used throughout Africa too, so does this mean all women from certain countries would be eligible for refugee status in Canada?   It is hard to tell exactly what this ruling does.

Haitians entering US through Canada-Vermont border

No one knows for sure why the Haitians who had been living in Canada after fleeing there some time ago to avoid deportation from the US are now re-entering the US.  115 have been caught so far.  I’m guessing there is some misunderstanting about the Temporary Protected Status (hinted in this article) that Obama gave Haitians already in the US illegally when the Earthquake occurred in January. 

From the Burlington Free Press:

Over the past two and a half months — ever since Haiti was devastated by a monstrous earthquake Jan. 12 — a growing number of Haitian expatriates have been trying to come back into the United States after departing the country just years earlier to avoid deportation.

As of late last week, the number of Haitians caught since the earthquake allegedly trying to enter the country illegally had topped 115, said Mark Henry, operations officer for the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton sector.

Of the 115, one was caught in New York and 114 were apprehended in Vermont, Henry said. The Swanton sector covers the border from New Hampshire through Vermont to Ogdensburg, N.Y.

Tristram Coffin, the U.S. Attorney for Vermont, said he would not speculate on why Vermont’s border was such a preferred option for the Haitians.

Betsy Horsman, a deputy U.S. Attorney who works on immigration cases out of Plattsburgh, N.Y., said she suspects the Haitians think they have a better shot of entering Vermont’s border undetected than they would in upstate New York.

“We’re known over here as being very aggressive,” she said. “I don’t know why they would choose Vermont unless there are a couple of places in Vermont they know about.”

Do they think Temporary Protected Status will work for them?

They also are coming back here hoping that an 18-month ban of deportations to Haiti put in place by the Obama administration after the quake might give them time to establish themselves in America and strengthen their case for permission to reside in the country permanently.

“I suspect this has a lot to do with the Temporary Protected Status policy because of the earthquake,” Henry said.

Church World Service involved?

Way back in 2007 we reported that a subcontractor of federal refugee contractor, Church World Service, was arrested for human trafficking in Canada.  They were smuggling Haitians to Canada.   Hope they are not involved in helping them back across the border now.  Obviously someone suggested Vermont.

Haitians headed out in boats

Update March 31st:  Jamaica repatriated this group of Haitians, here.

I haven’t followed the Haitian issue closely lately so I’m not sure if this is the first report of Haitians taking to boats since the January earthquake or not.  60 have been reported now landing in Portland, Jamaica, from Radio Jamaica here.  Floridians might start scanning the horizons!

Boston area schools (and students!) suffer with influx of Haitian students

I haven’t posted anything on the Haitian refugee issue lately, so thought this article from the Boston Globe would serve as an update.  As is often the case, be sure to check the comments because they are often much more interesting than the story itself.

In the past month or so, hundreds of children from the Caribbean’s poorest nation have enrolled in local schools, challenging teachers to provide support for children struggling to learn English, to adapt to winter, and to make sense of what has become of their lives.

Boston public schools have enrolled at least 99 students from Haiti since the massive earthquake left more than 200,000 dead, some 300,000 injured, and 1 million homeless, according to government estimates. By last week, at least 98 students from Haiti had registered in Brockton, 36 students began classes in Randolph, and 11 were studying in Somerville.

All the districts, though already overcrowded, expect to receive more students in the coming months.

“These are wonderful children who are remarkably resilient, but they need special attention,’’ said Elie Jean-Louis, principal of the Charles H. Taylor Elementary School in Mattapan, where at least 25 Haitian students have enrolled since the earthquake. “They may not understand what they have been through and don’t know what emotions they are carrying inside.’’

Despite the additional financial burdens, state officials have said no money is available to help schools, some of which have had to hire Haitian Creole-speaking staff, offer additional counseling, and open new classes.

School officials said they do not check the immigration status of students and are required to enroll any child whose guardian or relative shows a driver’s license or another document that proves they live in the district. They said some of the students were born in the United States and are US citizens, while others are here on a tourist visa.

In a memo sent to schools last month, Mitchell D. Chester, commissioner of the state Elementary and Secondary Education Department, advised superintendents that “a school-aged child or youth displaced by the earthquake in Haiti and who is now residing in the USA as a doubled-up or homeless unaccompanied youth has the right to enroll immediately in the district of residence.’’

A district would follow the same procedures it would with a child displaced by a domestic natural disaster, Chester said.

Asked whether state officials would offer financial help to districts getting the most students from Haiti, JC Considine, a spokesman for Chester, said he is “not aware of any additional state financial assistance for schools that are enrolling Haitian refugees.’’

Many of those schools already have large populations of Haitian-born students, and they say they are doing their best, despite their limited resources.

In Randolph, Superintendent Richard H. Silverman said the additional students have come as the district faces a budget shortfall of more than $2 million, has cut every school program by at least 10 percent, and plans to eliminate as many as 15 teaching positions. He said each new student costs the district about $10,000.

“We don’t have sufficient funds to operate appropriately as it is, and we’re already in real danger of making significant and damaging cuts to the system,’’ Silverman said. “But we have the obligation to meet the needs of any student who lives in Randolph and comes to our doors, and we’ll do that.’’

[.....]

At Ashfield Middle School in Brockton, principal Barbara Lovell has received at least 29 new Haitian students since the earthquake, doubling the size of some of the English immersion classes.

Lovell has had to open new classrooms in a modular building, bring special education teachers into classes, and ask teachers to work extra hours as they try to serve students with different needs.

“This is very difficult,’’ she said. “The entire school has seen an impact. It’s taxing, tiring, and exhausting for a lot of teachers. The teachers are terrific, but when you’re translating and helping students who don’t speak English, it’s hard. They’re not trained for that.’’

This article reminded me of the comment we received from Winooski, VT recently where a parent said the overload of refugees in that town was keeping his/her child from moving ahead with his education.  May I suggest homeschooling!

For more on Haitian refugees visit our Haiti category, here.