Visas for family “reunification” explained

A few days ago I reported on Somalis in Minneapolis who are angry that the US State Department/Homeland Security are making it harder for them to bring their “families” to the US.    I explained that the P-3 program had been suspended in 2008 when it was learned that tens of thousands of Africans (mostly from Somalia) had gotten into the US fraudulently—they lied about their family relationship.  The program is still partially closed.   And, now the I-130 visa process has added some hurdles which has ticked-off the would-be migrants (and their lawyers) even further.

Since these visa application processes are all ‘greek’ to those of us on the outside, I appealed for help in understanding the I-130 visa and the I-730 visa as it relates to “refugees.”    A kind reader with experience has sent us the following explanation (emphasis mine).   This will be filed in our ‘where to find information’ category for your future reference.

I-130’s

This is the name used for a form to apply for the legal immigration of certain relatives of  certain types of US legal residents. It is not a part of the US refugee resettlement program. It’s an application for a permanent visa based on family relationship criteria.

Any  US citizen can petition for parents, spouse , minor children, single adult children over 21, married children , and siblings. (spouses and minor children of beneficiaries are included on the visa)

Depending on the relationship to the petitioner,there are various waiting times based on the number of pending applications.

Parents, spouses and unmarried minor children are eligible for “immediate” visas and it’s just a matter of the actual processing time (although  it’s usually several months to a year).  Older children have a much longer waiting period and for siblings, the wait hovers around 10 years .

Legal permanent residents (green card holders) can only petition for spouses, unmarried minor children. Those are not “immediate” visas, but are subject to another waiting list but is usually 3-4 years),

Visas  are initially adjudicated by the visa center here in the US simply based on documentation presented with the application, and then (provided they are initially approved) , once they become “current” , sent overseas to the nearest embassy/consulate for final decision, based on a face to face interview and documentation.

The US petitioner is also required to file an “affidavit of support” (showing financial ability to support the applicant (s)) which precludes the applicants from accessing any public benefits upon entering the US. (this is a whole other issue, since  actual enforcement of those affidavits varies greatly from state to state and many legal visa recipients do access public benefits).

At one time, in the P-3 program, US relatives who were US citizens were barred from utilizing the P-3 process and required to file I-130’s. Refugee advocates successfully lobbied to have this rule changed, thus US citizens could file P-3 applications.  While no longer required to, they could still also simultaneously file I-130’s  as a back up in case the applicants failed to meet refugee criteria (one does not preclude the other). In my experience, most US relatives chose not to file the I-130s and , instead, rely solely on the P-3 process which, as you know, confers refugee status and eligibility for all available public benefits and puts no onus of financial responsibility on the US anchor relative.

I-730’s

This is where the lines can get a bit blurry.

This is a US visa called “following to join.” There are 2 categories:

Visa 93 (US relative was admitted as a refugee)
Visa 92 (US relative was granted political asylum in the US)

Applicants are limited to spouses and unmarried minor children (not parents, siblings, married or over 21 kids).

Relationships must have existed prior to granting of US petitioner’s status (some tricky parts here!).  Application must be filed within 2 years of granted status.

Visas 92/93 can be filed simultaneously with  P-3 applications.

Those applications are initially approved  by US immigration processing centers (there are only a couple who do these) and sent to the local embassy/consulate for final adjudication. The applicants are under no requirement to provide any proof of refugee claims themselves,  but only proof of relationship to the petitioner.  If the visa is granted, they are admitted to the US under “derivative refugee/asylee” status.  Affidavits of support are not required, and they are eligible for public benefits subject to the petitioner’s income (again,… my experience showed a large amount of  easily-conducted fraud).

California citizen: refugee program a fraud!

Russian:

“Who would not tell a white lie in order to get everything for free”?

Readers, I haven’t forgotten that I plan to continue to post testimony from that May 1 State Department meeting which was ostensibly to give you an opportunity to voice your opinion on how many refugees the US will take in FY 2013 and from where.  But, the Refugee program head honcho, Lawrence Bartlett, said at the meeting that they wouldn’t make the testimony available on-line (those in attendance received the testimony in hard copy).   All of the testimony I’ve posted so far is here in our special category for the meeting.

This is what one California citizen had to say (emphasis mine):

I have been in the photography business since 1973 in a town called Rancho Cordova, California. It is a suburb of Sacramento. We do not need any more refugees in our community. We have been the destination point for over 150 thousand alleged religiously persecuted refugees from the former Soviet Union. It is nothing more than a scam against taxpayer. It is under the Lautenberg act of 1989. There is no religious persecution in Russia. And if there was, is it our duty to support them?

The churches are behind it in order to receive free money for putting phony refugees on public assistance. I cannot describe in words the resentment of my customers who work in the banks, grocery stores, and in the medical field who are extremely resentful of this largesse.

The women who work at the banks and grocery stores are witnesses to the scams and the fraud that is committed on a daily basis. As my friend who works at the bank states if I cash one more social security check for someone who has never paid into the system and is drawing more than my parents who worked all of their lives I will scream. The resentment is palpable.

Particularly when the community found out there is no religious persecution in Russia. That it is nothing more than a scam to obtain a middle class life on the backs of someone else.

I have proof it is all fraud and not even my congressman Lungren [Dan Lungren] will discuss it out of fear of being destroyed politically. I have brought the fraud to the attention to ICE. They responded with they know it is fraud. They said they would be sued if they dare try and stop it.

I am a Viet Nam Vet as is my brother via the law in those days. My brother’s neighbors from Cambodia never worked a day while they lived next to my brother. He and his wife worked to support them. How can you justify that. The nice folks from Cambodia received section 8 housing and their kids went to college at my brother’s expense.

If we took that money and spent it on the black community maybe there would not be cities full of Ghettos?

We cannot afford it period. We need to follow the original law. Meaning they cannot be a burden on taxpayers. They are supposed to have sponsors who support them. It is shameful the only reason the churches are interested in resettling is money for themselves.

You forget the domino effect in our community such as crime and gangs in the Russian community. I had a Russian friend who worked for me, by the name of Alex Sukonof tell me “Who would not tell a white lie in order to get everything for free”?

Alex also told me that he thought “It was ok that his in laws claimed religious persecution like the others.” That they only receive about $1300.00 between them, including free health care that we pay for. Apparently as alleged Refugees: they are entitled to SSI for 7 years. If they become citizens within that time, it is now a lifetime entitlement. Even though they have never worked a day in their life here.

The real sad part is that according to Alex they are allowed to take the Citizenship test in their native language. I know for a fact his in laws do not speak a word of English, as I have called their house looking for him several times.

The bottom line is: by telling a little white lie about religious persecution, they are allowed an income for life that they did not earn. That is persecution of hard working taxpayers. This entire Refugee program is an upside down cake.

Furthermore: even if it was all real as there are others that are real, this directly affects Americans who are in need of a job. We need to shut it down totally until we become flush with cash again as a country.

We need to eliminate the entire program and operate it on an individual basis with true volunteers.

The reason you do not hear from the public is fear of losing their job or demonized as a racist.

Somali chain migration to Minnesota hits a snag

Update:  A kind reader explains the various visas used for chain migration, here.

I’ve had this story to post for a few days, but wasn’t quite sure what to make of a couple of bits of information in it and was hoping to be able to tell you more, but can’t at the moment.  If you are a reader familiar with resettlement help us understand this story by sending a comment.

First, a little background:  back in 2008 the US State Department discovered that lo-and-behold many Africans (mostly Somalis) trying to get their “relatives” into the US weren’t even related to the persons they were getting in, but before the extent of the lying was fully known the State Department estimates that over 30,000 entered the US fraudulently.  There are no plans to find them and remove them.

The program, known as P-3 (family reunification) was put on hold and is still not fully open.  As a matter of fact some of those contractors testifying to the State Department May 1 meeting were begging for it to be fully re-opened (they get paid by you to help process in the ‘family’).  One of the options for identifying legitimate family members is DNA testing, but that idea hit some snags (or at least that is the last I heard).

And, by the way, here is an article from 2009 in which we are told that the State Department thinks DNA testing is expensive and time consuming and should be used only as a last resort.   I suppose it is neither time-consuming or expensive if it weeds out people who were going to get into the US fraudulently and become dependent on our ‘services’ (food stamps, education, subsidized housing, healthcare, etc.) or had terrorism in mind.

Now, according to this article by reporter Allie Shah in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, it appears that the ‘families’ have been using the I-130 visa* for their chain migration and that too has been stymied (Homeland Security and the State Dept. must know something we don’t know).    I’m wondering why they aren’t using the I-730 visa to get around the P-3 moratorium.  Does anyone know?

So, here is the story I am puzzled about (emphasis mine):

A major bump has surfaced in the well-traveled road from Nairobi, Kenya, to Minnesota for Somali refugees hoping to reunite with family members here.

Recently, the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi began asking for more proof to verify that refugees applying to come here are who they say are.   [See Ireland post yesterday---ed]

The result, according to immigration attorneys in Minnesota familiar with the changes, is that the embassy is rejecting applicants at an alarming rate.

“I got a spike of clients in the last four months,” said Abdinasir Abdulahi, a Minneapolis immigration attorney. “They were storming into my office.”

The trouble began near the end of 2011, he said, when embassy officials started requiring applicants for what’s called the I-130 visa to produce a refugee ID issued by the Kenyan government.

Since 2007, Kenya has required Somali refugees to register with the government and carry an ID, but many refugees don’t understand the requirement, Abdulahi says.

Identifying refugees fleeing Somalia has always been a sticky issue. Most people arrive in neighboring Kenya without any papers.

In the past a sworn affidavit would do it!  Imagine that!  I guess these State Department officials don’t know about Taqiyya (Muslims are allowed to lie to unbelievers in order to defeat them.)

In the past, embassy officials have accepted sworn affidavits from town elders to confirm the identities of individuals. More recently, in response to reports of fraud, they rely on DNA testing to prove, for example, that a person claiming to be the sister of a Minnesota Somali really is the sister.

But even the DNA evidence doesn’t seem to be enough to satisfy officials, say some local immigration attorneys, who argue that the tighter rules amount to unnecessary red tape. They’ll discuss the issue Friday at a meeting of the local chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

In conclusion, I would like to know more about why they are using the I-130 to skirt the State Department closure of P-3 and how extensive is the use of DNA testing for the I-130s or the I-730s for that matter!

* When you have a few extra minutes check out the massive numbers entering the US on I-130 visas here.

African “asylum shoppers” attempt to lie their way into Ireland

I like that—instead of asylum seekers, let’s use the phrase asylum shoppers!

A new UK system to track rejected asylum seekers as they “shop” around with different names and even different nationalities attempting to get into Ireland  has revealed some surprising (to some!) statistics.   But, of course those Somalis coming across our US borders and asking for asylum are all legit, right?

From the Irish Independent (Oh, boy, watch for it! The Irish Immigrant Council will be on the paper’s case again! See what happened in 2008, here.):

TWO-THIRDS of failed asylum seekers investigated so far this year under a new agreement with the UK were found to be involved in identity swapping, the Irish Independent has learnt.

Cross-checks carried out by gardai using British fingerprint records revealed that about 1,300 out of 2,000 failed asylum seekers investigated were known to Britain’s Border Agency under a different name.

Of those looked at, about a third had given a different nationality to the UK authorities.

The scale of the identity swapping scam was uncovered under a data sharing plan, which is a key feature of a common travel area agreement signed by Ireland and Britain last Christmas.

The aim of the data sharing is to unearth previously undisclosed UK immigration histories that could help the Irish authorities in processing the cases of failed asylum seekers, a senior official told the Irish Independent last night.

He said this information was vital in helping to determine whether a deportation order should be issued against an applicant.

Of the 2,000 asylum seekers investigated, cross-checks found 600 had already been identified by UK agencies either as asylum shoppers with previous applications to the UK or as previous British visa seekers.

In the majority of fingerprint matches, those claiming asylum in Ireland had already been granted UK visas.

The official added that more than 80 people who had claimed asylum here as Somalis had previously been granted a UK visa using a Tanzanian identity.

Tip of the iceberg! 

“This is only the tip of the iceberg”, the official predicted last night….

Yup!

Update:  Identity problem keeps supposed Somali woman from marrying in Ireland, here.  LOL! Looks like some of these people need the services of the reality show along with Barack Obama—Who do you think you are?

Minnesota: Iraqi Muslim gets 3 years for ripping off food stamp program for $3 million

Does that sound about right to you?  Three years in jail for $3 million worth of fraud!   And, then the OBAMA Justice Department has to throw in a lesson on the phony economics of the redistribution of wealth!

This is one of the largest food stamp rip-offs I’ve reported so far in my extra-curricular hobby of reporting on immigrant fraud schemes.   I wonder if maybe we could persuade that Minnesota Humphrey School that is so interested in how much immigrants benefit the economy of Minnesota to track the criminal fraud schemes too?

Note to readers:  I started writing this post last night and used this article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, but this a.m. most of the text is gone (here is what I had last night from the story):

The former owner of a corner market in St. Paul argued before his sentencing on a massive food stamp fraud that his illegal behavior “was the product of stress and psychological instability” attributed to his ex-wife dying in the collapse of the I-35W bridge in 2007.

Khaffak S. Ansari, 46, of Arden Hills, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in St. Paul to three years and five months in prison for making illegal redemptions for cash and ineligible merchandise at the Stryker Avenue Market.

The government contended that Ansari trafficked more than $3 million in food stamp benefits from January 2006 — well before the bridge collapse — through October 2010.

Ansari argued that the figure was closer to $1.5 million. Sentencing calls for him to pay $2.4 million in restitution. [How much do you want to bet that money is already out of the country!---ed]

According to a law enforcement affidavit filed in the case, the average food stamp redemption for a similarly sized store in Minnesota between 2004 and 2009 was slightly more than $320,000. Over that same period, Stryker’s redemptions were nearly 10 times that.  [So, someone was ripping-off the taxpayer as early as 2004---ed]

In presentencing court filings, the government argued for a four-year prison term for Ansari. The defendant sought as little as three years, pointing out that his ex-wife, Julia Blackhawk, was killed in the bridge collapse three months after their divorce.

Stress made him do it!

“The nature and circumstance of the offense . . . was a product of stress and psychological instability after the death of Mr. Ansari’s [former wife] in the Highway 35W bridge collapse,” his attorney argued in a presentencing document.

This morning I see there is a much more interesting article on Ansari at the Chicago Tribune written by reporter David Hanners* of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  And, by the way, I am sure it didn’t escape your notice that Ansari had divorced his wife prior to her death on the bridge and that he had been trafficking and scamming the US taxpayer as early as 2006 (possibly earlier) and she died in 2007.

So Ansari is a refugee from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq!

His father, a doctor! made a plea to the judge to keep his sentence to as few years as possible with this sob story:

Ansari’s father, Dr. Tawfiq Ansari, a physician in North Carolina, wrote Magnuson, asking him to show “leniency and mercy to a man who was not himself for the past five years, and who loves his new adopted country so much.”  [Way to show your love of America by ripping us off! Is it justified because we are only infidels?---ed]

He said that his son, a Shi’a Muslim, had been tortured under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime in Iraq and that his son’s wounds “were not healed just hidden very deep inside.”

The father told the judge that after his son settled in Minnesota and opened the market, he seemed to be doing better. He married Julia Anne Kreider in September 2005, and the couple had a son.

In June 2006, Ansari filed for divorce. [He filed for divorce!---ed] It was granted in May 2007, and the couple “maintained a civil relationship for the sake of their son,” the father wrote.

But on Aug. 1, 2007, Julia Blackhawk, as she was then known, was one of 13 people killed in the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis.

“That left Khaffak in extreme shock and confusion,” Tawfiq Ansari told the judge. “The death of Julia turned to be a turning point in Khaffak’s life, he drifted into depression and self guilt. He started to have mood swings and an uncaring attitude towards life and his business.”

He said his son told him several times “that Julia’s death was his fault and he had to be punished for it.”

O.K. so let’s punish the guy!

Obama’s Justice Department doesn’t miss an opportunity to promote their economic redistribution theories even in a press release about a fraud case!  

LOL!  Not a mention in the release about the Muslim refugee sob story though.

Justice Department: Food stamps fuel the economy through trickle-down welfare!  Huh?  Couldn’t you also say that if the dollars were left in the hands of those who earned them (rather than the government taking them through taxes) that would also fuel the economy and do it more fairly!

From those brilliant economists at the Justice Department:

According to a 2010 USDA report, when properly functioning, SNAP benefits move into
the local economies quickly. This is important for the families that receive the benefits and the communities where the benefits are spent because SNAP has an economic multiplier effect. When SNAP operates as designed, every $5 spent in benefits generates $9 in economic activity. This benefit is supposed to accrue not only to the eligible families but also to the grocery stores where the food was purchased, the distributors who delivered the food, and ultimately the farmers who produced it. According to recent estimates, every $1 of spending on SNAP increases GDP by as much as $1.79 — a significant multiplier effect, and an increase of $1 billion in SNAP spending generates as many as 17,900 total full-time jobs.  [1, 7 and 9 must be the favorite numbers of the 'economists'---ed]

* Way to go Mr. Hanners!  Thanks for your more extensive reporting!  This is an example of the massive food stamp fraud going on in these ‘mom & pop’ stores across America—it is a huge story in need of some real investigative reporting!

Texas governor criticizes “unaccompanied minor” program of US government

Update May 9th:  More on unaccompanied illegal kids here at the Houston Chronicle.

Before you read this post, please go back to this post I wrote in March which gives one horror story of an unaccompanied minor in Galveston, TX  who had originally been ‘under the care’ of Catholic Charities (which receives payment from the feds for his and thousands of other illegal alien kids care) and has become an alleged “unaccompanied” adult sexual predator.

Here is Texas Governor Perry (via Fox News) on how this program is encouraging a boom in kids crossing the border without parents.   He also charges that Obama is actually pushing this.  Although I gotta say Perry himself allowed for another magnet for illegal kids—subsidized college education for illegal alien kids (but that is another story for another time).

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is accusing the Obama administration of “perpetuating” a recent “surge” in illegal immigrant children who are crossing into the U.S. from Mexico and Central America without their parents and often falling straight into government care.

In a letter obtained by Fox News, Perry wrote to President Obama on Friday citing stats that show more than 5,200 “unaccompanied minors” were taken into U.S. custody in the first six months of the fiscal year — a more than 90 percent increase compared with the same period a year ago.

Perry, a former Republican presidential candidate, claimed that a failure to immediately send them back is “perpetuating the problem” by encouraging other children and teenagers to make the trek. He said the journey is dangerous for the children, and their flow into the United States is a burden on his state and others. The governor urged the administration to eliminate the “temptation” to make “this tragic and illegal migration.”

The Refugee program looking for expansion into new and lucrative territory?

A recent Associated Press article on the surge reported that 1,390 unaccompanied children crossed over the border and into U.S. custody in March alone. Some have even been housed at Lackland Air Force Base on a temporary basis while they are being processed.

The children, after being initially detained by the Department of Homeland Security, are typically handed over to the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement — a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.   [where a couple of the federal "church" contractors get paid to take care of them until they "emancipate" them into the US population at age 18---ed]

I noticed the other day as I read through the testimony from the Refugee meeting in Arlington, VA last week, here, that there were many mentions of the “need” to boost this program.   Another chicken-or-egg question?   Are the kids coming anyway or are they being enticed into coming by this federal program (and the hope of amnesty through the Dream Act someday)?

Burmese refugee on trial for murder in Utah might be saved from death penalty, why?

He may have lied on his documents to get into the US and may have been under 18 when he allegedly brutally raped and murdered a little Burmese Christian girl in 2008.   Gee, I wonder where his defense lawyers got this idea (4 years later!)?  Could they have been watching the Somali trial in Tennessee where the alleged sex traffickers are using the missing birth records defense too.

Here is one of several posts I wrote about the Utah case in 2008.  I wondered then, and still do, if the accused is a Muslim.  I had heard at the time that resettlement contractors were placing Burmese Muslims in buildings and neighborhoods with Christian Burmese refugees and that the Christians feared them (since they had been enemies in their home country!).   As a matter of fact, several of the federal refugee contractors and their lobbying arm–Refugee Council USA–were pushing for more Burmese Muslims to be allowed into the US in 2013 at the meeting I attended on Tuesday.

I have never heard which of the many Burmese ethnic groups the accused, Esar Met, came from.

I wondered what happened to the case, but it looks like it finally inches toward trial with a preliminary hearing in June (4 years after the murder!).  Can you imagine how much this refugee is costing the taxpayers of Utah.  You can bet he is not in the general jail population.  There have probably been many many psychiatrist visits and expensive translators visiting regularly.  As a matter of fact, it would help to know which ethnic dialect he speaks—we would know then if he is a Muslim.

Here is a reform idea!  The resettlement contractor which brought Met to Utah should pay his legal expenses!  Maybe they would then push the Department of Homeland Security and the US State Department to do a better job of screening “refugees!”

From AP in an Indiana newspaper:

SALT LAKE CITY — Attorneys for a Burmese refugee accused of a South Salt Lake killing say there’s no proof he was an adult when the crime happened, and the death penalty should be taken off the table.

Esar Met’s birthday is listed as January 1987, which means he would have been 21 when 7-year-old refugee girl Hser Ner Moo was found dead in his apartment in spring 2008.

But attorneys filed a motion in Salt Lake City’s 3rd District Court this week saying Met and his family aren’t sure of the man’s date or year of birth.

“There is no existing paperwork, and there likely never was any paperwork, documenting the date of Mr. Met’s birth in Burma,” the documents say.

It would be illegal to execute Met if he were younger than 18 at the time of the crime, according to the motion. Lawyers cite a 2005 Supreme Court ruling that banned capital punishment for minors.

Not knowing a birthday isn’t uncommon among refugees.

So he lied to those doing security clearances for the US?  Readers, we don’t really know who we are letting into the country.  And, we have heard that in some Burmese camps a criminal can get into camp and literally steal the identity of someone else.

Salt Lake County prosecutor Rob Parrish told the Associated Press on Friday that the lack of documents “creates complications, but it’s not insurmountable.”

His office is researching a response to the motion in advance of Met’s preliminary hearing, which is set for June.

Parrish said refugees sometimes encounter similar problems while trying to determine whether they’re old enough to get a driver’s license or to enroll in a specific program.

Just as I was about to post this, I came across this article I missed in 2010 in which we are told that authorities had trouble finding Met’s family members in Arizona, but the article wraps up with a report that Met’s mother says he was even older than 21 at the time of the alleged crime.   However, if as the defense argues Met was a teenager at the time of the murder, why wasn’t he still with his family?  Why was he resettled in another state?  Was he a perhaps a fraudulent family reunification case?  So many questions!

More single young men on the way to the US from Malta

These men are Africans who arrived illegally in Malta and were transformed into refugees so that they might be resettled in your town in America.   Legitimate refugees are expected to be granted or denied asylum in the first safe country in which they arrive—in this case Malta (a member of the European Union)—but as of 2007, the US (the Bush State Department!) changed the rules apparently under pressure from Jesuits in Malta  and began the unprecedented policy of just taking them off Malta’s and Europe’s hands.

LOL!  It would be like us asking Malta (Europe) to take some of our illegal aliens from Mexico because we have too many.

Here is the latest news from The Malta Independent:

31 persons from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan including a family of three and 28 single adult men left today to start a new life in the United States, under the US Refugee Resettlement Program (USRRP).  On arrival, they will be assisted by NGOs in the US to proceed to their final destinations in various states.

This latest departure brings the total of beneficiaries of international protection who were resettled to the United States from Malta since 2007 to 958 migrants. Since the start of the USRRP in 2008, the number of beneficiaries of protection resettled to the United States amounts to 930.

To date, 147 migrants have been resettled from Malta to the United States of America during 2012. Such resettlements to the United States will continue in the coming weeks.

In all 1,592 refugees and beneficiaries of international protection have been relocated or resettled to various other developed countries since 2005.

Search RRW for “Malta” for more on this initiative that only encourages more illegal economic migrants to cross the Mediterranean in hopes of winning the “refugee” lottery and being airlifted to America at American taxpayer expense. How much do you want to bet the single men will be dropped off in a meat packing town?

And, I wonder when we will start helping other countries with their illegal immigrant populations of single adult men—will it be Greece next, or Italy?

Now Somalis get Temporary Protected Status extension

Basically what this means is that around 1000 plus Somalis (that they know of!) who got into the US illegally are now eligible to sign up to stay and work.

I’ve written about TPS extensively, just search for “Temporary Protected Status” to learn what a fraud this “legal” program is—there are a couple hundred thousand Central Americans (among others!) staying here permanently under this “temporary” designation, now Somalis continue to get a free pass too.

From Minnesota Public Radio:

St. Paul, Minn. — Somali nationals with no other legal means to stay in the US can now apply for temporary protected status.

The status allows Somalis currently in the US to stay here.

The government first designated Somalis as eligible for the status in 2001. The protection from deportation expires about every 18 months.  [And it is always extended!---ed]

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano decided to reauthorize the status, citing the poor living conditions, armed conflicts, and lasting effects from severe drought.

John Keller, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota says few Somalis in the state have temporary status, but Napolitano’s decision will allow more to apply for the designation.

“The government basically has decided that things continue to be so bad in Somalia that even people who’ve recently arrived or who are transitioning between statuses should get this protection,” Keller said.

The Department of Homeland Security says about 250 Somalis nationwide are eligible to re-register for temporary protected status while fewer than 1,000 people will be eligible for the first time.

The truth is they have no clue how many are here with “no legal means to stay.”

Minnesota US Senator Klobuchar cheers the decision to allow our “friends” to stay, here.

I guess those Somali deportation stories are a bunch of hogwash!

Canada: Tamil Tigers on board the MV Sun Sea; Tigers in Oakland?

So what else did you expect!

I should be writing about yesterday’s State Department meeting where federal contractors made their pitches for more refugees for FY2013 and I will get to that shortly (I hope), but to add a little variety to our stories about bureaucracy in Washington, I’m posting this update of a story I wrote about back in 2010—Sri Lankans loaded on ships and taken to Canada by human smugglers, here.  Canadian immigration officials are sorting through the nearly 500 illegal entrants from this one ship to sort out the terrorist Tigers from legitimate asylum seekers.

By the way, here is a little Tiger trivia:   Tamil Tigers are famous for pioneering the use of the suicide belt.

From the National Post:

Deportation orders have been issued against two more of the 492 Sri Lankan refugee claimants who arrived off the B.C. coast in 2010 aboard the smuggling ship MV Sun Sea.

In separate decisions, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada ordered the expulsion of both men, ruling one had engaged in people smuggling and the other had been a member of a Tamil rebel group.

The cases bring to 19 the number of Sun Sea migrants who have been issued deportation orders to date. All have been declared inadmissible to Canada due to their involvement in terrorism and crime.

“Canada opens its doors to those who work hard and play by the rules. However, we must crack down on those who seek to take advantage of our generosity, often for financial gain,” Julie Carmichael, spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, said Tuesday.

Neither of the latest deportees was named in the heavily edited rulings released to the National Post, but one was found to have served in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam between 2005 and 2006, when he was in his mid-20s.

Read the whole article, there is lots of interesting information about trafficking and what it costs and who is making a fortune from it.  Makes me wonder again who is trafficking Somalis into the US.

Sri Lankans to Oakland!

This reminds me that the US State Department and the International Rescue Committee helped Australia with a little illegal immigration problem of theirs by taking illegal alien Sri Lankans off the Australians hands in 2010 and placing them in Oakland, CA.   Here is the story I wrote nearly two years ago.   And, this is a point I made in my testimony to the State Department—Congress should forbid the use of this program for other foreign policy objectives.

Just a reminder that the International Rescue Committee’s Anne Richard has been confirmed as Obama’s pick to head the State Department refugee program.  Another contractor is now in charge of doling out the federal bucks (your bucks!).  She started her work this week by traveling to Switzerland, Iraq and Jordan.