Former British Foreign Secretary to head large US federal refugee contractor—the IRC

Update March 28th:   The salary issue is a big deal for readers, here.

The International Rescue Committee, one of nine US refugee resettlement contractors (second largest in terms of number of refugees it resettles) is hiring David Miliband, one of the last of the so-called Blairites to oversee its multi-million dollar operation headquartered in New York City.  The present chairman, former President of Columbia University, Charles Rupp will pass the reins (and presumably the huge salary* he receives) to Miliband in September.

New President of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband

Here is the IRC’s press release (Miliband is also a global-warming-is-destroying-the-planet believer! Climate refugees here we come!):

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) today announced the appointment of David Miliband, 47, former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, as its president and CEO, effective September this year. He will succeed George Rupp, who has led the global humanitarian relief and development organization since stepping down as president of Columbia University in 2002.

Over the last 15 years, Miliband has had a distinguished political career in the United Kingdom. From 2007 to 2010, he served as the youngest U.K. Foreign Secretary in three decades, driving advancements in human rights and representing the United Kingdom throughout the world. In 2006, as U.K. Secretary of State for the Environment, he spearheaded the groundbreaking Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill, establishing the world’s first legally binding framework for reducing carbon emissions.

[....]

“David is an experienced world leader and a man of both action and character,” Rupp said, “as his record as Foreign Secretary — including his work for conflict resolution in the former Yugoslavia, his leadership in calling for a political settlement in Afghanistan, and his drive for education reform in Pakistan and human rights in Sri Lanka — attests. His insights, ability and commitment will be tremendous assets. I look forward to witnessing this next exciting chapter of the IRC’s incredible journey of helping the most desperate people move from harm to home.”

Read it all.  There is a big smooch from Bill Clinton near the end.

Miliband is the eldest son of Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband (here at wikipedia) and here the UK Daily Mail gives us some juicy bits of information on the politician who is quitting politics (ha! ha!) for a “dream job” running a charity.  In fact, in his new job Miliband will have a larger world stage on which to be a politician and have a huge salary from the US taxpayer to boot! (Take that brother Ed!).   Indeed, the IRC is one of those NGOs (non-governmental organizations) mucking around in world affairs behind the scenes (CIA?) and they get to do it hiding under a ‘white hat’ humanitarian cover.

This is going to be fun to watch!

Photo:  The photo of Miliband is one of many at the UK Daily Mail story on Miliband’s dream job, so please go read the story!

* Huge salary I mentioned most recently here in December:

The IRC (which wants your nursing services for free) is a $431 million dollar organization which gets $247 million from YOU, the taxpayer (page 9 of their most recent Form 990, here).  And, guess where you have to go to find out the salaries being paid at the IRC?  Page 254 of their 299-page Form 990.  George Rupp, their head honcho makes a cool $447,432 in salary and benefits which beats Obama’s $400,000 salary!

Leftwing do-gooders and big business join forces to bring in the immigrants

According to a new report by the Sunlight Foundation, $1.5 billion has been spent by mega-corporations (seeking compliant and cheap labor) for a lobbying campaign in support of “comprehensive immigration reform” (aka amnesty) over the last five years.

If you are a “progressive” (or LOL! one of the ‘church’ federal refugee contractors) now joined at the hip with big business, doesn’t that give you just the tiniest moment of pause?  In fact, doesn’t that put you in the Wall Street fat cat camp?

Catholic Charities in Boston announcing support for “comprehensive immigration reform” in 2010. Money! Money! Money!

From the Daily Caller:

A loose alliance of business and political groups has spent almost $1.5 billion since late 2007 to rewrite the nation’s immigration law according to a new report.

The flood of money hired 3,136 lobbyists at 678 lobbying groups to pass one or more of 987 small or large bills, said the March 25 report from the  Sunlight Foundation.

“[I]n the five years (2008-2012) since the reform last died on the Senate floor, we count 6,712 quarterly lobbying reports filed by 678 lobbying organizations in 170 sectors mentioning 987 unique bills, associated with more than $1.5 billion in lobbying spending,” the Sunlight Foundation’s Lee Drutman and Alexander Furnas write.

The report corroborates lobbyists’ recent comments to The Daily Caller that business and progressive groups are spending very heavily to pass a joint “comprehensive immigration bill” this year, which could include enhanced guest worker program and some form of amnesty.

The report doesn’t even take into account the money spent in 2013!

The Sunlight Foundation’s report, however, does not focus on the 2013 fight….

Kind of amazing how much money it takes to make the American public do something it doesn’t want to do!

Endnote:  the photo is from this press release from Catholic Charities.

Senator Leahy, cheered on by the “human rights” industry, introduces bill (again) to get more refugees into US

Senators Levin and Leahy first introducing their bill in 2010.

Before you read latest news about Senator Patrick Leahy’s bill, be sure to check out my previous post, here, about the 138 million migrants worldwide who want to get into the US.

And, I just saw more incredible information from VDARE about how one liberal Brit has figured out that letting the world into the UK was a huge mistake!

Here is Human Rights First gushing over the Refugee Protection Act of 2013  (what about the American worker protection act?).  The Human Rights gang wants this bill focused mostly on making asylum easier to obtain, to get more money for the contractors, and to become part of so-called “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Washington, D.C. – Human Rights First welcomes the introduction of the Refugee Protection Act of 2013, legislation the group notes would repair many of the most severe problems in the U.S. asylum and refugee systems and strengthen the U.S. commitment to providing refuge to victims of religious, political, ethnic and other forms of persecution. The group notes that the bill should be included in the final immigration reform package expected to emerge this year. Notably, like the president’s immigration reform principles, this bill eliminates the asylum filing deadline and makes improvements to our nation’s immigration courts.

Eleanor Acer: We have a badly damaged asylum system.  Millions of vulnerable refugees can’t get into US, and need more social services when they do!

“Immigration reform offers an important opportunity to consider and enact the Refugee Protection Act.  Refugee protection is an essential element of U.S. immigration policy, and  despite this country’s strong tradition of protecting refugees from persecution, a barrage of laws, policies and practices have badly damaged our asylum system over the years,” said Human Rights First’s Eleanor Acer. “These flaws have led the United States to deny its protection to refugees who have fled from serious political, religious and other forms of persecution. The Refugee Protection Act would address many of these concerns and help restore our nation’s commitment to protecting vulnerable refugees.” The bill was also introduced in the 112th and 111th Congresses.

The bill to get more refugees through the screening process and to make it easier for asylum seekers to be granted asylum is sponsored by the following Senators and Members of Congress—the list is no surprise!   Ms. Acer continues:

 The Refugee Protection Act of 2013 is championed in the Senate by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and co-sponsored by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI). Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)  introduced a companion bill in the House that is co-sponsored by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Jared Polis (D-CO), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and Peter Welch (D-VT).

Check out the 77-page bill here and note that Section 23 would authorize more $$$ for the contractors.  Yikes!  After a quick scan, I recommend that everyone interested in how the refugee program is being (mis)managed better read this bill.  With Congress’s penchant for creating thousand-page bills which no one reads, this could easily be incorporated into a massive “comprehensive immigration reform” bill.

More people willing to speak and write negatively about refugees, and mass migration generally

When I started writing Refugee Resettlement Watch nearly six years ago (this is my 4,001st post!), rarely, except at VDARE (and the Center for Immigration Studies occasionally), would anyone utter a word about “refugees” other than in the most reverential tones.  Refugees were the untouchables, but that seems to be changing.  Fear of the collapse of the West due to mass migration is openly being discussed.

Now, the word “refugee” is no longer sacrosanct.   Here Daniel Greenfield last week calls the migration of the third world to the first world what it is—colonization, with no end in sight.   They are coming and are not assimilating (if that’s what you have been counting on!).

The old paradigm that a country has the right to decide who enters it has been decisively overturned in Europe, it’s under siege in such first world countries as America, Canada, Australia and Israel by the creed that says it’s the human rights obligation of every nation to accept every refugee.

Given a chance a sizable portion of the third world would move to the first, a minority because of oppression and a majority because the opportunities and freebies are much better there. Even low ranked first world nations still find themselves swamped with refugees looking to move in.

International law does not assign any priority to a nation’s citizens over any person who happens to stray across the border. At the ground level that means the end of borders and the end of citizenship which is why immigration isn’t just a touchy issue in Arizona, it’s a touchy issue in Sydney, Tel Aviv and Birmingham. You can hardly open a newspaper of the liberal persuasion without being treated to another group of refugees in some troubled part of the world walled up behind fences and trying to get over to London, Sydney or New York.   [Watch for it!  Syrians next?---ed]

This sort of thing can’t be called immigration anymore, it’s a straightforward migration and it has no apparent limits. However many you take in, there will be more waiting and always burdening you with an unsolvable crisis.

Read it all!

POTUS?

Ann Coulter for President! says Peter Brimelow at VDARE

Coulter spoke at CPAC yesterday and probably assured herself a disinvite next year (just as happened to Pamela Geller)* when Coulter declared that she was a one issue voter and would support only candidates opposing amnesty for illegal aliens.

She said with no equivocation that Ted Kennedy’s 1965 mass migration strategy will kill America.  And, remember that was not about illegal aliens already in the US, but opened the doors of America to mass migration from the third world.

Check it out here at VDARE and watch her speech (in my view the most significant CPAC speech this year).

Has she assured her place in Grover’s ‘war on loud bullfrogs’ enemies list?   You betcha!

*Update!  Funny! Breitbart.com organized a panel for the un-invited including Geller and Robert Spencer—watch Spencer finger Suhail Khan and Grover Norquist!

Menendez: ‘Temporary refugees’ should have a path to citizenship

Yes, that is from the beleaguered New Jersey Senator, Robert  Menendez now facing corruption charges.  Could that Gang of Eight soon become the Gang of Seven?

Democrat Senator Robert Menendez, member of the Gang of Eight, under fire in NJ. Photo: Star Ledger

The story about immigrants with Temporary Protected Status wanting to become citizens (because honestly they are already permanent!) needs some clarification before you read it.

A migrant with TPS status can do anything a legal American citizen can do except vote.

Those with TPS status (El Salvador leads the pack) first got into the US illegally—they were first illegal aliens!   Then as a result of something going on in their home country—a civil war, a big storm, an earthquake—the benevolent US crafted this program so that they wouldn’t be immediately returned to a country that was struggling to recover at that moment.

We understood that at some point they would go home!  That is not to be, every year one or or the other of the eight nationalities gets an extension and this has gone on for decades.   (You can see the eight favored groups, here).  We recently added Syrians to TPS, but heck, why is Somalia still on there when we are told it’s safe to go home?

Remittances are a driving force behind keeping this program going as we knew, but was brought home recently with comments from Maryland Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez here at my other blog.   American money sent abroad props up governments.

And, by the way, CASA de Maryland was born out of the so-called ‘sanctuary movement’ when Quakers (among other “religious” people) broke the law by bringing Salvadorans across the border in the early 1980′s here (scroll down to second half of the post, links to Betty “rainbow” Hoover no longer work).

With that background, here then is the story from ABC yesterday (emphasis mine):

 An immigration reform bill being drafted in the Senate may offer an expedited path to citizenship to nearly 300,000 people who are currently in the U.S. under a temporary program designed to protect people who face physical danger in their own country.   [Faced physical danger maybe in the past---ed]

The program in question is called Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and it allows people to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation if they follow the law. But the status offers no formal pathway to citizenship, and some immigrants have been here for decades without being able to apply for a green card.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a member of a bipartisan group working on a Senate immigration bill, told the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión on Tuesday that the details still weren’t finalized, but that such a pathway should be considered as part of reform.

“I think that it’s expected that these people, that have been here under a legal avenue, should have some possibility to change their status in a quicker manner,” Menendez said. “[We] haven’t reach a final agreement in respect to that.”

The program, which was part of a large-scale immigration law passed in 1990, gives certain immigrants who are already in the U.S. a way to remain in the country if they face imminent dangers in their home country, such as a civil war or a natural disaster. Temporary Protected Status was born because existing refugee and asylum programs weren’t adequately addressing the needs of immigrants fleeing countries like El Salvador, which was enmeshed in civil war in the 1980s and early ’90s, according to Anwen Hughes, senior counsel at Human Rights First, a nonpartisan group that works on immigration issues. Two-thirds of people living in the country under TPS are Salvadorean.

[.....]

Some conservative critics have said that the program is problematic because it isn’t actually temporary. Salvadorans, for example, were re-authorized for TPS after a series of earthquakes in 2001, and have been eligible for the status ever since. At this point, many Salvadorans with TPS have established roots in the U.S., so if that status was suddenly revoked, it could mean expelling residents who have been living and working in the country for decades.

Type ‘temporary protected status’ into our search function to learn more about this racket.

Yes! The Barbarians are at the gate(s) of Europe

They are at the Gates of Vienna and they are at the Brandenburg Gate in Germany demanding they be allowed to stay. Some, as this gushy piece in the International Herald Tribune (appropriately titled: Barbarians at the Gate) tells us, are “asylum shoppers” meaning they have been turned down for refugee status in another western country and now are camping on public streets in Germany demanding stuff.

Here is writer Lucian Kim making sure the reader hears the warm and fuzzy side of the nice folks just yearning for a better life!  And, it’s all about how Germans don’t like outsiders, don’t you know!  (emphasis below is mine)

BERLIN — There’s a refugee camp in the center of the German capital filled with people who have fled conflicts around the world. They sleep in tents and eat donated food. Almost all of them are breaking German law just by being here.

For more than four months, about 50 asylum seekers and their supporters have been braving the elements on a square in Berlin’s bohemian Kreuzberg neighborhood. The Occupy-style camp appeared in October after a group of refugees marched from Bavaria to Berlin to protest Germany’s restrictive asylum law. Some even held a hunger strike at the Brandenburg Gate.

Refugees shout slogans during a protest by asylum seekers calling for fairer treatment from authorities, as they pass through Brandenburg Gate in Berlin October 13, 2012. Credit: REUTERS

Their main demand: the abolition of the so-called “Residenzpflicht,” or residence requirement, which limits asylum seekers’ freedom of movement while their applications are pending. Critics contend [pdf] that Germany is the only country in the European Union with such a restriction, and that the regulation’s real purpose is to isolate and intimidate refugees.

When I visited the camp on Monday, laundry hung over unmade beds and worn couches inside one of the tents. Two gas heaters gasped against the cold seeping up through the pallets that raised the floor from the ground. A photographer’s lamp provided the only light.

This is where Waleed Mohamed Adam lives. The soft-spoken 28-year-old said he had fled his home in Darfur in 2007, reaching Europe via Libya. He has lost all contact with his family.

And he has no documents. As Adam put it, “My fingerprints are in the Netherlands.” Because his asylum application there was denied, he can’t get a second hearing in Germany and faces deportation.   [The EU doesn't allow "shopping" for another country if you've been previously denied, so you can bet there is much more to Adam's story---ed]

Gee, could that be “soft spoken” Waleed Mohamed Adam with his fist raised in that photo from October?

The squatters were given the equivalent of $300 a month to live on, but demanded and got $500 from that  foreigner-hating German government!

Kim continues:

Without any legal status, the refugees aren’t treated much better than criminals. They find themselves in a trap: Dependent on meager state handouts because they are restricted from working or studying, they are under constant suspicion of milking the social welfare system.

This contemptuous treatment was confirmed by Germany’s Constitutional Court in July, when it ruled that the $300 monthly allowance for refugees — which hadn’t been adjusted in 19 years — must be raised to the minimum social benefits granted to Germans, about $500.

[.....]

Germany’s harsh asylum law reveals its lingering discomfort with “ausländer,” or foreigners — even as an aging, shrinking indigenous population is projected to lose its standard of living unless it welcomes immigrants.  [Does Kim actually believe that opening a western country to mass immigration---to colonizers---from the third world will improve the living standards of westerners!---ed]

Kim tells us there is one woman in the camp and she speaks fluent English. I suspect she is the Commie agitator in this group.  This is about flooding the West with needy third-worlders to bring instability and chaos and to ultimately bring down capitalism.  They have advanced pretty far don’t you think!

….. The only woman in the camp, Napuli Paul Langa is a born leader. Although she had to break off her schooling in her native South Sudan, she speaks fluent English. She said she had to flee because of her human rights activism. [If she really cared about human rights she would stay and fight for her own country! How can anyone fall for this propaganda!---ed]

She didn’t expect to have to carry on that struggle in Germany. In November, Langa was one of the refugees’ delegates at a meeting with members of Parliament that turned out to be fruitless.

“This is the fighting place, the political place,” she said of the camp. “We’re staying here. We’re going to protest in the streets until they meet our demands.”

Kim has more, read it all.

They are squatting and demanding all over Europe, here in the Netherlands and then there is poor Greece.  You can bet this is all a coordinated strategy.

Maryland Delegate: “…money is a principal driver of the foreign governments’ interest in immigration reform.”

Editors note:  I posted this yesterday at Potomac Tea Party Report but since we frequently write about “Temporary” Refugees here, I thought this might be of interest to RRW readers as well.

That quote would be from Del. Ana Sol GUTIERREZ  of  Montgomery County, Maryland when she was being interviewed by The Hill a week ago on why she wants her El Salvadoran countrymen, who are now here on Temporary Protected Status, included in “comprehensive immigration reform.”  In fact, she wants them first in line.

She is referring to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came here illegally decades ago, but were given “temporary” refugee status (because back home there was a long-ago civil war or more likely a big storm or earthquake) and can do everything any American can do except vote.  However, they do get drivers licenses and I’ll bet you a buck they vote!

So what’s this about money to foreign governments?  And, beyond humanitarian concern?

Gutierrez in front of Salvadoran Money transfer business. Photo credit: Greg Dohler/The Gazette

The Hill tells us it is all about “remittances” here (emphasis mine):

Foreign governments are working hard to shape the debate on immigration reform as momentum for a comprehensive bill builds in Congress.

[....]

A number of countries with significant immigration ties to the United States — notably Mexico, Ireland and several Central American nations — have been making their concerns known while doing their best to avoid meddling in domestic affairs.

For many countries, the issue goes beyond humanitarian concern: Remittances from foreign nationals living in the U.S. provide a significant boost to the economies of their home countries.

Mexicans are here illegally but many Central Americans have TPS:

An estimated 7 million Mexicans in the country illegally stand to benefit from reform.

While Mexico has adopted a wait-and-see attitude, other countries have specific changes they hope to see in the law. However, they’re happy to do so discreetly — letting American groups take the lead.

That’s the case with El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, three countries whose citizens have long been eligible for a temporary immigration status first offered in the wake of the civil wars of the 1980s.

The countries hope that immigration reform will include a path to permanent legal status, and eventually citizenship, for the estimated 300,000 or so Central Americans who are in the United States under the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which is up for renewal periodically. [LOL! for Salvadorans it was renewed just in time for the November 2012 election!---ed]

Gutierrez:  We want the Salvadorans first in line

The Salvadoran embassy has requested updated data from U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services, said Maryland state Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D), a Salvadoran-American immigration activist.

The embassy reached out to other embassies to do the same in order to get a better sense of how many Central Americans currently benefit from the program. El Salvador is believed to have about 210,000 of its citizens currently in the U.S. under the program.

“We just need to be able to say, ‘These are the people we want to be first in line because they’ve already been here,’ ” Gutierrez said. “First of all, they have to pass background checks every 18 months, they have to pay taxes, they’ve been here with a legal status.

So far! (So far!) “Temporary” refugees are not included in Obama’s amnesty plan.  Let the squabbling begin!

TPS reform is not included in the principles of the White House immigration reform proposal, Gutierrez said.

So readers, the next time someone puts you on an emotional guilt-trip about the poor and downtrodden seeking a “better future,” remember! as I said yesterday, this is all being driven by money for big businesses in need of cheap labor and by foreign governments  propping up their economies as Gutierrez makes clear!

The Hill story continues:

Gutierrez said money is a principal driver of the foreign governments’ interest in immigration reform.

[....]

Total remittances to El Salvador in 2010 were $3.6 billion in 2010.

For Mexico, the figure was $22.7 billion, or 2.1 percent of GDP.

That says it all, fewer jobs for Americans because we need to prop-up the third world.

Read the entire Hill story, there is much more.

For more on the TPS racket, see all of our previous posts at Potomac Tea Party Report .  And here are the posts at RRW on the topic.

Christian RIGHT now shilling for big business/Muslims and supporting “comprehensive immigration reform”

(Just an aside) I’m sure it hasn’t escaped readers here at RRW that “comprehensive” never includes reforming the refugee resettlement program.

An Act of God or an Act of Grover (Norquist)?

The coalition largely driven (up to now) by big business (cheap labor!), the Christian Left, and the hard core Open Borders Socialists, can say they have won over the generally conservative Christian Right according to this article in Politico yesterday (hat tip: Robin):

The usual suspects pushing immigration reform have a new ally in the fight this time — the religious right.

Christian conservatives, who stayed on the sidelines in 2006 or opposed reform outright, have sprung into action for the cause.

They’re talking to their congregations from the pulpit. They’re urging lawmakers in private meetings to support reform. And they’re even calling for change publicly.

The efforts have dramatically changed the dynamics of the debate, so much so that Republicans anxious to vote yes on a deal might have the political cover to do it.

“I think it is night and day, particularly among social conservatives,” Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Ralph Reed told POLITICO of the support for immigration reform.

Reed’s group released a letter Tuesday that outlines broad goals for reform, like keeping families together, reforming the visa system and securing the border.

High profile leaders are also weighing in. Mathew Staver, vice president of Liberty University, the college started by former TV minister Jerry Falwell, is on board. Focus on the Family, which for years has focused on issues like opposing abortion rights and gay marriage, is supporting immigration reform for the first time in its history — even using its radio broadcast that reaches millions to push its message.

Giving cover!

Social conservatives are directly targeting GOP offices and trying to show that they can give cover to lawmakers in the South, West and Midwest, who are worried about facing retaliation at the ballot box in 2014.

Just because they have the word “evangelical” in their name doesn’t make them conservatives!

Nearly a dozen groups, including Bread for the World, Esperanza, Christian Community Development Association and the National Association of Evangelicals, have launched a 40-day “I was a stranger” campaign asking parishioners to read a bible verse dealing with immigrants each day.  [Is your church doing this? Tell them you are offended or find another church---ed]

The National Association of Evangelicals is the parent organization of World Relief one of the big nine federal refugee contractors.   From its Form 990 (2010) note that they are a $53 million dollar a year organization and YOU the taxpayer funded them that year to the tune of $31 million.   It has been my view that these refugee contractors are nothing more than head-hunters for the service industry, the meatpacking giants  and other industries in need of cheap captive labor disguising themselves as humanitarians.  A side benefit is that the immigrants are in need of welfare and become Democrat voters.

So where does Norquist the Islamist come in?

Doesn’t Republican Norquist see that immigrants in the first generations vote for Democrats?  Could it all just be about money from his industry supporters that Norquist cares about?  Or is he really interested in a specific subset of immigrants?

This closing section of the Politico story has Norquist written all over it—Ali Noorani is Grover’s Pakistani buddy (big smooch from Noorani to Grover ), and this is classic Norquist strategy:

It’s not just religious leaders looking to help galvanize support from social conservatives. The National Immigration Forum has created its “Bibles, Badges and Business” effort that targets conservative lawmakers by bringing in pastors, law enforcement and business owners into the debate. The group helped facilitate more than 70 meetings on Capitol Hill in December, of which 56 were with Republicans.

NIF is preparing to roll out a formal network to help provide a vehicle for sharing and strategy.

Ali Noorani, head of the forum, said it just makes sense when looking at how immigration reform is going to get passed.

“A conservative voter is going to listen to a conservative leader, especially in conservative states,” Noorani said. “From our perspective, this is about voters hearing from their pastor police chief or business — why their Republican member of Congress needs to be supported in this push for immigration reform.”

For more on Ali Noorani who created the political agitation group Massachusetts Immigrants & Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), see my previous posts here.

Also, see Discover the Networks (DTN) about Noorani’s National Immigration Forum(NIF).  Although the entry is several years old, DTN lists the board members at the time:

The NIF Board of Directors includes such notables as: (a) James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute; and (b) Jeanne Butterfield, currently the Executive Director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and formerly the Director of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, which acted as the political arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Also sitting on the NIF Board are members of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Service Employees International Union, and the Los Angeles branch of the Central American Refugee Center, which backed the Communists in El Salvador’s civil war and helped pioneer the “sanctuary” movement to subvert American immigration law.  [For Maryland readers, the sanctuary movement brought us CASA de Maryland--ed]

Here is today’s NIF board (Jeb Bush is on it!).

For more on Norquist, see my archive here.

Update!  New poll! Most Americans want illegal immigrants to go home and will support the political party that stands for enforcing immigration laws!

Samantha Power, White House Iraqi refugee czar, Soros protege’ leaving Obama Administration

Power, also the architect of Obama’s excellent adventure in Libya, was supposed to have led an intergovernmental reform of the Refugee Resettlement Program which never happened unless you consider throwing more money to the contractors a reform!  By the way, she once served as a director of the wealthiest refugee resettlement contractor (funded largely by US taxpayers)—the International Rescue Committee (George Rupp, their head honcho makes a cool $447,432 in salary and benefits which beats Obama’s $400,000 salary!)

Human Rights First cheered her role as Iraqi refugee czar at the White House here in 2009.  But, by 2011 Power was quoted (by Joe Klein) as saying she wanted more exciting work then the “rinkey-dink do-gooder stuff”  of helping beleaguered Christians in Iraq.  So she moved on to working with Obama’s female hawks to oust Gaddafi from Libya (we see how that is working out!).  Well, heck, the move produced a whole new wave of refugees in need of resettlement services from the federal contractors!

Power’s name came up as a possible second-term pick for either UN Ambassador if Susan Rice moved up to the Secretary of State position we all know went to John Kerry.   There had even been talk that Power, a Soros protege’, might be in line to fill her nemesis’ shoes at State.  Remember Power called Hillary a “monster” during the 2008 Presidential primary campaign.

We have a lot of posts on Power, you can check them out here.

The percentage of white men surrounding the President just went up!

Here is Bloomberg on Power’s leave-taking (for now anyway):

Samantha Power, one of President Barack Obama’s top advisers on national security and a longtime aide, is leaving the administration, at least temporarily, to focus on family matters, a White House spokesman said.

Power, director for multilateral affairs and human rights at the National Security Council, has served as an aide to Obama since his 2008 presidential campaign and is a Pulitzer Prize- winning author for her book on genocide. She has two young children, one three years old and the other eight months.

Power probably will return to the administration, though no decisions have been made on what her future role might be, according to the spokesman, Tommy Vietor.

“Samantha has been a powerful voice in this administration and a longtime friend and adviser to the president,” Vietor said. “We will miss her at the NSC, and we look forward to continuing the president’s work promoting human rights and dignity.”

Power, 42, who successfully advocated for the 2011 intervention in Libya on humanitarian grounds, has played a central role in discussions over how far the U.S. should go to protect civilians from repressive regimes.   [Her 'responsibility to protect' doctrine is a thinly disguised excuse to send the US to war---ed]

[....]

Her departure comes as Obama has been criticized for not appointing a sufficient number of women to high-profile posts as he forms his second-term team.

Should Norquist and Napolitano decide our immigration policy?

Editors note:  This is cross-posted from Potomac Tea Party Report and mostly involves illegal immigration which we mention here from time to time.  Also there are ramifications for asylum because if a path to citizenship is available for all those who entered the US illegally, then surely the thousands of pending asylum cases would become moot literally overnight should “comprehensive immigration reform” come to pass.

Of course the answer is a resounding NO (to Norquist and Napolitano)!

But, having these two—Grover Norquist and Janet Napolitano—as the poster children for so-called “comprehensive immigration reform” is good for us (the side whose adherents see the rush, to legalize 11 million workers and dependents on the social safety net, as America committing suicide.)

Two stories over the weekend are worth mentioning.

First The Hill reports that the “gang of eight” would let the Secretary of Homeland Security determine if the border is sufficiently secure to grant what amounts to amnesty for the 11 million illegal aliens presently in the country.

Under a bipartisan Senate framework, Democrats say, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano would have final say over whether the border is secure enough to put 11 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.

If Napolitano does not provide the green light for putting illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship, the responsibility for judging whether the metrics for border security have been met will be given to her successor. [And just for a minute imagine the stampede to the border this legislation would unleash if signed into law!---ed]

The early debate over immigration reform has yielded two thorny questions: What metrics will be used to determine whether the goals for border security and other safeguards against illegal immigration have been met? Who will decide whether the metrics have been achieved?

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the lead Democratic sponsor of the bipartisan immigration reform framework unveiled this past week, said Napolitano should decide.

“What we’ve proposed is that the DHS secretary, whomever it is, will have final say on [whether] whatever metrics we proposes are met,” Schumer said. “We think those metrics will be quite objective.”

Grover Norquist

(LOL! gotta keep my Norquist files up-to-date)

This story from the Daily Caller highlights Grover Norquist as one of the chief proponents of open borders and a corporate gun for hire.

Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist’s insistence that large-scale immigration is good for America and the Republican Party is attracting intense criticism from policy advocates who see him as a pawn of corporate interests.

“There are a whole bunch of people who are listening to loud voices, some of whom claim to be Republican … talking about [employers] who didn’t fill out the paperwork, about going after [an immigrant’s] aunt,” said Norquist, whose opposition to tax increases has made him popular among Republicans and a hate-figure among progressives.

Once advocates for tighter immigration are sidelined, the GOP will be able to win votes from Hispanics and other recent immigrants, he said.

“Removing that threat [of deportation] from millions of Americans will make it possible to have a conversation with [immigrants] about tax policy and spending, and all the other issues we have with legal Americans.”  [Oh sure Grover, as soon as they are legalized they will want to sit down to talk about tax policy---hell, most won't make enough money to be among the taxpaying members of the public. And, as for spending, they will be voting for candidates who promise a larger "safety net"---ed]

His critics are equally vehement.

“Grover is an extremely effective lobbyist … [and] the thing about Grover is that he has clients who make big money off of immigration,” said Roy Beck, founder of advocacy group NumbersUSA, which helped derail previous efforts to expand immigration.

“Grover is going to do everything in his power to prevent America having a middle class … it appears he thinks oligarchy is a better way to go. … You can’t have a Republican Party when you have a voting base that is impoverished and needs government assistance.”

Norquist has been pushing to rewrite immigration policy for years, and he’s got his arguments down cold.

The Daily Caller goes on to say Norquist wouldn’t care if the immigrants were Egyptians or Uzbeks (of course not, remember Norquist is an Islamist sympathizer).  And, as we have pointed out on other occasions, the illegal aliens who would be allowed to stay are not just the friendly ones from Mexico and south, but they include Somalis, Iranians, Iraqis and the list goes on of OTMs (Other than Mexicans) coming across our southern and northern borders.  Also, don’t forget, Norquist famously said Shariah Law is compatible with the US Constitution here.