This should be a banner year for refugee resettlement in America

Iraqis top the list!

At the State Department hearing this past Wednesday in Washington, representatives from contractors US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Church World Service and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society all praised the US State Department for the expeditious arrival (so far) of refugees in FY2013.

So, just now as I checked the Palestinian arrivals at WRAPS, I see that, for only being a little over half way into the fiscal year, we have brought a larger number of refugees than usually arrive by this time.  So far, as of April 30th, we have brought in 39,778 refugees.  We could easily hit 80,000 at that rate which would be higher than previous years.

Waad Ramadan Alwan. His fingerprints were on an IED in Iraq, but he got into the US as a refugee!

Here are the top 5 nationalities of refugees resettled so far:

Iraqis:  11,066  (The State Dept. knows how many of these are Muslims and how many are Christians! See Muslim share of immigrant population growing, here)

Burmese:  9,336

Bhutanese (really Nepal): 5,067

Somalis:  4,387   (This number is so high because they re-opened family reunification for Somalis.  It had been closed  beginning in 2008 due to high levels of fraud detected.  At this rate, 2013 will come close to the highest Bush years.)

Cubans:  2,199  (could Florida’s wealthy Cubans be pushing Senator Marco Rubio?)

Hurry! Someone tell Senator Rand Paul!  Just now as I searched for a photo of  one of Bowling Green, Kentucky’s Iraqi refugee terrorists, I came across a story only a few weeks old where Paul is asking, why the heck are we bringing so many Iraqis?  Maybe Senator Paul doesn’t know that S.744 (The Gang of Eight plus Grover bill) will make it easier and provide more money for refugees and asylum seekers to get into the US!  He could do something about that!—strip all refugee/asylum provisions from the bill and hold separate hearings on the program!

If you are a new reader here, scroll back through the previous few days for stories on Somali, Chechen, and Uzbek refugee terrorists in the US (and Palestinian immigrant terrorists too!).

Palestinian alleged terror-funders arrested in Maryland

Editors note:  This is cross-posted from my other blog, Potomac Tea Party Report.  We don’t know how these Palestinians got into the US (the mainstream media is rarely curious about that), but readers here at RRW should know that we (US State Department and refugee contractors) are now taking some Palestinian “refugees” to your towns and cities (101 so far this fiscal year).  And, sheesh, I thought that this morning I could get back to my posting backlog of more mundane issues such as the State Department hearing this past week, but these Muslim terrorist stories keep breaking like the waves on Ocean City beaches!

Thanks to Jeff, here is a mind-blowing story in the Baltimore Sun on Friday about the arrest of a pair of Palestinians who have been running a multi-million dollar cigarette smuggling scam for years.  Because they lived a modest lifestyle and no one knows where all the money went, it’s a good bet it was leaving the country to fund Islamic terrorists around the world (or maybe funding them right here at home!).

We need to thank the NYPD and Commissioner Ray Kelly who unraveled the scheme from the New York end.  In Maryland our police are way too busy swatting benign conservative Americans like Terry Porter in rural towns.

And, as is the usual case, there is no mention of the brothers’ immigration status—how did they come to be living legally in America in the first place (assuming they were legal immigrants)?*

From the Baltimore Sun:

The Palestinian immigrant and his brother lived next door to each other in homes in West Ocean City, over the years opening a number of businesses throughout the area — three pizza shops, a Mexican restaurant, a liquor store, gas stations, and development companies, court records show.

This week, however, authorities in New York alleged that Basel, 42, and Samir Ramadan, 39, were also at the top of a multimillion-dollar cigarette-smuggling ring and said they believe members of the organization may have funneled some of their proceeds to terrorist groups. [Update: Photos of the Palestinian alleged terror funders are here---ed]

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the Ramadan brothers had deposited more than $55 million from their untaxed cigarette sales into small banks in and around Ocean City, making a profit of $10 million along the way.

[.....]

Only a fraction of the money has been recovered, and the brothers’ lifestyles were described by authorities as modest. That, along with alleged links among some of the members of the ring to known terrorists such as Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind cleric serving a life sentence for a conspiracy to blow up New York City landmarks, raised concerns that the money might be funding militant groups.

There is a lot more!  Read it all!

LOL! Someone should check to see if they were political donors to O’Malley and the boys!

Just for your information, we write often about food stamp fraud (trafficking) busts here at Refugee Resettlement Watch (archive here).  The majority of the scams are coming from immigrant-run convenience stores.

* We don’t resettle very many Palestinian refugees (a few in recent years) mostly because the militant Islamists in the Middle East want to leave them right there in their supposed “camps” funded largely by US taxpayers so as to remain a thorn in Israel’s side.  I don’t know how these Palestinians got into America legally.   I do think the food stamp scammers are using the Investor visas we give out like pez candy.

Pew: Christians still make up most of US immigrant population, but Muslim share is growing

No worries!  Only a quarter of a million US Muslims say violence against civilians in the name of Islam may sometimes be justified!

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life came out with a new study just yesterday about the religious make-up and size of the mostly legal immigrant population in the US.

As you read through this ponder these facts (I’ve rounded the numbers):

~ The US population is around 315 million.

~Pew says the US Muslim population as of 2011 was 2.75 million.

~We are adding roughly 1 million immigrants a year (for the past 20 years) and 100,000 of them are Muslim.

~Christians make up the largest share, but the share of Muslims and Hindus is growing.

Here are some interesting segments of Pew’s conclusions (I’ve highlighted the parts that interest me):

Over the past 20 years, the United States has granted permanent residency status to an average of about 1 million immigrants each year. These new “green card” recipients qualify for residency in a wide variety of ways – as family members of current U.S. residents, recipients of employment visas, refugees and asylum seekers, or winners of a visa lottery – and they include people from nearly every country in the world. But their geographic origins gradually have been shifting. U.S. government statistics show that a smaller percentage come from Europe and the Americas than did so 20 years ago, and a growing share now come from Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East-North Africa region.

With this geographic shift, it is likely that the religious makeup of legal immigrants also has been changing. The U.S. government, however, does not keep track of the religion of new permanent residents. As a result, the figures on religious affiliation in this report are estimates produced by combining government statistics on the birthplaces of new green card recipients over the period between 1992 and 2012 with the best available U.S. survey data on the religious self-identification of new immigrants from each major country of origin.  [US refugee program does track religious affiliation, they just don't make the information public.---ed]

While Christians continue to make up a majority of legal immigrants to the U.S., the estimated share of new legal permanent residents who are Christian declined from 68% in 1992 to 61% in 2012. Over the same period, the estimated share of green card recipients who belong to religious minorities rose from approximately one-in-five (19%) to one-in-four (25%). This includes growing shares of Muslims (5% in 1992, 10% in 2012) and Hindus (3% in 1992, 7% in 2012).

More coming from Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The geographic origins of new permanent residents have shifted markedly during the past two decades, according to U.S. government data. In 1992, a total of 41% of new permanent residents came from the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East-North Africa region or sub-Saharan Africa. By 2012, more than half (53%) of new green card holders were from those regions.

No surprise!  Most Muslim population growth in US is coming from immigration.

The estimated number of new Muslim immigrants varies from year to year but generally has been on the rise, going from roughly 50,000 in 1992 to 100,000 in 2012. Since 2008, the estimated number of Muslims becoming U.S. permanent residents has remained at or above the 100,000 level each year. [Readers, that means that probably the biggest chunk of legal Muslim immigration is coming through our refugee and asylum programs---ed]

Between 1992 and 2012, a total of about 1.7 million Muslims entered the U.S. as legal permanent residents. That constitutes a large portion of the overall U.S. Muslim population (estimated at 2.75 million as of 2011).

Most Muslim immigrants coming from Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh, Iraq, Somalia and Ethiopia.

The most common countries of origin among Muslim immigrants in 1992 included Pakistan, Iran and Bangladesh. Those countries, as well as Iraq, also were among the most likely birthplaces of Muslim immigrants to the U.S. in 2012.

In recent years, a higher percentage of Muslim immigrants have been coming from sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 16% of Muslim immigrants to the U.S. in 2012 were born in countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia. In 1992, only about 5% of new Muslim immigrants came from sub-Saharan Africa.  [Whew! That means about 16,000 Somalis and Ethiopians came last year!  Higher than I thought!---ed]

Now just for fun, go to Pew’s worldwide Muslim survey last month, here.

Don’t you just love it how Pew spins this with the word ‘few’!

Few U.S. Muslims voice support for suicide bombing or other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam; 81% say such acts are never justified, while fewer than one-in-ten say violence against civilians either is often justified (1%) or is sometimes justified (7%) to defend Islam. Around the world, most Muslims also reject suicide bombing and other attacks against civilians. However, substantial minorities in several countries say such acts of violence are at least sometimes justified, including 26% of Muslims in Bangladesh, 29% in Egypt, 39% in Afghanistan and 40% in the Palestinian territories.

So, if we have roughly 2.75 million Muslims in the US and 8% say it’s often or sometimes justified to use suicide bombings and violence against civilians in the name of Islam, that means that 220,000 American Muslims think violence against civilians is justified (someone check my math, maybe I have too many zeros!).  Ahhhhh!

I’m confident (aren’t you?) that when we take immigrants from Egypt, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories that we are only getting those from the percentage who do not approve of violence against civilians in the name of Islam—right!

I bet there is a lot of juicy stuff in here for anyone with the patience to dissect it!

Chechen refugee friend of Tsarnaev interviewed by FBI in Manchester, of all places!

Update:  Jeannine reports that the story gets better, Musa was aide to a Chechen rebel leader, here.  What?  Are we doing favors for Russia by taking their troublemakers, just like we did with the Uzbeks?  Is that what we were doing with the Mesketians too?

Longtime readers know that Manchester, NH is one of the (few!) cities fighting back against the refugee resettlement industry for overloading their city with needy third-worlders.  We have dozens of posts at RRW on Manchester (here).

Musa Khadzhimuratov, Manchester NH resident and friend of Marathon bomber. VOA Photo

Now the residents have one more reason to be up in arms.  It seems that Tamerlan Tzarnaev was a regular visitor, and that he went shooting with a wheelchair-bound Chechen there who had clearly come as a refugee (although there is only an oblique reference to the UN bringing him to Manchester).   I’ll bet you a buck that, adding insult to injury, Musa Khadzhimuratov is living off the generosity of US and New Hampshire taxpayers in addition to “helping” Tsarnaev.

And, btw, do we give gun permits to former Chechen rebels? (just wondering)

Sheesh, I want to get back to more mundane topics like the State Department meeting this past week, but all of these refugee terrorist stories keep getting in my way (Uzbeks, Somalis, and now the Chechens again)!

Here is the story from the Union Leader, but do not skip the comments! (Hat tip: Jeannine)

MANCHESTER – Boston Marathon suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev went target shooting at a Manchester firing range and met up with an exiled former Chechen rebel living in the Queen City a month before the attack that killed three and wounded more than 260, according to a Voice of America report.

FBI agents on Tuesday searched the Manchester home of Chechnya native Musa Khadzhimuratov, and examined the hard drives on his computers, VOA reported. Police in Manchester confirmed the FBI agents searched Khadzhimuratov’s home, according to the story, but Manchester Police Chief David J. Mara said police will not confirm anything because it is not their case.

The FBI, Mara said, also are not commenting on the matter.

[....]

The Khadzhimuratovs keep to themselves, the resident said, and do no socialize with other tenants. She thought his wife works but does not believe Khadzhimuratov is employed. He is paralyzed from being shot in the back in his native Chechnya.

Khadzhimuratov told a VOA reporter that FBI agents went to his home Tuesday with search warrants and took DNA sample and his fingerprints.

He said he repeatedly met with Tsarnaev over the past several years and that the FBI first questioned him on April 29, two weeks after the deadly attack. Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police while his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, was wounded and later captured.

[....]

He said he came to the United States from Chechnya in 2004 through a United Nations program. He is paralyzed from the waist down from gunshot wounds suffered in Chechnya in 2001, according to the VOA article.

He said he first met Tsarnaev seven years ago at the annual meeting of the Chechen Society of Boston. Tsarnaev visited him three times in Manchester and once came with his wife and child.

Chechen Society of Boston?  We were told, in many articles (I wish I had saved them) that there are only a small handful of Chechens in the whole US, but obviously there are enough in the Northeast to have a ‘society.’

There are some great comments at the Union Leader, please read them.

Here is one I liked a lot! From Eric Boyle:

Well done everyone. Every ones comments are dead on. We need to be more vocal about all of this. The liberals get their way because they are loud. Let’s get vocal about what we believe in!

Right on! Right on! Right on!

New English Review does thorough report on Boston Bombers

Did they participate in 2011 ritualistic killing of three Jewish men in Boston suburb?

Jerry Gordon, writing at the New English Review, has put together a must-read report on the Tsarnaev’s road to becoming the most successful Islamic terrorists in America since 9/11.

Gordon details the role refugee resettlement plays in the seeding of American communities with Islamic supremacists, and he reports on something many of you may not have seen—the possible involvement of one or both Tsarnaev brothers in the ritualistic murder of three Jewish men in Massachusetts on  the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  One was a “friend” of the elder brother, Tamerlan.

Gordon (a few snips to pique your interest):

Bostonians may be relieved that the week of terrorism perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers which began at 2:49PM April 15, 2013 at the Boston Marathon Finish Line ended dramatically on April 20, 2013 with the capture of surviving younger brother Dzhokhar. However, the nation is perplexed about why this heinous and cowardly act occurred and what can be done to prevent possible re-occurrences in America.

[.....]

In this report, we shall explore why this domestic Jihad, perpetrated by refugees with Chechen Muslim origins from Russia’s troubled Caucasus, occured and the modalities of the alleged radicalization of the Tsarnaev brothers in the Boston Community. Why did the post 9/11 counter-terrorism intelligence system fail to detain Tamerlan Tsarnaev given Russian security requests for investigation prior to his sojourn in Dagestan? There is evidence that this is not an isolated phenomenon among Muslim refugees resettled in the U.S. It has been suggested that a moratorium must be imposed to prevent a reoccurrence of Jihad In America.

Then this:

Were the Tsarneav Brothers Perpetrators of a Triple Murder In Suburban Waltham?

We inquired of the Middlesex County Massachusetts District Attorney about whether they had made a match between the forensic DNA samples found at the murder of three Jewish men that occurred on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and the Tsarnaev brothers. I was told that the matter was under investigation. An intrepid ABC free lancer, Michele McPhee, posted the stunning news that indeed possible matches of DNA samples had been indicated between the forensic evidence from the crime scenes and those of both Boston Jihadi bombers.

Read it all.

I think that the failure of Homeland Security to head off the Boston bombing should be right up there with the three Obama Administration scandals the public is now fixated on (IRS, AP phone records, and Benghazi).  Personally, I think the reason it isn’t is that, of all four scandals, it is the most painful to contemplate.

MN: Somali women sentenced in terror-funding case; get stiff sentences

I wonder if the stiffest sentence has anything to do with what one of the women told the court back in 2011?   Amina Ali, after being found guilty of sending money to al-Shabab, declared that we infidels would go to hell.

In 2011, a cabal of Minnesota hard left groups supported Ali and Hassan saying the FBI was on a witch hunt. AP Photo.

After the verdicts, one of the women, Amina Farah Ali, told the judge through an interpreter that she was happy because she was “going to heaven no matter what,” and condemned those in authority, saying: “You will go to hell.” She was ordered into custody pending her sentencing.

Although in December 2011 we reported that Minnesota’s hard lefties were coming to the women’s defense, I guess it didn’t amount to a hill of beans when it came to sentencing the pair.

I would have deported them and both of their families because now they will cost the US and Minnesota taxpayers a boatload of money while in prison, not only for their care but in the cost of welfare for their families.

Be sure to see the “peace and love” crowd’s publication entitled, Fight Back News, here.  ***UPDATE*** Fight Back News calls them “humanitarian heroes!”

Here is the sentencing news from CBS (hat tip: Ed).  I guess refugee terrorism stories are starting to break out of the local press and are going national!

Two Minnesota women convicted of conspiring to send money to al-Shabab in Somalia were given prison sentences in federal court Thursday, ending a week of punishments tied to long-running investigations into terrorism recruiting and financing for the terrorist group.

The ‘go to hell infidel’ girl gets 20 years!

Amina Farah Ali was sentenced to 20 years in prison on 13 terrorism-related counts, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan received a 10-year term on one terror-related count and two counts of lying to the FBI.

Ali insisted during her 3-and-a-half-hour hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis that she was only trying to help the poor in the war-torn East African country of which she is a native.

Chief Judge Michael Davis asked Ali whether those who she collected money from knew that it would be going to al-Shabab. The al Qaeda-linked group is at the heart of much of the violence in Somalia in recent years.

“I did not send the money to al-Shabab. Al-Shabab was a vehicle used to get the money to the needy. It was not used for their own purposes,” Ali said.

[.....]

Ali and Hassan were among nine people sentenced this week for their roles in the federal government’s long-running investigations into terrorism recruiting and financing for al-Shabab.

Let the civilians die!

The government’s key evidence included hundreds of hours of recorded phone calls, obtained during a 10-month wiretap on Ali’s home phone and cellphone. In one call, Ali told others to “forget about the other charities” and focus on “the jihad.” In another, she said, “Let the civilians die.”

[.....]

“A significant sentence would serve as a warning to others among the diaspora lest they believe that similar grass roots fund raising on behalf of a designated terrorist organization is a viable avenue to bringing stability and humanitarian relief to Somalia,” prosecutors wrote in documents filed before the sentencing.

Note to refugee advocates who want to make refugee resettlement available to all Afghan women:  Women are just as likely to be Islamic troublemakers as are the men.  Have we already forgotten about the charming Mrs. Tsarnaev?

Why so many Somalis in Minnesota?  Because the US State Department and “church” contractors began a seed community there—see one of our most-read posts here at RRW.

It is confirmed! Idaho Uzbek arrested on terror charges is a refugee

This is an update of my post this morning where I only surmised that Boise’s Uzbek terror suspect is a refugee.

In the case of Boston’s Tsarnaevs, they came here seeking political asylum and in Fazliddin Kurbanov’s case we actually brought him to America.  The refugee resettlement program and our asylum program are basically two sides of the same coin.  We “welcomed” both to America.   But, one thing the resettlement contractors can’t seem to grasp is that with most Muslims their Jihad imperative trumps the American ‘good life’ and it’s just a matter of time before Allah calls.

Are we seeing the beginning of a trend?  I suspect we will see other young bucks seeking fame and martyrdom having been emboldened by the Tsarnaev’s ‘success.’

Fazliddin Kurbanov, your friendly refugee next door!

AP confirms Kurbanov’s  immigration status here at USA Today:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — He was a Russian-speaking truck driver who came to Idaho in 2009 to join hundreds of other Uzbekistan refugees for whom the state has become a sanctuary from violence in their home country.

But federal officials say in an indictment that Fazliddin Kurbanov also was teaching people to build bombs that would target public transportation.

It’s unclear whether those alleged targets were domestic or abroad — or how far Kurbanov would have gone. Prosecutors said Friday only that they believe he is no longer a threat.

[....]

Kurbanov is among about 650 Uzbeks living in Idaho. He was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in August 2009, the same month he moved to Boise, said Jan Reeves, director of the Idaho Office for Refugees, citing immigration records. Kurbanov was here legally, federal officials said.

He didn’t just move to Boise!  A federal refugee contractor, possibly Boise’s office of the International Rescue Committee, was paid by the US State Department (paid by you!) to get him hooked up with social services, find him an apartment and get him a job.

Uzbeks began coming to Idaho’s two refugee settlement centers, in Boise and Twin Falls, in 2003, Reeves said. The centers connect refugees with services such as language classes and help finding work.

The flow of Uzbeks to the state escalated around 2005, when a violent clash between protesters and the government left hundreds dead.  [We took in the troublemakers in a special airlift! Now we are reuniting families in sanctuary cities like Boise---ed]

[....]

About 90 percent of Uzbeks in their home country are Muslim. Representatives of the Islamic Center of Boise, a meeting area for the region’s Muslim community, didn’t immediately return a phone call Friday.

Radical Uzbeks have a broader mission now!  Don’t they all!

Although the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan started in the 1990s with the stated aim of overthrowing the Uzbek regime and establishing an Islamic government, its goals have expanded to create a broader Islamic influence in Central Asia.

There is more, read it all.

Uzbek arrested in Idaho on terror charges; was he airlifted here by Bush State Dept?

In 2005 the Bush Administration secretly airlifted Uzbek’s to the the US claiming they were “refugees.”  Most went to Western states. 

Update!  He didn’t arrive on the airlift but he is definitely a refugee!

One of them -stans! Uzbekistan, sandwiched between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan shares a border with Afghanistan.

We have many posts on the subject. One theory is that the Bush Administration wanted to curry favor with the Muslim government of Uzbekistan to gain access through Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, so we did them a ‘favor’ and took ‘troublemakers’ involved in the Andijan Uprising off their hands.

Another of those “refugee” Uzbeks was arrested on terrorism charges here in January 2012.  And, this isn’t the first time Uzbeks resettled  in Idaho made the news.  Here in 2008 two Uzbek men died from mysterious causes in Boise.

By the way, we’ve spoken to one American, whose name I won’t reveal, who actually sued the CIA a few years back trying to get information on how the h*** we mysteriously turned Uzbek Muslim extremists into refugees.

We don’t know yet if the man arrested yesterday in Boise is a “refugee.”  We are told he is here legally, but I will betcha he is living among us through the beneficence of the US State Department.

For enterprising reporters, go to the Idaho Office of Refugees here and ask them how Kurbanov came to live in Boise’s Uzbek “community.” 

From the Huffington Post (hat tip: Blazing Cat Fur via twitter):

BOISE, Idaho — Federal authorities in Idaho said Thursday they have arrested an Uzbekistan national accused of conspiring with a designated terrorist organization in his home country and helping scheme to use a weapon of mass destruction.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, was arrested at an apartment complex in south Boise on Thursday morning after a grand jury issued a three-count indictment as part of an investigation into his activities in Idaho and Utah.

The Idaho grand jury’s indictment charges Kurbanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. The indictment also alleges he possessed an unregistered explosive device.

A separate federal grand jury in Utah also returned an indictment charging Kurbanov with distributing information about explosives, bombs and weapons of mass destruction.

No details on immigration status (other than he is legal)!  Are they are trying to protect someone or some program?

Olson declined to share any other specifics of Kurbanov’s alleged activities, including whether any potential terrorist threat or targets were domestic or abroad.

A news release from the U.S. attorney’s office said Kurbanov is in the United States legally, but Olson declined to give details about his immigration status.

[.....]

The Idaho indictment alleges that between August 2012 and May 2013, Kurbanov knowingly conspired with others to provide support and resources, including computer software and money, to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a designated terrorist organization. The group’s purpose is to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan, said David B. Barlow, U.S. attorney in Utah.  [See Andijan again!---ed]

Incidentally, I know I still haven’t posted my testimony to the State Department (only because so many other things have taken my attention—I call it News ADD), but below is what I said to the State Department last year and this year as one of my ten reasons for a moratorium on refugee resettlement (#7):

Congress needs to specifically disallow the use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government, especially using certain refugee populations to address unrelated foreign policy objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come to mind.

Trade deal could open Canada for more asylum seekers

Around the world countries are struggling with the flow of asylum seekers.  I have stories to post from South Africa and Australia where both countries are struggling to cope with tens of thousands who want in.   Canada has been trying to deal with its asylum overload by throwing out asylum requests for those citizens of so-called “safe” countries.

For new readers, ‘refugees’ are brought into a country by the government largely with the “help” of the UN, but asylum seekers get across a country’s border somehow (visa overstays are common) and then ask for asylum.   Asylum technically is for people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or because of a political opinion.

Canada has said that there are “safe” countries and will not accept asylum claims from those countries, nonetheless, Stephen Harper will soon have to decide if he will be pressured into opening Canada’s borders to several countries with whom they wish to engage in a special trade deal.

From the Globe and Mail:

In Cali, Colombia, next week, Stephen Harper will ponder a choice driven by the forces of globalization. Trade talks are increasingly applying pressure on Canada to lower restrictions on foreigners entering the country, and in turn, squeezing the refugee-protection system.

Mr. Harper will travel to Colombia to meet the leaders of a new trade bloc, the Pacific Alliance, to consider whether Canada should join. The alliance might be the next big thing in Pacific Rim trade, quickly reducing barriers between emerging Latin American nations and then with Asia.

But the biggest obstacle for Canada isn’t reducing barriers on goods crossing the border, it’s lowering restrictions on people.

The members of the Pacific Alliance – Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru – have dropped visa requirements so their citizens can travel freely within the bloc without forms and fees. They’d expect Canada to do the same if it joins, letting their citizens visit without getting a visa in advance. They find Canada’s visa-application process onerous, and say it rejects too many tourists and business people.

But for Canada, it’s not a straightforward decision on paperwork. Ottawa imposes visas on some countries so they can screen out people who might claim refugee status here. The pressure to lift them forces choices about the asylum system.

[....]

But visas are a tricky hurdle. Lifting them immediately would raise concerns about a flow of refugee claimants from Colombia or Peru.

Read on.  Canada has already given refugee status to some Mexicans so this surely would open the door to ‘visitors’ who then apply to stay in Canada.

Non-profit refugee contractor telling its supporters to call Senate on S.744

The International Rescue Committee is a multi-million dollar a year non-profit largely funded by you, the US taxpayer.  They are lobbying for more refugees and asylum seekers to come to America and there is more money in it for them if they do.  Remember S.744 (the Gang of Eight bill) has an NGO slush fund.

Just now they are tweeting to their people the following action alert.  They say refugees and asylum issues will be addressed in the Judiciary Committee on Monday, the 20th.

So you should contact Senate Judiciary Committee members and tell them to strike all refugee/asylum sections from the bill and hold separate hearings on the program that has never (for three decades!) been properly reviewed by Congress.  It is especially important to review it in light of the Boston Marathon terror attack perpetrated by people to whom we gave asylum.

Here is what the IRC is tweeting to their groupies:

URGENT: Protect Refugee & Asylee Provisions in the Immigration Bill
Call the Senate Judiciary Committee Today!

For decades, the U.S. has provided protection to refugees and asylees who face persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.  In search of a better life for themselves and for their families, refugees and asylees are eager to participate fully in the economic and civic life of this country. Through a network of 22 offices in the United States, the International Rescue Committee provides assistance and the tools of self-reliance to refugees and asylees.

The Senate immigration reform bill (S.744) includes provisions that would provide much needed improvements to the protection of asylum seekers and refugees. On Monday, May 20, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to consider amendments relating to refugees, asylees, and other vulnerable populations in the bipartisan immigration bill. Committee members need to hear from you – refugees, volunteers, and community members from across the country.  Please call 1-866-940-2439 to speak with the office of a specific Judiciary Committee member.

Here are the members of the Committee!

Senator Jeff Sessions has been doing a huge amount of work, please tell him to keep it up and to strip out all Refugee/Asylum provisions from the bill!   These are provisions that will allow more refugees/asylum seekers to come to America, as well as put more of your money into the pockets of refugee contractors!  Tell them to strip out the special new grant program for non-profit open borders groups like the IRC!

Call as many Senators as you can!