As of October 1, America began accepting fewer ”refugees” thanks to President Trump, who has capped yearly intake at 18,000 for fiscal 2020 [Trump administration proposes historically low refugee limit, by Elana Schor, Associated Press, September 26, 2019]. That’s a 79 percent cut to Barack Obama’s high of 85,000 and dramatically below his planned 115,000 Third World colonists for fiscal 2017 [Proposed Refugee Admission for Fiscal Year 2017, State.gov]. Of course, Trump still must repeal the disastrous 1980 Refugee Act, which authorized this expedited, subsidized, influx of politically favored immigrants. Otherwise, Democrats will simply turn the invasion up again if/when they regain the Executive Branch—Elizabeth Warren is promising 175,000 a year. The main obstacle: Stupid Party Republicans.
Nine such GOP Senators signed a “bipartisan” letter to demand that Trump take in “as many refugees as possible” [GOP/Democrat Senators Beg Trump: Import ‘As Many Refugees as Possible,’ by John Binder, Breitbart, September 30, 2019].
GOP Oklahoma Senator James Lankford and Delaware Democrat Chris Coons and eight other Democrats, were behind the letter. Lankford was joined by other GOP Senators—call them the “Lankford Nine.” Some are notorious squishes: Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Surprising signers: South Dakota’s John Thune and alleged Trump “friend” Marco Rubio of Florida. (Also heard from: Rob Portman (R-OH), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Roy Blunt (R-MO).) Two face tough elections in 2020: Collins and Colorado’s Cory Gardner.
The senators said Trump’s move is “alarming” because the United Nations claims the world is experiencing “highest levels of displacement on record.”
“We urge you to increase the refugee resettlement cap and to admit as many refugees as possible within that cap,” they told Trump. “America has a responsibility to promote compassion and democracy around the world through assistance to vulnerable and displaced people.”
The obvious reply: “Says who—and don’t expect me to swallow that moonshine retroactively imported inside the base of the Statue of Liberty."
That said, the bipartisan senators insist refugees “significantly benefit local and national economies,” a demonstrable and ridiculous falsehood. It costs taxpayers billions of dollars to resettle and provide welfare and health care for refugees [The Fiscal Cost of Resettling Refugees in the United States, by Matthew O’Brien and Spencer Raley, Federation for American Immigration Reform, February 5, 2018]. FAIR’s O’Brien and Raley say refugees cost $1.8 billion annually and $8.8 billion over five years.
Of all people, Sen. Collins should know this. Lewiston, Maine, once a nice place to raise a family, is teeming with angry African refugees who live on public assistance and lower the quality of life. These “New Americans” repay the generosity of the white locals with brutal crimes. In 2018, a mob of Somalis beat a white man to death.
Similarly, Portland faces financial ruin due to its extreme generosity. That bill is $2 million a year, yet despite the warnings from the city manager, the city keeps accepting them.
Former Maine Governor Paul LePage bravely said that refugees are the state’s biggest problem back in 2016 [Paul LePage says asylum seekers are ‘biggest problem in our state,' by Kate Gardner, Sun Journal, February 17, 2016]. Yet, Sen. Collins still wants more immigrants.
Similarly, Minnesota spent $81 million on refugees in 2015. Welfare fraud is rife among its Somali population. As in Maine, the Somalis in Minnesota are wrecking the place with crime, which has spiked 56 percent in Minneapolis’s Little Mogadishu since 2014. Gang violence dominates the neighborhood. And the same area is also America’s number one terrorist recruiting zone.
John Palmer, a retired college professor, found that Minnesota’s refugee population hardly benefits the state economy. Instead, they have a higher rate of poverty, higher unemployment, lower median income, and a lower percentage of their population looking for work than native Minnesotans [New York Times Welcomes African Immigrants, by Robert Hampton, American Renaissance, June 28, 2019].
And let’s not forget another baleful result of our insane refugee policy: The corrupt, anti-American, anti-Christian ingrate Ilhan Omar, who married her brother to commit immigration fraud, now sits in Congress, where she can trash the country that took her in.
Many other communities are victims of the Refugee Racket, as the invaluable Refugee Resettlement Watch regularly documents.
Trump nearly won Minnesota in 2016 simply by pointing out the refugee problem. “Here in Minnesota, you’ve seen first-hand the problems caused with faulty refugee vetting, with very large numbers of Somali refugees coming into your state without your knowledge, without your support or approval,” Trump said at a Minneapolis rally just two days before the election. He promised to lower America’s refugee intake, saying it was “the least [government] can do for you” [Somali migrants are 'disaster' for Minnesota, says Donald Trump, by Ben Jacobs and Alan Yuhas, The Guardian, November 7, 2016].
And in a little-noted development, even in the disappointing 2018 election cycle, Trump campaigned for and helped elect GOP Rep. Pete Stauber in Minnesota 6, which Democrats had held since 2013. (The seat was once occupied by Charles August Lindbergh, father of the America First aviator).
Trump’s refugee cuts keep a key campaign promise. And apropos of his 2016 speech in Minnesota—refugees land in your neighborhoods without your approval—he also said he would allow states and localities to refuse them, which he has finally done [Trump lets states, cities refuse refugees for 1st time in US, by Julie Watson and David Sharp, Associated Press, October 2, 2019].
A 2018 Pew Research poll shows that only a slim majority of Americans (51 percent) believes America has a responsibility to take in refugees. Significantly, only 26 percent of Republicans share that opinion, while 68 percent of Republicans disagree [Republicans turn more negative toward refugees as number admitted to U.S. plummets, by Hannah Hartig, Pew Research Forum, May 24, 2018].
So why, then, the letter from the Lankford Nine?
Two reasons:
But ordinary Republicans voted against that insanity when they picked Trump—which means Lankford, Thune, Rubio and friends do themselves no favor in advocating it. Their voters simply don’t want more refugees. Although it has apparently never occurred to Lankford et, al., opposing the Refugee Racket might well boost the GOP’s fortunes in Maine, Minnesota and other precincts of Blue America that are turning into centers of Third World crime, squalor, and dysfunction.
Even Establishment Republicans, including Rubio, knew that Americans didn’t want Syrian refugees in 2015. Several states vowed to accept not a single one [30 Governors Call For Halt To U.S. Resettlement Of Syrian Refugees, by Arnie Seipel, NPR, November 17, 2015; Marco Rubio: US should not take in more Syrian refugees after Paris attacks, by Sabrina Siddiqui, The Guardian, November 15, 2015].
The GOP Senators’ letter to Trump shows that they are obtuse at best—and invincibly ignorant at worst. GOP elites still refuse to learn from 2016. An America First agenda won the election. The Republican base was shouting for closing the borders.
The Congressional Republicans have shown some improvements in the Trump era. Hardly anyone anymore calls for a Gang of Eight-style Amnesty. Prominent Republicans want immigration reduced and have crafted bills to do so.
Of course, Trump hasn’t fulfilled his promises on chain migration and the border wall, but at least he tried. Thus the Democrats were forced to ask the kritarchs to stop Trump’s using discretionary military appropriations for the wall. Trump prevailed.
But the Lankford Nine’s joining the Treason Lobby shows that many Congressional Republicans are still out to lunch on immigration. Party leaders have refused to make immigration a priority. They will not support immigration reduction. They punish immigration patriots like Steve King and Kris Kobach for daring to speak out. Some even oppose Trump’s executive orders to obtain funds for border security.
Trump kept a promise on refugee reduction and he should campaign on it.
A win would prove him right again—and concomitantly discredit GOP collaborators with the Treason Lobby.
Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.
