Obama Admin invites tens of thousands of radical Muslims to relocate inside the U.S.

[American Patriot]

Up to 16 now at least.

[vector7]

No, State Governors Can’t Refuse Obama To Accept Syrian Refugees



More than half a dozen state governors have come out against President Obama’s plans torelocate several thousand Syrian refugees within the United States. Some have pledged to actively resist settlement of these refugees. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), for example, signed a letter to Obama that begins “as governor of Texas, I write to inform you that the State of Texas will not accept any refugees from Syria in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in Paris.” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) issued an executive order instructing all “departments, budget units, agencies, offices, entities, and officers of the executive branch of the State of Louisiana” to “utilize all lawful means to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the State of Louisiana while this Order is in effect.”

The problem for Jindal, Abbott and the other governors opposed to admitting refugees, however, is that there is no lawful means that permits a state government to dictate immigration policy to the president in this way. As the Supreme Court explained in Hines v. Davidowitz, “the supremacy of the national power in the general field of foreign affairs, including power over immigration, naturalization and deportation, is made clear by the Constitution.” States do not get to overrule the federal government on matters such as this one.

Just in case there is any doubt, President Obama has explicit statutory authorization to accept foreign refugees into the United States. Under the Refugee Act of 1980, the president may admit refugees who face “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” into the United States, and the president’s power to do so is particularly robust if they determine that an “unforeseen emergency refugee situation” such as the Syrian refugee crisis exists.

This power to admit refugees fits within the scheme of “broad discretion exercised by immigration officials” that the Supreme Court recognized in its most recent major immigration case, Arizona v. United States. Indeed, in describing the executive branch’s broad authority to make discretionary calls regarding immigration matters, Arizona seemed to explicitly contemplate the circumstances that face President Obama today. The United States may wish to allow a foreign national to remain within its borders, the Court explained, because the individual’s home nation “may be mired in civil war, complicit in political persecution, or enduring conditions that create a real risk that the alien or his family will be harmed upon return.”

Moreover, the Court explained, America could suffer severe foreign policy consequences if the executive does not enjoy broad discretion over immigration matters. “The dynamic nature of relations with other countries,” Justice Anthony Kennedy explained in his opinion for the Court inArizona, “requires the Executive Branch to ensure that enforcement policies are consistent with this Nation’s foreign policy with respect to these and other realities.”

Hines offered a similar warning about the close tie between immigration and foreign relations, explaining that immigration policy must be set by the national government and not by 50 different state governors because the entire United States can suffer when a foreign nation reacts adversely to our treatment of immigrants. “Experience has shown that international controversies of the gravest moment, sometimes even leading to war,” Justice Hugo Black wrote in his 1941 opinion for the Court, “may arise from real or imagined wrongs to another’s subjects inflicted, or permitted, by a government.” Thus, the Court concluded, “the regulation of aliens is so intimately blended and intertwined with responsibilities of the national government that where it acts, and the state also acts on the same subject, ‘the act of congress, or the treaty, is supreme; and the law of the state, though enacted in the exercise of powers not controverted, must yield to it.'”

To be clear, states still retain the power to deny their own resources to the federal government, so they could potentially make settlement of refugees more difficult than it would be if the states cooperated. Nevertheless, an act of Congress — the Refugee Act of 1980 — has given Obama broad discretion to allow refugees to be admitted into the United States. The states of Texas, Louisiana and others must yield to that act.

[vector7]

Geert Wilders: “We Must De-Islamize Our Country”

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Baron Bodissey



The following talk by Geert Wilders was recorded and uploaded last January, just after the Charlie Hebdo massacres in Paris. But the PVV leader might well have said the same things yesterday, and they are just as relevant to Friday night’s jihad massacre in Paris. Back then Mr. Wilders said, “This isn’t the end of our misery; at best, the beginning of it,” and he was exactly correct.

Many thanks to H. Numan for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

0:00		Our freedom is under fire.
0:03		Yesterday it was Paris. In recent years we saw attacks in Amsterdam,
0:06		New York, Madrid, Mumbai, Ottawa, Sydney and Brussels.
0:12		It does not stop.
0:16		This isn’t the end of our misery
0:19		At best, the beginning of it.
0:23		Our elites brought in an enormous problem. Now we see that that means for our security,
0:26		for ourselves, for our children.
0:32		Which of our leaders dares to look in a mirror?
0:38		After every attack they shed crocodile tears, and continue as before.
0:44		Again, our cowardly elites look away.
0:53		They refuse to see grasp what they have caused. But nobody, nobody can deny the truth.
0:59		It’s Islam that time and time again inspires the killers.
1:04		It’s Mohammed, it’s the Koran.
1:07		That is the problem, nothing else.
1:12		Of course I’m not talking about all Muslims.
1:15		I’m talking about the violent ideology
1:20		that wants to subjugate the world to shariah law, that wants to destroy our freedom.
1:25		For ten years the Party for Freedom has warned against Islam.
1:32		For those ten years the cabinets hardly did anything.
1:38		The time when we could look the other way is over.
1:43		Only strong, rock-hard measures can prevent further bloodshed.
1:51		We must de-Islamize our country.
1:55		All immigration from Islamic countries must stop.
2:00		Jihadists must be expelled, never ever to return.
2:05		The borders must be closed.
2:08		We must protect our borders ourselves.
2:11		We must leave Schengen. Also, we need to mobilize the army
2:16		to protect our railway stations, streets and shopping malls
2:20		through measures.
2:24		Enough is enough. My friends, today is a day of mourning,
2:31		To commemorate the victims of Islam.
2:34		It is also a day to begin our liberation.
2:40		Tomorrow must be a better day than today,
2:43		a day with less Islam.

RRW weekly roundup for week ending November 14, 2015

Posted by Ann Corcoran on November 15, 2015



Sigh…what a week. We went to Washington on Thursday (I still need to post something more on that) and then everything changed on Friday. Because of the terrible news from Paris, it seems the world is finally waking up to the dangers of the refugee migration around the world. Our readership jumped by a lot for a narrowly focused blog (over 30,000 on Saturday and 20,000 today) and with that jump in interest came more questions, more e-mails, more phone calls, more press inquiries and so forth.

I’ll do my best to answer as many of you as possible, but honestly if I did, I would never post a thing here and that is what I think is the best use of my time and it’s what I am most passionate about.

Here are the top three posts of the week (but remember the data was collected yesterday, so doesn’t reflect posts after yesterday morning and today.
Top Three:

1)Calais (France) migrant camp on fire tonight
2)Watch the death of Europe in 19 minutes….
3)Obama lied about his school years and the press shrugged, why the double standard for a conservative black man?

Since Saturday this post is getting a large number of visitors:

• Sweden ‘pulls up the ladder’ and closes borders

Here are the Top Ten countries from which readers arrived at RRW this past week (besides the US):

1. Canada
2. UK
3. Australia
4. Germany
5. Sweden
6. Philippines
7. France
8. Netherlands
9. South Africa
10. Ireland

And since we have thousands of new readers, here is what you need to know:

I apologize as always for not being able to read all of your e-mails or get to all of your phone calls. It is just me here.

You might try finding your answers at our relatively new—Frequently Asked Questions (linked above in the header).

I very much appreciate all of your requests for me to speak to your groups, but I am not taking any more speaking trips for the foreseeable future mostly because I believe my strength is in researching and reporting the news while traveling gobbles up enormous amounts of my time.

Go here to a previous weekly round-up for more tips on getting the most out of your visits to RRW. We have over 7,000 posts archived here so you might need some guidance in finding useful information.

Follow me on twitter because there is so much breaking news on refugees that I can’t possibly post it all! So please follow me on twitter or follow the twitter feeds in my right hand sidebar to keep up with the news! I am @RefugeeWatcher, click here. I’m posting articles there that readers send me, but that I simply can’t post for lack of time.

Our facebook page, here, passed the 10,000 likes mark this week!

[vector7]

Obama: Not Bringing ISIS Jihadists to America Would "Betray Our Values"

We should not "somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism.”

November 16, 2015
Daniel Greenfield
16
33722




Also not freeing Al Qaeda terrorists from Gitmo would violate our values. And describing Islamic terrorism as Islamic terrorism would really violate our values.

It seems as if Obama's version of American values is a little hard to tell apart from ISIS values. Right down to locking up a filmmaker who made a YouTube video about Mohammed.

Speaking to reporters from Islamic Turkey, a regime which has made it illegal to even discuss its own genocide and which sponsors Islamic terrorists around the world, Obama got on his high horse over the huge numbers of Syrian Muslim migrants he wants to import to America.

But not before making a bunch of excuses for his own incompetence.

"It's not their sophistication or the particular weaponry that they possess, but it is the ideology they carry with them and their willingness to die," Obama whined.

That would be the ideology whose name the administration is unwilling to speak. But ISIS would need much better weaponry if Europe and America didn't insist on importing its fighters into their countries. Once there all they need is a gun or a homemade bomb to wreak havoc.

This is a war where we're inviting in our own invaders. And Obama doubled down on keeping the invasion going.

"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values. Our nations can welcome refugees who are desperately seeking safety and ensure our own security. We can and must do both," Obama promised.

Except we can't do both. 9/11 and the World Trade Center bombing and the Boston Marathon bombing showed that. As well as the countless smaller terror plots since then.

Then Obama rejected the idea of focusing on helping persecuted Christians over the violent Islamic Supremacist majority. "When I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims, when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who's fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that's shameful. That's not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion."

Actually Obama does. It's why his regime has been deporting Christians while taking in huge numbers of Muslims.

If we're taking in refugees, we should be taking in those who genuinely have nowhere else to go in a region dominated by Muslim countries. Sunni or Shiite Muslims have their own countries they can go to.

They are not refugees.

During WW2, the United States did not admit Nazis, moderate or otherwise, as refugees. That would have been ridiculously stupid. Syria is in the middle of a religious civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. Neither side are victims. They are both perpetrators of massacres toward each other.

Obama claims that we should not "somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism.”

The "somehow" part comes because refugees are an entrance point for terrorists and terrorism. It's not "somehow". It's directly causative.

While Obama bleats about compassion, his compassion has been utterly lacking when it comes to persecuted Christians. He only has compassion for Muslims.

[vector7]

UPDATE 24 States Now Demand Stoppage or Immediate Pause of President Obama’s Syrian Refugee Program….

Posted on November 16, 2015 by sundance
UPDATE – List of States EXPANDS: Alabama – Arizona – Arkansas – Georgia – Florida – Idaho – Indiana – Illinois – Iowa – Kansas – Louisiana – Maine – Massachusetts – Michigan – Mississippi – Nebraska – New Hampshire – New Jersey – North Carolina – Ohio – Oklahoma – South Carolina – Tennessee – Texas – Wisconsin
With admissions by the U.S. State Department and intelligence groups that it is impossible to vet Syrian refugees for terrorist connections, the number of states and state Governors, who have requested a halt to Syrian Refugee import has now expanded to sixteen Twenty Four:


Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin Continue reading →

Now 24 governors have refused to take Syrian refugees

November 16, 2015 8:36 pm By Robert Spencer 25 Comments

A realistic concern for security is trouncing Obama’s politically correct fantasies.



“Syrian refugees not welcome here, governors of 24 states say,” by Ashley Fantz and Ben Brumfield, CNN, November 16, 2015:

The governors of at least 24 states have announced they will not accept Syrian refugees. The states range from Alabama and Georgia, to Texas and Arizona, to Michigan and Illinois, to Maine and New Hampshire. Among these 24 states, all but one have Republican governors.

The announcements came after authorities revealed that at least one of the suspects believed to be involved in the Paris terrorist attacks entered Europe among the current wave of Syrian refugees. He had falsely identified himself as a Syrian named Ahmad al Muhammad and was allowed to enter Greece in early October.

Some leaders say they either oppose taking in any Syrian refugees being relocated as part of a national program or asked that they be particularly scrutinized as potential security threats….

Predictably, Hamas in the U.S. is outraged:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Monday, “Defeating ISIS involves projecting American ideals to the world. Governors who reject those fleeing war and persecution abandon our ideals and instead project our fears to the world.”…

[vector7]

Obama: The number of refugees from Syria and elsewhere will be increased ‘to 100,000 per year’



The number “10,000 Syrian refugees” is being thrown around a lot by the mainstream media, but did you know that Barack Obama has actually publicly declared that the U.S. is going to take in 100,000 refugees from Syria and elsewhere for each of the next two years?* That is an absolutely massive number, and it is inevitable that some jihadists will slip through the vetting process.* As Syrian refugees enter the United States, they are being dispersed all around the country.* In my article*yesterday, I explained that the State Department has established refugee processing centers in 48 U.S. states.* But instead of the “trickle” of refugees the mainstream media is talking about, the truth is that it is going to be more like a flood.* The following is a message that was tweeted by Barack Obama’s official Twitter account on September 28th…

This number also came up in a*New York Times article*that was published back in September…

The Obama administration will increase the number of worldwide refugees the United States accepts each year to 100,000 by 2017, a significant increase over the current annual cap of 70,000, Secretary of State*John Kerry*said Sunday.

“This step that I am announcing today, I believe, is in keeping with the best tradition of America as a land of second chances and a beacon of hope,” Mr. Kerry said, adding that it “will be accompanied by additional financial contributions” for the relief effort.

So there you have it.

And in particular, the Obama administration has been looking for ways to “accelerate” the number of refugees coming in from Syria.* The following comes from*the CBC…

The Obama administration is moving*to increase and accelerate the number of Syrian refugees who might be admitted into the United States*by opening new screening outposts in Iraq and Lebanon, administration officials told Reuters on Friday.

That same article quoted an Obama administration official as saying that they wanted to*“push out really ambitious goals”*for the number of Syrian refugees being brought in…

“We want to be in a place where we can push out really ambitious goals,” said one of the officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

The State Department runs nine screening centres worldwide that serve as meeting points for refugees and U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees who have to decide who is suitable for resettlement in the United States.

You would think that what just happened in France would cause Obama and his minions to reassess this strategy.

But instead, they appear to be doubling down.* In fact, at the G20 summit*Obama lectured his fellow world leaders*on the need to take in more Syrian refugees.

Obama would have us believe that all of the refugees are highly “vetted” and that there is little danger of any terrorists being imported into this country as refugees.

But how exactly does that work?

Does he have the refugees fill out application forms?

Does he check their references?

Does he ask them if they ever worked for ISIS?

If terrorists want to come over here under the refugee program, of course they are going to lie.

In the end, it is up to whoever is doing the vetting to make a gut call.* And considering how politically correct many of them probably are, that probably is not going to work out too well.

Needless to say, Obama’s approach has drawn a tremendous backlash*from some Republican leaders…

Some GOP leaders, including presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz, have said that only Christian refugees should receive any U.S. assistance. And Donald Trump told CNBC on Monday that letting them in “would be one of the great Trojan horses.”

At the G-20 meeting in Turkey, Obama said: “When I hear folks say that we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims, when I hear political leaders suggesting there will be a religious test for which a person fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted … that’s shameful. That’s not American.”

And as I write this article, 13 Republican governors have announced that they will not accept any more refugees from Syria in their states.* The following comes from*USA Today…

At least 13*governors say they will not accept Syrian refugees*in their states in response to Friday’s attacks in Paris.

The Republican governors — in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Massachusetts,*North Carolina, Ohio,*Texas and Wisconsin — are concerned that resettlement could open the doors to terrorists.

Without a doubt, this is a difficult issue.* There are thousands upon thousands of Syrians that are legitimately fleeing the horrible civil war in their nation, and those people do legitimately need help.

But how do we balance that with the safety of our own people?* It has been reported that at least two of the attackers in Paris came into Europe as “refugees”, and ISIS has just released*a new videopledging to attack Washington D.C. as well…

The message to countries involved in what it called the “crusader campaign” was delivered by a man dressed in fatigues and a turban, and identified in subtitles as Al Ghareeb the Algerian.

“We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington,” the man said.

The success of the attacks in Paris is only going to embolden groups like ISIS to conduct even more attacks.* Radical Islamic terrorists want to create fear and they want to get attention, and what just happened in France definitely succeeded on both counts.* I believe that we are entering a time when terror attacksare going to become much more frequent and much more deadly, and as a result all of our lives are going to dramatically change.

In the future, we are all going to think twice before attending large public gatherings.* Once we witness a few more attacks like we just saw in France, people are going to become much more hesitant to go to places that they perceive could be targeted.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/arc...00000-per-year

[Ryan Ruck]

No, State Governors Can’t Refuse Obama To Accept Syrian Refugees

LOL @ ThinkProgress

To put a play on the words of Andrew Jackson, every one of these state governors should be saying, "President Obama has made his decision; now let him enforce it," and using their state National Guard units and state police units to back it up.

[Ryan Ruck]

Cruz To Offer Bill Banning Syrian Refugees

November 16, 2015

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has struck back at President Obama’s implication that his rejection of Syrian refugees is “shameful,” telling CNN he will be introducing legislation banning Muslim Syrian refugees from entering the United States.

“What Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are proposing is that we bring to this country tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees,” Cruz told CNN's Dana Bash in Charleston, S.C., on Monday.

“I have to say particularly in light of what happened in Paris, that's nothing short of lunacy.”

Asked what would have happened if his own father — a Cuban refugee who fled the island's repressive Communist regime — had been told all those years ago by political leaders that there was no place for him because of security risks, Cruz said it was a different situation.

“See that's why it's important to define what it is we're fighting,” Cruz responded.

“If my father were part of a theocratic and political movement like radical Islamism, that promotes murdering anyone who doesn't share your extreme faith, or forcibly converting them, then it would make perfect sense.”

Bash said that Cruz also told her that this week he plans to introduce legislation that would ban Muslim Syrian refugees from entering the U.S.

Cruz is applauding moves by Republican governors across the country, who are refusing to accept Syrian refugees into their states, Bash added.

The Texas senator, who is running for president, was responding Monday to Obama's press conference following the Group of 20 meeting in Antalya, Turkey.

Obama insisted that the U.S. would uphold his commitment of accepting refugees from Syria despite rising opposition from conservatives.

“The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism, they are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife,” Obama said.

Obama appeared to be directing his critiques toward presidential candidates Cruz and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who over the weekend called for the U.S. to focus on the Christians fleeing the Syrian chaos.

“When I hear folks say that, ‘Maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims,’ when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefitted from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful,” Obama said.

[American Patriot]

Ryan, we need a LIKE button, like facebook has. LOL

[vector7]

Breaking: Syrian ‘Refugee’ Already MISSING IN LOUISIANA

The Gateway Pundit ^ | Nov 17th, 2015 | Jim Hoft
Posted on 11/17/2015, 8:10:51 AM by george76



Liberals continue to tell us the "vetting process" for refugees is under control. They insist the federal government is monitoring every Syrian once they make it to America.

But, of course, that's a total fallacy.

...

At least one Syrian refugee that was in the process of resettling in the Baton Rouge area has already gone missing

...

there are another 7 Syrian refugees in Kenner and 6 more in the New Orleans area.

The news may seem alarming that neither state government nor the federal government track newly-arrived refugees who have just entered the country, but it is actually not uncommon at all.

Hey! Let's bring in some more!

(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...


Missing Syrian Refugee ‘Headed To Washington DC’

Ethan Barton

5:09 PM 11/17/2015

An unidentified Syrian refugee thought to be living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is apparently missing and reportedly may be “headed to Washington, D.C.”

That was the word after a day of contradictory official and media reports sparking worries in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks and subsequent vows by ISIS that Washington and New York City are next on the group’s target list.

At least one of the Paris attackers that killed at least 129 people posed as a Syrian refugee using a fake passport, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Sen. David Vitter, the Louisiana Republican who is seeking his state’s governorship, told The Hayride political news site that Louisiana State Police told him they don’t know the refugee’s exact whereabouts, and that “officials said the refugee is believed to be headed to Washington, D.C.”

Earlier Monday, The Hayride said the Syrian refugee was missing, but state law enforcement officials contradicted that claim, saying “they do know the location of the so-called ‘missing’ Syrian refugee.”

The Hayride also posted a report Monday detailing allege problems with the vetting process being used to screen refugees from Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. The flawed process has already allowed terrorists to slip into the U.S., the publication claimed.

Deputy State Department Spokesman Mark Toner told CNN, however, that the vetting process is “the most stringent security process for anyone entering the United States.”

Meanwhile, 31 governors have said they will not accept Syrian refugees into their state.

Republican presidential aspirant and outgoing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, for example, signed an executive order to prevent Syrian refugees from settling in his state. Jindal spokesman Mike Reed told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the governor would sue the federal government if necessary to prevent Syrian refugees from being resettled in the state.

Other governors, however, support Obama’s decisions to accept 10,000 more Syrian refugees over the next year.

“The U.S. accepts refugees, including Syrians, only after they are subjected to the most vigorous and highest level of screening and security vetting,” Democratic Hawaii Gov. David Ige said in a statement.

The U.S. refugee vetting process has already repeatedly failed in recent years.

The Boston Bombers, for example, were Chechen refugees, though U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Refugee Affairs Division chief Barbara Strack was unaware of that as recently as October, theDCNF previously reported.

Additionally, FBI Director James Comey told the House Committee on Homeland Security that the federal government is unable to conduct thorough background checks on all Syrian refugees, the Daily Caller reported.

“We can only query against that which we collected,” Comey said. “And so if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database until the cows come home, but there will be nothing showing up because we have no record of them.”

Also on Monday, as public opposition to allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. appeared to intensify, the Washington Post reported that “several high-level administration officials have warned in recent months just how challenging this can be. While they say U.S. security measures are much better than in the past, vetting Syrian refugees poses a quandary: How do you screen people from a war-torn country that has few criminal and terrorist databases to check?”

The Post story may prefigure Obama administration attempts to backtrack on the chief executive’s repeated vow to accept thousands of Syrian refugees despite the Paris attacks.

[American Patriot]

Good, direct him to 1600 Penn. Ave. Tell him to ask for "Barack" at the door. He'll get in, no problem.

[Ryan Ruck]

I wonder if Glen Casada reads here...

Tennessee GOP Leader: Round Up Syrian Refugees, Remove From State

November 18, 2015

A top Tennessee Republican lawmaker believes the time has come for the National Guard to round up any Syrian refugees who have recently settled in the state and to stop any additional Syrian refugees from entering Tennessee.

"We need to activate the Tennessee National Guard and stop them from coming in to the state by whatever means we can," said House GOP Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, R-Franklin, referencing refugees.

"I’m not worried about what a bureaucrat in D.C. or an unelected judge thinks. ... We need to gather (Syrian refugees) up and politely take them back to the ICE center and say, 'They’re not coming to Tennessee, they’re yours.' "

Other leading lawmakers may not have joined Casada's call to send refugees to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but many of Tennessee's GOP lawmakers at the state and federal level are looking at taking some form of action related to refugees in the U.S. after terrorist attacks in Paris killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.

Casada was asked to elaborate on his proposal, and whether Tennessee had the authority to detain refugees.

"Tennessee is a sovereign state. If the federal government is forsaking the obligation to protect our citizens, we need to act," Casada said during a phone interview with The Tennessean on Tuesday.

In fiscal year 2015, only 30 of the 1,601 refugees settled in Tennessee came from Syria, according to the Tennessee Office for Refugees. But by and large, refugees are free to go to different states eventually after resettlement: A 2013 report estimated at the time there could be as many as 58,000 refugees and their family members living in Tennessee.

Gov. Bill Haslam sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Tuesday formally asking him to stop sending Syrian refugees to Tennessee. Haslam spokesman David Smith said the governor joined other governors Tuesday on a conference call with White House officials, but Smith didn't say whether there was any resolution. More than half of the nation's governors have asked for federal officials to stop sending Syrian refugees to their states.

Several legal scholars, cited by USA TODAY and many other outlets, argue states have no legal authority to stop the federal government from sending refugees to their states. As first reported by the Commercial Appeal of Memphis, several state Democrats, including House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart, asked for an opinion on the issue from Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery.

"I think that is one of the most extraordinarily misguided statements that I have heard made by a public official," Stewart, D-Nashville, said in reference to Casada's proposal.

"We need to approach this issue from a standpoint of strength and not fear, and we should have great confidence in our military forces and in our law enforcement agencies to keep our citizens safe. We don’t need to go off half-cocked and start interfering in the defense policy of our country."

But Casada, Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, and at least a few other lawmakers believe it's time to call a special legislative session to look at doing something.

"I believe we should take a long look at the entire refugee program and use any means necessary to stop refugees from entering Tennessee if they come from countries with ties to ISIS, Al-Qaeda and similar terrorist groups," House Majority Whip Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin, said in a statement.

"If the U.S. Supreme Court says the federal government cannot force states to expand their Medicaid rolls, I'm not sure how the federal government believes it can legitimately force Tennessee to accept refugees from countries with known terrorists."

Asked if he thinks it's reasonable to round up Syrian refugees in Tennessee, Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, said "no." He didn't elaborate. But Norris and House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, said Tuesday it might be too early for lawmakers to call a special session. Emotions on every side of the issue are running high, Norris said, and it's important to evaluate the law first before taking any action.

"I think what Governor Haslam did was too much in some (people's) opinion and too little in others', which means it was just about right in stabilizing the situation, at least temporarily," Norris said.

Those emotions are sending the legislative conversation in a dangerous direction, said Senate Democratic Caucus leader Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville.

"We’re better than this," Yarbro said Tuesday. "After Paris, it makes sense to fear the violence being exported by ISIS. But giving in to fear, closing the borders and abandoning our allies is un-American, and ultimately will make our situation even more dangerous."

McCormick supports the idea of not allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. On Monday, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Beth Harwell issued a joint statement calling for federal action to stop all refugees from entering the country. The key concept in this debate is federal action, Harwell noted in a statement Tuesday.

"I'm supportive of exhausting every potential option that would be available to the state. However, I have not heard any concrete ideas for legislation," Harwell said. "This is an issue that is almost exclusively federal in nature, and I know many members are communicating their frustration with their congressional members."

Still, Womick and Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, suggested at least two possible legislative options. Womick wants lawmakers to consider taking back control of the state's refugee resettlement program from Catholic Charities of Tennessee. Catholic Charities has run the Office for Refugees since 2008, but Womick thinks it would be better to have the program under the purview of the state, as it was before 2008.

Ketron said he's crafting legislation aimed at determining how much money refugees cost the state.

"Beyond the urgent public safety concerns, state governments must pay the tab for refugee needs, like healthcare, education, and welfare programs. Currently, we do not collect the data we need to give us that information," Ketron said in a news release.

Tax records show Catholic Charities receiving the vast majority of its funding from the federal government. This isn't the first time Ketron has proposed legislation of this nature, and lawmakers have received data showing refugees account for far more revenue than expenses for Tennessee.

In 2013, a report from the state Fiscal Review Committee noted it's hard to accurately convey the economic impact of refugees. But it estimated refugees represented nearly $1.4 billion in state revenue from 1990 to 2012, compared with at least $753 million spent by the state on refugees and their descendants during the same time period.

The current time frame for approved refugees to relocate to the U.S. is between 18 and 24 months, according to the State Department.

Tennessee's federal lawmakers have echoed concerns of their state GOP counterparts: U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker joined in calls of many other Tennessee Republicans to either "pause" the U.S. refugee program or allow states to decide whether they want to accept refugees. Federal legislative action to delay refugee resettlement in the U.S. could come as soon as this week, likely rendering much of the debate at the state level moot.

[Ryan Ruck]

Ted Cruz Challenges President Obama to Debate on Syrian Refugees

November 18, 2015

One day after President Obama assailed the “political posturing” of Republicans who have called for barring the Syrian refugees from entering the United States, Senator Ted Cruz delivered this retort: “Come back and insult me to my face.”

Speaking to reporters in Washington on Wednesday, Mr. Cruz, a Republican running for president, challenged Mr. Obama to a public debate on refugee policy, criticizing Mr. Obama for having made his remarks on a trip to Manila.

“I prefer it in the United States and not overseas, where you’re making the insults,” Mr. Cruz said of the unlikely debate. “It’s easy to toss a cheap insult when no one can respond.”

Mr. Cruz’s office said he is preparing to introduce a bill this week that would bar Syrian refugees from coming to the United States, but it is not yet clear if it would apply to all refugees or only to Muslims.

Mr. Cruz, a Texas senator, has expressed an openness to welcoming Syrian refugees in the past, but since the Paris terrorist attacks last week, several Republican candidates have taken pains to establish a hard line on accepting refugees.

“It is the height of lunacy for a government official to welcome in tens of thousands of refugees when we know that among them will be ISIS terrorists,” Mr. Cruz said Wednesday.

He said that the Obama administration’s policies “produced this humanitarian crisis,” and argued that the United States “should compassionately help resettle” Syrian Muslims in majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East.

Separately, Mr. Cruz hit a chief rival in the Republican presidential primary, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. The two have tangled over immigration policy, with Mr. Cruz criticizing Mr. Rubio’s past work on a bipartisan bill in the Senate. In recent days, Mr. Rubio has accused Mr. Cruz of voting to weaken the country’s intelligence capabilities to fight terror, a charge Mr. Cruz’s camp has refuted.

“I think the campaign has discovered that his positions on amnesty are bad politics and they don’t want to talk about it, so they’re trying to change the subject,” Mr. Cruz said Wednesday. “I understand why they’re doing that. That makes perfect sense. But I don’t think it’s going to work.”

[Ryan Ruck]

At Least 15 US ‘Citizen Terrorists’ Are Also Legal Immigrants

November 18, 2015

Dozens of the U.S. citizens arrested in recent years on terror-related charges are immigrants admitted to the United States legally who later obtained citizenship.

More than 70 U.S. residents have been publicly arrested and charged with conspiring to help, attempting to help, or actually helping terror networks such as Islamic State in recent years. At least 15 of them received U.S. citizenship after being admitted to the country legally, including one of the Boston bombers.

Here are five examples.

Two immigrants from Pakistan who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship were convicted of plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City in 2012, and were sentenced to a combined 55 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors accused a Somalian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen of plotting to “go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style.” The man had trained with a terrorist group in Syria and was told to return to the U.S. and carry out an act of terror.

An immigrant brought by his family from Kuwait at a young age and later approved for U.S. citizenship killed four Marines in a shooting rampage at two military centers in Chattanooga, Tenn., in July.

A woman born in Saudi Arabia who obtained U.S. citizenship and taught pre-school in Queens, N.Y., was arrested on terror charges in April. She and a friend also living in Queens pledged allegiance to Islamic State and considered bombing a police funeral. FBI raids on their apartments turned up bomb-making materials, including propane tanks and a pressure cooker, in addition to bomb recipes and jihadi literature.

An immigrant from Ghana who obtained U.S. citizenship was arrested in June and charged with conspiring to support a terrorist group after investigators allegedly found he was plotting a terror attack on New York City landmarks in the name of Islamic State.

The Obama administration has ignored a request from Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions for detailed immigration histories of 72 U.S. residents arrested in the past year on terror-related charges.

[vector7]

Chicago Passes Resolution to Allow Syrian Refugees, Just Days After Governor Vows None Will Come to Illinois

The Chicago City Council Wednesday voted in favor of a symbolic resolution to allow the city to accept Syrian refugees, according to NBC Chicago.

The resolution, which would also establish Chicago as a “sanctuary city,” flew in the face of Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who announced Monday that Illinois would put a temporary halt on accepting Syrian refugees.


Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (Getty Images/Tasos Katopodis)

“It cannot be in this moment when those in France have the courage to commit themselves to their values that we are weakened and walk away from,” Chicago Mayor Rham Emanuel said. “I’m honored that we’ve done this resolution. I’m honored that here in Chicago we speak up for what’s right.”

In comments to NBC Chicago, city Alderman Ed Burke explained what makes the resolution symbolic. He said that while the city has no authority to accept refugees, Rauner “has no legal authority to block Syrian refugees fleeing violence from being placed in Illinois.”

“It is our view that Chicago should continue its long and proud history of being one of the most immigrant-friendly cities in the world. It is a metropolis that was built on generations of immigrants,” Burke added.

Neither cities nor states can officially accept or reject Syrian refugees, according to Talking Points Memo, since the 1941 Supreme Court case Hines v. Davidowitzdetermined that immigration policy falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

That, however, hasn’t stopped more than 30 governors, including Gov. Rauner, from vowing to deny the relocation of any Syrian refugees to their states.

[American Patriot]

Watch this and observe the future.

[Malsua]

That fucking finger thing pisses me off. Osama did it, every head chopper does it and now some little blonde girl is doing it. I wonder if she'll be doing that when they remove her clit and beat her into submission for showing an ankle?

[Ryan Ruck]

Haven't watched the whole thing but, damn, Europe is fucked.

And we're not far behind with our own invasion...




I guess Western Civilization was good while it lasted.

[American Patriot]

My friends, Western Civilzation still exists while we can fight as men. Once you're a slave you no longer have a country, and must revolt. It is well past time for a revolt to remain free men.

[vector7]

Obama vows U.S. borders open to refugees 'as long as I'm president'

By Amy R. Connolly | Nov. 21, 2015 at 9:27 AM
67 Comments


President Obama, seen here leaving the White House on Nov. 14, vowed Saturday to keep United States borders open to refugees "as long as I'm president" as he met with migrant children in Malaysia. Pool Photo by Ron Sachs/UPI | License Photo

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- President Obama vowed Saturday to keep United States borders open to refugees "as long as I'm president" as he visited a Malaysian humanitarian center and met migrant children, many of whom escaped violence in homelands that include Myanmar, Pakistan and Syria.

Obama, in Malaysia for the 3rd ASEAN-U.S. Summit, chatted with young children at the Dignity for Children Foundation in Kuala Lumpur, asking them what they want to be when they grow up and observing their drawings. At the same time, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., on both sides of the aisle continue to feud with the administration over refugee screenings.

"They were indistinguishable from any child in America," Obama said after meeting the children. "And the notion that somehow we would be fearful of them, that our politics would somehow leave us to turn our sights away from their plight, is not representative of the best of who we are."

Thursday, the House passed legislation to impose rigorous screening on Syrian and Iraqi refugees entering the United States. The bill would subject each of the some 10,000 refugees to vetting from various government agencies including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The administration said it is a virtually impossible task. Obama, who returns to the United States on Monday, promised to veto the legislation.

In the president's weekly radio address, taped by Vice President Joe Biden and released Saturday, Biden said refugees, "face the most rigorous screening of anyone who comes to the United States." That includes finger printing and a host of background checks that take up to 24 months.

"Let's also remember who the vast majority of these refugees are: women, children, orphans, survivors of torture, people desperately in need of medical help.

To turn them away and say there is no way you can ever get here would play right into the terrorists' hands. We know what ISIL -- we know what they hope to accomplish. They flat-out told us," said Biden, referring to the extremist group that also goes by the names Islamic State, ISIS and Daesh.