Testimony on Obama’s New Rogue Refugee Plan for Central American ‘Kids’

Refugee Resettlement Watch
April 30, 2015

Once the Central American “children” are deemed refugees, then what is to stop every poor country in the world from demanding that their children are given the same advantage and designated refugees as well?
Once the Central American “children” are deemed refugees, then what is to stop every poor country in the world from demanding that their children are given the same advantage and designated refugees as well?

Last week the brave and indefatigable Senator Jeff Sessions held a hearing in his Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, about Obama’s new refugee program for Central American Minors (CAM) program.

Once again, Obama is writing immigration law from the White House as he colonizes your towns with “new” Americans.

For those of you wanting to understand how this already-launched Obama “refugee” resettlement plan works, see this important testimony presented by Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies last week.

Here (below) is how she begins (and a few snips follow).  Perhaps the most important bit you should understand is that the “children” streaming across our southern border, or those still at home in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are NOT refugees by the internationally understood definition of what does make one a refugee—they must first prove that they are PERSECUTED for one of several reasons.

Obama is changing (broadening!) the definition of ‘refugee’ in such a way that anyone in the world could call themselves a refugee if they need a job and have crime in their country and for those reasons demand entrance into the US.  This CAM program is the proverbial camel getting its nose under the tent!

And, one important reason Obama wants the “children” designated as refugees (besides the simple flooding of America with potential new voters for the Dems because refugees can move quickly to citizenship) is that all of the welfare goodies available to Americans will be available to them as well upon arrival.

Jessica Vaughn, Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies.
Jessica Vaughn, Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies.

Vaughan calls the Obama plan a “rogue” refugee program (emphasis is mine):

Thank you, Chairman Sessions and Ranking Member Schumer, for the opportunity to testify on the new Central American Minors (CAM) Refugee/Parole Program, and the impact this controversial program will have on American communities. Both the CAM Program and the Haitian Family Reunification Program (HFRP), a similarly problematic endeavor, are dramatic departures from existing law and policy on the admission of refugees, grants of parole, and the family reunification process established by Congress. The criteria for participating in the program differ significantly from what the law stipulates for refugees and parolees. The programs have been presented to the public in a deceptive way, perhaps in an effort to avoid public criticism for what are plainly unlawful, unprecedented, and costly schemes. These programs are an egregious abuse of executive authority; perhaps with good intentions, but that is no substitute for the law. Worst of all, there is no indication that either program can succeed in achieving the stated goal of deterring people from contracting with criminal smuggling organizations to bring their family members to the United States. The result will be a continued erosion of the integrity of immigration law, exploding costs for taxpayers, needless public safety problems, and continued illegal immigration from this part of the world.

[….]

The clear focus of the program is on family reunification, not escaping persecution, which is the legal basis for U.S. and international refugee programs. The stated goal is to provide an alternative to traditional – and dangerous – pathways of illegal migration to the United States to join family members who migrated earlier. The existence of persecution is not mentioned in the statement, nor in other official explanations about the CAM program.

[….]

….government and news media reports all indicate that the main reason for the influx of juveniles from Central America is not rampant or particularlized persecution, but to join family members who are already living here, to escape difficult living conditions, and because Obama administration policies allow it.

[….]

While the problems of violence, poverty and lack of opportunity in Central America are real and pervasive, and we cannot be oblivious to them, Congress wisely has not recognized these conditions as appropriate grounds for refugee status. If it had, then much of the world could demand resettlement, including many in the United States.

Keep in mind that the ‘parents’ supposedly lawfully present in the US, who must apply for their kids to enter, are in most cases here in some form of temporary legal status, but once the ‘kid’ becomes a refugee, who would ever throw out the Moms and Pops? In other words, the kid will anchor the family!

There is much, much, more and I urge you to read it so that you know that a few thousand more ‘kids’ coming in as refugees is not the issue.  A more significant impact than the modest numbers of CAMs (which might seem insignificant in the overall scheme of things) is that Obama is changing refugee law!

One final note, especially galling to me is the fact that processing the ‘kids’ into the country will be up to the refugee subcontractors, list here.  And, surely they will be getting more of your hard-earned dollars to do the paperwork!

For new readers, we have an extensive archive on the so-called “Unaccompanied minors” going back several years, here.