Virginia Home to More than 650 New Afghan Refugees

Afghanistan People

Virginia has taken in more than 650 refugees from Afghanistan in the past five months as that nation continues to reel after President Joe Biden’s 2021 withdrawal of American troops.

According to a report on refugee resettlement from October 2023 through February, 655 Afghanis now call Virginia home. That is the most of any country of origin for the 1,295 refugees recently resettled in Virginia.

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Commentary: Liberals Want Americans to House Illegal Immigrants

Illegal Immigrants

The Office of Global Michigan is encouraging “everyday Americans” to volunteer to house illegal immigrants and “make a difference by welcoming refugees from around the world.”

“Volunteers [are] needed” to “support refugee resettlement efforts in Michigan,” says the office’s website, which was recently launched by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Development.

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Biden Admin Spent $20 Billion for Refugee Resettlement in Just Two Years

Refugees

The Biden administration has poured billions of taxpayer dollars into the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) since October 2022, according to a new report from Open the Books.

The Biden administration spent $8.925 billion in fiscal year 2022 and $10.928 billion in fiscal year 2023 on the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at ORR to accommodate, transport, and provide migrants with various other services like medical care and loans, according to the report, which was released Tuesday. In recent months, HHS has faced scrutiny for ORR’s alleged mishandling of cases of unaccompanied migrant children, some of whom have been released to poorly vetted sponsors where they are used for child labor, according to The New York Times.

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Senator Bill Hagerty: The Biden Administration Has Slipped Language into the Continuing Resolution to Transform ICE into a Resettlement Agency

Tennessee U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy Thursday, where in a stunning statement of clarity, exposed the Biden administration’s intention to repurpose ICE from an immigration enforcement agency to a resettlement bureau though a manipulation of the Continuing Resolution budget.

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Biden Pentagon Let 50 Afghans Posing Serious Security Risks into the United States, Watchdog Finds

The Biden administration failed to use all available screening data to vet Afghan refugees brought to the United States last year, allowing at least 50 individuals posing “potentially significant security concerns” to make it inside America’s borders, the Pentagon’s chief watchdog is warning.

To make matters worse, the Defense Department inspector general reported to Congress this week that 28 of 31 Afghan evacuees with known “derogatory information” can no longer be located.

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‘Hundreds’ of Afghan Refugees Resettling in Michigan

According to non-profit Samaritas, a Michigan refugee resettlement group that has been providing homes for displaced migrants since 1934, it will be resettling at least 350 Afghan refugees in Michigan. 

“What I can tell you is that Samaritas is committed to serving at least 350 refugees from Afghanistan,” Kelli Dobner, an executive with the organization, told 9&10 News. “Men, women and children.”

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First Afghan Refugees Resettled in ‘Top Destination’ Phoenix

The first of hundreds of Afghan refugees have been settled in the Phoenix area, which is being described as a “top destination” for those displaced after the U.S. withdrawal and Taliban takeover of the country. 

Republican Gov. Doug Ducey thanked the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES), along with Cindy McCain, the widow of former Arizona Senator John McCain, for assisting in the refugee resettlement process. 

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Half of American Military Bases Processing Afghan Refugees Are in Virginia

Afghan people

After the Department of Defense granted approval for two more Virginia military facilities to process Afghan refugees, half of the total number of refugee resettlement facilities in the United States will be located in the Commonwealth. 

“The Department of Defense has authorized two additional military installations in Virginia to house Afghan refugees — Marine Corps Base Quantico and Fort Pickett, a National Guard training center an hour southwest of Richmond,” according to Military.com. 

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272,000 Legal Immigrants Arrived in the U.S. in 2016 with Entitlement to Welfare Programs Like U.S. Citizens

272,000 legal immigrants arrived in the United States during 2016 with an entitlement to the full menu of welfare programs, just like any U.S. citizen, attendees were told at the Conservative Caucus in Murfreesboro on Saturday.

The information was presented by one of the afternoon’s speakers, Don Barnett, a fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies who has followed refugee resettlement for over 20 years.

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Bills Requiring Legislative Input for Refugee Resettlement Advance in Tennessee State House

Two separate bills that stipulate that the input of either the state or local legislative body is required with regard to the resettlement of refugees have moved through the House State Committee.

In other words, both proposed pieces of legislation prohibit Tennessee’s governor from acting alone in making decisions regarding refugee resettlement.

The proposals came about as the result of a series of events that occurred in late 2019.

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U.S. State Department Resettles Over 1,000 Afghan Refugees During Coronavirus Pandemic: REPORT

In the past month, the State Department resettled over a thousand refugees from Afghanistan, even though the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was temporarily suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in refugee camps overseas, including in Greece, where a migrant camp had to be quarantined after 23 asylum seekers tested positive for the coronavirus.

The pause on refugee admissions was expected to last from March 19 through April 6, but according to Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch,  1,003 Afghan refugees were resettled during that approximate time period.

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Report: Taxpayers Billed up to $133,000 per Refugee Resettled in U.S.

Tennessee Star

Breitbart reports, “American taxpayers are billed up to $133,000 per refugee resettled in the United States over the course of a lifetime, a new study reveals.”

In a recent report on the costs to U.S. citizens for its welcoming immigration and refugee policies, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that each refugee resettled in the U.S. especially those in the United States illegally, and use social welfare programs cost American taxpayers anywhere on average between $60,000 and $133,000 over the course of a lifetime.

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DeWine, Timken Hit Public Speaking Tour to Tout Positive News But Ignore Gun Control, High Unemployment, and Refugees

The classic Wizard of Oz quote “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” could apply to the attitude of the top leaders of the Ohio Republican Party.

Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken have taken to the roads to proclaim how wonderful the economy is and talk about government spending plans for children’s programs. Noticeably absent are comments about red flag laws, refugees and primary endorsements that the two have drawn heat on lately.

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Klobuchar Calls for Over 500 Percent Increase in Refugees, But Just Not in Her Neighborhood, Reports Say

  “Do what I say, not as I do,” could be the mantra for Presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar when it comes to resettling more than 500 percent more refugees under her proposal since virtually none of them would end up in her neighborhood, according to a report. And one of her motives is to support the big businesses that handle resettlement, according to reports. The Democratic U.S. senator from Minnesota wants to skyrocket the number of refugees taken in every year from President Trump’s cap of 18,000 to the Obama-era level of at least 110,000, Breitbart reported. While Minneapolis has resettled thousands of refugees since 2009, almost none live in Marcy-Holmes, where Klobuchar owns a home with her husband. Nearly 85 percent of all residents in Klobuchar’s neighborhood are native-born American citizens and of the less than ten percent of foreign-born residents, half arrived from China, India, Korea, Germany, Thailand, and Malaysia — countries from where only five refugees have been resettled in Minnesota in the last decade and none of whom have been resettled in Minneapolis much less Klobuchar’s neighborhood. Klobuchar is not the only Democratic presidential candidate to call for drastically flooding America with refugees. South Bend, Indiana,…

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UPDATED – The Deep State Strikes Again as a Clinton-Appointed Federal Judge Halts President Trump’s Refugee Resettlement Executive Order

Judge Peter Messitte and President Trump

In a statement from the White House Wednesday evening, Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham called this ruling “preposterous” and yet another example of a lawless district court asserting its own immigration policy in front of standing US law. Furthermore, she says this ruling “robbed” millions of Americans from having a direct say in something that directly affects their communities.

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Gov. Bill Lee Silent on Report His Decision Allows Federal Government to Send Middle East Refugees to Tennessee That Australia Has Refused

Gov. Bill Lee’s decision on December 18 to say yes to more refugees in Tennessee allows the federal government to resettle refugees from any country it wants into the state, including an estimated 300 to 720  refugees from Middle East countries that the government of Australia has refused to accept.

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Letter to the Editor: A Warning from Maine About the Taxpayers’ Role in Refugee Resettlement Programs

My home state has been ground zero for America’s failed, taxpayer abusive resettlement schemes for decades. Thousands of welfare dependent refugees, migrants, and illegal immigrants have been forced on our overburdened taxpayers in economically deprived cities, and the results have been disastrous. If Tennessee citizens fail to act, you will endure the same fate.

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Ohio Refugee Resettlement Up 22 Percent Under Gov. Mike DeWine, Including Hundreds From Countries With ‘High Burdens’ of TB

Refugee resettlement in Ohio is up 22 percent under Gov. Mike DeWine, including hundreds from countries with “high burdens” of tuberculosis.

DeWine is one of more than 30 governors who have agreed to accept more refugees under a plan put forth by President Donald Trump in which a governor has to opt in for resettlement, the Associated Press reported.

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Concerned Citizens: Leahy Takes Listener Calls and Breaks Down the Consequences of Governor Lee’s Refugee Stance

“So what the governor’s letter is going to do is make Tennessee a magnet. Tennessee will be a magnet for refugees,” host Michael Patrick Leahy told listeners Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am.

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Tennessee’s Legal Counsel Asks Entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to Reconsider Dismissal of Challenge to Refugee Resettlement Program

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) and Bursch Law PLLC filed a petition for rehearing by the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals bench of a two-judge panel opinion dismissing Tennessee’s challenge to the constitutionality of the federal refugee resettlement program for lack of standing.

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Tennessee General Assembly’s Legal Counsel Considers Next Step Now that Judge Dismisses Appeal to End Refugee Resettlement Program

  The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected the State of Tennessee’s appeal in which the General Assembly sought to ban the federal government from forcing Tennessee to accept and fund a refugee resettlement program. A copy of the court’s ruling is available here. A federal judge in March 2018 dismissed Tennessee’s lawsuit against the federal government’s resettlement of refugees in the state on 10th amendment grounds. The Tennessee General Assembly in May 2018 authorized the Thomas More Law Center to file an appeal on its behalf, The Tennessee Star reported. The law center did not charge for the service. When Diane Black was running for the governor’s office last year, she announced her support for the appeal. The General Assembly first retained Thomas More in 2017 to file a federal lawsuit against the U.S. State Department, which oversees the refugee resettlement program, the law center said in a press release. In its decision Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit “side-stepped the substantive issues in a ruling Wednesday that held the General Assembly did not have ‘standing’ to challenge the federal program and dismissed the state’s case. Thus, the court never decided whether the federal refugee resettlement program violated the…

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New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu Among Lone Republicans Left Standing

The blue wave made its way through New Hampshire Tuesday night when both U.S. House seats went to Democrats as well as both houses of the state legislature. Neither of the state’s U.S. senators, both Democrats, were up for reelection this year. The results left incumbent Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) among the only victorious Republicans of the night in the state, beating his opponent Democrat Molly Kelly 53 percent to 46 percent. “The next two years are going to be a little bit different, but that’s OK. That’s New Hampshire. Anybody who has ideas is invited to the table,” he said in his victory speech. Sununu will also be up for reelection in 2020, since governors are elected every two years in New Hampshire. Local conservatives blamed nobody but the state GOP for the bad results. The local website GraniteGrok wrote: If the NH Republican Party wants to win, and win Consistently, act like you believe in the Platform.  Speak like you do and at each and every turn.  Vote like you do at each and every opportunity.  And Legislate like there’s no tomorrow because two days ago was that “no more tomorrow” – and you blew it. Creating additional trouble for Sununu is the state’s Executive Council, a political body…

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Lancaster County Will Be Pennsylvania’s First Investigative Target Under New Program to Tackle Welfare Fraud

The Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General and the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office announced last week that they are joining forces to tackle welfare fraud, specifically food-stamp fraud. Commonly referred to as the food-stamp program, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increasingly become a concern among law-enforcement officials. Due to the extent of the fraud and the ease with which it has been carried out, as well as the apparent lack of desire to tackle it until now, fraud had “ballooned” from 2012-2016 during President Barack Obama’s term in office. Most recently, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) released a stunning report linking the misuse of food-stamp dollars to international terrorism as the practice of  “trafficking” raked in millions of dollars for fraudulent convenience stores nationwide. The findings from GAI’s groundbreaking report, titled “EBTerrorism: How Fraud Ridden SNAP Funds Terror, Fails at Enforcement and Wastes Taxpayer Money,” were reported by The Ohio Star last week. In short, the trafficking involved individuals selling their benefits to store owners and managers for less than what they were worth, while the recipients turned them in for full value. Such fraud will be the focus of Pennsylvania’s efforts to find and prosecute those running welfare…

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Bredesen’s History With Refugee Resettlement in Tennessee Consistent With Democrats in Congress Who Want Big Numbers Resettled in FY 2019

Right after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the FY2019 ceiling for refugee admissions would be no more than 30,000, Democrats in Congress flew into action and federal refugee resettlement contractors began objecting. On Thursday, 51 U.S. House Democrats, including Tennessee’s Steve Cohen, co-sponsored House Resolution 1073 calling for no fewer than 110,000 refugee admissions for fiscal year 2019 which begins on October 1st. This was the last refugee admission ceiling proposed by Obama before leaving office. The resolution also takes a swipe at President Trump’s integrity on the refugee issue by stating that Trump “and his administration must operate the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in good faith.” Democrat Senate candidate Phil Bredesen’s history of welcoming thousands of refugees to Tennessee during his two terms as governor, is strong evidence that he agrees there should be a higher number of refugees brought to the U.S. in the coming year. Between 2003 and 2011, Bredesen’s last year as governor, over 9,000 refugees of multiple ethnicities were brought to Tennessee by federal contractors. The numbers do not, however, account for secondary migrants who are first resettled in other states or other parts of Tennessee but then relocate to follow friends,…

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Immigrant Voting Base Was Top Priority For Karl Dean When He Was Mayor of Nashville

Karl Dean

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean placed a high priority on meeting the needs of “new Americans” during his two terms as mayor of Nashville. Speaking forcefully against an English-first proposal to launching programs like “MyCity Academy” and “Pathway for New Americans,” Dean looked for ways to politically capture the support of the immigrant constituency and solidify Nashville’s blue vote. In 2009, Nashville Councilman Eric Crafton proposed an amendment to Nashville’s charter which would have declared English to be the official language of Nashville and Davidson County and which would have limited the use of languages other than English in conducting the city’s business: English is the official language of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Official actions which bind or commit the government shall be taken only in the English language, and all official government communications and publications shall be in English. No person shall have a right to government services in any other language. All meetings of the Metro Council, Boards, and Commissions of the Metropolitan Government shall be conducted in English. The Metro Council may make specific exceptions to protect public health and safety. Nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with federal or…

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Bredesen’s Bipartisan Policy Council Pushes Discredited Leftist Narrative That ‘Refugees Most Vetted Travelers to U.S.’

Phil Bredesen

  After serving his last term as governor of Tennessee, Bredesen dabbled in “partisan politicking” and working to help other Democrats get elected: As a loyal Democrat, Bredesen this year declared his support for President Obama’s re-election, endorsed the party’s 4th Congressional District nominee, Eric Stewart, and did “robo-calls” supporting a handful of legislative candidates such as former Rep. Eddie Yokley, D-Greeneville, who lost this week to Republican David Hawk. Bredesen also chose to serve on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Governors Council. The mission statement of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., suggests that bipartisan analysis and consensus-based decision-making results in obviating any political bias from the BPC’s policy proposals. On the issue of the United State’s refugee resettlement program, however, BPC analysts have repeatedly pushed the left’s narrative that “[r]efugees seeking admission to the United States undergo the most stringent security screening process for anyone entering the country.” Three refugees living in the U.S. arrested last week for falsifying information in their immigration applications make claims about stringent refugee vetting less credible even though federal agencies have been aware of vetting obstacles for years. As far back as 2008, the State Department discovered through random DNA testing…

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