Monday, January 28, 2019

965 Trump: No Asylum without doco; Global Compact on Migration a cornerstone of Agenda 2030

Trump: No Asylum without doco; Global Compact on Migration a cornerstone of Agenda 2030

Newsletter published on January 11, 2019

(1) Sweden feminists turn blind eye to Sexual Assault by Migrants from warzones
(2) Sweden elite is out of touch, so people turn to Far Right parties
(3) Trump: No Asylum without documentation
(4) California Judge blocks Trump's new asylum rules
(5) Student leader facing calls to resign after using the phrase "illegal alien"
(6) UN's Global Compact for Migration
(7) Global Compact for Migration - Final Draft
(8) Bloomberg Global Business Forum pushes Left line on Gender, Migration
(9) Global Compact on Migration vs Xenophobia & Populism; a cornerstone of Agenda 2030
(10) UN Report: Replacement Migration - a Solution to Declining and Ageing Populations?
(11) Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact
(12) NGO Caught on Camera Teaching Migrants to Lie, to cry, to "act the part"
(13) Jewish Involvement in Contemporary Refugee and Migrant Organizations
(14) Israeli company to patrol the seas around Europe, to reduce Islamic Immigration
(15) Israeli Defense Company Wins Contract to Monitor Europe’s Coasts
(16) Trump Dumps Agenda 21 Regionalization Mask / Paris Climate Trap

(1) Sweden feminists turn blind eye to Sexual Assault by Migrants from warzones


Sweden’s Dark Soul

by Kajsa Norman review – 'far from a utopia'

A journalist becomes disillusioned with her country following the cover-up of sexual assaults at a Stockholm music festival

PD Smith

Thu 20 Dec 2018 23.00 AEDT

Sweden is proud of its reputation for being one of the world’s most progressive and egalitarian nations, and for a long time Kajsa Norman thought that its main defect was being rather “boring”. As an investigative journalist, she preferred more challenging environments, such as Zimbabwe. But while abroad she heard of an incident in Sweden “so disturbing and strange” that she felt compelled to investigate. What she found shook her faith in her country.

The annual We Are Sthlm music festival attracts some 200,000 people, mostly aged between 13 and 19, to Kungsträdgården Park in central Stockholm. On a balmy evening in August 2015, a middle-aged psychologist, whom the author calls Hans, as he wishes to remain anonymous, took his teenage relatives to the festival. As twilight fell, he noticed how groups of men and boys appeared and began “eyeing the young girls in hot pants”. During the evening he saw girl after girl stagger out from the crowd to ask for help from the security guards after being sexually assaulted.

Afterwards Hans was haunted by the memory of “watching packs of predators hunt helpless prey”, and was shocked that nothing appeared in the press the next day. When he emailed the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, a journalist called him. Although she sounded interested, when he mentioned that “the vast majority” of the perpetrators “appeared to be Afghans”, her tone became “noticeably colder”. No article appeared, leaving Hans angry that “in a country that claims to be one of the most feminist places on earth”, no one cared.

Eventually he contacted an alternative news website run by a former counsellor for the nationalist Sweden Democrats, whom Norman describes as a “dissident”. The resulting story caused a storm of controversy, with accusations of both a media and a police cover-up. ...

• Sweden’s Dark Soul is published by Hurst. To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.

(2) Sweden elite is out of touch, so people turn to Far Right parties


Sweden’s far right has flourished because the elite lost touch with the people

Whatever the result of the general election, Sweden Democrats’ nationalist stance is now part of the political conversation

Andrew Brown

Sun 26 Aug 2018 16.00 AEST

The Sweden Democrats look at first sight like any of the other anti-immigrant and populist parties that have spread across Europe in the last decade. They are said to be Steve Bannon’s favourite party with their programme of xenophobia and cultural nationalism – the 1950s, but with mobile phones, as one of their founders once told a journalist.

They have risen from the extreme fringes to a position where they have completely jammed up the traditional power blocs of Swedish politics, which since 1976 have been based around the competition between the Social Democrats and a grouping of three or four non-socialist parties. None of the mainstream parties will co-operate with them, but neither bloc can form a majority government without them.

Yet on closer inspection, they are a very Swedish phenomenon. In Denmark, Norway, and Finland, parties that share their ferociously anti-immigrant message have long been admitted to government and form part of the normal political process. Swedish mainstream parties, though they have adopted many of the Sweden Democrats’ policies since the great U-turn on immigration of 2015, have simply refused to acknowledge their existence. ...

The drawback of all authoritarian systems is that the people at the top will hear only what they want to, and gradually lose touch with reality. What prevented this in Sweden for most of the 20th century was mass membership of political parties on a scale hard to imagine in Britain. In 1983, nearly a quarter of the population was enrolled in a political party. More than 1 million people out of a population of 8 million were members of the Social Democrats (I was myself, as the union representative in the small factory where I worked).

The parties functioned almost as social media do today, says Petersson. Young people joined to meet others, especially in the country. And because they were so embedded in everyday life, party officials had a very good idea of what ordinary, unpolitical people were talking about. Since then, membership has collapsed to levels scarcely above those of British counterparts. About half the membership of the Social Democrats vanished with the abolition of collective membership through the unions. By 2010 the party had only 109,000 members. There was no longer any mechanism by which the leadership on Stockholm could be told things they did not want to hear.

That was the void in which the Sweden Democrats flourished. Originally a neo-Nazi sect, which was taken over and cleaned up by four student politicians, it was the only party that spoke out against the consensus on immigration. The mainstream parties tried for years to ignore them entirely.

Just before they entered parliament for the first time, in 2010, I asked the minister for integration what her plans were for when they got in (as the polls showed they would) and she replied that it was unthinkable they should. No thought was duly given. So now the party has grown to be the third – and will quite possibly soon be the second – largest in the country.

But it is still a captive of the authoritarianism from which it benefited. Unlike true fascist movements, it has no coherent plan to reshape the state, and no views on capitalism. It just believes the wrong people are running the right system. In that sense it is already a part of Swedish political life, whatever the result of the election. ...

(3) Trump: No Asylum without documentation


Asylum ban: Trump eliminates right to asylum for immigrants crossing without documentation

By Eric London

9 November 2018

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Justice Department issued a joint statement yesterday announcing a new federal regulation barring immigrants who cross the US border without documentation from applying for asylum.

The decision is the most significant restriction on immigration in decades, as the vast majority of asylum seekers apply from within the country. It will cause hundreds of thousands of deportations and family separations, and send countless immigrants to their deaths, largely in Mexico and Central America. It is aimed at whipping up racist and xenophobic sentiment against vulnerable workers from Latin America in particular. ...

The new federal regulation, which will formally become law tomorrow when Trump issues his presidential proclamation affirming the rule change, is explicitly aimed at the caravan of Central American immigrants presently resting in Mexico City en route to the US. ...

(4) California Judge blocks Trump's new asylum rules


'He may not rewrite the laws': Judge blocks Trump's new asylum rules

CNN

Susan Walsh

In an order laced with language accusing President Donald Trump of attempting to rewrite immigration laws, a federal judge based in San Francisco temporarily blocked the government late Monday night from denying asylum to those crossing over the southern border between ports of entry.

Judge Jon S. Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said that a policy announced November 9 barring asylum for immigrants who enter outside a legal check point "irreconcilably conflicts" with immigration law and the "expressed intent of Congress."

"Whatever the scope of the President's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," Tigar wrote, adding that asylum seekers would be put at "increased risk of violence and other harms at the border" if the administration's rule is allowed to go into effect.

The temporary restraining order is effective nationwide and will remain in effect until December 19, when the judge has scheduled another hearing, or further order of the court.

(5) Student leader facing calls to resign after using the phrase "illegal alien"


Student gov VP faces calls to RESIGN after political Facebook post

Jon Street

on Nov 12, 2018 at 4:44 PM EDT

A student leader at Emporia State University in Kansas faced impeachment and is now facing calls to resign after using the phrase "illegal alien."

The student leader told Campus Reform on Monday that she will not cave in to those demands because she is committed to a "diverse" campus.

A student leader at Emporia State University in Kansas used the phrase "illegal alien" on her personal Facebook page and is now facing a wave of backlash, including calls for her to resign from her student government position.

"Illegal alien" is the legal term used by the U.S. government to describe individuals who are in the country illegally.

"Put Kansas first, not illegal aliens. The millions of dollars spent on public welfare for illegal aliens in Kansas hurts Kansas taxpayers every single day."    Tweet This

Prior to Election Day on Nov. 6, Michaela Todd, vice president of the student government a staunch supporter of Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach, posted a message of support for her candidate of choice. In it, she described how she believed Kobach was the best choice because of his views on abortion, taxes, and illegal immigration.

"Put Kansas first, not illegal aliens," Todd wrote. "The millions of dollars spent on public welfare for illegal aliens in Kansas hurts Kansas taxpayers every single day."

But the phrase "illegal alien" didn't sit well with some students, who took screenshots and shared them across social media, calling Todd's comments "racist" and "ignorant."

"It has come to our attention that the VP of @EmporiaStateASG has made incredibly hurtful, racist, and, frankly, ignorant remarks," the Multicultural Greek Council at ESU tweeted Wednesday, adding that Todd "does not represent us and we hope that @EmporiaState takes the measures needed to show us that she does not represent ESU either."

"I am so disgusted at the fact the VP of @EmporiaStateASG promotes these racist and revolting ideas," another student tweeted.

And Kayla Gilmore, who studied at Emporia State University and works there, according to her Facebook profile, called on student leaders to "hold themselves accountable" and for the administration to "hold them accountable should they fail."

Following the backlash, Todd told Campus Reform that she edited her post and removed the phrase "illegal alien."

"After I heard that there were some of my constituents who were upset with what I posted, I edited it and took out the part that had the term in it," the student leader told Campus Reform. "I left the rest of the post there, though. It was a caption to go along with my updated profile picture, which had a Kobach banner on it, which is why I think people who weren’t my friend on Facebook were able to see it. I didn’t realize that was possible."

But the backlash didn't stop there.

The ESU Bulletin student newspaper reported Thursday that the student senate tried but failed to impeach Todd over her remarks. The paper also reported that ASG’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee is now calling for Todd to resign.

In a statement to Campus Reform on Monday, Todd made clear that resigning is not her plan.

"I was apologetic to the students who[m] my post [a]ffected negatively because I never want to inflict pain on others," she said. "Now, I am still dedicated to representing the ESU students. I am not going to step down because I am committed to creating a diverse campus at ESU, not only in culture but in thought as well."

Emporia State University did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

Follow the author of this article on Facebook: @JonStreetDC and Twitter: @JonStreet

(6) UN's Global Compact for Migration


Global Compact for Migration

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is a non-binding "intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, [that covers] all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner".[1] The United Nations conference to adopt the compact will be held in Marrakech, Morocco, on 10–11 December 2018.[2] Austria negotiated the GCM on behalf of the EU.

Opposition

Austria,[3] Australia,[4] Croatia,[5] Bulgaria,[6] the Czech Republic,[7] Estonia[8] Israel, [9] Hungary and Poland[10] will be absent from the agreement.

There has also been some opposition in the German parliament, led by Alternative for Germany.[11] The Government of Estonia remains divided on the issue [12] and the country's position might be decided by the Riigikogu.[13] The Chancellor of Austria, Sebastian Kurz, stated that the compact would reduce Austria's sovereignty and mix up the difference between illegal and legal immigration as well as that between economic and humanitarian immigration.[3] At the behest of President Trump, the United States did not even participate in the negotiation of the agreement.[3] Slovak foreign minister Miroslav Lajčák has announced that he will step down from his position if the Slovak parliament, controlled by the coaliton which he represents, rejects the Compact. Most coalition parties in Slovakia are criticizing the document.[14][15]

See also
United Nations Global Compact: similarly named instrument dealing with corporate social responsibility.

This page was last edited on 21 November 2018, at 09:24 (UTC).

(7) Global Compact for Migration - Final Draft


GLOBAL COMPACT FOR SAFE, ORDERLY AND REGULAR MIGRATION
FINAL DRAFT
11 July 2018
We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives, meeting in Morocco on 10 and 11
December 2018, reaffirming the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and determined to
make an important contribution to enhanced cooperation on international migration in all its dimensions,
have adopted this Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

(8) Bloomberg Global Business Forum pushes Left line on Gender, Migration


Bloomberg Global Business Forum Highlights Initiatives on Gender, Urban Mobility, Migration

by ADAM FISHMAN
Thematic Expert for 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (US)
16 October 2018

The Bloomberg Global Business Forum convened on the overarching theme of strengthening prosperity through trade.

The event highlighted three announcements: an update to Bloomberg Gender Equality Index; an expansion of the SharedStreets platform; and private sector support for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

26 September 2018: The Bloomberg Global Business Forum (GBF) met on the overarching theme of strengthening prosperity through trade. More than 70 Heads of State and 200 CEOs announced a series of partnerships, agreements and initiatives, while breakout sessions reviewed finance, migration, changing demographics, technology and economic issues.

The Forum convened on 26 September 2018 in New York, US.

Opening the Forum, former New York City Mayor and UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action, Michael Bloomberg, emphasized that the day was “designed to give business leaders a seat at the table” on issues such as trade. UK Prime Minister Theresa May added in her keynote that understanding business needs and working in partnership with the private sector is crucial to success, which, Bloomberg noted, would be measured not by the day’s outcomes, but in the years to come.

UK Minister for Women and Equalities Penny Mordaunt outlined how six data points from the UK Government’s gender pay gap metrics will be incorporated into the global reporting framework of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI). She noted that the partnership with Bloomberg is representative of “the growing global commitment to transparency and gender equality,” and that some of the largest UK companies have already taken action. ...

(9) Global Compact on Migration vs Xenophobia & Populism; a cornerstone of Agenda 2030


Long Live Multilateralism: Why the Global Compact for Migration Matters

As the world finalizes the Global Compact for Migration, ODI’s Marta Foresti explains the political significance of reaching an international agreement on migration that many saw as an impossible gamble in an age of xenophobia and nationalism.

by Marta Foresti          

July 19, 2018 

U.N. MEMBER STATES last week finalized the text of the first ever international agreement on global migration. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is the result of nearly two years of intense and – at times fraught – negotiations. The U.S. left the negotiating table at an early stage and Hungary pulled out at the end of negotiations. Others have threatened to follow
suit.

But they did not leave. Instead, last Friday, national delegations from all over the world gave the Swiss and Mexican co-facilitators and the U.N. Special Representative on Migration Louise Arbour a standing ovation for achieving an “historic breakthrough” on global migration. ...

At a time when European states cannot reach a meaningful agreement to cooperate while an increasing number of people die at sea, and with Trump pushing an ever harder line on immigration at home and abroad, it is more urgent than ever to commit to discover and test new forms of international cooperation and to explore solutions and pragmatic ways forward. The GCM offers a framework to do just that. In the words of the Swiss ambassador for development, forced displacement and migration during Friday’s ceremony at the U.N.: “It looked like an impossible bet, but the Global Compact has cut through the noise of xenophobia and populism.” ...

On matters of migration and development, the text recognizes that migration can help achieve development outcomes and as such it is a cornerstone of the Agenda 2030 on sustainable development. That’s no small result. However, the text also falls back into donor-convenient rhetoric of suggesting that development policies, programs and money can address the “adverse drivers” of migration, when there is little evidence that development aid can stem irregular movement.

Even so, the text is also rich in ideas and innovations; for example, the proposal to establish skills partnerships between countries to facilitate labor mobility. ...

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Refugees Deeply.

About the Author

Marta Foresti is the director of ODI’s Human Mobility Initiative, leading the institute engagement on migration at global, regional and local level. She is visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs and the London School of Economics and she is acting as senior policy advisor for the consultation of the Global Compact For Migration and to the IOM’s Research Syndicate. She is a member of the advisory board of Refugees Deeply, of the editorial doard of the Journal of Migration Policy and Practice as well as of the board of PorCausa.org.

(10) UN Report: Replacement Migration - a Solution to Declining and Ageing Populations?


New Report On Replacement Migration Issued By UN Population Division

Press Release Dev/2234 Pop/735

NEW YORK, 17 March (DESA) -- The Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has released a new report titled "Replacement Migration: Is it a Solution to Declining and Ageing Populations?". Replacement migration refers to the international migration that a country would need to prevent population decline and population ageing resulting from low fertility and mortality rates.

United Nations projections indicate that between 1995 and 2050, the population of Japan and virtually all countries of Europe will most likely decline. In a number of cases, including Estonia, Bulgaria and Italy, countries would lose between one quarter and one third of their population. Population ageing will be pervasive, bringing the median age of population to historically unprecedented high levels. For instance, in Italy, the median age will rise from 41 years in 2000 to 53 years in 2050. The potential support ratio -- i.e., the number of persons of working age (15-64 years) per older person -- will often be halved, from 4 or 5 to 2.

Focusing on these two striking and critical trends, the report examines in detail the case of eight low-fertility countries (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States) and two regions (Europe and the European Union). In each case, alternative scenarios for the period 1995-2050 are considered, highlighting the impact that various levels of immigration would have on population size and population ageing.

Major findings of this report include:

-- In the next 50 years, the populations of most developed countries are projected to become smaller and older as a result of low fertility and increased longevity. In contrast, the population of the United States is projected to increase by almost a quarter. Among the countries studied in the report, Italy is projected to register the largest population decline in relative terms, losing 28 per cent of its population between 1995 and 2050, according to the United Nations medium variant projections. The population of the European Union, which in 1995 was larger than that of the United States by 105 million, in 2050, will become smaller by 18 million.

-- Population decline is inevitable in the absence of replacement migration. Fertility may rebound in the coming decades, but few believe that it will recover sufficiently in most countries to reach replacement level in the foreseeable future.

- 2 - Press Release DEV/2234 POP/735 17 March 2000

-- Some immigration is needed to prevent population decline in all countries and regions examined in the report. However, the level of immigration in relation to past experience varies greatly. For the European Union, a continuation of the immigration levels observed in the 1990s would roughly suffice to prevent total population from declining, while for Europe as a whole, immigration would need to double.  ...

-- The numbers of immigrants needed to prevent the decline of the total population are considerably larger than those envisioned by the United Nations projections. The only exception is the United States.

-- The numbers of immigrants needed to prevent declines in the working- age population are larger than those needed to prevent declines in total population. ...

-- In the absence of immigration, the potential support ratios could be maintained at current levels by increasing the upper limit of the working-age population to roughly 75 years of age. ==

Alternative: allow the Right to Die, i.e. Voluntary Euthenasia - Peter Myers

(11) Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact


Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact, citing risks to turnbacks and detention

Morrison government says global deal risks reversing ‘hard-won successes in combating the people-smuggling trade’

Paul Karp

The Morrison government has confirmed it will not sign up to the United Nation’s migration pact, claiming it will undermine Australia’s harsh policies to deter asylum seekers.

The Refugee Council of Australia and advocates have strongly rejected that assertion, citing the fact the compact is non-binding and has a provision stating that countries retain sovereignty over their migration programs.

In July the Coalition signalled it would refuse to sign the agreement, because the final draft of the compact said that migration detention should only be used “as a measure of last resort” and states should work towards alternatives.

After failing to secure changes addressing its concerns, the Morrison government confirmed on Wednesday that Australia will not sign, joining the United States, Israel and a group of Eastern European countries that have also refused.

(12) NGO Caught on Camera Teaching Migrants to Lie, to cry, to "act the part"


European NGO Caught on Camera Teaching Migrants to Lie and ‘Pretend to be Christians’ and act Like a ‘Refugee in Trauma’

 by Cassandra Fairbanks

November 12,

Documentary film-makers Lauren Southern and Caolan Robertson have released shocking new recordings in which the director of a major NGO in Europe told their undercover team how she teaches migrants to lie and pretend to be persecuted Christians to border police.

Ariel Ricker, Executive Director of Advocates Abroad, was caught in the recordings admitting that the asylum process is simply theatre.

“This is all like a big theatre production, everyone has a part to play and a refugee has to act the part of the refugee in trauma for the interviewers, but it is extremely difficult to do this because unless they are taught how to be this character, this actor, then they go about it usually the opposite way,” Ricker says.

Ricker’s NGO, Advocates Abroad, provides legal aid to refugees and migrants seeking asylum in Europe. They have 380 staff members that are primarily involved in preparing refugees and migrants for their asylum interviews. In 2017, they worked with over 15,000 refugees. Southern’s team points out that they also recently campaigned with 12 British MPs to raise $100,000 in donations.

In the shocking undercover video, Ricker also admits to teaching the migrants how to cry, to “act the part” of the “refugee in trauma” and even throw up to show extreme emotion.

“Oh yeah, yeah. I see it like, I tell them that this is acting, all of this is acting […] it’s all acting as though this is theatre. So for them to get through they must act their part in the theatre and that is the refugee in trauma, because these EASO officers are so fucking stupid all they know is what’s written on the paper, EASO says ‘this is refugee in trauma, they have these characteristics’ so we coach people how to have these characteristics,” Ricker admits.

Ricker explains that they do role-playing, where they act like the “refugee” and the migrant plays the officer. This way they can see how they are supposed to act.

They also admit to teaching the migrants to pretend to be Christian — and how to pretend to pray.

“They also ask like whats your favourite holiday, some people say like Christmas and but like we explain you cannot just say this because this is not a sufficient answer, you have to say, you have to say it a certain way which is like ‘December 25th which is Christmas, which is the birthday of our Lord and Saviour,'” Ricker explains.

It gets worse.

Ricker explains that she has come up with a “formula” on what exactly they should teach migrants to say in order to appear sympathetic.

“So like um there’s a formula we came up with which is ironic because I suck at formulas, but its like ‘significant event, date and location.’ So [unintelligible] to answer all the questions the same way; ‘in December 2017 in Izmir in Turkey I was threatened for being a Christian because my boss and his friends jumped me when I was leaving my church. This is the Bible they tried to tear up, this is the crucifix I was wearing that they tried to tear, and they made me feel unsafe as a Christian in Turkey.’ Ba-boom. And that way you have the event, the date and the location so you’ve given them a very specific answer, and you’ve kept it to be a tight, short answer as well […] and it’s much harder to refute because you have all the elements there,” Ricker said.

Ricker even admits to being involved with smugglers.

“So the leader [of ERCI] was properly involved with smugglers?” the undercover journalist asks.

Ricker replied confidently, “of course they were, I mean we all are to some degree, like there’s no question of that. But it’s like how involved you are, how much you want to be involved […] some people will draw the line at being in cahoots with a trafficker but they won’t with a smuggler.”

A United Nations Refugee Agency spokesperson has responded to the statements made by Ricker in the undercover recordings by saying that they are “alarmed by these reports.”

“Any individual or organization offering support to asylum-seekers should demonstrate the highest standards of professionalism, be it a government agency, international organisation, established NGO, or volunteer,” the UN spokesperson said.

The organization currently lists The University of Denver as an official partner.

Upon being presented with a transcript of the undercover records, the university said that “one of our college’s professors, Scott Johns, traveled to a Greek island near Turkey in December of 2016 and to mainland Greece in November of 2017 to volunteer with Advocates Abroad. He worked with other lawyers, mostly from Europe, to advise individuals seeking asylum in Greece.”

“Additionally, some of the students in a class Johns previously taught on asylum law volunteered to write objective country reports for individuals seeking asylum.  These reports consist of factual information about the status of human rights in a given country, cite multiple sources and are used by asylum-seekers to make their case,” the university spokesperson said.

 “Upon reading the transcript in your email, Johns said he is ‘shocked and repulsed’ the comments made by Ariel Ricker. He said that based on your information, he and his students wouldn’t want to continue working with the organization,” the statement continued.

(13) Jewish Involvement in Contemporary Refugee and Migrant Organizations

From: JUDY schuchmann <judyschuchmann1@gmail.com> Subject: immigration



ANDREW JOYCE o DECEMBER 29, 2018

[...] The conspicuous presence of influential Jewish diplomats and politicians in the formulation of the Refugee Act of 1980, together with the obvious dissonance between Elizabeth Holtzman’s presentation of the Act and the reality of it’s impact, should be contextualized within the question of ethnic conflict in immigration policy more generally. In particular, it should be contextualized within Kevin MacDonald’s discussion of Jewish involvement in shaping U.S. immigration policy, in the course of which MacDonald concludes that "Jewish organizations have uniformly advocated high levels of immigration of all racial and ethnic groups into Western societies and have also advocated a multicultural model for these societies."[2] The posited reasons for this uniformity include the historical Jewish interest in securing immigration rights for Jews, and the fact that pluralism is conducive to increased feelings of Jewish security — a state of affairs in which Jews become just one among many ethnic groups instead of a sole outgroup in a predominantly White, Christian nation. The theory allows for exceptions to the rule, in cases where Jewish interests are interpreted differently by a minority of Jews. Further, Jewish success in advancing pluralistic goals are said to be rooted in a number of Jewish traits, especially high verbal intelligence and a tendency toward in-group networking. This theoretical framework would seem to predict that Jews would be overrepresented in positions of influence within contemporary refugee, asylum, and similar pro-immigration or "immigrants rights" organizations. The following study of a number of such organizations strongly confirms all aspects of MacDonald’s theoretical framework, and offers a rejoinder to some recent criticisms of it. ...

Jewish Representation in Secular Contemporary Refugee and Migrant Organizations.

In contrast to the modest overrepresentation of Jews in anti-immigration groups (around 5%), Jews are nothing short of prolific in influential senior roles in contemporary refugee, asylum, and pro-migration organizations. Significantly, Jews occupy the leadership of all four of the largest and most influential (and nominally secular) organizations active in America today, the International Rescue Committee (President and CEO David Miliband), Refugees International (President Eric P. Schwartz, formerly of HIAS), International Refugee Assistance Project (Director Becca Heller), and Human Rights Watch (Executive Director Kenneth Roth, and Deputy Directors Iain Levine and Fred Abrahams).

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the most significant organizations bringing migrants to the United States. In their countries of origin, refugees and their families are assisted by the IRC to prepare their cases to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), compiling personal data and background information for security clearance. Once their cases are approved, refugees are usually greeted at the airport by case workers from the IRC. The IRC then provides these migrants with a home, furnishings, food, and any other assistance that might be required. The IRC operates 27 offices across the United States, each offering food, housing, educational, and medical assistance. It also works closely with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Division of Refugee Assistance, which was reported in August 2018 as quietly removing its staff directory page. Consultations with the Internet Wayback Machine revealed the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement to be one Carl Rubenstein, an alumnus of Tel Aviv Law School. In 2017, the IRC, in conjunction with Rubenstein’s ORR, resettled more than 51,000 migrants to the United States, and is currently a staunch lobbyist against current restrictions imposed by President Trump.

Jews are very prominent in the leadership of the IRC. In addition to President and CEO David Miliband, there are at least 30 Jews in senior positions within the organization including Morton I. Abramowitz (Overseer), Madeleine Albright (Overseer), Laurent Alpert (Board Member), Clifford Asness (Board Member), Betsy Blumenthal (Overseer), Alan Batkin (Chairman Emeritus and Board Member), Michael W. Blumenthal (Overseer), Susan Dentzer (Board Member), Evan G. Greenberg (Overseer), Morton I. Hamburg (Overseer), Leila Heckman (Overseer), Karen Hein (Overseer), Marvin Josephson (Overseer),Alton Kastner (Overseer and former Deputy Director), Henry Kissinger (Overseer), David A. Levine (Board Member), Reynold Levy (Overseer), Robert E. Marks (Overseer), Sara Moss (Overseer), Thomas Nides (Board Member), Susan Petricof (Overseer), Gideon Rose (Overseer), Thomas Schick (Chairman Emeritus and Board Member), James Strickler (Overseer), Sally Susman (Board Member), Mona Sutphen (Board Member), Merryl Tisch (Board Member), Maureen White (Board Member), Jonathan Wiesner (Chairman Emeritus and Board Member), William Winters (Overseer), and James D. Wolfensohn (Overseer).

The Board of the IRC is comprised of 30 individuals, 12 of whom are Jewish, giving a Jewish representation at senior board level of 40%. The Board of Overseers consists of 78 individuals, of whom at least 25 are Jewish, giving a Jewish representation at this level of just over 32%. Since Jews occupy the position of CEO at the IRC, as well as 40% of the senior board and 32% of the lower board, it would be reasonable to assert that they enjoy a dominant role within the organization.[6] This dwarfs any Jewish representation seen in anti-immigration groups.

The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) came to national prominence when Director Becca Heller brought a class action suit against Trump’s January 2017 travel ban on individuals from certain Muslim countries. Heller, who has described herself as an "intensely neurotic Jew," was active from the very earliest airport detentions, and was assisted by former Yale law professor Michael Wishnie, also Jewish and a former member of Jews for Economic and Social Justice. Wishnie assembled "a group of students to draft a class action suit to represent not just IRAP’s two clients but anyonewho had been detained." The case was later also supported and taken up by the Immigrant’s Rights division of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at the direction of its two Deputy Directors, Lee Gelernt and Judy Rabinowitz, both of whom are Jewish. At IRAP, there are three Jews on the board of the International Refugee Assistance Project: Jon Finer, David Nierenberg, and Carl Reisner. The board consists of 12 members, giving a Jewish representation of 25%. Aside from the board, other influential positions in the organization are held by Jews, including Deputy Legal Director (Lara Finkbeiner), and legal fellow (Julie Kornfeld). Again, this is significantly greater than any Jewish representation seen in anti-immigration groups.

Lee Gelernt & Judy Rabinowitz Lee Gelernt & Judy Rabinowitz Heller’s cause has very recently been taken up by what the New York Times has euphemistically been called "Big Law" but what is in fact a large number of Jewish legal conglomerates based in New York. Of these, the most significant is Paul Weiss in Manhattan, led by Brad S. Karp, a Director of the American Friends of The Hebrew University and prize-winner from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Karp, whose previous political adventures have included activism for homosexual marriage, has offered his company’s services pro bono, via counsels Emily Goldberg and Steven C. Herzog, to Gelernt and Rabinowitz in order to obstruct Trump’s anti-immigration measures, with Gelernt telling the New York Times that Karp’s help was "indispensable."

Refugee organizations are also reliant to a great extent on legal assistance provided by "immigrant’s rights" organizations. Here too, Jews appear to be overrepresented by a large margin. For example, Jews comprise just over 14% of overall listed staff at the National Immigrant Justice Center, and dominate the most senior positions. These include Director of Policy (Heidi Altman, former legal director for the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition), Associate Director of Legal Services (Ashley Huebner), Director of Litigation (Charles Roth), and Associate Director of Litigation (Keren Zwick). Maria Blumenfeld, a former senior lawyer for NIJC departed the group for another, almost identical organization, named Equal Justice Works, the Director of which is David Stern, also Jewish. Another interesting organization is The Immigrant Defense Project. Of the 15 listed senior staff, at least four are verifiably Jewish (Development Director Ariadna Rodenstein, Senior Staff Attorney Genia Blaser, Supervising Attorney Marie Mark, and Supervising Attorney Andrew Wachtenheim). This is a Jewish representation at senior level of over 26% – significantly greater than any Jewish representation seen in anti-immigration groups. Of the five members of the Immigrant Defense Project’s Advisory Board, one, Peter Markowitz, is Jewish. Markowitz is also listed as founder and director of the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic and a "George Soros Justice Fellow and staff attorney at the Bronx Defenders from 2002 to 2005," where he "developed the nation’s first in-house full-service immigration project housed in a public defender office." New Hampshire’s "Best Immigration Lawyer" is the Jewish Ron Abramson.

At the National Immigration Law Center, 18.5% of its staff lawyers are verifiably Jewish, and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project is under Jewish Presidency (Ty Frankel) and 26% of its board is Jewish (Frankel, Ira Feldman, David Androff, Nathan Fidel, and Andrew Silverman). The Immigrant Legal Resource Center was founded mostly via the efforts of Jewish lawyer Mark Silverman, described here as "one of the very first movement lawyers helping DREAMers." Its board is under Jewish chairmanship (Lisa Spiegel), and its Executive Director is Eric Cohen, also Jewish. One interesting member of its senior staff is Rose Cahn, also Jewish, who is a former Senior George Soros Justice Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Cahn specializes in what she calls "post-conviction relief for immigrants," which is rather florid way of saying that she specializes in helping foreign criminals get into, and remain in, the United States. Other senior staff members include Donna Goolub and Sara Feldman, a Jewish woman who nevertheless managed to become Migration Policy Advisor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a fact that sheds some light on how that organization became rabidly pro-migrant.

Another organization providing legal support for the pro-immigration lobby is the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Right’s Under the Law. Of its six most senior staff, three are Jewish (Jon M. Greenbaum, Lisa Bornstein, and Samuel Weiss). One of its most senior lawyers is Ezra Rosenberg, a veteran in the multicultural cause who has worked variously to challenge racial profiling by police, to stop requests for voter ID among certain ethnic groups in Texas, and to advance school desegregation in North Carolina. A further interesting organization is the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project, where two members of the board of 12 can be verified as Jewish (Dave Heiner and Sara Litt), a representation of 16%, and staff attorneys include Jews Elizabeth Eisenberg, Jenna Golan-Streib, Rachel Rubinstein, and Jordan Wasserman. At the Asylum Advocacy Project, two of the five members of the advisory board are Jewish (Dani Isaacsohn and the above mentioned Michael Wishnie), and its list of donors appears to be at least 40% Jewish.

The Director of Refugee Council USA is Naomi Steinberg. The Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union is the Jewish feminist Donna Lieberman who includes among her ongoing activities "resisting the Trump regime’s attack on immigrant children and refugees," while its Legal Director is Arthur Eisenberg. The American Immigration Council is under the Jewish Directorship of Beth Werlin, its Research Director is the Argentinian Jew Guillermo Cantor (see a great example of his propaganda here), and its Policy and Media Director is Royce Bernstein Murray. The area director for Refugee Services of Texas in Austin is the Jewish Erica Schmidt-Portnoy. Schmidt-Portnoy has described the recent 80% decline in the number of refugees being resettled in Texas as "hard to watch." Meanwhile, another Portnoy, Diane Portnoy, Jewish founder and CEO of The Immigrant Learning Center, has demanded that Massachusetts should welcome more Syrian refugees. A similar organization is the Open Avenues Foundation, which has the stated goal of "helping foreign nationals build their unique path to thrive in the United States." The founder and executive director of Open Avenues is Danielle Goldman, also Jewish.

Jewish lawyers, occasionally acting alone or as part of small firms, are also disproportionately represented as major immigrant and asylum advocates. One good example in this regard is Susan J. Cohen, founder and Chair of Mintz Law’s Immigration Practice. Cohen was involved in contributing to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regulations implementing the Immigration Act of 1990, and has won awards for her political asylum work from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project (of which she is now President). PAIR "provides free immigration services to indigent asylum seekers and detained immigrants." In 2017, Cohen led a Mintz team that worked with the ACLU of Massachusetts and others to obtain a temporary restraining order on President Trump’s travel ban.

Cohen also advised the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in drafting the legislation which resulted in the Massachusetts Global Entrepreneur in Residence (GEIR) program, which enables tens of thousands of non-White foreign students to stay in Massachusetts if they merely indicate they might start a company. Cohen co-developed the project with another Jewish lawyer, Jeff Goldman. Goldman describes himself as "a leader in immigration policy" and "chairs Governor Charlie Baker’s Advisory Council on Refugees and Immigrants." Goldman and Cohen, like Carl Rubenstein at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, are illustrative of a remarkable Jewish talent for acquiring key government positions in the areas of immigration and refugee resettlement. Another useful example is Mark Greenberg, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and a former senior administrator at Rubenstein’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. Yet another very notable Jewish lawyer is Michael Kagan. Kagan led a campaign to ensure changes to refugee status determination (RSD) procedures by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) that would result in more migrants attaining official refugee status, thus improving their chances of getting asylum or visas in the West. Kagan is co-director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Boyd School of Law, which offers free legal aid to all immigrants.

The record of Jews as immigration judges is also quite remarkable. Detailed statistics for most senior immigration judges are available online. One example is Judge Raisa Cohen, New York Immigration Court. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch appointed Cohen to begin hearing cases at the court in March 2016, but Cohen had previously decided on asylum cases as assistant chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in New York. During the period 2013-2018, Cohen is recorded as deciding 572. Of these, he granted 470 and denied 102. Converted to percentage terms, Cohen denied 17.8 percent and granted 82.2 percent. Compared to Cohen’s denial rate of 17.8 percent, nationally during this same period, immigration court judges denied 57.6 percent of asylum claims. Many asylum seekers in New York are provided with free legal aid by organizations like Central American Legal Assistance(CALA). CALA has a board of ten people, five of whom can be confirmed as Jewish (Lisa Reiner, Anne Isaak, Zachary Sanders, Harry Shulman, and Ellen Wachtel).

Another example, Judge Leonard Shapiro of Boston, is equally illustrative. Shapiro was appointed as an Immigration Judge in December 1990, and was coauthor of the 1988 Edition of The American Immigration Lawyers Association Textbook and the 1995 Edition of The Immigration Judge Benchbook. Shapiro was also the chairman of the Immigration Law Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association in 1990 prior to his appointment. During the period 2013-2018, Shapiro is recorded as deciding 160 asylum claims. Of these, he granted 113 and denied 47. Converted to percentage terms, Shapiro denied 29.4 percent and granted 70.6 percent. Again, nationally during this same period, immigration court judges denied 57.6 percent of asylum claims.

Canada

Jews feature prominently among the top immigration lawyers in Canada.  ...

UK

In the UK, Jews have also been remarkably overrepresented in the development of pro-immigration policy.  ...

Footnotes

[1] See Gee, H. "The Refugee Burden: A Closer Look at the Refugee Act of 1980," 26 N.C. J. Int’l L. & Com. Reg. 559 (2000).

[2] MacDonald, K. "Jewish Involvement in Shaping American Immigration Policy, 1881–1965: A Historical Review", Population and Environment (1998) 19: 295.

[3] See Cofnas, N. "Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy: A Critical Analysis of Kevin MacDonald’s Theory", Human Nature (2018) 29: 134.

[4] No Jews were/are listed on staff at similar but smaller groups such as American Immigration Control Foundation, California Coalition for Immigration Reform, ProjectUSA, or American Patrol.

[5] "Hans Eysenck’s Controversial Career," The Lancet, Vol. 376, August 7 2010, 407.

[6] Another interesting qualitative aspect to board membership at the IRC is the high proportion of Jews with a background in corporate finance and banking.

(Republished from The Occidental Observer by permission of author or representative)

(14) Israeli company to patrol the seas around Europe, to reduce Islamic Immigration


Elbit will provide maritime UAS to EU Maritime Safety Agency

Elbit awarded contract for maritime Unmanned Aircraft System patrol services provided by European Maritime Safety Agency to EU countries.

Mordechai Sones, 01/11/18 10:30

Elbit Systems announced today it was awarded a framework contract to provide maritime Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) patrol services to be provided by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to countries in the European Union. The contract that will be executed in cooperation with CEiiA is for a two-year base period and two single year option periods. If fully ordered, the total contract value is €59 million (approximately $68 million).

Under the contract and in cooperation with CEiiA, a leading engineering company in Portugal, Elbit Systems will lease and operate its HermesTM 900 Maritime Patrol and its Ground Control Station. A persistent long-range unmanned maritime surveillance system tailored for littoral and blue water operations, the Hermes 900 Maritime Patrol will feature maritime radar, an Electro Optic payload, Satellite Communication and an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver. Thus configured, the Hermes 900 Maritime Patrol will enable persistent monitoring of vast swathes of sea and long coastlines and effective identification of suspicious activities and potential hazards.

Elad Aharonson, General Manager of Elbit Systems ISTAR Division, commented: “Having been selected by the European Union authorities is yet another vote of confidence in the Hermes 900 by following additional contract awards for this UAS in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Israel. Extensively deployed, the Hermes 900 family of UAS continuously expands its capabilities introducing the capability to operate in civilian airspace and integrating self-protection suites and stronger payloads.”

(15) Israeli Defense Company Wins Contract to Monitor Europe’s Coasts


Monday, November 19, 2018 Last Update: 6:43 PM GMT

November 1, 2018

The Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems Ltd has won a contract worth up to $68 million to monitor much of Europe’s coastline.

Elbit Systems, an Israeli tech firm which specialises in defence, security and commercial systems, said today that the framework contract consists of the provision of maritime unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in order to help monitor extensive coastlines and vast areas of sea to identify any potential hazards and suspicious activities.

The company will provide European Union countries with maritime unmanned aircraft system patrol services https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748905,00.html

(16) Trump Dumps Agenda 21 Regionalization Mask / Paris Climate Trap


6/1/2017

As I watched President Trump's speech today, I cheered.  I think he gets it.  After Angela Merkel's comment that the Paris Climate Accord is a "key agreement that shapes globalization" it is clear to all who listen that United Nations treaties and agreements are about systems inventory and control.  The Paris Climate Accord is not about whether the planet heats up another 1/10 of 1 percent in 50 years.  This agreement is about crippling the ability of the United States to recover from years of a collapsed economy and loss of individual certainty.  This agreement is about eroding national boundaries and national sovereignty all over the world, and about strengthening the power of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

Although the Paris Climate Accord was never brought to the Senate for ratification it is important that it be rejected by President Trump.  Agenda 21 was also not a treaty and was not brought before the Congress, except obliquely, but it was 'de facto' made binding by President Clinton who implemented it administratively and by federal pressure on the States.  President Obama and Hillary Clinton had every intention of implementing the Paris Climate Accord through the usual channels: federal pressure, grants, regulations, restrictions, HUD/EPA/DOT grants and lawsuits, and bogus non-profits working the grassroots. 

During President Trump's speech today he mentioned American sovereignty several times and referred to the Accord as a redistribution of wealth that favored other nations and debilitated American business. That it clearly does do so is apparent in the treatment of China and India as "developing countries" who are exempt from regulations and controls for years---years in which they will continue to grossly pollute while producing cheap goods for export to the United States.

I searched President Obama's speeches for mention of American sovereignty. I didn't find it. What I did find was his address to the United Nations General Assembly in the fall of 2016 stating that we in America 'must bind ourselves to international rules' and not fall prey to 'nationalism.'  The term 'nationalism' is now equated with Hitler or isolationism.  What we are protecting is not just a sense that our country has self-interests both social and economic, but our Constitution, our rule of law, our sovereignty.                                                                

By refusing to abide by the Paris Climate Accord President Trump is sending a message to those of us who have fought consistently against UN Agenda 21's message of globalization/One World Government.  It takes time and effort to destroy the economy of one of the world's wealthiest nations.  We are hugely in debt and struggle with homelessness, youth who feel hopeless about their future,  polarization of the races exacerbated by compressed Smart Growth mega-cities, more and more drug use...we need help. 

The presidency is not a popularity contest.  Whether we like his personality or not is irrelevant.  What is important is the health and welfare of our nation, and our freedom. 

The Paris Climate Accord Is Un Agenda 21.



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