Sunday, September 4, 2016

Donald Trump's Pence can't stop the flow

Indianapolis -- They're pouring into Europe and now they're pouring into the United States--Syrian refugees that we know of, and possibly covert jihadists, that we may soon know of. 

It isn't a fact that jihadists are among the refugees coming into the country; it's a vow by ISIS and they tend to keep their word when it comes to promises. 

It probably pays to believe them.

Republican Gov. Mike Pence's order, several months ago, to block state agencies from helping the Syrian refugee resettlement has been overturned by a federal judge. Since that time 150 refugees have arrived in Indiana.

Groups that assist refugees believe that more will arrive this year, in spite of lawyers for the state appearing before federal appeals court on September 14 to attempt overturning the judge's decision. The judge said Pence's order "clearly discriminates" against refugees from Syria.

And if that means by letting in Syrian refugees that we will be letting in a few scattered ISIS terrorists, well that's just too bad. 

To be fair, Syrians make up less than 10% of the refugees who've resettled in Indiana since October, according to federal records that never tell a lie. Syrians only make up a small fraction of the 10,801 refugees the Hussein Obama administration said late August had been taken in by the U.S. under a year-old resettlement program.

In order to protect the people of his state, Pence attempted to halt Indiana's participation in the refugee influx after the Paris terrorist attacks. He didn't believe the federal government was adequately screening Syrian refugees. Perhaps he got that idea from the questions airport security asks, such as: "Did you pack that bag yourself?" and "Are you a terrorist?"

Pence's position on the flow of Syrian refugees hasn't changed and Donald Trump made it clear that if he becomes president, he would suspend Syrian arrivals until he knows what the hell is going on. In other words, he still sees them as a security threat, and if you believe ISIS, you wouldn't blame him nor Pence.

Disclaimer: not all Syrian refugees are terrorists.

Pence's state administration has tried to withhold funding to resettlement groups for services such as job training and not hating Christians and Jews seminars, but it has not denied them federal help obtaining health care benefits and food stamps, courtesy of the American taxpayers.

"My administration will continue to use every legal means available to suspend this program in Indiana unless and until federal officials take steps to ensure the safety and security of our citizens," Pence said in a statement.

There have been a total of 1,447 refugees who arrived in Indiana from Oct. 1 to July 31, mostly from Myanmar.

Pence asked Archbishop Joseph Tobin in December not to have Catholic Charities resettle Syrian families in Indianapolis, but they flipped him off thrice and went ahead anyway. Greg Otolski, the archdiocese spokesman said that families wait two years or more to come to the U.S. [Mexicans not so much].

"It is one of the critical pieces of what we do to be welcoming to people from across the world who need a safe refuge," he said, [in spite of many of them refusing to acclimate to our customs and laws, he forgot to add]. What he did add was: "We're going to keep providing that service for families who are really fleeing horrible violence in various parts of the world, not just Syria."

Clearly, the intentions of Catholic Charities are as commendable as they are naive.

Disclaimer: not all Catholic Charity members are naive--just the ones who make decisions.


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