White House Official, in Reversal, Says Green Card Holders Won’t Be Barred

White House Official, in Reversal, Says Green Card Holders Won’t Be Barred

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR JAN. 29, 2017

Photohttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2017...ster768-v2.jpg

CreditJim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency

WASHINGTON — A top White House official appeared to reverse a key part of President Trump’s immigration order on Sunday, saying that people from the affected countries who hold green cards will not be prevented from returning to the United States.

But the official, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, also said that border agents had “discretionary authority” to detain and question suspicious travelers from certain countries. That statement seemed to add to the uncertainty over how the executive order will be interpreted and enforced in the days ahead.

Part of the president’s order gives preferential treatment to Christians who try to enter the United States from majority-Muslim countries. In a Twitter post Sunday morning, Mr. Trump deplored the killings of Christians in the Middle East without noting the killings of Muslims, who have been killed in vastly greater numbers in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

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Christians in the Middle-East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this horror to continue!
7:03 AM - 29 Jan 2017

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Mr. Trump asserted last week that Christians had been “treated horribly” under previous administrations. “If you were a Muslim, you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible,” he said Friday in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. “I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them.”


In a second Twitter message on Sunday, the president said that the United States needed strong borders and “extreme vetting” to protect itself from terrorists. He cited Europe and “indeed, the world” as evidence that the United States must shut its borders to potential threats.

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Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world - a horrible mess!
5:08 AM - 29 Jan 2017

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The president’s order, enacted with the stroke of a pen at 4:42 p.m. on Friday, suspended entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely, and blocked entry into the United States for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

A series of rulings by federal judges across the country blocked part of the president’s actions, preventing the government from deporting some travelers who found themselves ensnared by the presidential order. But the court decisions largely stopped short of letting them into the country or issuing a broader ruling on the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s actions.

Lawyers for those denied entry said on Sunday that there was significant confusion and disagreement among border agents about who was affected by Mr. Trump’s order.

In a statement Sunday morning, the Department of Homeland Security said that agents would “continue to enforce all of President Trump’s executive orders,” and that “prohibited travel will remain prohibited.” But it also said that the department “will comply with judicial orders.”

The confusion was evident in the handling of those who have valid green cards, making them legal permanent residents of the United States.

On Saturday night, the Department of Homeland Security said that Mr. Trump’s order did apply to green card holders who were traveling to the United States from the seven countries affected.

White House officials reiterated that position in a briefing for reporters on Saturday afternoon, saying that green card holders from the seven countries would need a case-by-case waiver to return.

Mr. Priebus appeared to change that position Sunday morning. “As far as green card holders, moving forward, it doesn’t affect them,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.

He defended Mr. Trump’s order, saying it had been carried out smoothly and was protecting Americans from terrorist threats. On Saturday, a day after the order was issued, airports were marked by scenes of confusion and protest as officials tried to interpret the order, including how to handle green card holders.

Around the globe on Saturday, legal residents of the United States who hold valid green cards and approved visas were blocked from boarding planes overseas or detained for hours in American airports.

Mr. Priebus said several times during the NBC interview that green card holders would not be subject to the order “going forward.” But he repeatedly suggested that anyone, including American citizens, who traveled from any of the seven predominantly Muslim countries identified in the order would be subjected to additional scrutiny.

“If you’re an American citizen traveling back and forth to Libya, you are likely to be subjected to further questioning when you come into an airport,” Mr. Priebus said. He added later, “There is discretionary authority that a customs and border patrol agent has when they suspect that someone is up to no good when they travel back and forth to Libya or Yemen.”

Mr. Priebus said that travelers from the seven countries would be “subjected, temporarily, with more questioning, until a better system is put in place.”

Mr. Trump — in office just a week — has found himself accused of constitutional and legal overreach with his executive order. Large crowds of protesters turned out at airports around the country to denounce Mr. Trump’s ban.
Lawyers who sued the government to block the White House order said the judge’s decision could affect an estimated 100 to 200 people who were detained upon arrival at American airports.

Judge Ann M. Donnelly of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, ruled just before 9 p.m. Saturday that carrying out Mr. Trump’s order by sending the travelers home could cause them “irreparable harm.” She said the government was “enjoined and restrained from, in any manner and by any means, removing individuals” who had arrived in the United States with valid visas or refugee status.

The ruling does not appear to force the administration to let in people otherwise blocked by Mr. Trump’s order who have not yet traveled to the United States.

The judge’s one-page ruling came swiftly after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union testified in her courtroom that one of the people detained at an airport was being put on a plane to be deported back to Syria at that very moment.

Hundreds of people waited outside the courthouse chanting “Set them free!” as lawyers made their case. When the crowd learned that Judge Donnelly had ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, a rousing cheer went up in the crowd.

Minutes after the judge’s ruling in New York, another judge, Leonie M. Brinkema of Federal District Court in Virginia, issued a temporary restraining order for a week to block the removal of any green card holders being detained at Dulles International Airport.

Throughout the day on Saturday, there were numerous reports of students attending American universities who were blocked from returning to the United States from visits abroad. One student said in a Twitter post that he would be unable to study at Yale. Another who attends the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was refused permission to board a plane. A Sudanese graduate student at Stanford University was blocked for hours from entering the country.

Human rights groups reported that legal permanent residents of the United States who hold green cards were being stopped in foreign airports as they sought to return from funerals, vacations or study abroad.

The White House said the restrictions would protect “the United States from foreign nationals entering from countries compromised by terrorism” and allow the administration time to put in place “a more rigorous vetting process.” But critics condemned Mr. Trump over the collateral damage on people who had no sinister intentions in trying to come to the United States.

White House aides claimed on Saturday that there had been consultations with State Department and homeland security officials about carrying out the order. “Everyone who needed to know was informed,” one aide said.

But that assertion was denied by multiple officials with knowledge of the interactions, including two officials at the State Department. Leaders of Customs and Border Protection and of Citizenship and Immigration Services — the two agencies most directly affected by the order — were on a telephone briefing on the new policy even as Mr. Trump signed it on Friday, two officials said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/u...be-barred.html

I don't think Reince is a good spokesman on some of these subjects.

It is an opportunity to actually vet middle easterners with green cards as we know the prior admin did not do that.

Yes I agree they will be vetted more stringently upon re-entry to the US going forward. They are even checking their phones, emails and Facebook to see what they have on there. If they are questionable they will be vetted further or refused re-entry. These are not all good people coming into this country.

Absolutely right lsmith1338 and artist. Furthermore, even if they were all "good people", we have no jobs and no money to help them unless we take a job and money away from Americans. The importance of the ban is terrorism, but the bottom-line is migration itself. We have to stop this madness and have a 10 to 20 Year Moratorium on All Immigration so we can have some peace and harmony in our country while we fix decades of demise, degradation and damage caused by excess immigration into the United States.

The British tell US we're too friendly. Yes, we are, and it causes US to do stupid things. Stop it. Get smart. The next 8 years are about American Citizens, not Syrian Refugees, Illegal Aliens or Immigrants. It's about US, the American People.

I hope they are working toward safe zones so refugees will no longer be granted entry at these numbers and so many will reverse course and return home. There is nothing similar to their lives in their nations to warrant their assimilation in mass numbers within the United States. Help them at home.

Are they even being "vetted" for diseases? Hundreds of them have TB and active TB.

Send them back! I do not want to pay for their medical care.

Homeland Security’s Green Card Follies Are Costing Taxpayers and Leaving America Less Safe

David Inserra / @dr_inserra / Ginny Montalbano / December 06, 2016 /


http://dailysignal.com/wp-content/up...d3-385x200.jpg
Over the past three years, 19,000 permanent resident cards were printed with wrong information or were duplicated, and 200,000 were incorrectly mailed. (Photo: iStock Photo)

Commentary By

David Inserra @dr_inserra
David Inserra specializes in cyber and homeland security policy, including protection of critical infrastructure, as policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. Read his research.

Ginny Montalbano
Ginny Montalbano is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.


A recent report from the inspector general concluded that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services mishandled thousands of green cards. The Department of Homeland Security has admitted that these green cards are missing and cannot be accounted for.

These missing green cards pose a security risk for American citizens. As the inspector general cautioned in his report: “In the wrong hands, green cards may enable terrorists, criminals, and undocumented aliens to remain in the United States.”
How bad is the damage? The inspector general’s report states that nearly 19,000 cards over the past three years either contained misinformation or were printed twice. In addition, over 200,000 cards reportedly were delivered to the incorrect address or were otherwise reported as not delivered.

But how does such a large failure occur?

The inspector general’s report lays blame on a system that was created to modernize and enhance the way Citizenship and Immigration Services handles immigration requests and petitions.

To this day, Citizenship and Immigration Services primarily relies on paper-based immigration petitions and transactions. But several years ago, in an effort to digitize and reform that slow, outdated process, the Electronic Immigration System was developed so that its records, forms, and transactions could all be accessed online.

Though the electronic system was intended to make digitized records and allow immigrants to complete transactions electronically, it has been plagued by problems since its inception. Essentially, the unsuccessful system is behind schedule, over budget, and has accomplished precious little.

The government has already sunk $1.2 billion into the program, though it was originally estimated to cost $536 million. And for all that money, the program only allows its users to complete two out of 90 transactions online.

Citizenship and Immigration Services is now running an inefficient system comprised of both paper-based and digitized records. This places an enormous burden on the already struggling department, which currently has millions of applications to process. It is within this system that these failures, perhaps unsurprisingly, occurred.

Citizenship and Immigration Services needs to be held accountable for its failure to implement the Electronic Immigration System in an efficient and timely manner.

It is not only costing taxpayers millions of dollars and making it more difficult for law-abiding immigrants to make immigration requests. It is now putting the U.S. at increased risk of fraud, criminality, and potentially even terrorism.

Immigration policy is a priority of the incoming Trump administration, and this should include fixing Citizenship and Immigration Services. Whoever Trump appoints as the next director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Congress should hold his or her feet to the fire to clean up this broken system.

http://dailysignal.com/2016/12/06/dh...ica-less-safe/

Then there is the issue of refugees that go home to "visit" after claiming their lives were in danger is they stayed in that country in order to receive refugee status here.....

If they are here as refugees, claiming they are in danger in their own countries, why are they vacationing there. Here is one example.


Minneapolis Subsidizes Somalis’ Vacations in Africa

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by MICHAEL PATRICK LEAHY
2 Oct 20162

“Public housing residents in Minneapolis will no longer need to pay their normal monthly rent when travel abroad erases their income, a change particularly sought by East African immigrants,” the Star Tribune reports:

The board of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority approved this week reverting to its previous policy of collecting only minimal rent during extended absences. The change takes effect once approved by federal housing officials, which is expected by year’s end.

Abdi Warsame, a City Council member, told the board that the policy in place for the past five years works a particular hardship on elderly East Africans who must save for long periods if they want to visit their homelands. He said that many receive federal Supplemental Security Income, which is halted when the recipient is outside the United States.

Yet the policy required people to keep paying rent, which is income-based. Travelers gone for 30 to 90 days could apply for a hardship, which meant that they paid the minimum $75 monthly rent during their absence, but were required to make up the difference between that and their normal rent over the next year or two.

The change will mean that residents will pay only the $75 minimum per month, assuming they apply for the hardship status.

A number of Somali refugees living in Minneapolis Public Housing Authority apartments paid for by the taxpayers apparently take such extended overseas trips regularly.

“From 50 to 75 public housing residents report such absences annually, according to Mary Boler, an agency manager. She said the cost of the change will be less than $50,000. The agency found that the paperwork burden of tracking repayment was higher than anticipated,” the Star Tribune notes.

According to his website, City Council member Abdi Wasame “is a Somali-American and a practicing Muslim.”

Abdi Warsame was born in Somalia and grew up in the United Kingdom of Great Britain where he studied and attained a BSc in Business and a Masters Degree in International Business. He moved to Minneapolis in 2006, shortly landing a job in the financial sector.

Mr. Warsame was the founder and spokesperson for the Citizen’s Committee for Fair Redistricting, which took part in the redistricting process that aimed to create a more equitable and representative political map of Minneapolis, with the intent to create better opportunities for all residents of the City. The Citizen’s Committee lobbying was a historic success and today’s current map of the City including Wards 6 and 9 are a testament to their hard work.

After emerging as a strong voice in the community, Warsame was urged by friends and neighbors to run for public office. With their support, Warsame was elected to the Minneapolis City Council in November 2013. In winning the seat, Warsame became the first Somali-American elected to the council and the first in the nation to win a municipal election.

Warsame offered a justification for the change in policy.

“This was brought up to us again and again and again in every building we visited in our ward. Everybody was afraid to leave the country,” Warsame told the Star Tribune:

He said common reasons for travel abroad include visiting families left behind or participating in the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are expected to make at least once.

The agency allows a maximum absence of 90 days, after which it takes steps to terminate a lease. With a long waiting list, “That’s a long time for the asset to be kept empty,” Boler said.
The agency board now has two members of Somali descent, Mohamud Tamir and Abdullahi Isse. The agency’s resident advisory board also backed the change in rent policy for extended absences.

Minnesota has the largest Somali-American community in the United States, as Breitbart News reported previously:

Ninety-seven thousand three hundred and eighty-five Somali refugees have been resettled in the United States in the fifteen years since FY 2002, of which 15,710 were resettled in Minnesota, more than any other state in the country, according to the Department of State’s interactive website.

Trailing Minnesota in the top ten states for Somali refugee resettlement since FY 2002 are Ohio (7,551), Texas (7,195), New York (6,169), Arizona (5,682), Georgia (4,113), California (3,731), Missouri (3,246), Massachusetts (3,156), and Tennessee (2,958.

Minnesota also leads the country in the number of Somali refugees resettled over these fifteen years on a per capita basis, with 286.2 Somali refugees resettled per 100,000 residents of the state. (The state’s 2015 population was 5.5 million).

Only two states come close to Minnesota’s per capita Somali refugee resettlement number: North Dakota and Maine.

North Dakota experienced a 131.7 Somali refugee resettlement rate per 100,000 residents (997 refugees over fifteen years in a state with a 2015 population of 756,927).

Maine experienced a 117.9 Somali refugee resettlement rate per 100,000 residents (1,568 refugees over fifteen years in a state with a 2015 population of 1.3 million).

“Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community, with census numbers placing the population at about 57,000,” the Associated Press reported.

Critics of the federal refugee resettlement program see this latest news as just another example of how poorly the program is serving the country.

“Virtually all Somalis who live in the US came here (we are told) as poor refugees,” Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch writes.

“So how persecuted and fearful of returning home are they if many travel back and forth to Africa and the taxpayers of Minneapolis cover most of their rent while they are gone,” Corcoran asks, a question Minnesota voters may have on their mind in November.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...erseas-months/

Immigrant Rights groups are taking credit for the green card backdown. They are going to keep calling, emailing lawmakers, protesting. This Wednesday many thousands will hold a Day of Action. Their organized plan is to demonstrate outside lawmakers' offices in mass numbers and to wear them down to get them to question the President on his immigration actions and to force the President to give up a little piece by piece with waivers, etc. They had lawmakers issue statements against the E.O. after demonstrating yesterday.

It's so funny. The "backdown" was restating the policy of the E. O.

Quote:

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“Virtually all Somalis who live in the US came here (we are told) as poor refugees,” Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch writes.

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No Ann, they are here to spread islam while we pay for them, thanks to obama.

How can they afford to fly back and forth on the SSI income? Somebody has other money, the flights must be @$1000. Somebody has a safe home for them to stay and can afford to feed them for their stay too. If they have no problem flying back and forth for lengthy stays, how bad was their situation?

It seems the entire family should be checked for owned properties, businesses, valuables, and conditions before admitting anyone and putting them on SSI welfare at our expense. Better yet, don't bring them here, set up organizations to help them improve their village. They do not like it here and would prefer to be in their homeland anyway - don't count on any assimilation which is a requirement to live in this country either. They have no desire to be an American.