Religion News Service has published a lengthy and whiney report on the status of the US Refugee Admissions Program under the Trump Administration. It is a useful summary in some ways of where the refugee industry is these days.
But, don’t be fooled, all of the federal contractors are still in place and still being funded. They have simply hunkered down to wait Trump out.
The story (hat tip: Joanne) is an excuse to bash Trump, but is interesting as it begins with a refugee sob story (as they all do because the Left loves stories!), that raised some questions for me about how this Columbus, Ohio Somali woman got into the US in the first place.
And, one more thing! Just because the word “religion” is in the name of this publication that doesn’t mean it is a religious publication! It is a media source with a Leftist spin for news that might eventually appear in places like the Washington Post.
Two years after Trump’s travel ban, faith-based refugee groups struggle
“My first thought is that I hope they are safe today, and that stays on my mind throughout the whole day,” Abdo told Religion News Service through an interpreter provided by Church World Service.
The 40-year-old Muslim mother of seven was separated from her five oldest children from a first marriage nearly 12 years ago when she and her second husband fled civil war twice — first in Somalia, then in Libya. When they arrived in Columbus, Ohio, as asylum seekers in 2012, she filed a request for her four teenaged daughters and one son, living with her 75-year-old mother in Ethiopia, to join her through World Relief.
Seven years later, she is still waiting. And the World Relief office that once helped her has been closed.
That closure in 2017 was a “direct result” of President Trump’s executive order to cut the number of refugees resettled that year in the United States, World Relief said at the time.
Do these young reporters have no curiosity? Here is what I want to know:
First, why did she have to leave her children behind in Ethiopia? And now nearly grown up, aren’t they safe in Ethiopia? Wouldn’t Abdo be safe in Ethiopia with grandma and the five kids.
If she came to the US as an asylum seeker, that means she actually got in to the US with her present hubby (or at least we presume hubby is with her) and was not screened and admitted as a regular refugee. Did she come across our southern or northern border?
Did she go through the asylum system and was she granted refugee status?
And, heck, why would you try to run to Libya in the first place? Were they planning to break into Europe across the Mediterranean?
We have been told she has been here seven years, but still needs an interpreter?
Religion News continues…
Abdo now is pursuing her case through Community Refugee and Immigration Services, Church World Service’s refugee and immigration office in Columbus.
She talks “constantly” on the phone with her children in Ethiopia, she said through an interpreter. She works at a daycare and cares for her two youngest children, one born at a refugee camp in Libya and the other in the United States.
But, she said, “It is very hard and very difficult for a mother to be separated from her kids every day.” [What the hell, she left her kids behind 12 years ago!—ed]
In the meantime, Abdo is studying for her U.S. citizenship exam, which she hopes to pass this month.
This month! She can’t even speak English!
Religion News might have chosen a better star for their story!
See my earlier post today about a Columbus fraudster (from Abdo’s ‘community?) going to jail!
I’ve been tagging posts by the state where the fraud, crime, whatever, happened. I’m thinking Ohio might be taking the prize so far! What is up with Ohio?
