Category Archives: immigration

“Refugees from War Aren’t the Enemy”

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That’s the title of “The Editorial Board’s” opinion piece in their New York Times Wednesday. I used quote marks in that prior sentence because the persons who wrote this absurdity lacked the moral, much less the intellectual, courage to sign their names to it. The lede is this:

The House is expected to vote Thursday on HR 4038, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act of 2015, which Republican sponsors say “would put in place the most robust national-security vetting process in history” for refugees, one that would “do everything possible to prevent terrorists from reaching our shores.”

The opinionists then proceed to distort that explanation: their title says it all, but they make things explicit with this claim in their penultimate paragraph:

…it is fair to say that the people who will be denied resettlement by this bill would be the victims of war….

No, that’s not the case. This bill simply looks to ensure that the terrorists are adequately sorted out from refugees and the former barred.

No one, as even this Board knows, is arguing that refugees are the enemy. This is the NYT‘s straw man. Those worthies will have to play with their dolly without me.

Encryption and the Government

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Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance wants Congress to enable government agencies—the police in Vance’s case—to penetrate private citizens’ encrypted cell phone communications. His justification?

Just for iPhones alone we have 111 cases that we are not able to access…due to new encryption protocols[.]

Out of a population of 320 million Americans possessing some 200 million smartphones—the targets of Vance’s desire—Vance has a problem with 111. That’s roughly akin to five people out of the entire city of New York. Five problems, and so all of New York City must lose their ability to protect their privacy against government snooping. One hundred and eleven problems, and so all Americans must lost.

Trust us. We government men would never abuse this power.

This is exactly the arrogance of officials of intrusive government that drove our Founders to write the 4th Amendment. Can’t crack the encryption, even with a warrant? Do actual police work. You have brains. It only takes one failure? Reread Ben Franklin’s remark about security and liberty.

We’ve been over this.

 

EU Border Policy

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Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission President, says the Paris attack won’t cause the EU to change its strategy for handling the flood of refugees from Syria, North Africa, and elsewhere.

Jean-Claude Juncker…urged citizens and politicians not to confuse the Paris perpetrators with those seeking shelter from war and terror.

It’s becoming apparent that one of the Islamic terrorists entered France legally, via Greece, on a Syrian passport. But that’s just one of the seven, or so, terrorists who butchered so many innocents. How, exactly, does Juncker propose that “citizens and politicians” sort out the terrorists from the refugees (and “ordinary” migrants, legal or otherwise) when they’re all so thoroughly mixed in among each other as the flood crosses the EU’s “borders?” The Paris butchery clearly demonstrates that the EU’s existing strategy is worse than unequal to the task, it’s a signal and tragic failure.

Threats and Returns

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Poland, prior to the recently concluded elections, agreed under EU pressure to accept 4,500 Syrian refugees as its quota, even though the Polish people didn’t want that. The Law and Justice Party, a populist political party, was swept into power in those elections (the refugee item actually was a relatively minor factor in the PiS’ (the acronym for the Polish language name of the party) strong mandate), and they have said Poland will accept no refugees from “war-torn countries such as Syria.”

Eurogroup Chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem is objecting.

Dijsselbloem said that Poland should show something in return for Europe’s largesse. “And if not, we could take a part of the EU’s budget that flows to countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary in the form of subsidies….”

Here are three things Poland does show in return for Europe’s largesse:

  • a growing economy, which is more than southern European countries are showing
  • respect for national sovereignty, which is more than the Know Betters of Brussels (including the Eurogroup) are showing
  • the courage to stand up to Russian threats and outright aggression, which is more than even the powers of the EU—France and Germany—are showing.

DHS and Terrorist Immigrants

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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, an arm of our front-line Department of Homeland Security, has let slip that the Obama administration, under the guise of DHS, has let into the United States over 1,500 persons with known terrorist ties. Over half provided material support to a multiplicity of terrorist or reputed terrorist organizations, and some 200 of these to terrorist groups so designated by our government.

Why?

Jeh Johnson, DHS Secretary, claims these folks provided that material support “under duress.” How would he know the claims of duress are valid? Via his much touted personal interview vetting?

 

h/t Power Line

Update: Corrected a couple of typos.  [sigh]