President Donald Trump is giving states, cities, counties, and towns the legal power to prevent groups from dumping foreign refugees into their communities. 

The policy will allow residents to block the stealthy efforts by refugee resettlement groups to direct new refugees into communities which are selected by local elites. This refugee dumping is usually done at the request of local employers, such as slaughterhouses, that want new workers to replace ones who quit because of low wages, harsh conditions, and health hazards. 

The announcement is a big win for Ann Corcoran, the founder of Refugee Resettlement Watch. Since 2006, she has run a one-woman campaign calling for federal rules that would allow communities to opt-out of the federal program, which has dropped hundreds of thousands of diverse migrants into stable communities, including at least 40,000 Somalis into Minnesota.

In 2016, Corcoran told PRI.org that if government officials “can come to any town in America and put all the facts on the table for the community to discuss …  then I would be OK with that.”

According to Corcoran, the important questions include, “Where are [the refugees] going to work, do we have an industry here that needs these workers, how much subsidized housing do we have, what’s our school system, do we have enough capacity in our school system?”

Trump’s deputies also announced that the 2020 refugee inflow could reach 18,000, down from President Barack Obama’s 2017 goal of more than 100,000.

The two announcements were slammed by the refugee resettlement groups, most of whom are being forced to lay off workers amid the reduced inflow of refugees and federal payments.

The policy requiring the approval of Americans before refugee drop-offs was described as “more bad news” by HIAS, a group which gets paid to move refugees into U.S. communities.

“We stand for a world in which refugees find welcome, safety, and freedom,” HIAS claims. 

Multiple groups help steer refugees into jobs and communities picked by elites. For example, the National Immigration Forum has worked with dairy groups to steer refugees into dairy jobs, so reducing the pressure on employers to attract American workers with offers of higher wages.

The NIF group denounced the 2020 target of 18,000 refugees.

The Trump policy says:

In resettling refugees into American communities, it is the policy of the United States to cooperate and consult with State and local governments, to take into account the preferences of State governments, and to provide a pathway for refugees to become self-sufficient.  These policies support each other.  Close cooperation with State and local governments ensures that refugees are resettled in communities that are eager and equipped to support their successful integration into American society and the labor force.

The Federal Government consults with State and local governments not only to identify the best environments for refugees, but also to be respectful of those communities that may not be able to accommodate refugee resettlement.  State and local governments are best positioned to know the resources and capacities they may or may not have available to devote to sustainable resettlement, which maximizes the likelihood refugees placed in the area will become self-sufficient and free from long-term dependence on public assistance.  Some States and localities, however, have viewed existing consultation as insufficient, and there is a need for closer coordination and a more clearly defined role for State and local governments in the refugee resettlement process.  My Administration seeks to enhance these consultations.

…

Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall develop and implement a process by which, consistent with 8 U.S.C. 1522(a)(2)(D), the State and the locality’s consent to the resettlement of refugees under the Program is taken into account to the maximum extent consistent with law.  In particular, that process shall provide that, if either a State or locality has not provided consent to receive refugees under the Program, then refugees should not be resettled within that State or locality unless the Secretary of State concludes, following consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Homeland Security, that failing to resettle refugees within that State or locality would be inconsistent with the policies and strategies established under 8 U.S.C. 1522(a)(2)(B) and (C) or other applicable law.  If the Secretary of State intends to provide for the resettlement of refugees in a State or locality that has not provided consent, then the Secretary shall notify the President of such decision, along with the reasons for the decision, before proceeding.

For more about Corcoran’s successful campaign, click here.

Corcoran’s website is here. For example, a September 22 post about the declining federal payment to church-run refugee groups was headlined “Summer of Discontent for US Catholic Bishops! Why? Trump Not Listening to Them!”