In light of the recent Deep State-fabricated “refugee crisis,” brought upon by the United States’ and its NATO allies’ neoconservative appetite for “regime change” and spreading “democracy” in the Middle East, notably in Syria — where millions have been displaced — the United States should take appropriate steps to avoid a spillover from Europe’s influx of refugees.
By the end of 2016, over five million refugees had made it into Europe, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And more have continued to reach Europe’s shores since then. Meanwhile, over three million refugees have resettled in the United States since President Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980 into law.
With no foreseeable end in sight to the three-way war in Syria (the United States, its NATO European allies, and supposedly non-ISIS armed Islamic rebels on one side; Russia and Basher al-Assad’s regime on the other; and ISIS forces vying for power), millions more are likely to be displaced and seeking refuge in the West.
As establishment elites continue to regard the influx of Arab and Islamic refugees as a “crisis,” the United States could see further sharp increases in the number of those seeking asylum and resettling under the Refugee Act of 1980. To avoid a flood of incoming refugees, the bulk of whose identities cannot be verified, it would behoove the United States to reevaluate the merits (or lack thereof) of this law.
Historical Background
Following the U.S. defeat in the Vietnam War, thousands of Vietnamese were displaced with many seeking asylum in the United States to escape the ruling totalitarian Communist Party of Vietnam.
On April 13, 1979, U.S. Attorney General for the Carter administration, Griffin Bell, announced that he was using his discretionary powers to allow admission of additional 10,000 refugees from Southeast Asia and Soviet bloc countries into the United States during the next six months. “The additional 5,000 for each program will be held in reserve to be used only if necessary and if funding can be made available,” said Bell.
As a result of Bell’s actions, the total number of refugees that entered the United States rose to 65,000 (40,000 from Southeast Asia and 25,000 from the Soviet bloc). Wanting more than just a temporary solution, the Carter administration sought to increase the official number of refugees that the U.S. would take in and for the federal government to play a larger role in the resettlement process.
Larry McDonald and the Refugee Act
On March 13, 1979, Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy introduced the Refugee Act of 1979 (S.643), which when signed into law the following year would become known as the Refugee Act of 1980.
By a vote of 85 to 0, the U.S. Senate passed Senator Kennedy’s refugee bill on September 6, 1979 (Roll Call # 262). The House of Representatives agreed to conference report S. 643 by a vote of 207 to 192 on March 4, 1980 (Roll Call # 115).
Congressman Lawrence “Larry” McDonald (D-Ga.), who at the time was on the National Council of The John Birch Society and would later become the Society’s chairman in 1983, was not present to cast his vote in person.
Instead, Larry McDonald paired his vote (which would have been a negative or Nay) with Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan), who voted in the positive or Aye.
According to the Congressional Research Service, “Under House Rule XX, clause 3, the practice of ‘pairing’ involves—under certain procedural circumstances — a Member who is absent during a vote on the House floor arranging with a Member on the opposite side of a specific question who is present during a vote to announce that the Member who is present is forming a ‘pair’ with the absent Member, thus allowing the absent Member to have recorded how he would have voted had he been present.”
Therefore, Congressman McDonald’s vote was recorded as a paired negative vote, against S. 643.
Roll Call # 115 — the House conference report vote — was the only recorded vote in the House for S. 643.
S. 643 was voted in lieu of its companion in the House, H.R.2816 (also titled the Refugee Act of 1979), which was originally introduced by Congressman Peter Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) on March 13, 1979.
H.R. 2816 was approved by a vote 328 to 47 in the House of Representatives on December 20, 1979 (Roll Call # 755).
Congressman McDonald was present for Roll Call # 755. He was one of the 47 congressmen to vote against the bill (H.R. 2816).
Since the Senate passed S. 643 and the House passed H.R. 2816, the Senate version S. 643 was chosen for final passage via conference vote in the House.
Unconstitutionality of the Refugee Act
When President Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980 (S. 643), on March 18, 1980, he noted in his statement that up until then the federal government had not played a major role in the settling of refugees and how the bill would do just that.
In his statement, President Carter said, “Until now, resettlement has been done primarily by private persons and organizations. They have done an admirable job, but the large numbers of refugees arriving now create new strains and problems. Clearly, the Federal Government must play an expanded role in refugee programs.”
The unconstitutional provisions of the Refugee Act are that it uses government funds (i.e. taxpayer funds) to cover the cost of settling the refugees in the United States and providing for their basic needs, such as housing, food, etc. This equates to both a form of foreign aid and welfare.
The Constitution does not authorize Congress or any branch of the federal government to provide any kind of welfare or supplementary financial aid to immigrants/refugees.
This kind of assistance to refugees or immigrants seeking asylum, should be handled by individual charities or churches, not the government.
As Alex Newman reported in his article “Globalists Created the Refugee Crisis,” published in the August 20, 2018 special “Deep State in Action” issue of The New American magazine:
It costs taxpayers more than $250,000 to resettle a refugee household in America, or about $65,000 per person, over five years, according to an analysis of government data by the Center for Immigration Studies.
Not only would the federal government play a more active role in resettling refugees as a result of the act, the bill would increase the number of refugees admitted annually into the United States from 17,500 to 50,000. The Refugee Act would enable the president to admit additional refugees during emergency situations.
In an egregious erosion of U.S. sovereignty and law, the legislation also adopted the United Nations’ broad definition for refugee. According to the UN Convention and Protocol on the Status of Refugees, a refugee as a displaced person needing protection because of “a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
The Refugee Act also eliminated the previous restrictions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which granted entry on a regular basis only to refugees fleeing Communist-controlled countries or the Middle East.
In further expanding the federal government’s role in refugee resettlement, the law also established a United States Coordinator of Refugee Affairs.
It is not the role of the United States to act as either a policeman of the world or paramedic by taking the world’s ever increasing number of refugees. Nor should the U.S. rely on UN conventions and protocols to define its laws or guide its policies.
Rather than expanding the size and scope of government, Congress should remove this burden from the taxpayers and instead return the greater care and responsibility of refugee resettlement back to charitable individuals, organizations, and churches. Congress can and should do so by officially repealing the Refugee Act of 1980, which if left unrepealed the Deep State will certainly use to flood the U.S. with mass migration.
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