Nikki Haley welcomes Muslim refugees
Gitmo-shunning governor's statements called 'the height of hypocrisy'
Published: 12 hours ago
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley
Some are calling it the “height of hypocrisy,” bordering on demagoguery.
Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s Republican governor, came out last Thursday and blasted possible White House plans to bring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to her state.
The governor called a news conference and didn’t mince words.
“We are absolutely drawing a line that we are not going to allow any terrorist to come into South Carolina,” Haley said. “We are not going to allow that kind of threat, we are not going to allow that kind of character to come in.
“My job is to protect the people of this state, and I take that very personally,” she continued. “I will take that personally the entire way through, so that the president, the Congress and anyone involved in this decision understands they are not wanted, they are not needed, and we will not accept them in South Carolina.”
Yet, at the same time she was drawing a red line against Gitmo terrorists who would stay locked in a brig off the coast of Charleston, Haley was opening her arms wide to welcome “refugees” from jihadist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa.
World Relief, an evangelical aid agency that gets paid by the federal government to resettle refugees in the U.S. from places like Somalia and Syria, hatched plans more than a year ago to add Spartanburg, South Carolina, to the list of more than 190 U.S. cities receiving foreign refugees.
As WND has reported in a series of more than 35 articles over the past year, the refugee program has been fraught with problems. Chief among them has been young men entering the U.S. as refugees and turning out to be terrorists. Some, such as the two Iraqis in Bowling Green, Kentucky, or the Uzbek man resettled in Boise, Idaho, harbored ill intent against America from day one. But others, such as the six Somalis from Minnesota who were arrested after repeatedly trying to join ISIS, or the two brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, were radicalized after they came to the U.S. as young boys.
According to information supplied recently by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., at least 72 cases have been documented in just the past year of Muslim immigrants becoming involved in terrorist activity.
So when World Relief’s plans were finally made public in March, it set off a wave of grassroots opposition in Spartanburg. Residents were angry they had not been consulted about the new arrivals, nor were they given information on the impact refugees will have on schools, housing and labor markets. Not to mention the national security risks that almost nobody wanted to talk about.
The resistance movement spreads
Spartanburg’s resistance to the secret planting of refugees into their community has since spread to St. Cloud, Minnesota, Twin Falls, Idaho, and Fargo, North Dakota, with uprisings brewing in Ohio and Michigan as well, WND reported earlier this month.
Every state except Wyoming has agreed to participate in the federal government’s refugee resettlement program, which gets its authority from the Refugee Act of 1980, signed by President Jimmy Carter.
The State Department works in concert with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres to permanently settle refugees in the U.S. The U.N. assigns refugees to various countries and it is the duty of the host country to screen them for criminal activity and ties to terrorist organizations.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., whose district includes Spartanburg, pressured Secretary of State John Kerry for answers to citizens’ questions, but wasn’t satisfied with the answers he received. If anyone in Congress should be familiar with the program it should be Gowdy, who chairs the House subcommittee in charge of overseeing immigration and refugees.
Kerry dispatches top deputy to South Carolina
Kerry sent one of his top lieutenants to Spartanburg earlier this week to try to quell the uprising.
Assistant Secretary of State Ann Richard arrived Monday for what was designed to be a private meeting with stakeholders, including the mayor, police, housing and school officials. Protesters outside the meeting were allowed in, turning a private meeting semi-public at the last minute, one protester told WND.
“I wanted a public hearing. Trey Gowdy wanted a public meeting. World Relief would not hold a public hearing,” the protester said. “So Ann Richard had to come down here to clean up their mess.”
Haley has come down on the side of the State Department and the refugees, saying she trusts the vetting process, despite hundreds of arrests and active investigations involving refugees or children of refugees across the U.S. She has chosen to believe the State Department over the FBI, which is responsible for screening the refugees and warned that in some cases it’s an impossible task.
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http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/nikki-haley-welcomes-muslim-refugees/#PijBz0fddT4IblAQ.99
