Thread by @JudicialWatch

BREAKING: JW filed a FOIA lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for D.C. for records on sites that were considered for the resettlement of refugees in the U.S. during the last two years of the Obama Admin (and info on the orgs promoting the locations). (1/10)
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JW filed this after the State Dept didn’t respond to a Feb 2017 FOIA request on: all records of locations (& criteria) in the U.S. that were considered as sites for refugee resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in 2015/2016. (2/10)
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In Oct 2016, JW made public 128 pages of docs we obtained from the mayor of Rutland, Vermont, showing an effort by the mayor & private organizations to conceal from the public their plans to resettle 100 Syrian refugees into the small Vermont town. (3/10)
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The mayor & resettlement orgs kept the plan so secret that not even the town’s aldermen were informed of what was taking place. The aldermen eventually wrote to the State Dept protesting the plan & opened an investigation into the mayor’s actions. (4/10)
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The State Department says it currently works with nine different nonprofit organizations to resettle refugees. And those nonprofits themselves also have about 315 affiliates in 180 different communities throughout the United States. (5/10)
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According to the International Organization for Migration, the United States admitted 84994 refugees during fiscal year 2016 – 6370 from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 12587 from Syria, 12347 from Myanmar, 9880 from Iraq, and 9020 from Somalia. (6/10)
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The Obama Admin proposed admitting 110000 refugees for fiscal year 2017. President Trump issued Executive Order 13769 in Jan 2017, which included suspending the USRAP for 120 days. There were 29022 refugees reportedly admitted to the U.S. in 2017. (7/10)
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In a July 2017 report re: refugee screening process, the GAO said “increases in the… USRAP applicants approved for resettlement in the U.S. from countries where terrorists operate have raised questions about the adequacy of applicant screening.” (8/10)
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Judicial Watch President @TomFitton: “Judicial Watch is suing to find out which towns across America were, without input and over the objections of residents, targeted for refugee settlements by the Obama administration.” (9/10)
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Judicial Watch President @TomFitton: “Judicial Watch is also investigating to make sure now that the current State Department is being more transparent in its placement of refugees.” (10/10)
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