Progressive activists have had trouble getting African-Americans to support bringing in more Syrian refugees due to concerns that refugee children will receive more attention than poor African-American children, according to a leaked memo between top officials at George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and members of the organization’s U.S. advisory board.
The October 2015 memo was part of a 70-page file containing internal documents from an October 1 and 2 board meeting in New York City. Anonymous hackers whose stated goal is to “shed light on one of the most influential networks operating worldwide” released thousands of internal OSF documents to the public.
OSF U.S. Programs director Ken Zimmerman and deputy director Andrea Batista Schlesinger co-authored the memo, which is titled “State of U.S. Programs” and addressed to the 14 advisory board members of the organization’s U.S. operations. (RELATED: Leaked Board Documents: Soros Organization Tried To Influence Supreme Court Ruling On Illegal Immigration)
“Consistent with our recent practice, this memo provides an overview of the state of USP and its operations with a focus on items that are not otherwise covered in the upcoming board discussions,” the memo reads, before listing several “reports from the field.”
One such report is titled “The Domestic Engagement around the Syrian Refugee Crisis” and details the organization’s efforts to pressure U.S. officials into importing hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
“Drawing on our founder’s deep engagement with the European refugee and migration crisis, USP and our colleagues at the Open Society Policy Center (OSPC), have moved quickly to turn domestic sympathy into policy change consistent with OSF’s international efforts and to see over the longer term whether the crisis might help push back on the deeply nativist rhetoric emerging from the Republic primary candidates,” the memo states.
The memo notes that “immigrant and African-American leaders, while sympathetic to the plight of the Syrians and ultimately willing to support expansion of refugee admissions for them, note that their communities are conflicted as Latino children from Central America and African-American children in deeply poor parts of the U.S. do not receive equal attention.” (RELATED: Leaked Soros Memo: Refugee Crisis ‘New Normal,’ Gives ‘New Opportunities’ For Global Influence)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has attempted to use the refugee issue to win over disaffected black voters. “Hillary Clinton would rather provide a job to a refugee from overseas than to give that job to unemployed African-American youth in cities like Detroit who have become refugees in their own country,” he said in a speech Friday.
Peter N. Kirsanow, a commissioner with the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, testified back in March that “Illegal immigration has a disproportionately negative effect on the wages and employment levels of blacks, particularly black males.”
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