Despite Trump's protests, Manus Island refugee processing begins in US

[Mormolyce]

Officials from the US Department of Homeland Security are set to begin fingerprinting refugees on Manus Island and Nauru in preparation for resettlement in America under the US-Australia refugee deal.

In a document supplied to refugees on the islands, the State Department-funded Resettlement Support Centre detailed the process from now on for refugees who had been referred for consideration for transfer to the US.

Officers from the Department of Homeland Security will be on Nauru this week and on Manus Island during April, fingerprinting those who have expressed an interest in US resettlement.

Refugees will also be subjected to a security assessment, further interviews and medical checks before their applications are considered.

The ABC understands that of roughly 900 refugees who may be under consideration on Nauru, around 600 had first interviews conducted by officials from the US resettlement team based in Bangkok in December and January.

Most of the people interviewed are from Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Of around 600 who may be eligible on Manus Island, around half had first interviews during the same period.

Although around one third of the refugees on Manus Island are from Iran, only about 10 per cent of those interviewed were Iranian.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-2...begins/8368574

If you haven't been following this story, Trump had a heated call with Australia's Prime Minister early in his administration regarding a pre-existing deal Australia had for the US to accept some of the refugees in the Manus Island detention centre, which infamously led to Trump hanging up on him:

‘This was the worst call by far’: Trump badgered, bragged and abruptly ended phone call with Australian leader

Caused a fair bit of political fallout in Australia.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-0...emarks/8239588

Trump had one of his tantrums on twitter about it being a "dumb deal":


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-0...e-deal/8235820

The White House was caught in the resulting confusion, with Spicer at first claiming the deal was still on, then forced to say it was actually still being considered:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/201...o-extreme-vet/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-0...e-deal/8228336
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politi...01-gu3p1g.html

Meanwhile the State Department seemed to have no idea:

Less than an hour earlier, the US embassy confirmed Mr Trump intended to honour the deal, following conflicting reports from the White House and US State Department.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nati...601824610899mb

At least one Freedom Caucus member was openly claiming Trump would do everything in his power to stop the deal:

Donald Trump "will do everything in his power" to halt the refugee deal between Australia and the US, according to a hardline Texan congressman who is confident no resettlements will ever take place from Manus Island or Nauru.

More than two months after the agreement between outgoing President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was announced, slow progress on applications and lengthy security vetting by the US Department of Homeland Security is raising fear among those held in the Australian offshore immigration detention centres, ahead of Mr Trump's inauguration on January 20.

Texas Republican Brian Babin, a prominent critic of Mr Obama's refugee resettlement policies, called the one-off Australian deal "madness" and said the incoming administration would overturn it.

A member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, the two-term representative of Texas's 36th congressional district said Mr Trump would block any of the planned resettlements facilitated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees because of risks to the safety and security of America's citizens.

"I am confident President-elect Trump will do everything in his power to put an immediate stop to this secret Australian-US refugee deal that should have simply never happened in the first place," he told Fairfax Media.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politi...05-gtmvot.html

Despite all this furore, the deal appears to be moving forward. US officials confirmed a month or so ago that the deal was moving forward (again), and Trump as far as I can tell hasn't said another word on it. So much for that.

[Edge-]

So...internal chaos and disorder continues to be par for the course with the Trump administration?

Based on everything I'm reading, I should apply for a gig at the State Department. Not only do I not need any real diplomatic experience, but apparently there's so little direction that most of them literally have nothing to do.

Getting a government salary for doing nothing sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

[Allybeboba]

So...internal chaos and disorder continues to be par for the course with the Trump administration?

Based on everything I'm reading, I should apply for a gig at the State Department. Not only do I not need any real diplomatic experience, but apparently there's so little direction that most of them literally have nothing to do.

Getting a government salary for doing nothing sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

Make a LinkedIn account and start making some connections. You never know what might happen!

[Mormolyce]

So...internal chaos and disorder continues to be par for the course with the Trump administration?

Well, the chaos was back in January when Trump was still speaking about this. Since he stopped everything seems back on course.

Causation? You be the judge.