They are changing America by changing the people
Sorry our “your state” page is so incomplete. I just figured you could get your state information from our link to the ORR Annual Report to Congress, but I notice the link isn’t working (at least for me).
If the new report is out would someone send me the link at Ann@vigilantfreedom.com! Thanks!
Utah is feeling the strain with too many refugees for the welfare system to handle. No sympathy here because you could just say, no! Tell the US State Department to tell their NGO contractors to cut the flow until you can get caught up with the needs of your own destitute people before they send you more from all corners of the world. If you have trouble getting the State Department’s attention, then tell your Congressional delegation to get involved.
Here is what the Salt Lake Tribune says today:
The dilemma has been raised on the governor’s advisory committee examining refugee services, said Michael Gallegos, director of the Salt Lake County Division of Community Resources and Development. “The question has come up: Can we turn the faucet down a little bit so we can get prepared and deal with issues already in front of us?” he said. “We don’t have the capacity to serve the refugees we have right now.”
Upon arrival, refugees are eligible for food stamps, cash assistance programs, Medicaid and other services, some of which are available for years, some for as little as eight months.
But after receiving initial housing assistance, refugee families join thousands of other Utahns hoping to obtain a federal subsidy that can significantly discount their rent. Many in this new wave of refugees will join more than 4,000 residents already on the Salt Lake City Housing Authority waiting list. They will have to wait at least two years to get a housing discount voucher
Frankly, I don’t get this. What is everyone so afraid of? Afraid of looking “unwelcoming”? Maybe someone will call you a racist? There is nothing wrong with saying, we need a little breather here. Wyoming does not participate in refugee resettlement and I don’t see that state maligned for the decision.
Then this last line is really annoying.
Refugees often feel helpless and alone when faced with a stack of critical documents linking them to food, medical care and other services .
“We’ve had people say, ‘It was better in the camps,’ ” Brown [Utah Refugee Services Director] said.
We have from the earliest days of writing this blog advocated for the institution of a social and economic impact study of cities and states to help determine if a locale could handle new refugees. If it was regularly updated better planning would surely result.
We have an extensive archive on Utah here. Sadly Utah made the news a few months ago as the location where a little Burmese refugee girl was raped and murdered by another refugee in their housing complex.
While I’m on the subject of infectious diseases this morning, here is a frightening story from South Africa thanks to blulitespecial.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Authorities increased security Friday at a tuberculosis hospital where patients with drug-resistant forms of the disease went on a rampage to protest prison-like conditions.
Twenty-two patients were arrested Wednesday, accused of public violence and assault after they pelted staff with stones and vandalized equipment. But the local police station and prison refused to admit them because of fears of the highly infectious disease. Instead, they were returned to the hospital.
The Jose Pearson hospital, near the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, treats about 300 patients. Many have multidrug-resistant TB and the even more dangerous extensively drug-resistant TB, which is very difficult and expensive to treat. Those with drug-resistant strains are supposed to stay in the hospital for six months to two years, living in isolated wards surrounded by barbed wire and security guards.
South African authorities have reluctantly resorted to enforced confinement of patients with drug-resistant TB because of fears that it might otherwise spread through the community. TB is an airborne bacteria and can be spread easily through coughing or sneezing.
The country is gripped by a tuberculosis crisis, which is feeding off the AIDS epidemic and striking the weakened immune system of victims. Nearly 60 percent of South African TB patients have AIDS. The emergence of drug-resistant TB strains — often the result of not sticking to the standard six-month course of treatment — has worsened patients’ chances of survival.
Why am I telling you this, because as the “rainbow nation” implodes (I wonder if that was discussed at the star-studded Mandela birthday bash this week) we are going to be pressured to take refugees newly created by the violence against immigrants in South Africa.
We are already admitting refugees with HIV and TB. And, I will bet you a buck that the refugees that roam from city to city are not sticking with their six-month long treatment regime and that the volags are not following up on these people. A Somali refugee died of TB in a Tyson’s plant in Emporia, KS last year. Bet you didn’t hear that in the news.
Earlier this month we reported on a volag “cat fight” going on in Ft. Wayne, IN. It seems that volag World Relief (Corporation of National Association of Evangelicals) is trying to horn in on Catholic Charities lucrative territory in Ft. Wayne.
As we have reported many times on this blog, these agencies are paid by the head to resettle refugees and so they are often competitive. In the case of Ft. Wayne there are huge numbers of Burmese going to that city which has put out the refugee welcome mat. Those refugees want to bring family members to Ft. Wayne, and refugees in camps in Thailand also request resettlement in Ft. Wayne because they want to live near people like themselves.
This week the Journal Gazette in Ft. Wayne published this letter (scroll down) from Chris Coen of Friends of Refugees:
Refugee agencies rife with problems
I saw the editorial “Helping refugees” regarding World Relief’s proposal to open an office in Fort Wayne. I don’t know whether its presence in Fort Wayne will be good for all or not, but my experience with World Relief has not been positive. I am an independent volunteer assisting refugees since 2001. I started a group to monitor the U.S. refugee resettlement program with a small group of volunteers in 2002.
We found refugees who were being neglected and abused by their World Relief agency in 2003-05 north of Tampa, Fla. That refugee program was subsequently shuttered by the Department of State in 2006 because of the neglect of the refugees.
World Relief also seems to have some irregularities in its accounting.
In fairness to World Relief, though, there seem to be quite a few irregularities and neglect of refugees in the U.S Refugee Resettlement Program. There is also extensive documentation of Catholic Charities and the other eight national refugee resettlement agencies neglecting refugees. The State Department has done very little to clean up the problems.
CHRISTOPHER COEN Friends of Refugees Minneapolis
I have on my desk a GAO (General Accounting Office) investigative report on World Relief from 2004. The report is highly critical of the volag which could not properly account for over $2 million in federal funds. I don’t know if they have cleaned up the shoddy accounting practices or not.
One interesting little bit in the report was that when refugee numbers declined dramatically in the years immediately following 9/11, World Relief spent more federal dollars than the GAO thought reasonable. I’m going to bet however that all the volags had a shopping spree during this time because the federal government responded to their plea for funding at the same level as pre-September 11th because the volags complained that they needed to keep offices open and paying staff in anticipation of a return to the higher number of refugees. Bottomline is that we taxpayers paid for all these non-profits to stay in business even though the refugee numbers were extremely low for a couple of years.
A related matter appeared in the Journal Gazette in mid-June.
The Health Department in Ft. Wayne has been financially strapped due to the huge number of refugees that need vacinations and treatment for HIV and TB. Buried in another article about outdoor cooking rules is this information:
Waldron [Health Dept. Administrator] said the county commissioners have indicated they will approve $2 million toward relocation of the infectious disease clinic.
With the growing demands in refugee care, the health department needs additional space, and commissioners have asked the department to explore existing clinic sites or other buildings that could be used by the health department.
But, what can you do? As I said earlier Ft. Wayne has put out the word that it is a “welcoming” city.
Update August 20th: More on this subject here.
A few weeks ago I told you about how tensions are building in black communities between immigrants and American blacks. Sometimes the tension is between Black American Muslims (BAMs) and IMMs (Immigrant Muslims who are not black). Sometimes it’s just Black Americans (BAs) and African immigrants no matter what religion, but now comes the revelation that BAMs and BAs generally have some resentment toward Somalis (Muslims of course). Did you get that? Maybe not, but read on!
If this is a topic that interests you, and frankly I found it fascinating, read this blog entitled Jamerican Muslimah: Talking it plain. I’m not sure what the bloggers name is, maybe Jamerican, but I like her a lot. She does ‘talk it plain’ and so well I didn’t know where to start to give you some excerpts. Here is how she opens Part I:
I recently read Sherri Williams’ article entitled “Uncommon Ground” in Ebony Magazine’s July 2008 issue. This article discusses the tension between Somali immigrants/refugees and African-Americans (BAs) in Columbus, Ohio. I felt compelled to share my own thoughts and experience on the subject. After all, I live in the Twin Cities which boasts the largest Somali population in the country. I can forewarn you that what I have to say is not going to be politically correct. I can admit that I’m biased on this subject. Most of the experiences I’ve had with Somalis have not been so great. Needless to say, my perspective on this subject has been tainted by the negative experiences I’ve had. But Alhamdulillah, I’m currently working on it. This is my story.
In Part II, she says this and a whole lot more:
It is clear to me that many BAs in the Twin Cities are affected by the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric floating around the country. On one hand, I feel like they are capitalizing on the sentiment in order to garner favor or acceptance from White conservatives (even if they don’t know that, that’s where the rhetoric originated.) On the other hand, they are upset because they believe that Somalis have been given money and other perks by the government. They see Somalis, who are for the most part refugees, driving new cars, opening businesses, and receiving some of the best housing MPHA has to offer.[Editor: refugees do get special perks and this causes resentment from Americans who are poor whether the American is white or black.] They see Somalis taking over sectors of the job market which had been previously occupied by BAs. (Think of my cousin’s comment about Somalis at the airport). They see yet another group of immigrants coming in and gaining acceptance as the “model minority.” They see how White people in the Twin Cities often work hard to understand the predicament of Somalis, sometimes excusing their behavior or sympathizing with them because of their experience back home or in refugee camps. Meanwhile, the country and the world has dismissed BAs as being criminal, lazy, constantly crying victim and doing nothing to change their circumstances. There is no sympathy for us or our history. But should that be taken out on Somalis?
I believe that some BAs have a bias against Somalis because they are abashedly and unashamedly Muslim. (I find this to be especially true when the BA has a Christian base). They see Islam as a foreign religion with strange, primitive, stifling customs. The fact that female circumcision is practiced by Somalis- the dominant Muslim group in the Twin Cities- serves as further proof of the primitive nature of Islam and of Muslims… [Editor: we had heard that Somalis are practicing FGM in America]
What a revelation all this is, I bet a lot of you white folks in Emporia, KS and Shelbyville, TN have been thinking it’s just you. Have you wondered if you are racist? Is that why the Somalis were so hard to deal with? You can rest easy now, you knew deep down you weren’t a racist. It is not you! Black Americans are being put off by Somali refugees too and because of the cancer of cultural relativism rampant in the volag resettlement agencies, no one tells the Somalis they need to fit in to America.