Month: September 2008

Immigration under Obama vs. under a McCain presidency

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a rather bleak opinion piece for those of us who want to see borders closed, immigration severely curtailed and refugee resettlement reformed.    A leading publication for Immigration lawyers editorializes that if Obama should win, the Democrats in the White House and in Congress will be so busy changing everything  they won’t have time right away for immigration.

However, should McCain win, Congress and the White House will be at odds over (almost) everything, leaving only immigration reform (code for amnesty as in McCain/Kennedy) back on the front burner as the only thing the two branches of government would agree upon.

The entire editorial dated September 17 (could not find a perma-link so look for September 17th editorial) is below because it is so provocatively written I wanted you to see it all.

McCain Kennedy Reborn

If immigration is your number one political priority, what should you do this election?

We begin with the observation that Democrats will likely consolidate and expand their control of the Senate and the House. This is good news for the immigration cause. However, in spite of controlling Congress for the past two years Democrats have done virtually nothing on immigration benefits and have continued massive spending on immigration enforcement. So, even though most political analysts are agreed that Democrats are poised for significant gains in the House and the Senate, that alone does not portend any immigration benefits in the coming years.

With that background, let us examine the difference in prospects for immigration benefits on Jan 20, 2009 if we get President Obama or if we get President McCain.

If we get President Obama, Democrats are going to be euphoric on Jan 20, 2009, and rightly so – being back in the White House, at last, after 8 long and bitter years. Democrats have not been able to pursue their priorities for 8 years and we can expect them to act aggressively on their big priorities immediately after a President Obama takes office. There are at least four Democratic priorities ahead of immigration: the Iraq war, universal health care, budget/taxes and energy policy. These are all large, complex issues and Congress will take most of a President Obama’s first term to work on these. In such a scenario, we will not see any significant immigration benefits in the foreseeable future.

If we get President McCain, we will still have a powerful Democratic majority in Congress on Jan 20, 2009. This Congress will be at loggerheads with him on all the major Democratic priorities. Democrats will want to bring the troops home whereas Mr. McCain wants them in Iraq for 100 years; Democrats see a health care crisis whereas Mr. McCain sees none; Democrats will want increased taxes whereas Mr. McCain would like to cut them; Democrats want to conserve oil and work on alternative sources of power whereas Mr. McCain would like to drill for oil all over the map. Democrats and a President McCain will be 180 degrees apart on all major Democratic priorities. In this bitter fighting hardly anything will get done legislatively, and both Democrats and Mr. McCain will be looking for opportunities to show the country that they can work on something together.

While there are a few areas of agreement between Mr. McCain and Democrats, immigration is the largest issue on which Democrats and McCain agree. While the current Republican Party platform is the most anti-immigrant one in memory, there were news reports that Mr. McCain, who has a long track record of being pro-immigration, tried to make it more immigration-friendly and failed. This is the issue on which he is most likely to stab his party’s anti-immigrationist wing in the back both in his political interests and due to his own convictions (Mr. McCain had to fight his party’s anti-immigrationists tooth and nail during the Republican primaries). We expect to see almost all of the original McCain-Kennedy bill become law during the first six months of a McCain Presidency.

The Bush era has been the worst in memory for immigration advocates. However the combination of a powerful Democratic majority in Congress with Mr. McCain as President offers the best hope for speedily obtaining desperately needed immigration benefits.

Let’s hope Sarah will knock some sense into McCain’s head!

New category for Greeley/Swift/Somali controversy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Never dreaming that the controversy over religious accommodation for Muslim workers at a Greeley, CO meatpacking plant would develop into such a lengthy news story, I didn’t think to set up an entire category for posts on that topic. 

Just now I did create a special category so that readers could trace all the way back to July 2007 for our reporting on Greeley, CO and the Somali refugees that have migrated there.   The category has 23 posts here for your reading pleasure, if you are energetic enough to plough through them!

Hundreds of Somali workers hold protest march to city hall yesterday in Grand Island, NE

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update September 17th:   As of yesterday, Swift had not fired any Somali workers here.

Update:   If you are having trouble following all this Somali/meatpacker controversy on-going in Greeley and now Grand Island, see our new category.

And the beat goes on….   What is their beef?  It’s Ramadan, what else, and Somali workers are protesting because their employer, who else, Swift & Co., is not letting them pray in the middle of the shift.  From the Grand Island Independent:

A group of 500 Muslim workers from Grand Island’s JBS Swift & Co. plant staged a protest Monday afternoon.

Members of the B shift (3 to 11:30 p.m.) and some members of the morning A shift walked off the job after being denied time to pray during what they said is the holiest of times for them — Ramadan.

A group of protesting women said they were kicked by a supervisor when they attempted to pray at work.

Asha Abdi said she knelt to pray when the supervisor said, “You can’t pray here,” kicked her feet and told her to go home.

Another woman, Hawo Mohammed, said she told her production supervisor she needed to go to the bathroom. She attempted to pray quickly in the bathroom until the male supervisor followed her in and told her she was taking too long.

“The main point is freedom for religion,” said Ridwan Abbi, a second-shift production worker who gladly supported his peers.

Calling all doubters!  Tell me now that this isn’t a planned and orchestrated campaign.  Listen to this guy:

“The company said we aren’t going to give you any time to pray, but this is a free country,” said Ahmed Abdi, a spokesman for the largely Somalian group, who formerly worked at the plant. “We are Muslim and this country is about freedom.”

Notice he formerly worked at the plant and the woman who claims she was kicked has the same last name (wife, sister, maybe?).  These are most likely community organizers sent by someone to Grand Island, NE.   Just as I’m predicting the whole mess at the Swift plant in Greeley, CO is orchestrated.  This is to send a message to American businesses, accommodate Islam, or we will give you hell.  Bets on when CAIR arrives on the scene?

To the US State Department:  What the hell were you thinking when you gave 83,000 Somalis airfare to get here.   Or, for that matter, when you gave a tea party send-off to Somali illegal aliens in Malta recently.

And, to Swift & Co.,  I do feel sorry for you, but if you had stuck with American workers and paid them a decent wage (I’m willing to pay more for meat) then you wouldn’t be in this deep stuff now.

New readers, see this post about the stealth jihad and how Shariah is creeping into Minnesota and into America.  Religious accommodation is an early step.  We need only look at the UK, a country further along in the process, to know what is in store for us.

More from last spring on Somali problems in Nebraska here.

Christian group wants “durable solution” for Rohingya Muslims

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You would think there are plenty of Christians being persecuted around the world to keep these pressure groups busy for a long long time, but Christian Solidarity Worldwide is going to bat for the Rohingya Muslims of Burma.   We have an entire category about Rohingya because we have been following for sometime their lobbying campaign to be resettled in the West. 

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) just released this report from a whole 5 day trip to Bangladesh (below is from press coverage on that report):

New Delhi – Hundreds of Burmese Muslim minorities, seeking refuge on the Bangladesh-Burma border, are in dire straits, despite escaping brutal repression by the Burmese military junta, said a new report by the Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

The new report called “A people at the brink of extermination,” released yesterday, said Rohingya Muslims, who live in western Burma’s Arakan State are one of the minority groups that have suffered appalling oppression by the ruling junta.

The report quoted a Rohingya saying “The regime is trying to take away our identity. We will not be there in the very near future. Our prime concern is that we must not be eliminated …We are a people on the brink of extinction.”

The Rohingya are not going extinct.  They are spreading out throughout Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, China, Canada, Norway, and probably some are here in the US already.

CSW said:

“UNHCR and the Bangladesh government should try to find a durable solution to the problem,” said Roger, who was in the CSW team visiting the refugee camps.

When the phrase “durable solution” is used, that is UN code for resettle them in a town near you. 

Read our whole category on the strict Rohingya Muslims here.  In the very first post I did on this group I quoted both the Hudson Institute and Time (yes! Time) magazine on allegations that some members of this group are connected to Islamic terrorism.

Ft. Wayne, IN to get federal grants as refugee numbers continue to grow

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

There is really nothing new here.  Ft. Wayne, IN has been struggling with a large refugee population for years and expects it to only get worse.

“You’re seeing the tip of a huge iceberg. This has been going on for years,” Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd District, said of the issues surrounding the more than 5,000 Burmese refugees who have come to Fort Wayne. At least 800 new Burmese refugees have or will arrive this year, and officials said Friday that 1,000 to 2,000 Burmese refugees may be resettled here by the State Department yearly for the next three years. Fort Wayne also is home to refugees from Somalia, Sudan and other countries who fled religious or political persecution.

But, the pressure on the city may be somewhat relieved by the arrival of federal tax dollars.  A refugee center is being developed to expedite and streamline refugees’ enrollment into various welfare programs.

Finding one place where refugees can sign up for government benefits, connect with potential employers and access community resources has been the most crucial need identified by thousands who have arrived in Fort Wayne in recent years, as well as by the agencies that serve them.

That hope will turn into reality in a few weeks when the Community Resource Center for Refugees opens at 2826 S. Calhoun St., in the former offices of AWS. The center is being funded through $490,000 in 17-month, renewable taxpayer grants from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement…..

[…..] 

Mitch Roob, Indiana secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, also announced Friday that FSSA will set up a new office within the resource center to help refugees receive food stamps, cash assistance and Medicaid. By law, refugees are eligible for up to eight months of benefits….

According to this News-Sentinel article the refugees were lured to the city of Ft. Wayne by its “welcoming” churches and the prospect of jobs that have since dried up.

Use our search function for more information.  We first heard about Ft. Wayne when the Health Department of Allen County was hysterical over the large number of TB positive refugees they were seeing and the general increase in expenses to handle large numbers of refugees in need of health care and immunizations.