Month: July 2009

Iraqi Palestinian update from Forbes magazine

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, writing in the July 30th, 2009 edition of Forbes magazine, fills in more details AND asks more questions about the Iraqi Palestinians due to arrive soon in the US.  Hat tip:  Jerry Gordon.   See our original post here.

Please read Ms. Rosett’s whole article.   What follows are a couple of sections that interested me the most.   Since the story broke I’ve been asked many times what exactly is the process for security screening of Saddam’s former friends.   Ms. Rosett would like to know too!

Are those security clearances flowing with such ease because among these former guests of Saddam’s regime there is almost no security risk for Americans? Or has the bar simply been set low enough to meet the UNHCR’s wish to empty the camp? Only U.S. security agencies know for sure, and they aren’t saying much.

According to U.S. officials at the departments of State and Homeland Security, interviewed recently by phone, some 1,000 Palestinians at Al Waleed have already been interviewed for admission to the U.S. They are expected to arrive by early next year. But their names and specific histories are confidential. Also confidential are the interview questions, the number of U.S. officers conducting the interviews, and the amount of time spent per interviewee.

While stressing that “National security is always at the forefront of our mind,” Homeland Security officials describe the interview process preceding the final security clearance as “non-adversarial,” with interpreters provided if needed, and efforts to make sure the interviewees “feel quite comfortable.”

Asked if any of the Palestinians from Al Waleed have been rejected on security grounds, a Homeland Security officer replied: “I can’t go into that.”  [Edit: I had heard that about 20 were rejected outright for security reasons and another 100 or so couldn’t get their facts straight in interviews, I don’t know what happens to them.]

It’s also unclear exactly where inside the U.S. these Palestinians will be resettled. Asked about the locations inside the U.S. of some 24 Palestinians who have already arrived from Iraq over the past two years, a State Department spokesman declined to say. A July 7 dispatch in the Christian Science Monitor said that most of the 1,300 or more expected from Al Waleed would go to southern California. But a State Department spokesman claimed that was not necessarily the case, adding that he would “rather not” get into specifics. He said that the actual geographic allocation inside the U.S. hadn’t been decided yet, but “They’re going to go all over.”

The Palestinians will surely be spread throughout the US, but citizens will not know they are Palestinians because they will come into the US as “Iraqi” refugees.  If they follow the usual pattern, one thing you can be sure of, they will be resettled in crime-ridden neighborhoods and they likely won’t have jobs.

Toward the end of her article, Rosett, brings up another  issue I wonder about also.   It has been reported that about 30,000 Palestinians were in Iraq before the war and only about 3000 or less are in these camps, so where are the others?   If they are mostly still  living in Iraq and if Iraq is improving, why is it necessary to move the Al-Waleed refugees to the US?  Can’t they just wait it out a little longer and be resettled back in Iraq?   Or better still, some other Muslim country!

Oh, I forgot, no Islamic country wants to take their fellow Muslims—that is Muslim charity for you.

Rosett again:

In Iraq, meanwhile, conditions for the Palestinians have been looking up. In a report last month, the UNHCR noted “the general improvement of the security situation in Iraq,” including “a marked decrease” in the number of attacks on Palestinian neighborhoods and individuals. Nonetheless, the UNHCR report went on to say that “Palestinian refugees continue to experience a deep level of uncertainty with regard to their place within the fabric of Iraqi society.”

Whether these Palestinians, once the favored guests of Saddam, will meld better into the fabric and values of American society is not a question explored by the U.N., nor does the U.S. administration appear interested in supplying much in the way of illuminating detail.

The fabric of American communities never matters to refugee advocates because by golly we all need a tolerance lesson whether we like it or not!

NumbersUSA expose’: it is all about cheap labor and votes for the Democratic party

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Note to humanitarians:   I can’t help it, I gotta say it!  We told you so!!!  

NumbersUSA has an incredible scoop on a secret meeting in DC last month where big business lobbyists and open borders activists plotted strategy on how to get more immigrants into the US.   As Glenn Beck would say, “blood was shooting from my eyes” as I read the revealing report on how to trick the public and shaft American workers.   Called “Storming the Hill National Summit,”  you must read the account of the meeting at NumbersUSA website, here.   The cynical discussion by the assembled elitists and powerbrokers will blow your mind.   Hat tip:  Blue Ridge Forum.

The setting? The Marriott convention hotel in the fashionable Dupont Circle district of Washington, D.C. Date? June 15, 2009. Participants? A coalition of big-business oriented, pro-Open Borders dedicated groups, corporations, and lobbyists. Organizer? Tamar Jacoby and her newly-formed ImmigrationWorksUSA lobbying group.

The doors were closed. Reporters and members of the public barred. Confidence that their words were private and their plans secret loosened the tongues of most speakers. Embarrassing admissions were made. Several preposterous claims were forwarded. Numerous shameful methods and motivations admitted to.

The “Storming the Hill National Summit” was predictable in its “backstab the workers” sentiment. Nonetheless, the following makes for some fascinating reading. One of the attorneys present took copious notes and turned up with a conscience. We got the notes.

Read on.

Tamar Jacoby (Pres. of Immigration Works USA) had this to say at the outset:

We are having the conference because we failed last time [to pass amnesty in 2007] and we must change. We did none of the things the opposition did. Opponents sent over a million faxes. We need to learn to leverage grass roots power. The basic goal is to promote the free flow of labor into the USA.

Republican traitors.

Near the end of the story, NumbersUSA VP Jim Robb asks this question:

Why are Republican activists Tamar Jacoby, Grover Norquist, and several other long-time GOP hacks at this meeting so excited about building a permanent Democratic Party majority by “locking in” Hispanic votes?

Why indeed?  We don’t know who Tamar Jacoby is, but we have written on many occasions about Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, lobbying for more Muslim immigrants.   We first learned about him when he promoted the resettlement of thousands of Iraqis to the US.   Start with this post and follow links to other posts on Norquist working against the best interests of taxpayers and average American citizens. 

Fascism and Corporatism

Please go revisit Judy’s post in early June where she discusses Jonah Goldberg’s hypothesis about ‘fascism and corporatism’ to better understand how and why the Left has gotten into bed with big business.

CIS: US Illegal immigrant population declining, but legal still on the rise

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has a new report out yesterday that indicates that illegal immigrant numbers in the US are down this year most likely due to enhanced enforcement of immigration laws and the declining economy.   Yet, they note that legal immigration numbers continue to rise.

Here is the opening paragraph of the report (A Shifting Tide: Recent Trends in the Illegal Immigrant Population):

Monthly Census Bureau data show that the number of less-educated young Hispanic immigrants in the country has declined significantly. The evidence indicates that the illegal population declined after July 2007 and then rebounded somewhat in the summer of 2008 before resuming its decline in the fall of 2008 and into the first quarter of 2009. Both increased immigration enforcement and the recession seem to explain this decline. There is evidence that the decline was caused by both fewer illegal immigrants coming and an increase in the number returning home. However, this pattern does not apply to the legal immigrant population, which has not fallen significantly.

And here is what they say about the increasing number of legal immigrants.   I can tell you from the standpoint of refugee numbers coming into the US, that there has been no let-up due to the lack of jobs for refugees—-the State Department is keeping the spigot wide open and I guess they assume the refugees will just need more welfare.

In contrast to the likely illegal immigrant population, the top line in Figure 1 for the likely legal immigrant population does not show a decline. It shows a continual and relatively steady increase in size until the last few months, when the population fell slightly. Between the first quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 the population of likely legal adult immigrants grew 2.9 percent and over the same period in 2008 and 2009 it grew almost 1 percent. Whatever factors affect the likely illegal population, they do not seem to be impacting legal immigrants in the same way. While the economic downturn must have some impact on legal immigrants, there is no indication that their numbers have fallen in the way that that those for illegal immigrants have declined. Since only illegal immigrants face enforcement, this tends to support the idea that enforcement accounts for some share of the decline in illegal immigration.

As I have said before this idea of flooding the welfare system with angry poor people is the strategy first outlined by Saul Alinsky and then Cloward and Piven at Columbia University and carried on by Obama and his friends like Wade Rathke at the SEIU.  One must create chaos to bring about change in our form of government.  They must have the immigrants to do that!   I predict as illegal immigration declines, legal immigration will be stepped up.  And, I also predict, the Obama Administration will lighten up on enforcement (they already are!).

So for all of you having anxiety attacks over why they don’t follow common sense and slow all immigration until there are an adequate number of jobs for the newcomers, they don’t want to!  The agitators must agitate! 

There is an extra added bonus!  The big business supporters of the Obama Administration get to keep labor costs low—-a win-win for Obama!

To new readers:  We have 66 previous posts in our “community destabilization” category if you would like to better understand community organizers!

Comment worth noting: more questions from Bhutanese refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Two days ago I told you about the murder of Hari Adhikari in Jacksonville, FL.  Hari was 21 years old and in the US for only 5 months when he was shot and killed for his wallet and phone in the parking lot of his apartment building.  Here is the post I wrote where several other refugees have written to comment.

I encourage other refugees to write to us and give us more facts about this murder and about your lives in Jacksonville or elsewhere.   This blog is one of the few places where your story will reach the publics’ attention.  You probably can’t understand this, but the politically correct mainstream media and the US government and its contractors (resettlement agencies) do  not want the public to know the unhappy side of refugee resettlement.  They all want to feel good about themselves (that includes most reporters!) and showing any of the problems with the program brings their goodness, their humanitarianism, into question.   Thus, there is never any real effort made at reform and as a consequence refugees suffer.

Here is the comment to us last night from Bhutanese refugee Yadu Subedi:

This horrifing news of the death of one of the promising Bhutanese refugee youth has created an environment of truauma among the many Bhutanese Refugees already resettled and will be resettled in USA.

One thing I am unclear is why are Bhutanese refugee resettled in such a neighbourhood knowing it is dangerous since it’s the no.1 in relation to the crime in florida and Hari is the 19th refugee to be killed in Jacksonville in the last five years.Are the resettlement agencies only after the Gov. money and donot bothher about the safety of the people being resettled by them.

I am also one of the Bhutanese refugee resettled in Texas who is living a life full of frustration and trauma of being insecure. I came here with great expectation but all my hope sattered after I face the reality of the place.

I am helpless to help Yadu except that I will send this story to every reporter I know and hope that someone will help him get answers and maybe eventually there will be a groundswell of public disgust and a demand that the program be reformed.  That is my fervent wish!   And, maybe, just maybe, Hari’s life and death will help other refugees.

For reporters and new readers:  We have written extensively on how the Bhutanese have come to be in the US.  Please use our search function for “Bhutanese refugees” for all of our previous posts.

Iraqi refugees in bad Chicago neighborhood are trying to change their community

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Apparently a crime-ridden neighborhood for 40 years, this section of Chicago is becoming increasingly diversified and refugees are trying to get it under control.

From the Chicago Tribune:

On a typical evening in Edgewater, dozens of young men linger along the sidewalks of Thorndale Avenue near the elevated train stop. Their presence is intimidating, say many in the community, and sometimes there is drug dealing and theft.

But on Monday evenings, the scene changes. Sidewalks fill with children playing board games and adults engaged in cards and chatting over grape leaves, courtesy of local Iraqi refugees.

The organized gatherings — called Neighborhood Nights — take aim at a more than 40-year history of gang activity along the business district in the 1100 block of West Thorndale Avenue.

I hope it works out for the refugees placed in this bad neighborhood.  At least this woman is taking the initiative and not just complaining about America not taking care of her.

The diversity of Edgewater, with about 64,000 residents, is obvious on just about any street: Iraqi women in head scarves, the colorful dress of African immigrants, Bosnian men smoking, young couples pushing strollers, and active senior citizens.

Together, Edgewater and Rogers Park are home to about 3,000 Iraqi refugees, according to Ahlam Mahmood, 44, of the Iraqi Mutual Aid Society. Mahmood said Neighborhood Nights allow the community an opportunity to meet their refugee neighbors.

“We are here to say to the neighborhood that you have Iraqi refugees,” said Mahmood, a humanitarian activist who fled to Chicago seven months ago with her two children. “We are in your neighborhood. Please welcome us.”