Governor Matt Mead keeps saying, they (refugees) are coming to Wyoming anyway, so we need a plan.
According to this article some immigrants are arriving in the Wyoming court system and require interpreters that are not readily available. The Wyoming Public Radio story mentions Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, and an occasional Laotian or Somali speaker.
However, keep in mind that a “refugee recruitment” office in the state is not going to solve the problem of immigrants on trial in Wyoming and in need of skilled interpreters—it will only exacerbate the problem because of the myriad languages refugees to America are speaking.
For review, the top nine languages (in descending order) spoken by refugees in the last 6 years are: Arabic, Nepali, Sgaw Karen, Somali, Spanish, Chaldean, Burmese, Armenian, Kayah and more than 8000 refugees in those 6 years spoke “other minor languages.”
Utah Burmese refugee found guilty earlier this year in rape and murder of little girl. Appropriate interpreter was initially difficult to find.
We have written much lately about the expensive refugee criminal trials where costs for court interpreters were a hefty portion of the bill (see Utah Burmese rape murder trialfor instance). Are you ready for this in Wyoming?
A refugee resettlement office will have no role in dealing with the secondary migrants already arriving in Wyoming. Their job will be to bring new refugees into Wyoming and that is what they are paid to do!
Wyoming is a largely rural state with limited diversity. But as the population grows and the state attracts all sorts of newcomers. Wyoming is learning to accommodate the changing population. One of the areas where the state is making headway is interpretation services in its courts. Wyoming Public Radio’s Irina Zhorov reports.
Not mentioned here is that it is federal law that appropriate court interpreters (and interpreters for all sorts of social welfare/healthcare/education) be provided to the newcomers and billed to LOCAL taxpayers. Note to “welcoming” communities—it is expensive!
I’ve not seen that phrase before—refugee recruitment—it must be newly coined by critics of Wyoming Republican Governor Matt Mead’s proposal to study the possibility of a refugee resettlement office in the state, but I like it!
Mead’s primary challenger, Dr. Taylor Haynes, opposes Mead’s invitation to the federal government to study the possibility of resettling refugees in Wyoming.
Here is yet another article on the controversy. Our complete archive, is here.
CHEYENNE — State officials are continuing to study a proposal that could bring a refugee resettlement program to Wyoming.
But the governor’s office and others are also trying to quell worries that this will lead to an influx of immigrants coming here.
“Some people are concerned about this effort, worrying that Wyoming is ‘recruiting’ refugees,” Gov. Matt Mead recently wrote in a letter to the editor sent to newspapers in the state. “There is no recruitment; there is, however, an effort to understand the issue.
“Right now, our state is learning more on the issue.”
Mead sent a letter last year to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement*** to explore setting up a public-private resettlement office here.
The federally funded program would provide refugees with a range of assistance, including help finding housing, employment and health care, for the first several months after they arrive in the country.
The feds and their resettlement contractors would like Wyoming decision-makers to think that the whole program is funded from Washington. It is not! For a few months US taxpayers foot the bill for the refugees and then the responsibility falls on the state for all of those refugees who never find work. Wouldn’t you think that a Republican governor would be sensitive to taxpayers and jobs for Americans everywhere before getting into a contract with Washington?
Barnett: Federal refugee contractors are no different then your Lockheed Martins in that they have the same incentives.
The Tribune Eagle continues:
Don Barnett is a fellow for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for a reduction in the number of immigrants coming into the country.
He agreed that refugees can impact the state’s and federal government’s budget.
And he cautioned that the federal government and the groups picked to be its contractors rather than the state would largely control how many refugees come here, where they will live and where they come from.
He said the contractors also proactively try to set up the refugees with the welfare programs.
“I don’t think people realize that the state will not have much control of this program if it is institutionalized or implemented,” he said. “It’s largely these contractors that will have the say, and these federal contractors are no different than your Lockheed Martins in that they have the same type of incentives.”
*** Gov. Mead wrote his letter of inquiry to the Office of Refugee Resettlement which is in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services (they dole out the $$$ to the contractors after the refugees are resettled. It is the US State Department (and the UN) which makes decisions about who comes to the US and it is the State Department which doles out the $$$ to the contractors for the initial resettlement and decides where they will be located (in consultation with ORR). Contractors are PAID BY THE HEAD.
Wyoming controversy goes national, including discussion about Mead challenger Taylor Haynes
The Associated Press has picked up the Wyoming refugee story. Here it is at the Washington Times:
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – Gov. Matt Mead is addressing criticism about the possibility of opening a refugee resettlement program in Wyoming.
Mead recently sent a letter to the editor addressing the issue to newspapers across the state. Mead wrote that the state is still learning more about the issue and said that Wyoming is not recruiting refugees.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle (http://bit.ly/1m21Fj0) reports that Mead’s challenger for the Republican nomination, Taylor Haynes, is among those who have criticized the move.
Haynes said refugees could strain Wyoming’s budget by relying on state and federally funded safety net programs like Medicaid. He is also worried that they may not be screened for ties to violence or for diseases such as HIV and the Ebola virus. [Haynes is a medical doctor, so it is interesting that the story doesn’t mention those credentials.—ed]
Two Wyoming cities are the subject of discussion for locating the federal offices—Gillette and Casper. Once established, it is only rarely (extremely rare!) that a city can stop the program when they find out that there are problems and there will be many problems!
Addendum: I see our fact sheet on refugee resettlement is attracting large numbers of readers (again!). If you haven’t seen it, click here.
Mabior Ding led a “tortuous” childhood in Africa, said the judge.
After running over an 11 year old Hispanic kid in the parking lot of an apartment complex, Mabior Ding took off because he didn’t understand the language spoken by the boy’s people.
This case involved two taxpayer-funded interpreters—one Arabic and one Spanish.
The added expense to “welcoming” communities for court, health care and school interpreters is rarely mentioned as the Open Borders agitators including therefugee resettlement contractors push for more immigrants.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge sentenced a Sudanese man on Friday to 10 years in prison and five years of supervised probation in the hit-and-run death of an 11-year-old boy last year.
Mabior Ding, 33, pleaded guilty in March to manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal collision.
At his sentencing hearing, Ding told an Arabic language interpreter t
Enoc Quejada was hit by the drunk-driving Ding in a Phoenix multicultural apartment complex parking lot.
hat he had helped the child before fleeing but that he was frightened when the people around him spoke a language he did not understand. Ding said he apologized to the family at the scene.
[….]
Enoc’s aunt, Rosa Quejada, told a Spanish language interpreter that Enoc was a beloved nephew who had hopes to go to school, study and become an adult.
Ding used the terrible-childhood-in-Africa defense:
Judge Jeanne Garcia took into consideration Ding’s turbulent past when deciding his sentence. Ding grew up in Sudan, where he experienced a “tortuous” childhood.
If Ding hadn’t been drinking, Garcia said, the accident could have been avoided.
The 317 days that Ding has already served will be applied to his 10-year prison sentence. Garcia also required Ding to seek substance-abuse help.
One more criminal case a local jurisdiction is paying for. Shouldn’t the US State Department be chipping in to pay the bill for the trial and for Ding’s incarceration.
In 2007, then Asst. Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration, Ellen Saurbrey, said the US had agreed to take 60,000 of the 100,000 Bhutanese (really Nepali) refugees living in camps in Nepal over a five year period. Here we are, going on 7 years, and we have now taken in 75,000 with more on the way!
Sauerbrey: 60,000 over five years.
You can read all about why we decided it was our duty (here) to do this when we had no national interest in it—other than that the UN told us to do it! And, surely US companies, looking for cheap legal labor, were egging the Bush administration on, while the human rights industrial complex agitators cheered. In fairness, we can’t blame Sauerbrey for what the subsequent Obama State Department is doing.
But, pay attention because they will do this (lie) about the Syrians as well.
Once the US State Department begins the process with its resettlement contractors, the numbers will balloon way beyond what they promised in the first place. Remember the contractors are paid by the head to resettle refugees in your cities and town. They are always out scouting for a fresh supply!
Other countries were supposed to help, but as is the usual case, the lion’s share falls on the US.
Nepal – The United States this week resettled its 75,000th Bhutanese refugee from eastern Nepal. Tilak Chand Ghimire, 44, his wife, 12-year-old daughter and 75-year-old parents, will start new lives in Akron, Ohio, where his brother resettled in 2010.
The move brings the total number of Bhutanese refugees resettled from Nepal since 2007 by IOM, in close cooperation with the Nepali government, the embassies of resettlement countries and UNHCR, to 88,770.
Get it! We took 75,000 of the 88,770 resettled so far!
All subsequent negotiations to allow them to return to Bhutan failed and almost the whole 107,000 caseload are expected to eventually be resettled in third countries, notably the US.
We have an extensive archive on Bhutanese refugees going back to our first year writing RRW, click here to learn more. You will see in the early posts that a large number of the Bhutanese/Nepalese camp dwellers DID NOT want to be resettled in third countries.
The newly elected Minneapolis City Council member, Abdi Warsame, has been a busy guy lately. On Friday he presented a resolution to the city council to proclaim July 1 ‘Somali American Day’ to celebrate the African country’s independence from Italy and the UK. (And we all know how well that worked out!). Then he lead a protest against Kenya.
MN Governor Mark Dayton congratulates Abdi Warsame.
Somalicurrent – The Minneapolis City Council voted Friday to mark July 1 as “Somali American day” in the city, which is home to many immigrants from the east African country.
The date holds significance among Somalis, who celebrate independence day on July 1 both in Somalia and the United States diaspora.
Abdi Warsame, the first Somali-American on the Minneapolis City Council, praised the resolution at a council meeting on Friday. A gathering of Somali-American men were in attendance.
“This is a very important resolution for me,” Warsame said. “And it actually came from the elders and the community leaders who wanted to highlight the contributions, the culture, the values of the Somali-American community, which is a large and growing population in the city of Minneapolis.”
The July 1 independence day commemorates when the Somali Republic was created by uniting two territories previously controlled by Italy and Britain.
Minneapolis Somalis protest against Kenya!
Meanwhile, as we know, Kenya is trying to save itself from Somali terrorists (remember the Westgate Mall slaughter) and Minneapolis Somalis are protesting against Kenya.
And, look who is denying that Somalis had anything to do with the Mall attack—Abdi Warsame—appropriately reported at Al-Shahid network:
Somalis live in Minnesota (USA) protested against Kenyan brutal arresting of Somali community in Nairobi, especially in Eastli village.
With especial interview to voice of America Somali service, Minneapolis council member, Abdi Warsame, who hails from Somalia, has told that hundreds of Somalis in Minnesota marched the streets for showing their refusal of Kenyan indiscriminate harassment against Somalis.
“We can’t bear this twenty first century that our citizens are harassed. I am calling Kenya to stop this brutal action. Somalis are not terrorists. They are not responsible the terrorist attacks in the country”, Abdi Warsame, the first Somali man who hold such post in American territory said.
If Warsame really wanted to help “his country,” he could return to Africa and help Somalia lift itself out of squalor and chaos rather than run his mouth from the safety of Minneapolis!
For new readers, Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis? Thank the US State Department and its contractors: Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration Services and World Relief (facilitators of Al-Hijra).
