Month: August 2007

The message of the Good Samaritan

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 Your tax dollars:

During the recent controversy about Refugee Resettlement in Hagerstown, MD a writer to the Herald-Mail, the local newspaper, remarked that afterall the good Samaritan didn’t leave the wounded traveler on the taxpayers’ doorstep but  paid for his care from his own pocket.    That is something to remember as you begin to ask questions about the role, as government contractors, of non-profit church groups involved in Refugee Resettlement.     They will be ready and eager to make you feel quilty as hell for even asking questions; don’t be! 

 The Good Samaritan story is used very effectively here, at VDare, to illustrate one of the lucrative special deals the church groups have worked out with the federal government.    It is entitled, The Bad Samaritan: The Episcopal Migration Ministries by Thomas Allen and it outlines the little deal where the churches get a cut of any airfare loans they can collect from the refugees.  I think they call this ‘doing well by doing good ‘(or something like that!)

Somali refugee numbers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I should have reminded readers of the number of Somali refugees that have been brought into the US in the Refugee Resettlement program when I wrote the two previous posts about the Somali rape case and the brutal Somali wife beating case.  

The Refugee Resettlement program of the Federal government and the non-profit groups (volags) contracted to resettle refugees have brought 64,942 Somalis to the US from 1983-2005 according to the 2005 ORR Report  to Congress (See Appendix A).   Each of those Somalis can apply through the volags to bring others of their family to America.    This is never-ending.

Hagerstown Refugee Resettlement Public meeting scheduled

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

On September 19th from 7-9 p.m. citizens of Hagerstown and Washington County (MD)will have a rare opportunity to learn about Refugee Resettlement from some of the major players in the program. 

It’s my opinion that this sort of initiative should have occured long ago and should serve now as a model for other areas of the country.   Immigration is an issue of concern to everyone and the more citizens know about how it works the better off we will be as a country.  As a matter of fact, just today the Center for Immigration Studies released a new report which says that by the year 2060 we will be adding 100,000,000 people to America’s  population as a result of the present level of immigration.   The report suggests that we must decide if we want to diminish our environmental quality of life for our children and grandchildren.   Crowded living conditions, shortages of water and other resources, and less natural open space would likely result from that large an increase in population.

As for the public meeting, come out to the Kepler Theatre at Hagerstown Community College on September 19th, 7-9 p.m. and listen, ask questions and learn.  Yesterday, Opinion page editor, Bob Maginnis, reported on the meeting and listed those who will answer questions from the public:

Jordan (Dir. of Community Action Council) will be the moderator of the Sept. 19 event and said it will include the following presenters:

· Terry Rusch and Barbara Day, of the State Department’s Office of Population, Refugees and Migration.

· Edward Lin, director of the Maryland Office of New Americans and his deputy, Martin Ford.

· Francis Tinsley and Erica Iverson of Church World Services.

· Cline, of the Virginia Council of Churches.

Maginnis continues to urge the public to support bringing more refugees to Hagerstown.  Presumably this is also the position of the Herald-Mail because it has up till now avoided doing any indepth reporting that might have helped the public better understand the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program. 

Iraqi refugees—only a small number worked for US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This article in Today.com (from yesterday) is meant to be another one of those drumbeating articles about the poor Iraqi refugees we need to save by bringing them here BEFORE THE WAR IS OVER!    Articles like these are generated by consulting firms in advance of legislation that is moving through Congress.   I suspect the firms are working for various Islamic countries who wish to increase the Muslim population of the US and are working for our defeat in Iraq.

Although this piece was meant to sound the alarm, this little section caught my eye:  

The United Nations has submitted more than 9,000 Iraqis to the United States for consideration as refugees since the State Department announced a new resettlement program in February, but only about 5 percent of the applicants are former employees connected with the U.S. war effort, according to figures provided by the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration, the agencies processing the cases.

Only 5%?   By my calculation that would make 450 Iraqis who have already run away from Iraq who were once helping us.  So, who are the 8,550 others in this group?  Hopefully Christians, but I bet not.

The article does go on to say that there are 69,000 other Iraqis working as menial laborers for various contractors (including Iraqi companies) that get money from the Pentagon and so therefore according to those promoting our defeat in Iraq they will all need to be brought to America to live on American welfare.   Will our brave men and women have died to give them the US welfare trough?

If you are seeing our Iraqi refugee posts for the first time, go to the Iraqi refugees category for a complete list of our coverage.

Iraqi Refugee warning, at the frontdoor and backdoor

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Investors Business Daily yesterday questioned why at a time when the Bush Administration has admitted that Iraqi terrorists are getting into the U.S. by the backdoor–across the Mexican border– Congress is pushing to allow thousands of Iraqi’s in the front door.  

And guess who is sponsoring the Senate bill to add more refugees to our communites?   Senator Ted (Refugee Act 1980) Kennedy.  I wonder how many refugees live in Hyannisport?

…. the bill could become law. It has a companion (S. 1651) in the Senate sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. And both are being pushed hard by GOP powerbroker Grover Norquist, a close ally of Karl Rove and founder of the Islamic Institute, a Washington lobby group that has fought for looser Arab immigration.

——

The bills are being sold as a compassionate attempt to rescue the growing number of Iraqi refugees, including those who have fled to Syria.

——

But given the shocking news that Iraqis are trying to cross the border to carry out terrorism (and being coached to claim amnesty if they are caught), these bills raise serious security issues and should die in committee.

——

Resettling genuinely at-risk Iraqis, such as Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, makes sense. But the best way to make sure other Iraqis are safe and secure is to help them fight for their own security there in Iraq.

To review the many posts on Iraqi refugees at RRW, go to the Iraqi Refugee category.