Month: December 2007

Increasing percentage of refugees are illiterate

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I heard Rush Limbaugh talking about this Associated Press article the other day and just came across it.  It turns out that an increasing number of refugees are not literate in their own language so teaching these adults English requires that ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers begin with kindergarten teaching materials and techniques.

Before Bob Jansen [Missouri ESL teacher] can teach English to the adult immigrants in his lowest-level class, he has to show about a quarter of them how to hold a pencil.

This same problem was reported to us in a meeting with Congressman Roscoe Bartlett here in Hagerstown, MD, when an ESL teacher reported having to purchase kindergarten level supplies not available in her junior college classroom.

David Keene of the American Conservative Union: “Bring more Iraqis”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I really don’t get it.  Why are people like Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform and David Keene of the American Conservative Union so hot to support Ted Kennedy’s bill to bring more Iraqis here now?  Here is Keene yesterday at Frontpage Magazine.    No doubt there are some sad cases and some possible screw ups regarding helping interpretors who helped us in Iraq, and we surely aren’t doing enough for the Christian Iraqis,  but for so-called conservatives to criticize Homeland Security for being too careful about terrorism is mind-boggling!

And, for a man who is supposed to be one of Washington’s smart people to throw out this tired comparison to the Vietnam war is troubling.  Does he think we are idiots?

[Promotors of bringing more Iraqis now] have seen film footage of the U.S. evacuation of our embassy in Saigon at the end of the war we fought there while those who helped us were left to the tender mercies of our communist enemy.

I’m just going to repeat over and over again, this is not Vietnam.  We have not abandoned Iraq.  And, we did ultimately bring more than 100,000 Vietnamese  refugees here but we didn’t have to worry whether Islamic terrorists were interspersed among the women and children.

As for the sad case Mr. Keene lays out, he and his powerful friends could make sure “Timmy” gets to America, we don’t need Ted Kennedy’s bill to do that.   (Mr. Norquist could call Mr. Rove who could call the President who in turn could call Madame Secretary and Mr. Chertoff and voila Timmy could be here in the blink of an eye.)  And, surely Mr. Keene would let him live at his house saving the taxpayers the expense of putting him up.

This [the Kennedy bill] would seem to solve Timmy’s problem, but the good folks at the Department of Homeland Security, apparently operating on the theory that if they don’t let any Iraqis at all into this country they can’t be blamed if a terrorist makes it in, are proposing new hurdles that will make it even more difficult for people like Timmy to make it over here.

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DHS, which hasn’t been able to do much to keep anyone who wants to sneak across our southern border from doing so, seems willing to go to any length to make sure that those willing to fight and die beside our troops will be forever barred.

Honest to goodness this sounds like a leftwinger has written this!   I think if you asked most Americans they would be applauding Homeland Security for erring on the side of protecting us from terrorism.

We first wrote about this back in August.  See our story here.  See our discussion of the Kennedy (bring’em to Hyannisport, not!) bill here.   We have written 65 posts on the Iraqi refugee issue, if you are new to RRW, check out the Iraqi refugee category here.

Ft. Wayne folks are asking questions

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It was just a matter of time before this “welcoming” city of Ft. Wayne, Indiana began saying “whoa” to more refugees.   I have to say I’m amazed it took them so long in light of the huge number of refugees they have been receiving and in light of the explosive reaction some other cities, like Emporia, KS, have had in recent months.  Here are some quotes from a column today in the News-Sentinel:

Predictably,the woman who called Wednesday afternoon didn’t want to identify herself. But she’ll speak for a growing number of Fort Wayne residents if the federal government doesn’t address the refugee crisis it has created here.

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“This is nonsensical, and I’m not the only one who’s (angry),” she said, her blood clearly boiled by a story in Tuesday’s News-Sentinel about how local social-service groups fear being inundated by another 1,000 Burmese refugees in 2008 on top of the 700 who were resettled in Fort Wayne this year. “This isn’t why people donate to the United Way or Catholic Charities. How many can we absorb? Citizens should have a say, but we’re turning into a socialist place.”

If you are dismissing that as the ravings of some crazy woman, then see what their Congressman has to say:

……U.S. Rep. Mark Souder fears Fort Wayne’s capacity for charity is at risk of being overwhelmed by the fear of rapid change and the desire for self-preservation.

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“Fort Wayne is one of America’s most welcoming communities. But there will be a backlash (against refugees) if Washington won’t help us. The tension over illegal immigration is spilling over, and it will get deeper.”

The column ends with this comment, one we have seen echoed around the country by people brave enough to not fear being labeled a racist, xenophobic, hate monger.

America must not turn its back on refugees, who are in this country legally and, as such, deserve appropriate services. But the people of Fort Wayne have legitimate claims, too – including the expectation their institutions will not be overwhelmed by a crisis they do not want, did not create and cannot control.

See our post here yesterday about the influx expected in 2008.    I noticed that the column I write about above has a forum for comments.   Some of you talkative folks from Emporia might want to say a word or two about your situation to the good people of Ft. Wayne, maybe prime the pump so to speak and get people debating.   It always helps to know you aren’t alone.

The Cubans are coming (again!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

According to Foreign Policy’s Top 10 stories of the year you missed, 77,000 Cuban asylum seekers quietly slipped into the US in 2006 and 2007.   Read about it here.

 Note to readers:   There is so much going on in the area of refugee resettlement and immigration generally these days, and we don’t always have time to put our two cents in on a story, so we are going to occasionally give you links to hot news items so you can keep up with the news.  

We are also adding a new category here called ‘Asylum seekers’ — a subject which we hope to cover in greater depths in coming weeks.

Look out Fort Wayne, IN, 1000 more refugees expected in ’08

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have written about problems the city of Ft. Wayne (Allen County) Indiana has had with the impact on the Health Department with increasing numbers of refugees with TB, now it looks like the impact will be felt throughout all community services.   According to the News-Sentinel yesterday, the President of the United Way has called for a closed to the public meeting to address the coming “surge.”   

In addition to the 800 anticipated direct resettlement Burmese the community has been warned the number could go over 1000 when the refugees who have been resettled elsewhere also come to Ft. Wayne (this is called secondary migration).   Attendees at the closed meeting will discuss issues that should concern taxpayers such as housing, health, schools, translation services and so on.   Meanwhile Debbie Schmidt, executive director of Catholic Charities is headed to Washington to find more federal money for the volags.

Schmidt is planning a return trip to Washington to talk with HHS [Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement] officials to get more money for Indiana’s four refugee resettlement-sponsoring agencies [non-profit federal contractors such as Catholic Charities].

We’ve heard rumblings that a culture clash is coming in Ft. Wayne as Karin Christians are being placed in neighborhoods with Burmese Muslims.   What I would like to know is why would these volags assume that conflicts from the camps would not extend to neighborhoods in America?

One final thought–if the community of Ft. Wayne is all for more refugee resettlement, why close the meeting to the public?   Doesn’t Indiana have ‘open meeting’ laws?