Month: April 2008

Another story about a jobless (but skilled) Iraqi refugee

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a story from Rhode Island about an Iraqi family down on its luck in America.  

PROVIDENCE — Seven months after an Iraqi refugee family received a warm welcome here, bad luck burst through the back door.

Make that bad luck on top of bad luck for Atheer Kiriacos Jajou, his wife, Baydaa Elshwaie, and their two children, who are the first Iraqi refugees resettled in Rhode Island since the 1990s.

The family has been here seven months and just at the time they are being evicted from their home, someone broke in and stole all of their money.  The couple was out earning some bit of additional cash cleaning another home at the time.   Seems that cleaning houses and motels is the kind of work Iraqis are getting these days.  This man has a skill, so I wonder why the International Institute of Rhode Island can’t find him more suitable work.  Maybe these outfits are too busy lobbying in support of illegal immigrants to bother finding jobs for the legal ones (check out their website and you’ll see what I mean).

 Jajou was trained at a technical institute in Baghdad, and is both a metalworker and mold-maker.

We have testimony in Congress where Representatives are claiming that we need to expand the H2-B visas to bring in more immigrants because we don’t have enough workers.  We have companies continuing to import illegal workers, and yet these volags can’t find work for refugees.  This family will now go on further taxpayer funded assistance.

Yesterday afternoon, Jajou got a tiny bit of good news: the family will be receiving federal assistance of $325 per month.

This does not add up.

By the way, the International Institute is a sister organization to the other International Institutes we have written about in Akron, OH,  Erie, PA and Waterbury, CT.

 

 

Eleven groups in DC area join forces to fight illegal immigration

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update April 26,2008:  See this NBC news clip about this new coalition here.

Although this isn’t about refugees per se it involves immigration in Maryland where we live, so it interests me. 

Tomorrow eleven groups, including Help Save Maryland, from the Washington, Maryland, Virginia region will announce the formation of a coalition to combat illegal immigration. 

On Thursday, 11 groups from Maryland, Virginia and Washington will hold a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington to announce the formation of the Capital Area Alliance Against Illegal Immigration. The alliance will include organizations such as Help Save Maryland and Save the Old Dominion that have pushed for legislation and advocacy against illegal immigration around the region.

The alliance is a sign of the growing network these groups are forming in the wake of several high profile battles over immigration issues around the metropolitan area.

Read this detailed article from the Montgomery County Gazette to learn about those high profile battles and others the new coalition will face.

The “McCain Program” brings in more refugees from the Vietnam war

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know, I know, you are saying, but the War ended more than 30 years ago, are there still refugees we need to bring to America?   Doesn’t John McCain know we have normalized relations with Vietnam and although the country’s growth is slowed by its Communist government, generally the lives of people there are getting better.  

Surely those who wish to come to America can just get in line for a visa like others who are not “persecuted”.  Remember refugees receive all sorts of taxpayer funded benefits, job counseling and English lessons while normal immigrants are on their own.

Last night a reader brought the McCain Program to our attention.  

The McCain Amendment provides that certain sons or daughters of former Vietnamese re-education center detainees are to be considered refugees of special humanitarian concern and may be eligible for resettlement in the U.S. if they meet the following criteria: [go to the Consulate General website here]

Read this article at VDARE by Thomas Allen for more on the reopening of the Vietnam refugee program years after it officially closed.

Lobbying campaign on Iraqi displaced persons underway

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is going to have to be a quick mention of a very important issue, but no time today to do it justice.  Since the campaign was launched yesterday, I couldn’t let too much time pass before telling you about it.

Here is the appeal from Human Rights First.  The goal here is to get a so-called “grassroots” movement going to pressure Congress and the Administration to bring more Iraqi refugees.

On April 14-16, Human Rights First and more than 20 other U.S.-based NGOs – and activists like you – will travel to Washington to educate and persuade members of Congress to take the Iraqi refugee crisis seriously, and to make it a part of any future plan for Iraq and the region. The Iraq Action Days kick off with an all-day Iraq Policy Forum* featuring a keynote speech by the Iraqi ambassador to the United States, followed by advocacy training and Congressional visits. Our own Amelia Templeton will cond uct some of the advocacy training.

This is a great opportunity to broadcast a powerful message on behalf of the more than four million Iraqis who have fled their homes. That’s one out of every seven Iraqis – people who are now struggling to find food, shelter and medical care, unable or afraid to return to their homes.

* Check out the speakers at the Forum here.

And here are the NGO’s involved.

This is all part of the lobbying and PR campaign that began with the meeting of bigwigs earlier in the month, and includes the introduction of the Kennedy/Biden/McCain bill I wrote about yesterday.

All ties in to Judy’s excellent report on Laurence Jarvik’s paper on NGO’s and the role they play.

More later…….

Senator Joe Biden is such a hypocrite

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is the big lobbying week (I’ll get to that later) when NGO’s like Human Rights First ramp up their pressure on Congress and the Administration to do more to resolve what they call the “humanitarian” crisis involving Iraqis who have been displaced from their homes by the sectarian violence in Iraq. 

Last year Senator Ted (bring them to Hyannisport) Kennedy managed to pass legislation in the dark of night (attaching it to the Defense Authorization bill) that increased the number of special immigrant visas for Iraqis who might have helped America in the war (by the way, no mention of the truly persecuted Christians).   After some late night debate, but no hearings, the number was set at 5000 and the bill became law at the end of January.  Not satisfied, Kennedy and Senator Biden aided by others including Senator (open wide our gates) McCain, are about to, or have just in the last few days, introduced another bill to bring more sooner.

Senators Kennedy, Lugar, Biden and others will introduce a bipartisan bill providing additional authority for continued processing of special immigrant visas for qualified Iraqi and Afghan translators who worked for the U.S. military and U.S. government. The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008, enacted January 28, 2008, created 5,000 new special immigrant visas for Iraqis whose lives are at risk because of their service to the U.S. government. These special visas are not available until FY 2009. Senator Kennedy’s bipartisan bill would make the visas available immediately to qualified Iraqis who worked for the U.S. military and the U.S. government. Iraqi translators and interpreters who placed their lives, families, and livelihoods at risk to serve on the side of America are eligible for these special visas. Others cosponsors include Senators Leahy, Specter, Levin, Cornyn, Obama, Lieberman, McCain, Durbin, Sununu, Cardin, Smith, Hagel and Coleman.

By the way, did you ever notice how they always put this translator stuff in these pitches.   Some of those are the “refugees” Homeland Security is most concerned about and Denmark discovered that the hard way.

I don’t know where McCain’s head is on this because this whole effort smacks of whacking the Bush Administration over the war and McCain continues to be a strong supporter of the war.    This large public relations campaign on refugees is meant to damage Republicans.    If McCain were smart instead of  signing on to this initiative to bring Iraqi Mulsims here (to live in ghettos and clean motels)  he should be promoting a sort of Marshall plan for Iraq.   Here is another post on unhappy Iraqis in Arizona no less.

There is also a report attached to this article that you need to read.  I quickly searched it to see if it said anything about a rebuilding effort in Iraq and I didn’t see a mention.

Now to Senator Joe Biden!   Just as Senator Ted isn’t going to be resettling any refugees of any sort to Hyannisport, Senator Joe (any place but Delaware) Biden is a hypocrite.    He is one of the few originators of the Refugee Act of 1980 (along with chief sponsor Kennedy) still in the Senate, yet his own state of Delaware ranks third from the bottom in the number of refugees resettled there between 1983 and 2005, this while surrounding states Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have each brought tens of thousands of refugees.    Ranking below Delaware are only West Virginia and Wyoming.   

So, Senator Biden is promoting bringing more Iraqis but few if any will come to Delaware.   The politics of this stinks!

The public relations campaign to brainwash the American public gets underway shortly.  More in my next post.