Month: March 2009

Missing Somali “youths:” we’re baaaack!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to a friend from Tennessee, we now know that Fox News is reporting that some of the missing Somali youths*, thought to have been in Africa for terrorist training, have returned to the US.    However, the FBI is not saying whether they will be arrested!

Many of the Somali-American men who were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group overseas have returned to the United States, according to a source familiar with an FBI investigation into the matter — but the FBI still has not revealed publicly if it is pursuing arrests in the case.

“Some of the guys who were missing aren’t missing anymore,” the source said. “Some of them got blown up and some of them came back, and some of them are still there [in Somalia].”

For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area who traveled to war-torn Somalia, where some of them trained and fought with an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group known as al-Shabaab, according to counterterrorism officials.

Asked to characterize how many of those men are now back on American soil, the source would only say that “several” have returned. Federal authorities believe the men went to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.

The Fox News report doesn’t have much more on the Minneapolis missing but goes into a discussion of other areas of the US where the FBI is working in the Somali community.   In San Diego, one Somali-American has received a subpoena.

In fact, the FBI Field Office in San Diego has already interviewed “dozens” of people from the Somali-American community there, according to a local attorney.

[….]

Sherif [attorney] also said he knows at least one Somali-American who has received a subpoena to appear before a San Diego grand jury in the next couple of weeks. Sherif wouldn’t identify the person but described him as a naturalized U.S. citizen in his 30s. Sherif said the person “consulted” with him after receiving the subpoena. The person recently traveled to the Middle East, which may have raised a red flag with authorities, according to Sherif. He did not say where in the Middle East the person visited.

Seattle, where we have reported on Somali gang violence (here and here), is also being watched by the FBI.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officials tell FOX News that federal authorities in Seattle have been keeping track of a group of men in Washington state with alleged ties to Somali-American terrorists.

Other cities with growing Somali populations that warrant watching are:   Lewiston and Portland, ME,  Boston, MA, Atlanta, GA, Columbus, OH and don’t forget Nashville, TN!

*  If you are new to this story or you are a reporter or blogger,  I recommend you visit this post we did in November where I have been keeping an archive of much of the coverage of the Somali missing youths saga.

Center for Immigration Studies confirms immigrant employment depresses wages at meatpacking plants

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A new study out yesterday from the Center for Immigration Studies confirms that immigrant labor keeps wages low in the meatpacking industry.  The primary thrust of the study by Jerry Krammer was illegal immigration labor, but it discusses the recruitment of refugees by companies like Swift & Co. and Tyson Foods after illegal immigration raids had initially reduced their workforce.

This is a paragraph from the conclusion:

Of course, meatpacking is intrinsically unpleasant and difficult and this has always has been the case. But there is no question that the jobs paid a great deal more a generation ago when the vast majority of workers were native-born. There is also no question that as the foreign born share of this workforce has increased, wages have fallen significantly. The desirability of any job is heavily dependent on compensation. If the United States adopted a different immigration policy, one that reduced the number of less-educated immigrants entering the country, then it is very possible that wages and benefits would increase and line speeds might slow as Swift and other companies adapted to a change in the supply of labor.

I urge you to read the whole report and consider the following points that jumped out at me.

* High turnover imposes severe stress on local communities and social service agencies. It makes transience and upheaval a constant problem for the communities. Many residents resent the price their community pays to have the Swift plant as a large part of their local economy.

We have written so extensively about disrupted communities that we have whole categories for some towns.  See our categories for Emporia, KS, and for Greeley/Grand Island.  Use our search function for Shelbyville, TN and Postville, IA.

For those of you wondering how meatpackers get refugees so quickly, they offer signing bonuses among other enticements.

* In addition to pay increases, Swift introduced a number of methods to attract workers after the raids. The company paid bonuses to new employees, and to current employees who recruited others. It also advertised heavily, paid relocation expenses, and provided daily transportation from distant population centers.

And this is for all the do-gooders bringing refugees into the country and signing them up with meatpackers.

*All the Swift plants began drawing more refugees — especially from Burma and several African countries — who had been living elsewhere in the United States. These most recent refugees have allowed Swift and other meat processors to sustain working conditions not tolerable to many U.S.-born workers.

The CIS report reminded me of a post I did last May in which I speculated that the US State Department/Health and Human Services and the volags were acting as employment agencies for big meatpackers.

The US State Department is helping big companies by bringing cheap LEGAL labor through the refugee program couched as humanitarian work. Clinton was heavily involved in importing what amounts to slave labor all to help the meatpackers not have to pay decent wages to American citizens. Church groups are helping too!

This is what led me to that conclusion from a 2001 report in a publication called Agribusiness Examiner.   

“And IBP’s [Tyson Food bought IBP in 2002] good fortune didn’t end there,” Limbacher continues, “turns out the Clinton administration’s Bosnian refugee resettlement efforts also helped to keep labor costs down. Since 1995, for instance, the town of Waterloo, Iowa — population 65,000 – has been swamped with 6,000 Bosnian refugees, many of whom wound up working for the No. 1 local employer, IBP.”

Until recently, IBP’s 2,000-strong Waterloo workforce was one-third Bosnian. Most refugee families that settle there have a family member who at one time or another worked for the meatpacking giant. In fact, the meatpacking industry has a history of recruiting on the ground in Yugoslavia. But during the Clinton years, companies like IBP haven’t had to travel that far.

Since 1995, the Clinton INS has resettled over 80,000 Balkan refugees, mainly Bosnian Muslims, primarily in America’s Midwest. The immigrant deluge has earned Iowa the distinction of being the only state in the union with its own refugee bureau.

Come to think of it, wasn’t Lavinia (whoop-de-do) Limon of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Bill Clinton’s head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in those years?   The door doth revolve.

And, wasn’t there some big scandal with the Clinton’s and Tyson Foods some years ago?  I’m sure whatever it was, it benefited the poor downtrodden immigrant workers.

Chicago’s Heartland Alliance admits placing clients in slums

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Buried in the middle of a lengthy article in the Chicago Journal is mention of the Heartland Alliance, a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, placing its clients (presumably including its refugee clients) in buildings that by all accounts are horrific slums.

For years, residents have blamed a raft of buildings for causing havoc in the Edgewater neighborhood.

Drug dealing and other criminal activity were a weekly, if not daily occurrence at the three buildings located at 4940, 5718 and 6019 N. Winthrop. Now, it appears as if there finally may be some resolution to a long-time neighborhood headache.

Taxpayer supported housing called an “outrage.”

Touted as offering affordable low-income housing, the six buildings received a combined $410,962 in subsidies according to a first quarter 2008 report from the city’s Low Income Housing Trust Fund, a program in which building owners can apply for rental subsidies to reduce rent for the poorest of the poor.

Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th Ward) called the Winthrop buildings an outrage. There is no reason, she said, that subsidized housing shouldn’t be extraordinary and accountable to the same laws for non-subsidized rental housing.

“This neighborhood has worked hard for 35 years to deal with bad buildings and bad landlords,” Smith said. “The people in these buildings cannot advocate for themselves, it’s an absolute outrage. I can’t imagine any of us who have a family member with challenges would want that person to be in a building with exposed wires and plumbing backups. Here, we have the public sector subsidizing bad buildings. We have to hold them accountable the same way we hold the private sector accountable.”

The building cases are winding through the court system.

According to inspection reports obtained from the Chicago Department of Buildings, city inspectors found 57 alleged code violations at 5718 N. Winthrop in 2008. The violations ranged from deteriorating exterior walls, a defective roof, damaged doors and windows, unsanitary plumbing fixtures, backed-up sewage in tubs and sinks, and exposed wiring and outlet boxes. The building was also cited for roaches and other insect infestations.

Forty-eight code violations were found at 6019 N. Winthrop and 11 at 4940 N. Winthrop in 2008. Both buildings are winding through the housing court system.

Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights admits placing clients (poor immigrants or poor Americans, it doesn’t matter)  in these buildings that have been a blight on the neighborhood for decades.

Andrew Geer, vice president and executive director of the affordable and supportive housing initiative for Heartland Alliance, acknowledged that some tenants who have identified themselves as Heartland clients have signed leases at 5718 ad 6019 N. Winthrop.

“We have rental subsidies in buildings and resident may or may not be receiving services,” Geer said. “We do inspections twice a year. Our response is to work collectively and collaboratively with the city and whoever is providing the subsidy to address housing issues.”

Geer said that issues surrounding certain building owners who receive subsidies highlight the lack of quality affordable housing for low-income residents throughout the city, who might otherwise find themselves homeless.

Huh?   What a bunch of double-talk!   How does that answer the question of why Heartland Alliance came to put clients into buildings that were known slums.

Here is what Heartland Alliance says on their website. Yeh, right!

We build and advocate for safe, high-quality housing and supportive services for people experiencing homelessness, poverty, or chronic illness.

Heartland Alliance has a past history of refugee neglect.

The Chicago Journal article doesn’t specifically say that Heartland Alliance has refugees in these buildings, just “clients,” but based on a report we did a year ago, here, the Heartland Alliance has a history of neglecting refugees and was accused in 2001 of putting refugees in dilapidated bug-infested apartments.   The State Department supposedly investigated and then did NOTHING!

Then here is more hypocrisy!

I thought Heartland Alliance sounded familiar from my research on Obama’s community organizing involvement and his time on the Woods Fund Board of Directors with former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.  So, I went to the most recent Woods Fund  Form 990 (2007)  (Ayers is still on the Board) to see if they were supporting Heartland Alliance.  Sure enough in a section of the 990 where grants are listed, in a section entitled, Intersection of Community Organizing and Public Policy (you gotta laugh) is a $40,000 grant to the Heartland Alliance.   So, is the money used for political “organizing” or for helping real people?

I guess the old expression, do as I say, not as I do, applies here.

Holder on Gitmo prisoner release: Let’s see do I tick off Europe or China?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I would call this being between a rock and a hard place.   Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters as noted by Fox News that some Guantanamo Bay prisoners might be resettled in the US.  Hat tip: Blulitespecial.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said some detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may end up being released in the U.S. as the Obama administration works with foreign allies to resettle some of the prisoners.

We have been negotiating with various European countries to take some of the prisoners off our hands, but wisely some of those countries have asked how many we plan to take first.

European justice ministers met with Holder earlier this week and pressed for details on how many Guantanamo prisoners the U.S. planned to release domestically, as part of any agreement for allies to accept detainees. Holder said U.S. officials would work to respond to the questions European officials have over U.S. Guantanamo plans.

There are a “variety of options?”  Sure and each one is going to get the Obama Administration into deep you-know-what.

For “people who can be released there are a variety of options that we have and among them is the possibility is that we would release them into this country,” Holder said. “That process is ongoing and we’ve not made any determinations or made any requests of anybody at this point.”

Besides angering citizens in whatever community in the US is chosen to be the resettlement site, releasing prisoners such as the 17 Uighers into the US is going to really fry the Chinese who do not want them released and are demanding their ISLAMIC terrorists be returned to China, here and here.

Among the detainees whose fate remains undetermined are 17 ethnic Uighurs, from the Central Asian region of China, who have been ordered released by a judge. The U.S. has refused to turn the men over to China, which considers them part of an separatist group.

By the way, a pattern is beginning to emerge, the Obama Administration, and in this case (we are all cowards) Holder, is going after Sheriff Joe Arpaio to keep their far left base happy and maybe take the attention off of huge issues like this one.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the toe:   tick off the Europeans or tick off the Chinese, let’s see.

New English Review schedules important meeting on Jihad

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Scheduled for the last weekend in May in Nashville, TN, it looks like a must attend event for anyone seriously following the advance of Islamic supremacist activities around the world.  Entitled, “Understanding the Jihad in Israel, Europe and America” the line-up of speakers includes some of the most well-known international and US experts on the topic.

For more information, and how to register, go here.   RRW will be there.