Day: April 7, 2009

Utah wants even more money for refugees so they won’t become mentally ill or leave US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Regular readers are likely saying, oh no, not another story about unemployed Iraqi refugees leaving the US to go back to the Middle East.  I am afraid so, but this story had a few more pieces of information that are very timely in light of our recent spate of news about mentally ill immigrants, including the depressed Turkish guy just today.

We told you previously that Utah is getting extra money for refugee resettlement from the federal government  in an experimental program, but apparently it’s not enough.

As more Iraqi refugees return to the Middle East disillusioned about America and defeated by unemployment, many of those who remain in Utah are increasingly angry. Recognizing their sacrifices and the growing dilemma, the state refugee office is fighting for additional federal funds to alleviate their painful transition.

[….]

More than 300 Iraqi refugees are expected to arrive in Utah in 2009, pushing the state’s community beyond 500.

[….]

To help create a softer landing in Utah, the state hopes to secure federal funds [your tax dollars] to hire staff at nonprofits for additional counseling and orientation.

“We’re not asking them [that’s you the taxpayer] to pay for everything,” Brown (Gerald Brown, director of the Utah Refugee Services Office) said. “But with this group, with the problems that it has, I think they [you, again] should be obligated to give us additional resources.”

Then there is kind of an ‘or else’ tone to this article.  Angry, unhappy refugees can lead to mental health issues and I don’t need to tell you where that leads!

Not treating the Iraqis’ mental health issues may lead to more anger, Rabin (Mara Rabin, medical director at Utah Health and Human Rights Project) wrote in her comments to the state. She believes it’s likely that Sulejman Talovic, a teenage Bosnian refugee who shot and killed five shoppers at Trolley Square in 2007, had untreated mental health problems.

And, we need to throw more money at refugees so they won’t leave the US like this Iraqi family.

Ahmed Ahmad, 26, used to be surrounded by family: his mother, father and sister came to Utah with him last year. Now he lives alone in Salt Lake City.

His family went to Syria last month after his father spent 10 months futilely looking for work in his field. The periodontist, who was an academic in Baghdad, quickly got a job teaching at a university.

Ahmad, a structural engineer, hopes to attend a master’s program at the University of Utah.

Though he has friends in Utah, he concedes he feels “sad, lonely, and I hoped my family would stay here.”

Is that the best sob story out there in Utah.  I guess I just have no heart, but this guy is not 16 years old, he is 26!  He can live a little while without mommy and daddy, get a degree and then go for a visit to his homeland.  Isn’t that what immigrants have done for eons?

Turkish Canadian steals plane and joy rides into US air space

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know this has nothing to do with refugees, unless Canada admitted this Turkish immigrant as a refugee or asylee, but I thought it was an interesting and informative story nonetheless.   Hat tip:  Blulitespecial.   From CNN:

The pilot of a small Cessna 172 aircraft reported stolen from a Canadian flight school has been captured, authorities said.

The pilot reportedly stole a small Cessna 172 aircraft from a Canadian flight school, flew hundreds of miles across the Midwest, landed on a dirt road in Missouri late Monday and took off on foot, federal officials said.

Federal, state and local authorities launched a manhunt for the pilot, who was identified by the FBI as Adam Leon, 31, a native of Turkey who became a Canadian citizen last year, according to FBI spokesman Richard Kolko. He was formerly known as Yavuz Berke, though officials did not indicate a reason for the name change.

We scrambled fighters jets and I presume prepared to shoot the Cessna down if necessary.

The plane had been intercepted and tracked by U.S. military aircraft as it flew from Canada into U.S. airspace and meandered southward for several hours before landing, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said.

[….]

“We don’t want to suppose the motive of the individual,” Kucharek told CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” after the landing. “But it certainly made a day for the professional pilots that were flying these missions and a very serious situation from a NORAD perspective.”

Test run or just another crazy immigrant with many aliases?

Update a few hours later:

Supposedly this Muslim man (according to ABC News here) only wanted to commit suicide, was too chicken to do it himself and was hoping to get blown out of the sky by the US military.   Believe that one and I’ll tell you another!

The Canadian man who led fighter jets on a chase across six states Monday flew his stolen plane into the United States. in hopes the military would shoot him down and kill him, according to a Missouri state trooper who apprehended the rogue pilot.

Missouri state trooper Justin Watson told “Good Morning America” today that 31-year-old Yavuz Berke, formerly known as Adam Leon, wanted to commit suicide, but didn’t have the courage to do it himself.

He was happy when authorities caught up with him.  Yes, because he had learned the answer, the US military failed the test, and they were too chicken to shoot him down!

He was found drinking Gatorade, seemingly relieved that his ordeal was over.

“He actually seemed fairly happy that it came to a good end,” Watson said. “He didn’t seem to be down in spirits or anything like that.”

There are lots of provocative comments at this article; one of my favorites is from spinky1 who said:  “Hey….this whole thing is fishy…what can I tell ya???”

Endnote:   I thought it interesting to consider that this was going on just as Obama was sucking up to Turkey and Islam.  See Jihad Watch here.

Which immigration program admitted Jiverly Wong to the US?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been following the shooting rampage in Binghamton, NY for the last few days and am wondering how Wong entered the US.  It seems no report ever tells us, only that he “moved” here one day in the early 1990’s.   You can’t just “move” to the US and become a citizen “soon afterwards.”

This is from an AP story published in Medeshi, a Somali publication.

Police are still reaching around the world to notify families of those killed Friday by 41-year-old Jiverly Wong, who was apparently upset about losing his job at a vacuum plant and about people picking on him for his limited English.  [I don’t believe this part about being “picked on” about his English, his letter wasn’t that terribly written.]

His victims came from around the globe, including Laos, Mexico, Somalia and the former Soviet republics.

Four Chinese were among those killed, said Zinqi Gao, spokesman for the Chinese consulate in New York. Their names will be released Sunday, he said.

One Chinese student was among the wounded, according to consular officials quoted by China’s official Xinhua News Agency. He was shot in the arm and leg.

Wong was born in Vietnam to a Chinese family. He moved to the U.S. in the early 1990s and soon afterward became a citizen, friends and relatives said.

Was Wong a refugee, an asylee, or what?    And, it’s pretty surprising, don’t you think, that we are still taking refugees from Vietnam, twenty years (the 1990’s when Wong arrived) and more after the country got a stable government.  In fact, in 2008, we took 1,196 Vietnamese refugees.  I thought the leftwingers in the US loved the Communist government of Vietnam; isn’t that what they were all cheering for during the war?  Are we admitting there is a problem with Communism by allowing “refugees” to move to the US?

For our previous discussions about the Binghamton rampage, just type ‘Binghamton’ into our search function.