Day: May 20, 2009

Bhutanese brutalized in Denver: No, not safe in America

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update May 21st:  Apparently this APFA story came from a longer Denver Post article, here.   The Denver Post had a couple of additional items that add to the story.  We have heard this frequently, caseworkers were not available to help frightened refugees (sick refugees where we live were unable to reach their caseworkers):

Dahal tried calling a caseworker instead, but nobody could come to speak with Mishras that night.

And understandably the refugees lament:

Our feeling is that we may be targeted,” Dahal said. “We’re new here. We’re lost. What do we do?”

 

Bhutanese refugees resettled in Denver have become the latest refugee victims of crime.  It seems that the Bhutanese (really Nepalese) and Burmese Karen Christians, both longtime refugee camp residents make attractive targets for robbers.   From APFA a Bhutanese news service:

Denver, May 20, 2009: The newly resettled Bhutanese in Denver, Colorado are getting passing sleepless nights due to increasing attacks on them  in the recent days. 

“Before leaving the refugee camp, I was thinking: We have problems. . . . I’ll feel safe in the United States. Now my feeling has changed. I’m not safe in the United States,” said Yadav Rizal, 39, who was robbed of $250, beaten and dragged behind a liquor store in northeast Denver.

Due to the attacks, he has to change his apartment, again becoming refugee in America. His family shifted to a new place on Tuesday.

Denver and Aurora police are investigating three crimes. This was the fourth instance of attack on the Bhutanese. After the May 8 robbery, Rizal was unconscious for five hours in a hospital. Seven stitches closed a gash over his blackened right eye. His head and neck still ache today, he said.

Arrrrrrgh!  Same old excuse from the resettlement professionals, we only have so much money and so we put refugees in the cheapest crime-ridden slums we can find, then we expect them to travel extreme distances to get to work and then we wonder why they are having a tough time.  Maybe consider bringing smaller numbers of refugees and giving them a better quality of life.

The attacks aggravate a difficult situation for resettled Bhutanese. The government grants them only $450 a month for eight months to resettle, forcing most to live in rougher areas where police and caseworkers say street crime is more frequent.

Since most resettled Bhutanese work for long hours, it is always late when they get back to home.

“Our promise is not just to bring them here,” said Paul Stein, Colorado’s refugee coordinator, who is planning emergency meetings with the Bhutan immigrants to help them improve their personal safety. “Our promise is to help them integrate. We have to do a better job.”

I will bet you a buck that Mr. Stein and whatever agency has the federal contract to resettle the refugees in Denver is busy right now lobbying for MORE refugees for Denver.   It is all about the almighty buck (taxpayer funding to keep them in jobs) and about patting themselves on the back for doing good works.  Good works, my foot!

BTW, in light of the crimes perpetrated by refugees in places like Portland, ME that I just told you about this morning, or the crimes where refugees are targets, I wonder what the law enforcement costs are for the refugee resettlement program.  I bet no one knows.

Portland, ME: poor Jimmy is now in deep trouble

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Remember Sudanese refugee Jimmy Odong who JUST ONE WEEK AGO nearly started a riot (a melee according to the reporter) in Portland when he was arrested for stealing alcohol.  This is what the PORTLAND PRESS HERALD said then when Jimmy was being arrested for stealing:

A number of other officers were dispatched to the area, which is alongside the Kennedy Park housing development. Members of the gathering group, some of whom are Sudanese, like Odong, and some who are from other African countries, began calling the officers names, including “killers” and “murderers,” in apparent reference to the police shooting of a Sudanese immigrant, David Okot, last month.

When police prepared to tow the car Odong had driven, some of the crowd jumped on the car to try to prevent it from being taken, police said.

Three juveniles eventually were arrested, two of them on charges of assault after they allegedly punched the officers, police said.

Less than one week later an intoxicated Jimmy Odong (must have gotten booze somewhere) led police on a chase that potentially endangered lives in downtown Portland.  There was one injury but it wasn’t serious.   This is what the PORTLAND PRESS HERALD said on Monday evening.  This is the whole story!  There is no reference to Jimmy’s role in the near riot (melee!) less than one week earlier, it is left to the commenters to note that the name sounded familiar.  What, they don’t have google at the paper?

PORTLAND – Portland police said a local man who led them on a wild chase through the city Monday afternoon was intoxicated.

Jimmy Odong, 19, of Portland was arrested on Congress Street after leading police on a two-mile chase through the streets of Portland.

Sgt. Troy Bowden said Odong’s blood alcohol level was .17 percent, or more than twice the legal limit. Odong was charged with reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, eluding a police officer, operating under the influence, operating without a license and four counts of leaving the scene of an accident.

Bowden said that during the chase, Odong’s vehicle struck one car on Pearl Street and two additional cars as well as a building on Kennebec Street. He then crashed into a fourth car and nearly hit several pedestrians before jumping out of his vehicle at Congress and High streets.

Officers chased Odong on foot before he surrendered. The incident began around 3:30 p.m.

Bowden said one motorist suffered minor injuries but refused medical treatment.

Odong was being held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail.

I guess somehow the bad police will be blamed by the “Sudanese Community” of Portland, ME for poor Jimmy’s troubles.

Be sure to watch the TV news clip here too.

We have told you on several occasions that Maine is “welcoming” refugees and secondary migrants with its extensive welfare system.

Around the world countries are dealing with refugee issues in one way or another

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Countries around the world are struggling with one issue or another involving refugees—here are 4 stories just this morning.

Canadians are seriously debating to what degree immigrants to Canada should be required to learn either English or French and to become knowledgeable and presumably accepting of Canadian Culture.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has been raising eyebrows with his public musings about rewriting the rules of citizenship, by tweaking the test new citizens take. He asks ethnic audiences whether we are all on the same wavelength, or even speak the same (official) language, when it comes to citizenship.

“We want to make sure that people have a basic knowledge of our political institutions, our democratic traditions, our values, what some people call civic literacy,” Kenney said recently.

Japan and South Korea are continuing to be lobbied by the United Nations to take more refugees and asylees.

TOKYO, Japan, May 18 (UNHCR) – UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller has applauded Japan’s expanding hospitality towards refugees and called on South Korea to become a leading asylum country during a visit to the two Asian countries last week.

[….] 

The Assistant High Commissioner said Japan has a refugee protection system in place, but suggested the country consider improving reception and assistance for
asylum seekers, as well as better integration of refugees.

[….] 

Earlier last week, on her first official visit to South Korea for UNHCR, Feller called for more support from both government authorities and the Korean public to become a leading asylum country in the region.

In Denmark, nearly 300 Iraqis who have been ordered deported are staging a protest in a church.

Denmark rejects calls to re-examine the cases of Iraqi asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected and who are staging a sit-in in a Copenhagen church.

Afghan refugees escaped custody in Indonesia after they and some Iraqis were arrested trying to get to Australia.

Head of Malang Immigration Office, Soebroto said on Tuesday (19/5) the refugees were part of the 18 caught early on Sunday (17/5) in Probolinggo on their way to Bali. Eleven among the immigrants were from Afghanistan and the other seven were from Iraq.

[….]

Malang Immigration office said the Afghan refugees entered Indonesia from Malaysia after passing through Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Singapore. No report on where the Iraqi refugees joined the Afghans on their way to Australia through Bali.

And so on and so forth, the list goes on…

Wealthy immigrant couple ripping off Medicaid in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m getting somewhat off track this morning but this article popped up in my alerts on Food Stamp Fraud, an issue I’ve written about many times here at RRW.  The basic Food Stamp scam involves ‘mom and pop’ convenience store owners from Middle Eastern countries buying food stamps for 50 cents from the food stamp recipient and then turning it into the federal government for the full dollar.   Thankfully many of those are being busted across the land.

Somehow this case was in the middle of a bunch of Food Stamp Fraud articles.   Although not identified by their country of origin, the paper has seen fit to publish a photo to help the reader understand that these people are immigrants, probably from the Middle East and probably of a certain religious persuasion.

Joseph Youshaei owned 19 businesses and properties, from commercial office space in Downtown Crossing to three local Honey Dew Donut franchises. He drove a Mercedes and lived in a $650,000 Chestnut Hill house with his wife, Jila, and three children, whom the couple sent to a pricey private school. 

Yet the couple claimed just $475 of weekly income from 1999 to 2005, an amount that allowed them to collect Medicaid benefits under MassHealth.

The Youshaeis pleaded guilty Monday in Suffolk Superior Court to charges of fraud and larceny for illegally obtaining those health benefits, according to a statement from the state auditor’s office.

“This is truly an unbelievable example of fraud,” said state auditor Joe DeNucci in a statement. “A wealthy family that could afford to pay for its own health insurance took money from a taxpayer-funded program meant to help those people who are truly needy and cannot afford health insurance.”

There must be some kind of worldwide underground hotline that tells people to go to America and rip off the system.   Imagine what will happen if Obama-care comes to pass and the feds manage everyone’s health care from Washington.