Month: November 2009

Going bonkers in Britain over genetic testing of asylum seekers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

From the Associated Press:

LONDON — Britain is using genetic tests on some African asylum seekers in an effort to catch those who are lying about their nationality, drawing criticism from scientists and provoking outrage from rights groups.

The United Kingdom Border Agency launched the pilot project in September amid suspicions there might be a large number of asylum applicants lying about their home countries. An agency spokesman said Britain was the only country using genetic tests in this way.

Experts, however, say the tests are based on flawed science and there’s no way genetic swabs can provide meaningful evidence regarding nationality.

[….]

The government argues such tests can provide valuable – although not conclusive – evidence in assessing whether or not asylum seekers are telling the truth about their country of origin.

So far, the tests are being used only on people who claim to be from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, though if successful, officials say the plan could be rolled out further.

Of course they want to find out if the African is from a country where they might be persecuted and in danger or not. 

Last year, nearly 26,000 people applied in Britain; of the more than 19,000 cases where decisions were made, 3,725, or 19 percent, were granted asylum. People from more repressive or chaotic countries, like Sudan or Somalia, often have a better chance of gaining asylum than those from more stable countries like Kenya.

Definitely read the whole story.  It also tells us that there is other testing that may be done and how the tests can be used to track terrorists.

Besides genetic tests, British officials are also performing isotope analysis of asylum seekers’ hair and nail samples. Scientists can look at the composition of certain elements like oxygen or strontium in hair and nails to see where a person has been.

How is this for a brilliant move?  NOT!

In a landmark decision, the European Court of Human Rights recently ordered Britain to destroy nearly 1 million DNA samples and fingerprints on its database – samples taken from children, people who had never been charged or people acquitted of crimes.

This is the most interesting section of the AP story.  Our very own Secretary of Homeland Security hasn’t given any of this any thought!   Doesn’t she know that the State Department suspended all family reunification  from Africa after discovering widespread fraud through DNA testing more than a year ago and that they are in the process of revising the whole program?  Most of us are expecting that DNA testing WILL BE EMPLOYED for at least family reunfication when the so-called P-3 program is reopened.  Napolitano acts like she doesn’t know about all this!

Concerned about potential fraud, the Bush administration launched a pilot DNA testing project in 2007 to vet applicants to a program that allows family members of African refugees already in the United States to join them.

The project, which wrapped up in March 2008, found an extremely high rate of fraud – 87 percent – among applicants claiming to be related to each other, the State Department said, and the resettlement program was suspended until those concerns could be addressed. The U.S. does not use genetic tests to try to prove nationality.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in London on Thursday that the U.S. has other ways of probing a person’s country of origin, such as testing language skills.

“I haven’t thought about it,” she said of the British attempt to match DNA to nationality. “We have a variety of ways we can use when we think someone is not telling the truth.”

Oh, and what might those be?

Burmese refugee workers strike, claim discrimination and turn to AFL-CIO

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I can’t resist saying, I told you so.   Here we have a case from Pennsylvania where recently resettled Burmese refugees have walked off the job with other American workers claiming wage discrimination and unsafe working conditions. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not disputing their claim, I suspect they do have miserable jobs and miserable living conditions, but who placed them in that situation—some do-gooder far left refugee resettlement agency/employment service in conjunction with the Obama State Department—NOT some evil conservative right-winger!

The article doesn’t tell us who resettled them, but like so many articles of this sort, the reader is left to assume they magically came to be in the vicinity of Pittsburgh on their own!      Here is a list of resettlement agencies in Pennsylvania, one of them brought the Burmese to this place of employment.

This is the story from the AFL-CIO News (what else!):

Aung Oo fled his native Burma with his family to escape the brutality, ethnic violence and repression of that country’s military dictatorship.

After being allowed to legally migrate to the United States under the refugee resettlement program, he faces another kind of oppression―working for an employer that pays him half what he should make and that forces him and his co-workers, both native and foreign, to work in unsafe conditions.

So on Sept. 8, Aung Oo and a U.S.-born employee, Tim Hand, went on strike against W&K Steel on behalf of all the other 35 workers in the plant, located in Rankin, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh. They are still on strike.

[…]

Several W&K workers described their experiences to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and spoke to a group of international labor leaders at the AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh. The workers also will testify Nov. 13 at a National Workers’ Rights Hearing sponsored by the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). The hearing will be at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Talking with Trumka, one refugee told how he and his family of five live in a small two-bedroom apartment supplied by the company. He works an average of 50 hours a week and grosses approximately $25,000 annually, with overtime. Other workers say they are expected to run large presses and shears that cut steel beams, but have no guards to protect against severing fingers and hands.

The American-born workers at W&K don’t fare much better. They say they must endure unsafe working conditions, with workloads increasing and time to safely perform the tasks decreasing. They also say the company’s health plan is unaffordable and the pay is low.

Hand said he is on strike because the way workers, native and foreign, are treated is dangerous.

“… only to find themselves working in unjust conditions here!”   Who lined up the job for them?  Some refugee resettlement agency with the State Department’s help did!  And, they won’t be forced back to Burma—-it is maddening to see this type of distortion.  We don’t send refugees back when they don’t have jobs!  Heck, we hardly send them back if they have committed major crimes.

The Burmese refugees came to the United States to escape oppression, only to find themselves working in unjust conditions here, says Chad Rankin, an organizer with the Ironworkers and a member of the Three Rivers Coalition for Justice, which is assisting the workers.

“The refugees feared challenging the unsafe working environment, shoddy housing and substandard wages because they are afraid they will lose their jobs and be forced back to Burma,” Rankin says.

We are exploited!

Aung Oo says he is on strike because America is supposed to be a land of opportunity and equality.

I stood up and went on strike not only for myself but for all the refugee workers in the shop because our community is suffering. I know that we are exploited.

This is a strategy!  It has Alinsky (Rules for Radicals) written all over it!

I know for most of you its hard to comprehend, but I swear this is a strategy!   Far Leftwing progressives (or whatever you want to call them), bring in poor refugees and place them in horrible working conditions, then in a kind of ‘double-teaming’ the Far Left unions  (like the AFL-CIO and SEIU) ‘organize’ them, sign them up as members, and complain that evil capitalists are exploiting them!

Note to AFL-CIO:  In that upcoming hearing I hope you are honest and identify how these Burmese ‘came to be’ in that place of employment in the first place!  Name the resettlement agency!

Amherst, MA: Yes we will be happy to “resettle” Gitmo detainees…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…that is, assuming Congress lifts the ban on resettling (as refugees) Guantanamo Bay Muslims who were detained as enemy combatants.

Reported on MassLive.com:

AMHERST – After about 40 minutes of discussion, Town Meeting on Wednesday night approved a resolution supporting the resettlement of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the area if Congress repeals its ban allowing resettlement of detainees in this country.

Part of the resolution also urged Congress to repeal that ban.

The article, brought to Town Meeting by a petition campaign led by meeting member Ruth F. Hooke, received all kinds of national attention and nasty e-mails and calls to the Select Board, resulting in a police officer being posted at a recent Select Board meeting.

For more on this story, see my previous post here.

Fort Morgan, CO: African refugee woman stabbed to death by Somali man

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update December 23rd:  Gruesome rumors spreading, here.

Update November 9th:  Gag order lifted, victim named, here.  Later, victim identified—same last name as murder suspect, here.

Update November 5th:  The plot thickens, judge issues gag order in the case, here.

Update:   You can find a few more details in the Greeley Tribune, here. Hat tip: Jerry Gordon

Fort Morgan, CO is a city that has been welcoming Somali and other African refugees ever since the meatpacking riots erupted in Greeley, CO more than a year ago.   Today comes news that a twenty-year-old  recently arrived refugee has been murdered by a Somali man outside her apartment.  Here is the whole short story in the Denver Post.  I will see if I can find more.

A man was arrested in Greeley early this morning just hours after a recent arrival to Fort Morgan was stabbed to death in front of her apartment house.

The woman, in her early 20s, is one of approximately 600 African refugees including Kenyans, Somalis and Nigerians living in the northeastern Colorado community, said Fort Morgan Police Chief Keith Kuretich.

It is the first homicide in Fort Morgan since Oct. 28, 2006.

Kuretich said police responded to the apartment complex in the 400 block of West Kiowa Avenue after receiving a 911 call reporting the stabbing.

The call was made by other tenants in the building.

Officers were quickly able to determine that a man had been seen with the victim in recent days and was the likely suspect, according to the chief.

After obtaining the man’s name and learning he was in Greeley, Fort Morgan Police contacted the Greeley Police Department, said the chief.

In the meantime, relatives of the victim had contacted the suspect and told him police were looking or him. At that point, the suspect, identified as Ahmed Abdi, 25, called the Greeley police and said he would turn himself in.

Abdi was arrested in Greeley and returned to Fort Morgan where he is being held for investigation of second-degree murder and first and second-degree assault.

Kuretich said authorities are trying to determine the exact relationship between the victim and Abdi. The victim’s name has not been released.

I’ve written many many posts on Ft. Morgan, but I commend this post to you now. It’s a post about a Ft. Morgan Times editorial a year ago that took a shot at RRW and I called the editorial naive and deceptive.   Use our search function for all the other posts on “welcoming” Ft. Morgan.

Endnote:  I know Abdi is a common Somali name, but I wonder if the suspect is related to Asad Abdi one of the Somali “community organizers” in Greeley, here.

States must submit refugee resettlement report each fiscal year

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I wrote about funds (lots of federal funds) going to Catholic Charities in Kentucky and Tennessee yesterday and today, I was reminded* of the Code of Federal Regulations that govern the Refugee Resettlement Program.  Readers wishing to try to understand this program better might want to look over the regulations here. 

I won’t pretend to understand them entirely myself, but I recall that State coordinators are required to submit a plan each fiscal year to the Office of Refugee Resettlement that has been approved by the Governor.

This is from 45 CFR Section 400.4:

(b) A State must certify no later than 30 days after the beginning of each Federal fiscal year that the approved State plan is current and continues in effect. If a State wishes to change its plan, a State must submit a proposed amendment to the plan. The proposed amendment will be reviewed and approved or disapproved in accordance with §400.8.

Regarding that line I have in bold, we are now at 30 days after the beginning of the fiscal year which began October 1, 2009 (FY2010).

From Section 400.5,  this is what the plan must include:

The plan must:

(a) Provide for the designation of, and describe the organization and functions of, a State agency (or agencies) responsible for developing the plan and administering, or supervising the administration of, the plan;

(b) Describe how the State will coordinate cash and medical assistance with support services to ensure their successful use to encourage effective refugee resettlement and to promote employment and economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible.

(c) Describe how the State will ensure that language training and employment services are made available to refugees receiving cash assistance, and to other refugees, including State efforts to actively encourage refugee registration for employment services;

(d) Identify an individual designated by the Governor or the appropriate legislative authority of the State, with the title of State Coordinator, who is employed by the State and will have the responsibility and authority to ensure coordination of public and private resources in refugee resettlement in the State;

(e) Provide for, and describe the procedures established for, the care and supervision of, and legal responsibility (including legal custody and/or guardianship under State law, as appropriate) for, unaccompanied refugee children in the State;

(f) Provide for and describe (1) the procedures established to identify refugees who, at the time of resettlement in the State, are determined to have medical conditions requiring, or medical histories indicating a need for, treatment or observation, and (2) the procedures established to monitor any necessary treatment or observation;

(g) Provide that assistance and services funded under the plan will be provided to refugees without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, or political opinion; and

(h) Provide that the State will, unless exempted from this requirement by the Director, assure that meetings are convened, not less often than quarterly, whereby representatives of local resettlement agencies, local community service agencies, and other agencies that serve refugees meet with representatives of State and local governments to plan and coordinate the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival. All existing exemptions to this requirement will expire 90 days after the effective date of this rule. Any State that wishes to be exempted from the provisions regarding the holding and frequency of meetings may apply by submitting a written request to the Director. The request must set forth the reasons why the State considers these meetings unnecessary because of the absence of problems associated with the planning and coordination of refugee placement. An approved exemption will remain in effect for three years, at which time a State may reapply.

(i) Provide that the State will:

(1) Comply with the provisionsof title IV, Chapter 2, of the Act and official issuances of the Director;

(2) Meet the requirements in this part;

(3) Comply with all other applicable Federal statutes and regulations in effect during the time that it is receiving grant funding; and

(4) Amend the plan as needed to comply with standards, goals, and priorities established by the Director.

(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 0960–0418)

[51 FR 3912, Jan. 30, 1986, as amended at 60 FR 33602, June 28, 1995; 65 FR 15443, Mar. 22, 2000]

ACTION NEEDED

Beginning today, I am going to write to each of the State Coordinators listed here and ask for the state’s most recent plan.   I recommend readers who are concerned with the refugee program in your state do so also.   Note in the regulations above, state coordinators are required to be employees of the State.

* I first wrote about these regulations last February when I was addressing the issue of states being able to opt out of the program.   So far, only the State of Wyoming has done so.