Greensboro, NC Update: Lutheran agency given the heave-ho

Update:  New information is available here and Friends of Refugees asks additional questions, here.

I doubt this will be the end of the sordid tale from Greensboro, NC which we reported in a three part series last month (link to part III, here), but it’s a step in the right direction.  Lutheran Family Services came under fire in the so-called Triad area of North Carolina when one story after another emerged of refugee neglect.  I’m guessing this action, the cessation of refugee placement by LFS in the Greensboro area, is because the US State Department has pulled the plug on their funding after LFS committed the ultimate sin—they brought negative media scrutiny to the Refugee Resettlement program!

This is what the News-Record said Tuesday:

GREENSBORO — Lutheran Family Services of the Carolinas halted its refugee arrivals to the Triad on Tuesday, citing economic conditions.

The announcement by the nonprofit, which has operated in the Triad since 1979, comes after a spate of problems in serving clients. “This is a financial decision driven by the current economic conditions,” stated an unsigned statement on the LFS Web site, “that have affected the program’s sustainability at this site.”

Neither the agency’s executive director, the Rev. Laura Benson, nor Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Gibson-Wise, could be reached for comment.

Existing refugee clients will be “transitioned” to other resettlement agencies in the Triad between now and June, the statement says. At that point, LFS refugee work in the Triad will cease and will be limited to Raleigh and Columbia, S.C.

Wealth of knowledge!

“It’s going to be devastating,” Heather Scavoni, an immigration lawyer for LFS, said Tuesday. “Between Miami and here, the wealth of knowledge is concentrated in the Greensboro office.”

It is a scary prospect if this mismanaged office in Greensboro contained LFS’s “wealth of knowledge.”

Then get this answer to the refugee ‘chicken or egg’ question!  The refugee agencies arrive first and bring the refugees to your town.  So, that Greensboro will still see a large flow of refugees because there remain three other government contractors looking to resettle refugees especially since the amount of money they receive from the taxpayer has just jumped 100%.

About one-third of all refugees coming to North Carolina come to the Triad, the state refugee coordinator has reported, because of the concentration of resettlement agencies here.

Iraqis going to West Virginia meat packing plant.   This little bit in the News-Record story caught my eye.  West Virginia takes only a tiny fraction of refugees that enter the US.  My guess is that Democratic Senator (“sheets”) Byrd has managed to keep the multiculturalism in his state under control.  But, here come Iraqis from North Carolina.

By last week, some Iraqis whom LFS resettled to Greensboro last summer had become so desperate for work that a few had signed on with a staffing company, Labor Solutions,* to work at a poultry plant in Moorefield, W.Va., by arrangement with LFS.

*Check out Labor Solutions, here.  They call themselves a “progressive” company.  That is code for Left Wing.  They find immigrant labor for big business and I will bet you a buck they are all for Open Borders!  I continue to maintain that the resettlement agencies are head-hunters for big employers with nasty work—like meatpackers.  And, I wouldn’t be surprised if the resettlement agencies get some sort of kick-back when they sign up refugees for Labor Solutions or for the big business itself.

For more on the Greensboro story see Friends of Refugees here.  Also, you might want to revisit the Waterbury, CT post, here, where the State Department pulled the plug on the International Institute in May 2008 when that agency came under media fire for refugee neglect.

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