Readers, this is a comment from an Iraqi refugee who has had problems in Kansas City, MO with his resettlement agency, Jewish Vocational Services (JVS) a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). He is not the first to have problems with JVS. To get the full story you should read back through 5 posts archived here.
Some readers will be tempted to be angry at the Iraqi man. Don’t be. It is not his fault that someone along the line sold him a bill of goods about what he was going to get in the US if he signed up to come here. And, these agencies like JVS are almost completely funded with your tax money and we should be demanding they treat refugees decently or get out of the business!
Presently the National Security Council under the direction of Samantha Power is doing a supposed reform of the program, but they are too chicken, as is the US State Department, to take on these powerful FEDERAL CONTRACTORS like USCRI and it is sickening to watch. Incidentally, former USCRI VP, Eskinder Negash, is now head of the entire Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Dept. of Health and Human Services and is in charge of handing out goodies (your money) to his old friends.
Anyway here is our commenter today. He is a brave guy for speaking out, so let’s hope he is helped and not punished for doing so.
Dear Sir
I’m the Iraqi refugee [name removed for his safety]
I would like to announce to you what happened to us since our arrival to America, so far.
We arrived on 3 \ 12 \ 2009 and lived in a hotel and after I entered the hospital for treatment in that time the agency which responsible of us it call JVS they came and took my family to the unhealthy house and full of insects which it forced my family to live in it and but they threatened my family that if they did not live in this house they will not pay for hotel.
My family returned to the hotel and we pay to live in the hotel …. That’s make me leave the hospital on my own and I went to the agency which it responsible for us and threatened to complain against them so they admission that they was guilty and apologized to us & they pay for hotel …… Then try to fixed the house and they deal with us to live in the house temporarily until they find another house, and so was the agreement but they didn’t do what we deal and we lived in the house for two months and they came after that and said that they will deduct from each cash assistant 90% …. When I calculated by Wright that it would stay $ 80 we spend during the month, & you know its not enough for one person . we told them make it $ 150 …. but they refused on the one hand and the other hand, they said if we did not sign the lease contract of the house in which we refuse to live in it than it would chase us that’s make me rent an apartment on my our own account.
So they cut all assistant which they submitted them to us and let us live this tragedy.
and since we got so far ….. We hope that you will help us in finding a solution to the diamonds that we have come to the United States on 3 \ 12 \ 2009 period that is to say that we have no more than four months and you tell us that the aid will continue for the duration of 8 months, and they also said that …
We hope that this pleasant note of the way we live in the state of Missouri in Kansas City …. By the way this problem started on 1\3\2010
Note:- what we know that the government give $450 to each one when arrived to the city ( its gift) ………. But they took it & didn’t gave it to us
Remember the other day at the “celebration” for the 30th anniversary of the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 a Burmese refugee asked “where is the money going?” We would like to know the answer to that too!
Check the numbers here! Note that the Obama Administration is on target to bring 80,000 refugees to the US in the middle of the recession. Iraqis are presently topping the list of refugees arriving. I believe Obama and his minions are deliberately destabilizing US cities by using the refugees and immigrants as pawns in a larger political game. It is the only explanation that makes any sense. Remember this:
I’m reminded of the Iraqi boy wise beyond his years! I told you about him in September of 2008, here. He summed up his observations about the unhappy situation with Iraqi refugees in a letter to the editor to the Tucson Citizen with this line:
It is better to have 10 Iraqi refugees who are satisfied with their lives than having 100 angry ones with no life at all.
Frankly, the State Department should be readying airlifts home for any refugee profoundly angry or unhappy (paid for out of the funds of the volag that didn’t do its job)! But, they won’t, because to do so they would have to admit that the whole program is flawed, so they just let the refugees suffer. So much for compassion!
Frustrated and sick of this? Complain here! Do not forget to copy your complaints to your two US Senators and your Congressman (add in your governor and state representatives for good measure).