Month: March 2010

Comment worth noting: Kansas City refugee agency treated us badly

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

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).

Canada: Rumors about refugee resettlement reform

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Things sure are hopping in Canada these days. Check our Canada category for a whole series of recent articles on immigrant problems north of the border.  Here is a story that says that Canadian officials are planning to reform the refugee program there and one rumor is that Canada would list safe countries from which refugees and asylum seekers would be ineligible to come to Canada from — in other words countries where persecution is not rampant. 

UNHCR head honcho Guterres* is there to try to get Canadian minds right on the issue.

From the Toronto Sun:

OTTAWA – The world’s top official for refugees gave his cautious approval Wednesday for a controversial approach the federal Tories are rumoured to be considering to reform Canada’s asylum system.

Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is in Ottawa for two days to meet with government officials and non-governmental organizations. His visit comes as Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is promising to table a package of reforms to Canada’s refugee asylum system, which can take up to six years to get a final decision. Guterres says he will be discussing the potential reforms with officials.

One of the rumoured reforms is a list of safe countries from which no one could apply for refugee status. Refugee advocates say limiting access isn’t fair because all claimants deserve a hearing.

Guterres said the list can work if the countries are properly classified and if the system is open to the idea people can be persecuted in democratic countries. He pointed to democracies in Africa where women face genital mutilation or countries where there’s no protection for gays and lesbians.

“Even if the country could be considered a safe country of origin, it is important leave the door open to serious consideration of protection claims,” Guterres said.

I see a potential problem with such a list too.  Someday Swedes, Norwegians, Dutch and even Brits might want to escape persecution and come as refugees to Canada or the US as their countries are taken over by the Marxists and Muslims.

Reforms we expect to see in the US look like they are all going to revolve around more money, give us more money, we need more of your money!

*Geez!  Someone told me the other day that Guterres was some bigwig Socialist so I thought I would look him up, sure enough he is, check out his bio here.  He was having cocktails at the Washington “celebration” I attended a week ago, but I didn’t hang around to schmooze.  Seems anyone who is anyone these days is a Socialist!

Canada: Somalis want justice for gang killings, huh?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here we go—more Somali violence news from Canada.  29 Somali men have been killed recently in Alberta, Canada and it is believed their deaths are related to drug and gang violence, but the families want “justice.”   Justice from whom?  Check out this CBC story and note the large number of comments generated about this issue of “justice.”

Then today in the Globe and Mail we learn that Somalis are demanding a task force to look into the killings.

There are a huge number of comments there too.  I don’t have time to read them, but I will bet many suggest that the Somali community look within itself for answers and cast no aspersions on Canada that gave them a home.

UN says number of asylum applications remain steady world wide

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Nonetheless, the US is still one of the most desired destinations of asylum seekers.

The United States remained the main destination country for the fourth year. It accounted for 13 per cent of the claims representing an estimated 49,000 people, many of them from China.

See the UNHCR press release here and follow links to the entire report.

By the way, one of the many “nuggets from the celebration” of the Refugee Resettlement Act symposium I attended last week was about asylum.  It seems that those who crafted the Refugee Act of 1980 never thought the demand for asylum would end up being so high.  They figured they would have, as someone said, “a few ballet dancers seeking asylum” from time to time when they came to the US to perform.

Another “nugget from the celebration” I  hadn’t gotten around to mentioning is that the big focus among refugee advocates these days is the issue of detention.  They don’t want those who sneak across the border and ask for asylum to be kept in detention at all.   It struck me that their bigger worry should be —who are some of these people, especially the Somalis, coming across the border?  Are their intentions benign?  And, how can we better take care of the refugees we have brought here legally.

Accuracy in Media tells us more about the USCCB role in the Marxist Open Borders march

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The evidence is mounting that the March on America last Sunday ostensibly to promote Amnesty and “social justice” for immigrants and refugees was a shameful display of anti-Americanism with an out and out socialist/communist agenda (see three previous posts here, here and here).

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media was there, and in a piece yesterday mostly on Obamacare and how the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was duplicitous in its position on abortion in the Health Care bill he reports the following about the USCCB’s role in the rally.  Hat tip Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum.

The Catholic Church is quickly moving ahead to pass a bill to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. It is significant that on Sunday, as national health care legislation was passing the House, the Catholic Bishops were promoting a rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to force congressional passage of “comprehensive immigration reform.” The rally was preceded by a Mass in support of immigrants with celebrants Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Wester at St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.

The Center for Community Change (CCC), supported by hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Open Society Institute of George Soros, organized the demonstration, operating through the front group called “Reform Immigration for America.” The CCC has also been supported by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an arm of the Catholic Bishops. John Carr, the Bishops’ director for justice, peace and human development, once sat on the board of the CCC.

One of the key sponsors of the pro-amnesty rally was the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, an organization established by the Bishops which has received at least $530,000 from the Open Society Institute.

Germonique R. Ulmer, CCC director of media relations, denied this columnist press credentials to cover the rally, saying, “I’ve been informed by trusted sources that you are not a legitimate news gathering operation.”

I went anyway and took a series of photos of the demonstrators and the assorted Marxists who were there passing out their Spanish-language pro-communist literature. The demonstrators carried many different signs, one of them saying, “Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform,” with a reference to “Justice for Immigrants” in smaller letters. The “Justice for Immigrants” project is officially sponsored by the Catholic Bishops.

The Marxist conquest of America is on track, and it is being disguised in Catholic religious garb. The problem isn’t just Stupak; it’s the Catholic Church hierarchy. They were playing conservatives like suckers.

Read Mr. Kincaid’s whole piece, here.

For new readers:  Note that the USCCB is one of the Top Ten federal refugee contractors and they receive 95% of their funding to resettle refugees from you, the taxpayer, here.   That does not include many millions more going to Catholic Charities in your cities.  And, to add insult to injury, some of those Catholic Charities are bringing cities to an unsustainable immigrant level and then as we have reported ad nauseum on these pages the refugees are being left high and dry in terrible living conditions (more money, please!).  Some charity huh—they take your money then they don’t take good care of the refugees and show no compassion for Americans whose lives are turned upside down with huge immigrant populations in maxed-out cities.

To be fair, it isn’t just the Catholics, the Lutherans are deep into this strategy as well, here.

Update: Here is an SEIU youtube clip of the event—note Andy Stern spoke.