Month: April 2010

In San Diego there aren’t enough English classes to accommodate all the Iraqis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story from Sign on San Diego:

EAST COUNTY — The hundreds of Iraqis arriving in San Diego County each month face a frustrating problem as they try to create a future here.

They need to learn English to get a job and to keep their welfare benefits until they find work, but English classes have been overwhelmed and unable to provide spaces for many.

Full, full, full!

“All the classes are full,” he said. “Every school is full, full, full.”

The United States began allowing Iraqi refugees to resettle in this country in 2006, and the numbers exploded from 202 that year to 18,838 in 2009. San Diego County, with its established Iraqi community, has taken in more recent refugees than anywhere else in the United States.

About one in four Iraqi refugees arriving in the U.S. comes to San Diego County, according to a March study by San Diego State University demographer John Weeks.

No jobs!  No job search, no English classes, no welfare.

Without jobs, the new arrivals apply for welfare, which offers $862 a month for a family of four and $359 a month for a single person. To keep receiving government money, they must spend 35 hours a week looking for work, taking English classes or doing other things to improve their job skills.

Only ten days ago we posted information about Iraqis suffering with no work in California, here. 

A few minutes ago I posted a similar story from Idaho, here.  And, before that it was Texas and before that it was Virginia and Colorado and North Carolina……

Idaho: why do they bring us if they know there are no jobs?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  I see that Christopher Coen at Friends of Refugees has also posted on this Idaho Statesman article, here.

That’s a question a Congolese refugee who is on the verge of being evicted from his apartment asks in the story in the Idaho Statesman on Sunday.  (Hat tip to a reader who spotted it. )  Just now I see we have passed the 3000 posts mark since we began writing Refugee Resettlement Watch in July of 2007 and I will bet we have written hundreds of stories just like this one—refugees left in the lurch, fearing eviction and wondering why on earth the refugee program is run this way by agencies apparently unaccountable to anyone!  [Emphasis RRW’s]

The Mpalirwa clan is one of many refugee families who fled trauma and war with hopes of building new lives in the U.S. But those dreams have come up against a bad economy that has left even longtime, middle-class Idahoans without jobs and homes.

Finding security is exponentially more difficult for refugees who don’t have the advantages of a familiar language, culture or family, and who must rely on a system that many refugees and their advocates say does not work and needs serious reform.

“I’ve had to wonder if we’re taking families out of unacceptable situations and putting them into poverty in the U.S.,” said Zoe Ann Olson, a lawyer with Idaho Legal Aid Services in Boise who has worked with 50 refugee families in the past year on the verge of losing jobs, homes and benefits.

Refugees also are required to repay their travel loans, an additional and daunting expense for the jobless. [Agencies that resettled them get a cut of the airfare money they collect—ed] Idaho will receive more than 1,100 refugees this year. Most will settle in Boise.

[…..]

If his family can’t pay its rent for March and April, they’ll have to leave the apartment. Mpalirwa said he doesn’t know where they’ll go.

Until a couple of years ago, it was unheard of to see refugee families in Salvation Army shelters, said Amber Young, social services director for the Salvation Army. Since then, four or five families have come to the shelter seeking emergency lodging after losing their apartments. Many more have called to ask about getting help, she said.

Young credits “aggressive” work by Salvation Army staff to find low-income housing for refugee families when they’ve used up their maximum 90-day stay at the shelter.

[…..]

“If they know there are no jobs, why do agencies bring refugees here?” Mpalirwa asked through interpreter Yves Ndayi.

Read the whole article to hear the litany of problems—the same problems we hear are happening in Fredericksburg, VA, Kansas City, Missouri, Manchester, NH, Greensboro, NC, Pittsburgh, PA, Bowling Green, KY, San Antonio, TX  and the list goes on! (Search RRW for those cities and you will see what I mean.)

The federal refugee contractors working in Boise are the Agency for New Americans, International Rescue Committee and World Relief.

The refugees in this story place the blame for their unhappy situations squarely on the agencies that resettled them.

Ndayi, Mpalirwa and others are critical of resettlement agencies.

“Agencies take advantage of refugees,” Mpalirwa said. “They play with them until the money’s gone, and then they go away.”

An Iraqi refugee whose situation is now improving told the Statesman:

Ali regrets that her first encounter with the U.S. was through a resettlement agency.

I am sick to death of reading these articles where the story is always the same. Where is the oversight from the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement?  Isn’t the definition of insanity when one does the same thing over and over again expecting a differant result?

Reforms needed

My suggestion for reform continues to be—-get these middlemen contractors out of this program!    Let the state governments run the refugee program.  Those who criticize that suggestion don’t want more government, but with these contractors that apparently run the show we have a shadow government that is not accountable to anyone.  At least if state governments were responsible there would be local political accountability and I doubt it would cost the taxpayers as much!

As for Mr. Mpalirwa’s original question.  The only answer is that this is a Cloward-Piven strategy to overwhelm the welfare system and bring cities to a state of crisis which in turn drives citizens to demand the federal government step in.  If you think that is a wild suggestion, then the only other explanations are that do-gooders are so self-absorbed and think it’s all about feeling good themselves that they can’t stop or the program is corrupt through and through.  Pick one! Or, all three!

Note to Boise, Idaho:  You can say NO to more refugees until the economy improves.

We have written a lot about trouble in Boise with refugees so just use our search function for those older posts.  Type in ‘Boise.’

St. Cloud, MN a perfect example of community agitation to bring “change”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Luke Tripp and Mahmoud Mohamed are community agitators.  What is happening in St. Cloud, MN now and for the last few years is a perfect example of Saul Alinsky’s (Rules for Radicals) strategy being put into motion to bring about “change” through creating crisis in communities.  It is no coincidence that one of the most outspoken conservative critics of the king of community organizers (Barack Obama) happens to be the Representative for this Congressional district which includes St. Cloud—Michele Bachmann.   Tripp is a race baiter and he is using the recent Somali unrest to get Michele Bachmann.

An aside:  Readers, especially conservative readers, should study Saul Alinsky.  Much of the reason that we are continually caught off guard by the ‘crisis creates change’ strategy is that we don’t think that way.  We generally think that to solve problems and conflicts one should try very hard to work together in a quiet and dignified way.  Not so for community organizers and union agitators—they must continually create chaos to move the so-called “community” to their far Left view of governance.  (We discuss this at length in a category we call ‘community destabilization.’)  In St. Cloud we observe a perfect microcosm of community organizing (destabilization). When you read the rest of this post, think about the St. Cloud Area Somali Salvation Organization (SASSO) as a mini-ACORN—keep that ACORN model in your head!

The article that set me to researching SASSO yesterday is this opinion piece by a black studies professor at the local college, Luke Tripp.    Readers unfamiliar with the St. Cloud public school controversy should first read this post I wrote in January and a follow-up post last month here about what is happening in St. Cloud.   Read Tripp’s inflamatory op-ed here. [Emphasis RRW’s]

The comments of St. Cloud schools Superintendent Steve Jordahl and board member Jerry Von Korff in the March 29 Times suggest that they are clueless with regard to the fundamental issues that were the focus of the Somali-sponsored rally on March 29 at Apollo High School.

Reacting to complaints of Somali students (and their allies) about harassment, Jordahl told the Times the district responds appropriately to every complaint and act of bullying against any student. He disputes that staff are not doing enough.

Jordahl also said in his almost two years in the district he has not received any complaint about a staff member nor has any staff member been disciplined for inappropriate behavior toward Muslim students.

According to the Times, Von Korff said Mohamoud Mohamed, executive director of St. Cloud Somali Salvation Organization, is more interested in standing in front of people than working to make things better.

“He has not articulated to me any vision that his main goal is to solve problems. There are a lot of Somalis in our community that are very interested in solving problems,” Von Korff said.

Key issue

The basic issue that the rally and the Somali community are calling attention to is the failure of the administration and board to seriously address the toxic anti-Somali climate and institutional racism in the school system. [Tripp makes his living teaching about racism] Jordahl and Von Korff seem to view the complaints as issues of misbehavior of a few individual white students.

But the racial incidents are merely symptoms of institutional racism. The schools were designed to educate and socialize white, Christian, American-born youth. With the recent influx of many Somali students who are black, Muslim and African-born (or children of African-born parents), the schools are facing a clash of cultures.

Many administrators and staff members and some board members do not seem to grasp the significance of the social transformation of their school system.

Failed leadership

The biggest problem is the backwardness and ineptness of the leadership.

So, if you are serious about solving a problem, is this how you would go about it, by inflaming the debate?   No, a decent conservative thoughtful person would not, but this is how agitators work.

The demonstration at Apollo High School referred to by Tripp is discussed in some detail here.  Was a demonstration organized by SASSO head honcho Mohamoud Mohamed necessary to calm the conflict—NO!  But, that is what Mohamed does—he is an agitator.

Remember the Gold’n Plump meatpacker religious discrimination case where St. Cloud Somalis received a large sum of money because they claimed break times did not accomodate their Islamic faith?  We told you about it here, here and here.  Well, yesterday the pieces came together when I realized that the case was brought by none other than Mohamoud Mohamed.

Mohamoud Mohamed, a Somali advocate representing the employees, says all parties involved are pleased with the outcome.

“This is a step forward, and it shows us that this system is helping us to work in an environment that accepts our culture,” Mohamed said.

Readers, this is the stealth jihad (see the Muslim Brotherhood’s quiet Minnesota jihad, here) .  It is happening in many cities in the US and the Somali personality type is perfect to push for the insertion of Islamic Shariah law into the fabric of America.  We have written dozens of posts on cities such as Lewiston, ME, Greeley, CO, Ft. Morgan, CO, Grand Island, NE, and Emporia, KS where Somalis agitate for their “rights.”  Incidentally, other than Lewiston, all of those agitated cities are meatpacking towns.

I suspect the Gold’n Plump settlement and other examples of Somali clashes may have set up the local community to be ripe for agitation.  Remember there was also the case of the disabled student whose dog was harrassed by Somali students.  Judy told you about it here in 2008.   I’m not condoning any racist behavior by anyone, but keep in mind that the Somalis of St. Cloud are not pure as the driven snow.  They are not the “victims” every time!

Now to SASSO—the mini-ACORN

In many of those cities I mentioned above Somalis have formed what the federal government calls Ethnic Community Based Organizations (ECBO’s).  We have a whole category on ECBO’s here.  Here is a website with many Somali ECBO’s.  What they are in a nutshell are organizations funded often by government (your taxes) that teach “their people” how to access public assistance— welfare.   Think about the ACORN model that we learned about in the last year.  They teach people how to get stuff out of the government.  AND, they agitate for rights for “their people”  and get them politcally active.   That is what the St. Cloud Somali Salvation Organization (SASSO) run by one man, Mohamoud Mohamed, is.

I see that SASSO has submitted Form 990’s to the IRS, but the funny thing is that I cannot find any record of SASSO being registered as a non-profit organization in the State of Minnesota.  I have searched for all sorts of variations on the name and cannot find it.  However, I notice that a new organization at the same address (22 Wilson Ave. NE) as SASSO—St. Cloud Area Somali Women’s Association (SASWA)— was incorporated in Minnesota on 12/31/08.  If anyone can direct me to the incorporation of SASSO it would be much appreciated.

Here is SASSO’s most recent Form 990.  Note that gifts and private grants are $63,000 and government grants and contracts $49,447.  So they do get taxpayer funding.  I sure hope they keep it separate from their agitation budget.   One frustrating aspect of researching 990’s is that the agency is not required to list for the public who gives them money, so you have to search around in other places.

I found two foundations that fund SASSO, but interestingly they both refer to the Somali women’s organization (SASWA) that is located at the same address as SASSO.  It came to our attention in Nashville, TN that funders like to give money to Somali women (I think its a goo-goo notion that they will succeed in liberating Somali women).  In the Tennessee case a federal investigation ensued when it was learned that federal grant money ostensibly for Somali women (to combat domestic violence and female genital mutilation) was used by the men for who knows what sort of political activity.  Some critics in Nashville even suggest the federal grant money went back to Africa.

Here are two grants I found in my research.  Both are earmarked for the Somali women involved with SASSO.  The Otto Bremer Foundation of St. Paul, MN gave $20,000 here.  And, the Morgan Family Foundation of Cincinnati, OH gave $50,000 for the Somali women in-house organ of SASSO, here.   I have to laugh when I see that SASSO has hired a woman, here.  Is that to make the organization more attractive to funders?

Back to the agitator Luke Tripp

This is about getting Rep. Michelle Bachmann.  The unfortunate situation with a few high school kids have given him the opportunity to use the Somalis to slam Bachmann, one of Obama’s greatest critics, and to push for more public funding of the race industry.   Here is what Tripp said in a Somali publication in February:

I believe that Somalis are under attack in St. Cloud because of their race (they are Black), their religion (they are Muslims), and their immigration/refugee status (they are perceived to be untrustworthy aliens).

The animosity against Somalis reflects the sentiments of a significant segment of conservative White residents in the city of St. Cloud whose views are politically expressed by their right-wing extremist congresswoman, Michele Bachmann, who represents Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District. [This is Alinsky Rule 13: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” He is making Bachmann the face of the problem although as far as I can tell she hasn’t been involved.]

Bachmann is a staunch advocate of barriers against immigrants and their culture. Her voting record on anti-immigration legislation is graded A+.

One comment Bachmann has never explained came during a debate she had while running for Congress the first time in November 2005. Prompted by a question on the rioting in France and Europe at the time, Bachmann said, “Not all cultures are equal, not all values are equal,” letting it be known that she thought that people of the Muslim faith had an inferior culture to that of the United States and the West.

The point is that racism and religious intolerance are deeply rooted and still prevalent in St. Cloud. It follows that we need a strong human rights office in the city’s government to change the climate of bigotry in the city.

We need to make our demand for justice and human rights a top priority of city government. We can do that by lobbying and pushing city government officials to provide financial resources to support a full-time human rights director.

So are those the words of a man sincerely trying to solve a difficult problem in St. Cloud, or the words of a professional race agitator?

What needs to be done?

Someone needs to use some Alinsky ideas and begin to expose people like Tripp.  Find out his relationship to the Obama machine for instance.  Dig into the background of SASSO and its leader.  Publish what you find!  Go on the offensive!   And, whatever you do, do not cower when they start hurling the racist epithets—this is not about you, this is about the future of America!

Feds can’t find the 300 Somalis smuggled into U.S.

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Freeman Klopott reports in the Washington Examiner:

E-2 Treaty Investor visas and food stamp fraud go hand-in-hand

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve mentioned my theory from time to time that the convenience store food stamp scams occuring across the country are linked to the E-2 Treaty Investor program of the US State Department (see my first mention here in 2008).  Yes, yes to all the purists reading this who will ask what does this have to do with refugees, my answer is not a whole lot except that the food stamp use by refugees is rising and they make good targets for scammers.

If you are a regular reader you’ll know that I follow food stamp fraud as a side interest.  I’m not talking about the fraud that involves buying the ‘wrong’ or illegal food with the stamps, I’m talking about the practice of swapping stamps for cash.  The store owner/manager gives the holder of the stamps 50 cents on the dollar and then turns around and gets the full dollar reimbursed by the federal government.  It is a multi-million dollar fraud perpetrated against the US taxpayer.

What started me on my latest inquiry was this story in February from Latin America News Dispatch about how Mexicans with a little cash could get into the US as E-2 Treaty Investors (and bring the family!).

Jorge’s story began with a car chase where bad guys in Mexico were after him. He ends up in the safety of a police station and that is where we pick up his story:

“I was told that as soon as I left they could not guarantee that I would live.” They asked Jorge if he wanted to be taken to the airport or the U.S.-Mexican border.

Even though Jorge’s life was threatened in Mexico and he fears returning, he does not want to risk losing his tourist visa in the United States by applying for political asylum or refugee status.

Holders of tourist visas in the U.S. who apply for asylum risk losing those visas if their case is denied, according to San Diego immigration attorney Jacob Sapochnick. Applying for refugee or asylum status demonstrates the intention to stay permanently in the U.S. — a measure used by the State Department as the basis to deny a tourist visa, Sapochnick says.

Those who have “a well-founded fear of persecution based on at least one of five internationally recognized grounds: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” can apply for asylum and refugee status, according to a 2005 U.S. Justice Department report. [By the way, using Mexican violence as a reason to seek asylum in the US is increasing, as I mentioned here just over a week ago.]

Yet it is often very difficult for asylum and refugee status to be granted. “Just witnessing a crime will not be sufficient. But, for example, former police high-ranking officers, government employees that were targeted could be potentially good candidates,” said Sapochnick.

One option available to wealthy Mexicans who flee the violence in their country is to apply for an E-2 or Investor’s Visa.

Since 1994, Mexico has been a so-called Treaty Country, making its residents eligible for E-2 visas. While the State Department only says that the investment needed must be “substantial,” Sapochnick says that a recommended investment varies between 50,000 to 100,000 dollars.

Here is the State Department site for what an E-2 Treaty Investor needs to buy his way into the US.   Some of my research indicated one could have as little as $25,000 to invest in a business.  The applicant can bring his or her spouse and children under 21.  The business needs to generate income for the family and preferably have an employee or two.

Have you been wondering why every mom and pop gas station, convenience store, little restaurant is run by certain ethnic immigrants? Well, this is the answer!  They are probably E-2 Treaty Investors!

Here are the countries from which the “investors” can come to America.

Scroll down through this chart and note that 25,000-30,000 of these non-immigrant visas are granted each year.  They are called ‘non-immigrant’ but treaty investors need only reapply every 2 years and can stay forever.

So where is the connection to convenience stores?  In my research last night I visited several immigration law firms which help E-2 Treaty Investors get their visas and sure enough just about all of them mention the sorts of investments available to “Investors” and convenience stores are right up at the top of the list.

Here is a lawfirm in Houston that suggests convenience store ownership.  Here is one in Los Angeles that will help immigrant “investors” get their visa and open a convenience store.  And then, here, is a one stop shopping outfit in Florida called “Business Brokers of America” that tells you how to get your E-2 Treaty visa and links to stores for sale (see search for a business to buy in the left column).

Here is a website, Visa Pro, where you can just start applying for an E-2 Investor visa for a cool $1,950.  You don’t even need to mess around with the US State Department!

So where do we have recent arrests for scams?—convenience stores!  Use our search function for ‘food stamp fraud’ and note that busts of immigrant-run convenience stores are a frequent occurance. Here are three recent ones.

Florida (Ethiopians) food stamps

Ohio (Arabs) stolen goods

Michigan (Middle Easterners) food stamps

Speaking of Michigan!  This is a story I came across two years ago and thought was so funny that I’m posting it here again!  It’s from the Arab American News and they are perplexed as to why all the food stamp busts occurring at that time involved all people with Arab names (duh!).   If you wonder why we are screwed up in this country the political correctness of this guy in the Attorney General’s office says it all!  The biker gang analogy!  Give me a break!

DEARBORN Twenty seven people arrested by state police in February for alleged food card fraud all seem to be of Arab descent, judging by their namesall recognizable Arab family names.

But a spokesperson for Attorney General Mike Cox’s office said that doesn’t necessarily mean there is a problem specific to the Arab American community.

“Folks who commit crimes together usually have a common link,” said spokesman Matt Frendewey.

Sometimes that link, he said, is a common ethnicity. He compared it to biker gangs, often made up entirely of white males, who might commit crimes together.

“It would be very inaccurate to say that it speaks to the Arab American community.”

Frendewey said it was never even apparent to the attorney general’s office that that all those involved were Arab Americans until pointed out by The Arab American News.

The 27 suspects owners and employees of eight Detroit party stores and gas stations are accused of engaging in more than $1.5 million worth of illegal dealing in food card benefits.

Maybe the “common link” is the E-2 Treaty Investor program of the US State Department!  Is it possible that agents abroad are directing would-be shop owners to America for the lucrative food stamp fraud business?

What can you do if you think a small grocery store, gas station  or convenience store looks suspicious? Tell your local police department and urge them to set up a sting.   What might tip you off—one of the first things that investigators notice is that traffic to the store has increased while the shelves are sparsely stocked.

Endnote: Anyone working with refugees should alert them to this scam so that they don’t try to turn their food stamps into cash because they too can go to jail or be fined for participating.