Month: May 2010

Iowa editor admits it: we want refugee labor in our state

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you in January that the State of Iowa (one of 10 major refugee contractors) was getting out of the business of bringing refugees to Iowa.  I meant to tell you the other day, but didn’t get around to it, that only Catholic Charities would still be providing Iowa’s meatpacking laborers.

Now comes an editorial from the Globe Gazette in Mason City, Iowa that spells it all out clearly—the refugees are needed for (cheap) labor.  The editor even suggests that if Iowa doesn’t get legal immigrant labor the meatpackers will continue to exploit illegal aliens.  There is another option, offer a decent wage and lots and lots of people will want the jobs.

Let me be clear, I understand that the refugees brought to the US must work to stay off welfare, but then let’s be honest and stop pretending that the US State Department and the volags are motivated only by humanitarian zeal.  There is a lot of  money (and  future voters!) involved!

Fourteen- and 15-year-olds testified about back-breaking, low-paying work for Sholom Rubashkin, the former Agriprocessors CEO charged with 83 misdemeanor state child labor law violations. He already has been convicted of massive financial fraud.

He has yet to be tried for immigration law violations federal authorities filed after the biggest immigration raid in Iowa history May 12, 2008. Federal agents removed 390 undocumented workers from the plant, shutting it down and proving once again that Iowa’s agriculture economy cannot function without immigrant labor.

The work force at every meatpacking plant in the state affirms it. So do the past three Iowa governors, who agree legal immigration is essential for the state’s economic growth, not simply “important” or “a key factor.” While in office, Govs. Terry Branstad, Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver all said Iowa simply cannot grow without legal immigration.

This is the context for the regrettable closing of Iowa’s Bureau of Refugee Services, the state’s No. 1 manager of legal immigration. Since 1975, this bureau brought 28,000 legal immigrants to Iowa and supported another 10,000 who moved to the state after legally entering the country.

The Iowa State refugee office is closing and so is Lutheran Social Services of Iowa.  Only Catholic Charities will continue.

End result: Legal immigration refugee resettlement to Iowa will plummet by more than 85 percent.

Of course, that doesn’t mean immigration to Iowa will end. Hundreds will find their own ways to the state or be recruited for hard-to-fill tech, education and science positions. [Flash! Job seekers in the tech field, education and science should get to Iowa now because they have jobs!]

If history is an indicator, thousands of illegal immigrants will continue to be drawn into the traps set by those like Rubashkin, who federal and state authorities say built a business around exploited illegal immigrants.

Refugee resettlement is an honorable part [honorable for whom?] of Iowa government and faith mission history. It also is a vital part of the state’s economic development.

The Clintons knew all about supplying Iowa big business with cheap immigrant labor as I learned in 2008, here.

The logical solution to the Palestinian refugee problem

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Alexander Levkovsky on David Horowitz’s NewsReal Blog posts Another Look at the Problem of Refugees. He quotes Michael Steinhardt in the Wall Street Journal to summarize the problem:

Descendants of the Arabs who left their homes in 1948 now number in the millions. The Palestinians want these people returned to Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel says no, knowing this would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

(Check out our category Israel and refugees for our many posts on the issue.)

Levkovsky continues:

All attempts to resolve that problem have failed – mostly, because of the stubborn and utterly unreasonable resistance on the part of the Arabs. But Mr. Steinhardt’s proposal (and many similar ideas) to cut this knot by employing a combination of monetary compensation and granting of citizenship to stateless Palestinians is worth considering seriously.

History provides convincing examples of how refugee problems have been successfully – although in most cases, painfully – resolved. For example, in the wake of World War II, untold millions of ethnic Germans were expelled from the territories they had lived in for centuries – from East Prussia, the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, eastern provinces of Germany proper, Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. They were all accepted by the two post-war German nations as full-right citizens.

Very few people nowadays are aware of the enormous flow of refugees after World War II. I knew about it because my maternal grandmother came to America from Konigsberg in East Prussia. That city became part of Russia after the war and was renamed Kaliningrad. Since the Soviet Union dissolved and Belorus became a separate country, Kaliningrad has not been physically connected to Russia, but it is still a part of Russia. I didn’t know my grandmother and have no connection with her family, but they must have been among the millions of Germans displaced from their longstanding homes and taken in by Germany.

So, Levkovsky says,

If Arab leaders do feel true compassion for the plight of their Palestinian brethren (as they invariably insist they do), and have sincere desire to put an end to their stateless existence, they can learn from very humane laws of granting citizenship that have been adopted by many nations: Armenia, Belarus, China, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Poland, Japan, France, India, Bulgaria, and many, many others.

He gives examples of a few of the laws adopted. Here is Lithuania’s:

From the Constitution of Lithuania, Article 32(4): “Every Lithuanian person may settle in Lithuania.”

Pretty simple, isn’t it? The problem is that (as Levkovsky knows), the Arab leaders have no desire whatsoever to put an end to their brethren’s stateless existence. Their desire is to keep the Palestinians in misery and stateless as a permanent weapon against Israel. I am glad to see that this proposal has been spreading around for a while, though at a less visible level than I’d like. It calls the bluff of the Arab politicians and shows them up for the hypocrites they are.

Sheboygan gets a mosque

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is happening in small towns and cities throughout the US.  Sheboygan, WI has been riled for months over whether a use permit to convert a former store into a mosque should be granted by the town fathers.  The local refugee population was cited by the Palestinian (from Gaza) imam as one reason they needed the religious center.  Last night the mosque was approved over the objections of the majority of the citizens of Sheboygan.  Hat tip: Robert

From the Sheboygan Press:

After an hour and a half of fiery discussion, including comments from two dozen speakers, and before an audience of more than 120 people, the Wilson Town Board voted unanimously Monday night to grant a conditional use permit for Sheboygan County’s first mosque.

With the approval, Mohammad Hamad, the Imam, or spiritual leader, of the local Muslim community, said the first worship service at the former Tom’s of Wisconsin health food store at 9110 Sauk Trail Road would be held Friday, the traditional day of worship for Muslims.

Hamad said he was happy the process was over.

“I believe right now we have to focus on the future and put this harsh talk behind us,” Hamad said after the meeting.
“I was a little surprised at the misunderstanding” about Islam and the local Muslim community, he said, adding but the mosque will help open a door to better understanding.”

The proposal had drawn large crowds over the last several months to town Plan Commission meetings and several hundreds to public forums at local churches and other locations, with some saying the U.S. Constitutional guarantee of freedom of worship dictated approval while others said the mosque could attract Islamic fundamentalists and even terrorists to the area.

Read on.

In an earlier story we learned that the owner of the property is a Pakistani, the Imam is a Palestinian from Gaza and refugee families need the mosque.

Mansoor Mirza, a Pakistani-born physician who bought the four-acre property and plans on leasing it to the Islamic Society, estimated 80 to 100 Muslim families live in Sheboygan County and that 20 or 25 of them were likely to attend the mosque. Mirza recently moved to Sheboygan from Manitowoc. Mirza is board certified in internal medicine at Holy Family Memorial in Manitowoc.

Mohammad Hamad, the group’s imam, or spiritual leader, and Mirza said a large number of those Muslims are European, especially Albanian and Bosnian refugees. Others, Hamad said, hail from Tajikistan, Jordan and Syria. Hamad is a Palestinian from Gaza who moved to the United States 10 years ago. Hamad works in the Sheboygan area as a consulting engineer.

This story is filed in our ‘stealth jihad’ category for obvious reasons.

Obama’s Auntie Zeituni granted asylum

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ten years after arriving in the US and six years after receiving a deportation order, President Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, has been granted asylum.  We first told you about Obama’s aunt living illegally in the US, here, just before Obama’s election to the Presidency in 2008.

From the Boston Herald:

A jubilant Zeituni Onyango celebrated in South Boston today after learning a U.S. immigration court granted her asylum – a decision her neighbors speculated was probably helped by her nephew, President Obama.

“It’s obvious her nephew helped,” said neighbor Marion Swain. “She’s a very nice person – very well spoken. That’s life.”

Onyango faced being deported to Kenya by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but a judge ruled she can now apply for a work visa and green card.

“I don’t want to be disturbed,” said Onyango through the door of her public housing unit on L Street.

[…..]

The ruling to allow Onyango to stay in the Hub was mailed Friday and comes three months after the half-sister of Obama’s late father testified at a closed hearing in Boston, where she arrived in a wheelchair. Two doctors testified in support of her case then.

The basis for her asylum request was never made public. People who seek asylum must show that they face persecution in their homeland on the basis of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.

“The asylum process is confidential and she wants to keep it that way, so we can’t get into details on why the judge granted asylum or the exact basis for her claim,” said her attorney Scott Bratton. He added: “She doesn’t want people to feel sorry for her.”

[…..]

Medical issues also could have played a role. Onyango’s lawyers told the Herald she was disabled and was learning to walk again after being paralyzed from Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder.

Onyango moved to the United States in 2000. Her first asylum request was rejected, and she was ordered deported in 2004. But she didn’t leave the country and continued to live in Boston.

Although regrettable, I don’t believe one’s medical circumstances are grounds for a positive asylum determination.  Does this mean that we are now going to grant asylum to Kenyans when Kenya is a relatively stable country?

Use our search function for more on ‘Aunt Zeituni.’

Somali smuggler trial opens in Virginia today

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The man accused by the government of helping nearly 300 Somalis enter the US illegally across our Southern Border opens today in Virginia.   The problem is that we don’t know if the feds have found any of those Somalis yet—no illegal Somalis means no evidence!

From the Washington Examiner which has been on this story from day one:

A Virginia man accused of smuggling nearly 300 Somalis into the United States from Kenya is set to go to trial Monday morning in Alexandria’s federal court, but the government’s evidence may be slim if authorities haven’t located any of the illegal immigrants.

The search, first reported by the Washington Examiner, started in early February after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Anthony Joseph Tracy on charges that he helped smuggle the Somalis. The 35-year-old has since been indicted on charges of conspiring with Cuban Embassy officials in Kenya to help the Somalis illegally enter the United States. A separate charge that Tracy lied on a U.S. passport application was filed, but later dropped for lack of evidence, court records show.

ICE Agent Thomas Eyre has testified that authorities are “concerned” about the contact Tracy admitted having with the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda ally.

Read on.

For our previous posts on the case go here.