Month: January 2011

RICO lawyer has much to say about flawed “refugee” system

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m back!  And, the project I was involved in that kept me away from my favorite subject—refugee resettlement and immigration generally—was a huge success.

Back to business!

RICO attorney Howard Foster suggests in his provocative piece posted last week and entitled, ‘Our “refugee” policy is a disaster,’ that:

I think Mr. Schwartz [Asst. Secretary of State for PRM] should be out of his job and be replaced by Rudolph Giuliani.

That’s somewhere in the middle.  He begins with this:

It would come as unwelcome news to the vast majority of Americans that even now, in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and a decade after 9/11, that this country admits upwards of 80,000 refugees each year on little more than the recommendation of a foreign organization and once here compete for low-paying jobs with our high-school graduates. But that is the essence of our refugee system.

And ends with this:

All in all, our refugee system is not a refugee system. It is an annual flow of 80,000 immigrants, and potential criminals, undertaken to appease the U.N., the international community, and the cheap labor lobby in this country.

Read everything in between, here.  I don’t know Mr. Foster but I wonder if he has been reading RRW!

I’m no lawyer but I think I might have a RICO case for him (see my next post).

Have not given up and gone away!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In case you are wondering why not much new has been posted lately, I’m working on a big project and just have no time to write. Judy has been out of the country.  Hopefully I’ll get something up tomorrow because I do have a backlog of stories.

In the meantime, if you are arriving here for the first time, you might want to check out our categories of posts and then use our search function for some topic that you are interested in.   For just basic information about the refugee program see our fact sheet linked at the top of the page and our category entitled ‘where to find information.’

Also, I haven’t forgotten a couple of readers request to tell you all who to contact with concerns about the refugee program.

Rumors abound as Tyson Foods continues to send mixed messages

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Times-Gazette in Shelbyville, TN has a new story today laying out the time line of the developing story we first posted here before Christmas about an alleged terror threat at the Tyson Foods meatpacking plant, the same plant we have been writing about for years!

T-G Reporter Brian Mosely asks about the mixed messages coming out of company with a suggestion that maybe bloggers (!) wouldn’t be speculating about what exactly happened if Tyson’s spokesmen would come out with the whole truth.   Mosely gives us a time line of who said what and when, then concludes:

If the alleged graffiti did not include the reported threatening words, what exactly was written that would require the involvement of federal authorities? And which federal agency is now looking into this matter?

But if the graffiti was harmless and not threatening, why not release the contents of the message to the public?

Doing so would go a long way in stifling the rumor mill and putting worried residents at ease.

Had Tyson Foods given a full explanation of what allegedly occurred in the facility, we seriously doubt that Nashville’s NBC affiliate would have wasted valuable holiday air time on a story based on a second-hand rumor about what someone supposedly wrote on a bathroom wall.

Instead, the lack of disclosure over what appears to be a minor case of vandalism has only incited more speculation and rumor over what goes on inside the plant.

Read it all.

Yes, indeed! Time for the whole story!

The back story on the Somali sex trafficking case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a great article on how the Somali sex trafficking case (first reported here) was pursued over several years and in several states by a pair of dogged investigators.   Here is the lead in:

A feisty prosecutor and passionate cop go after Minnesota-Somali gangs. It took a never-give-up attitude to build the case of a Somali runaway into a massive human trafficking prosecution.

The article begins:

NASHVILLE – “British” and “Moe D” sulked at a table inside courtroom A859. Each wore jail coveralls, their legs shackled.

A St. Paul vice cop faced them in silence while an intense Nashville prosecutor presented rapid-fire reasons why the men should stay locked up pending trial.

They made for something of an odd couple. Investigator Heather Weyker with her long blond hair and passion for this work. Assistant U.S. Attorney Van Vincent with his military-style buzz cut and Tennessee twang.

Nashville, too, seemed an unlikely place to charge mostly Minnesota gang members of Somali descent with selling Minnesota girls for sex. But to those who have worked this complex human-trafficking case that crosses state lines and involves 29 defendants and at least four young victims, Weyker and Vincent are the reason this is a case at all.

“From my perspective, Van and Heather are the heroes of this case,” said Ed Yarbrough, former U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. “Minneapolis dropped the ball.”

Despite a decision by the U.S. attorney in Minnesota two years ago to not prosecute, Yarbrough said, Weyker never gave up her fight to rescue young girls investigators say were coerced into prostitution and passed around like playthings. Vincent, he said, is a bulldog who plowed through obstacles to build a conspiracy case that could result in life sentences for people who allegedly sold girls for as little as a bottle of brandy.

Read it all, it is fascinating.

For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US.   To check out the numbers visit this post, one of our most widely read posts over the last few years.   In FY2010 which ended September 30th the US State Department resettled 4,884 Somalis (here) to towns near you.

Also, after being closed for nearly two years, the US State Department is on the verge of resuming the fraud-ridden family reunification program that admitted as many as 36,000 Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008.  See the latest on new regulations, here.  The State Department is on the verge of re-opening the program.

Israel too trying to stem the flow of African migrants

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is an article critical, (surprise! not!) from NPR, of Israel for trying to slow the flow of economic migrants (illegal immigrants) into their tiny country.

Israeli officials have stepped up efforts to stem the flow of African asylum seekers and migrant workers into Israel. With numbers reaching into the tens of thousands, Israeli officials are pressed to find a policy to combat the ever-increasing flow of people.

Israeli construction workers are battling against the blustery wind and sandstorms to build a fence across one stretch of desert.

The $270 million fence will cover 87 miles of Israel’s southern border with Egypt. African refugees are smuggled through this area almost daily. They travel thousands of miles and often spend their life savings to try to reach Israel, a country they see as their doorstep to the West.

Israel, however, is far from laying down the welcome mat.

And, why should they?  A properous, successful country can only take so many needy people before the life boat sinks.  Many of those crossing into Israel are not even refugees inspite of NPR’s efforts to purposefully(?) mix illegal aliens, economic migrants and true refugees and asylees into one giant hash so no one knows the difference.  Many also are probably Muslims who would surely like to help their Palestinian brothers wipe out Israel if they could.

Check out this blog (GetReligion.org) where I first saw the story.  The author makes some good points.