Blue Maryland seeing Red on immigration

Sorry no time to go into it today, but just wanted readers to know about this unbelievable political shake-up in Blue Maryland on illegal immigration.    The mainstream media has missed one of the hottest political stories of the summer in Maryland as organizers of a petition drive to put a new law (signed by Democrat Governor Martin O’Malley) that would give in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens will (I predict) succeed in being taken to referendum.

The drive ends today and the Washington Post finally wrote about it as a news story yesterday!   Be sure to check out what they say about what an impact this initiative will have on the national discussion about immigration—-Blue Maryland sends a message!

From the Washington Post:

Growing frustration with illegal immigration, rising public debt and an effective Internet campaign to gather voters’ signatures have put Maryland conservatives on the cusp of a victory to delay and possibly repeal a new law that would give undocumented immigrants in-state college tuition breaks.

Read the Post article and learn more about the national ramifications of a potentially successful referendum in Maryland (of all places!).

For Fox News (esp. Glenn Beck) fans and Jihad Watch readers note that the Democratic Party has sent its big dog to Maryland to represent the major illegal alien advocacy group—CASA de Maryland, here.  Note that Joseph E. Sandler, former general counsel of the DNC has threatened to sue many conservatives in order to silence their speech.  He and his comrades are now working overtime in Maryland!

Addendum:  See this tongue-in-cheek piece posted at Fox News —the top five places for illegal aliens to head to in the US!

European Court tells UK—you gotta keep your criminals, no returns to Somalia allowed

About ten days ago I told you how they were sneaking across the UK borders in droves.  Now they know that once there, they can do whatever they want and won’t be deported thanks to the European Court of Human Rights.

From the UK Telegraph:

In a test case ahead of more than 200 similar actions pending against the UK, the Strasbourg judges decreed that the UK’s duty to protect people against torture or inhuman treatment is ”absolute”.

The case involved two Somalis facing enforced return to Mogadishu after receiving convictions in the UK for serious criminal offences.

The European Court of Human Rights awarded Abdisamad Adow Sufi and Abdiaziz Ibrahim Elmi, both currently in UK immigration detention centres, 14,500 euros and 7,500 euro respectively for costs and expenses in bringing the case.

Sufi, 24, claimed asylum in the UK in 2003 on the grounds that he belonged to a minority clan persecuted by Somali militia. His account was rejected as not credible and asylum refused.

Elmi, 42, arrived in the UK in 1988 and was granted leave to stay as a refugee in 1989, renewed indefinitely in 1993.

After convictions for a number of serious criminal offences – including burglary and threats to kill in Sufi’s case, and robbery and supplying class A drugs cocaine and heroine in Elmi’s case – they were issued with deportation orders.

Their UK appeals that they risked being ill-treated or killed if returned to Mogadishu were rejected.

The European Court of Human Rights blocked their deportation pending a hearing of their appeals to the Strasbourg court.

On Tuesday the seven-judge court ruled unanimously that deporting them would breach the Human Rights Convention Article 3 which bans ”inhuman or degrading treatment”.

The ruling said: ”The court reiterated that the prohibition of torture and of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is absolute, irrespective of the victims’ conduct.

”Consequently, the applicants’ behaviour, however undesirable or dangerous, could not be taken into account.”

Maybe the UK should re-think that little issue called sovereignty.  More on the way all the time, here.

Two Somalis arrested for human smuggling in Europe

They were arrested in Austria for transporting a couple hundred Somalis from Greece into Austria.

From the Winnipeg Free Press:

VIENNA – Austrian police say they have arrested two Somalis suspected of smuggling as many as 200 of their countrymen from Greece into Austria and from there to other European countries.

They say that in one case, 18 of the illegal refugees were found crammed into a crawl space above the false ceiling of a bus. The unidentified suspects are believed to have used this method around 12 times since September, to carry illegals to Austria and then from there fly them Finland, Sweden or Denmark.

Both suspects were arrested earlier in the month.

Meanwhile, an EU court has said they can’t send them back to Somalia no matter what crimes they commit—too dangerous in Somalia!

In Sweden, evicted Somalis demand housing, money

Just cleaning out my e-mails today and came across this old news (3 weeks ago) and a video clip of Somalis protesting in Sweden for more stuff.

A somali family in Sweden was evicted since they cant show any income. They mobilized other somalis in the small town of Katrineholm and marched to the welfare office. There they demand free housing, better playgrounds, more money, free immigration for all somalis, etc etc.

Manchester, NH mayor: moratorium on refugee resettlement NOW!

I’m posting the entire editorial today from the Manchester Union Leader because there is not one word in it that can be left out!  Hat tip: Jean (emphasis mine)

A moratorium on bringing refugee immigrants to Manchester is long overdue. And it needs to go hand-in-hand with a common-sense look at just what should be the city’s and state’s roles in accommodating the untold thousands of refugees who seek to come here, but who require taxpayer-funded assistance after they arrive.

Mayor Ted Gatsas is right on target in pointing the spotlight at the problems facing Manchester with its rapid immigrant influx. But this is not the first time city leaders have spoken of the problem. Let’s hope it is the last time they need to.

And this is not the first time that one of the organizations chiefly to blame — and we use that word precisely — for this growing problem has been identified as the “International Institute of New Hampshire.”

That’s a pretty high falutin’ name for an outfit that is in fact an arm of a New England group run out of Boston and not too keen on answering questions. Those questions include why the group has helped turn Manchester into the second-biggest refugee resettlement city in New England, as measured by refugees per 100,000 people. (Springfield, Mass., beats Manchester by a hair. Its count is 272 refugees per 100,000 people; Manchester is at 271 per 100,000.)

Why, too, does this “institute” do such a poor job of taking care of the financial and health needs of the refugees it aims to resettle? Instead, it leaves those burdens to Manchester’s public agencies, which are already strapped with heavy budget problems that are only going to get bigger.

About 300 refugees are due in Manchester in the current federal fiscal year. Another 300 are projected to arrive from Oct. 1 through the following year. This, in a word, is insane.

The burden is felt in schools, at public health, with police and other public agencies.

“I don’t think we should bring in people that are going to suffer because there are not enough resources for them,” said the Rev. Joseph R. Gurdak.

As pastor of St. Anne-St. Augustin Parish in Manchester and someone who works with the refugees, he doesn’t strike us as someone who is “anti-immigrant.”

Mayor Gatsas has sounded the alarm. But he is going to need the help of our congressional delegation, among others, if a moratorium and a much stricter quota thereafter are to be enacted.

The Mayor should get in touch with the folks in Tennessee!

We have written on many previous occasions about the problems in Manchester (here is an archive of posts in which we mention Manchester).

The mayor might like to know that the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the mothership (the federal contractor for which the International Institute of NH works), has New Hampshire cities among its Preferred communities, here.  Since USCRI makes it very difficult to track the funding of its subcontractors, here for your review instead is the 2009 Form 990 for USCRI.   (International Institute of NH got $495,660 from USCRI that year but does not appear to have a Form 990 of its own.)

So where is the public-private partnership?

USCRI (Total revenue page 9)  is a $23,313,479 a year operation with $22,875,403 of that coming from you—the taxpayer.  98+% of their funds come from the government leaving less than 2% of their funds that comes from private sources of revenue.  What happened to that Public-Private partnership?   I had to laugh when I visited their site, here, and see the pie chart showing that they use “your gifts wisely” with 93% of their expenses going to programs—wow—great of them to pass along almost all of your tax dollars (your gifts!) to “programs” (salaries, rent, travel, conferences, meetings etc. etc).

I’m too tired tonight to tell you more about USCRI.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell you about where they got the boot for NOT taking care of refugees properly.  And, maybe too about their revolving door with government.  Do you think there is any chance an USCRI affiliate will now be reprimanded when its former VP heads the whole Office of Refugee Resettlement in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services (the agency that doles out the bucks to the contractors)….Nah!!!