Month: January 2012

Salvadoran foreign minister coming to US to lobby for extension of TPS

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Readers:  This is cross-posted from Potomac Tea Party Report and I thought some of our readers here might find it interesting.   TPS is another “legal” immigration program that has gone wrong.

TPS is Temporary Protected Status and is perhaps the ultimate scam and backdoor amnesty for illegal aliens in the US.   Whenever you are tempted to say that “legal” immigration is a good thing, think about TPS. It is legal alright but truly a scandal.

I’ve told you about this on many occasions, but Salvadorans who got into the US illegally decades ago can continue to stay and work (and receive all the benefits of an American citizen short of voting) when TPS is extended for them every few years.

It works like this:  illegals (like all the Leftists, including Sandinistas, who got in here in the 1980’s with the help of the “sanctuary movement”) got lucky when either hurricanes or earthquakes, or sometimes political unrest, hit El Salvador and the US government said, oh poor babies, we can’t send you back right now because it would be a hardship on El Salvador—you can just continue to stay!

Salvadorans make up perhaps the largest segment of the so-called “Hispanic” population in the Maryland/DC area.

I’ve been expecting this—the big political push for another extension (the present TPS expires in March for Salvadorans).

And, by the way, they now have the far Left government in El Salvador they have longed for, and as far as I know there are no natural disasters happening at the moment—-IT’S TIME TO SEND THEM HOME!

Here is the news yesterday:

San Salvador, Jan 4 (Prensa Latina) Salvadorean Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez will travel on Friday to the United States to promote the extension of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to immigrants.

The TPS was adopted after the 2001 earthquakes and its validity expires on March 8 this year. It covers the stay in that country of some 215,000 Salvadoreans so far.

[This 2001 TPS designation was not the first one!—please search PTPR (or here at RRW) for ‘Temporary Protected Status’ and ‘Sanctuary movement’ for the many posts I’ve written on this because I’m too tired to pull all the links tonight.—ed]

Martinez said the U.S. government could announce the extension between January 6 and 9.

We have always said that we have great and very positive expectations that the announcement is positive, but it corresponds to U.S. authorities to make that decision, said Martinez.

*Martinez met in Washington in November with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to request an extension of the TPS.

According to U.S. officials, some 2.5 million Salvadoreans live in the country, mostly undocumented, and Martinez said that the Foreign Ministry is ready to help their compatriots to register with the TPS.

So why do you think Martinez wants so many of his countrymen to stay in the US, besides the fact that this is part of the Marxist infiltration of the US?  Because El Salvador wants all the US dollars the illegal aliens send “home”!  And, remember that Montgomery County set up special banking arrangements with El Salvador—there are bucks to be made all around.

And, what do you think the chances are that Obama will deny this extension in the election year (or ever for that matter)—zilch, zero, nada!

*An afterthought this morning:   Martinez isn’t coming here to lobby, it’s probably a done deal.  He will be here to be seen in some photo-op when the deed is accomplished in a few days.

Where is the love in Lewiston?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

No more “layabouts and deadbeats” in Lewiston, says mayor-elect Bob Macdonald!   And, needless to say the Somalis took offense.

After years of the mainstream media and Maine (and Washington, DC)  liberals trying to tell us that everything was lovey-dovey in Lewiston, the election of another mayor signals that all is not going smoothly between the locals and the large (and growing) Somali population.

Readers may recall that the city was embroiled in controversy ten years ago when Somalis (mostly from Georgia where they were originally resettled by the US State Department) scouted out the welfare haven of Maine for a mass migration.  New readers may wish to read this post—Somali migration to Maine: it’s the welfare magnet, stupid— to catch up on the story.

In 2002, then Mayor Raymond did the politically-incorrect thing and sent an open letter (scroll down wiki page) to Somalis begging them not to send more of their people to the overloaded city. (google this because there was lots of news coverage of his “racist” letter).

The next mayor, Laurent Gilbert,* pandered to the Somali population and even went to Washington at the behest of none-other than Soros-favorite John Podesta (Center for American Progress) to proclaim how lovely everything was in Maine where diversity was now its strength (Here is our coverage of that trip in December 2010).

This after Newsweek trumpeted a 2009 piece, with the improbable title, The refugees who saved Lewiston where the reporter paints a picture of a veritable love fest in Lewiston now that the folks (the Mainers and the Africans) have gotten to know each other better, here.   (This is how propaganda works—I have seen this Newsweek piece mentioned repeatedly).

Rumblings out of Lewiston since then (from individual contacts) confirmed that the love affair might have been a Leftwing media fantasy.  Now, with the election of Bob Macdonald as Mayor just a couple of weeks ago, it looks like the citizens there might be signaling with their vote that they have had it with the drain on the welfare system in Lewiston.

While running for office MacDonald reportedly referred to the section of town where Somalis live as a “fourth-world country” (quite a contrast to how it was characterized in Newsweek!):

During his campaign, Macdonald made a number of remarks that some people characterized as racist, while others said they were merely ignorant and insensitive. He referred to downtown Lewiston, where many Somali immigrants live, as a “fourth-world country.”

Then Mayor-elect Macdonald seems to have  really stepped in it on his victorious election-night (in a strange turn of events his “moderate” opponent in the race died a couple of days before the election!) when he made his remarks about “layabouts and deadbeats.”   Hat tip:  Friends of Refugees

From the Bangor Daily News:

LEWISTON, Maine — Mayor-elect Bob Macdonald apologized to the city Thursday for his election-night comments — but his apology wasn’t enough for some members of the city’s immigrant community.

Abdifatah Ahmed, a local landlord and pharmacist, said Macdonald ought to apologize for his tone throughout the mayoral campaign, not just his election-night comments.

During his campaign, Macdonald said he wanted to make the city less attractive to layabouts and deadbeats, many of whom didn’t speak English.

“Enough is enough,” Ahmed said. “Very few people in our community get assistance, but when we get selected and called names, enough is enough.”

Macdonald must stop such talk and explain himself, to go forward with healing, Ahmed said.

“There was a lot said, and a lot of it was on camera,” Ahmed said. “You said people like me are great. But there are old people and children, and you’ve said to them that you have a problem with their fathers. As the mayor, how can you be a role model to those young children?”

Macdonald said his target was not immigrants but welfare recipients.

“If you are working here, I was not talking about you,” Macdonald said. “I was talking about the people that take money, money, money — and they come in all colors.”

Afterward, Ahmed said he and other members of Lewiston’s immigrant community believe they still deserve a more thorough apology from Macdonald.

The apology was not enough for the Somali activists (I wonder what constitutes a “more thorough apology”?).  Watch this Youtube clip and see for yourself.  It is very enlightening.  When I watched it, it had only 37 views so please send it around far and wide.  Pay attention to the beginning when the person doing the filming pans the ‘massive (not!)’ audience.

For more on Lewiston, just type the word into our search function.  It has been a favorite topic here at RRW.

* By the way, out-going Mayor Laurent (sometimes Larry) Gilbert said in August that he was going to Somalia in December to deliver needed humanitarian supplies, does anyone know if that ever happened?

An afterthought:  I should have mentioned that Lynn, Mass is having similar problems with refugee overload.  I wrote about it here the other day.

Iraqis to Idaho; Christian convert tells his story

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A lot of refugees are placed in Idaho.  We have many many posts on the topic of Idaho and refugees over the years.  At one point, it was (maybe still is) one of those immigrant overloaded cities begging for a respite.  Since I mentioned the Special Immigrant Visas last week available to people who worked in Iraq for the US government, this article in the Idaho Statesman caught my eye.

Idaho Statesman today:

In the past year, more than 9,000 of the 56,000 refugees who came to the U.S. came from Iraq. Iraqis now represent one of the largest groups of refugees in Idaho.

In the past five years, 912 Iraqi refugees have arrived in the state — 93 in the last year. Thousands more Iraqi men and women who worked for the U.S. military are in the country on special immigrant visas.

According to the Idaho Office for Refugees, the number of refugees from the Near East/South Asia (Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan) will continue to grow as post-war resettlement efforts continue.

Like any population, immigrants are mobile, moving for job opportunities or to be closer to family members in other cities. Officials don’t know how many Iraqis have stayed in Idaho over the years, said Kara Fink, communications specialist with the IOR.

Michael Paul’s, a convert from Islam to Christianity, was the profile, of three reported in this article, that interested me most.

He converted from Islam to Christianity in 1993.

He practiced his new religion quietly for a decade, waiting for the day he could practice in the open. His first goal after walking onto a U.S. base in 2003 was to meet the American chaplain and get baptized.

He wanted to come to the U.S. to study with biblical scholars. And he could not stay in Iraq; his religion and his work put him in double jeopardy.

His family rejected him because of his conversion.

Grateful for Americans

He was kidnapped three times while working for the Americans. He describes his kidnappers as “masked militia men” whom he heard say, “We caught that traitor. He has no loyalty to his country.”

American soldiers rescued him after each kidnapping. He saw their humanity in other ways, such as when an army medic found an injured donkey in the street and dressed its wounds.

“I received a lot from Americans in Iraq. I want to give back in the way God allows me,” Paul said.

He told the mother of one fallen American soldier—we were “fighting evil.”

The US left Iraq too soon

As much as he believes in the sacrifices made by Americans, he says it will be a long time before life is better in Iraq.

He listens to Iraqi radio online, and knows Christians must still hide their beliefs. He wishes America could keep a heavy presence in Iraq: Iraqis will need guidance to learn the tenets of democracy after decades under a dictator.

“I wish more than anything that one day Iraq will be like any state in America,” he said.

Read it all.

As the Muslim Brotherhood continues its expansion in the US,  people like Paul should spot the danger first and sound the alarm for naive Americans.

Somalis killed in (another) van rollover, this time in Texas

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Friends of Refugees has the whole story.  Blogger Christopher Coen has been keeping track of the unsafe 15-passenger vans that refugees use to get often long distances to work at such places as meatpacking plants.

We are told that Catholic Family Services (the head hunter for big business in the Amarillo area—YES! the headhunter) is bringing more workers/refugees to Amarillo this year.

In 2010 we told you about how much the demographics of Amarillo are changing, thanks in part to the good folks at Catholic Charities.   And, LOL! “welcoming” Amarillo.

For new readers:  We have resettled over 100,000 Somalis in the US with the greatest numbers after 9/11.  Visit this post for all the numbers.   Also, note that in FY2011 (here) that ended on Sept. 30th 2011, we admitted another 3,161 Somalis through the program.

Minneapolis Somalis protest bank decision to stop money transfers to Somalia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We reported earlier, here, that a bank that had been helping Somalis in the “diaspora” send money “home” (some of it going no doubt to terrorist activity) is stopping the practice.  But, in the good old fashioned American immigrant tradition, the Somalis have taken to the streets in protest.

Here is the story from the AP posted at The National:

MINNEAPOLIS // Hundreds from the largest Somali population in the United States demonstrated over a bank’s decision to stop handling money transfers that they say relatives in their famine-struck homeland need to survive.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 and has no banking system, and Somalis use money-transfer businesses called hawalas to send earnings home. But many big banks have stopped handling the transfers, saying US requirements to crack down on terror financing are too complex and not worth the risk.

Friday’s rally came a day after 15 hawalas in Minnesota stopped accepting wire transfers because the bank that handles the majority of the transactions, Sunrise Community Banks, planned to close their accounts, citing similar concerns.

The article follows with a couple of sob stories before it tells us there is proof that Somali refugees are sending money to Al-shabaab.

Sunrise’s decision came weeks after two Minnesota women were convicted of conspiracy to provide support to Al Shabab, a group at the centre of violence in Somalia and one that the US says is tied to Al Qaeda. Evidence showed the women used the hawala’s to send money to the terror group.

Maybe the next refugee who returns to Africa for terror training could just take money in his underwear.

Then it’s good to see that the Obama/Holder US Justice Department is sticking by its guns on the terror financing issue.  It’s a wonder they have time between defending guns walking south and persecuting US Sheriffs.

Sunrise Community Banks said it would consider extending the service if it was given a way to minimise its risk. But US Attorney B Todd Jones said a waiver is not possible.

“The Department of Justice doesn’t give anyone a free pass right up front for possible future criminal activity,” Mr Jones said.

Wait for it!  Someone will cave-in and the practice will be continued.