This is an update about the activities of US Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis, thanks to a reader.
In February, Ellison, the go-to guy for the refugee resettlement industry in Congress, traveled to Mogadishu in order to facilitate keeping the remittance pipeline open from Minnesota to Somalia. As we reported here in January, up to $120 million a month is sent from Minnesota alone to Somalia!
Ellison has been leading the charge to get the federal government to back off of its prohibition on those little mom & pop money transfer businesses sending money to a country that many knew had al-Shabaab terrorists at the other end of the pipeline.
From Minnesota Public Radio last month:
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison visited Somalia’s capital on Tuesday, the first visit in years by a member of Congress to what until recently was considered one of the world’s most dangerous cities.
Ellison, D-Minn., said his visit to Mogadishu fulfills a request from his constituents* with ties to Somalia. Minnesota has one of the largest populations of Somali-Americans in the U.S.
[….]
“I told my constituency I would come here and work for the United States and Somalia relationship, and I am doing that in today’s visit,” Ellison told a news conference in Mogadishu.
[….]
Ellison said his meetings with Somali officials would focus on financial remittances most often sent by Somalis in the U.S. back to family members in Somalia. Such remittances have become harder to make over fears that people sending money could be accused of aiding a terrorist organization such as al-Shabab.
Why don’t lazy reporters put in stories like this one that it’s not just a “fear” that money might end up in the wrong hands, but we have had recent CONVICTIONS of Somalis sending money to al-Shabaab. There are those two (go to hell infidels) women in Minnesota here and then the San Diego Somalis here. It is not a “fear” that it might happen. It has happened.
Besides, why should we be allowing immigrants of all sorts to be sending the US treasury to prop-up the third world—that is exactly what we are doing even if there aren’t potential terrorists at the receiving end. See El Salvador, here.
*For new readers who might be wondering how Ellison got all those Somali constituents, thank the US State Department and its nine major federal refugee resettlement contractors. More Somalis on the way!
We have resettled more than 100,000 Somali refugees to cities large and small in the US over the last 25 years. See one of the most widely read posts here at RRW. Large numbers went to Minneapolis, and now they are spreading out throughout the state. In three years since 9/11 ( Bush years 2004, 2005, 2006) the number of Somalis arriving topped 10,000 per year. Those refugees then began bringing in the family (chain migration!) until 2008 when shock of shocks! the State Department discovered that as many as 30,000 Somalis had lied about their kinship and weren’t related at all. The State Department then closed the “family reunification” program for Somalis. It has recently been re-opened for new and legit family members, but they have no intention of finding and deporting the liars.
In the first 4 months of this fiscal year (Oct. 1 to January 31) we have resettled 2,260 new Somalis which means we are on target to make 2013 a banner year for Somalis entering the US. Never mind that Somalia’s new President is urging Somalis to “come home.”
For more information on Rep. Keith Ellison, click here, for our whole archive.