Recipe to save dying counties: Get a meatpacking plant!

And,  immigrant workers to go with it!

Honest to goodness, that is part of the prescription offered by AP reporter cum opinion writer, Hope Yen, in a story headlined: ‘Census shows record 1 in 3 US counties now dying.’

And, the only way to save them is to increase the population and pour in the immigrants as the baby boomers start leaving this life.   But, she offers not one shred of evidence that pouring in the immigrants brings economic recovery.  Frankly, the only economic boost poor and uneducated immigrants might bring a city or county is because with them come FEDERAL WELFARE dollars!

Muslim employees have clashed with the JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., over taking breaks to offer prayers, as called for by their religion. Here, some of the employees are seen gathering at Lincoln Park in Greeley. Photo by Sara Loven, Daily Tribune via AP

Longtime readers here know what meatpackers have brought to some towns in the Midwest and South—demands for religious accommodation for Muslims, ethnic squabbles, crime, Section 8 housing, overstressed school systems, food stamp fraud and the list goes on.

So, to Ms Yen and her comrades—population increases will not save a county or city when the population is an economic drain and causes social upheaval—-just ask France (Moroccans), Germany (Turks), Greece (Afghans) and the UK (Pakis) if the immigrant hordes have brought an overall benefit to their economies.   Heck, we recently learned that Germany was sending its elderly pensioners to Eastern Europe and Asia for their nursing home care because the Germans couldn’t afford their old people.

Here is the AP story, but first read about how immigration is killing Dekalb County, Georgia (here yesterday).  Why do these pro-immigration news(?) reports never bother to mention the downside?   And, you might also re-visit Professor Kotkin who also jumps to the conclusion that more diversity brings positive change here.

 WASHINGTON (AP) — A record number of U.S. counties – more than 1 in 3 – are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere.

New 2012 census estimates released Thursday highlight the population shifts as the U.S. encounters its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression.

The findings also reflect the increasing economic importance of foreign-born residents as the U.S. ponders an overhaul of a major 1965 federal immigration law. Without new immigrants, many metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and St. Louis would have posted flat or negative population growth in the last year.  [Why the assumption that population growth means economic growth, unless we are counting state and federal welfare dollars?—ed]

“Immigrants are innovators, entrepreneurs, they’re making things happen. They create jobs,” said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, at an immigration conference in his state last week. Saying Michigan should be a top destination for legal immigrants to come and boost Detroit and other struggling areas, Snyder made a special appeal: “Please come here.”

Frankly, Governor Snyder that is gobbledegook!  MOST immigrants starting businesses could never get the business off the ground without government support like the micro-loans supported by taxpayer dollars we are distributing like Pez candy!   Just look around your own local city—how many immigrant-run restaurants survive more than a year or so?  Now, convenience stores might survive a little longer as they are scamming SNAP (food stamp) programs to keep themselves afloat.

Again, this scribe at AP reports as a good thing for (we presume) the economy that the US population is growing thanks to immigrants.  But, let me ask, is there some point when population has grown enough?  Is it just possible that some towns and counties are going to decline in population?  Or, is there no upper limit?

….the U.S. population as a whole continues to grow, boosted by immigration from abroad and relatively higher births among the mostly younger migrants from Mexico, Latin America and Asia.

Quoting a sociology professor at the Univ. of New Hampshire:  solve your economic woes with something dramatic—get a meatpacking plant!

Unless something dramatic changes – for instance, new development such as a meatpacking plant to attract young Hispanics – these areas are likely to have more and more natural decrease.”

It’s not the immigrants, it is the federal money!

Near the very end of this pro-open borders pitch, comes one line that is really closer to the truth about how some cities are surviving and some aren’t—-those surviving are at the receiving end of a federal money pipeline!

Since 2010, many of the fastest-growing U.S. metro areas have also been those that historically received a lot of federal dollars…

So what happens when the federal flow begins to slow?  Get ready for chaos as all the minority and immigrant groups, used to surviving on ‘social welfare’, see the money dry up.  This can’t go on forever.  We all know that.

About the photo:  We reported this news from Colorado back in 2008.   LOL!  See Greeley 2012 trying to get money out of the meatpackers for the educational costs associated with immigrant kids!

For new readers:  If you would like to know more about the multi-culti joys of meatpacking towns, visit our Greeley/Swift/Somali controversy category (86 posts!).    Or, for other places in the US where the refugee program via the US State Department supplies meatpacking labor, just type ‘meatpacker’ into our search function.

Another suggestion for the sequestration budget cutting ax: IDAs

Your tax dollars!

IDAs—Individual Development Accounts!

What is that?  It’s a fancy name for your tax dollars matching a refugee’s savings.  For every dollar a refugee saves in this program (administered not by a government agency, but laundered through a non-profit), he or she is matched a dollar from the federal treasury.  I am not kidding!

How many times over the years have I heard someone complain—how are these refugees getting cars and such—this is how.  The monies can be used toward purchasing a car, a house, a business or education.

Here is a profile of a refugee eligible for this special deal.  He/she is usually employed (and may earn up to $3000 a month!) and own a house, have one car, and no more than $10,000 in assets, and can sign up for the program.   Nothing like this is available to a low income American citizen that I know of!  Ever heard of it?

$4-5 million could be saved annually if we dumped this discriminatory program!

Like St. Patrick’s never-ending pot of gold, the federal treasury is available for certain special groups of people.

In 2009 (from that finally-released three years late 2009 Annual Report to Congress, p.38) we spent $4.6 million on the program, again by passing your money through an unaccountable non-profit agency.   If we insist on redistributing taxpayers money this way, couldn’t the program go through the state refugee agencies which are at least nominally open to public scrutiny?

By the way, ORR tells us that 8% of participants quit the program—I wonder do they give your money back?

Here then are the resettlement contractors and ethnic community group grants for 2009.  I bet they each get to keep a cut of the pie for their own “administration” of the program.

Continuation grants awarded in FY 2009 to the following programs with cycles that will end on September 29, 2010 are:

Lao Family Community Development, Inc., Oakland, CA, $200,000

World Relief DuPage, Wheaton, IL, $235,000

ISED Ventures, Des Moines, IA, $235,000

Jewish Family & Vocational Services, Inc., Louisville, KY, $230,000

International Institute of Metropolitan St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, $180,000

New York Association for New Americans, New York, NY, $300,000

Women’s Opportunities Resource Center, Philadelphia, PA, $235,000

Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Nashville, TN, $194,392.

Continuation grants awarded in FY 2009 to the following programs with cycles that will end on September 29, 2012 are:

Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, San Jose, CA, $204,000

Western Kentucky Refugee Mutual Assistance Society, Inc., Bowling Green, KY, $150,000

Economic and Community Development Institute, Columbus, OH, $230,000

Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Augusta, ME, $207,901

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Camden, Inc., Camden, NJ, $225,000

Diocese of Olympia, Seattle, WA, $205,000

ECDC Enterprise Development Group, Arlington, VA, $280,000

Mountain States Group, Boise, ID, $201,018

United Way, Inc., Los Angeles, CA, $240,000

Neighborhood Assets, Spokane, WA, $50,000

International Rescue Committee Phoenix, New York, NY, $230,000

Alliance for Multicultural Community Service Inc., Houston, TX, $203,500

Catholic Charities, Diocese of St. Petersburg, Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, $200,000

Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell, Inc., Lowell, MA,$192,380

I wonder if the Health and Human Services Inspector General has ever looked into this program?  Does anyone audit these outfits?

Editors note:  This is the third in my series of suggested budget cuts.  Here I suggested we could cut the grants for refugee “healthy marriages,” and here for the little ACORN-like ethnic community based organizations.  Including the IDAs, I’ve now saved the US taxpayers over $13 million!  I wonder what the sequester is going to require ORR to cut overall?