If you are in the DC area, this looks like a great opportunity to get some facts on asylum fraud in America!
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Month: April 2014
Wyoming newspaper, too lazy to find facts, calls names
“Haters” and “bigots” that is what mainstream media publications call anyone searching for the FACTS involving anything to do with immigration in America these days.
So it is no surprise to see this editorial (not a letter to the editor mind you!) from the educated and erudite and oh-so-sophisticated making up the editorial staff of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
The message is you are a “bigot,” “bigot,” “hater,” “hater,” “racist,” “xenophobe,” (LOL! the more powerful if they say the words many times!) if you have any questions about a federal or state government program involving immigration and your tax dollars, so shut up. It is pathetic really.
Here is how they begin, but you can read it all yourself! And, it is this sort of journalism that is at the very root of why Refugee Resettlement Watch exists to this day!
Tribune Eagle (Hat tip: Joanne):
The debate over Wyoming setting up a program to accommodate refugees from foreign lands is similar to the debate over decriminalizing pot in The Cowboy State. Some think that as long as it is illegal to possess marijuana in Wyoming, there will be no pot here.
That same ignorance is behind the opposition to creating a refugee program here: If there’s no system in place, refugees won’t come to Wyoming.
That’s just wrong, Gov. Matt Mead has pointed out, because refugees are already living here. Having no plan in place to ease them into the system n no, there will be no “refugee camp,” despite claims from the conspiracy theory crowd n simply gives the state no control and few options to provide help to the refugees who do come calling on Wyoming to make it their home.
Unfortunately, this issue has drawn the haters out from under their rocks since Mr. Mead announced a few months ago that his office was exploring the issue. (Wyoming is the only state without some kind of refugee settlement plan.)
The McCraken family owns this newspaper and Mike McCraken is the publisher. They own the Casper Star Tribune too (this paper and the Star-Tribune have the widest circulation in the state), so it looks like they control the news in Wyoming.
History lesson from the archives of Refugee Resettlement Watch.
We, a couple of women, began RRW in 2007 when our local newspaper, the Hagerstown Herald Mail, refused to do any investigation into how the first group of newly arrived refugees ‘found their way’ to our rural Maryland county (dropped off by the Virginia Council of Churches). Many problems ensued that mostly revolved around the refugees not being adequately cared for by the VCoC. Citizens wanted answers.
Curious too about how the government program works, I asked the Herald-Mail to please do some small amount of investigating about how the program works—how did a church group from Virginia get to drop off hundreds of mostly Meskhetians (Turkish Russians) and no one knew about it, or few knew about it.
Naively, at the time, I asked the paper to find some answers to the following questions. I thought if the public understood the program there would be less anxiety in the community.
This is from the text of an e-mail I sent to a reporter in 2007:
Here are some (maybe more than you were looking for!) questions:
1) Under what authority can a private religious group choose to bring refugees into a community? Why Hagerstown?
2) Are assessments done of the community and its ability to absorb more people who will, at least initially, live below the poverty line? Do we know how many people in Wash. Co. live below the poverty line? How many in Hagerstown?
3) Is there any accounting done of the cost to the community? For instance, is there high demand now for low income apartments in the Hagerstown area? Will more immigrants push up the cost of housing for all low income people in the county?
4) Are elected officials consulted before and during the process? Is there any legal authority that requires such consultation? Was there any outreach to Commissioners and City Council prior to the establishment of Virginia Council of Churches program here?
5) Who pays for the immigrants housing, food, medical until they are fully established?
6) Is there a saturation point determined, or can this program just go on indefinitely? Who determines saturation point?
7) Since these refugees will have low skilled work, is health insurance available to them, or must they depend on public health care? Is there any accounting of how many in the first group are now covered by medical insurance? What has been the response of public health services?
8) Are schools in Washington County overcrowded? Maybe the initial 200 refugees have not put a burden on the schools, does anyone know? Will the next 200 put a burden or the 200 after that?
9) Have there been any crimes committed or use of police services during the first wave of immigrants?
10) How well has the original group of refugees learned English? Did all adults attend ESL classes regularly enough to learn?
11) What programs are in place to encourage other assimilation to living in America?
12) Who were the volunteer groups and churches in Washington County that helped support the first wave? Are they still helping with the newcomers? What sort of support did they give to the immigrants? Are there such people lined up to help with the next wave?
13) Are there regular meetings in Washington County to assess the problems/progress of the first group?
Do elected officials attend? Does the public attend?
14) Is it a normal practice for a group such as Virginia Council of Churches to go to elected officials and ask for funds ($15,000 in this case)?
15) Why did VCoC leave Carroll County? Why are they not locating these people in Virginia? Have those cities in Virginia been saturated?
16) Does VCoC get government funds for its overhead? If so, how much?
The paper refused to even try to answer these straightforward questions and began the editorial name-calling. If I recall correctly they weren’t even so crass, or so mean, as to call those of us with questions “bigots,” “racists” or “xenophobes,” but we were called “unwelcoming” and “kitten kickers.”
That did it! If the news media could not be counted on to find facts on how refugee resettlement works, the average citizen (paying for the program) had to have another source for information—RRW was born!
Bottomline! You have a right to know every detail about how your tax dollars are being spent and how your community will be changed! Don’t let their name-calling silence you!
I just went back and re-read the Wyoming Tribune Eagle editorial and note, at the end, that they have the audacity to advise the Governor to cut any citizens with questions out of the process when getting input on the plan—unbelievable! Is Wyoming now Moscow?
Shame on you Tribune Eagle, if this program cannot survive full and open scrutiny and public discussion, should it be secretly put in place?
New Readers! To catch up on the Wyoming controversy, click here for all of our previous posts.
Comment worth noting: About that Syrian Occupy Movement in France
Editors note: When we receive a comment to a post that we don’t want to lose buried in the comments section, we highlight it as a special post. Here, reader ‘pungentpeppers’ responds to yesterday’s post in our ‘Invasion of Europe’ series about Syrians camping (occupying!) in a Paris park.
From ‘pungentpeppers:’
About that “Syrian Occupy Movement” in France… French news reports give more insight as to what is happening.
The French are no stranger to squatter camps. In the past Roma Gypsy families arriving from Eastern Europe have set up camp for themselves on public and private land. There is just not enough available housing. Where to put these many newcomers has become a major headache for France. This latest group of park squatters in Saint-Ouen, in the Paris suburbs, are Syrian Muslims, and practically all are Sunni (like the Syrian rebels).
Local Muslims living in the area are bringing the Syrians food, raising money for hotel rooms, and allowing them to sleep at a local mosque. One Syrian at the park, Lamia al-Nassan, was interviewed by TV’s France24. She praised the local Muslims: “Fortunately the Muslims are here to feed us – otherwise, we’d be dead!”
Unrealistic Expectations: Per the L’Express newspaper, these Syrians falsely believed that, as soon as they arrived in France, the “State of Human Rights” (as they call France) would immediately provide each family with suitable lodging and preferably asylum.
A news report by France24 features at the top a photo of Lamia, age 24. Dressed in black Islamic attire, she holds an infant – the youngest of her four children. She does not mince her words in expressing her disappointment with the French: “I thought France would protect us, that we could put the children in school. I sold all my jewelry – spent everything. Now we have nothing and have to stay here.” She laments further, “How could I have imagined that in France, they would leave us to sleep in a park?”
Costly Problem: These families, if allowed to settle, will cost the French taxpayer dearly. Their culture values huge families; their women do not work outside the home. One of the fathers, named “Mohamed” by the newspaper L’Express, looks like he is 60 years old. The father of eight children, he is shown sitting alongside a young girl of preschool age. He will not support himself, let alone a wife and eight kids.
All Those Pregnant Women: Per France24, temporary lodgings were found for the group, and the municipality has locked up the park. However, pregnant Syrian women have returned to sit on the sidewalk alongside the park’s iron fence. One of them, Sonia Ramadan, is six months pregnant and she has not seen a doctor – but she dares not pass through the doors of a French hospital because she does not speak a word of French. Zeyna al-Nasser is two months pregnant. At age 22, this frail-looking young woman already has three other children. One wonders, despite young children and pregnancy, why did these Muslim women travel with their menfolk, across many safe countries to non-Muslim lands where they do not speak the language? Were they merely on a quest for the best, or is it something else that drives them?
Their Motives: Are They Syrian Rebels or Are They Opportunists? The moment these migrants crossed the border from Syria, these migrants had reached safety. However, they kept on traveling. They journeyed through several Sunni Muslim countries to reach Morocco.
In Morocco, they paid smugglers for passage to Spanish Melilla. “Mohammed” told the L’Express reporter that he paid 1200 Euros (about $1,660) to cross the fence separating Melilla from Morocco. Once in Melilla, humanitarian groups gave them plane tickets for Barcelona. From there, they headed for France. Were they, as the L’Express journalist Karim Ben Said, who is Muslim himself, puts it – merely seeking a “normal life” with their wives and their children? Or do they have some other political motive connected to Sunni Islam?
One of the Syrians, “Jamal” told L’Express that he first went to Lebanon, but that the Shia Hezbollah does not want them there. He then moved to Jordan but left, even though most of his family remains there. He then traveled to Algeria, but had to leave because that government supports the Syrian president. Was Jamal a fighter, and therefore could not stay in Jordan or Lebanon or Algeria? (Dare France accept such asylum seekers?) Or, was he merely dissatisfied with life in those particular countries, finding spurious excuses as to why they are unsuitable?
Puzzlingly, Jamal denies that Europe was his goal: “We did not necessarily aim to reach Europe, it is the circumstances that led us here.” The stories of these many Syrians, however, discredit Jamal’s tale of accidental arrival in France. It appears they were in pursuit of their personal goal – life in the rich European country named France.
Contrary to their expectations, these Syrians might not get what they wish for. France has already disappointed them – and the rule of law states that a refugee does not have the automatic right to live in the country of his own choosing. The Syrians might not be able to force the French to settle them. If so, per L’Express, some of them have their eyes set on another target: Sweden!
To see photos and French language reporting about these Syrian better life seekers, see:
http://www.france24.com/fr/20140424-syrie-parc-saint-ouen-guerre-refugiees-syriennes-france/
For more good comments from readers, check out our ‘comments worth noting’ category here.
And for more of our ‘Invasion of Europe’ series, click here.
Catholic Charities brings refugees to South Jersey; find out who is coming to your state/city
I was born and raised in South Jersey so this news from Catholic Charities interested me. But, it also serves as an opportunity for me to discuss something that I’ve found troubling of late.
For several years (RRW began in 2007) it was easy enough to find statistics on how many refugees and from what country were being placed in what towns and cities during a given time period. Those data bases are impossible to find now. Maybe not ‘impossible’ if one has enormous time to search, but I do believe the federal government is making it more challenging for citizens to find information on the numbers and nationalities of refugees being resettled in specific locations.
So, it was interesting to me to see what Catholic Charities is saying about the demographic/social/economic changes they are bringing to South Jersey.
New readers!
We have so many new readers just starting out on their quest to figure out how refugee resettlement (aka placement) works. And, although we have been over this many times through the years, every day new people start their own investigations and of course never saw the story we might have posted in say 2008. So, first check our fact sheet by clicking here.
Then, here is a list (at ORR) of the resettlement officials in every state (it should mostly be up-to-date). The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is located in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services and after the initial resettlement paid for by the US State Department, it is ORR that doles out the additional cash to the contractors, who in turn funnel the money (your money) to subcontractors.
The first step (after reading our fact sheet) in your quest to figure out how the program works is to contact your state coordinators (on this list). Be pleasant and polite and ask for the data for your state—who is coming, who has come, how many, from where and most importantly what towns and cities have been chosen? And, don’t forget to find out which contractors they are using (then research the contractor and its finances).
We can’t emphasize enough that you must get your facts together.
Now for anyone, other than me, interested in South Jersey, here is Catholic Charities:
From January 2009 through September 2013, 760 Refugee Newcomers were resettled by Catholic Charities, Diocese of Camden’s Refugee Resettlement Program. At the time of their resettlement, the Refugee Newcomers joined South Jersey communities from twelve Countries of Origin: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Sudan, Vietnam.
In the last program year (October 2012 to September 2013), Refugee Newcomers from eight different countries were resettled in South Jersey. Refugees were placed in market-rate apartments and houses rented from private landlords in a variety of towns, based on the availability of safe, affordable housing and proximity to shopping, employment and public transportation. The towns are: Atlantic City, Audubon, Barnegat, Collingswood, Haddon Heights, Haddon Township, Moorestown, Oaklyn, Palmyra, Pleasantville, Sicklerville, Somerdale, Trenton, Turnersville, Wildwood Crest, Willingboro, Woodlynne.
Of the 110 refugees who arrived in the last year, 32 children were enrolled in nine local public school systems:
In April 2013, Catholic Charities was awarded the Refugee School Impact Grant to assist and increase the support to refugee students and families in being academically successful. [Note that the grant for school impact went to Catholic Charities not the school systems themselves.—ed] Catholic Charities’ Refugee School Based Family Support Specialist focused on the Somerdale and Oaklyn school districts, which had twenty-eight and twenty-two refugee students enrolled, respectively. This program worked in these schools one day per week and provided enrollment and support services to other students and schools as needed and continued into the 2013-2014 school year.
Catholic Charities continues to work in collaboration with social service and medical providers, school systems, landlords, employers, churches and volunteers to assist refugees in becoming self-sufficient. These partnerships have resulted in over 75% rate of employment for employable adults within the first three months of arrival in 2012 and 2013.*** Through employment and on-going programs, Refugee Newcomers have become stable, productive contributors to South Jersey.
*** Watch out for the employment data trick described in a post at Friends of Refugees in January. Blogger Chris Coen is a critic of resettlement contractors (as are we), but he comes at it from another angle.
Here is what Coen said in a critical post about a Tennessee resettlement contractor (Hat tip: Joanne):
A former case manager also sent us information about the agency and pointed out that the refugee employment figures are dishonest as most of the refuges have only temporary employment that does not help them to pay rent and be self-sufficient. The nature of the temp jobs also means that the refugees will be unemployed just a short time after the agency reports them employed to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at 90 days and 180 days. (This, however, is a problem throughout the refugee program, and it doesn’t seem that the the ORR has much of an interest in requiring that resettlement agencies report if refugees are working at temporary or non-temporary jobs.)
This post is archived in our ‘where to find information’ category, here.
Invasion of Europe news: Syrians living in Paris park
Update April 28th: Be sure to see what a reader is reporting about what the French media is saying about this, click here.
The article tells us they have been moving around Africa and Europe indicating that they are asylum shoppers. International asylum protocol says that “refugees” must apply for asylum in the first safe country in which they find themselves, and the European Union has that principle codified in law. Yet, clearly, this Paris group is roaming around looking for a better deal.
From The Local:
Around 150 Syria refugees are living a desperate existence in a small park to the north of Paris. NGOs and France’s Green party are urging authorities to do more to help the families while they wait for their asylum requests to be processed.
They ended up there penniless after wandering from country to country for months.
Yahya, Aziz and 150 other Syrians swapped the brutality and death of a war zone for hand-to-mouth survival in a small park in a working-class suburb of Paris, squeezed in behind a hotel just a few metres away from a busy ring road.
[….]
The 44-year-old, who refuses to give his surname, “abandoned everything” along with his wife and children after Syria erupted into violence in 2011, leaving behind a pretty villa and relinquishing any hope of returning.
Lebanon, Algeria, Egypt, back to Algeria, Morocco, Spain and finally France: “We knocked on every door,” he says, grey hair cut short, black jumper worn out.
It’s a similar story for Aziz, 54, who left Syria at the end of 2012 with his six children and wife.
The family criss-crossed Europe before ending up in the park, which has become his “headquarters.”
Not satisfied with Muslim countries they passed through—“Fortress Europe” is the goal.
Amnesty International said late last year that just 55,000 Syrian refugees had managed to get to what it called “Fortress Europe” and claim asylum in the EU, many heading for Germany or Sweden.
For its part, France has taken in around 3,000 Syrian refugees since the beginning of the conflict.
Meanwhile, security is shaky in Jordan’s largest Syrian camp, here. And, the presence of so many refugees in Lebanon is bringing terrorists into the country where the Lebanese Sunnis and Shiites are taking sides in the neighboring civil war, here.
Bringing large numbers of Syrians to America will solve none of this, it will just bring those problems here.
Oh, and put some more money in the pockets of the refugee contractors!