Month: April 2014

Another US media propaganda campaign: no more detention for asylum seekers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

While Australia and New Zealand increase the number of detainees—migrants who have arrived illegally on their shores and asked for asylum, in the US the Open Borders lobbyists, including federal refugee contractors at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, if it were up to them, want no one detained.

Is there (more) money in it for the contractors? That is what I want to know!

Keegan Hamilton (a freelance reporter from NYC who writes for the Village Voice) has picked the wrong poster boy for his detention sob story published at the Houston Press!

Reporter Keegan Hamilton really lays it on thick in this propaganda piece.

Hussein Mohamed, the Somali star of the story, had a legal pathway to America (see yesterday’s post, 3,708 Somalis came to the US legally in the first six months of this fiscal year).  He was living safely in Kenya (not Somalia) when he launched his trek to America.  And, it strains credulity that he had a life savings large enough to pay traffickers the cash needed for his half way around the world travels to the Mexican border.

From the  Houston Press  ‘For Many Refugees, the Journey to America Ends in a Cold Jail Cell’ (wahhhhhh!):

Hussein Mohamed took a hard road to America. Born into a minority clan in a nation rife with ethnic conflict, the boyish 24-year-old with gangly limbs and intense brown eyes describes fleeing his village in Somalia in 2012 after gunmen threatened to kill him. Mohamed says he was forced to quit his jobs as an English teacher and taxi driver and escape to neighboring ­Kenya. After making his way to South Africa, he forked over his life savings to human smugglers, who shipped him across the Atlantic to Brazil and guided him north through the jungles of South and Central America into Mexico.  [I bet if you gave this one paragraph to the average American and asked if he should be detained while his asylum claim is adjudicated, 90% of those asked would say ‘incarcerate him.’—ed]

When he finally arrived at a border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, this past summer, Mohamed thought he’d safely reached the end of a harrowing ten-month journey. He had no inkling of the ordeal awaiting him on the other side of the Rio Grande.

Mohamed approached a U.S. Border Patrol agent and recounted his story. He explained that he wanted to seek asylum, a classification of refugee status granted to people who arrive in the United States having fled persecution in their homeland. He was immediately handcuffed and placed in immigration detention: a cold, cramped cell in a privately owned and operated prison facility. Soon after, along with hundreds of other detainees, he was herded onto a cargo plane and transferred without explanation to a jail in Newark, New Jersey.   [Newark—eeek!—ed]

Then we are told about his dreams of a job and a family in California—blah! blah! blah!

Instead, he will likely be deported, shipped back to the war-torn country on the Horn of Africa he worked so hard to escape. Mohamed’s request for asylum was denied because he lacks a passport or other documents to confirm his identity. [He could be al-Shabaab—ed] He has filed an appeal, and his detention ticks on indefinitely.  [He is safe and is fed, right!—ed]

There are no statutory limits to the amount of time a non-citizen like Mohamed may be held in immigration detention. When the process goes smoothly, asylum seekers tend to be released in a matter of weeks. Many end up imprisoned for much longer.  [Obviously for a reason!—ed]

So how many ‘poor souls’ like Mohamed are in detention?  A measly 6,000 (in the last three years) out of the tens of thousands who arrive each year asking for asylum.

Approximately 6,000 survivors of torture — exiles from Iran, Myanmar, Syria and other nations with brutal regimes — were detained in immigration jails while seeking asylum over the past three years, according to a 2013 report by the Center for Victims of Torture.

Now, are you ready for it!  Below is the most revealing paragraph in this whole pathetic propaganda story!    The Lutherans have a contract to get asylum seekers out of detention and house them in your neighborhoods.

The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIARS oops! LIRS) is a federal refugee contractor (96% of their income comes from you!) and they seem now to have parlayed that role into one where they are the guardians of people like Hussein Mohamed in several US cities.   Recently they lobbied the administration for a relaxation of detention for illegal aliens, are they looking for future ‘clients’ for their ‘services’?

Thirty two detainees have been released into the care of LIRS (and signed up  for welfare) in the last 20 days in the trial project! They say they aren’t being paid yet for this effort (although remember 96% of their funds already comes from taxpayers, did Keegan know that? Did he ask how they would pay for this pilot project?), they want to convince Congress that this is what should be done—halfway houses you might call them—for thousands eventually.  LOL! Like any good business they are expanding their client base!

Though the political climate looks bleak for advocates of asylum reform, an ongoing pilot project offers a glimmer of hope. The project allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at facilities in New York City, Newark, San Antonio, Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul to release select detainees seeking asylum into a program coordinated by the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. As of March 31, the program has helped secure temporary housing and social services for 32 people, including survivors of torture, victims of domestic abuse and LGBT individuals, all of whom would otherwise have remained jailed indefinitely.

Read it all, Keegan does eventually discuss the frauds in the asylum racket, but having chosen Hussein Mohamed (if that is his name because he came with no papers), he obviously thinks Mohamed (with the gangly limbs and intense brown eyes) can’t possibly be a fraud.

 

UN says other EU countries can now send ’em back to Bulgaria

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I bet the Bulgarians are thrilled!  (Not!)

Civil patrols in Sofia—Bulgaria for Bulgarians! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/world/europe/far-right-gains-as-syrians-reach-eastern-europe.html?_r=0

 

This is just a short news item to keep our Bulgaria archive up-to-date.  Bulgaria, on the border with Turkey, has been a gateway for Syrians and Africans to slip through the border from Turkey and get a foothold in Europe.  They really do not want to stay in Bulgaria, wanting instead to get to the countries with more goodies to give away, like Germany.

Should they slip through their country of entry, the EU has a policy that says “asylum seekers” must be returned to the first country in which they arrived to be processed there, thus placing the largest ‘refugee’ burden on border countries, like Italy, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria and Malta.

According to the UN, Bulgaria had been doing such a rotten job taking care of refugees, that previously the so-called refugees were not returned there.  Now that has changed.  Notice that the UN is calling the shots, the EU isn’t even in charge.

From the Global Post:

The UN’s refugee agency said Tuesday it was partially lifting a call to stop returning asylum seekers to Bulgaria because conditions there had improved.

Under current rules, European countries must return asylum seekers to the first country on the continent they arrive in.

But in January the United Nations urged European nations to suspend all returns to Bulgaria, citing “systematic deficiencies in reception conditions and asylum procedures” after the country was swamped with refugees from war-ravaged Syria.

See all of our recent posts on the ‘invasion of Europe’ here.

So who has been coming to America via refugee “recruitment” this fiscal year

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We are half way through fiscal year 2014 (it began on October 1, 2013).

By the way, “recruitment” is the word being used by opponents of Gov. Matt Meads idea to resettle refugees in Wyoming, and I like it.  The word “resettlement” is getting stale and I’ve noticed the refugee industry using it less and less as well.  They seem to be favoring the word “placement” instead.

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society wants 75,000 Syrians admitted to US over 5 years. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/03/29/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-us-should-bring-75000-syrians-to-us-over-next-5-years/

President Barack Obama set a cap of 70,000 refugees to be placed in your cities and towns for this fiscal year in his annual determination letter of Oct. 2, 2013.

In accordance with section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the “Act”) (8 U.S.C. 1157), as amended, and after appropriate consultations with the Congress, I hereby make the following determinations and authorize the following actions:

The admission of up to 70,000 refugees to the United States during fiscal year (FY) 2014 is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest; provided that this number shall be understood as including persons admitted to the United States during FY 2014 with Federal refugee resettlement assistance under the Amerasian immigrant admissions program, as provided below.

The 70,000 cap does not include asylum seekers/asylees which number in the tens of thousands, those receiving temporary protected status (TPS), and diversity visa lottery winners (another 50,000!).

Note that there is a 2,000 unallocated reserve which is where some get the number of Syrians that we might admit.  Many Syrians are getting into the US by other means and signing up for TPS or asking for asylum, but we have not begun, nor has the President announced, how many Syrians we are going to take.  I read that as something must be going on behind the scenes for the flood gates not to have been opened yet.

So, six months in, where are we?

Check out this database at WRAPS.net.  In an effort to keep you in the dark, the feds have removed some data bases that previously were available to the public.  One missing set of data that I found especially useful was the one with ‘arrivals by city and country’ (where you could see which ethnic groups were being resettled in your city).  At least they still have the ‘arrivals by state and country’ so you can see how many you are getting in your state and from where they are coming.

For my purposes right now, I’m looking at ‘map arrivals by nationality.’   For the first six months of the year the US State Department admitted 32,810 refugees.   This is the order for the top countries, smaller numbers come from dozens of other countries.  Iraqis top the list as they did last year.

Iraq:  9,394

Burma:  6,781

Bhutan: 4,424

Somalia:  3,708

Cuba:  2,154

Iran:  1,470

Dem. Rep. Congo: 1,381

Sudan:  861

Eritrea:  842

Afghanistan:  382

A couple of other countries of interest are Colombia (204) and we admitted 90 Palestinians.

Where are the Syrians?

26 Syrians have been admitted so far this year.  The US is under enormous media pressure generated by the ‘human rights industry’ to admit Syrians, so again, there must be some serious squabbling going on behind the scenes in the the State Department and the Dept. of Homeland Security for this number to be so small at this point in the year.  Maybe there are members of Congress flexing some muscle (for a change!)?

By the way, Brenda Walker writing at VDARE has an excellent report earlier this week on the media push for Syrian ‘refugee’ admission to the US.

Walker begins:

The top newspaper in our capital city, the Washington Post, is mouthpiecing a Refugee Industry campaign to convince Congress to welcome thousands of Syrians fleeing their civil war. But you can bet they won’t be resettled in Georgetown.

Read it all!

 

Minnesota: Somalis protest Kenyan crackdown on terrorists; want US to intervene

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Kenya may be one of the only countries in Africa which has a will for self-preservation and so they have begun to clean-up some hotbeds of anti-Kenyan activity, especially neighborhoods associated with the Westgate Mall slaughter by a band of Somali al-Shabaab terrorists*** last September.

 

Community organizer, Jibril Afyare (center?), led 100 picketers in St. Paul condemning Kenya.

However, the Minnesota Somali “community” apparently doesn’t think Kenya has the right to save itself and agitators there, including newly elected city council member Abdi Warsame, are calling on the US government to step in. They say they want “justice.”

From MinnPost:

After members of the Twin Cities’ Somali-American community said their afternoon prayers Friday, they gathered at the state Capitol to express solidarity and demand justice for relatives in Kenya.

Reports from human rights groups, news stories and communications with relatives describe abuses against Somalis in Eastleigh, a suburb of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi that is known for its large Somali population.

As part of an ongoing counter-terrorism crackdown, Kenyan security forces launched house-to-house searches in Eastleigh last Monday.

US government should intervene in Kenyan affairs says community organizer.

Nearly 100 picketers joined the Friday demonstration in St. Paul, condemning actions by Kenyan government and demanding the release of those detained.

Jibril Afyare, an activist who organized the demonstration, said the event was meant to raise awareness and ask the U.S. government to intervene and stand with Somalis in Kenya.

Warsame:  Somalis in prison everywhere!

Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame, Somali-born with personal ties to Somalis in Kenya, was among the elected officials who attended Friday’s Capitol gathering.

Addressing the crowd in Somali, Warsame said: “Somalis everywhere are in prisons. We’re in prison in Hennepin County. We’re in prison in Nairobi. We’re in prison in Mogadishu.”

LOL! Maybe there is a reason for that!

As I said the other day, why don’t young, strong, educated Somalis like Afyare and Warsame go back to Somalia and save their country from further ruin instead of flapping their gums from the safety of Minnesota.  I think I know why—it is not about Somalia.  They are more interested in Al-Hijra—the Islamic doctrine of immigration—for both Kenya and America.

*** Remember readers that there are Somalis in prison in the US for sending financial support to al-Shabaab.

Need for court interpreters increasing in Wyoming

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Governor Matt Mead keeps saying, they (refugees) are coming to Wyoming anyway, so we need a plan.

According to this article some immigrants are arriving in the Wyoming court system and require interpreters that are not readily available.  The Wyoming Public Radio story mentions Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, and an occasional Laotian or Somali speaker.

However, keep in mind that a “refugee recruitment” office in the state is not going to solve the problem of immigrants on trial in Wyoming and in need of skilled interpreters—it will only exacerbate the problem because of the myriad languages refugees to America are speaking.

For review, the top nine languages (in descending order) spoken by refugees in the last 6 years are:  Arabic, Nepali, Sgaw Karen, Somali, Spanish, Chaldean, Burmese, Armenian, Kayah and more than 8000 refugees in those 6 years spoke “other minor languages.”

Utah Burmese refugee found guilty earlier this year in rape and murder of little girl. Appropriate interpreter was initially difficult to find.

We have written much lately about the expensive refugee criminal trials where costs for court interpreters were a hefty portion of the bill (see Utah Burmese rape murder trial for instance).  Are you ready for this in Wyoming?

A refugee resettlement office will have no role in dealing with the secondary migrants already arriving in Wyoming.  Their job will be to bring new refugees into Wyoming and that is what they are paid to do!

Here is how the Wyoming Public Radio story begins (Hat tip” ‘pungentpeppers’):

Wyoming is a largely rural state with limited diversity. But as the population grows and the state attracts all sorts of newcomers. Wyoming is learning to accommodate the changing population. One of the areas where the state is making headway is interpretation services in its courts. Wyoming Public Radio’s Irina Zhorov reports.

Not mentioned here is that it is federal law that appropriate court interpreters (and interpreters for all sorts of social welfare/healthcare/education) be provided to the newcomers and billed to LOCAL taxpayers.   Note to “welcoming” communities—it is expensive!