Update May 29th: Jewish Family Services which initially resettled the Muslim Somalis says it will work to rectify the situation, here.
Mayor: “No mas, no more!”
Wyoming are you listening! Does anyone wonder anymore how “pockets of resistance” are building to this program that is overloading your cities and towns with impoverished third-worlders?
And, even though the Mayor previously called for a moratorium for Springfield, I see Springfield is still on the State Department’s preferred resettlement sites list!
Here is the latest from MassLive:
Somali family (father, two women, 12 kids) relocated from roach-infested house with no electricity! The two women are said to be sisters—Ha! Ha!
SPRINGFIELD – City officials said Tuesday that Somali refugees including 12 children were found living in deplorable conditions in a Union Street apartment that had a heavy infestation of roaches and no electricity.
The duplex apartment at 515 Union St. was condemned Thursday by the city, and the tenants — believed to number three adults and 12 children — were relocated after Code Enforcement and Housing officials were notified and conducted the inspection, city officials said.
“It was the heaviest infestation of roaches I have seen in years,” said David Cotter, the city’s deputy director of code enforcement in the Housing Division. “They were all over the walls, floors, ceilings, window areas, doorways. I ordered all the inspectors out of there until we could get a full extermination report.”
According to police, one child was doing her homework outside the building under a street lamp on Wednesday night due to the lack of electricity, Cotter said.
Mayor renews call for a halt to any new resettlement in Springfield. The only way to get the attention of the State Department and the arrogant contractors is to make a huge publicity stink, so readers, help Springfield by spreading this news far and wide across America!
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, who has been critical of the refugee resettlement policies in Springfield in the past, renewed his criticism on Tuesday. Refugees have not received adequate follow-up services from the resettlement agencies, from the federal level on down, leaving them to be a strain on city services, Sarno said.
“Where is the accountability?” Sarno said.
The residents were living in poverty and in crowded, unsafe conditions, Sarno said.
Sarno had urged the federal government to stop locating new refugees in Springfield last year, and called for a moratorium again on Tuesday.
“No mas, no more,” Sarno said.
Contractors are surely saying among themselves, but wouldn’t dare say so publicly at this moment: NOT our problem, we were only responsible for them for up to 8 months in 2003! Surely even the bureaucrats at the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in HHS) are saying—people don’t understand, it’s not our job to take care of refugees for years. But, you know what! Whose fault is that that the public doesn’t understand the program?
The complexity and secrecy surrounding refugee resettlement in the US for over three decades now has shielded the federal program from public understanding and scrutiny—until now that is!
Wandering Somalis!
Robert Marmor, president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Family Service of Western Mass., said his agency resettled the initial family in Springfield in September 2003.
The family later moved to Nashville, Tenn., and then returned to Springfield in 2008, and asked for and received assisted then, Marmor said. The family then moved to Utica, N.Y., in 2011, before returning to Springfield, he said.
In Minnesota, 63% of Somalis live in poverty and I will bet in every state where they are congregated a similar statistic is available.
By the way, Mayor Sarno is a Democrat and the irony is that it was none other than the former Senator from Massachusetts—‘Don’t bring-em to Hyannis’ Kennedy who is ultimately responsible for the mess now in Springfield.
Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter brought us the Refugee Act of 1980 and the present system that doles out your tax dollars to unaccountable “non-profit” contractors to drop off the refugees in overloaded cities, care for them for a few months and then walk away.
Our complete archive on Springfield, Mass is here.
Massachusetts is a ‘Wilson-Fish’ state and the program may ultimately be found to be illegally administered.
If you have read this post on May 28th and are infuriated, take a few minutes and write to the US State Department by tomorrow (Thursday) 5 p.m. Go here for more!