Palestinians, the UN’s phoney refugees

08/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 22nd: A new column by Solomon—the UN’s refugee welfare racket—here.

Update August 19th: As Palestinian demonstrators take to the streets to protest an Israeli ship planning to dock at Oakland, we should be organizing a major campaign for the US to stop funding UNRWA. And, of course, stop the migration of Palestinian trouble-makers to America!

We have written many times here at RRW about the ‘Palestinians’ as pawns, as the people doomed to be called ‘refugees’ from generation to generation perpetually cared for by a special agency (just for Palestinians!) known as UNRWA.

But, since those same ‘refugees’ have been in the news lately for building cross-border tunnels with money that came from your pocketbooks in order to more stealthily attack Israel, this article at the Financial Post is a good summary of what author Lawrence Solomon calls the “bizarro world” of UNRWA.

Solomon begins with this:

In the up-is-down bizarro world of UNRWA, the number of refugees only grows and grows

RIDDLE: You’re an American citizen, born and raised in the U.S., who has never set foot outside your country. You are also a refugee from a faraway land. What is the explanation?

HINT: Your parents and grandparents are also Americans, and they are also refugees.

ANOTHER HINT: Your children, born to you and your American spouse, are also refugees, and when they are old enough to have children of their own, their children will also be refugees.

This is not a trick question. Such refugees exist on this planet, not only in the U.S. but also in Canada and other countries. In fact, millions of refugees exist on this planet who have never set foot in the place from which they are deemed to have fled. But there’s only one place on this planet that these millions can have come from — Israel and the Palestinian territories — and there’s only one “people” on this planet who, for themselves and their children, can have this refugee status in perpetuity — Palestinians.

This bizarro alternate world is the creation of the United Nations, which established the United Nations Relief and Aid Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA for short.

Read it all. One of the new things I learned was that Canada has already turned off its funding spigot to UNRWA. Why are we funding tunnels and rockets? It is time for the US to follow Canada’s lead and do the same—cut them off!

See our category with 152 previous posts, ‘Israel and refugees,’ for more on this subject.

Minnesota: Somali refugee gets 18 years for attempted murder

08/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Why such a stiff sentence for ‘attempted’ murder of one gang member by another?

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune last week (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

A St. Paul man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for what a Hennepin County prosecutor called a brazen and unprovoked shooting at a Minneapolis food store last year.

Zakaria Yusuf, 25, was convicted of attempted second-degree murder in June. His sentence was the maximum allowed under the state’s sentencing guidelines. Judge Daniel Moreno said Yusuf continues to be arrogant and to have a complete disregard for other people’s lives.

Judge Daniel Moreno: Yusuf is arrogant and has a complete disregard for human life.

According to the criminal complaint and testimony at the trial, the victim, who is a member of the Somali Outlawz Gang, was standing outside the store at 201 W. Lake St. on Sept. 22, talking with two of his friends. Yusuf, who was known to associate with the St. Pistol Boys gang in St. Paul and Somali gangs in the Cedar-Riverside area, walked up to the group, pulled a gun from his waistband and fired it at the victim, hitting him in the arm.

The victim ran into the store and Yusuf kept firing, hitting him several more times. The victim collapsed and Yusuf fired one more time from the doorway, with the bullet hitting the victim’s arm when he threw it across his head for protection. He was hospitalized at Hennepin County Medical Center and eventually was discharged.

However, the victim refused to cooperate with the prosecution and was placed under court-ordered electronic home monitoring to be sure he would show up at the trial.

Meanwhile in Canada, a research project sought to find out why so many Somali youths in Edmonton were turning up dead, but it looks like the same old excuses—not enough opportunity, struggling with the cultural differences, blah, blah, blah.

Click here for our archive on Somali gang violence in Edmonton. There need to be serious consequences for immigrant criminal gangs, maybe this judge is doing exactly the right thing with this stiff sentence for the arrogant punk.

By the way, as usual I couldn’t find a readily identifiable photo of the convicted Minnesota man, but found this one of someone (a mean looking dude) with the same name from the same city who in 2010 was arrested for beating a “good Samaritan.” Surely they didn’t let that Zakaria Yusuf out that quickly! Or, did they?

And, just think! You raised these ‘youths’ on your dime!

For new readers, see ‘Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis?’ Thank Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Service and World Relief MN.

One more reason for foreign nationals to legally stay in US—Ebola

08/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Every time we turn around we find one more legal reason foreign nationals can stay in the US.

The one federal program (besides refugee resettlement/asylum) we have noted most often on these pages is Temporary Protected Status a ridiculously named program since it is rarely temporary. We still have Central Americans living here legally ten years and longer after some storm/earthquake roughed-up their landscape. Their “temporary refugee” status (allowing them to work and do anything a legal immigrant can do, and since they get drivers licenses, they probably vote!) simply gets extended every 18 months or so. See our complete TPS archive by clicking here.

In fact, Liberians have been begging again for an extension of their legal status in the US, guess they will get their wish.

I didn’t know we had this program—Humanitarian Special Situations—-which reader Robin alerted me to last week.

Here is a press alert from USCIS entitled: Ebola Outbreak-related Immigration Relief Measures to Nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone Currently in the United States.

From a July CNN story. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/03/health/ebola-outbreak-west-africa/

Release Date: August 15, 2014

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. USCIS offers relief measures to nationals of those three countries who are currently in the United States.

Immigration relief measures that may be available if requested include:

Change or extension of nonimmigrant status for an individual currently in the United States, even if the request is filed after the authorized period of admission has expired;
Extension of certain grants of parole made by USCIS;
Expedited adjudication and approval, where possible, of requests for off-campus employment authorization for F-1 students experiencing severe economic hardship;
Expedited processing of immigrant petitions for immediate relatives (currently in the United States) of U.S. citizens;
Expedited adjudication of employment authorization applications, where appropriate; and
Consideration for waiver of fees associated with USCIS benefit applications.

To learn more about how USCIS provides assistance to customers affected by unforeseen circumstances in their home country, visit www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/special-situations.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov, call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283, or follow USCIS on Facebook (/uscis), Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon.

New York Lutheran church may house alien children because the church is broke

08/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 20th: What do you know, change of plans, “children” not going there after all. Hat tip: Robin

A “financially troubled” Lutheran Church on Long Island riled the community of Commack recently when it said it was considering housing some of the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ flooding the US border in recent months.

A NYC fire fighter who lives next door said: “It’s basically going to be a hotel right next to my house.”

Lutheran church in Commack, NY could become a “hotel” for the unaccompanied alien children. http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2014/aug/16/plan-send-immigrant-kids-ny-church/

Who put them up to it—-Lutheran Social Services of New York *** which says it has the bucks to pay (an affiliate of the big kahuna Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service).

From Newsday (hat tip: Caroline):

A Lutheran church in Commack may host some of the tens of thousands of immigrant children illegally crossing the United States’ border with Mexico mainly to reunite with family here, the church’s pastor said Tuesday.

The financially troubled Holy Cross Lutheran Church had to cancel a meeting last week after outraged neighbors packed the church to protest the proposal, but Rev. Dennis Walker said the congregation is still considering it and hopes to meet in coming weeks to decide.

Walker said community opposition was being fueled by misinformation about the proposal, and he hopes “people will reconsider in a more rational light. This is minimal impact on the community with substantial benefits” such as jobs for workers who would remodel the building to create the living quarters. [Here is one of my questions, if the “children’s” border surge ended tomorrow and the church had already been remodeled, then what? Would it house other migrants of some sort?—ed]

The proposal calls for about 40 children, 4 to 17, to be housed at the church at any one time between seven and 30 days, Walker said. The children would be in transit from federal immigration detention facilities to relatives in the New York area, and would leave only for medical appointments or other important issues, Walker said.

So who does have moola (federal cash!)?

The proposal was brought to the church by Lutheran Social Services of New York, the Manhattan-based agency that would cover cost for the renovation, using federal funds.

Nearby residents firmly oppose the idea. “It’s scary,” said Sheryl Cambria, 35, a special-education teacher at Lindenhurst High School. “I have two little kids. Who’s to say my house is going to be safe?” New York City firefighter Michael Cantwell, 44, said, “It’s basically going to be a hotel right next to my house.”

Not just in Commack, New York, but from sea to shining sea, this is what it is all about, the good pastor admits—

—they get money (your tax dollars) and get to “do the Christian thing!” Who can beat that!

Walker said the Commack church is in dire financial straits after a day care business stopped renting space in June.

The immigrant children program could bring in $8,000 to $10,000 a month, help pay off a $25,000 debt — and allow the church to do the Christian thing, he said.

***According to Guidestar, Lutheran Social Services of New York does not file a Form 990 tax return with the IRS because it says it’s exempt as a “church.” I’ve seen that occasionally over the years (of course, it’s a way of hiding their financials from the public) and wonder that the ACLU isn’t interested in examining this situation—federal money flowing directly to a church (and not a “religious” IRS-approved non-profit group). Hmmm!

Any forensic accountants following the money trail?

Endnote: The AP has a longer story posted on this past Saturday, here. Note that the AP reporter tried to talk with someone at Lutheran Social Services of New York (offices on Riverside Dr at the “God Box” where God is a Leftwinger) and they refused to comment.

For more on ‘unaccompanied minors’ here at RRW, click here.