Month: August 2014

Athens, GA mayor attempting to put brakes on proposed resettlement of (more?) refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Another “pocket of resistance?”   LOL! I can see “Welcoming America” scurrying to Athens at this very minute!

In July we reported on a plan by US State Department contractor—International Rescue Committee (IRC)—to open an office and begin resettling Congolese refugees to Athens, GA.  See that story by clicking here.

Now comes news (hat tip: Joanne) that the Democratic mayor, Nancy Denson, is throwing cold water on the scheme by asking the IRC to “present a formal refugee integration plan.”  That is exactly what every town or city faced with this crisis (yes, a crisis when a refugee contractor comes to your town!) should do—demand a plan for public review.

Mayor Nancy Denson: refugees will place an “inordinate service burden” on community.

There must be a social and economic impact statement prepared!

In the early days of writing this blog, when I thought reform of the program was possible, I had suggested that every location faced with the surprise notice that the US State Department, the Office of Refugee Resettlement and their contractors were planning to set up shop in their town should ask the federal government to prepare a social and economic impact statement (which included gathering information from the public through public meetings) modeled after the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) when federal money/federal action is being used for a project in a local community that might significantly effect the “natural or human environment.”

The refugee/migrant impact statement would include such measures as the economic costs to local and state government (schools etc). Health needs of the arriving population would have to be assessed in conjunction with the local health department.  It would answer whether there was a good likelihood of the refugee ethnic group fitting in to the community.   Is there adequate housing for newcomers that does not take away from the local needy?  Where will they work?  And, the final plan would put a cap on the number arriving (similar to the carrying-capacity concept of the natural environment).   My concept calls for the plan to be reviewed and updated every few years.

It occurs to me in writing this, that in fact, since NEPA does address the impact on the human environment of a federal project, a sharp lawyer could possibly force the federal government to do an EIS for a new or expanding refugee resettlement plan.

So here is the latest news from Athens.  It doesn’t matter whether the mayor is a Democrat or Republican, any elected official with a brain can see that bringing hundreds of mostly illiterate people to a community is going to have an impact and thus asking questions in advance is the sensible thing to do!

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Mayor Nancy Denson is seeking to put the brakes on plans to resettle 150 refugees in Athens-Clarke County in the coming months, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a letter to Georgia officials this week, the Democratic mayor complained that the International Rescue Committee did not reach out to enough people in her community early enough about its plans. She also raised concerns that the refugees could strain public resources in Athens-Clarke County, which is home to about 120,000 residents.

The IRC has proposed resettling refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar and Syria in the region over the next fiscal year. Denson said she wants the IRC to delay its efforts and to “present a formal refugee integration plan” to local elected officials and others.

“Serving refugees will add a burden to local charitable and other public resources, including safety net services,” Denson wrote Monday to Michael Singleton, Georgia’s state refugee coordinator. “Refugee students may also place an inordinate service burden on the school district due to limited English proficiency by the students and their parents.”

A spokeswoman for Georgia’s Human Services Department said Wednesday that the state agency is working on a response to the mayor’s letter.

You can read the next section of the article yourself, here, where the IRC makes its pitch for why Athens is great for them.

Then this:

The number of refugees coming to Georgia has been a source of controversy in recent years. Following requests from Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration for sharp cuts, the federal government has placed new limits on the number of refugees being resettled in Georgia. State officials started asking for reductions in 2012, citing worries that refugees are straining taxpayer-funded resources, including public schools.

Alarmed by the state’s position, resettlement agencies have been highlighting the economic benefits refugees bring. The agencies say refugees create a net gain for the state by working and paying taxes and attracting millions of dollars in federal aid to Georgia.

Another rare admission:  Frankly refugee employment rates are abysmal, but here they admit that it is federal welfare money that flows to Georgia and other states along with the refugees as if Washington has a massive money tree, growing dollars by the bushel.   This is the same dumb thing we heard from the Governor of Wyoming (a Republican!), who, in promoting his wished-for refugee program for that state, cited the federal dollars that would flow to the state—hey Gov! that is taxpayer money coming out of Wyomingites pockets too!

In addition to tax dollars that went to Washington and are benevolently (ha!) sent back, many of the needs of the refugees will come directly from local taxpayers for education, crime and health care.

We have a lot of posts on Georgia, go here for the complete archive.  You might want to especially see the one from last week about the burden the ‘unaccompanied minors’ will have on one Georgia county.

What’s this? Palestinian asylum-seeking hunger strikers in “welcoming” Sweden

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just yesterday we reported that Swedish politicians approaching the coming election are getting squeamish about how Sweden (Europe’s most famous welfare state) can possibly maintain its rate of in-migration and at the same time “show tolerance,” and what do we see—Palestinians starving themselves to death on the streets!

This is not helpful as elections approach.  (Just as it is not helpful to Obama’s party in November if the “children” keep surging across the US border and turn up in local schools and health departments).

Palestinian hunger strikers in Gothenburg, Sweden. http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-refugees-sweden-hunger-strike-demand-asylum/13777

 

From The Electronic Intifada (whatever that is!):

On Thursday last week, 24-year-old Nidal Lulu was taken to a hospital by emergency services after he lost consciousness as a result of nine days without food. Lulu is one of thirty Palestinian asylum-seekers, some of whom are under the age of eighteen, who commenced a hunger strike on 6 August in central Gothenburg, Sweden.

Thirteen have been taken to hospital. But ten have returned to tents erected in a city square and continue the strike.

“We cannot go back. We are from old Palestine and we have no country and no homes anymore. Many of us have been here from two to eight years without being granted residence. It’s no way to live,” one of the refugees, Muhammed Abughalioun, told local newspaper Göteborgs-Posten last week.

“We will continue our hunger strike until we die,” he said.

Once a Palestinian, always a refugee (forever and ever)!  Everyone knows that, why don’t the Swedes?

See our complete (and now lengthy archive) on Sweden, here.

Refugee contractor head-honcho, Lavinia Limon, gives her prescription for how America should handle the border surge

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….invite in more “children” because more migrants means more money for government contractors! (she doesn’t say that! I do!)

Lavinia Limon is the CEO of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, known in the refugee industry as USCRI.  Below, published at the Budapest Business Journal (of all places) is her six-point prescription for what the Obama Administration should do to save the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ (child “refugees” she calls them) because how we respond will “define us as a Nation,” she says.

Revolving door!  Doing well by doing good!

Limon in 1996 as head of Bill Clinton’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/person/42360

It’s mentioned in her bio at the end of this opinion piece, but keep in mind she is one of several refugee contractors who have moved in and out of the revolving door from ‘non-profit’ contractor to government giver-of-grants and then back out again.

She was Bill Clinton’s head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in HHS) after first working in a ‘non-profit’ resettlement agency, and now she heads up the ‘non-profit’ group USCRI where she seeks grants from her former USCRI VP (Eskinder Negash) who now heads Obama’s Office of Refugee Resettlement.  Did you get that?

And, be sure to have a look at this post we wrote in 2008 when we nicknamed her “whoop-de-do” when one of her resettlement subcontractors was caught dumping (and not caring for) refugees in Waterbury, CT.   It had been revealed to the public that the contractor keeps a cut of what the refugees each are allotted by the feds and she told the reporter that the feds weren’t keeping up with the economic times and she mentioned everyone would squawk if their salaries weren’t growing.  She said:

 “Whoop-de-do” ….“God help us if our salaries had not kept pace with inflation like that.“

So, let’s see how the inflationary times are treating USCRI and her salary!  (I’m going to get to her prescription for handling the southern border invasion, but this is too good!).

In 2008, we reported Ms. Limon’s 2006 salary (while USCRI was taking in $18 million):

In 2006 her salary and other compensation was $195,478.  That is up about $20,000 from the previous couple of years.

Are you ready for this!

First, you need to know that in its 2013 Form 990, USCRI took in $35,676,146 and $35,429,570 came from government grants (page 9)—that is, 99% of their funds are from you—the US taxpayer!  (much worse than any contractor*** we have reviewed so far). They apparently make virtually no effort to raise private funds in what was supposed to be a public-private partnership when the Refugee Act of 1980 was signed into law by Jimmy Carter.

So what is Ms. Limon’s salary today?  Drum roll please!

Now working as a government contractor, you can hire Ms. Limon to speak. http://speakerpedia.com/speakers/lavinia-limon

On page 7 of that Form 990 we learn that Lavinia Limon is making more than the Vice President of the United States whom she ever-so-gently disparages in her op-ed at the Budapest Journal.

Her salary from USCRI and other sources related to her work there is $289,192.  It went up 32% since 2006!  Has your salary increased that much over so short a time?  If she were in the legitimate private sector, then what they pay is none of our business, but she is essentially a government employee, so we have every right to blow our stacks!

Family business?  One Peter Limon is listed in that Form 990 as well pulling down a salary of $115,878 and $23,991 from related income.

Consider all of that information when you read this opinion-piece (that you paid for!).

From the Budapest Business Journal (more migrants please!):

…..we’ve proposed six actions that the United States should take to resolve this issue. We’ve personally handed our proposal to every member of Congress, and we’ve spoken about it with every reporter who’s called. We’re getting some traction on these simple, yet tested ideas:

1. Respect families by allowing parents from El Salvador and Honduras who reside legally in the United States under Temporary Protected Status to apply for their minor children to reunite. The children’s status would then be linked to their parents. This would immediately reduce immigration court backlogs, and would apply to an estimated 30–40 percent of the children surrendering at the border.

2. Keep kids out of the courtrooms by instituting a Children’s Corps based on the Asylum Officer Corps model. Officers will have training in child-sensitive interview techniques and Best Interest Determination standards, and will determine whether a child is eligible for legal relief. This will move the adjudication process from an adversarial judicial process to an administrative process for most children. Reports indicate that 40–60 percent of these children may be eligible for legal protection.

3. Help children avoid the dangerous journey by allowing them to apply for refugee status from their home country. We’ve previously used this process so that Soviet Jews, Vietnamese, and Cubans could avoid life-threatening escapes. Additionally, other North and South American countries may be willing to accept the children for resettlement.

4. Engage the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to determine international protection needs using its well-established procedures. The UNHCR could then refer cases to the U.S. Department of State for further interviewing and approval before resettlement in the United States, and possibly other countries.

5. Forgive the children by granting Children’s Protected Status (CPS) to all unaccompanied children who have already been brought into custody. We used this approach with Cubans and Haitians who arrived illegally in 1980. The government could announce a cut-off date after which new arrivals would be subject to expedited removal. Granting CPS will relieve the government of the burden and cost of adjudicating the cases of the thousands of unaccompanied minors who are at the border, and will increase the Department of Homeland Security’s capacity to handle other immigration cases.

6. Introduce hope by creating a Regulated Entry Procedure for 10,000 unaccompanied immigrant children per year per country from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. As precedent, a lottery system has allowed 20,000 Cubans to enter the United States annually for the past 34 years. The children would enter the United States legally through a process managed and regulated by the U.S. government.

I love the United States, and I have high expectations for its international behavior and reputation. We can do better, and I commit to being part of the solution.

Are you getting your money’s worth?

***The federal refugee resettlement contractors (Grant recipient big dogs Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs  are now on the scene devouring federal cash):

Our complete archive on ‘unaccompanied minors’ goes back several years, click here for all of those posts.

‘Religious’ refugee resettlement contractor wants more refugee workers in North Carolina

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Is there any connection between Obama wooing big businesses to get on board with his threat to go-it-alone on immigration and the spate of stories we are seeing about how much businesses love their refugee labor force?  I wonder.

First we note this must-read article at Politico about the Obama Administration working to expand its plans for an executive branch-driven immigration overhaul by sweetening the pot for big businesses looking for tech labor and cheap labor (in the case of refugees it is cheap and captive labor!).

Tamar Jacoby: It’s all about promoting the free flow of labor into the US. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/02/13/washington-lobbyist-for-big-business-the-basic-goal-is-to-promote-the-free-flow-of-labor-into-the-usa/

 

Public opposition has been building against more immigration generally as the 2014 election season advances in light of the illegal alien invasion on the southern border this summer.  However, if Obama can get big business on board, and thus blunt any establishment Republican opposition to changes in immigration policy (law!), it could be a winner for the Dems and for big business this fall.

Politico:

Representatives from Oracle, Cisco, Fwd.US, Microsoft, Accenture, Compete America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were among those present at a wide-ranging Aug. 1 session…

Later in the story we hear from Tamar Jacoby that she doesn’t want the needs of employers who want low-skilled laborers left out of the discussion.  See also Jacoby with Grover Norquist in 2009 NumbersUSA expose’.

Why so many stories lately about the refugee resettlement contractors*** serving as employment services for businesses?

The contractors previously kept a pretty low profile about their services to businesses large and small (they especially like meatpacking companies and the hotel/service sector).

Just last week the Washington Post wrote glowingly about the role resettlement contractor Church World Service is playing in bringing refugee laborers to North Carolina, here.   I wonder do the businesses give CWS a finders-fee for bringing them laborers?

Now here is the Winston-Salem Journal telling us how much another contractor, World Relief (National Association of Evangelicals)  is doing for North Carolina businesses.  It is a win-win—contractors get to wear the white hat of humanitarianism while making money!   Is World Relief in competition for refugee bodies with CWS?

World Relief’s Andrew Timbie begs US State Department in Washington for more refugees for NC. Remember readers that contractors are paid by the head for everyone they resettle.

 

KERNERSVILLE — The work here at EFI, which makes architectural glass and aluminum, takes strength and skill. Glass sheets can weigh as much as 155 pounds and the measurements must be exact. On a summer morning, the plant floor is noisy and hot.

In the company’s early years, it had trouble finding and keeping reliable employees. But these days, when Jeanne Clary, the company’s human resources director, has a vacancy she calls the World Relief office in High Point, a local refugee resettlement agency.

“I will almost always call World Relief first,” said Clary.

[….]

Andrew Timbie, the director of the High Point office of World Relief, has spent the summer making a pitch to his national office to send refugees this way. He expects to resettle 450 refugees in the next year, with a handful from Syria. “Generally speaking it’s a very good area for refugee resettlement,” he said. “The weather’s good. It’s warm. There’s a newcomer’s school. There are clinics here. There are lots of jobs for refugees.”

With the federal and state welfare goodies coming their way, businesses don’t have to feel bad about the low wages that are discouraging American workers.

The federal government provides refugees with a stipend that lasts for three months and extended federal benefits for six more months. They are also eligible for state aid, such as food stamps and Medicaid. But Timbie’s first goal is to help refugees find a job. In spite of North Carolina’s unemployment rate of 6.4 percent, Timbie said he can count on a handful of employers other than EFI that are eager to hire refugees, among them Ralph Lauren Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc..

LOL!  Tyson Foods is no surprise, they hire refugees and change American small towns throughout the mid West and South.  But, see Ralph Lauren goes to North Carolina, here—  says they will bring high-skilled jobs.  So how do the third-world refugees fit in?  Are they going to clean the offices at night?

There is much more in the W-S Journal, so please read it.

We have many posts here on North Carolina.  You might wish to review several from 2010 in which contractors (the Lutherans at that time) in North Carolina came under fire for overloading some locations and then not taking proper care of the refugees they resettled.

***The federal refugee resettlement contractors (I suspect grant recipient big dogs Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs  are now devouring all the federal cash):

 

Prime Minister calls for Swedes to show tolerance toward the ‘refugee’ in-migration; cost

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In order for there to have been this speech by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt there must be some serious rumblings of unwelcome from the average Swedish citizen.  It doesn’t take a genius to see that there is only so much money to go around when a country invites hordes of mostly needy Muslim third-worlders to come-on-in as Sweden has been doing.

Obama with Swedish Prime Minister Reinfeldt: both have allowed their countries to be overrun during their tenures, share African ancestry.

See our complete (and now lengthy archive) on Sweden, here.

Looks like in Sweden, as in America, this election season immigration is the hot button issue every pol must address.

From The Local:

Swedish prime minister and Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt called on Swedes to show tolerance to refugees seeking safety in the country in his summer speech on Saturday.

“Show tolerance,” he urged referring to the increasing number of people fleeing wars in Syria and Iraq.

“I know that this will cause friction. I therefore call on the Swedish people to show patience and open their hearts.”

Reinfeldt cited the cost of taking care of asylum-seekers as one of the reasons why voters can expect no more spending pledges from the government before the September 14th election. [No more “pledges,” but what about the reality once the election is over?—ed]

“We will promise no more in this election campaign,” he said.

The Prime Minister, who was speaking in combination with a Moderate Party election meeting on Norrmalmstorg in central Stockholm, observed that as many people were arriving now as during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

He furthermore expressed ‘astonishment’ at the spending pledges made by the opposition parties and questioned where the money was going to come from to finance them.

More…

See wikipedia on the “moderate” Reinfeldt here:   “He has revealed that his personal distaste for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party is based on his partly African ancestry.”   (Gee, kind of like Obama!)