Georgia on my mind: refugee numbers up, foreign-born numbers up, and Catholic Bishops lecture

I already had two articles worth mentioning about Georgia and refugees before I saw this news from The Atlanta Journal Constitution this morning:

Georgia ranked eighth among states for the total number of refugees it received in the fiscal year ending in September at 2,710, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

Georgia Bishop HARTMAYER lectures, guilt-trips and urges Catholics to lobby for amnesty.

That is up 8 percent from the year before. But it is 810 fewer people than originally proposed by resettlement agencies.

The U.S. State Department confirmed earlier this year it had limited the number of refugees coming to Georgia, based partly on requests from Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration for sharp cuts. State officials have cited state and local taxpayer costs associated with taking in the refugees, school budget shortfalls and other concerns.

Deal has continued to push the Obama administration on the issue. In a letter he sent President Barack Obama in July, Deal complained Georgia has received a “disproportionate number of refugee placements over the past few years.”

Last month, the governor’s administration sided with Athens-Clarke County Mayor Nancy Denson in opposition to resettling 150 refugees there. The Democratic mayor complained resettlement officials had not reached out to enough people in her community early enough about the plans.

Local resettlement agencies are pushing back, saying refugees create a net gain for the state by working and paying taxes and attracting millions of dollars in federal aid money to Georgia.

[….]

The federal government provides refugees with funding that partially covers the cost of rent, furniture, food and clothing.

This last bit above confirms what I have been saying—not the working and paying taxes part (most don’t get paid enough to pay taxes!), but the part about millions of federal aid dollars following refugees It’s as if we are expected to believe that there is a money tree growing in Washington!

There is a major disconnect happening—those aid dollars from Washington come from taxpayers, including Georgia taxpayers—it is not free money!  And, there won’t be a net gain for the state when federal aid dollars arrive as refugees use more resources than they draw in from Washington.

Big whup if the feds help pay rent and get them some clothes and food stamps!  It is the cost of health services, education, and the criminal justice system that push states into the red with the immigrant population increase.  And, by the way, never mentioned is the unfairness of rent subsidized housing going to immigrants when poor and disabled Americans need that housing.

Then be sure to see this article from last week about the overall increase in the foreign-born population in Georgia.  Georgia immigrant population increase confirmed by CIS here too.

Georgia Catholic Bishops lecture!

The nerve of the Catholic Bishops of Georgia to lecture Georgians about Christian charity when the US Conference of Catholic Bishops refugee and immigration program is almost completely funded by US taxpayers (98% funded by you) and this screed by ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY and BISHOP GREGORY J. HARTMAYER at The Georgia Bulletin never says one word about Caesar’s money which they depend on for their existence!

Please read their guilt-trip laced polemic here.  And, remember this!  It is not only ‘unaccompanied alien children’ and refugees that the Bishops are concerned about, they lobby for amnesty as well and admit it here.  Are they using your tax dollars for their lobbying campaign, that is what I would like to know!

We also urge Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation, which will help fix our broken immigration system.

We strongly encourage you to support these principles by contacting your U.S. senators and congress members through the Catholic bishops’ Justice for Immigrants website.

On the State level, we ask legislators and officials to support policies that enhance the dignity of all people who come to our state.

See our complete Georgia archive by clicking here.  See especially Athens, Georgia mayor attempting to put brakes on refugee resettlement (mentioned above).

Note that over a year ago, Georgia was identified (by the Office of Refugee Resettlement) at a meeting I attended in Lancaster, PA as a ‘pocket of resistance’ to refugee resettlement and was cited as a reason that the ORR hired Welcoming America (to get peoples’ minds right)!

Also, there is a grassroots group opposing more refugee resettlement in Georgia, click here, that you should know about.

CIS: US Immigrant population explodes

The Center for Immigration Studies has a new report out.

A press release accompanying its release begins with this:

WASHINGTON, DC (September 25, 2014) — A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies finds that nearly one in six adults in the U.S. is foreign-born. The report, based on newly released Census Bureau data, also found that the nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) grew by 1.4 million from July 2010 to July 2013. The immigrant population, referred to as the foreign-born by the Census Bureau, includes all those who were not U.S. citizens at birth, including illegal immigrants.

“The new data makes clear that while Latin America and the Caribbean are still a significant source of immigration, the growth is being driven in large part by immigration from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa,” observed the Center’s Director of Research and lead author of the report, Steven Camarota.

Here are just a few of the bullet points that interested me, please visit the report (here) for many more interesting statistics.  When you visit the report don’t miss the last line of Table 1—-the increase in numbers from predominantly Muslim countries.

~The 41.3 million immigrant population (legal and illegal) in 2013 was double the number in 1990, nearly triple the number in 1980, and quadruple that in 1970, when it stood at 9.6 million.

~The sending regions with the largest increases from 2010 to 2013 were South Asia (up 373,000, 16 percent growth); East Asia (up 365,000, 5 percent growth); the Caribbean (up 223,000, 6 percent growth), the Middle East (up 208,000, 13 percent growth); and sub-Saharan Africa (up 177,000, 13 percent growth).

~States where the number of immigrants grew the most since 2010 were Texas (up 227,240); California (up 160,771); Florida (up 140,019); New York (up 85,699); New Jersey (up 81,192); Massachusetts (up 62,591); Washington (up 57,402); Pennsylvania (up 57,091); Illinois (up 47,609); Arizona (up 39,647); Maryland (up 38,555); Virginia (up 37,844); North Carolina (up 30,289); Michigan (up 29,039); and Georgia (up 28,020).

I was curious to see how closely that list of states (above) compares with the Top Refugee Resettlement states in FY 2014.  Here they are:

Texas:  6,398

California:  5,666

New York:  3,733

Michigan:  3,677

Florida:  3,227

Ohio:  2,700

Arizona:  2,675

Georgia:  2,502

Pennsylvania:  2,497

Washington:  2,323

Not far behind are:  Illinois, North Carolina, and Minnesota

World Relief: Spokane, Washington on the list to get Syrians in the new fiscal year

The new year for the next batch of 100,000 (maybe 200,000 this year counting the Unaccompanied alien children) refugees, asylees, and assorted others the  US State Department and Office of Refugee Resettlement and their nine contractors*** “welcome” to America begins in 6 days.

Mark Kadel, Director of World Relief, Spokane, WA: “…we’ve already been assured that we’ll receive a number of Syrians.” Photo: http://truthatlas.com/mark-kadel-director-of-world-relief-spokane-wa/

Here is a story from Spokane where World Relief (Evangelicals) reports on a new family of Iraqis coming from Syria.

From KXLY.com:

SPOKANE, Wash. –

With the situation in Syria continuing to spiral out of control, between the threat of ISIS and an ongoing civil war, a family originally from Iraq and took refuge in Damascus will arrive in Spokane night.

The State Department reports half of Syria’s population has fled their homes because of the crisis, with thousands of people pouring over the Turkish border seeking refuge each day.

In addition to the Iraqi family arriving from Syria, World Relief Spokane says a Syrian family will be coming in the next couple months with many more to follow.

[….]

World Relief is one of nine organizations contracted by the State Department to resettle refugees that are legally invited to be part of the country. The Spokane office takes anywhere from 500 to 600 refugees a year.

[….]

The State Department estimates that 1,800 people will come to the U.S. from Syria in 2015, with some of them moving to the Inland Northwest.

We have learned that the US will be getting Syrian numbers on par with the numbers we have taken from Iraq (that would be close to 20,000 a year!), here, so when they say 1,800 above, I’m guessing someone left out a zero.

So far we have had reports that Syrians will go to North Carolina and Ohio.  Add Washington State.

The federal migrant resettlement contractors which we have followed for years: