Update January 2, 2015: Here is where 164 of them have gone so far in the last couple of months.
Yesterday we learned that the Obama Administration committed the United States to take 9,000 Syrian (mostly Muslim) refugees in FY 2015 which is already two months underway, and place them throughout America at some of their 180 cities where federal contractors are waiting to sign them up for social services, give them employment counseling, take care of their health needs and sign the children up for school.
Here is a map of where they could be placed. Is your city on it?
See the legend on the right hand side of the map. Those are the initials for the nine major contractors:
- Church World Service (CWS)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- World Relief Corporation (WR)
What you should do is go to this list of federal refugee contractors (listed by city) and call them. And, by the way, don’t assume that if your city doesn’t have a colored dot you are off the hook. They can place them within a hundred miles of a contractor’s office. When you call, ask how many Syrians are coming to your town? Then contact your local newspaper, your local elected officials and your representatives in Washington and let them know what you think!
Direct your ire at refuge contractors and elected officials at all levels of government, not at the refugees who are only taking advantage of a good deal.
Please send us anything you learn and send links to news stories about their arrival.