Update February 14th: New president says they will re-think their earlier commitment to resettle Syrians, here.
Good for you Uruguay! Only problem is that once the women and children get settled the ‘international humanitarian industrial complex’ will holler about how that policy is inhumane (and besides if they aren’t procreating how can they facilitate theHijra).
President José Mujica greeting Syrian refugees last October. We are O.K. with Gitmo prisoners, but not those Syrian refugee men! Photo: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29561681
The government of Uruguay received international acclaim for its decision last year to accept a high number of refugees from the Syrian Civil War, citing the need for countries across the world to participate in saving the lives of those attempting to escape. It is now reneging on its promise, at least in part: only women and children will be allowed to relocate to [they must mean from?—ed] Syria, with the government citing a need to quell domestic violence.
“Simply: in Uruguay, we are not willing to remain with our arms crossed if men hit women,” said President José Mujica, the architect of the project through which Uruguay would slowly begin to take in Syrian refugee families, to ease the strain on neighboring countries like Lebanon and Turkey, which have taken in millions of refugees in the past two years. According to Uruguayan newspaper El Observador, the government claims that the incidents of domestic violence in the new Syrian refugee community of Uruguay are simply too high to ignore.
Local developer Joel Testa, whose company recently opened an apartment building catering to the homeless and veterans, hopes to serve another population in Akron’s North Hill: refugees.
Testa is proposing a 50-unit townhouse development that would be built across from Summa St. Thomas Hospital, which has been providing primary health care since the hospital’s emergency room closed, including to the refugees in the area.
Akron Councilman Hurley apparently approves—says refugees won’t have to walk far (for their medical care?). Photo: http://www.akroncitycouncil.org/Find_your_Councilperson/entry/James_Hurley/
[….]
Councilman Jim Hurley, who represents Ward 2 that includes North Hill, said the location of the housing is ideal to cater to the refugees in the area, many who walk wherever they need to go.
“They would not have to walk far,” he said.
Testa said the development will be aimed at low-to moderate-income people, with the aim of partnering with local agencies that can help acclimate them to the community so they “earn enough so that they have to move out.” He said the rent for the townhouses would range from $590 to $775 a month.
The developer wants to tap into the International Institute’s ‘resources’ which is also mostly money from taxpayers (I presume they would pay rent to use the community space for classes etc.):
Testa said he also is seeking support for the project from the International Institute, which is located in North Hill and provides many services to refugees. The institute’s board will vote on his request this month.
“Our goal is to have the International Institute provide classes and training out of our community space,” Testa said.
Very long-time readers may remember that Akron’s International Institute got into some trouble way back in 2008 for placing refugees in slum apartments (a common practice, btw, and one of the first things we noticed where I live in 2007). Here is our poston the slum apartment issue in Akron.
See the International Institute of Akron’s most recent Form 990. On page 9 we learn that they took in $2.5 million (I am rounding the numbers) in that most recent year. $1.7 million is from government grants, another almost $500,000 was income from translation services and immigrant counseling (probably paid by other government agencies to the II). What is that, roughly 88% funded with tax dollars? On page 10 we learned that they paid out more than a $1 million in salaries/benefits/payroll etc.
So if Akron doesn’t have enough housing for all of its poor people and refugees, maybe a plan could be to reduce the number of refugees being resettled there? Just saying!
*** For all of our new readers, here are the nine big federal refugee contractors:
The UK Mirror has a story here, apparently designed to make readers think the worst of PEGIDA:
A notorious ‘anti-Islam’ movement is coming to Britain with its first ever demo and a march likely to attract thousands.
Pegida has sparked huge controversy in Germany.
Under the banner of ‘Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West’, it claims it is trying to defend countries from the spread of extremism at the hands of Muslim immigrants.
[….]
It is advertising its first ever UK demo for Newcastle upon Tyne on February 28, however, with a Facebook campaign expected to attract ‘thousands’.
It is the first of a series of demos planned for the UK, with others due to take place in Manchester, Birmingham and London.
Obviously designed to chill interest in the event, you can read the rest of the PEGIDA vilification story here.
For our entire ‘Invasion of Europe’ series click here. Our posts on German immigration problems arehere.
I like this photo of Gov. LePage holding the Heritage Foundation’s copy of the US Constitution.
Update!Reader Dana sent us this link. 16 Test positive for TB at Sacramento area high school—wonder where it came from???
Not physically slapped around, but verbally in the Bangor Daily News which apparently wants to debunk his claim. Note the first sentence of the story by Christopher Cousins—if you don’t read beyond that, you have been told what the media wants you to believe.
….however, there are a large number of ACTIVE TB cases in Maine!
Regular readers may remember that Maine has become the go-to state for asylum seekers—migrants who got into the country one way or another and are now seeking ‘refugee’ status. In Maine, while they are waiting for the decision, they can get various social services that are not available elsewhere.
There may be other states that give out welfare to asylum seekers, but I haven’t read about those. Gov. LePage has been attempting to remove the sweetener that Maine has been providing.
AUGUSTA, Maine — The consensus among public health experts regarding Gov. Paul LePage’s comments linking illegal immigrants to the spread of infectious diseases during his State of the State address on Tuesday is that they have seen no data to back up his claims.
Officials from the LePage administration have provided no substantiation for the comments and have not responded since Wednesday to the Bangor Daily News’ requests for data and comment on the matter.
Here’s what the governor said:
“When a refugee comes here from a foreign country, they get a medical assessment, and we know their health. But when they come here illegally, they don’t get medical assessments. And one thing that we don’t want to see is the uptick of hepatitis C, HIV and tuberculosis. But it is here. We are dealing with it. And it is very costly. So if nothing else, they should be getting a medical assessment when they get here.”
By the way, even if a refugee gets a medical assessment before entering the US, the presence of TB or HIV is not a bar to entry.
So, after many paragraphs of making light of the governor’s comments we come to this one (below) on TB. I was blown away by the number of ACTIVE Tuberculosis cases diagnosed in Maine. Do you remember when one guy with active TB got on a plane somewhere a few years ago and all hell broke loose in the media — well, heck, why isn’t there a lot of news about these ACTIVE cases in Maine? How many are there in other states?
The resettlement industry mouthpieces are quick to tell us that LATENT TB is no big deal. O.K. but what about all these active cases getting in here? Twenty plus cases of ACTIVE TB over three years is a lot of cases—and, you are paying for their meds!
Active tuberculosis cases were higher in 2012 and 2013 than they had been since 2009, with 15 reported cases in 2013. There were less than 10 new cases reported in 2014, according to Hannan’s data. The CDC also tracks latent cases, which means the tuberculosis bacteria is present but the patient shows no symptoms (untreated latent tuberculosis is a precursor to full-blown tuberculosis in up to 10 percent of cases). There were 433 latent cases recorded in 2013, up from 398 in 2012. The CDC report also includes the country of birth for people recorded to have latent tuberculosis. The top countries of origin for latent tuberculosis cases were Angola (41), Burundi (43), Congo (51), Iraq (41), Rwanda (38), Somalia (53) and the United States (78).The 2013 CDC report contains no information about how long the patients had been in Maine before their diagnosis.
See our‘health issues’category for more on diseases, mental health problems and other medical issues involving refugees. I’ve often said that health concerns are going to have a far greater impact on American attitudes toward immigration than the fear of terrorists getting in here.
