Month: June 2015

Lewiston, ME: As Somali population grows, police chief looks to hire Somali cops

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

While I was away, I missed posting this story from World Net Daily.  It is not just about the police chief’s new officer recruitment, but is a good summary of how Lewiston became the Little Mogadishu of New England.

Protesters chant outside city hall in Lewiston, Maine, after delivering petitions asking for the resignation of the city's mayor because of comments he made about Somali refugees,Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Protesters chant outside city hall in Lewiston, Maine, after delivering petitions asking for the resignation of the city’s mayor because of comments he made about Somali refugees,Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) http://news.yahoo.com/maine-mayor-somalis-leave-culture-door-135314654.html

If you would like to catch up on the happenings in Lewiston, including the case of the Somali kid who burned down an apartment building, see our huge archive, here, on the little city being colonized.
I’ve only snipped a small segment of the story by Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily, so be sure to read the whole thing:

“One place in Lewiston where that growing diversity is not evident is the city’s 82-member police force, but Chief Michael Bussiere aims to change that amid an intense national debate over race and policing,” Reuters reports.

The Lewiston-Auburn area now has a Somali population of 7,000, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of its total population. They arrived in the U.S. either as refugees or were born in the U.S. as children of refugees.

About a quarter of Bussiere’s officers will become eligible to retire in the next few years, so he figures to have quite a few openings.

“We have to think about who is living here now and who’s going to live here 10 years from now,” he told Reuters reporter Scott Malone.

“We need a department that is reflective of the demographics of the community it serves.”

Lewiston, a city of 36,000 people that spent decades struggling through job losses from mill closings and a shrinking population, may seem an unlikely place for such a rebirth given that Maine is among the whitest U.S. states, Malone reports.

But, according to U.S. Census data, 8.7 percent of Lewiston’s population identifies as black or African-American, a rate higher than any other city in the state and more than seven times the 1.2 percent state average.

And the Somali population is exploding not just in Lewiston. It has spread to nearby Auburn and Portland.

Many Somalis originally came as refugees to larger cities, Atlanta in particular, but then moved to Maine after hearing that it had a wider array of subsidized housing available and also was easier to get on the welfare rolls. This is called “secondary migration” when a refugee is assigned to one city but then moves elsewhere after arrival in the U.S.

Read it all, here.  And, again, see our archive on Lewiston.  There is probably enough there to write a book!
About the photo:  These Somali refugees sure do have the protest (community organizing) thing down pat, don’t they!

Dallas, TX: Opinion writer calls for more teachers who speak languages other than English and Spanish

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Melinda+T.+Cowart+2015
Melinda Cowart is an OpEd Project Public Voices Fellow. Here is a project for one of the great people I met this week in Dallas: find out how to become a ‘Public Voices Fellow’ with an opposing view on immigration!

This is one of the issues we discussed when I was in Dallas this past week—-the huge and growing cost in the educational system where students in the system may speak 50 or more languages because of the Refugee Admissions Program of the UN/US State Dept.  The next time you hear some argument that the diversity of immigrants coming to the US brings strength and helps our economy, remember that those phony economic studies rarely include the cost to educate the children (in dozens and dozens of languages!).
Dallas Morning News from Melinda Cowart, a professor of ESL:

In Texas, speakers of languages other than Spanish represent 14.59 percent of the linguistically diverse student population. Those ELLs speak other languages, including Vietnamese, the third-most common language spoken, Chinese, Arabic and Urdu.

In addition to newcomers who immigrate to the U.S. through Texas each year, refugee resettlement contributes to the vast diversity in the state, especially in or near major cities such as Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, which tend to be primary refugee resettlement sites. Yet, the schools provide special language programs for speakers of only two of those languages — English and Spanish.  [Get out your wallets!—ed]

By the way, when you read the story about the author’s poor little Chinese child not being allowed to buy milk because she couldn’t speak Spanish or English, I fault Mom.  From my own experience (and assuming the household is an English-speaking one as hers certainly is), I know it’s best to educate a new daughter (or son) at home until their English is pretty good before subjecting them to the confusion of public school in America.  What was this woman thinking?

Note to Texans:  You have got to get the flow of refugees slowed!

New readers:  See my three-part Texas series, beginning here.  BTW, the number one language needed in the Dallas County health department for refugees is Arabic!

Opposition caves, Norway says it will take 8,000 Syrians before end of 2017

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

More ‘Invasion of Europe’ news…..

UNHCR Antonio Guterres: Got’em by the short hairs now!

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (the same one telling the US to take 65,000 Syrians) has apparently won over the Norwegian right and now Norway has said it will take 8,000 Syrians CHOSEN BY THE UN and move them to towns across Norway (with a little cash thrown in to local governments as sweetener).

There has been enormous reluctance by most Western countries to take in Syrians (mostly Sunni Muslims who cannot be thoroughly screened) and the UNHCR had to break the logjam.

 They will now use Norway to guilt-trip other reluctant countries into opening their doors to Syrians.

Watch for it!  The next thing we will hear is that ‘If Norway can take 8,000, surely the US can take 65,000!’

Even more puzzling is that this decision, to trust the UN, was apparently made after it was learned that there were ISIS fighters in the allotment the UNHCR had already selected for Norway!
From Hurriyet Daily News:

Norway has agreed to take in 8,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2017, under an agreement reached June 10 by most of the Scandinavian country’s political parties.

The country now plans to welcome 2,000 Syrians this year, that is 500 more than previously planned, followed by 3,000 each year in 2016 and 2017.

The new figures aim to meet a quota set by the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

A compromise came after long discussions between the right-wing minority government, which had opposed allowing in any more refugees, and centre and left-wing parties, which wanted to accept 10,000 people in two years.

Under the agreement, financial aid will be distributed to the country’s regions to encourage them to give shelter to those fleeing Syria’s four-year war.

Another 5,000 refugees who have already been granted residence permits in Norway are still living in community shelters, and need to be given homes.

“This is an important step in the right direction,” the Norwegian Refugee Council aid agency said in response to the announcement.

“NRC now urges other European countries to follow. With some exceptions, like Germany, the European countries have done far too little in response to the largest humanitarian crisis in our generation,” it added.

The UNHCR has called on the international community to resettle more people fleeing Syria’s civil war, which it says has triggered the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II.

Learn more about the Jihad Caucus and the pressure they are putting on Obama to admit 65,000 Syrians before his term ends, here. 

Our complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ series is here.   Click here for everything we have on Norway.

Justice Department Inspector General suggests possible misuse of grant money by Catholic Charities San Antonio

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Center for Immigration Studies reported this week on an audit conducted by the Dept. of Justice’s Office of Inspector General of possible improper use by Catholic Charities, a major refugee resettlement contractor in San Antonio, TX, of federal grant money.

Before I get to what Dan Cadman at CIS says about this revelation, readers should know that these government contractors are virtually never audited financially.
I was told when I first began investigating the Refugee Program that they were subjected to “program” audits only, but not financial ones you would expect when this many tax dollars are involved.  What that means is that the non-profit contractor has to report on how well they are doing with their various projects and programs, but not how they spend the money (your money) or where exactly it goes!

It seems to me that a quick and easy amendment to Refugee law would be for Congress to mandate FINANCIAL auditing on a regular basis.

Here is Cadman at CIS:

The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General (DOJ OIG) released a report this month entitled “Audit of the Office of Justice Programs Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Grant Awarded to Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of San Antonio, Inc., Texas”. The grant was for a substantial amount of money, $810,000, of which $730,491 has already been disbursed, and was intended to further the work of the South Texas Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Slavery (STCAHTS).

According to DOJ OIG, “The objective of this audit was to determine whether costs claimed under the grant were allowable, supported, and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and terms and conditions.” That’s pretty straightforward and seems like a basic requirement given the amount of taxpayer dollars involved.

The DOJ OIG staff found that Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio (CCAOSA) pretty much failed the audit on all counts:

Specifically, CCAOSA: (1) did not follow procedures for identification and procurement of contractors and there were no procedures for monitoring contractors, (2) had unsupported expenditures and drawdowns of $20,363, (3) submitted inaccurate financial reports, and (4) did not maintain supporting documentation for progress reports.

Perhaps such an examination should have occurred before more than 90 percent of the money had been provided, but that’s water under the bridge.

[….]

No amount of cross-checking by subject matter or division (ORR is a part of HHS’s Administration for Children and Families) revealed any audit work done by HHS OIG despite the tens of millions of dollars apportioned, and not just to Catholic Charities, but to a number of both secular and religiously affiliated charities. One wonders at this lapse.

New readers:  See our three-part series on Texas from earlier this week, beginning with Part I here.   Eight of the nine major federal contractors are operating in Texas, the top resettlement state in the nation.
See our previous post this morning on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops migration committee chairman calling for 65,000 Syrians (mostly Muslims to be selected by the UN) to be admitted to the US by President Obama before he leaves office.

Catholic Bishops join the chorus: bring 65,000 Syrians to the US ASAP; Pope to lecture Congress on immigration?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been away in Texas (see my Texas posts if you haven’t already), so will have some catching up to do.
From National Catholic Reporter we learn that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration Committee chairman, Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, has gone on the record saying no more detention centers for illegal migrants, let in the Central America ‘children,’ and bring in 65,000 Syrians while you are at it!

Seattle Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo welcomes the world to come live in America! No mention of the fact that the USCCB is paid by the head from the US Treasury to take care of the refugees and the illegal migrant children!

He also says the Bishops support so-called ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’ (aka amnesty) in Congress. I sure hope they aren’t lobbying with some of the millions of taxpayer dollars they receive every year!
Everywhere I go, including in Texas this week, Catholics I meet are stunned to learn how far Left the Catholic Bishops are.
Here is the National Catholic Reporter:

Seattle Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo said the Migration Committee he chairs continues the push for reform of the immigration detention system in addition to comprehensive immigration reform. He noted that the latter has stalled in the House of Representatives and that the U.S. bishops supported executive actions by the Obama administration, itself currently tied up in the courts, to provide deferred deportation and work authorization to people in the country illegally.

On the detention camps, Elizondo referenced the bishops’ May report that called for alternatives to family detention.

[….]

He said the committee supports the U.S. Department of State’s in-country processing of children in danger in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, which allows them to apply for asylum without having to make the journey to the U.S. border. The committee also advocates a massive increase in the number of Syrian refugees, including religious minorities from Syria and Iraq, accepted into the U.S.: a target of 65,000 of the most vulnerable in the next two years, compared to the 673 resettled since 2011.  [Mark my words, only a small fraction, less than 8% at the present rate, will be “religious minorities” and he knows it! So far 92% are Sunni Muslims—ed]

Elizondo said he hopes Pope Francis will spotlight immigration reform during his September visit to the U.S., particularly during his Sept. 24 address to Congress.

If the Pope plans to lecture us about immigration maybe some good Catholics should protest!

You have got to tell Congress NO to 65,000 Syrians!  See my youtube video on what you have to do, if you haven’t already.

Endnote to my new Texas friends:  California and Texas are tied for being the top resettlement states for Syrians so far.