Editor: This is another copy of testimony submitted in response to my offer to post testimony that readers have sent, or are sending, to the US State Department before May 19th.  Your testimony can be long or short, more detailed or less so.  Just send something!  And, then be sure to copy it to your elected officials.
Moratorium requested on resettlement of African and Middle Eastern refugees….
From Carol:

Dear Ms. Richards

This letter is a request for a moratorium on resettling refugees in the United States from Africa and the Middle East. Americans must study the long-term effects large groups of indigent refugees will have on communities throughout the country. It would also allow state and local governments to assess their financial obligations, and how they might pay for the additional services refugees require. Alas, a significant aspect of the resettlement process eludes transparent informing-or receiving of input-from average citizens, who will be footing the bill for the continued, and in all likelihood significant, on-going services.

One of the largest historical waves of immigration into the U.S. occurred after the Civil War, when industry was booming, and the federal government was giving away huge tracks of free land. That’s a far cry from our situation today. Taxpayers in the U.S. now owe $19+ trillion dollars, not counting future unfunded liabilities that financial experts calculate to be over $100 trillion dollars. These numbers are staggering and above the tipping point modeled by other failed economies of the past 100 years, such as Greece, Venezuela, 1920s Germany, etc. In addition, we’ve spent $22 trillion since the 1960s, to eliminate poverty in our country, without success. Now the U.S. is resettling hundreds of thousands of mostly impoverished refugees from the failed states of Africa and the Middle East, into the heartland and big cities of America. If successful assimilation is the goal, this scenario is fraught with impending failure and calamity.

Unemployment in poor and minority communities is higher than it was for the whole population during the Great Depression, and too many of our high schools have a graduation rate of 50% of the students who started out as freshmen. Many of these schools are already struggling to accommodate large numbers of non-English speaking learners. This is not the time to incorporate large numbers of severely disadvantaged people. In addition, Muslim refugees’ religious beliefs require strict obedience to the tenets of their faith. Many of these beliefs run counter to our Constitution, which will create serious long term conflict. Because these refugees home countries are in such turmoil, they have never had the opportunity to practice the essential building blocks of a dynamic democratic republic, such as respect for the Bill of Rights, the rule of law, freedom of religion, and open debate.

One of the fundamental American qualities since our founding has been flexibility. This flexibility is an essential component to how we became a world power. For much of our history, Americans have experienced the most rapid changes any culture has ever adapted to, politically, socially, economically, technologically, scholastically, and militarily. But even a culture as robust as ours can be challenged beyond its breaking point. It is that breaking point that concerns me.

Using Europe as an example, large numbers of poorly-educated, non-native speaking groups of Muslim immigrants have created the most challenges the Continent has faced since the aftermath of World War II. We must learn from their example.

The State Department and the United Nations should encourage Muslim countries to accept these refugees, or to establish decent refugee camps, until the conflicts end. The U.S. is no longer able to solve all the world’s problems. Muslim refugees moving to Muslim countries would at least find social and religious compatibility. Unlike our country, for we are in the midst of rapidly changing moral codes.

In closing, I must emphatically state how difficult I believe these refugees lives are. Each of them may well be heroes and heroines. Yet I do not think two wrongs make a right. It is a wrong that their home countries cannot settle their differences. It is also wrong to try and integrate them into our country which poses a serious breakdown to our successful social cohesion.

I urge the State Department to have a moratorium on receiving Muslim refugees from Africa and the Middle East. American citizens must study and discuss the long-term effects large groups of indigent refugees will have on their communities, their taxes, public school education, then decide for themselves how to shape their future.

This is the fifth testimony in our series  leading up to the deadline for testimony on May 19th.  Go here for where they are archived. We are posting as many as we can because we know the US State Department has refused in the past to make them public (so much for Obama transparency!).