Month: May 2016

Bowling Green, KY info meeting on Syrian refugees turned into heated debate

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m sure there will be more reports today about what went down in Senator Rand Paul’s hometown last evening when the local resettlement agency honcho held a meeting to explain to the community that he had applied for 40 Syrians to add to Bowling Greens already large Muslim community, but here are two reports.

Matt_Bevin_by_Gage_Skidmore
I don’t have a lot of hope that Sen. Rand Paul will do much, but Kentucky’s new ‘tea party’ governor Matt Bevin is perfectly positioned to throw a huge monkey-wrench into the refugee industry by standing up for state’s rights and filing a law suit already prepared by the Thomas More Law Center.

Both indicate that the meeting went longer and got angrier than organizers expected, and the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) employee indicated there will be another public meeting before the close of the fiscal year (Sept. 30th).  We will be watching for that.
The bottomline however is the refugee industry spokesman says (too bad folks!) the local community will have no say anyway!
You are going to have to go to both stories to see what happened because I am so bogged down with a huge list of things to post (including more of your testimonies to the US State Dept.) over this holiday weekend and no time to analyze further.
Here is WKU Public Radio where the head of the Bowling Green USCRI office shows that he is not up to date with the latest from Washington where we are told the screening process for Syrians has been shrunk to 3 months!

Albert Mbanfu, executive director of the International Center of Kentucky, explained the extensive screening process that takes 18-24 months before refugees are approved for resettlement in the U.S.

This is not just about Islamic terrorism!

The other report is from WKBO and here (below) is the bit that jumped out at me.  We are beginning to get reports from people with direct knowledge of the inner workings of the Refugee Resettlement Program and apparently here is one who made a comment last evening. (I wonder if we could get a national whistleblower club going!).

One woman said she worked with refugees for 30 years, and doesn’t trust the system.

“There is a lot of fraud within the agencies that are placing refugees. They’re paid per head by the number of refugees that they sell [resettle?—ed], and you gotta follow the money.”

In both reports you will get the very clear signal that the resettlement agency, working for the federal government, is in the cat bird seat and refugees are coming to Bowling Green anyway (whether you like it or not!).
There is one way out for Kentucky, a Wilson-Fish state just like Tennessee.  Because of how Wilson-Fish states are structured it is the contention of many that it is a 10th Amendment (State’s Rights) issue.  The Governor of Kentucky can sue to stop the program!
Kentuckians with concerns need to hound your governor!
LOL! One of the two stories above uses the words “testy town hall” in its title.  Maybe we should have a whole new category for those testy town halls, see Rutland, VT this week as well.

What will Senator Rand Paul do about new influx of Muslims to his hometown?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday I told you about a public meeting to be held today in Bowling Green, KY where the major resettlement contractor working there, Bowling Green International Center, a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, will attempt to explain why they will now be adding to the Muslim population of that town.

rand paul contemplative
Senator Rand Paul. Will he or won’t he take a leading role in investigating the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program that is FOREVER changing his home town?

Writing at World Net Daily, Leo Hohmann, reports on Senator Paul’s response.  For any of you attending that meeting at 5 p.m. today, be sure to see if you can spot any representatives of Paul’s office in attendance.  Be sure to let them know what you are thinking.
Here is just a small snip from Hohmann’s detailed report:

Bowling Green is not new to Muslim refugees. The city has been transformed over the past decade from a typical Middle America town that had no Muslims to one that now has more than 7,000 who account for at least 10 percent of the city’s population. It had no mosques 15 years ago and now has several including a large Islamic Center. The Islamic refugees have come from 23 countries, mostly from Bosnia, Russia, Burma, Iraq and now Syria.

[…..]

Paul’s office told WND he is not in favor of the Syrian refugee dumps in Kentucky or anywhere else under the current vetting process being used by President Obama.

“Senator Paul believes we must pass the SECURE Act,” said Sergio Gor, the senator’s press secretary. “This legislation would suspend visa issuance for countries with a high risk of terrorism and impose a waiting period for background checks on visa issuance from other countries until the American people can be assured terrorists cannot enter the country through our immigration and visa system.”

Paul was much more outspoken against refugee resettlement three years ago, before he contemplated a run for president.

Continue reading here.
I, at one point a few years ago, had a lot of hope that Senator Paul, because of the way he questioned the program, would indeed become a leading Senate advocate for its reform. Of course it isn’t too late for him to accept the mantle.
P.S. Kentuckians might want to pound Mitch McConnell too, but I bet he is too deeply indebted to big industries in the state (Perdue maybe???) always on the lookout for cheap captive labor that refugees provide.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) a longtime supporter of refugee resettlement is shocked! What no Christians!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Shocked to find out—Surprise!—that we aren’t resettling Syrian Christians, but mostly Sunni Muslims.  I have no sympathy for his position now because he was so willfully blind for at least the last two decades about where this UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program was taking America.

Rep_Chris_Smith_Credit_US_Mission_Geneva_CNA_US_Catholic_News_5_2_12
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) has been a long time supporter of the UNHCR and its work to bring refugees to America.

Here is a bit of the news from a stunned Smith at CNS News:

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said Thursday that it was “unconscionable” that of the record 499 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States in the first three weeks of May, not one was a Christian.

Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson cited that number, reported by CNSNews.com on Monday, in his testimony on the urgent needs facing Christian refugees from Iraq and Syria.

Smith was speaking at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on what steps should be taken following Secretary of State Kerry’s March declaration that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) was committing genocide in Iraq and Syria against Christians and other religious minorities.

“They can’t even get into a UNHCR [U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees] or IDP [internally displaced persons] camp or a refugee camp, are unwanted, at risk,” Smith said of the Christians in Iraq and Syria.

Someone should really do a full accounting of Smith’s unwavering support for more refugees for your towns and cities (he has been the Republican darling of the refugee industry and its advocates), but I don’t have the time.  Here is just one bit I found (in a quick search) from a New York Times story about Smith from 1997 (Crusader and pragmatist!):

…. an anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, has attacked him for his efforts to open American borders to more political refugees.

Does he understand that his beloved Catholic Bishops are leading the pack in ‘welcoming’ Muslims to America?

Bowling Green, KY townhall Friday night to explain plan for Syrian resettlement there

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve been reporting on the Rutland, VT ‘pocket of resistance’ to a new resettlement office in Bernie-land, but although there has been an office (of the same federal contractor—USCRI) in Bowling Green for a long time (we have a large archive on it because they have had many problems there over the years), now Syrian Muslims will join the Iraqi Muslims in Rand Paul-land.

Little notice for a public meeting to be held at 5 p.m. on a Friday evening!  What is up with that, unless the whole idea is to make sure few average working (taxpaying!) people can’t make it!

Mbanfu
Albert Mbanfu took over the leadership of this USCRI subcontractor in 2013 here: http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/mbanfu-taking-over-as-international-center-director/image_68ff7ec2-4d2b-5336-9f17-4e5f998865e7.html

And, as far as I know they have no one attending who will help develop the whole story as Simpson did in Rutland this week.
From AP at the Lexington Herald Leader (hat tip: Joanne):

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — A plan to accept Syrian refugees in Bowling Green is raising concerns. In response, the organizations involved have scheduled a town hall to address any questions.

The Bowling Green International Center plans to help resettle refugees, including a group of 40 from Syria, in October.

Center Director Albert Mbanfu said he hopes to address concerns about the screening process and explain how these refugees come to the United States. [Bet you a buck he has already sent the plan to Washington—ed]

“My objective is that people will leave this town hall with a sound knowledge on how refugee resettlement works,” he said.

City Commissioner Melinda Hill has called the resettlement risky. [Commissioner Hill must demand to see the R & P Abstract prepared by USCRI! It should look like this one from Reno! because USCRI is the major contractor there too.—ed]

Sue Parrigan
Commissioner Sue Parrigan wants more immigrant workers in Bowling Green.

“This is not against the people,” Hill said. “Our federal government has not put in place a good vetting process.”

Mbanfu says the federal government won’t put the country at risk of potential terrorist infiltrators.

“The community deserves to come out and be heard,” said City Commissioner Sue Parrigin.

The Daily News (http://bit.ly/27SlBxp ) reports that the town hall is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday at the Professional Development and Learning Center.

Follow that link in the last paragraph and learn more, including the statements by Commissioner Parrigin who says they need more workers in KY.
And, if you are new to RRW, or perhaps you live in the Bowling Green area, I will bet you have never seen all the news Bowling Green has made over the years with refugee overload and including the news about Iraqi refugee terrorists arrested (and now in prison) who had been resettled there.  Click here for background.  I bet we have stories there going back to 2008!
Somebody needs to make sure that Senator Rand Paul’s office is represented! This is his home town! You can forget Senator Mitch McConnell because he has turned a blind eye to the program for decades.  (Meatpacking and chicken plant money??? Just guessing!)

Rutland, VT citizens hear from James Simpson in advance of heated public meeting

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is not an exhaustive report on what happened in Rutland over the last two days.  I am sure we will have more later, but just wanted to let readers know that James Simpson was invited to speak in Rutland, VT this week (go here to see our previous posts). See also ‘Remaking Rutland’ at American Thinker, here.
Here is a news account from MyChamplainValley about Simpson’s presentation on Tuesday.

Vermont meeting
On the hotseat: Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program Director Amila Merdzanovic (left) and Stacie Blake, director of government and community relations at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, speak at a meeting in Rutland. Photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDigger

Then here are two accounts of the meeting held last night (Wed) by the Board of Alderman to further educate the public about the plan to bring 100 Syrians to Rutland this coming fiscal year. (See here and here).
The second of those links, here, at VTdigger is worth reading in its entirety because the whole idea of the secrecy with which this plan was hatched is discussed in some detail.
Note that they are holding a public meeting AFTER the plan has been sent to Washington. I bet the mayor hasn’t even seen that plan (the R & P Abstract)!

RUTLAND — In a heated public meeting Wednesday, the members of the Rutland Board of Aldermen and community members scrutinized a plan to resettle refugees in this central Vermont city.

While some came in support of the proposal, the majority raised objections to the way the plan had been formulated.

The proposal, announced by Mayor Chris Louras last month, would bring 100 Syrian refugees to Rutland for resettlement over the course of a year beginning in October.

Last week, the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program submitted the proposal to resettle Syrians in Rutland to the federal government. They anticipate they will hear a response in July.

Many residents bristled at Louras’ approval of the project because he didn’t consult with city aldermen and they raised concerns about the impact the resettlement will have on the community.

In a meeting that stretched longer than three hours, the aldermen and residents expressed frustration with Louras’ decision, which they said was carried out behind closed doors and without an appropriate level of community input.

Amila Merdzanovic, the director of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, and Stacie Blake, director of government and community relations at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, answered questions from board and community members for hours Wednesday evening.

Continue reading here!
Be sure to see that USCRI rep Blake says refugees are not placed in unwelcoming communities…hmmmmm!
Also, just keep in mind that, at this very moment, plans for all of the old and new resettlement sites are being prepared and sent to Washington.  It is our contention that those plans (see the Reno plan here) should be released to the public in advance of going to Washington for approval for your money to be spent!
More later…..