Testimony to the US State Department from Sue in Kansas

05/22/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editor: I am still combing through my hundreds of e-mails to find the testimony you sent to the US State Department in response to the DOS request for public comment on the “size and scope” of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program for FY2017.
The day before the deadline for submission of testimony I noticed (maybe you were all ahead of me and noticed!) that the dates were wrong in the Federal Register. I happened to see a comment sent by lawyers to the DOS asking that the comment period be re-opened because citizens, who might like to have testified, didn’t think the notice was for a comment period this year, but for last year. See here.

Sam Brownback 2 — Kansas Governor Sam Brownback withdrew the state of Kansas from the federal refugee program last month, however, that effectively gives the job of resettlement over to a non-profit group in the state with no elected official responsibility. It was a good first step, but without step 2 (filing a states’ rights lawsuit), it is essentially meaningless. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/05/03/big-news-kansas-watching-tennessee-on-refugee-lawsuit-but-bigger-still-so-is-texas/

From Sue:

FR Doc 2016-09267

FY 2016 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration

Anne C. Richard

The U.S. Refugee Admission Program is out of control. It wreaks havoc on local communities – economically, socially and culturally. The program favors Islamic peoples and others that have no respect for our customs, laws or citizens.

We the people; we the taxpayers are funding these programs. It is our hard earned money that is used to bring in thousands of immigrants at a time when our country’s economy is at a breaking point. The immigrants, not Americans, are given preferential treatment at every turn – housing, education, medical assistance, food and employment.

There are factions of these groups of people that are violent – towards each other and everyone else. Domestic abuse is not uncommon and that spill out into our communities in the form of rapes and murders against women and children. Strict and time consuming protocols tie the hands of our police on all the federal, state and local levels. Criminals go unpunished. If they are deported, they make their way back into our country because the system is broken.

Each and every immigrant needs to be thoroughly vetted before being allowed into our country. The program, as it is now, is run more like a cattle business. Immigrants are treated like cash cows by the local contractors which have made a business of raking in federal dollars for their non-profit programs. This is detrimental to many immigrants as well as to the local communities. The immigrants receive a crash course in how to survive in America and then are cast out into the community. Is it no wonder that some will turn to theft, drugs and other crime to try and survive?

Professional immigrants are also given preferential treatment. Foreign doctors, scientists and other professionals are recruited into hospitals, research institutions and business. They can bypass the strict requirements our own college students must abide by. How can American students fairly compete within this infrastructure?

Public schools, colleges and universities are not immune to the lure of federal dollars to accommodate foreign born students. Rather than teach foreign grade school children about our country’s history and culture, in many cases, the opposite is happening. Our children are taught and indoctrinated into foreign cultural beliefs. At a time when Christian values and faith are mocked and denigrated, Islam is being promoted as a religion of peace. Make no mistake, I support clear, unbiased education. Let the facts speak for themselves, but how can this happen when Islam mandates a political correctness for themselves and not for all others?

Throughout American history, immigrants have assimilated peacefully into our culture. They became Americans. The Islamic Nation will never assimilate into our culture but instead, will expect Americans to be dominated by their customs and laws. We cannot allow this to happen.

Books have been written about the immigration problems facing our country. Numerous articles, research and statistics are available that are beyond the scope of this comment section. More public input is necessary to work through the many problems that plague this program and are detrimental to our nation. Checks and balances, outside the government agencies, are necessary. If the system cannot be fixed to the satisfaction of the American people; perhaps it should be dismantled. The money could be better spent on helping our own citizens who are in dire need of it.

This is the thirteenth testimony in our series leading up to the deadline for comments to the Dept. of State on May 19th. Go here for where they are archived to see what your fellow citizens have said.
I intend to keep posting testimonies, a few a day, until I have exhausted my long list! I had no idea so many of you would respond to my offer! But, thank you for your hard work!

'Faith' group exploring bringing refugees to Cape Cod and Nantucket

05/22/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

My first thought when I saw this was, do they actually have cheap subsidized housing there, or are the well-off going to take them home with them?
I’m posting this although I doubt very much that Syrian Muslim refugees are going to be seeded into this expensive realestate in Massachusetts anytime soon. But, for others of you, this is how it begins—‘church’ groups, whose ‘leaders’ have no clue how the resettlement program works invite in a resettlement contractor.

cape-cod-massachusetts-usa_main — Syrians, Somalis and Iraqis to Cape Cod? What a great idea! Teddy would be so proud!

By the way Senator Ted Kennedy created the refugee program in 1979 (Carter signed it into law in 1980). I previously joked and referred to Kennedy as ‘don’t bring them to Hyannis’ Kennedy. I guess he isn’t around to save his neighborhood.
From Cape Cod Times (Answered prayers):

In Vermont, the mayor of Rutland unveiled a plan last month to resettle 100 Syrian refugees who fled the onslaught of the Islamic State and are exiled in refugee camps in Jordan. If approved by the State Department and others, the resettlement would begin in October and gradually send Rutland more Syrian refugees than are currently living anywhere else in New England. [Yikes! Did you folks in Rutland know you would be the Syrian capital of New England joining Lewiston, Maine as the Somali capital!—ed]

[….]

Closer to home, Worcester is in the midst of an initiative that may prove to be a model for refugee resettlement. A coalition of agencies and organizations spearheaded by Ascentria Care Alliance, under a $457,000 grant from the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, has undertaken a pilot program — Partnership for Refugee Wellness — to coordinate support among participating organizations that include health care, job training, education, and legal assistance. Ascentria is the former Lutheran Social Services of New England. [If you live in the Worcester area, you need to follow what Ascentria is doing, we haven’t had time to write about it, but there is much in the news—ed]

Traditional resettlement practices and policies established in 1980 to serve refugees primarily from Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union are outdated and fall short in serving more diverse needs of recent refugees from the Mideast, South Asia and Africa. A number of refugees struggle once here under the federal program’s funding that allows for an eight-month resettlement period, and focuses on employment and economic stability.

[….]

Perhaps it’s time for the Cape Cod Council of Churches and the Barnstable Interfaith Coalition to develop a similar partnership with Ascentria or the State Department.

[….]

Tom Ryan, a board member of the Council, said he has heard from some church leaders on the Cape and Nantucket about their hopes as congregations or as a network of congregations to receive refugees.

By the way, are there mosques on the Cape? Does anyone know?
An afterthought: Have they heard about the Tuberculosis in the refugee flow to America?

Lutheran refugee contractor in Lehigh Valley area of PA to close, running out of money

05/21/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Watch for it! The contractors will all now be begging Congress for more of your money because frankly they can’t privately raise the millions upon millions of dollars resettling tens of thousands of refugees each year costs America. As highly touted “public-private” partnerships the PUBLIC funds are now far outweighing the supposed Lutheran Christian charity.

miji bell — LIRS communications director, Miji Bell, says they plan to get approval from Washington for another agency to take over so the flow of Syrians to Allentown will not be slowed.

Readers may recognize this agency going under as the one we discussed a few times back in October. It is really worth your while to read that post before this latest news.
So, hummm!, Lutheran Liberty is tired of losing money! (Just like the taxpayers!). I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there is more to this story—did regular church-going Lutherans get fed up with bringing in the Syrian Muslims (99% of those entering right now are Muslims***).
From The Morning Call (hat tip: Joanne):

ALLENTOWN — The state’s largest refugee resettlement program is slated to shut down next month, forcing federal officials to approve a replacement before services in the Lehigh Valley and across Pennsylvania are interrupted.

Lutheran Children and Family Services, which has headquarters in Philadelphia and helps settle about 100 refugees a year in the Lehigh Valley, cited accumulating debt as a reason for ending most of its social services by June 30.

Officials said the nonprofit was not receiving enough money to cover immigrant and child welfare programs and has had to borrow $4.5 million from its parent company, Liberty Lutheran, to stay afloat.

If you are considering “welcoming” refugees to your town, read this next line carefully. This will cost your state and local taxpayers no matter how much the contractors say the feds pay for it all. The “reimbursement” mentioned is the payments the federal taxpayer shell out to the contractor.

“Unpredictable state and local funding, coupled with reimbursement that didn’t cover the true cost of service contributed to mounting deficit, leaving Liberty to resource millions of dollars to cover the shortfalls. The generosity of donors has not met the shortfall,” says a statement on the LCFS home page.

Don’t get too excited, they plan to be back with a new subcontractor:

Efforts are underway to find an agency to take over the refugee program. The LCFS Refugee Resettlement Program is a local affiliate of the National Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which is hoping to partner with Baltimore-based Bethany Christian Services to continue administering refugee relocation services in Pennsylvania.

There is more, continue reading here.
The article goes on to say that there are many Syrians already in this part of PA, BUT there is no mention that they are mostly Christians who are not too excited by the large number of Muslim Syrians being admitted.
By the way, Pennsylvania is important to them. This is a state teetering on the line between red state and blue state. These resettlement contractors and the open borders agitators are working to turn it reliably blue.
***Just checking “government figures” as of May 10th. We admitted 1,943 Syrian refugees (of the 10,000 Obama wants) and 1,922 were some flavor of Muslim. That keeps the percentage at 99% Muslim for the Syrians resettled in your states so far this fiscal year.

Federation for American Immigration Reform and its legal arm submit testimony to US State Department

05/21/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editor: This is a press release from FAIR/IRLI in response to a request for public comment on the FY2017 Refugee Admissions Program. Comments closed at 5 p.m. on May 19th. (Hat tip: Joanne)

(Washington, D.C.) – This week, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (“IRLI”) and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (“FAIR”) filed a public comment (attached here) with the Department of State (“DOS”) regarding its proposed 2017 Refugee Admission’s Program. In their comment, IRLI and FAIR raised three broad concerns regarding the Obama Administration’s current policies and practices:

The DOS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) are not complying with statutory requirements. Under U.S. law, only a person who has been persecuted or has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of “race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” can be admitted to the U.S. as a refugee. This Administration appears to have unlawfully adopted the United Nation’s definition of refugee, which includes those fleeing from natural or economic disaster, civil strife, war, crime or other societal afflictions.
DOS has not addressed the extensive fraud and abuse in the refugee application process. The problems with vetting applicants do not end at ensuring each applicant properly complies with the statutory requirements. Extensive fraud and abuse of the application process has been found, yet the Government does not properly address these findings. Such fraud and abuse will only become more prevalent as the President seeks to fulfill his 10,000-Syrian refugee quota by the end of the fiscal year.
The American public is still not adequately protected under the current refugee screening process. The President’s refugee goals are not properly considering the severe national security concerns that face the country in light of the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino, where the female terrorist passed the Government’s security screening. While the President, Jeh Johnson, and DOS officials say that the security checks for refugees are rigorous, the screenings are not sufficient to protect American citizens. Other government officials who are deeply involved in screening refugees state that the current background investigation produces little, if any, information on those being screened.

Dale L. Wilcox, IRLI’s Executive Director commented, “The Obama Administration’s unilateral expansion of our democratically-enacted refugee laws will lead to increased fraud and greater chances for terrorist-activity as well as pressure on our state and federal welfare budgets, and on the social-cohesion of our communities.” Wilcox continued, “Not only is this Administration ignoring the laws which define who can come into our country as a refugee, it’s ignoring the immigration catastrophe in Europe that’s resulted from those governments being too open to manipulation from foreign migrants. The American people are tired of both the lawlessness and the extreme naiveté on the part of the political class when it comes to immigration policy.”

Go here to see all of our information (including copies of testimony) submitted for the FY2017 Presidential determination on the “size and scope” of the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program. (LOL! They are pretending to care what you think even as Obama has already said he is going for 100,000 refugees for his last shot at changing America as he exits the White House!).

Is Tuberculosis a ticking time bomb in refugee/migrant flow to America?

05/21/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

While we fixate on a terrorism threat coming from not thoroughly vetted refugees, could there be a more likely security and safety risk with the myriad diseases permitted entry into the US in the refugee population (and in the stream of Unaccompanied Alien Children)?
In fact, when I first began writing RRW, it was a shock to learn that the Allen County (Indiana) health department was being overwhelmed by the number of TB cases among the newly resettled Burmese refugees. Treating them was breaking the health department’s budget.
New “welcoming” communities (Reno***, Rutland, Missoula, Ithaca?) have you considered the cost and the health risks to your citizens?

TBgrainsackpg3_000 — Part of a PR campaign in Africa to try to educate people about TB. Your tax dollars go to programs like this in foreign countries. But, how about America? http://numat.jsi.com/ProgramAreas/tuberculosis.htm

Be sure to see the Minneapolis Star Tribune of only a week ago where we learn that after 20 years of decline, the US TB rate is moving upward. Reporters begin their story with a Spanish teacher in Vermont who learns she has TB!
So, what has changed in 20 years? Could it be the massive flow of migrants from TB hotspots around the world into America?
Reporter Michael Patrick Leahy has been reporting at Breitbart about Tuberculosis over the last week. Here is his story from yesterday. And, don’t miss the earlier one about the high levels of latent TB in the Somali population in Minnesota, here.
Leahy yesterday:

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, is criticizing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for allowing refugees to enter the United States without screening and treatment for latent tuberculosis.

Seven of the agency’s own public health experts said such screening and treatment “would potentially save millions of dollars and contribute to United States TB elimination goals” in a research article published in December.

“Admitting people who might cause an epidemic makes no sense whatsoever from a public health standpoint,” Orient tells Breitbart News.

“It suggests that those who favor it do not care about the cost in suffering, death, and expense to Americans,” Orient says, adding she agrees with the public health experts currently or formerly employed at the CDC who concluded that screening of refugees for latent tuberculosis and successful treatment of those who test positive for the disease prior to their entry into the country is the proper public health policy for the United States.

But the political leadership at CDC does not appear to be following the screening and treatment recommendations of the study done by its own experts, and has not yet responded to inquiries from Breitbart News whether it plans to change course.

“If for humanitarian reasons we wish to help people fleeing persecution, there is still no need to release them into the general population of susceptible individuals. Officials who place politics above the health of Americans need to be held accountable and removed from positions of authority,” Orient says.

Be sure to watch the video linked in this next paragraph and consider the FACT that you, the US taxpayers, are paying for this expensive treatment for Drug Resistant TB, so that these people can move to your towns!

Even those refugees treated for active Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, as shown in this video of Burmese refugees who have the disease being treated in a refugee camp in Thailand, are allowed to enter the United States despite recent studies that indicate that between 4 percent and 5 percent of those deemed successfully treated experience a recurrence of tuberculosis within 2 years.

There is much more, continue reading here.
See our extensive ‘health issues’ category with 292 previous posts by clicking here.
*** In that Abstract we discussed a week ago for the new resettlement site in Reno, the Abstract indicates that the wait time for health screening of refugees arriving there will be 15-30 days. I doubt that refugees are quarantined during the wait time!