Report: Berlin Islamic killer came through Italian island of Lampedusa in 2011

Two years later, in 2013, the Pope went to Lampedusa to welcome the African migrants to Italy!

 

pope-on-lampedusa
The Pope welcomes the African migrants to Lampedusa, Italy in 2013. See our post where he lectured Italians to be more welcoming, and to “cry” for the migrants. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/07/09/pope-lectures-on-lampedusa/

 
From The UK Sun (see the pictures):

The ISIS extremist ploughed a lorry into festive shoppers at a Berlin Christmas market on Monday night.

[….]

Rewind five years, and just days after arriving on Lampedusa trouble-maker Amri was involved in the burning down of a migrant shelter.

We have the Pope and Mama Merkel to blame for the invasion of Europe.
See all of our ‘Invasion of Europe’ news by clicking here.

New Mexico: Lutheran resettlement contractor puts brakes on new Sante Fe refugee program

With Trump win, Santa Fe’s refugee program on hold

(Albuquerque Journal headline)

Hurrah! We found another*** of the supposedly 47 sites the Obama Administration has (secretly!) approved or was working on approving for the massive numbers of refugees they expected to resettle had Hillary won the election rather than Donald Trump.
Here is the sad tale from Sante Fe (a city yearning for more diversity). After an initial heartwarming intro:

In less than a year – and largely through the efforts of Santa Fe’s faith communities – what snowballed into a group calling themselves Welcoming Santa Fe were able to get the city designated a refugee resettlement site by the U.S. State Department.

“We were elated,” Dickenson [Nancy a Sante Fe filmmaker who spear-headed the effort] said.

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 08: Santa Fe, New Mexico Mayor Javier Gonzales attends a press conference after attending New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's Mayor's summit on immigration reform on December 8, 2014 in New York City. The summit focused on how cities can best utilize President Obama's executive action on immigration reform. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Sante Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales wanted more diversity for Sante Fe. He was one of 18 mayors who demanded Syrian refugees for their cities in 2015. See here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/10/14/act-for-america-launches-citizen-action-campaign-urging-18-mayors-to-re-think-their-demand-for-more-syrian-refugees/

But that was in October. Weeks later, on Nov. 8, Donald Trump won the presidential election. He campaigned on a strict immigration policy that included building a wall on the southern border to stop illegal immigration. He also proposed a temporary ban on allowing Muslims into the country, a message he repeated Wednesday in response to this week’s terrorist attack in Berlin that was allegedly perpetrated by a Tunisian asylum-seeker.

No one knows what a Trump presidency will mean for immigration policy. And that’s what caused Lutheran Family Services, an affiliate of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service – one of nine national organizations that work on behalf of the U.S. government to resettle refugees in different parts of the country – to put on hold using Santa Fe as a refugee settlement site.

One hundred refugees, including up to 20 families and 30 children mainly from Central Africa but also from the Middle East and South America, were scheduled to make Santa Fe their new home next month. The startup of a refugee resettlement program was mentioned at a recent meeting of the city Immigration Committee and notice had been issued for a fundraising concert.

Money is the main reason it is on hold!

Burnett [Tarrie Burnett, program director for Lutheran Family Services in Albuquerque] said future funding is also a major concern. Trump has talked about scaling back the nation’s admissions program for refugees, defined by the State Department as people who face persecution in their native lands.

[….]

Burnett said her office operates on a budget of about $1 million, about 75 percent of it coming from the federal government. The rest comes from various grants, pass-through funding, donations and other sources.

Much more here at the Albuquerque Journal.
Bottomline! Resettlement subcontractors like Lutheran Family Services (LIRS is the major resettlement contractor) are not going out on a limb now to open offices, pay rent, and hire staff when Donald Trump could drastically cut the number of refugees arriving beginning on January 21st.

The contractor’s initial federal funding is paid out by the number of ‘clients’ they place. It is a per head payment!

*** We can now add Sante Fe to our list!

Below are new sites we have identified so far of the supposed 47 the Obama Administration is (or has been) trying to get established.

One of the first things the Trump Administration must do is to make all of this information public information.  Here are some of the sites we have identified so far by just keeping an eye on local news reports:

Asheville, NC (not decided yet)

Rutland, VT (approved, waiting)

Reno, NV (open)

Ithaca, NY

Missoula, MT (open)

Aberdeen, SD (not now)

Charleston, WV (approved, see Senator Capito as the Frau Merkel of WV!)

Fayetteville, AR

Blacksburg, VA

Pittsfield, MA

Northhampton, MA

Flint, MI

Bloomington, IN (dead for now)

Traverse City, MI

Poughkeepsie, NY

Wilmington, DE

Hudson, WI (dead for now?)

Watertown, NY (maybe)

Youngstown, OH (maybe)

Storm Lake, Iowa

Sante Fe, NM (approved but on hold)

Texas AG makes stupid, uninformed comments about refugee program!

Approximately 6,000 refugees came to Texas in 2015 and 2016, but Texas never knew the extent of the program. (Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton)

Who is he trying to fool!

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Fox & Friends yesterday that the state never knew the extent of the refugee program in the state. OMG! The State had been paying a refugee coordinator for years and years and no one apparently at the governor’s level ever asked? What incompetence! Or was it?

texas-ag-paxton
Texas AG Ken Paxton. The real test for Texas comes after January.  Will they then sue the feds with a Wilson-Fish states’ rights suit? Or, are they all talk and no action!

If we knew that Texas was the number one state in the nation for refugee resettlement (it gained that distinction in 2011), why didn’t Texas leaders know?
By the way, the Texas governor pulled the state out of the program (officially in January the state will be out), but what did they expect was going to happen, that the refugee flow would be cut off?
Did no one investigate the Wilson-Fish program and how the feds will step in and simply appoint a non-profit contractor to run the program in the state?  This strikes me as sheer incompetence!
They still have a way out, or a possible way out! Once they are designated a Wilson-Fish state we will see if the governor and this Attorney General have the guts to sue the feds as Tennessee is doing!
From Newsmax:

Texans are “stuck with no control” over the refugees coming into their state, and Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday state leaders are concerned the same situation going on in Europe will happen in the United States.

[….]

Texas has sued the federal government to try to stop refugees from being placed in the state, but federal law controls the issue, Paxton said.  [Yes, but it was a dumb lawsuit!—ed]

[….]

Earlier this fall, Paxton warned Texas will pull out of the federal refugee-resettlement program in January unless major changes were made. Approximately 6,000 refugees*** came to Texas in 2015 and 2016, but Texas never knew the extent of the program.

Hey, Mr. Paxton, do you need a phone number for the Thomas Moore Law Center, or can you handle finding that yourself?
Paxton also told Fox that they were counting on Donald Trump to save their bacon.
See our complete Texas archive here, and don’t miss Austin mayor working against the state here two days ago.
***He doesn’t even have the numbers correct. Checking Wrapsnet.org we learned that for calendar years 2015 and 2016 (until December 20th), the state of Texas admitted 15,681 refugees.

Asheville, NC still under consideration for new refugee site

At least that is what the International Rescue Committee told a local newspaper this week.

Image #: 30348799 Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) questions IRS Commissioner John Koskinen as he testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington Monday June 23, 2014. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) Reuters /JAMES LAWLER DUGGAN /LANDOV
Rep. Mark Meadows opposes the plan for Asheville to be a new resettlement site, but it is important you follow up with him now and tell him what you think (even if you live elsewhere in NC).

By the way, as an update, Hudson, Wisconsin has dodged a bullet for now and will not be getting the Syrian families; plans for which caused a huge public outcry and the Congressman representing the district got involved.
See my post yesterday with update.  Did the Republican Congressman help push the decision in that direction?  (Be sure to read the update and open links, see the medical problems with that group of Syrians.)
The news from Asheville tells us that the member of Congress for the district where the city is located (Rep. Mark Meadows) opposes the resettlement site. Could that be the holdup?
Note that another Republican, West Virginia Rep. Alex Mooney apparently is welcoming the plan for his district and it has been approved.  It is too early to draw conclusions, but it sure looks like some consideration is  given to whether the member of Congress representing the district is willing to stand against it. [Hint! Montana!]

From the Citizen-Times:

A visit from the International Rescue Committee in June sparked a debate in Western North Carolina as the global aid and humanitarian organization announced it was exploring the possibility of making Buncombe County a resettlement site for refugees.

Representatives from the International Rescue Committee met with residents at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation to discuss the feasibility of relocating about 150 people fleeing persecution in their home countries to the Asheville region.

At the time, J.D. McCrary, executive director of the IRC office in Atlanta, said that if plans move forward, the first household could come as early as next spring. Others would arrive over the ensuing 12 months, he said.
The organization has remained tight-lipped since their first visit to town.

“There are still no new updates,” IRC spokesman Sean Piazza said in December. “We are still considering Asheville as a potential site that would welcome refugees and give them a chance to rebuild their lives.”

The majority of refugees now being resettled domestically are Congolese, Bhutanese, Burmese, Afghan and Iraqi, although there are likely to be more Syrians in the near future, McCrary said in June.***

[….]

That month a spokesman for Meadows said the congressman opposed the IRC’s plans and is working with the group and the State Department on the issue.

If you live in Asheville, you need  to stay on top of this and on top of Rep. Meadows!

So which ethnic groups have been placed in North Carolina?

***I was interested in the list McCrary gave and especially because he didn’t mention the Somalis!  Does NC not get Somalis?
So, I checked Wraps.org and had a look at FY2016 and FY2017.  Fiscal years run from Oct. 1 of the previous year to Sept. 30th of the following year.  So, for new readers, FY 2017 began on Oct. 1, 2016 (we are over 2 and 1/2 months in to it).
I did see that Asheville got 21 refugees from Moldova recently.  I don’t know what that is about.
In that timeframe, one year and 2 and 1/2 months, NC took in 4,101 refugees.  NC has often been in the top ten states for refugee resettlement in the years I have been writing RRW.
Here are the top nationalities that have been placed in NC since October 1, 2015 (FY 2016).

DR Congo (1,201)

Syria (705)

Burma (594)

Somalia (301)

Bhutan (231)

Afghanistan (157)

Iraq (145)

Below are new sites we have identified so far of the supposed 47 the Obama Administration is (or has been) trying to get established.

One of the first things the Trump Administration must do is to make all of this information public information.  Here are some of the sites we have identified so far:

Asheville, NC (not decided yet)

Rutland, VT (approved, waiting)

Reno, NV (open)

Ithaca, NY

Missoula, MT (open)

Aberdeen, SD (not now)

Charleston, WV (approved)

Fayetteville, AR

Blacksburg, VA

Pittsfield, MA

Northhampton, MA

Flint, MI

Bloomington, IN (dead for now)

Traverse City, MI

Poughkeepsie, NY

Wilmington, DE

Hudson, WI (dead for now?)

Watertown, NY (maybe)

Youngstown, OH (maybe)

Storm Lake, Iowa

I would like to get more updates from you, let me know if you have anything more on these sites.