Northern Idaho: Don’t bring refugees here!

08/18/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A presentation in Bonner County on Wednesday ended earlier than planned because local opponents of refugee resettlement dominated the near capacity audience.

I suspect the citizens of Sandpoint and the surrounding rural region of Idaho had heard enough about refugee turmoil over 600 miles south in Twin Falls and didn’t see a need to bring the same trouble to their neighborhoods.

From the Bonner County Daily Bee:

SANDPOINT — A sustained lack of basic civility brought an abrupt end Wednesday to a presentation aimed at informing the public how refugee resettlement works in Idaho and the United States.

From the moment the meeting at Community Hall commenced, Nick and Laura Armstrong of Boise faced a tough room.

“I am advocating understanding,” Laura Armstrong tried to explain at one point.

A good portion of the capacity crowd, however, was having none of it.

Refugee resettlement foes groaned, scoffed, talked over, shouted and laughed derisively at the Armstrongs. When audience members who were genuinely curious about resettlement programs tried to get opponents to quiet down so the presentation could go on, they, too, were shouted down.

Nevertheless, the Armstrongs pressed ahead. They pointed out that the Bible is replete with people who were refugees, including Jesus. There are also cited repeated passages referring to God’s faithfulness and concern for “aliens” and “strangers.” [The usual use of the Bible to suit their purposes!—ed]

[….]

Many of the foes of refugee resettlement viewed the presentation as a foot in the door to bring displaced people into Bonner County.

“We don’t want ‘em!” a woman shouted angrily.

The Armstrongs and the meeting’s hosts — the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force and a group called “follow ~ a community” — emphasized that there was no plan to bring refugees here, but opponents were dubious of those declarations.

The Armstrongs and the meeting’s hosts attempted to conduct a question-and-answer session on resettlement after the presentation, but only made it several questions in when it became clear productive discussion remained elusive.

Continue reading here. And, don’t miss the comments. Some are better than the story.

For background, new readers might want to see our Twin Falls archive by clicking here.

This post is also filed in a category I call ‘Pockets of Resistance,’ a phrase I first heard in 2013 when an Office of Refugee Resettlement spokesman referred to communities where citizens were questioning refugee resettlement as ‘pockets of resistance,’ explained here.

Starbucks awarding grants to other coffee companies to train refugee baristas

08/18/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Jobs Americans won’t do?

I guess we can conclude that there are no Americans, no low-skilled citizens, looking to brew up your morning coffee.

Here is an idea! Get your own coffee maker and do your brewing at home!

By the way, I had a huge number of readers, here and at twitter when I posted about Breitbart’s TB and Starbucks story here last week.

This story tells us that a successful effort to train refugee baristas will depend on whether a lot of refugees are being placed in your city and whether lots of people are patronizing coffee shops.

“Opportunity for All” grant? Sounds more like “Only refugees need apply” grant!

From The Daily Californian:

Berkeley’s 1951 Coffee Company has been awarded the “Opportunity for All” grant by the Starbucks Foundation, allowing it to expand its barista training program for refugees to other cities in the United States.

The antidote: Make your own coffee at home! (LOL! I’m not affiliated with or promoting any particular coffee machine manufacturer!)

The grant awards the coffee company $63,000 to serve an additional 85 refugees, asylees and Special Immigrant Visa holders, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the company.

1951 Coffee was one of 41 nonprofit organizations selected by the Starbucks Foundation because of its approach to helping refugees obtain the skills required to succeed in a “rapidly changing global economy,” the press release stated.

Doug Hewitt, co-founder of 1951 Coffee, said he and co-founder Rachel Taber were very pleased to learn that the nonprofit had been approved for the grant. According to Hewitt, the grant will allow the company’s two-week barista training program in Oakland — which takes place every other month — to increase its services to monthly.

Hewitt added that, in terms of expansion, 1951 Coffee is looking to first take its training program to San Diego. Depending on how that effort goes, the nonprofit will decide where else to take the program.

According to Hewitt, in order for a city to have potential for expansion, it must have a refugee population being resettled there, as well as a strong coffee industry.

Continue reading here.

UN: Spain not ready for large influx of migrants from Africa

08/18/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..even less ready today?

This United Nations-generated story was published yesterday before we learned about an Islamic terror attack in Barcelona committed by some killers from Morocco.

So what are the odds that the Spanish public isn’t going to be too excited about finding resources and accommodations for the illegal migrants (70% are MEN)?

From The Guardian:

Spain lacks capacity to handle migration surge, says UN refugee agency

UNHCR warning comes as Spanish coastguard intercepts nearly 600 people in a day trying to reach country from Morocco

Spain lacks the resources and capacity to protect the rising number of refugees and migrants reaching it by sea, the UN refugee agency has said.

The warning from UNHCR comes as the Spanish coastguard said it rescued 593 people in a day from 15 small paddle boats, including 35 children and a baby, after they attempted to cross the seven-mile Strait of Gibraltar.

If you haven’t seen this incredible video from last week showing invaders storming a tourist beach in Spain, watch it here: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=video+of+africans+landing+on+spanish+beach&qpvt=video+of+africans+landing+on+spanish+beach&view=detail&mid=D4CD9D32F78AC801C0B6D4CD9D32F78AC801C0B6&&FORM=VDRVRV

The number of refugees and migrants risking the sea journey between Morocco and Spain has been rising sharply, with the one-day figure the largest since August 2014, when about 1,300 people landed on the Spanish coast in a 24-hour period.

About 9,300 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea so far this year, while a further 3,500 have made it to two Spanish enclaves in north Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, the EU’s only land borders with Africa.

María Jesús Vega, a spokeswoman for UNHCR Spain, said police were badly under-resourced and there was a lack of interpreters and a shortage of accommodation for the new arrivals.

“The state isn’t prepared and there aren’t even the resources and the means to deal with the usual flow of people arriving by sea,” she said.

There is much more…..

After yesterday, I predict that Spanish citizens won’t be receptive to finding the “resources.”

Here is a good graphic from The Guardian:

See my complete (lengthy!) archive on the ‘Invasion of Europe’ by clicking here. I think my first “invasion” post was in 2010 or 2011.

Australia deal: Homeland Security returns to Manus Island to continue screening wannabe refugees

08/17/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Recently we reported that US security screening agents had been called home and took that as a sign that the US government was coming to its senses and that we were not going to honor Obama’s “dumb” deal with the Aussie government.

I guess my optimism was premature. Here, at the PostCourier, we learn that US agents have gone back to screen the MEN.

Staff from the United States Department of Homeland Security have returned to Manus Island to interview refugees about resettlement in the US.

Prime Minister Turnbull is between a rock and a hard place as his leftwing No borders activists want the mostly Muslim men settled on the mainland. If he gives in, he signals to thousands of aliens waiting in nearby locations to jump into boats and sail to Australia.

Refugees in Australia’s offshore detention centre on the island have been told that interviews will resume this week.

Immigration authorities at the centre provided a notice to the men telling them only some will be interviewed.

“Don’t worry if you do not receive an appointment slip,” the notice said.

“Further visits are anticipated in the coming months.

“All cases are different and will move through the resettlement process at different speeds.”

There are almost 700 refugees on the island who are eligible for resettlement in the US, but the US Government still has not said if any of them will eventually be taken there.

Refugees inside the centre said a total of 70 men have been interviewed by Department of Homeland Security staff in their previous visits.

All of this is happening because Obama was mucking around in Australia’s immigration policy!

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Obama administration lobbied to change Australia’s asylum seeker policy

The Obama administration lobbied Australia to change its asylum seeker policy, actively disagreeing with the Australia’s off-shore detention and “Stop the Boats” mentality.

Former deputy secretary of state Heather Higginbottom has given an insight into how the secretive refugee-swap deal between the two allies came about, while revealing the United States, under former president Barack Obama, wanted to “bring relief” to asylum seekers held on Nauru and Manus Island. [Asylum seekers are NOT refugees!—-ed]

Heather goes to Washington! One of the great minds crafting a “dumb” deal! Obama didn’t like Australia’s ‘stop the boats’ deterrent to illegal aliens, so the deal was struck. But, Dear Donald, you don’t have to go through with it! Mostly Muslim men Australia doesn’t want shouldn’t be secretly placed in American towns! Here is Heather: https://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V71N3/feature2.html

The deal was the subject of a tense first phone call between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, with Mr Trump labelling it “stupid”, “rotten”, “horrible” and “disgusting”.

But Ms Higginbottom, writing for Time magazine, said it was struck with humanitarian solutions in mind, by an administration uncomfortable with Australia’s stance.

“While the last administration strongly pressed the Australian government to change its policy toward asylum seekers, we also sought to immediately relieve the suffering of these refugees and agreed to resettle up to 1200 after they went through the US government’s rigorous refugee screening processes,” Ms Higginbottom, who now serves as the chief operating officer of CARE, wrote.

[Most have not even been determined to be legitimate refugees yet—ed]

Much, much more here.

My whole ‘Australia deal’ archive is here.

Washington state Somali shot dead by police was refugee from Dadaab

08/17/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In case you missed the update from World Net Daily about the “man” who sliced open a police officers head in Kennewick, Washington over the weekend (when everyone was busy focused on Charlottesville), here we learn that Hussain Hassan was from the UN’s Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. So much for screening—either security or mental health!

See my post yesterday, here.

Wrapsnet has a very cool feature and that is the map showing “processing” countries. This Fiscal Year, through July 31, we processed 5,228 refugees through Kenya to American towns and cities. Most of those would have been Somalis from Dadaab. The total number of Somalis admitted to the US this FY was 5,899 through July 31.

Recently a Somali (sounded educated) wrote to me to tell me that there is a huge amount of fraud going on at Dadaab, but of course I have no way of verifying his information.

By the way, only Turkey sends us more refugees than Kenya.