Month: August 2017

Failing to be granted asylum in US, Somalis heading for Canadian border

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When one sees stories titled like this one:

Somalis With Criminal Records Are Heading for Canadian Border

One immediately assumes this story has to do with changing US refugee policy under Donald Trump’s presidency, but check this out, they were already heading to Canada under Obama.

From Alpha News:

Fear of deportation is causing some Somalis with criminal records to head for the Canadian border, according to a new report from Global News.

The usual route: http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/u-s-group-asks-asylum-seekers-not-to-cross-border-into-manitoba-1.3287759

A Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) intelligence brief from January 2016 obtained by Global News shows an increase in Somali nationals with criminal records crossing the border into Canada.

According to the report, 16 Somalis with “serious” criminal records crossed the border into Canada between 2012 and 2015. Of the 16, 11 had criminal records in Minnesota. Most of the asylum seekers crossed the border near Emerson, Manitoba.

The CBSA believes the asylum seekers are attempting to avoid deportation by U.S. immigration authorities by claiming refugee protection in Canada. Somali deportations began to rise under former President Barack Obama during the same time Canada saw an increase of asylum seekers with criminal records. According to data from the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 65 Somalis were deported in 2014, 120 in 2015, and 198 in 2016.

The number of deportations has continued to increase under President Donald Trump. As of early May 2017, about half way through the fiscal year, 259 Somalis had been deported. Of the 259, 80 were deported from the St. Paul ICE office. About one quarter of those deported have criminal records.

Alpha News has a nice graphic showing an uptick in Somali deportations from the US.

The CBSA intelligence report does not reveal data for 2017, however, border patrol officers in Emerson, Manitoba have reported a significant increase of asylum seekers with criminal records. Jean-Pierre Fortin, National President of the Customs and Immigration Union in Manitoba, told CBC News border officers in Emerson estimate as many as 50 percent of asylum seekers have a “serious criminality record.”

No official data, but Reuters is happy to produce some for 2017 anyway!

As Alpha News previously reported, Canada is seeing an influx of refugees that once found a home in Minnesota. Reuters reports nearly 3,500 have walked into Canada from the U.S. between January through May of this year.

Yahya Samatar swam in to Canada in 2015 to escape deportation by Obama. See his story below.

More here.

A case study—Yahya Samatar

As I researched the above news I came across Samatar’s story.  So his impoverished Somali family “scraped together” $12,000 usd to pay his way across the world (Somalia to Ethiopia to Brazil to Central America to Mexico and illegally across our southern border!), and we are expected to believe they found that much money through legal means in Africa.

Who is paying these illegal aliens? pirate money? An NGO? Someone like Soros?

From Hiiraan Online :

(original story from Winnipeg Free Press)

Samatar hopes he’s at the end of what has been a year-long survival odyssey.

He fled Somalia in August of last year when he became a target because he does aid work with a non-governmental organization and had no one to protect him.

“There’s no functioning government,” Samatar said. “As long as your clan has not a lot of power, you’re at risk.” Militia groups and Al Shabaab are active and night-time attacks are common, he said.

Samatar said he and his family scraped together US$12,000 to pay smugglers to get him to Ethiopia, then Brazil, and help him make his way by land through Central America to the U.S. border at Matamoros, Mexico. “I took buses and walked in the jungle for one month,” he said.

Was the Obama Administration, after a court failed to grant him asylum, letting him go with tacit approval to make a run for the border?

In the U.S., he was apprehended as an illegal alien and spent six months in a detention centre in Texas and another 10 weeks in a centre in Louisiana. After his refugee claim was formally rejected, he was released to await deportation back to Somalia. Desperate to set down roots in some place safe, he headed north. A contact in Minneapolis’s huge Somali community rented a car and drove Samatar and his companion close to the border crossing at Pembina, N.D., he said.

Continue reading here.

We have a large and growing archive on Canada, click here.

IOM: Over 1.2 million Syrians have returned home in last two years

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As Syria is showing signs of a return to some order and ISIS strength is diminishing, Syrians are going home says the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

So, does it make any sense for the US to PERMANENTLY resettle thousands at great expense to the US taxpayer? No!

From MWC News:

Syrians who have been displaced by the ongoing civil war in their country are heading home in larger numbers, according to a migration agency.

The Switzerland-based International Organization for Migration (IOM)*** said on Friday that nearly 603,000 Syrian refugees have set off to return to their cities and villages in the first seven months of this year.

The Syrians included in the figures were returning from other locations in Syria or from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan or Iraq.

The number nearly matched the 685,662 people who returned during all of 2016, Olivia Headon, IOM spokesperson, said.

The returning Syrians were motivated by the desire to protect their homes and possessions, an improved economic and security situation in Syria, and problems with integration in their host countries, according to the IOM.

More here.

***IOM was once an independent NGO but is now part of the United Nations.

Out of town….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Thanks again SPLC! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/10/27/a-great-honor-splc-names-me-one-of-15-anti-muslim-extremists-in-america/

I’m leaving for a few days vacation, but I want to take this opportunity to tell the new readers especially, that there are thousands of posts archived here at RRW and you can access them by going to the search window (upper left) and typing in a key word or two.

Take some time and explore the links under the header too, be sure to see the Frequently asked questions.

See categories in the lefthand side bar.  In the right hand side bar you can see what the most read posts of the last few days are and you can see my twitter feed.

As I head out of town, here are a couple of important stories you should look at:

~Not hiding it anymore, Iowa pork plant wants Sioux City to be primary refugee resettlement site so as to supply them with cheap low-skilled refugee laborers, here.

~Thomas More Law Center Challenges Court Order by Federal Judge Prohibiting Criticism of Muslims or Islam, here.

~Idaho: Muslim (refugee?) arrested for lewd conduct with 8-year-old child, here.

~Federal government sides with Somali Muslims at Cargill plant, here.

~Canada setting up refugee border camps as Haitians flood out of NY state, here.

Have a good weekend, be back next week!

And, thanks as always for reading RRW!

St. Cloud, MN residents concerned with refugee resettlement told it is a federal issue

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

No it isn’t.  Local governments want to pretend they have no role so as to get the monkeys off their backs!

St. Cloud on Monday evening. http://knsiradio.com/news/local/residents-sound-refugee-resettlement#.WYvzdZCv3y8.twitter

First, here is the news about citizens appealing to the city council for a study about the costs of resettlement.  The council voted the proposal down by one vote and said this isn’t a local government issue.

Memory lane!  In 2015 we learned that the US State Department had only begun holding so-called “stakeholder meetings” with local government agencies in 2013!

This is what I said:

It has only been in the last year or so that we have been made aware that QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS with community “stakeholders” were being held quietly, out of public view.   In fact, I wondered why I hadn’t heard about them and now I know why!

Here Lawrence Bartlett, US State Department Refugee Program, told Senator Sessions that of course they consult communities and elected officials about numbers and impacts! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/10/02/senate-oversight-hearing-on-refugee-program-very-revealing-senator-sessions-did-a-masterful-job/

The citizens of St. Cloud, MN, here and here, brought the issue of exclusion of taxpaying citizens from the meetings where the ‘non-profit’ refugee resettlement agency meets with local elected officials, fire/police, education, health departments etc. to assess how things are going with the refugees, and they discuss how many to bring in the upcoming year.

According to a State Department spokesman (unnamed!) doing a press briefing for reporters on September 11th [sorry, the briefing has been removed!—ed] we learn that they have only been doing these QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS since 2013!  WTH!

And, they are lying!  “Private citizens” have not been welcome.

These agencies (‘non-profit’ resettlement subcontractors) work very hard to hold these meetings secretly and out of the view of local concerned citizens—the ultimate stakeholder, the taxpayer! Yet, we have a State Department official (why no name?) telling the mainstream media that private citizens can attend!

More here.

Such meetings are required under the Refugee Act of 1980 as succinctly outlined here at Let Freedom Ring blog (hat tip: Katherine).  This is a must-read.  No time to pull quotes from it because I’m going away for a few days and dashing around this morning.

There is a local government role whether the city council of St. Cloud likes it (admits it!) or not!

El Cajon again! Refugee contractor accused of skirting housing rules when placing large families

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Sheesh! A few minutes ago we told you about the huge US refugee contractor—the IRC—working with Starbucks to find refugee employees to make your morning coffees in the San Diego area, and up pops more news (not good news!) about the IRC there.

 

https://www.rescue.org/united-states/san-diego-ca

 

This sort of news will result in a cry for more start-up money for refugees.  It will never result in formal questions being asked by Congress about whether we are bringing in more refugees than we can afford!

From KPBS San Diego:

Three large refugee families that a local nonprofit helped resettle at an El Cajon apartment complex are being asked to move because they have too many people living in their homes.

Uh-oh!

They came forward after KPBS aired an investigation nearly two weeks ago about other refugee families who said the same resettlement agency — the International Rescue Committee in San Diego — put them into too-small apartments by encouraging them to sign leases that omitted the names of some occupants.

IRC’s national office in New York has said it is investigating the recent claims made by refugees. In an email Tuesday, a spokesman said the office is aware of the new cases, which it is also looking into, “and is supporting our clients through their next steps.”

What say you, David? IRC CEO David Miliband giving George Soros their highest award in 2013. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/11/09/federal-refugee-contractor-gives-freedom-award-to-george-soros/

The three families, who moved into their two-bedroom apartments last year, said they received the 30-day notices to vacate a day after KPBS’s story was published on July 27. A manager for the complex, which is under new ownership, said only five people are allowed in a two-bedroom apartment. Two of the families have eight members, while another has seven.

Lalmir Hamdard, a refugee from Afghanistan who arrived here in September, said he relied on an IRC translator to help him sign the English-language lease. A copy of the document provided to KPBS showed five names on the lease instead of all eight members of his family.

“At the time, I didn’t understand it in English — even my daughters with little English didn’t understand,” he said in Farsi through a translator. “I only understood that it said here, ‘Write this, sign here, do this.’ And I did.”

Two neighboring Syrian families who speak Arabic shared similar stories. They would have to find a three-bedroom apartment, which would be more expensive, and they are already having trouble keeping up with rent on their two-bedroom units. However, even a larger apartment may not be big enough depending on a complex’s policy.

More here.

Nice to see some real investigative journalism for a change, but reporter needs to ask….

Where is the US State Department that oversees agreements with its contractors (the IRC is one of nine that contracts with the federal government to place refugees) which surely include rules about how many tenants are in each apartment or house?

We have a huge archive on the IRC and its head honcho—David Miliband—here. Go here to see my latest financial  accounting for the IRC.