Day: September 8, 2017

Letter to media: “discredited” SPLC should be ignored

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I signed an open letter to the media on Wednesday critical of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate group” listing.

Here is the story about that letter at WND:

They are among the rudders of America’s conservative movement.

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Limbaugh: “… all you have to do is disagree with them and you are called a hater.”

Names such as L. Brent Bozell III of the Media Research Center, Edwin Meese III of the Heritage Foundation, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William Boykin of the Family Research Council, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and Michael Farris of Alliance Defending Freedom.

They are the ones media seek out for comment on important issues of the day.

Now they collectively are sending a message to establishment media: Stop using the “hit pieces” from the Southern Poverty Law Center in your reporting.

Forty-seven individuals and groups in a coalition Wednesday released an open letter to news outlets, calling on them to stop using data from the “discredited Southern Poverty Law Center.”

[….]

Just days ago, talk radio superstar Rush Limbaugh criticized SPLC as “perhaps one of the biggest hate groups on the left.”

“They tar and feather and slander right-wing groups and call them hate groups,” he said. “They’ve got a map on their website, and whenever a right-wing group that says or does anything that the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a bunch of leftist freaks, all you have to do is disagree with them and you are called a hater.”

Go here to read more, and see the text of the letter here.

No group here!

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Looking for a hate “group” at RRW? Up until recently, Oreo is all you would find for group members!  However, we recently added a dog and that has created a whole new hate situation here at RRW. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/02/17/splc-announces-new-list-of-hate-groups-did-you-make-the-list/

Of course the SPLC has me listed as a hate “group,” but to show how shoddy and unprofessional their work is, I have no group.  I’m an independent blogger writing factual reports (with my opinions!) on the US Refugee Admissions Program and have been doing so for the last ten years.

What apparently got me in the crosshairs of the SPLC (besides being effective!) is this report (Resettlement at Risk) written by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (a federal refugee contractor) with the help of a large grant from the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

The report recommends that any local citizens questioning the federal placement of refugees in their towns and cities should be investigated. (You see we have no right to question what the federal government does or how it spends our money, or expect to be labeled “haters.”)

Conduct Research on Local Anti-Refugee Leaders:

The national refugee agencies should partner with groups such as Center for New Community and Southern Poverty Law Center to learn more about individuals and groups leading local efforts to resist resettlement, to determine if they belong to
organized anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim organizations or networks.

See my previous posts on the SPLC by clicking here.

San Diego IRC office gets slap on wrist from US State Department

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I reported the news here.  The giant New York City-based International Rescue Committee was found to be placing refugee families in housing that violated local codes and surprise! a local reporter investigated the story.

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The original investigation was posted on KPBS (not a rightwing news outlet!).

Over the ten years I’ve been writing about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program I’ve rarely seen investigations of any of the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors***.

There were a couple of cases elsewhere in the country where a contractor failed to deliver on their DOS contract, left refugees in the lurch in bug infested housing, and where the story was picked up by the mainstream media, but they are rare.

This update by reporter Tarryn Mento is posted at something called inewsource housed, we are told, inside KPBS.

 

That is where we pick up the story….

The national headquarters of the International Rescue Committee says it has found problems with the way its San Diego branch placed refugees in homes. The announcement follows a KPBS investigation into allegations that refugees were told to sign falsified rental documents to get their large families into apartments.

[….]

In a statement to KPBS Tuesday, the IRC’s national office in New York said: “We unfortunately have identified housing placement practices in San Diego which were inconsistent with the IRC’s policies and code of conduct. In response, we have taken steps to reinforce housing-related policies and practices with local staff and we have engaged with and are supporting families who may have been impacted.”

Of course the arrogant IRC isn’t going to talk! Reporters will learn that secrecy is the watchword when it comes to the placement of refugees.

KPBS repeatedly requested a phone interview with the IRC’s national office to learn more about its findings and how it was helping families, but the agency has not replied. San Diego IRC Executive Director David Murphy has also not responded to requests for comment.

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In 2014, IRC CEO David Miliband traveled to San Diego and announced that they were sending more Syrians there.  Miliband, a pal of Hillary and Bill, is a Brit making decisions for American towns and cities. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/03/01/brit-who-heads-international-rescue-committee-lets-send-some-more-syrians-to-san-diego/

A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, which awards federal dollars to resettlement agencies, said in an email that the agency was satisfied with the measures taken by the IRC.

“The State Department requested that IRC conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations, and they have communicated to us that they have taken appropriate action to ‎ensure that all refugees resettled through IRC in San Diego are served in full compliance with all relevant programs, guidelines, and codes,” the spokeswoman said.

The State Department simply took the word of its contractor! (I think the contractors lead the DOS around by the nose!).

But, see what the reporter found out when she went back to the families!

Continue reading here.

One of the stories I hear repeatedly is that the refugee contractors have special inside deals with landlords and owners of inner-city housing.  Let’s have some more disinfecting sunshine on that issue!

Tell the President and Congress that the US Refugee Admissions Program should be suspended and the contractors thoroughly investigated!

 

*** For new readers, these are the Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizers? paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities listed below.  Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors.

The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, but they also receive myriad grants to service their “New Americans.”

If you are a good-hearted soul and think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again! Big businesses/global corporations depend on the free flow of cheap (some call it slave) labor.  It is for this reason that Republican leaders of Congress are supportive of an uninterrupted flow of refugees into America.

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/Leftwing activists/big business head hunters from the process.