And, of course, as I look around this morning I see that CAIR’s arrival on the scene draws the national media! A local Fox affiliate is reporting on the controversy surrounding one city councilman’s proposed moratorium on refugee resettlement and even the Washington Post is now reporting. I expect to see the spinners and liars from the New York Times arriving soon! LOL! the new ambulance chasing—CAIR chasing!
It looks like the showdown will be Monday, October 23rd when Councilman Jeff Johnson will propose that the mayor and council ask the federal government and its agent in Minnesota—Lutheran Social Services of MN—to give them a break until more is known about the economic impact of resettlement on the city and until there can be some assurances that the process going forward is transparent. Federal law does give a role to local governments to weigh in with their suggestions.
If this is the first time you are learning about the latest uprising in St. Cloud, see my posts here, here and here recently.
The moral of this story is if you can draw out CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) you can get some national attention for your efforts!
As I said in my previous post, CAIR must fight to keep Muslim refugees coming in to the US in order to continue to build their political power base. It is that simple!
How did St. Cloud get here?
Rather than go back over the resolution and what it could possibly do (or what might happen on Monday night at city hall), I think my best contribution to this story is to supply readers with background on how a small Minnesota city became ground zero for a battle, the results of which, will in fact help determine the future of literally every town and city in America in the decades ahead.
It’s the Lutherans in the case of St. Cloud.
We know that Somali refugees have been placed in Minnesota by the US State Department since the late 1980’s. By the early 1990’s the flood gates were opening as three major federal contractors: Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services of MN (whose ‘mothership’ is Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service where, by the way, rumor has it that some scandal is brewing), and World Relief saw Minnesota’s generous welfare as a real plus for the destitute Somalis. See my 2011 post here.
Not only was the generous welfare a draw, but big companies needed cheap labor (a window company in Owatona for example, or meat packing plants all over the state, including in St. Cloud!).
LSS as employment agency?
Initially there was no direct resettlement of refugees in St. Cloud, that didn’t come until 2011. But, the so-called secondary migrants were moving to the city helped by an EMPLOYMENT OFFICE run by none other than Lutheran Social Services of MN. WTH!
Why was a non-profit ‘religious’ charity running an employment office to benefit large corporations? Was someone paying them to find refugee laborers for St. Cloud area businesses? Who? Taxpayers?
Here is an August 2010 story from Minnesota Public Radio announcing that in the coming year LSS of MN would be bringing 300 refugees directly to St. Cloud over the next 3 years.
But, we learn that since 2002 (right after 9/11), LSS was running an “employment office” there:
Kim Dettmer, Director of Refugee Services at Lutheran Social Services, said no one has an exact figure for the total number of refugees living in the St. Cloud area. Many community and nonprofit leaders estimate that the African population in St. Cloud is between 8,000 and 10,000–this figure includes people who came to the United States as refugees and who have since become naturalized citizen and no longer have refugee status. Lutheran Social Services learned that St. Cloud had a large and growing Somali population, so it opened an employment office in St. Cloud in 2002 to provide extra support.
Continue reading here.
One of those companies looking for cheap (Lutheran-supplied) labor was apparently Gold n’ Plump a St. Cloud-based chicken processing plant which found out that maybe cheap Somali Muslim labor isn’t cheap after all. It had to pay out an undisclosed cash settlement to Somali workers in a legal dispute discussed here in the Star Tribune.
In a landmark settlement that could change the way Muslims are treated in the workplace, St. Cloud-based Gold’n Plump Inc. has agreed to allow Somali workers short prayer breaks and the right to refuse handling pork at its poultry processing facilities.
The federally mediated agreement is among the first in the nation that requires employers to accommodate the Islamic prayer schedule and the belief, held by many strict Muslims, that the Qur’an prohibits the touching and eating of pork products.
Community organizers form Red-Green axis:
One of those involved in the settlement was community activist Mahmoud Mohamed. I told you about him and his ‘ethnic community based organization’ here in early 2010 and here again in December of that year where he claims to be part of the “we” who brought the first refugees directly from camps to St. Cloud. I don’t know if he is still active, or if SASSO is still calling shots in St. Cloud. And I don’t know if Mohamed is still working with the hard Left community organizer Luke Tripp. Someone needs to do a little research.
The controversy surrounding the resolution vote on Monday (and hopefully there will be a vote so that citizens there can see exactly how each council person votes) did not happen in a vacuum or come out of the blue. In addition to those events I just mentioned, a lot has gone down in St. Cloud over the years, including but not limited to:
A controversy about Somalis harassing an assistance dog, here. (my first introduction to St. Cloud)
Controversies in the high school, one of many posts here.
A huge zoning battle over the construction of a mosque in the middle of a neighborhood, here.
The knife attack by a Somali at the local mall, here.
Somali teen murders African American, here.
Muslim arrested for mosque vandalism blamed on citizens (Islamophobes!) originally, here.
Local paper did not like me visiting St. Cloud, here.
Go here for many more stories in my archive about St. Cloud.
Update! How could I forget this! MN Governor Dayton said in St. Cloud 2015: anyone who doesn’t like immigrants can get out of Minnesota, here.
Bottomline, Lutheran Social Services of MN is responsible for the exploding Somali population in St. Cloud and the chaos and controversy that has followed.
Not in my name!
What you can do: If you are of the Lutheran denomination, you need to let your ministers know exactly how you feel about changing America by changing the people in the name of your faith group (and for Caesar’s money)!