US taxpayer-funded resettlement agency has it nose (again) in Israel's business

01/15/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Many American Jewish groups are angry with the Israeli government because it is now taking steps to remove tens of thousands of economic migrants who entered Israel from Africa before it had built its great border wall.
If US private activist groups want to pressure Israel that is their business, however, when one of those groups is paid millions annually from the US Treasury it becomes our business what they do. Of course it is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) I’m talking about.
Why are we paying them a dime to take care of the refugees they resettle in the US while they muck around in world affairs?
Where is Congress? Cut them off!
And, let me be clear at the outset (before I get broad brush anti-Jewish comments). HIAS is first and foremost driven by its Leftwing view of the world (a borderless world). Just as there are Catholics (Lutherans, Evangelicals etc) on the political Left and on the political Right, so too are there Jews on both ends of the political spectrum.
HIAS is NOT working here on behalf of Israel! (I hear all the time from readers who say that HIAS is working for Israel!)
Israel is in the same situation the US is in with thousands upon thousands of mostly economic migrants (not refugees) who got in to the country illegally and if permitted to stay would drastically change the country, for the worse. Anyone in their right mind knows that borders cannot be completely erased if a country wants to survive.
The difference is that since Israel is smaller it will die faster than we will if they do nothing about people like these:

Jewish protesters — Protesters in front of the Knesset. So what do you think? Do you believe these people who got in to Israel illegally are going to be beneficial for the country going forward? http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Activists-ask-Israeli-pilots-to-refuse-to-fly-refugees-to-their-deaths-533552

Israel is said to be planning to begin deportations in the spring and the International Left (including HIAS) is haranguing the Netanyahu government in hopes of stopping it.
Here is The Jerusalem Post to explain what they are doing.

They want Israeli pilots to not fly the deportation planes!

(That is one of the mean tactics the mean Leftwing learned from Saul Alinsky to go after those who will hurt first—some poor pilot just doing his job.)

Amid growing reports that the government is planning to deport tens of thousands of migrants from Sudan and Eritrea to Rwanda in March, an online campaign has been launched to beseech Israeli pilots not to fly asylum-seekers to what many activists deem a death sentence.

The campaign, initiated this week by the NGO Zizim Community Action, calls on the public to send letters to the Israel Aviation Association and the Israel Pilots Association, which includes all the pilots in the country, to refuse to fly migrants to any dangerous African country.

According to the NGO’s CEO, Raluca Gena, the online campaign is the first step toward a series of activities against what they, and many other human rights organizations and Jewish communities around the world, are calling an immoral deportation.

[….]

Presently, approximately 35,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers live in Israel. Among their 13,764 asylum applications submitted since 2013, only 11 have been approved by the Interior Ministry as of July 2017 – 10 Eritreans and one Sudanese.

hetfield-at-ny-anti-trump-rally1 — HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield speaking at anti-Trump rally that HIAS organized in New York last February. Rep. Keith Ellison was a keynote speaker. More than half of HIAS’s budget is funded (involuntarily) by you from the US Treasury. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/07/11/updating-financial-data-on-refugee-contractors-big-bucks-for-humanitarian-work/

Outside of Israel, prominent leaders of the North American Jewish community sent a public letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urging Israel not to imprison or deport tens of thousands of Sudanese and Eritrean asylum-seekers.

Rather, the leaders – who sent an initial letter regarding the controversial issue to Netanyahu in November – urged him to allow North American Jews to help resolve the matter.***

Signatories include Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees; Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street; and Nancy Kaufman, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women. [This is a who’s who of American Leftwing Jewish groups.—ed]

“The government of Israel recently announced its plans to imprison or potentially deport tens of thousands of Sudanese and Eritrean asylum-seekers unless they leave voluntarily before April,” the letter states.

“The ultimatum follows a mounting campaign of escalation on the part of the Israeli government to pressure the roughly 38,000 African asylum-seekers remaining in Israel to self-deport. While Israeli authorities contend that the population in question – most of whom entered Israel between 2007 and 2012 – are economic migrants, HIAS and other rights groups argue that they are asylum-seekers and refugees deserving of protection.”

Israel does (or did) have a program where economic migrants who self-deported received a financial payments, but I don’t know if it is still in use.
More here.
***You should know that HIAS has been working with the US State Department to bring some of those so-called ‘refugees’ to the US directly from Israel. The numbers are small so far (9 this fiscal year), but if you think this story isn’t about you, it is!
They aren’t planning to bring more of them to the US and other western countries, are they?
See my complete HIAS archive by clicking here. And for more on Israel and refugees, I have a whole category on the topic here with 164 previous posts.

Austria: Mahmoud took the money and went home!

01/14/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They are trying it all over Europe—paying the migrants to go home!

It is something we have advocated here as well. Believe me, it is cheaper than incarceration and deportation and way cheaper than migrants of all stripes living (for years!) off the generosity of the US taxpayer for food, shelter, education and medical care.
going home
Here is the story from NPR (hat tip: Joanne):

158,000. That’s roughly how many refugees are stuck in limbo in Europe right now.

Many of them got to Europe in late 2015, when the refugee crisis reached its peak, and have been waiting since then to see if they’ll be formally accepted into the European Union.

To cut down on the wait time and economic impact of this massive influx, some countries and nonprofits in Europe have embraced a new idea — pay refugees to go back to the countries they left in the first place.

Mahmoud Abdelwahab is one of the people who has been waiting. He’s 25, and originally from Mosul, Iraq. In early 2016, he quit his job as a cook and came to Europe, ending up in Vienna.

[….]

….the Austrian courts have been overwhelmed by applications. When the migrant crisis reached its peak back in 2015, the number of people wanting to stay in Austria tripled.

Instead of waiting longer, Mahmoud late last year made a tough decision. He decided to leave Austria and go back to Iraq.

“He saw other Iraqi people receiving the negative decision that they have to go back,” Epaid says. “And that’s why he decided for himself to back, before he got a negative.”

That decision — to voluntarily leave the country — is exactly what the Austrian government wants refugees to do.

Last spring, Austria announced that it would give 1,000 euros (roughly $1,219 USD) to the first 1,000 refugees who signed up to leave on their own.

The program was successful, and the government extended the offer to more refugees. It’s an incentive that’s gaining traction across Europe.

[….]

He’s taking the buyout, he says, to go home and use the money to buy a car and become a cab driver.

“Two years … [I] was here for nothing,” Mahmoud says as Epaid translates. “It didn’t make any sense to come here.”

More here.
And, LOL!, if I could run the immigration program (in any country) I would hire Mahmoud for a huge sum of money and have him filmed saying that in public service announcements to be shown all over the Middle East and Africa!
And, for my readers who just want to see them arrested and taken in chains to an airport, I don’t want to hear from you so don’t bother commenting. (Of course there would have to be all sorts rules put in place, like they can’t come back next week. I know that!)
Heck, if we could pay the supposedly educated DACA kids (the Dreamers!) to go back to their countries of origin they might actually (if they have been educated by the US) help their people and their homelands improve themselves, and the world would be a better place.
Come on President Trump, give it a try. Offer to pay them to return to where they came from, with maybe a little starter money, and see how many will sign up. Call the program Dreams from my Father’s Homeland!
There would be a little humorous side benefit for us as we watched the Dems scream bloody murder about wasting taxpayer dollars….
(I’m shutting up! I’m getting carried away!).
Click here to see all my posts on the ‘Invasion of Europe.’

Is Minnesota's welcome mat still out for refugees?

01/14/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is the question that the Twin Cities Pioneer Press seeks to answer in a longish article published yesterday.
(Was it ever really out, or were Minnesotans kept in the dark and never asked?)
Employing a technique we have become accustomed to seeing, reporter Bob Shaw uses a family as his ‘poster family’ that seems to be the kind of people America can absorb—hardworking, speak English, grateful—so as to get your sympathy juices flowing. But otherwise, I think it is was a pretty balanced and generally factual piece.
It’s long and chock-full of information. Here are some snips that interested me and I wanted to comment on (emphasis is mine):

Minnesota has the highest number of refugees per capita nationwide, according to the U.S. Census and refugee-support agencies. With 2 percent of the nation’s population, Minnesota has 13 percent of its refugees.

[….]

The cutback in the refugee inflow has shaken Minnesota’s network of sponsoring agencies. [I don’t believe we are told in this article that the “sponsoring agencies” are handsomely paid for their ‘charitable works.’—-ed]

Kim Crockett (Center of the American Experiment) said residents often don’t speak out or even ask questions of the process for fear of being called racists. https://www.americanexperiment.org/about/kim-crockett/

They say the more refugees, the better. They argue that refugees boost the economy, diversify our state and eventually pay back the costs of their resettlement.

Yet, refugees cost an estimated $107,000 each in food aid, medical expenses and other services, according to one researcher. Communities have no control over the in-flow of refugees, yet they must share the cost of supporting them. And, according to Kim Crockett, vice president of the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank based in Golden Valley.

“No one ever asks taxpayers: ‘Do you want to support this?’ ” she said. “When we question this, we are told that is mean-spirited, bigoted and xenophobic.”

Refugee advocates made a huge mistake!

I’ve been giving this above a lot of thought lately and have concluded that the refugee industry made a huge blunder years ago in its treatment of local citizens. Of course the refugee advocates and contractors*** thought they could go on forever keeping information secret from the local people and now once the locals see that they have been kept in the dark and are reacting, the only thing left for the industry is to pull out the “racist” label, thus making locals even angrier.
Pioneer Press continues with more on that Notre Dame study which doesn’t seem to me supports the idea that more refugees are good for Minnesota. Twenty years! It is going to take twenty years for taxpayers to be repaid for their generosity!

Refugees are free to apply for taxpayer-funded government aid, like any other residents. Nonprofit groups often help them apply.

A 2017 Notre Dame study on the economic outlook of refugees said that after 20 years, refugees are more likely than native-born residents to be receiving welfare and food-support payments — and they are also more likely to be employed.

What does that tell you? Employed at what? Obviously work (like meatpacking in MN!) that doesn’t pay enough to allow them to get off of welfare!
Crockett thinks that initial outlay is too high as well and points out that although this is a federal program, the feds have dumped huge costs on the taxpayers of Minnesota:

The refugee resettlement program is a federal effort, but the federal government “does not compensate Minnesota, or the local school districts, cities or counties, who may find themselves coping with large concentrations of refugees,” Crockett says. So when many refugees end up enrolled in Medicaid or assistance programs such as those for housing or transportation or language study, Minnesotans absorb the extra costs.

This next bit is always said in understanding tones—refugees want to live with their own kind of people, near their own cultural and ethnic kindred spirits and relatives.

The Star Tribune posted a glowing account of life in Little Mogadishu (Minneapolis) last year. Can you ever imagine such a story about a neighborhood that was proud of (and attempted to retain) its Christian English roots. Why aren’t there calls (using words like racist and xenophobic) for Somalis to “welcome” diversity to their neighborhoods? http://www.startribune.com/inside-little-mogadishu-no-one-is-an-outcast/414876214/

But, here is what I want to know—-why is that same understanding not given to people with European roots? Why are we told we aren’t permitted to seek out our kind of people, but it is so acceptable for say Somalis (and other refugee groups) to develop enclaves?

Why isn’t that Somali, who wants to live with his kind, never called a racist?

The state doesn’t keep track of refugees who arrive in the U.S. and then move to Minnesota. But the federal government does.

Minnesota accepted 4,523 refugees in the two-year period ending Sept. 30, 2015, according to the federal Office of Refugee Settlement. But at the same time, a second wave arrived — 3,864 refugees who moved from other states to Minnesota.

Minnesota’s secondary migration was larger than all other states combined. Second-place Iowa had 442 refugees moving from other states. [The story doesn’t tell you that most of the secondary migrants are Somalis and a few other African ethnic groups.—ed]

In other words, as soon as they have a choice of where to live, many refugees choose Minnesota.

“Minnesota has been a magnet,” said Bob Oehrig, director of Arrive Ministries in Richfield, an agency that handles refugees. He said Minnesota has what refugees want — jobs, good social welfare programs, and plenty of people from their home country [Somalia!—-ed].

There is much more here for you to chew on!

Strategic error!

***These (below) are the nine major federal contractors making decisions about who comes to your towns and cities. They are paid by the head to place refugees and are now in budgetary panic-mode as the Trump Administration slows the flow to America.
At some point in the last three decades they made a strategic (fatal?) error when they chose to act in secrecy and treat local communities and citizens with disdain and vilification instead of trying to be honest and understanding of concerns people have for their security, their culture and their wallets. As a result the backlash against them is real and growing!

Media Research Center Prez: "Shadow-banning most sinister threat to free speech in history"

01/13/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is bad, but I’m not sure it is the worst threat to free speech. In fact, if you aren’t a Twitter user you might not know what all the fuss is about.
If anyone asked me, I would say the worst threat is the kind of silencing that people like South Dakota’s Taneeza Islam use when they bully venues to shut down speaking events she and her ilk disapprove of by frightening owners/managers in to cancelling events. And, often frighten speakers in to silence.
That kind of intimidation is mean and personal and causes people to fear for their safety.
In America we have a right to speak and we have a right to gather!

Brent Bozell sent a letter to Twitter’s CEO demanding he address censorship by the social media platform. https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/bozell-letter-calls-twitter-ceo-condemn-address-shadow-banning-censorship

That said, let’s talk more about the stunning revelations this week from James O’Keefe who got the dirt on Twitter and shadow-banning—a less personal, but nonetheless serious threat to free speech.
And, it isn’t just about Twitter! Shadow-banning can be used in all sorts of situations where social media is taking the pulse of citizens’ views, as we mentioned when we talked about shadow-banning possibly being used by the Heritage Foundation, here.
Breitbart (Twitter Censorship!) has a good explanation here, but simply put this is how it works:

You post a comment, or tweet something, and you can see on your computer screen that the comment posted and you think your remark is being seen by the world, but no one else sees it but you!

As Breitbart says, the very best, most skillful, shadow-banning is when you are never the wiser about the fact that you are speaking to an audience of one!
Here is CNS News on Brent Bozell’s comments on O’Keefe’s latest :

Twitter’s practice of “shadow banning” conservative posts, exposed Thursday in a new James O’Keefe undercover video, constitutes “the most sinister threat to free speech in history,” Media Research President Brent Bozell warns in a statement reacting to the news.

The Project Veritas video, featuring current and former Twitter employees describing the social media giant’s shadow banning censorship tactics, prompted the previously-skeptical Bozell to issue a warning to all Americans:

“I have been a critic of some of James O’Keefe’s work in the past, so I have the credentials to say the following: What O’Keefe has produced is not just extraordinary but it demands national attention.

“If social media is the communications vehicle of the future — and it is — then this represents the most sinister threat to free speech in history. That is no exaggeration.

“The radical left is out to censor the voices of all with whom they disagree. O’Keefe has proven it. Every American needs to watch this — if, of course, Twitter will allow it.”

I’ve been shadow-banned by Twitter on a couple of occasions (maybe more times than I know before I caught on!), so now I am wise to them!
Without getting too deep in to the weeds and techie details, here is what I have found and what I do.
After each tweet that I consider important, I check the feed for my tweets and the analytics which is where each tweet is recorded and statistics are gathered. If it is missing there, I quickly go to the tweet on my screen (before it is lost in hundreds of new incoming tweets) and get a screenshot.
Then I do this as I did yesterday when I tweeted about the President’s supposed comments on certain countries.
I bring attention to the fact that Twitter shadow-banned me and I put a screenshot of the original tweet into a new tweet. Like this…

Screenshot (1244) — By putting a photo of the tweet that ‘disappeared’ in another tweet, I alert my followers to dirty tricks by Twitter! And, likely end up with more interest than if Twitter had published it in the first place! So far, they haven’t shadow-banned my second attempt to get the message out.

If you are on Twitter, follow me (@RefugeeWatcher). I tweet a lot of information that I have no time to write about in a post here at RRW. And, you can see what I’m tweeting in the right hand side bar when you visit my blog directly.
This post is filed in my “free speech” category and in “blogging.”

Germany to CAP asylum numbers at 200,000 annually in compromise decision

01/13/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Nuts! Just nuts! 200,000 is an astronomical number and add to that the promise of 1,000 a month family reunification (chain migration) by late summer. And, that is considered a compromise!
More Invasion of Europe news….
From Channel New Asia:

BERLIN: Germany will limit the number of asylum seeker arrivals to around 200,000 annually under a draft coalition agreement sealed Friday (Jan 12) in marathon talks between the country’s two biggest parties.

“We determine that the number of new arrivals … should not exceed the range of 180,000 to 220,000 per year,” according to a copy of the document agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats obtained by AFP.

On the thorny issue of family reunions for asylum seekers granted temporary refuge, the preliminary accord says current restrictions should be loosened.

The agreement calls for parliament to pass a law by the end of July allowing 1,000 family members per month to come to Germany.

A little more here.
See my Germany archive by clicking here.
Japan!
Meanwhile in Japan, efforts are underway to further tighten asylum policy. Japan takes virtually no one! (And, has had no Islamic terror attacks. Coincidence?)