Readers, I use these sporadic weekly or monthly roundups as an opportunity to write directly to you.
I think you will be interested to know what the top three posts of the month were for January, but I’m writing to tell you that I’m going away later this week and so posting will be lighter until I get back early next week. I don’t want you to think I’ve quit! Pushing onward toward July 2018 for RRW’s eleventh anniversary!
Before I get to those top posts, I want you to know that I had a good chuckle this morning about all the trolls this tweet (below) generated yesterday. I guess because I hash-tagged it with a trending tag #SuperBowlSunday it reached beyond my usual fan club.
I got messages about how racist I am (with foul language tossed in), how old I am (do I wear diapers? the ageists asked!) from some high IQ commenters who couldn’t spell or write. It was actually fun to see. Here is the tweet that apparently stirred them up.
I am @RefugeeWatcher…. Immigrants had been expressing fear of Humvees etc. This is what I linked to: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/minneapolis-team-immigrants-informed-super-bowl-52807623
Here are the Top Three (actually four because there was a tie for #3) Posts of the month:
That Australia “dumb” deal takes the highest honors!
You can find more information on how to use RRW by clicking here. (That is my mid-December roundup.)
And, you might want to look at my message hereabout your e-mail notices. WordPress is telling me it isn’t on their end if you aren’t getting e-mails after subscribing. They tell me it is in your/our e-mail server (I’m not getting my e-mails from Leo Hohmann’s new site.)
Frankly there is more here at RRW then you get in e-mail, so why not just visit every day or so to see what is new. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/
Even if you aren’t tweeting yourself, you can see what I’ve tweeted most recently in the right hand side bar.
This post is filed in my ‘blogging’ category,here.
That would be Charlottesville, Virginia.
When I saw the story headline at something called The Daily Progress, I initially wasn’t going to bother reading the Op-Ed by Harriet Kuhrbecause I figured anything with Daily Progress in it would be some commie publication.
It is, in fact, the sole daily newspaper in the Charlottesville area, and the International Rescue Committeeis the only federal resettlement contractor working to change that portion of Virginia.
Opinion/Commentary: New immigration policies have been devastating
(Trump is a bad guy column!)
Here is Harriet in 2015 selling the IRC’s ‘humanitarian’ work to another unsuspecting Virginia town, a suburb of Charlottesville. I see the map was made before the IRC captured Montana. http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/scottsville-residents-hear-about-the-challenges-of-refugee-resettlement/article_5c822e12-7b83-11e5-8fea-7b43cffc988b.html
But, I’m glad I read it because opinion writer and International Rescue Committee‘s face in that city, Harriet Kuhr,has an important factual error that I see repeated by the Open Borders Left whenever they get a chance.
They say that Ronald Reagan is responsible for the Refugee Act of 1980. It just ain’t so.
He presided over it during its first year (as it admitted thousands escaping Communism), but it was the brainchild of Senator Ted Kennedy (who else!) and it was signed in to law by Jimmy Carter (who else!). See here March 18,1980. (It was 8 months later that Reagan whipped Carter by winning the Presidency.)
And, just so you know, when these Leftists try to make the program sound like it was a bipartisan effort they are spinning like tops. See the list of co-sponsors to the Kennedy bill (not exactly a balanced group):
Sen. Javits, Jacob K. [R-NY]
Sen. McGovern, George [D-SD]
Sen. Randolph, Jennings [D-WV]
Sen. Pell, Claiborne [D-RI]
Sen. Ribicoff, Abraham A. [D-CT]
Sen. Moynihan, Daniel Patrick [D-NY]
Sen. Williams, Harrison A., Jr. [D-NJ]
Sen. Riegle, Donald W., Jr. [D-MI]
Sen. Sarbanes, Paul S. [D-MD]
Sen. Hatfield, Mark O. [R-OR]
Sen. Tsongas, Paul E. [D-MA] Sen. Biden, Joseph R., Jr. [D-DE] [To this day, Delaware only takes less than 10 refugees a year!–ed]
So here is what Harriet is trying to sell to the good citizens of Charlottesville at The Daily Progress: This is Harriet’s boss in Manhattan! British national and one-worlder, IRC CEO David Miliband, pulls down an annual salary package of $671,749 (doing well by doing good!). In 2015, the IRC received 66% of its $688,920,920 budget from US taxpayers! A “VALUED TRADITION” THAT MUST END!
The Refugee Resettlement program is one of the United States’ most valued traditions.It is the bar that sets the standard for other resettlement programs; an effort above party politics that enshrined the core common values of our nation to tackle global problems right here: that families ought to be together; that our children should have a better future than we had; that hard work, persistence, strength, and character would be treasured in our great land. [Our children means something very different to me!—ed]
Ronald Reagan began this tradition, and his successors strengthened it. They understood that it supported our global leadership and national safety, and it stoked a humanitarian tradition, an entrepreneurial spirit, and collective economic success. [What a load of mumbo-jumbo!—ed]
This tradition is something we at IRC see come alive every day, thanks to the talented and resilient people we, and the Charlottesville community, have the opportunity to work with.
Read the rest of her pitch here and see comments. You can see our friend Jim Simpson has jumped in.
This other commenter, Brad London, immediately goes to the sorry old ‘you are a racist’ line and yammers about the Native Americans.
If he wants to give America back to the Indians, then I want to give North Africa and most of the Middle East back to its early inhabitants (before the Muslim invaders came)—to Christians and Jews!
Here is screenshot of the Simpson/London exchange. If you want to get in on the action, click here.
See my archive on the International Rescue Committeehere. It is the financially largest of the nine contractors that are paid to place refugees in to your towns and cities.
(Numbers in parenthesis below are the percentages of their funds that come involuntarily from you).
And, I will continue to repeat: as long as taxpayers pay for fake non-profit groups like these to distribute refugees around the country and then to politically organize against us (who disagree with them), the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program will never be reformed.
The IOM is the International Organization for Migration.
Until not too long ago it was a non-profit group just like the other federal resettlement contractors that depended mostly on taxpayer funding (like they do) and was (still is) involved with processing refugees in to the US (and elsewhere). It is now an agency of the United Nationsand you might see evidence of them (their bags visible in airports worldwide) as they shepherd migrants around the globe.
You saw those bags in this photo (below) of the Australian rejected ‘refugees’ as they were leaving detention on their way to Anytown, USA. (BTW, some reports said that the IOM bought the detainees some really nice clothes and shoes.)
IOM bags! Story here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/23/australian-rejected-refugees-on-the-way-to-us-this-week/
Trump nominee for U.N. migration post called Muslims violent, Christians top priority
(I didn’t know that the US gets to nominate the chairman, but I guess that makes sense because we supply the IOM with most of its money!)
Emphasis below is mine: Ken Isaacs (right) with Franklin Graham before Samaritan’s Purse relief flight to Ecuador in 2016
The Trump administration’s nominee to coordinate billions of dollars in assistance to migrants around the world has suggested in social-media posts that Islam is an inherently violent religion and has said Christians in some cases should receive preferential treatment when resettling from hostile areas.
In tweets, social media posts and radio appearances reviewed by The Washington Post, Ken Isaacs, a vice president of the Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, made disparaging remarks about Muslims and denied climate change — a driving force behind migration, according to the agency the State Department has nominated him to lead.
In June, after a terrorist attack in London, Isaac reposted and commented on a CNN International story that quoted a Catholic bishop saying “This isn’t in the name of God, this isn’t what the Muslim faith asks people to do.”
Now (drum roll please) here is what Isaacs said that the Washington Post and critics of Isaacs say disqualifies him from this job!
The WaPo continues…..
Isaacs responded: “CNN, Bishop if you read the Quran you will know ‘this’ is exactly what the Muslim faith instructs the faithful to do.”
Isaacs was announced Thursday as the Trump administration’s pick to become director general of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, or IOM.The 169-member organization has a nearly $1 billion annual operating budget and for decades has deferred to the United States, one of its top benefactors, to lead the organization.
So look who the WaPo quotes as the expert on the Isaacs choice. Eric Schwartz, a hard Left one-worlder who ran the refugee program in the early years of the Obama Admin, and is a George Soros protege.
Trump’s pick could be at risk of being the first U.S. nominee since the late 1960s to lose an election by the group’s voting members, according to several people involved in international relief coordination.
“I don’t know the nominee, but I’ve seen some of his statements and they reflect a troubling prejudice that is really incompatible with a position of leadership for the world’s most important international migration agency,” said Eric Schwartz, president of Refugees International and a former assistant secretary of state under President Barack Obama.
“The person who leads this needs to be a symbol of the international community’s support for humanity. And that means that dark-skin people and Muslim people have the same inherent worth as any other people.”
We urge the President to not withdraw this nomination.
And, heck, if the IOM board votes him down, consider cutting IOM funding (after all, now that the number of refugees being admitted to the US is slowing, you won’t need their services so much!).
See my archive on Eric Schwartz here.
Be careful what you wish for!
Haven’t you all seen what is happening to Canada since the boy wonder just north of your border said the same thing? Willmar mayor Marv Calvin. Willmar open for business—for Jenny-O turkey slaughterhouse. They are rolling out the welcome mat in Minnesota (and not just for the NFL).
Come to think about it, the NFL has put its faith in that rag-tag Minneapolis PD (yikes!).
From the Star Tribune:
City leaders across Minnesota are passing “welcoming” resolutions in an effort to send a message that their communities are inclusive amid growing national tension around the issue of immigration.
City councils in Willmar and St. Joseph, two central Minnesota cities that are becoming increasingly diverse, are expected to discuss resolutions Monday. The measures don’t change policy but are considered symbolic.
“This resolution will just tell everybody ‘We want you in Willmar,’ ” Mayor Marv Calvin said, adding he expects the resolution will pass.
It isn’t America First! or Minnesota First! It is M-O-N-E-Y First!
“Willmar’s strength is in its diversity,” Calvin said. “If people feel they’re not welcome to a community, that’s detrimental to economic development.”
Willmar, a city of nearly 20,000 residents two hours west of Minneapolis, has long had a large Latino population. In recent years, it has also seen a growing number of immigrants from East African nations. Calvin said the newcomers have helped the city flourish with new businesses.
But the resolution isn’t meant just for immigrants and first-generation Americans. It also is designed to send a message to people who were born in Willmar or used to live there that they should return, he said.
He stabbed ten before an off-duty police officer killed him. https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2016/09/17/reports-several-hurt-crossroads-center-incident/90607870/
In St. Joseph, residents formed a group called Cultural Bridges more than a year ago to build connections, especially between Christians and Muslims and the town’s Somali refugees and longtime residents after a Somali man stabbed*** 10 people at the Crossroads Center mall in nearby St. Cloud in 2016.
Since then, the group has taught adult basic education classes, provided homework tutoring and launched a jobs search program for Somali immigrants.
The group will ask the City Council on Monday to consider a welcoming resolution. It also plans to post fliers affirming inclusivity after white nationalist posters were plastered across the city illegally. [See posters here.—ed]
“The City Council has a great opportunity. … This is not something that should be met with silence,” said Raj Chaphalkar, a member of the group. “It may seem obvious, but sometimes we need leaders to say [these words] out loud. This is a good place to be for everybody.”
More here.
We have a massive archive on Minnesota where resettlement of Somalis began in earnest about 30 years ago thanks to resettlement contractors: Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and World Relief. I’ve been there twice now myself.
***They like knives. Just ask the young white woman attacked and stabbed by a man described as Somali (still on the loose?) recently. Her story was in my top three stories of last month,see here.
The State Department is notorious for either delaying answering ‘Freedom of Information Act’ requests, or never answering them at all.
In fact, although I used FOIA a number of years ago with another federal agency, I never bothered with it on the refugee issue knowing of the State Department’s horrible reputation for stonewalling the public. Sec. of State Tillerson orders FOIA backlog cleaned up! Transparency here we come! (I hope!) This storyat CNN from several days ago, got my attention because a former bigwig in the Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration was recently assigned to Tillerson’s admirable project of clearing the backlog of FOIA requests —-Laurence Bartlett (here). CNN says disgruntled State Dept. employees sent to the FOIA office are hiring lawyers because they feel such work is beneath them. (The article does not list Bartlett as one of those seeking a legal remedy to what is described as a demotion.)
Frankly, it makes enormous sense to me to place experienced people in that office because how would someone with no history with certain departments at the State Department know where to find the information requested. Here is CNN’s “exclusive” story from nearly a week ago:
Washington (CNN) A growing number of State Department employees are charging they are being put in career purgatory because of their previous work on policy priorities associated with President Barack Obama and in offices the Trump administration is interested in closing.
The situation has got so serious that several officials tell CNN they have retained attorneys after repeatedly trying unsuccessfully to raise concerns about being assigned to low-level jobs in Foggy Bottom such as answering Freedom of Information Act requests.
The issue has also come to the attention of senior Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has made clearing a backlog of FOIA requests a priority and reassigned staff to what State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert has called “an all-hands on deck” effort to clear the backlog. Significant progress has been made, and the number of outstanding requests — which stood at 22,000 in January 2017 — has been reduced to about 13,000, Tillerson said in November, adding that he hopes the backlog will be cleared by the end of 2018.
The backlog grew over the last several years in part due to numerous requests from journalists and conservative groups, including Judicial Watch and Citizens United, for records relating to Hillary Clinton’s emails. [LOL! Leave it to CNN to blame the backlog on rightwingers!—ed]
When Lawrence Bartlett was the lead panelist at a Heritage Foundation event last fall, along with other inside the beltway types, I knew Heritage had no clue about what was really happening with refugees in your towns and cities. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/09/14/is-the-heritage-foundation-selling-you-out-on-unus-refugee-admissions-policy/
“Those helping with FOIA requests have a range of skills and backgrounds, from interns to deputy assistant secretaries,” Nauert told CNN. “The assignments are temporary — some staffing the office are simply between assignments as they determine their next step.”
But many of those assigned to the “FOIA Surge” effort resemble a band of misfit toys, including several ambassadors returning from overseas and senior career and civil service members who were detailed to other agencies. Others worked in offices created by Obama as policy priorities, which the Trump administration has announced it intends to close.
[….]
Nauert said that employees are being asked to serve in the FOIA office due to need, “without regard to politics.”
“There is a job that needs to be done,” Nauert said. “It may not be a glamorous job, but it’s an important one.”
Lawrence Bartlett, the head of refugee admissions in the State Department’s bureau of Population Refugees and Migration was recently benched and assigned as a “senior adviser” to the FOIA office. His case was first reported by Reuters.
The State Department said Bartlett’s assignment was temporary but has not said whether he would return to the post or whether someone would cover his position in his absence.
Several current and former officials fear the decision to reassign Bartlett, a leading advocate for refugees in the State Department, is part of the Trump administration’s wider effort to limit refugee resettlement in the US.
