Feds will close 74 refugee offices during the course of this year

04/15/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We knew this was happening, but this article at The Indypendent has some useful nuggets of information on the internal turmoil involving the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program which began in 1980 as a supposed public-private partnership, but has evolved in to an almost entirely publicly (taxpayer) funded industry.
I’m guessing that the average uninformed reader of this story is scratching his or her head and asking, how can the federal government ask non-profits to close their doors?
It is because the ‘non-profits’ are really fake charities and they can’t survive without the continuous infusion of federal dollars.
Here are a few nuggets from the story:

The Trump Administration is Dismantling the Refugee Resettlement System

April 1 marked the halfway point in the federal government’s fiscal year and, so far, the United States has only admitted 10,548 refugees, placing it on track to fall far short of its already record low admission ceiling of 45,000 individuals. Resettlement workers and refugee advocates say that this is further evidence of the Trump administration’s deliberate efforts to sabotage the refugee resettlement system now and for years to come.

shelley callahan — “The program is being torn down from the top!”

“The program is being torn down from the top,” says Dr. Shelly Callahan, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center in Utica, which works to resettle refugees.

[….]

The U.S. government works with nine private nonprofit organizations***, known as voluntary agencies, to assign refugees to host communities around the United States.

Voluntary agencies receive $2,125 in federal funding for each refugee they resettle and administer networks of local offices that provide services directly to the refugees. All of the approximately 320 local offices provide new arrivals with housing and social services including language training, job-search assistance, school-enrollment assistance and help integrating into the community during their first months in the United States. [They can never bring themselves to say they are signing them up for welfare, medical care and food stamps!—ed]

In practice, virtually all resettlement offices also provide a variety of services to other immigrant, minority, and vulnerable communities alongside refugees, and assist refugees beyond the first months of resettlement. [Yes, we know they are providing taxpayer-funded services to illegal migrants too!—ed] They rely on private donations for these programs. [No they don’t! Only small amounts!—ed]

[….]

erol-kekic — Erol Kekic of Church World Service says they are trying to find a more sustainable model. Does that mean trying to raise private money now that the easy federal money, doled out on a refugee per head basis, is drying up?

In December, the State Department informed the voluntary agencies of its intention to close all local affiliate offices [aka subcontractors.—ed] that are not projected to receive at least 100 refugees in fiscal year 2018. According to a plan drawn up by the voluntary agencies and obtained by Reuters, some 74 offices are expected to be closed this year.

Eleven new offices that were in the planning phase at the time will not be opening, although some of them may still be able to operate as sub-offices dependent on other offices for cases and funding.

“We’re trying to look into what would be the best make up of our network and how do we change what currently exists into something more sustainable that can still meet its moral and legal commitments,” says Erol Kekic, executive director of Church World Service, one of the national voluntary agencies. Church World Service has closed 17 offices this fiscal year, bringing its total to just 19.

[….]

The layoffs and closures being engineered by the Trump administration will impact the refugee resettlement system for years to come.

More here.
The article references a cool Reuters interactive graph showing how many offices are closing in each state. See the whole thing here. This is just a portion of a screen shot.
Here is where the original list of over 300 subcontractors is archived, but it looks like the list has not been updated for over a year.

Screenshot (378) — Partial screenshot. See full image here: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/USA-IMMIGRATION-REFUGEES/010060WC1Q2/index.html

*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!). We are hearing reports that all nine might not survive the year.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services (welfare)! From most recent accounting, here.

Another Somali arrested in St. Cloud, Minnesota, tells nutty story about bomb plot

04/15/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

However, perhaps more interesting is the lack of mention of the arrested man’s name, a critical omission in the first St. Cloud Times version of the story.
Apparently, only after a local radio station posts his pic and names him, did the politically correct St. Cloud Times bother to report that vital information.
Mayor welcomes Somalis, so why would they want to bomb city hall?
Remember when you read this first account on the 11th, which quotes the great defender of all things Somali, Mayor Kleis, that this office ostensibly targeted for a bomb, is the very office that is silent on anything relating to crimes involving Somalis the office welcomes to St. Cloud with open arms.
The “suspect” (the man) had already been arrested when the St. Cloud Times said this (hat tip: Bob):

Law enforcement has taken a suspect into custody in connection with a bomb threat at St. Cloud City Hall, according to authorities.

mayor Kleis — Mayor Kleis: no threat to the public (?)

Officers responded to city hall at approximately 10 a.m., according to a press release, and conducted a K9 search of the building.

Mayor Dave Kleis said the building was searched after an individual “posted threatening comments and made statements about a bomb in St. Cloud.”

[….]

Officers found the suspect on St. Cloud State University’s campus at 110 Atwood Center. The suspect is not enrolled as a student there, according to the release.

Local investigators are working with the FBI, according to Kleis, on the active investigation. The area where the man was found was also searched, according to a press release. No suspicious items were found.

The suspect is being held in the Stearns County Jail in connection with charges of terroristic threats.

However, here we see that KNSI radio reported the arrested ‘man’s’ name and picture.
Listen to the nutty story the man’ is telling investigators.

(KNSI) – A man who says he felt he was being radicalized is accused of making a bomb threat that referenced St. Cloud’s city hall.

According to the criminal complaint, Abdalle Ahmed Ege, of St. Cloud, posted on his Facebook page “Im bouta bomb this town” on Wednesday morning.

Police found a duffel bag next to a gas can outside city hall. Investigators say the duffel bag contained Ege’s personal items. Police found no explosives when they searched the building.

According to the complaint, the 25-year-old told police that he was being radicalized and posted the threat on Facebook to get attention from the FBI.

He has been charged with two felony counts of making terroristic threats.

A couple hours later the St. Cloud Times got around to publishing his name and photo, see here.
So we are to believe that Ege wanted to get the FBI’s attention to what?—protect him from being radicalized! Why not just walk in to a local police station and describe what you think someone is doing to you. This is nuts, or he is nuts (a distinct possibility!).
We don’t know when Ege arrived in the US, but just know that mental illness is not a reason the feds use to screen out prospective refugees to place in your towns and cities.
See my ginormous St. Cloud archive by clicking here.

Refugees trickle in to Twin Falls, Idaho

04/13/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Add “trickle” to our descriptive media word-list about this years’ refugee flow to America.
Previously we joked about “plummeting” numbers (dip, tumble, drop dramatically, drastically decline, etc.). Now we can add “trickle.”

lavinia-and-chobani — Back in the good ‘ol days, Lavinia Limon (USCRI) was sending Mr. Chobani Yogurt (*Hamdi Ulukaya)* his workers for Twin Falls.

Mr. Chobani Yogurt must be a bit annoyed as the refugee worker stream to his Twin Falls yogurt plant must be trickling too.
And, heck, he even lost pal, doyenne of the refugee contractors, Lavinia Limon last fall. See here.
This article is just another of the ho-hum planted media stories about that mean ol’ Donald Trump and how his refugee slowdown is hurting their refugee industry.
It wouldn’t be worth posting except for the blatant admission that plummeting refugee arrivals are hurting the contractors’ budgets.
For longtime readers you are likely thinking—well we know that!
However, ten years ago, when I started writing this blog about the flawed US Refugee Admissions Program, the media didn’t know that refugee contracting agencies*** were paid by the head to place refugees, so I see this paragraph below as progress!
From the Idaho State Journal:

There are challenges that come with taking in fewer refugees. It’s hard to manage the Refugee Center’s budget, Rwasama said, because the center receives federal funding per refugee who arrives. “Everything is impacted when you don’t have funding to provide services.”

More here.
I was glad to see that they say they are taking better care of the formerly placed refugees since they are receiving so few new ones.
Rwasama is CSI Refugee Center director Zeze Rwasama. It has never been adequately explained just how the College of Southern Idaho became a subcontractor for USCRI, one of the nine (soon to be eight?) federal contractors.
Nevertheless, we are happy to see that the admission is being made regularly and the media is now reporting that:

Federal resettlement contractors (and their subcontractors) receive payment from you, the US taxpayer, on a per refugee head basis!

Progress!
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.

Antifa, CAIR and the Southern Poverty Law Center work together to silence speech

04/13/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You haven’t seen it on cable news, or on the pages of the Washington Post or the New York Times, but last weekend brazen domestic terrorists working on behalf of Islamists shut down speaking events they disapproved of in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
This extremist tactic of intimidating speaking venues, such as hotels, isn’t new, but it is on the upswing in the age of Trump. And, I think that is because the Hard Left has really lost it, their frustration and anger at losing the White House must have pushed them psychologically over the edge. They are very dangerous people.
Our friend James Simpson has the full story here at The Daily Caller.
Here are a few snips:

Brannon Howse is the organizer of the events shutdown by anti-free speech domestic terrorists. http://www.worldviewweekend.com/tv/video/marxist-islamists-groups-shut-down-worldview-weekend-events-how-we-are-losing-our-freedom

Antifa groups used information from the Southern Poverty Law Center to successfully shut down four conferences on the threat of Islam scheduled in Wisconsin and Minnesota last weekend.

The hotels slated for the events were flooded with threatening calls, and the organizers voluntarily canceled one of the events following numerous warnings that it would not be safe. A fifth conference in Des Moines, Iowa carried on in defiance, despite leftists showing up to disrupt the proceedings.

The conferences were hosted by Worldview Weekend, a conservative Christian organization that produces radio and TV shows and sponsors events nationwide. The SPLC posted the locations for these venues, after which Antifa groups urged their members through social media to attend events and swamp the venues with threatening calls and messages.

[….]

The conferences sought to expose how leftists supported by George Soros, the John Templeton Foundation and other donors are intimidating America into silence by labeling anyone who exposes them as “racists,” “Islamophobes” and “white supremacists.” An event last fall featuring this author and DHS whistleblower Philip Haney was canceled by the venue following a similar campaign from Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) operatives.

On that last line, see my post Wednesday on the slick Taneeza Islam (former CAIR-MN civil rights activist) who practiced these same tactics in South Dakota.
Simpson explains what happened and then wraps with this:

Shahram Hadian, a former Muslim and now Christian apologist who heads the Truth In Love project, was slated to speak at a number of the canceled events. He reacted strongly in a video about the cancellations posted on Saturday:

“Who shut us down folks? The Islamo-Marxist-Fascist oppressors in this nation, the same groups that we’ve been traveling around this nation warning you about…. How did that happen? It started with CAIR… the front group for the Muslim Brotherhood. Then they’ve joined with the Southern Poverty Law Center… Then they got Antifa involved… and we know their M.O. – they’re domestic terrorists… If you think we are living in a free nation any more… that this is the land of the free and home of the brave, we better wake up soon. Religious liberty, the right of assembly, the right of our speech, is gone. This is the M.O. now. This is the tactic they are using to shut us down.”

Watch Pastor Shahram Hadian, here:

Simpson continues….

Howse broadcast an hour-long live special Sunday night to describe what happened and the issues that would have been covered in these events.

He said he is considering legal action, among other options, and that he will also be releasing a movie this fall recounting this weekend’s events and many others he has witnessed over the last 12 months.

“The things that are happening represent an existential threat to our rights as Americans and our very way of life,” he said.

Read all of it here.

The greatest threat!

Everyone must make sure to spread this news far and wide through whatever means are available to you because the mainstream media won’t do it! The threat is real and it is the biggest threat facing America today—the silencing of our voices.
And, I’m going to nag all of you to find avenues of speech for yourselves!
Write blogs, facebook pages, open twitter and gab accounts, create e-mail lists to friends and family, write letters to editors, and if necessary speak in your churches and other civic groups because the more of you willing to speak, the harder it will be for them to silence us all.

Press Release: International Rescue Committee (again) on low Trump refugee admission numbers

04/12/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In a press release dated yesterday, the Manhattan-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) asks its followers to contact members of Congress and Senators to pressure the Prez to fulfill the 45,000 refugee CEILING set by Trump last fall.

brexit-news-tony-blair-1072435 — From his perch in Manhattan, Miliband pulls down a nearly $700,000 annual salary (doing well by doing good!) while he dabbles in UK politics, specifically the Brexit controversy. https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/856974/Brexit-news-Tony-Blair-EU-latest-news-Concordia-summit-David-Miliband

At the present rate the Trump State Department will admit about half that number and the resettlement contractors*** are shaking in their boots.
Each refugee admitted represents money, your money, to their budgets and reports are that at least one of the nine that have monopolized all resettlement to the US for a decade might not survive.
That is not true for the IRC, it is rolling in money….
Which reminds me (as I read this press release)—where is “moneybags” Miliband? Why is he not quoted? Too busy mucking around back home in the UK?
This press release wouldn’t be worth mentioning except for one nugget I found interesting (and for the fact that I love writing about this super rich Manhattan-based taxpayer-funded organization making decisions for small city/town America.).
Here is some of it:

New York, NY, April 11, 2018 — Midway through the 2018 fiscal year, which ends September 30, just 10,584 refugees have been resettled to the United States. By contrast, 39,098 refugees were welcomed to the U.S. in the first half of the 2017 fiscal year—even with the slowdown on admissions due to the Trump Administration’s refugee bans. This decline in refugee admissions represents a stark 73 percent year-over-year drop. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) projects that a series of excessive red-tape vetting and processing changes will result in no more than 23,000 refugees being resettled in FY18, barely achieving 50 percent of the ceiling.

[They are so deceptive, the reason the number is so high, 39,098, for the first half of FY17 is because Obama presided over October, November, December and most of January and his outgoing State Department was pouring them in as fast as they could before Trump was inaugurated.—ed]

Now this next bit is rich!
Here we have Hans (most likely still a Dutch national) who works for a British national (David Miliband) lecturing us about “core American values.”

Said Hans Van de Weerd, Vice President, US Programs, International Rescue Committee:

“Halfway through FY18, the U.S. is establishing a record on resettlement that runs counter to core American values of freedom and welcome and strategic interests abroad.

I can’t believe that they think they can still sell this silly notion, that somehow by curtailing immigration to the US from Muslim countries, we make Islamic terrorists angry (angrier?) with us.

Hans bald — Hans Van de Weerd lectures us on “core American values!”

“Drastically diminished refugee arrivals have detrimental consequences for U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, including fueling the anti-American narratives of the very terrorist organizations we aim to defeat. The Trump Administration must change course in the second half of FY18 and meet its commitment to admit 45,000 refugees.” [For the umpteenth time, the 45,000 is a CEILING, a cap, NOT a target!—ed]

Now, here comes the part that interested me most.

We know that the contractors have been dependent on the large number of SIVs entering the US (Iraqi and Afghans who supposedly gave us support at some point) to help feed their budgets (see my recent post here). However, apparently even those numbers are dropping (eeeek!).

Shocking drop in March in admissions of those who assisted U.S. missions

Without explanation, only 510 Iraqi and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients arrived during the month of March, a more than 68 percent drop compared to average monthly arrivals in FY17.

Total SIV arrivals overall in the first half of FY18 have declined by 28 percent compared to the same time period in FY17.

I wonder (if there is a slowdown), if it is because they are running out of places to put them. Supposedly most go to San Diego or Northern Virginia where there is an overload of SIVs and as we reported here, they aren’t finding work.

U.S.-affiliated Iraqis (P-2s) left behind

These are supposed ‘beneficiaries’ and their family members. They always say they are translators, but they could have been taking out the garbage. See here.

U.S.-affiliated Iraqis are individuals who provided critical services, like translation, to U.S. missions abroad and now face persecution as a result.

Conservative estimates suggest that there are approximately 50,000 Iraqis with close affiliations with the U.S. government waiting for interviews to have their cases for resettlement processed.

Yet, only 36 U.S.-affiliated Iraqis have arrived in FY18.

Then here is Hans’ wrap-up:

It’s time to pressure the Administration to pick up the pace on refugee resettlement. Take action now.

Click here to see what they want their groupies to tell Congress.
You should tell your member of Congress and US Senators what you think too, but honestly I have little hope they will get off their duffs and do anything, so right now, it is best to Contact the White House and tell the Prez to hang tough!
And, for fun, ask him why we pay David Miliband over a half a million a year so he can do his anti-Brexit political agitation work in his home country.
See my David Miliband archive here. Waaahhh! What will I do when he finally goes home!

*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.