One of the most difficult hurdles we have to overcome is the sheer ignorance of local elected officials about how the Refugee Admissions Program of the UN/US State Department operates. Here we have a mayor of a California city saying he has no say about refugees being “sponsored” by a Catholic parish.
Mr. Mayor, they are not “sponsored” by the parish. The local Catholic Charities is PAID by the US State Department to resettle refugees chosen in Washington (by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the US State Dept) for Redlands. The least you could do is hold a public forum so that you and the community understand exactly what will be expected of you if some of the large number of Syrian Muslims Obama is admitting to the US will be distributed there.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is asking Obama for 100,000 Syrians for this fiscal year. They will be looking at every town in America for future placements.
It only makes sense that Catholic Charities (USCCB) around the country are gearing up to expand their resettlement operations and I urge all of you to start paying attention.
Go here and see exactly which cities have Catholic Charities operating on behalf of the federal government. Redlands is near Los Angeles and you will find this branch of Catholic Charities listed in San Bernardino.
If you suspect a resettlement contractor, like Catholic Charities, is ramping-up where you live, let us know!
Pocket of resistance?
From Redlands Daily Facts:
REDLANDS >> Some members of Redlands Townhall and the Redlands Tea Party Patriots have called on city officials to keep Syrian and African refugees from resettling here.
They asked City Council members Tuesday what their plan will be if the city is asked to resettle some of the 85,000 refugees expected to come to the United States in 2016.
“We are researching the issue and preparing to provide information to the City Council in the near future,” said city spokesman Carl Baker in an email.
Citizens asking questions! This is what everyone should be doing right now (even before there is a mention of impoverished third worlders being brought to town).
“Where will they be housed? How will their expenses be paid and by whom? And what will be done to ensure the safety of our community? Our biggest concern is the safety of our family, our children and our grandchildren,” Victoria Hargrave of Redlands Townhall said the council on Tuesday.
“The Obama administration would like to bring in 85,000 Syrian refugees into our country in the calendar year that just started on Oct. 1 and they have admitted that they have no database or source of information with which to vet these refugees,” she said. “There are primarily Sunni Muslims. Al-Qaida are Sunni Muslims whose culture and ideology are completely contrary to our Constitution.”
Intelligence officials and Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns that Islamic State militants could seek to slip into Europe or the U.S. posing as migrants.
[….]
Myhanh Luu, refugee resettlement service director for Catholic Charities San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, which has assisted refugees from all over the world, said they have not yet heard about the Syrian and African refugees needing resettlement in the Inland Empire.
[….]
Mayor Paul Foster said he directed City Manager N. Enrique Martinez to look into the issue. But, he said, it is not the city’s business to tell a parish not to sponsor refugees.
“They certainly would have the right, as they did years ago when we had Laotian and Vietnamese refugees and Cambodian refugees,” Foster said. “Groups all over the country brought refugees in, primarily through faith-based organizations and churches themselves and sponsored them and helped them reestablish their lives in our country. [The mayor is 35 years behind the times! That is not how refugees are distributed today!—ed]
“I certainly don’t see that as being something local municipal governments should be out there opposing or fighting in any way or telling them what they should be doing.”
Citizens need to disabuse this mayor and others like him of this notion—it is most definitely his job to protect his community from economic, cultural and security stress! I’m sure the federal government would be happy to run his town!
Go here for more on Pockets of Resistance (we have a relatively new category to archive your activities).