Editor: This is another copy of testimony submitted in response to my offer to post testimony that readers have sent, or are sending, to the US State Department before May 19th. Your testimony can be long or short, more detailed or less so. Just send something! And, then be sure to copy it to your elected officials.
Ms. Anne C. Richard
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration
Dear Ms. Richard:
When you finally arrived in SC we were hopeful that the administration would listen to us, engage, and respond to public sentiment about the Refugee Resettlement Program. Thank you for seeking to help them, and coming to Spartanburg, SC and other SC venues to visit.
Having listened to your extended presentation of who you are and what you are doing, in despair I finally interrupted and asked how much time was allotted for this hearing. You said, “Just one hour.” With a huge chunk of that time already consumed by you and your entourage, it became clear to us that you did not come to listen but to make your “resettlement sales pitch” and check it off your to-do-list that Congress and others had requested of you, including Rep. Trey Gowdy. And off to the governor to appeal to her sympathy with her own family of immigrants from India and implore SC to sign off on the Federal and UN plan despite the railing of SC citizens. It looked like it was your campaign tour, Ms. Richard.
One striking response you gave was, “We certainly don’t want to send refugees where they are not wanted.” I say again, they are not welcomed until LARGE public hearings are held across Spartanburg County and SC and the citizens have opportunity to hear the plan and have an honest dialogue about what it should and should not look like in SC. I requested large public hearing in our meeting and I was ignored. However, your statement seems disingenuous as both the World Relief Spartanburg program rolls on and the administration’s “deceptive business practices” circumventing the majority of Carolinians and the USA, by surging forward with more refugees, and even sneaking migrant minors over to the court system to be placed with a “sponsor,” and someone thinks we are none the wiser. How do you clean up this kind of behavior so it is not called human trafficking since a lot of people are making huge amounts of money as “refugees” are shuttled in to the USA and put on the “auction block” for the VOLAGS to pick and choose? Well, at least someone has a choice.
We see the genius of American immigration when people came here who shared a passion for freedom, religious freedom, having somewhat of a common-denominator of faith, sometimes the same language, at least a compatible cross-cultural experience, and refugees who were willing to work and pay their own way and become a part of the American fabric. These made great Americans as they passionately assimilated and became US citizens. We applaud this. However, what the administration plans is not only not the same it is counter to who we are.
Ellis Island screened those who came so the USA was not a target of communicable diseases. Your screening has FAILED and is not even guaranteeing to US citizens the refugees’ health.
A trickle, then a flood of poorly-educated, non-native speaking groups of immigrants, often Muslim, have created the most chaotic enclaves our Continent has faced.The tenets of the Muslim faith and culture demand the supplanting of the receiving society’s culture and faith however long it takes. You should know this and have a moratorium on RRP until citizens are granted hearings and proposed refugees have been thoroughly vetted. Then, perhaps, there can be a cooperative effort to address this messy issue.
The sneaky, dangerous, expensive, culture-changing, community-destroying Refugee Resettlement program is on track to fundamentally change America. Isn’t this what the president has said he wants? We are not having it. That is not what America wants either. We love people and desire for refugees to be helped and settled in countries in the Middle East or Near East where there is compatibility with the refugees faith, culture and values. Dr. Ben Carson learned when visiting refugees in Jordan that the refugees really desire to return to their homeland when hostilities subside. If they come to America it is very likely this would never happen. The US could help them in the Middle East for a mere fraction of the cost of bringing them to the US.
But what of the VOLAGS? Neither the financially broke Federal, State or county governments has the resources to fund this unfeasible and unfair system forever, and the Federal government soon cuts off the flow of funds and then WE THE PEOPLE get to pay. This is patently wrong. The only justification for continuing is the president and State Department really care, have hired a lot of people and we have a legacy, program and department to protect no matter the cost. Keep this up and no matter what differences we have there will be no America left as we have known it. I do want to believe the best of you and trust that your love of America will advocate for communication, closure, as well as compassion.
This is the seventh testimony in our series leading up to the deadline for testimony on May 19th. Go here for where they are archived. We are posting as many as we can because we know the US State Department has refused in the past to make them public (so much for Obama transparency!).
We have many posts on the controversy involving Spartanburg, SC. Click here to get caught up.
And, one more thing! If you are sending testimony from South Carolina, please be sure to send it to both of your US Senators and to SC Rep. Trey Gowdy. Ask them to tell the US State Department to make all the testimony public!