During the final years of the Obama Administration, the US Department of State created a little booklet for communities to use to help plan for their town to be a new resettlement site.
This morning, reader Joanne sent this news from Colorado: Ft. Collins hasn’t enough low income housing so refugees are not being placed there in any numbers.
I’ll give you the news and then send you to places where you can learn more about the refugee program. (Commenter Nancy, in a followup e-mail, asked to be further educated!). Apologies to long-time readers who find the repetition boring!
FORT COLLINS COLORADOAN – While national rhetoric on immigration, presidential executive orders and international factors slow in the number of refugees settling in the U.S., a lack of affordable housing has all but halted refugee resettlement in Fort Collins, experts say.
Just 13 refugees have resettled in Fort Collins since 2002, and none have moved to the city since 2012, according to newly compiled data from a USA TODAY Network investigation. Eleven of those refugees came from Iraq, and the remaining two came from Chad and Sudan.
“Housing drives where refugees live,” said Kit Taintor, Colorado’s State Refugee Coordinator.
Cities the size of Fort Collins can serve as a boon for resettlement options, she said. But Fort Collins’ lack of affordable housing coupled with student competition for rentals in the university town has significantly limited resettlement options, making matters “really challenging.”
Greeley refugee flow is no great surprise! Taintor is not completely correct, meatpackers drive where refugees live too! (See ‘Big Meat braces for refugee shortage,’ here.)
The Coloradoan continues….
Despite the low number of refugees settling in Fort Collins, a radically different story continues to unfold in a Northern Colorado city just 30 miles away.
Since 2002, 1,110 refugees fleeing war, genocide and other ills in their home countries resettled in Greeley, a figure that has inched upward annually since 2009. Data show 270 refugees were settled in Greeley last year, and nearly all of them came from Burma and Somalia.
More here. Not a word about the labor draw created there by a BRAZILIAN-OWNED COMPANY! Think about it, they get a ready-supply of cheap labor and you pay for the refugee family’s welfare, housing support, medical care and education for the kids—what a business model!
Refugee resettlement is not first and foremost about humanitarianism! It is about money! And, that is why you do not see any move toward reform from the Republican leadership in Congress!
Your short tutorial begins here:
Read the Department of State’s ‘New Site Development Guide,’ click here.
The DOS mentions that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees selects most of our refugees. Here is a flow chart from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement confirming that registration with the UNHCR is a first step. But, please note that they are messing with the definition of a refugee when they say “war” makes one a refugee. ‘Persecution’ makes one a refugee so just running from war and crime should not make one a legitimate refugee entitled to permanent resettlement.
The Open Borders Left wants every person on the move for any reason (including climate!) anywhere in the world to be considered a refugee! The Dems in the US want the reliable left-leaning voters!
Now see some pages from the ‘New Site Guide:‘
These are the Nine Federal Resettlement Contractors (also known as “national volags”—ha! Voluntary Agencies that monopolize the program).
What does your town need to be a resettlement site:
By the way, under Obama, the DOS was identifying over 40 new sites. We sure would like to know if the Trump DOS is still developing those sites!
You can find out if your town or city is already one of the hundreds of sites by clicking here. If the Trump Administration slows the flow significantly (50,000-60,000 is NOT significant in my view!), then new sites need not be developed!
You can find your state refugee coordinator by clicking here.
My ‘Ten Things Your Town Needs to Know’ is here.
What do you do? The bottomline is this!
Either Trump and Congress rein-in the program (not seeing any serious effort yet) or you must fight at your local level to stop programs like those to expand low-income housing, demand transparency in the resettlement process, expose corporations and politicians bringing in cheap labor, get a ‘welcoming’ mayor and council members unelected, oppose sanctuary city status, and oppose the work of so-called “interfaith” groups pushing diversity in your town. In other words—community organize! I know—a tall order!
For new readers, this post is filed in our category ‘Where to find information’ which archives 541 previous posts! Happy reading!