Category: Africa

Minnesota: Tangled web of possible voter misconduct involving Somalis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Charges continue to fly in the Twin Cities in the wake of charges and counter charges involving a Somali-dominated polling place.  The opening lines of this article challenge the reader to try to figure out what the heck went on.

A mixture of first-time voters, translators, competing community leaders, political issues in Somalia, and clan-based allegiances in the Minnesota Somali community boiled over at the Brian Coyle Center on Election Day.

Omar Jamal, the Somali ‘community organizer’ who we have written about on several previous occasions seems to be at the center of the whole mess.   Jamal had been ordered deported in 2005, so those of us reporting on Somali intrigues in the US are wondering how he escaped being shipped back to Somalia.  Or, was it the same story as Obama’s Aunt Zeituni, he just didn’t go.   Apparently nothing is being done about Jamal’s charges because he hasn’t filed an official complaint, just yakking it up.  From The Bridge:

Omar Jamal accuses Jamal Hashi, the director of Somali Action Alliance*, of improper behavior in the polling place. Somali Action Alliance is an organization that is involved in civic engagement and social justice work, including voter registration. Hashi says that community leaders worked hard to educate Somalis as new immigrants on the election process.

The big question I have is, are these “new immigrants” citizens with the right to vote?   Are they even legally in the US?

Critics of Omar Jamal point to the following information as the reason Jamal is complaining, and supports Coleman:

….Coleman met with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed at the beginning of the year, when he urged the president to work towards reconciliation with other Somali leaders. Coleman’s assertion that the transitional government is “credible” has irked those Somalis who feel that their government is run by warlords. Ahmed’s government has come under fire for its association with Ethiopia, whose presence in Somalia is seen by many as an infringement of Somali sovereignty.

Clan allegiances continue to be important for Somalis in Minnesota. These allegiances may play a part in fear of political retaliation, which was cited by five local Somali community leaders as a reaon for refusing to talk on the record about the controversy at Brian Coyle Center.

Some in the Somali community say that it is hard to believe Jamal is getting as much airtime as he is, as they do not find him a credible source on issues going on in their community. Some feel that Jamal, who is related to President Ahmed, supports Coleman for this reason.

Jamal is related to Somali President Ahmed?   Is that why he hasn’t been deported?  Did Jamal himself vote?

To confuse you even further, go to this report on Congressman Keith Ellison (first Muslim in US Congress) lobbying for Al Franken.

Go back and read the whole story from The Bridge and see what a mess this is.  And, sorry I haven’t helped much to sort it out and have maybe even complicated it further!

The final vote count for the  Somali-dominated ward was:

The final vote totals from Ward 2, Precinct 10, reported by the Secretary of State’s office, was 938 for Barack Obama and 122 for John McCain, 854 for Al Franken and 161 for Norm Coleman. [Ward and precinct number corrected, 11/19/08]

Just think, the US Senate, our whole US government (!), could hinge on Somali clans and the politics of that hell hole in the Horn of Africa.

 

*Somali Action Alliance was granted 501(c)4 status in 2006.  The IRS 501c(4) status allows the organization to be involved in political activity and donations are generally not deductible.  In its 2006 Form 990 the Somali Action Alliance received $235,765 in grants and gifts.   It is not clear how much this Catholic social justice organization (here) contributed.   The Form 990 was signed by Hashi Abdi.  Who knows if that is the same person mentioned above, Jamal Hashi?

Somalis living in luxury thanks to pirates

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I had purposefully stayed away from reporting on the politics of Somalia because I didn’t want to get too far afield from the purpose of Refugee Resettlement Watch, but this story from AP today is too juicy to ignore. Entitled, “Somali pirates turn villages into boom towns,” it begins: 

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia’s increasingly brazen pirates are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars, marrying beautiful women — even hiring caterers to prepare Western-style food for their hostages.

And in an impoverished country where every public institution has crumbled, they have become heroes in the steamy coastal dens they operate from because they are the only real business in town.

“The pirates depend on us, and we benefit from them,” said Sahra Sheik Dahir, a shop owner in Haradhere, the nearest village to where a hijacked Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude was anchored Wednesday.

These boomtowns are all the more shocking in light of Somalia’s violence and poverty: Radical Islamists control most of the country’s south, meting out lashings and stonings for accused criminals. There has been no effective central government in nearly 20 years, plunging this arid African country into chaos.

So while we hear the lament of people like the woman in St. Paul yesterday, that we need to bring their poor “relatives” to America ASAP, pirates and their villages are rolling in other peoples’ cash.   Maybe the pirates could be persuaded to use their millions to help THEIR OWN PEOPLE!

Who cares if the money is legal or illegal says one recipient of the largesse:

“Regardless of how the money is coming in, legally or illegally, I can say it has started a life in our town,” said Shamso Moalim, a 36-year-old mother of five in Haradhere.

Based on what we have learned about Somali immigration fraud, I suspect this same mindset runs through the whole Somali culture—-who cares if it’s legal or illegal. Oh, but then we are lectured we must have respect for cultural differences!   This one too?

…. towns that once were eroded by years of poverty and chaos are now bustling with restaurants, Land Cruisers and Internet cafes. Residents also use their gains to buy generators — allowing full days of electricity, once an unimaginable luxury in Somalia.

Come to think of it, I guess this piracy is the ultimate redistribution of wealth that our newly elected President seems so eager to bring to America—just accomplished in a tad bit more dramatic way.

Claiming strangers as relatives for $10,000 a head

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The belated story of the State Department’s (and Homeland Security’s?) decision to suspend the P-3 family reunification program is now seeping into the print media.   We told you the other day about the Shelbyville Times Gazette article and now here is one from St. Paul, MN.   Minneapolis-St. Paul is the Somali capital of America.

It begins with a sob story about a Somali woman who last saw her mother in 1991 (when she was 3 years old) and has recently learned she is alive.   So naturally she wants to bring long lost Mom to America.  Things were moving along in the process when the big bad government decided to do a little DNA testing on prospective new Americans coming from this particular region of Africa.  What did they find?  Rampant fraud!  Yes, can you believe it!  Now ‘Mom’ and ‘daughter’ are in limbo.

A recent decision by the U.S. State Department may keep Hassan and her mother waiting for the foreseeable future.

Hassan’s mother would be eligible to come into the country under a P3 visa, part of a family-reunification program. Since the late 1970s, when it was created to help Vietnamese refugees bring family members to the United States, the P3 visa has reconnected thousands of families. The program allows an “anchor relative”—a family member already legally living in the United States—to apply to have nuclear family members join them, with the hope of maintaining bonds between parents and children, brothers and sisters.

Since 2003, the main beneficiaries of the P3 visa have been Africans, 35,000 of whom have gained entrance with the visa. Not all of them, it turns out, were legal. Last spring, a State Department investigation discovered widespread fraud within the program: People were claiming strangers as relatives for up to $10,000 a head.

In response, the State Department cracked down, adding a DNA test requirement to prove that family members are related.

DNA tests!   Apparently Catholic Charities would like to see DNA testing dispensed with, afterall, the enlightened position of the culturally aware is to go with the definition of family found in whatever part of the world the the refugee is coming from—just keep the refugee spigot open! 

No refugees means no AORs (Affidavits of Relationship) to process which means no money coming in from the taxpayer to Catholic Charities bureaucracy.

For resettlement organizations like Catholic Charities, the DNA test requirement has created a whole new set of problems. For one, there is a cultural difference to overcome: In many African countries, the notion of family is more elastic, and many refugees may be caring for children orphaned by war.

Did you ever wonder where these impoverished Somalis were getting the $10,000?   Maybe now we know why they need those oil tankers!

State Department now says all P-3 family reunification is suspended

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update Nov. 23rd:  I get answers to my questions in this post from someone who knows.

O.K. what is going on here?   Today the State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has sent out another “fact sheet.”    At first glance it looks just like the one from November 12th, the one reported here.  That’s the bombshell disguised as a fact sheet that admitted that tens of thousands of Somalis and other Africans got into the US fraudulently.  

Now comes a second fact sheet today, November 18th, that looks the same except for yet another astounding piece of news.   This one says all P-3 family reunification is suspended worldwide.

This is the question that is the same on both fact sheets:

Q: Is the P-3 program suspended in those countries where DNA testing has not taken place and/or there is no evidence of fraud?

Here is the answer to that question from the Nov. 12th release:

A: No. The P-3 is not suspended for non-African nationalities. However, the number of individuals applying from non-African countries, such as Burma, Cuba, etc., is very small.

Today, the answer has changed to this:

A: Although the Department of State is not currently accepting Affidavits of Relationship (AORs) for any nationality as of October 22, 2008, Overseas Processing Entities (OPEs) continue to process those AORs that were forwarded overseas prior to March 2008.

This leads to all sorts of questions on my part about what this means.  My speculations range from the benign, to the politically correct, to the sneaky, and to the serious security threat explanation:

*  Was the first fact sheet put out with a factual error (benign reason for the discrepancy)?

*  Has this problem become so thorny that some good people felt they had to do something before the waning days of the present administration?  But it really is too late to do anything of substance now.

*  And, why then halt the processing for refugees from countries that have not demonstrated fraud?  Or, is this more of an equal rights issue?  If we are going to cut off Muslims from Africa, we gotta be fair and cut off those Burmese Christians too?  Did CAIR call the State Department? (politcally correct explanation)

*  Or, is this just such a can of worms that the remnants of the Bush Administration are simply washing their hands of it and leaving (the crisis!) for the Obama Administration to sort out?  (sneaky explanation)

*  Has Homeland Security found a serious possible threat from the thousands of now unknown Somalis (they couldn’t have been screened, if they aren’t who they say they are) living in the US and decided it all should be shut down until more safeguards are in place?  (serious security threat)

I invite readers to join in my speculation and send a comment with your guess.  Either choose one of my theories or introduce new ones!

Oh, and one last thing.   This line is in both “fact sheets”:

Note that the initial DNA testing was limited to members of families applying for the P-3 program, and not between the applicants and the anchor relative in the United States.

It is now time to DNA test those “anchors” because it is they who are primarily responsible for lying about their “relatives” abroad.   Deport a bunch back to Africa and that will send a more powerful message then a suspension will.  It would aim the arrow of the law at the real criminals and not the law abiding people who just want to bring a loved one, such as a real spouse, to America.