Category: Africa

Study: Not a huge number of Somalis in St. Cloud

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Then why did they need a large mosque/school complex, and who was paying for it?

We wrote a post here in February where we quoted a blogger who estimated the Somali population in St. Cloud at 25,000!

Somali ‘patriots’ in St. Cloud, Minnesota!

Now some economists at St. Cloud State University say that number is way off—that the population is much much smaller.

So, if the economists are correct, it begs the question—-why do the Somalis need the expensive mosque complex that roiled the city in controversy here last fall, for so few people who surely couldn’t have the millions of dollars needed to build such a massive project?

From WJON.com:

ST. CLOUD – Two economists at St. Cloud State University released a study on immigration in St. Cloud on Friday, with a focus on immigrants from Eastern Africa.

The School of Public Affairs Research Institute released the “St. Cloud Immigration Fact Sheet”. The report was written by King Banaian, the director of the institute and economics professor, and Monica Garcia-Perez, assistant professor of economics and member of the Faculty Research Group on Immigration in Minnesota. The study reviews U.S. Census data and records from human service officials in Stearns County.

The report shows that 4,484 foreign-born individuals live in the City of St. Cloud, 6.8 percent of its estimated population.

Ethiopia was the birthplace of 195 of those in the city, compared to 469 from Kenya and 888 from “other Eastern Africa” which includes Somalia.

Now this next paragraph indicates there is a rapid increase in refugee numbers in the county as a whole  coinciding with the opening of Lutheran Social Services office there:

Separate information from Stearns County as a whole showed that 2,532 individuals receiving some human services spoke an east African language. That’s an increase from 1,243 people from 2010.

Banaian says there are many claims made in St. Cloud about the size of the East Africa immigrant population, but that most of the numbers in this study indicated otherwise.

“We read several stories in the press that had officials and citizens saying there were more than 10,000 Somali immigrants in the St. Cloud area,” Banaian says, “The data does’t support that claim and we felt it important to call attention to what the official data said.”

You can read the entire report by clicking here.

Dr. Luke Tripp a community organizer/agitator a’la Saul Alinsky/Obama!

Dr. Luke Tripp race baiter and Somali community agitator!

While researching this post I came across an opinion piece by Dr. Luke Tripp also from St. Cloud State.

I wrote about Tripp here in 2010 when it was clear he was politically organizing the Somalis and wanted to be sure to run Rep. Michele Bachmann out of office.

In his (October 2013) screed supporting the Somali Islamic Center he says opposition to the Mosque complex (it was to have residential housing and stores in addition to a school and mosque) was all about “white Christian hegemony.”

Opposition to the project demonstrated ‘deep-seated American racism!’ blah! blah! blah! said Tripp:

The city officials should enthusiastically support the proposal for the Islamic Center of St. Cloud. It will empower the Somali community to provide its members with social, economic, and psychological assets to support their integration into the city. By providing youth services and supporting families seeking guidance for solving problems, the center would serve as an agent to spawn solutions to pressing social needs.

It can also help dismantle racism in the city. The reality of the growing Somali population and the accompanying racial tensions will eventually compel some accommodation. However, without progressive political leadership, racial tensions will continue to fester, thus undermining the vision of a vibrant multicultural city. Will the city officials work to change the image of the city from “White Cloud” to “Rainbow Community?”

The White Council member’s opposition to the Islamic Center was strong and rigid. They and some White residents contended that the project would cause parking problems, traffic congestion, and lower property values. They were also critical of the size and location of the proposed Islamic Center of St. Cloud; the project is too large for the site.

Their argument was used to obscure, confuse and mislead the public. And it worked to a great extent because the predicted impact of the project on the area seemed reasonable. Thus their concerns seemed legitimate and unbiased. But their underlying opposition to the project reflects the deep-seated racism endemic to U.S. society.

See our complete archive on St. Cloud by clicking here.  We have been following the city’s troubles ever since some Somali ‘kids’ tormented a fellow student’s service dog here in 2008.

U. of Minnesota studying Somali refugee flow back to Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They want to know how many, and why, Somalis previously resettled in the US (MOST Somalis in the US came through refugee resettlement***) are returning to their ‘home’ in Africa.  Researchers say they will have the results soon.

Somalis returning “home” to Somalia from Kenya. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-20919467

I want to know why if American Somalis are traveling back and forth to Somalia (as this article reports), then why are we still taking thousands of new Somali refugees fleeing to America?

From Twin Cities Daily Planet:

Though the number of people returning is “impossible to quantify,” signals such as airlines flying daily to the capital of Mogadishu or “chatter in the community about returning” can’t be ignored, said Ryan Allen, principal researcher and assistant community and economic development professor.

Humphrey research consultant Kadra Abdi said other research has looked at the financial side of people returning, but they wanted to focus on the social aspect.

Allen and his research team have so far completed about 60 oral interviews with Twin Cities residents who have returned to Somalia, most of whom were men in their late 20s or 60s.

The researchers presented their findings last month in Washington, D.C., to the National Security Council and the State Department, among other stakeholders. Since the study is ongoing, the findings are currently preliminary. But Allen said he hopes to finish the data collection by the end of May.

There is more, read it all yourself.

I hate that “stakeholder” word because, you the taxpayers, are never included as a stakeholder!

***For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US.   To check out the numbers visit this post, one of our most widely read posts over the last few years.  It is a little out of date, but you get the idea.

In the first six months of this fiscal year we have admitted 3,708 additional Somalis.

Also, after being closed for years, the US State Department has resumed the Somali  family reunification program that admitted tens of thousands of Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008 before a moratorium halted the program.  The frauds were not found and deported!

Illinois ‘man’ jailed for disobeying TB quarantine court order; will be released soon

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Diversity is strength alert!

This is a follow-up to the story we posted here about Christian Mbemba Ibanda who refused to obey county health officials when they told him he must stay home in order to keep from spreading Tuberculosis to one and all.

‘Pungentpeppers’ has been following the case.

Christian Mbemba Ibanda

First, he had to be put in jail for disobeying the court order to stay in his apartment. Yesterday, we learned, he was released.

We don’t know Ibanda’s immigration status, but if I were to make a wild guess, I think he may be a refugee possibly from the Congo.   Remember in June of last year Asst. Secretary of State for PRM, Ann Richard, said 50,000 Congolese ‘refugees’ would soon be on their way to America.

‘PP’ noted that according to his facebook page, he speaks French.  If any readers in Illinois know through which (presumably legal) immigration program he entered the US, let us know!

From the News-Gazette:

MONTICELLO — A Champaign tuberculosis patient under a court order to stay home is in jail in Piatt County.

Christian Mbemba Ibanda, 24, of 100 Kenwood Road, C, has been under a Champaign County court order since April 11 to remain confined to his apartment to keep from infecting others with his disease, and a petition for indirect criminal contempt of court for failing to follow court orders was filed against him Thursday.

Deputies arrested Ibanda at his apartment Thursday. At a hearing held at the Piatt County Jail Tuesday with his lawyer present, he denied the allegations. A hearing on the petition has been scheduled for May 5 before Champaign County Associate Judge Chase Leonhard.

Ibanda is incarcerated in Piatt County because its jail has a negative pressure room that doesn’t share the air with other people, according to Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh. Champaign County is paying $50 a day plus medical costs to keep Ibanda in that jail, he said.

Health officials begged him to stay home and keep the quarantine sign on his door.  He did neither.

Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Administrator Julie Pryde said the court order wasn’t disobeyed just once. Ibanda was being monitored with an electronic ankle bracelet that alerted authorities if he left his home, and he got numerous warnings, she said.

“He was just like running around,” Pryde said. “I went and talked to him and said, ‘Seriously, please stay in your apartment, keep the sign on the door. Take the medicine. This is not that hard, or you risk going to jail. This is a court order.'”

[…..]

The health district sought the court order initially because Ibanda wouldn’t cooperate with home isolation while he was considered able to infect others, and the order to keep him home was issued without Ibanda present when he didn’t appear for a scheduled hearing.

Update yesterday, no longer testing positive for active TB, he was released, but must take meds for seven more months under the watchful eye of a health worker ($$$).

I continue to be amazed that stories like this one never break out of the local media to make it to the national news.

For more on medical problems brought to America by refugees and immigrants generally, check out our ‘health issues’ category, here.  The foreign-born represent most US TB cases, here.

Somali stowaway soap opera (next episode): family contradicts CAIR

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just when I thought it was safe to move on to another topic, along comes one more news story about why a Somali refugee boy stowed away in the wheel well of a jet bound for Hawaii.

In our previous post this morning we reported that CAIR was acting as a spokesperson for the family (blathering about immigrants being bullied in school) and never mentioned the boy’s desire to go home to Africa to be with his mother.    At the same time Voice of America is reporting that according to law enforcement officials in Hawaii, that is what the boy told them.

Mom in Ethiopia, with two more kids, wants resettlement in to America now as well.

Meanwhile, VOA, says the whole family would like to go back to Africa (if it was safe).

We should be grateful for this boy’s great adventure because it is producing a copious number of main stream media reports and thus bringing the whole Somali refugee migration issue into more American’s living rooms.

Voice of America:

What led 15-year-old Yahya Abdi to jump a fence at San Jose International Airport and stow away on the jetliner bound for Maui?

According to unidentified law enforcement officials, the teen, who lived with his father, had argued with relatives and was trying to reach his mother in Somalia. In reality, she lives in an Ethiopian refugee camp that is home to about 10,200 displaced Somalis, a United Nations official told the Associated Press.

In two separate VOA interviews, both parents mentioned that extreme homesickness might have prompted Yahya to attempt the dangerous trip.

Abdullahi Yusuf, Yahya’s father, spoke to VOA’s Somali service in an exclusive interview last week.

“He was always talking about Africa, where his grandparents still live,” Abdullahi said. “… We all wanted to go back, but due to the security and living conditions there we could not go back.”

Speaking to VOA Somalia Service from Sheed Dheer, the refugee camp, Ubah Mohamed Abdullahi said her son was homesick. She blamed the father for their son undertaking the dangerous journey.

Fractured Somali families:  kids miss Mom.

Hashi Shafi, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Somali Action Alliance, said the California teen’s story is only one example of many fractured Somali families.

“I know a lot of young kids in Minnesota who have been struggling with life lately,” Shafi said, “and when you talk to some of them, they tell you that they are missing their mother whom they haven’t seen for 10 to 16 years.”

So how come so many are missing Mom?  Could Mom be wife #2 or #3 and hubby had to choose just one in order to be eligible for refugee resettlement.  (LOL!  I am not advocating bringing all of the wives to America, just pointing out that due to this huge religious and cultural difference, we have families “disintegrating” and many messed up kids!  Diversity is so beautiful!).

Illegal alien Somalis in US too!

VOA then gives us a comment about a Somali illegal alien who traveled across the globe (not apparently having asked for asylum in the many safe countries he traversed) to get to our southern border, and now says, gee, I miss my family!   Here is an idea! Let’s reunite them—in Africa!

Huge numbers of young African immigrants, among them significant portion of Somalis, risk their lives in search of a better life in Europe and U.S.

But for many of them, reality turned out to be far removed from their hopes.

Sa’id Gure took a long, perilous journey from Somalia through the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Mexico before reaching the United States. The 20-year-old said he misses his parents and siblings.

Again, this disillusioned 20-year-old is an illegal alien!  We admit thousands of Somalis into the US every year as legal refugees, so why didn’t he just get in line in Africa?

And, by the way, where did this poor kid get the money needed for his globe-trotting adventure to our Mexican border?  Why the h*** doesn’t some reporter ever ask that question?

 

 

Somali stowaway soap opera continues; CAIR involved now

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Reports are sprouting up everywhere with conflicting stories about the Mom (is she a liar?), the Dad (did he kidnap the kids and bring them to America?), will the State Department permit the Mom to come to the US to reclaim her kids and to (of course) stay? etc.  And, now the siblings are in the mix talking to reporters too!

Then here comes CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) to defend the family—they say it is all about bullying that is hard on immigrants trying to adjust to America (America bad!) with no mention of the aggrieved Mom back in Ethiopia.  In Islam, Dad has rights to kids, Mom doesn’t.

For background, our first report on the Somali stowaway is here.

CAIR Executive director Zahra Billoo: the boy is struggling to adjust to life in America and needs social services. http://kalwnews.org/audio/2011/02/08/facing-down-islamophobia-interview-zahra-billoo_832857.html

CAIR speaks for the family, from Fox12 Oregon (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’ who can’t get enough of this case!):

SAN FRANCISCO (HawaiiNewsNow) – The father of a teenager who stowed away on a flight from San Jose to Kahului plans to fly to Hawaii soon to take his son back to California.

The family of Yahya Abdi, 15, released a statement through a civil rights group called the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).   [“Civil rights” group—ha! ha!—ed]

“The family is very relieved about their son’s safety. I think for the last week everyone has had the opportunity to learn about the harrowing circumstances of the trip, the very low likelihood of survival,” said Zahra Billoo, CAIR’s executive director.

The teenager told investigators on Maui that he climbed into the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines plane after running away from the California home he shares with his father and stepmother. The boy was trying to reunite with his mother in Africa after just learning that she was alive, according to San Jose authorities.

“The family spent a lot of time displaced in Somalia and as a result of sort of the war-like conditions of that country the son had not had any formal education before arriving in the United States,” explained Billoo.

Abdulahi Yusuf said his son is struggling to adjust to life in the U.S. as a high school student.

“The dad said that he was a really good kid and that he is loved dearly by his family,” Billoo said. “Overall it was a very difficult situation and school was possibly the hardest of all of those pieces.”

Then get this!  We need to supply him with social services!

“In this era of bullying and cyberspace and social media, things are already so difficult for youth, further aggravated for recent immigrants at times. I hope that they will get the social services that they need,” said Billoo.

There is more in the continuing soap opera:

Here is a story about Mom fretting in Ethiopia (with two more kids she would surely bring to the US, see photo).   And, CBS interviewed siblings who say their birth mother is a liar and is only saying that the kids were taken to America against her wishes so that she too could get in to the US.   I suspect hubby had two wives back in Africa at the same time and the State Department made it clear that he could bring only one wife to America.

By the way, this CBS news piece says the kids have been here for 5 years (something that seemed to be in dispute in some previous reports).

As I said before, why not send the whole kit-and-caboodle back to Africa and let the new Somali government sort out their domestic entanglements (involving at least 11 kids!).  Why should the US taxpayers be on the hook for the legal wrangling, potentially new resettlements, and for “social services”?

For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US.   To check out the numbers visit this post, one of our most widely read posts*** over the last few years.  It is a little out of date, but you get the idea.

In the first six months of this fiscal year we have admitted 3,708 additional Somalis.

Also, after being closed for years, the US State Department has resumed the Somali  family reunification program that admitted tens of thousands of Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008 before a moratorium halted the program.  The frauds were not found and deported!

***I will update that and let you know what the top five posts are now!  Here it is!