Category: Asylum seekers

Maine governor re-elected, keeps his word, cuts welfare for illegal aliens, asylum seekers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Longtime readers know we have closely followed the controversy in Maine (archive here) where the state had gained a reputation around the country (and probably the third-world) as the state to go to and apply for asylum.  Why?  Because even as federal law does not say asylum seekers can get welfare during their wait for the legal process to play out, Maine was giving hand-outs to the “undocumented.”

Paul LePage for President? (That little book he is holding is the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution published by the Heritage Foundation.)

Republican Governor LePage vowed to reform Maine’s reputation as the go-to state for taxpayer-funded goodies and he was re-elected in blue New England.

And, btw, it was Maine’s generosity that attracted the first Somalis to Lewiston, Maine.  See our entire Lewiston archive for the mess that created.

Have we found our Marine Le Pen, or Geert Wilders, or Nigel Farage, or Jimmie Akesson, or Matteo Salvini ?

Interesting don’t you think—a whiff of conservatism creeping into New England!

Here is the latest from Reuters:

PORTLAND Maine (Reuters) – Maine’s largest city has begun clamping down on spending as newly re-elected Republican Governor Paul LePage makes good on a campaign promise to cut funding to cities and towns that give aid to undocumented immigrants.

In an internal memo released on Wednesday, Portland city officials said they had frozen hiring and cut travel and overtime spending after their requests for reimbursement from the state for assistance provided to families with children in emergencies had gone unanswered since July.

The budget shortfall could grow to as much as $3 million this year, city officials said, a hefty sum that underscores the increasingly local impact of the tense congressional standoff over national immigration reform.

“We just don’t have that kind of money sitting around, so we need to act prudently,” said city spokeswoman Jessica Grondin. “We’re in a holding pattern until we receive some kind of official response.”

Tea Party-backed LePage, who was re-elected last week with a strong mandate to reform the state’s welfare system, had threatened in June to cut funding to municipalities that give state-reimbursed general assistance to undocumented immigrants.

“Tell your city councilors and selectmen to stop handing out your money to illegals,” LePage said in a radio address.

Then take note of this next paragraph…..

“It basically came down as an edict from the governor,” said municipal association spokesman Eric Conrad. “How can you expect a municipal clerk to determine immigration status when they’ve never done that before, and haven’t been trained?”

Train them!

When I speak with people who know nothing about the immigration horrors going on in America, they are always stunned to learn that NO one EVER asks for documentation relating to immigration status—not colleges accepting students and collecting tuition, not welfare offices, not motor vehicle administration offices and not board of election offices.  I know this from personal experience.  If documentation were required it would cut down ultimately on the number of illegal aliens of all stripes living in America!

Now be sure to go to the Reuters story to see the comments!  As of this writing there are 1,806—mostly supporting the Governor!  And, some suggesting he run for President of the United States.

Time opinion piece: Jihadi superhighway is busy; refugee groups could be Trojan Horse

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Rep. Michael McCaul: Cruise ships may even be bringing terrorists into Turkey.

Time magazine published an informative article by Rep. Michael McCaul chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security yesterday.

Turkish border with Syria a huge problem (emphasis is mine):

Extremists are exploiting EU security gaps to exit Syria and Iraq and return to the West undetected, leading to a “terrorist diaspora”

Foreign fighters headed to the Middle East are not deterred by U.S. bombing in Syria and Iraq. According to recent reports, 1,000 fighters from countries across the globe are pouring into the conflict zone each month to fight with ISIS and other fanatics, adding to the 16,000 already estimated to have gone there.

The bad news is that Westerners are among their ranks, including Americans and Europeans, who are only a plane flight away from our shores. More troubling is that security gaps in Europe—and Turkey in particular—make it easier for them to return to the West undetected once they decide to leave.

The threat from “returnees” is real and growing. These battle-hardened, violent Islamists have the training and extremist networks to plot deadly terrorist attacks against our homeland.

http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/trojanhorse.html

Refugee groups as a Trojan Horse:

Equally worrisome is that terrorists might use refugee groups as a Trojan Horse to get into the West. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have poured into Turkey this year, and many of them have left for other European countries by boat. It is unclear whether extremists are hiding in these groups, as few are comprehensively screened on the way out.

Unfortunately, the Mediterranean countries where these refugees are headed, like Italy and Greece, also have a disincentive to screen them. Overwhelmed by large migrant populations drawing on social services, these governments have a reason to “look the other way” and let unregistered migrants make their way into the rest of Europe to become another country’s problem. These transit routes are disturbingly susceptible to terrorist exploitation.

Wider European Union security gaps are also a problem. EU law forbids member states from automatically running EU citizens against terror watch lists when they return to the continent’s 26-country Schengen Area, a large swath of Europe in which its citizens can travel freely without border checks. As a result, only a fraction of EU citizens are screened against terror databases when they re-enter Europe. This vulnerability may allow European foreign fighters—many of whom can travel visa-free to the United States—to make it back to the West without drawing attention.

There is more, read it all.

See our complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ series where we almost daily report on the mostly Muslim migrant flow from the Middle East and Africa into Europe.

Calais, France: Syrians demand entry into the UK

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Syrians march for right to enter UK

This is an update on the Calais story we have followed for a few years (we have one post as long ago as 2009).  Asylum seekers are holed-up near the port of Calais and demanding that the UK open its doors to them.

Never mind that they got into Europe through some other safe country and should have applied for asylum there, or at least they could apply in France.

But, no, they want the UK and are demanding it.

From Liveleak:

Dozens walked to the ferry terminals over the weekend, unsuccessfully attempting to deliver a letter to UK immigration authorities.

One of the group told the Express: “It was the fourth day of our peaceful protest to ask for safe and legal access to the UK to claim asylum.

“We decided to walk to the port to deliver our letter directly to UK immigration authorities.

I wonder, if there were no “journalists” or “others with cameras” egging them on, would their protest even happen?

“As we were accompanied by journalists and others with cameras we were given no problems by police on our walk to the port.

They were turned away by security guards.

“We are very disappointed to not be able to talk with UK authorities in a peaceful and civil manner.

“We will continue our protest tomorrow and thereafter until the UK government listens to our demands.”

See our ‘invasion of Europe’ series by clicking here.

Human rights court: Swiss cannot return Afghan family to Italy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe continues….

European Court of Human Rights decision throws EU law out the window as far as I can tell! http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home

The European Union has a long-standing policy that asylum-seekers must be processed in the first country in which they arrive (and governments can send those back which go ‘asylum shopping’ and sneak into other countries), however, here the European Court of Human Rights basically throws the policy out the window.

Looks like it opens the door for an asylum-shopping spree.

Switzerland already has other large costly migrant families they would surely like to send back.

From the Times of Malta:

The Advice on Individual Rights in Europe, European Council on Refugees and Exiles and Amnesty International today welcomed a European Court of Human Rights’ judgement preventing the return of an asylum seeking family to Italy after making their way to Switzerland.

The organisations had intervened jointly with the assistance of lawyers from across Europe in the case of the Tarakhel family v Switzerland.

The Tarakhel family, an Afghan family with young children, made their way to Switzerland from Italy and claimed asylum there. The European Court of Human Rights held that returning the family to Italy without guarantees that they would benefit from appropriate conditions would violate human rights as enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights.

The Court ruled that returning the family to Italy would breach the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment, if this were done without Switzerland having first obtained specific individual guarantees that the Italian authorities would take charge of the applicants in a manner adapted to the age of the children and that the family would be kept together.

The ECHR reiterated that before returning people under the Dublin Regulation, States had to obtain individual guarantees that the fundamental rights of asylum seekers would be respected. The Court ruled that safety in another European member state could not be assumed.

Looks like it throws out the whole Dublin Regulation to me.  But, of course the countries on the borders of Europe—Italy, Malta, Greece and Bulgaria—all must be cheering:  let’s just move them all on to another country!

See our complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive here.

Germany: Seven million dollar hotel for migrants; Somalis ungrateful for German hospitality

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe continues as Germany falls all over itself trying to convince the world what good people they are!

 

 

The first part of this story is bad enough—opulent hotel bought by city of Cologne (site of those riots about ten days ago) for a refugee shelter for mostly Muslim asylum seekers.  But it is ten paragraphs down before we get to the part that should make your head explode!

From NBC News (emphasis is mine):

COLOGNE, Germany — With its wood-paneled piano bar and luxurious spa, the four-star Bonotel assures visitors paying up to $300 per night that it meets the “international standard of a first-class hotel.”

But starting next year, the hotel’s marble-and-mirrored lobby and “quiet, peaceful ambience” will play host not to indulgent travelers but desperate asylum seekers.

Germany’s fourth-largest city spent almost $7 million to buy the Bonotel this summer. Its doors will soon be shut and its 93 opulent rooms filled with asylum seekers, a move underscoring how Europe’s economic powerhouse has been overwhelmed by an influx of people seeking a better life amid a continent-wide border crisis.

According to U.N. figures, Germany received 109,600 applications for asylum last year — the most of any country in the world. The U.S. was second, with 84,400.

Read on and learn that German employees will be losing their hotel jobs.

Unbelievable!  Somali asylum-seeker who came illegally to Europe across the Mediterranean has the audacity to say that the German government isn’t giving him enough stuff!  And, WTH, look at the medical costs he is foisting on the German taxpayer.

Mubarak, a Somali refugee who like others at the center [a different center in Cologne as the opulent hotel is not yet open—ed] declined to give his last name citing fears of retribution from German authorities for criticizing them publicly, told NBC News that conditions are so poor he has become disillusioned with his new home.

“I wanted to get to a place where I could start a different life,” he said, recounting his 18-month journey through African deserts and a treacherous voyage across the Mediterranean Sea — a route which has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 people this year. “But I don’t believe in Germany any more. The people in Germany are good to us, but we need more help.” [So if they survived the illegal boat trip across the Mediterranean they somehow deserve more welfare handouts?—ed]

He shows a doctor’s note from when he arrived in Cologne. It confirms that he suffered from tuberculosis, hepatitis B and post-traumatic stress disorder. It also states that because of illnesses, his living conditions should be improved.

But nothing has changed. Months later, he still shares a room with three others. Four metal bed frames with thin mattresses line the wall. Another stands upright in the corner, in case someone else needs to sleep here, although there is barely any floor space left. The communal bathrooms are at the end of the hallway.  [Oh, boo-hoo!—ed]

“We live like animals, not like people,” said Maruf, a Somali roommate.

Just watch, the next thing we know Mubarak and Maruf will be given a room at the Bonotel!

Me thinks it’s time for another demonstration in Cologne.

See our complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ series by clicking here.