I will be talking about all the goings-on in the West and Midwest with the Somali/Swift controversy and any other refugee-related issues listeners ask about. For more information, check out Always on Watch here.
Category: blogging
New category for Greeley/Swift/Somali controversy
Never dreaming that the controversy over religious accommodation for Muslim workers at a Greeley, CO meatpacking plant would develop into such a lengthy news story, I didn’t think to set up an entire category for posts on that topic.
Just now I did create a special category so that readers could trace all the way back to July 2007 for our reporting on Greeley, CO and the Somali refugees that have migrated there. The category has 23 posts here for your reading pleasure, if you are energetic enough to plough through them!
Thanks for the kind words about RRW
Over the Labor Day weekend our work here at Refugee Resettlement Watch received praise—twice!
First, we are mentioned by Dymphna at Gates of Vienna blog in a lengthy dissection of the recent ICE raid in Mississippi. Read “An American Tale: The Perfect Cultural Storm” here.
Then our friend Jerry Gordon wrote at The Iconoclast that RRW was discussed on a radio program here, in which Gordon suggested that the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 must be reformed.
I suggested that the US Refugee Act of 1980 was ‘broken’ and that its overhaul by the Congress was long overdue. Christine Brim of the CSP, the WIBG radio panel moderator suggested to listeners that for more information on this topic they consult Refugee Resettlement Watch (RRW) that maintains a daily ‘watching brief’ on these abuses of the federal and state programs for legal humanitarian refugees.
Go to the Iconoclast and see the discussion centered around Patrick Poole’s article on CAIR and Charter Schools for (mostly Somali) Muslims here. Reader Robert first brought that article to our attention. We thank him and all of our readers who forward us much of our great material!
Thanks again! And, yikes, we will try to live up to everyone’s praise!
Gone fishin’
Not really fishing, but both Judy and I will be away for a few days. I have so many news items I would like to tell you about, but am now out of time. Since we moderate our comments, please be patient because unless we happen to get the opportunity to be near a computer, they will have to wait until later in the week.
Thanks to all of our loyal readers for your continued visits to RRW!
They are at it again: blocking my access
Update: I am back on, obviously having jumped to conclusions! Now I’ll search for that Somali data I wanted….
About a month ago I reported to you that I couldn’t get on any Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) databases that I use regularly to write this blog. So, I started calling all over the ORR and the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services.
I got one computer techy guy who told me that my IP address could be being blocked. So, I called all over the place (over a couple of days) within those agencies and made a ruckus. Lo and behold a few days later I had access to the PUBLIC INFORMATION again and have had it ever since. Today I needed the database to see what year we started bringing Somalis to the US and you guessed it! I cannot get onto anything at the Administration for Children and Families (and consequently cannot get ORR databases). Urghhh!
Anyone else having problems?