Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has a message for the Trump administration: Refugees are welcome in Colorado.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis, send us more refugees! He may get his wish if the refugee flow destined for Texas is diverted elsewhere.
[….]
Polis said at the governor’s mansion Tuesday that refugees add to Colorado diversity and economy.
“They’re entrepreneurs and they’re filling jobs in important parts of our community,” he said, citing economic impact statistics that suggest that for each refugee who joins the economy, helps create four jobs.
“We’re proud to continue to make sure Colorado is open to the oppressed from across the world and we hope the loss to any other states that don’t want to accept refugees will be Colorado’s gain, as we seek to continue to grow a Colorado for all,” Polis said.
Now see this!
I’ve heard horror stories like this coming out of struggling cities for years, but nothing like this one since Trump was elected President.
The media is usually all too willing to hide any bad news about refugees, like these in the Denver area and they surely don’t want to provide ammunition for Trump and company.
If this is how refugees are living in ‘welcoming’ Colorado, the President is right that the flow must be curtailed.
At least four members of a refugee self-help group called Street Fraternity died from car wrecks and guns in 2019. The Street Frat soccer team got booted from an indoor league. Rising rents and urban renewal — the City Council recently designated an east Denver area where refugees are resettled as “blighted” to hasten a high-density overhaul — raised economic pressure on refugee families.
And, Governor Polis wants more!
Denver and other American cities historically have offered immigrants an upward path. Federal census data shows 15% of Denver residents and 19% in adjacent Aurora are foreign-born — higher than the 13.6% nationwide. But the relatively small subset of immigrants who are refugees — people who fled persecution in Africa, Asia and Central America and were legally admitted into the United States — face an increasingly difficult environment.
[….]
In economically booming Denver, the rising rents and gentrification already have driven some refugee families away, according to directors of the Street Frat, which is run from a Disabled American Veterans basement between Xenia and Xanthia streets off East Colfax Avenue.
Send us more poor people says Governor Polis!
Yet the Street Frat endures as a hub that helps 40 or so young men and their families get by in one of metro Denver’s toughest areas. City data shows that 48% of children in the East Colfax neighborhood live in poverty, and 80% of third-graders aren’t up to par in their reading.
[….]
“I just want to get a job,” said Amisi Mbuyi, 27, whose mother and four siblings moved with him in 2017 to escape tensions in the Republic of Congo, where he graduated from high school.
A construction site accident left his right forefinger scarred and ended that job. Living at home with his mother became difficult due to her discomfort with his U.S.-born girlfriend, and living mostly on the streets with the girlfriend has exposed them to taunts. Mbuyi said he’s been sleeping in a dilapidated laundromat lately, bundling up as much as possible to endure the cold.
But, wait, didn’t the governor say that refugees not only have jobs, but are helping to create jobs? So he wants more!
Street Frat directors have scrambled to meet needs. They began a fresh food giveaway on Thursdays, working with food rescue groups that collect fruits and vegetables. The idea is to help young men, who agree to a code of hard work, respect and obeying the law, by also helping their cash-strapped mothers.
At a recent giveaway, Muslim women who fled rural Myanmar, formerly Burma, to a UN refugee camp in Thailand — and who now in Denver lack transport to supermarkets — flocked to the cardboard boxes of potatoes and greens set out in a parking lot. [She is part of the controversial resettlement of the Rohingya people to your towns and cities.—ed]
Resettled refugees don’t have enough to eat, but Polis says send us more diversity—what more poor people for the poor vs. rich diversity balance sheet in Denver?
Street Frat volunteers are setting up a recording studio where members rap, dance and produce poetry. A recent talent show featured rap performers and included families. The directors also are looking for a therapist to help refugees who survived horrors abroad that left psychological scars.
[….]
On a recent night, Bility and program coordinator Levon Lyles were doing all they could in a stairwell to stabilize a refugee from eastern Congo who lives on the streets and, not taking prescribed medications from a clinic in Aurora, has struggled mentally.
Yes, the good governor must be saying Colorado needs more mental health diversity too!
Last spring, conflict between student groups at the New America School, a charter school for immigrants in Aurora, led to allegations someone had a gun. A student from Street Frat faced discipline. Street Frat director Yoal Ghebremeskel intervened at the school, trying to clear up misunderstandings, and ended up mediating the conflict between student factions.
Diversity in the schools is so beautiful right Mr. Humanitarian Governor!
In neighboring Aurora (19% immigrant population), Mayor Mike Coffman says its an emotional issue for him and says that tonight the mayor and council will likely virtue-signal by voting to approve the resettlement of even more struggling refugees. However, it is county governments that must opt-in or opt-out according to federal guidelines.
But, never mind, they will soon be pushed out of this neighborhood and into someone else’s neighborhood as the rich move in.
We keep hearing from our young men that they’re trying to find jobs so they’ll be able to afford rent,”he said. “We’re seeing some folks move out.”
[….]
“This area’s going to gentrify, like all of the city. Nobody’s going to stand in the way of gentrification. Hope and vision? We’ve tried to offer some,” he said. “Yes, the streets will be safer. But they will be so boring. So white. So gentrified.I mean, how many more brewpubs, chain coffee shops and cheap workout places do we need?”
“Where do people who are just barely making it go? How about these people who we promised a chance at the American dream? They’re raising families, with cultures and languages that are so rich. What is going to replace them?”
This is what the do-gooder Leftists like this governor (and the federal resettlement contractors!) do—promise the American dream (to feel good about themselves) then shove the problems off on others (you! taxpaying citizens!) to clean up.
Late last weekI reported that Beltrami County, MN county commissioners had taken up President Trump’s offer to opt-out of refugee resettlement for a portion of 2020.
Beltrami became the second county in the nation (that I know of) to take that action afterAppomattox County, Virginia.
Now see what the radical Left is doing. They have ginned up a campaign to attempt to boycott the county which depends on tourism for some of its income in hopes of scaring political leaders (and the Chamber of Commerce).
Just so you know, BIG MEAT/BIG POULTRY is the driving force for MORE refugees (to supply cheap labor) in other locations in Minnesota!
Boycotts like this are rarely successful and I suspect partly because those who support what the county has bravely declared—support for Trump’s immigration policies—will quietly respond and counteract the small number of big mouth boycotters on Twitter and add the county to their vacation plans especially when they now learn that this is Paul Bunyon land—LOL! I didn’t know that!
Minnesotans who believe their state has enough refugees and who support the President surely should get a counter campaign going!
Boycott Bemidji? Beltrami County’s vote to ban refugees stirs a backlash
BEMIDJI, Minn. — Almost immediately after the Tuesday vote was cast that established Beltrami County as the first governmental unit in Minnesota — and the second in the nation — to refuse refugee resettlement, a social media firestorm erupted, laden with calls to boycott the tourism-driven community.
These are the people in Beltrami County that the Open Borders Left hates. Hillary called them the deplorables and this is what this boycott is about—it is a Leftwing-generated proxy war against Trump’s people in Minnesota.
Comments from thousands of people across the country poured in on Twitter and Facebook, with many expressing that they would no longer vacation or spend money in the northern Minnesota county because of their disapproval of the Beltrami County Board’s 3-2 vote. The option to deny consent to refugee resettlement was granted to state and local governments under an executive order by President Donald Trump.
The move will have little practical effect as no refugees have been resettled in Beltrami County in at least the past five years.
I wonder if this is happening in Appomattox County, Virginia, also a tourist destination county because it is famously the location where the South surrendered to the North to end the Civil War. Yikes! (Just saying!)
Toughen your hides as November approaches, the Left plays very dirty. And, I think they would agree with me—immigration is the number one issue that will determine the future of America!
The contrast between President Trump and the Democrat candidatesis stark on the issue. The Refugee Act of 1980 is still in place and the Dems have already said they will immediately open the gates to over 100,000–200,000 refugees on day one of a Democrat president’s term.
Tom Steyer recently pledged to open our borders to so-called climate refugees creating a whole new category of legal migrants for you (the taxpayers) to take care of!
Besides adding Paul Bunyon country to your vacation plans, the most important thing you all must do now is reelect Donald Trump.
I’ve told readers innumerable times that Texas has carried the weight of the most refugees resettled in any state for years, and now given a chance by the President to take a break—Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said enough is enough!
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is the first Republican to support the President’s effort to reform the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
His action is incredibly brave in light of the fact that 18 of his fellow REPUBLICAN governors have already caved in to the pressure of the Leftwing Open Borders Inc. and are now facing stiff criticism by a heretofore silent majority of citizens in their states who also agree that enough is enough.
(Big question now is what about Florida and Georgia, the two remaining states which have carried excessively large burdens handed to them by the UN and the US State Department for decades!)
***Update*** All Texas patriots should be sure to thank the governor! He will be getting some mean criticism from the Left!
According to a letter sent today to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that was just obtained by The Daily Wire, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced Texas’s refusal to accept any additional refugees for fiscal year (FY) 2020.The letter was prompted by Executive Order 13888, on “Enhancing State and Local Involvement in Refugee Resettlement,” which was issued by President Donald Trump on September 26, 2019.
[….]
“Texas is one of the most welcoming states for refugees seeking to escape dangers abroad,” Abbott begins. “Since FY 2010, more refugees have been received in Texas than in any other state. In fact, over that decade, roughly 10% of all refugees resettled in the United States have been placed in Texas. Even today, the process of resettling continues for many of these refugees.”
“In addition to accepting refugees all these years, Texas has been left by Congress to deal with disproportionate migration issues resulting from a broken federal immigration system,” the governor continues.
“In May 2019, for example, around 100,000 migrants were apprehended crossing this state’s southern border. In June 2019, individuals from 52 different countries were apprehended here. And in FY 2018, the apprehensions included citizens from disparate countries like China, Iran, Kenya, Russia, and Tonga. Texas continues to have to deal with the consequences of an immigration system that Congress has failed to fix.”
“At this time, the state and non-profit organizations have a responsibility to dedicate available resources to those who are already here, including refugees, migrants, and the homeless — indeed, all Texans,” the Republican writes in his denouement. “As a result, Texas cannot consent to initial refugee resettlement for FY2020. This decision does not deny any refugee access to the United States. Nor does it preclude a refugee from later coming to Texas after initially settling in another state.”
“Texas has carried more than its share in assisting the refugee resettlement process and appreciates that other states are available to help with these efforts,” Abbott concludes.
Abbott’s bold stand will please immigration hawks, who have long sounded the alarm on America’s shoddy, loophole-ridden refugee system and our wholly inadequate vetting capabilities for prospective refugees.
[….]
Abbott’s move also follows closely on the heels of at least 15 separate Republican governors [actually 18 caved, see below—ed] who have all affirmatively signed onto more refugee resettlement in their states in the aftermath of Executive Order 13888. Immigration hawk Daniel Horowitz recently excoriated these governors at Conservative Review: “Except for New England, these are all states carried by Trump, some of them by a very wide margin. Trump won every single county in West Virginia and Oklahoma, for example. Why are conservatives with platforms not talking about this? … Who needs George Soros when you have GOP governors endorsed by Trump doing his bidding, along with the help of so-called evangelical groups?”
Governor Abbott will take no shortage of heat for this move, even within the still-reliably Republican Lone Star State. But he should rest well at night, for he has done the right thing for his state.
See which Republican Governors virtue-signaled to Open Borders Inc. and the Refugee Contractors! An X means that the governor has said, yes, sure send us more poor people to take care of we have run out of vulnerable Americans!
You should know that Wyoming has never participated in the program that was supposed to be VOLUNTARY in the first place, so Texas is just asserting a prerogative that was available when the law was passed in 1980! Kennedy, Biden and Jimmy Carter all asserted it was voluntary when they pushed it through!
I can’t possibly write an all-encompassing post about all the feedback I’m getting from concerned citizens who are hopping mad that their Republican governor foolishly (and prematurely) jumped on the bandwagon to accept more refugees for their states just so the nine federal contractors*** could get their requests for MONEY into the US State Department ASAP.
Here are the 19 Rs who have thumbed their nose at the President’s effort to rein-in the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.
The first wave of governors to pander to the Left are marked in orange, and the second wave is in hot pink.
If your governor hasn’t caved yet, keep up the pressure. Florida, Georgia and Texas are the big targets for Open Borders Inc.
Last night John Binder at Breitbart published a letter from Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to his legislators who want answers.
Since most of the governors are completely unfamiliar with this 4-decades-old program, we can only assume that someone is feeding them talking points like those in the memo Binder published.
Exclusive: Memo Reveals How GOP Governors are Pitching Refugee Resettlement to Opponents
I want to just focus on a couple of points in the governor’s attempt to explain himself. First this:
Refugees are eligible for 36 months of case management assistance and financial assistance when they first arrive through a combination of federal and private funds, which Canopy manages. They do not receive any other special financial assistance aside from typical public assistance available to other low-income Arkansans (Medicaid, SNAP, TANF etc.). 100% of refugee households have seen reductions or terminations of this public assistance because of income within the first 6 months of arrival in the state.
LOL! They don’t get any public assistance other than Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), TANF, etc! What is the etc.?
100% have seen reductions in their welfare use? Where is the data governor? Or is the governor just parroting what the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service SUBCONTRACTORis telling him.
I also want to bring to your attention this section of his talking points memo.
Who will be placed in Arkansas?
African nations and those countries in which the United States has engaged in military actions and cooperating nationals are at risk.
I would be asking the governor which African nations? Somalia? And, then he is lumping the Special Immigrant Visas (mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq, but possibly soon Syria) in with the regular refugees. I told you herethat the Trump administration is predicting 10,000 SIVs on top of the 18.000 regular refugees for 2020.
And, get this! According to the Funding Guidance I’ve been yakking about for days, we will be taking another 10,000 SIVs from Iraq and Afghanistan (maybe Syria!) in the 2020 fiscal year. That is over and above the 18,000 ceiling that the President determined for the year.
The FY 2020 ceiling for refugee admissions established by the President, after consultation with Congress, is 18,000. In addition, applicants should include 10,000 Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients in their planning. Applicants should assume similar admissions and recipient numbers for performance periods beyond FY 2020.
Note that last bit—the contractors should expect similar numbers beyond 2020.
Starting later today (I hope), I’m starting a new series of posts I’ll call ‘Knowledge is Power’to go back for many new readers and help you get up to speed on how the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program operates and how you can find out more about your state’s involvement (or lack of involvement) with the program.
***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.
A ‘religious’ message from CWS one of three federally funded contractors suing to stop the President’s effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.
And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.
The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?
(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)
I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.
LOL! Don’t miss “notable rulings” by Clinton-appointed Judge Peter Jo Messitte at wikipedia. He banned use of words “Redskins” from his court in 2014. I think you can see how the POLITICAL winds are blowing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jo_Messitte
Of course I wasn’t there and you can never completely believe the media spin by major news outlets like the Associated Press, but past experience informs us that, yes, the federal judge hearing the refugee contractors’ case is sympathetic to the three federal refugee contractors and not the Trump Administration.
In fact, he asked the contractors’ attorney if this was a political move by the President.
Did he ask the complainers if they were operating with political motives? I bet not!
Why isn’t he simply looking at the LAW?
(By the way, be sure to see Michelle Malkin’s excellent pieceon the President vs. the contractors yesterday to see the long list of the Open Borders activists expected to be in attendance for the political press conference the contractors held after the hearing.)
Judge weighs bid to stop Trump’s refugee resettlement limit
But of course this isn’t political for the contractors (ha!) as they held a press conference outside the court house after the hearing. Looks like they had a small crowd.
GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge on Wednesday pressed a government lawyer to explain why President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing state and local governments to reject refugees, questioning whether the change was politically motivated.
U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland didn’t immediately rule on a request by three national refugee resettlement agencies for a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from enforcing the order.
During a hearing on the request, the judge said the president’s order essentially changed a federal law governing the resettlement of refugees.
“On what authority is the president acting?” Messitte asked Justice Department attorney Bradley Humphreys.
Humphreys said the 1980 Refugee Act gives the president “ample authority” to make such a change.
“Why change it now?” Messitte asked. “Is it purely a political thing?”
Humphreys said the executive order is designed to enhance the involvement of state and local officials in the process of resettling refugees. But he insisted it doesn’t give them a “veto” over resettlement decisions.
The Trump administration announced in November that resettlement agencies must get written consent from state and local officials in any jurisdiction where they want to help resettle refugees beyond June 2020.
Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and HIAS — a Jewish nonprofit — filed the lawsuit in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Nov. 21. They are three of the nine national organizations*** agencies that have agreements with the federal government to provide housing and other services for refugees. [Notice AP won’t say that there is federal money involved for the contractors.—ed]
They have been providing these resettlement services for decades,” plaintiffs’ attorney Justin Cox said. [Makes it sound like it’s all being done with their private ‘religious’ charity.—ed]
At least 41 states have publicly agreed to accept refugees, but a governor’s decision doesn’t preclude local officials from refusing to give their consent.
For instance, the Democratic mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts, has refused to give written consent for refugees to be resettled in the city. [This especially grates on Hetfield because the subcontractor being shut out in Springfield is one of HIAS’s subcontractors.—ed]
HIAS President Mark Hetfield called it “unacceptable and un-American” that refugees could be banned from living in cities or even entire states.He said the executive order doesn’t explain how the secretary of state could override a governor or county official’s refusal to give consent.
“It’s even worse than a veto,” Hetfield said. “It’s very clear that we can’t even submit for a place unless we think that they’re going to consent.”
LOL! He says they can’t “submit for a place!”
That is code for ‘we can’t put our applications into the US State Department for our MONEY’—the money that flowed to them by the millions for decades from your (taxpayer) wallets to their salaries, overhead, travel and so forth.
***For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.
A ‘religious’ message from CWS one of three federally funded contractors suing to stop the President’s effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.
And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.
The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?
(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)
I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.
