Trump Admin. rumored to be tightening refugee screening; announcement could come this week

10/22/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“When you put in additional security checks you can basically halt the system.”

Bob Carey

When I say “rumored” in my headline, it is because there are bureaucrat blabbermouths obviously reporting to former Obama Administration officials who are then taking the news to the likes of Reuters, here.

We learn that the bureaucrat(s) can’t speak on the record, but….

We have Bob Carey speaking on the record, former director of Obama’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. Not mentioned here is the fact that he was also (and may be again) a senior Vice President of the International Rescue Committee (the revolving door between contractor and government is alive and well!) one of nine major federal resettlement contractors.***

Screenshot (1000) — From Dutch citizen(?) **Hans Van de Weerd**‘s facebook page. He wears two hats. In addition to his job at the IRC, he is Chairman of the DC lobbying arm of the refugee industry that recently joined CAIR in their protest of the Trump Admin. See his bio here: http://www.rcusa.org/staff/

Then we have Hans Van de Weerd weighing in who works for the IRC now.

So bureaucrats blab to Bob and Bob gets Hans to talk to Reuters.

But, frankly Trump is at fault for still not placing his own people in the State Department and DHS thus letting the blabbermouths run free. Here is yet another story on that subject which I don’t have time to write about today.

Back to Reuters and the latest round of leaks and wailing from the refugee industry (in and out of government) about what could happen this week as the 120-day refugee ‘moratorium’ ends.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Trump’s administration has drafted a plan to pause a program that allows family members join refugees already settled in the United States until they can undergo increased security checks, two sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

The measure is one of several being considered for refugees, the sources said.

The administration also may expand the use of intensive security checks by multiple federal agencies, called “security advisory opinions” (SAO) to apply to women from countries designated as high-risk by the U.S. government. Currently there are usually only mandatory SAOs, as they are called, for men from those countries, the sources said.

The administration is also considering expanding the categories of refugees required to be fingerprinted, the sources said.

The proposals, if implemented, could significantly slow down refugee admissions and leave refugees who thought they were headed to the United States in perilous situations abroad, say refugee advocates and former officials.

[….]

A 120-day temporary ban on refugees, put in place to study current procedures, expires on Oct. 24.

The sources, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about the plans before they are announced, said the new measures could be announced at the end of the temporary ban.

[….]

“Reports on the type of vetting measures being considered for our refugee resettlement program are disturbing,” said Hans Van de Weerd, the Vice President of U.S. Programs at the International Rescue Committee. [I previously did some research on ol’ Hans here and he earlier was reporting he was a Dutch citizen. Seems that little nugget is missing from his bio now.—-ed]

[….]

“When you put in additional security checks you can basically halt the system,” said Robert Carey, the former director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement under former President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

“Every check is only good for a finite period of time and they expire and the whole process has to start all over again,” he said, adding that the level of scrutiny is higher for refugees than most any other visa applicant to the United States.

More here.

Looking for something to do?

If every one of the thousands of you who read this post took 2 minutes to write to the White House and tell the President to tighten security screening for all refugees, you might actually succeed in hitting a nerve at the White House.

~~Click here~~.

Update! I did not find that link above to work! Try here.

***For new readers, these are the nine federal refugee contractors that monopolize all refugee resettlement in the US. Go here and see my latest financial report on all of them. The more refugees admitted to the US, the more funding they get from you!

The IRC is the largest financially (the Catholic Bishops place the largest number of refugees in your towns) and pays out some whopping big salaries. David Miliband, CEO of the IRC, is not a US citizen and he is raking in annually just short of $600,000 partially supplied by you—US taxpayers! Doing well by doing good! And, changing America to boot!

Lutherans on the offense in St. Cloud, plan propaganda webinar

10/22/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Readers, I do have news from elsewhere that needs to be posted, but the St. Cloud upcoming council vote is shaping up to be a pivotal event.

What I truly don’t understand is why Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota (a subcontractor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service headquartered in Baltimore) is so hell bent to bring more third worlders, especially Somalis, to a town where they (Somalis AND LSS) face such a backlash.

You would almost think the Lutheran resettlement contractor is benefiting financially beyond its per head payment for the refugees they place in Minnesota communities.

Now they plan to put on a webinar in mid-November to supposedly tell the public that refugees don’t cost taxpayers a dime just when a member of the city council wants a REAL economic assessment of what resettlement is costing the community beyond the trouble in schools and neighborhoods and the general social and cultural upheaval that comes with cities being rapidly changed demographically.

When you look at their list of handpicked webinar speakers (below from the St. Cloud Times), see who is represented and who isn’t:

No one from the police department is listed

No one from the school system

No one to explain the costs for interpreters in the criminal justice system and in hospitals etc.

No one who can speak to the amount of remittances being sent out of St. Cloud and back to Africa

No one to address the issue of jobs that refugees take from low-skilled American workers….

And, how about they put a representative of the Minnesota Meatpacking industry on the panel to explain how they need the Lutherans to supply their cheap labor!

Of course they won’t do that, and they won’t do this ‘fact finding’ in a public meeting because here they can control the information, who registers and what questions are asked in this webinar format. (Ha! Ha! wouldn’t it be fun to have a counter webinar that same day and time!)

The presence of this panelist explains much. Teresa Bohnen is not only President of the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce, but also Vice Chair of the state chamber and works closely with the US Chamber of Commerce that lobbies for amnesty for illegals and for more refugee laborers. If only they would all be truthful about their wish for a steady flow of migrant labor. Come on just say it! We work for the meat industry! http://www.sctimes.com/story/money/2016/02/05/bohnen-elected-state-chamber-board/79840982/

Here is the St. Cloud Times announcing the webinar:

A group hopes to distinguish between fact and myth about refugee resettlement with a public webinar in November.

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota will have a webinar from 3-4:30 p.m., Nov. 14.

Panelists, including staff and state and local leaders, will talk about how resettlement works and the costs and benefits of the program in the St. Cloud area.

Panelists include:

Yusuf Abdi, director of refugee services, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.

Karin Blythe, resettlement supervisor, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.

Teresa Bohnen, president, St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce.

Melissa Huberty, human services administrator, Stearns County Human Services.

Mary Zelenak, health protection and promotion supervisor, Stearns County Public Health. [Be sure to ask her about TB rates in Minnesota immigrant population!—ed]

Rachele King, state refugee coordinator, Minnesota Department of Human Services.

The discussion over the cost of refugee resettlement in St. Cloud has been reignited recently, as a St. Cloud City Council member announced a plan to temporarily stop refugees from resettling in St. Cloud.

Jeff Johnson, who represents St. Cloud’s Fourth Ward, submitted a draft resolution this week calling for a moratorium on refugee resettlement in St. Cloud.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also launched a petition Tuesday urging the St. Cloud City Council to vote no on the moratorium, which the organization called a “despicable, racist, Islamophobic, and ill-informed motion targeting refugees.”

More here.

There will be discussion at tomorrow’s council meeting and the vote on Johnson’s resolution could happen on November 6th.

For new readers, I have an archive on St. Cloud that goes back to 2008, click here to learn more.

Nashua, NH welcomed Rohingya refugee now jailed for allegedly touching little girls

10/21/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve reported on the case of Mohammod Rafique here and here, but we are learning more details about the case and a controversial vote that shows the mayor of Nashua and some of his aldermen swallowed the propaganda from Welcoming America and designated Nashua as a welcoming city just one year ago. See here.

mayor jim donchess — Democrat Mayor Jim Donchess: if we reject Welcoming America we will send a negative message.

Once again we have a story where the mayor and (some) local elected officials supported the seeding of third worlders into a small American cities that resulted in refugees like Rafique being allowed to roam free (I assure you he was not allowed to roam free in Thailand before he was brought to NH.).

The Open Borders Left has been working for years to get mayors elected who will carry their water.

LOL! Maybe we should make a list of a dirty dozen mayors who have to go! Donchess will surely make the cut! (send me suggestions!)

From World Net Daily yesterday:

A Muslim refugee from Burma, also called Myanmar, is facing multiple sexual assault charges after he allegedly tried to kiss and fondled four girls between the ages of 7 and 12 in a New Hampshire town that just over a year ago became one of President Obama’s “Welcoming Cities.”

Police said the incidents allegedly occurred at some kind of gathering but were not more specific.

Mohammod Rafique, 27, a member of the Rohingya Muslim minority that is fleeing Burma, has been living in Nashua, New Hampshire, for almost two years but speaks no English.

Police cracked the case open after a 10-year-old Nashua girl told her family, then police, and then child-welfare advocates that a man “drank too much, (became) ‘touchy-touchy,’ rubbed her upper thigh and touched her buttocks,” according to the Telegraph, Nashua’s local newspaper.

Rafique also grabbed, fondled and tried to forcibly kiss the girls, according to reports. [So much for that “robust” screening that allowed someone like this to be admitted to America!—ed]

On this business about Rafique not being able to communicate with lawyers etc. As one of my readers asked, then how the heck did he communicate with his resettlement contracting agency***?

david-lubell-2 — Lubell is an Obama “champion of change!”

Rafique has been unable to communicate with his attorneys or corrections staff, his lawyer told the Telegraph, and she tried to get his bail lowered earlier this week but was unsuccessful.

Just last fall, in September 2016, the Nashua City Board of Alderman narrowly voted 8-7 to become a “Welcoming City” under the umbrella of Welcoming America.

Welcoming America was founded by Obama friend and open-borders promoter David Lubell, whose agenda is to “water the soil,” softening up residents of U.S. cities to accept the seeding of Third World refugees and illegal immigrants.

The Obama White House honored Welcoming America as a White House Champion of Change for innovations in immigrant integration. The organization has also been honored by the United Nations.

Many more details here.

Be sure to see Hohmann’s discussion about how many Rohingya are arriving in America. It is approaching 20,000 in the last decade.

We have written many posts on a ‘community organizing’ group started with Soros seed money—‘Welcoming America’—click here to learn more.

I also have over 200 posts on Rohingya refugees, here, the new flavor of the year for the refugee industry! (Laughing again! In ten years I’ve watched the Iraqis in the starring role, then the Syrians, and now the media have moved on to give the Rohingya top billing to pull on your heartstrings, and get into your wallets!)

And, for those looking for things to do, see this post where I describe getting involved politically at the local level.

We have stories too!

By the way, for those who read this and think it’s unfair to make Rafique the poster boy for refugees being placed in Nashua, remember that the Leftwing propaganda machine and its media handmaidens love to showcase the refugee who goes to Harvard/Yale (blah, blah, blah) making that person their example of a model refugee.

We can play the same game! As I’ve said often: for every refugee you can show me who goes to Harvard, I can show you a refugee like Rafique! (In fact, maybe 5 or 10 Rafiques for every Harvard-bound refugee!)

***Based on information available in recently acquired FY18 R & P Abstracts it looks like the New England Lutheran contractor, now called Ascentria, may have been his resettlement facilitator. They have an office in Concord, but they discuss in that Abstract placing refugees in Nashua.

Pay attention! Your town could become St. Cloud too!

10/20/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As St. Cloud goes, so goes the nation!

…..that is if you don’t do something now to stop it where you live.

I’ve been arguing that the national media is doing a great disservice by not showing the true picture of a city and a state undergoing a dramatic demographic change thanks to forces arrayed against us—against regular folks, American citizens.

Most Americans would be stunned if they had any idea of what is happening in Minnesota!

dayton — Mogadishu first! Minnesota governor Dayton said earlier this week that he would light the governor’s mansion blue (Somali flag color) because of the terrorist attack there recently that killed hundreds. Did he light the governor’s mansion in any color when the Somali refugee terrorist attempted to kill shoppers at the St. Cloud mall a year ago?

Topping the list of those changing America by changing the people are the global corporations seeking cheap compliant labor, and cheered on by the Chamber of Commerce, Democratic political activists looking for voters, ‘non-profit’ groups paid by taxpayers to place the third world in unsuspecting towns, Islamic supremacist groups like CAIR advancing the hijra and enabled by bleeding hearts in the media and the clearly frightened local elected officials.

The St. Cloud, Minnesota story will tell your community’s story next year, or ten years from now!

(See also, my St. Cloud post yesterday, here)

Here Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily pulls the threads together about St. Cloud. This is your future too!

A small city in the Midwest is becoming “ground-zero” for a long-simmering battle over refugee resettlement that could have a ripple effect across the United States.

“The long-term future of literally every city and town in America will be affected by who wins in St. Cloud and Stearns County, Minnesota,” says Ann Corcoran, one of America’s foremost experts on the resettlement industry through her website Refugee Resettlement Watch.

St. Cloud and the surrounding small cities of Central Minnesota have been the drop-off points for thousands of refugees coming from United Nations camps over the past 15 years.

[….]

If St. Cloud is successful in carving out a local role in determining refugee numbers flowing into its community, that will spread quickly to other cities, says Corcoran, who has followed the resettlement industry across all 50 states for the past decade.

But it’s an uphill fight.

One council member, Jeff Johnson, has decided to champion the cause and is expected to introduce a resolution on Nov. 6 calling for a moratorium on refugee arrivals until a study can be completed on the economic impact of the resettlements.

So far Johnson says he has only one other councilman who is willing to listen to his argument that economics matter, but he is hoping to convince others that they will be better able to make decision affecting the taxpayer if they have empirical data on refugee costs.

Citizens like Ron Branstner have become experts on the meat industry:

Branstner sees lots of winners when it comes to refugee resettlement. The meat-processing companies – Hormel, JBS Swift, Pilgrim’s Pride – all benefit from the cheap labor. The transportation industry makes money shuttling the refugees to and from work.

But the biggest loser is the taxpayer.

So-called “Big Meat” – with most of the companies foreign-owned – has plants scattered throughout the Midwest in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, the Dakotas, Kansas and Colorado. [States throughout the south are also affected. Big Meat/Big Poultry is in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and more—ed]

“These corporations, in cooperation with chambers of commerce, nonprofits like the Blandin Foundation, Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities, have transformed town after town throughout southern Minnesota since 1990,” Branstner says.

He believes the taxpayer is subsidizing the meat industry’s addiction to cheap refugee labor.

So please don’t let anyone tell you this is about humanitarianism and thus any criticism by you means you are a mean, racist boob! That is just what they do to silence you!

There is much, much more, continue reading here.

See also my huge archive on ‘Meatpackers’ by clicking here.

Endnote: One of my great frustrations is that I will get readers/commenters on this post who will say—what should I do? Where is an easy petition to sign or an easy fax to send?

I understand that some of you might be new and this is the first time you are seeing RRW, but geez, for the rest of you, I tell you almost daily what to do and even have a category now entitled ‘What you can do.‘ Please have a look!

Sorry this isn’t going to be easy or fast!

Don’t miss my recent step by step prescription for some thing you can do, here. The gist of that post is that you must get involved locally as the people of St. Cloud are doing and ultimately get rid of mayors and councils who are operating in secrecy and facilitating the destructive demographic change we see here in the city that is the canary in a coal mine.

(Twin Falls, Idaho, as I have mentioned often, is right up there with St. Cloud as a lesson for what will happen to your town next!)

St. Cloud controversy over refugees draws CAIR’s attention; CAIR draws media attention

10/19/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, of course, as I look around this morning I see that CAIR’s arrival on the scene draws the national media! A local Fox affiliate is reporting on the controversy surrounding one city councilman’s proposed moratorium on refugee resettlement and even the Washington Post is now reporting. I expect to see the spinners and liars from the New York Times arriving soon! LOL! the new ambulance chasing—CAIR chasing!

It looks like the showdown will be Monday, October 23rd when Councilman Jeff Johnson will propose that the mayor and council ask the federal government and its agent in Minnesota—Lutheran Social Services of MN—to give them a break until more is known about the economic impact of resettlement on the city and until there can be some assurances that the process going forward is transparent. Federal law does give a role to local governments to weigh in with their suggestions.

If this is the first time you are learning about the latest uprising in St. Cloud, see my posts here, here and here recently.

The moral of this story is if you can draw out CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) you can get some national attention for your efforts!

As I said in my previous post, CAIR must fight to keep Muslim refugees coming in to the US in order to continue to build their political power base. It is that simple!

Here is CAIR!

Screenshot (995)

How did St. Cloud get here?

Rather than go back over the resolution and what it could possibly do (or what might happen on Monday night at city hall), I think my best contribution to this story is to supply readers with background on how a small Minnesota city became ground zero for a battle, the results of which, will in fact help determine the future of literally every town and city in America in the decades ahead.

It’s the Lutherans in the case of St. Cloud.

We know that Somali refugees have been placed in Minnesota by the US State Department since the late 1980’s. By the early 1990’s the flood gates were opening as three major federal contractors: Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services of MN (whose ‘mothership’ is Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service where, by the way, rumor has it that some scandal is brewing), and World Relief saw Minnesota’s generous welfare as a real plus for the destitute Somalis. See my 2011 post here.

Not only was the generous welfare a draw, but big companies needed cheap labor (a window company in Owatona for example, or meat packing plants all over the state, including in St. Cloud!).

LSS as employment agency?

jodi harpstead — CEO Harpstead pulls down a salary and benefits package of over $300,000 annually to head the $91 million a year operation

Initially there was no direct resettlement of refugees in St. Cloud, that didn’t come until 2011. But, the so-called secondary migrants were moving to the city helped by an EMPLOYMENT OFFICE run by none other than Lutheran Social Services of MN. WTH!

Why was a non-profit ‘religious’ charity running an employment office to benefit large corporations? Was someone paying them to find refugee laborers for St. Cloud area businesses? Who? Taxpayers?

Here is an August 2010 story from Minnesota Public Radio announcing that in the coming year LSS of MN would be bringing 300 refugees directly to St. Cloud over the next 3 years.

But, we learn that since 2002 (right after 9/11), LSS was running an “employment office” there:

Kim Dettmer, Director of Refugee Services at Lutheran Social Services, said no one has an exact figure for the total number of refugees living in the St. Cloud area. Many community and nonprofit leaders estimate that the African population in St. Cloud is between 8,000 and 10,000–this figure includes people who came to the United States as refugees and who have since become naturalized citizen and no longer have refugee status. Lutheran Social Services learned that St. Cloud had a large and growing Somali population, so it opened an employment office in St. Cloud in 2002 to provide extra support.

Continue reading here.

One of those companies looking for cheap (Lutheran-supplied) labor was apparently Gold n’ Plump a St. Cloud-based chicken processing plant which found out that maybe cheap Somali Muslim labor isn’t cheap after all. It had to pay out an undisclosed cash settlement to Somali workers in a legal dispute discussed here in the Star Tribune.

In a landmark settlement that could change the way Muslims are treated in the workplace, St. Cloud-based Gold’n Plump Inc. has agreed to allow Somali workers short prayer breaks and the right to refuse handling pork at its poultry processing facilities.

The federally mediated agreement is among the first in the nation that requires employers to accommodate the Islamic prayer schedule and the belief, held by many strict Muslims, that the Qur’an prohibits the touching and eating of pork products.

Community organizers form Red-Green axis:

One of those involved in the settlement was community activist Mahmoud Mohamed. I told you about him and his ‘ethnic community based organization’ here in early 2010 and here again in December of that year where he claims to be part of the “we” who brought the first refugees directly from camps to St. Cloud. I don’t know if he is still active, or if SASSO is still calling shots in St. Cloud. And I don’t know if Mohamed is still working with the hard Left community organizer Luke Tripp. Someone needs to do a little research.

The controversy surrounding the resolution vote on Monday (and hopefully there will be a vote so that citizens there can see exactly how each council person votes) did not happen in a vacuum or come out of the blue. In addition to those events I just mentioned, a lot has gone down in St. Cloud over the years, including but not limited to:

A controversy about Somalis harassing an assistance dog, here. (my first introduction to St. Cloud)

Controversies in the high school, one of many posts here.

A huge zoning battle over the construction of a mosque in the middle of a neighborhood, here.

The knife attack by a Somali at the local mall, here.

Somali teen murders African American, here.

Muslim arrested for mosque vandalism blamed on citizens (Islamophobes!) originally, here.

Local paper did not like me visiting St. Cloud, here.

Go here for many more stories in my archive about St. Cloud.

Update! How could I forget this! MN Governor Dayton said in St. Cloud 2015: anyone who doesn’t like immigrants can get out of Minnesota, here.

Bottomline, Lutheran Social Services of MN is responsible for the exploding Somali population in St. Cloud and the chaos and controversy that has followed.

Not in my name!

What you can do: If you are of the Lutheran denomination, you need to let your ministers know exactly how you feel about changing America by changing the people in the name of your faith group (and for Caesar’s money)!