We haven’t heard much from Moveonfor years, but they are back! vowing to stop President Donald Trump on apparently everything, starting with his cabinet members’ confirmations. It will be a great opportunity for them to rake in some big bucks.
And, so it begins (no rest for us!)
Trump Watch!
My Trump Watch!is intended to mostly report on what he does with immigration and refugees, but I see this morning I’m going to want to report on what the Progressives are up to as well. (And, there is no new data posted on refugees this morning at Wrapsnet.)
Here (below), in an e-mail from Working Families party, we learn that tonight there will be a conference call. You should consider signing up to find out what they are up to, but you might want to begin countering their planned Tuesday action to pressure Senate offices by calling Senate offices on Monday in support of President Trump’s cabinet picks.
Nearly two weeks ago we told you about Indivisible which is also involved with Moveon and Working Families. These hard left activists will be very good at scaring the heck out of squishy House and Senate Republicans and Donald Trump will not get his agenda items through once they successfully cause the Republican chickens to hide from Trump. You must give them some backbone! If they get scared now, there won’t be any slowdown on immigration and refugee resettlement.
Because this is a screenshot, the links are dead. Go here to sign up for the phone call!
And, click here, to see if they have an “action” near you.
I hope that all those pink pussies who showed up at demonstrations around the country know who they have joined with, these are the hardcore progressives, socialists and communists.
I wonder if the ‘Hill’ youngsters know that Lincoln was a Republican? This isn’t about refugees per se, but as you get geared up to go to battle with Congress to push them to get tough on immigration and to reform/trash the US Refugee Admissions Program, this might be a helpful guide to what the other side is going to do!
They know, as you should, that the battle will ultimately be in Congress!
Sent to me by a reader, click hereto learn more, and go here to access the document.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Right!
If you’ve been a longtime Tea Party activist and weren’t sure you were getting things accomplished, you will be happy to see that the other side thinks you were highly successful!
I admit I didn’t read the whole thing yet, I just thought I should get it out quickly. Let me know if you see anything that we should make particular note of!
Just now as I read through news on my various alerts I saw several year-end wrap-up local news stories including from Poughkeepsie, NY and Rutland, VT which ranked refugee resettlement controversies among their top stories of the year. The one from Idaho places refugee resettlement right up there with the 2016 Presidential election as a leading story for 2016!
MagicValley.com gleefully notes that a petition drive failed to put the issue before county voters, but this type of activity is not a wasted effort. It generated media, sneering media, but nevertheless the process created political controversy. This is an important stage in bringing about political change. As I say to everyone, stop looking for the silver bullet. There is no silver bullet, or no right thing to do, just keep up the political pressure in whatever way you can using whatever talents and time you have.
I’ve been writing RRW since 2007 and I must say, this has not happened in those nearly ten years—that the refugee issue would be a leading story of the year anywhere, so keep up the good work.
When you are feeling frustrated that your concerns about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program are not being addressed, know that getting those concerns reported in your local media (within an overarching theme of agitating your elected officials) is a first important step toward reaching a political tipping point.
Here is some of what MagicValley.comhad to say:
Refugee resettlement, which was a controversial issue in Twin Falls in 2015 and continued to be on in 2016, was also a major issue in the presidential race, and the debate over Medicaid expansion in Idaho will be shifted drastically because of the outcome. [By the way, the Office of Refugee Resettlement itself says that if your state has expanded Medicaid it makes it a more ‘welcoming’ target for the placement of refugees.—ed]
[….]
A movement to shut down the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center started last year, after news came out that some Syrians could be among the refugees to be resettled in Twin Falls. (None have been to date.) As the Syrian civil war dragged on, displacing millions of people, refugee resettlement became a topic of worldwide debate and a major issue in the presidential race, with Trump’s hard-line views on refugee admissions and anti-Muslim rhetoric energizing some and horrifying others. As for Twin Falls, it started to attract national media attention as an example of a town divided over what was becoming a focus of national political arguments.
A drive for a countywide referendum on whether to shut down the refugee center fizzled this spring when organizers got about a quarter of the number of signatures they would need to get on the ballot. In June, however, the debate flared back up after news came out about a 5-year-old girl at the Fawnbrook Apartments being sexually assaulted by three boys from Middle Eastern refugee families.
Continue reading here.
LOL! That is all I am snipping. I am really careful about not taking too much of published news accounts, however, this publication is the only one in the nation to ever send me a legal letter telling me I have snipped too much of their report.
Does anyone know where the case is regarding the sexual assault from last June?
Our archive on Twin Falls may be found by clicking here.
Update December 29, 2016: Michael Leahy at Breitbart has a good piece on Montana herealso.
This is an Associated Press story that ran on Christmas day so not sure how many of you saw it.
For background, Montana had a small refugee program many years ago, but up until this year it was alone with Wyoming in not having one at all. That changed in 2016 as Missoula ‘welcomed’ its first African and Middle Eastern refugees. I traveled to the state this summer and can attest to the sentiment outlined in this story. S.K. Rossi, advocacy and policy director for the ACLU of Montana: “It’s pretty widely known that this is going to be a hard year…” Photo: https://www.aclumontana.org/en/about/staff
For new readers you might like to see our Montana archive, here.
From AP at The Seattle Times:
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The push to restrict refugee resettlements and immigration in the U.S. that figured so prominently in Donald Trump’s election is now headed to states that are preparing to convene their legislative sessions early next year, immigration advocates said.
In Montana, which took in just nine refugee families from January to early December, about a dozen bill requests related to refugees, immigration and terrorism have been filed ahead of next month’s session. The measures include requiring resettlement agencies to carry insurance that would defray the cost of prosecuting refugees who commit violent crimes and allowing towns and cities to request a moratorium on resettlements in their communities.
Refugee rights advocates say those measures are a sign of what is to come as the anti-refugee rhetoric that featured prominently in the presidential election spills over to statehouses and local governments.
“It’s pretty widely known that this is going to be a hard year for those of us who are seeking to protect the rights of refugees and immigrants,” said S.K. Rossi, advocacy and policy director for the ACLU of Montana.
The president-elect campaigned onbuilding a border wall with Mexico to stop illegal immigration, deporting immigrants who are in the nation illegally and halting the resettlement of refugees to strengthen the federal program that vets them.
[….]
“It absolutely does not end with the presidential election,” McKenzie [Michele McKenzie, deputy director of the Minneapolis organization The Advocates for Human Rights] said. “It’s a national strategy by a small but organized group of anti-immigration advocates and anti-refugee advocates.”
[….]
“We need to get serious,” said Nancy Ballance, a Republican state representative from Ravalli County.
Ballance said refugees are a “gigantic issue” in her southwestern Montana county, just south of the liberal college city of Missoula. “People expect to see some legislation brought,” she said.
It is pretty clear that legally state legislators can’t do much to change the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), but here we have the ACLU lobbyist making the crucial point about efforts in the Montana (yours too!) legislature.
“Filing this and making it a public conversation automatically undermines the refugee process,” Rossi said.
“They can’t legally undermine the process, but they can socially undermine the process.”
You have a right to ask questions and demand that your elected officials at all levels of government be transparent, and consider your economic worries and your safety concerns when the federal government targets your communities. Efforts like these in the Montana legislature are important to help create controversy because the ultimate goal is for the controversy to ‘trickle up’ to Congress and to the new Trump Administration. There is no doubt that the USRAP must be trashed or reformed, but that pressure must come from the states (and local governments) to Washington. Politicians hate noise and so it is your job as grassroots activists to make political noise!
To that end, since Montana’s lone House member is likely going to the Trump Interior Department, it is critical that you, in Montana, make the selection of his replacement a referendum on the refugee program. See The Hill (scroll down to Rep. Zinke).
Endnote: I am off to jury duty, be back later!
This isn’t just about Michigan—as Michigan goes so goes America!
Here is how the story in the UK Daily Mail described what happened. I know many of you already do know because you have been sending me versions of the story from many news outlets, but for those who don’t yet know:
A Michigan town has voted to ban Syrian refugees from living there, because they believe the vetting process is not good enough.
The Waterford Township Board of Trustees passed a resolution against allowing refugees from the war torn country to settle in the area, on Monday night.
What will longtime Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson do? Will he seek an injunction against RAP and federal contractors before the election?
The vote was specifically against a federal resettlement program for the refugees. It passed with a 7-0 vote.
The result is a surprising one given that the town in North America with the highest proportion of Arab-Americans lies just 30 miles to the south.
Dearborn has more than 40,000 Middle Eastern immigrants who are proud to call the city home.
TheDaily Mail said this in its short blips about the story and it made me laugh!
The towns ruling is worthless as control over Syrian refugees is done so federally and not at a local level.
HARDLY WORTHLESS!!!
Of course we know the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program is being foisted secretively on local communities and local governments from the United Nations and the government in Washington, DC, butwhat these brave local elected officials did on Monday night is far from “worthless.”
Why?
Because by trying to save their own town in Oakland County, Michigan, people all over the world are hearing about it as the media, including the UK Daily Mail, has been running stories about it all week and thus educating more and more Americans to what is happening to Michigan could be happening to your states too (and is happening to many, it is just that some are further down the pipeline of demographic change than others!).
Michael Patrick Leahy of Breitbartpicked up the story and it was featured on Drudge on Tuesday.
And, hereis the New York Daily News, be sure to watch the video clip. Hereis the Oakland Press about the international attention the resolution has received. And, includes this important information about a possible next step:
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson has threatened a lawsuit against the federal government that would seek an injunction to halt any more refugees from locating here. Patterson says the refugees are not properly screened for medical illnesses and the Refugee Act of 1980 is not being followed. The act requires the federal government to update local officials at regular intervals about refugees locating in the area. The county Board of Commissioners approved a resolution supporting Patterson.
Worthless? Not by a long shot!
On November 8th, the future of Michigan (your state too!) will be decided! If Hillary is elected President, we will move quickly toward further Islamization of Michigan via the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. If Donald Trump is elected, we have a fighting chance to save America and Western Civilization by slowing the Hijra (the migration). To that end, I’ve made a little video pitch with my friends in Michigan, so please help get it around especially to the voters of the Wolverine State.
I saw what is happening to Michigan first hand this past summer on my 6,000 mile swing through the heartland (a loop that took me as far west as Montana and south to Tennessee).
Watch ‘Hillary’s Michigan America’s Worst Nightmare’ released today: Update: If you would like to learn more about the resistance in Michigan, go here: http://securemichigan.org/ website
emails – administrator@refugeeresettlementmonitormichigan.com
