We told you two days ago that in the first round of Austria’s presidential elections, for the first time since WWII, the two major parties are out of the running as the so-called far right wins big.
Now check this out at Breitbart (read the whole story) about the gutsy Austrian youths associated with Identitare (they oppose the Islamisation of Europe and mass migration) and their dramatic action getting worldwide media attention.
Watch the film here (the banner says ‘hypocrite’). These young Austrian men were protesting a “Refugees-Welcome” (propaganda!) play at the famous theater and Austrian leaders who say they will protect Austrians from the invaders, but don’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuBb9aS5Kwk
Category: creating a movement
Kansas governor's withdrawal decision has the refugee contractors defiant; NJ withdraws too!
Sheesh, where have I been. I apologize if some of you notified me that Chris Christie withdrew New Jersey from the program earlier this month too (So sorry! I can’t read everything coming in to me!).
NJ withdraws too! Check it out here at NJ 101.5!
Now here is the lengthy and informative article from Miss Elise at the Huffington Post (we have reported on her pro-open borders writing previously) about Governor Sam Brownback’s (former great enthusiast for the refugee program) change of heart.
See our previous two posts on Kansas here and here. And, come on Texas, join the crowd!!!
Emphasis below is mine:
Fifteen years ago, then-Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) gave an impassioned speech in support of refugee resettlement. He called helping and taking in refugees “some of the most noble and ennobling things we can do,” and said the United States should admit “substantially” more than 80,000 people, the ceiling at the time.
“I want to ensure that any refugee dealing with our system sees the best of who we are and what we represent,” he said at an event ahead of World Refugee Day in 2001. “We are a better nation because of the refugees and asylees amongst us.”
If refugees currently dealing with the system are going to see the best of America, though, it will be in spite of Brownback. Now governor of Kansas, he announced Tuesday that his state would no longer work with the federal government to resettle refugees, the final step in a months-long effort to keep out Syrians that now is directed toward refugees in general.
[….]
His decision won’t have a major impact on refugee resettlement to Kansas — although the governor has implied that he’s effectively banning the program in the state, all his withdrawal means is that another agency will have to coordinate the services for it to function in Kansas. [Remember “services”=your financial support of refugees.—ed]
[….]
But Brownback’s shift was troubling for refugee resettlement groups.
Here we learn something we didn’t know about those regulations that the Office of Refugee Resettlement crafted from thin air (with no legislative authority!).
If a state does not participate, it must give the government 120 days notice and another agency will be tasked with coordinating assistance. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie withdrew his state from the program this month as well, citing concerns about Syrian refugees, and other states have elected in the past to participate only partially or not at all.
Christie gave the 120 day notice and presumably by August another agency (A NON-PROFIT GROUP) will be assigned the duty. We assume Governor Brownback also gave the official notice and thus both governors could sue the feds as per the Thomas More Law Center states’ rights case, and the State of Tennessee’s planned legal challenge.
Can the federal government and non-profit groups expend state and local tax dollars without any state or local say so, we think not! Also, experts tell us there is no authority in the so-called Wilson-Fish amendment to the Refugee Act of 1980 to turn the program over to unelected private organizations.
Nevertheless, defiant advocates for more refugees for your towns and cities say that refugees will continue to get their services (code for welfare) and you will continue to pay!
That [resettlement] will continue, and they will continue to get services from the state. The four staffers in the Kansas Department for Children and Families currently working on refugee resettlement will be reassigned to other roles, but the overall work of the agency won’t change, department spokeswoman Theresa Freed said.
Lots more at the HuffPo here. The media will try to make it sound like you think you can bar anyone from moving to a state. This is America, you can’t bar the movement of people legally present. This is about whether state and local taxpayers have any right to determine what they pay for and whether unelected private groups can carry out government functions of this nature.
Come to think of it, Governor Christie and Maryland Gov Larry Hogan are pals—maybe he can be persuaded to pull Maryland out as well!
A cautionary note: We would all love to find a silver bullet to get this program either stopped completely or reformed, but it won’t be that simple. The 35-year-old refugee industry involves billions of dollars and entrenched non-profit groups, many with political agendas involving open borders and changing the demographic make-up of the country. Therefore, do not hang your hat on lawsuits (as important as this one could be) and whether some Congressional white knight will come to the rescue, continue all you are doing at the grassroots level to bring attention to the program through whatever means possible (within the law of course!).
Go here and don’t forget to send in your testimony! Tell your governors and other elected officials to go on the record too!
Advice from a reader in-the-know!
Update: Do not miss the comments to this post!
Editor: This is another in our series of ‘comments worth noting’ and was posted by ‘jdelaney3 ‘ to our post yesterday, ‘Is yours to be a “welcoming” refugee community?’ I assure you that this reader knows what he is talking about!
Get organized! (from ‘jdelaney3’)
I urge folks to deluge local resettlement agency offices with phone calls to determine what refugees and in what numbers they plan to accept for resettlement during the remainder of the year. Put them on notice that you and many others will be watching.
If any of those refugees the agency is planning to resettle are, from all reports, improperly vetted, urge them NOT to “assure” (accept) them.
Keep your eye on these volags/ngos/gov’t contractors and call with regularity for updated information as to what refugees have arrived and what refugees are expected to arrive.
I would also contact City Hall and the County Executive to intercede as well in this regard.
Also, reach out to community organizations, many of which should welcome the opportunity to keep tabs on the refugee influx as well.
If the agency is a Catholic-supervised operation, e.g. Migration & Refugee Services–USCCB, also touch base with the Diocese as often as appropriate. Let them all know they’re being monitored.
It’s all about pressure and oversight which these refugee resettlement operations are terrified of.
Finally, if you know folks who have firsthand familiarity with the local resettlement office staff and operation, ask them to keep you posted. Not all who work for or volunteer for these agencies are lackeys.
So how do you find your local resettlement agency offices? Click here and if you live near one of these offices know that they can resettle refugees in nearby towns—up to 100 miles or about a two hour drive away.
But, here is step 2! You have got to get what you learn out beyond your own little circle! Write a blog or website, write letters-to-the-editor, develop a social media network, make youtube vids, whatever it takes!
Use your free speech while you’ve got it!
Tennesseans urged to sign petition, Governor must hear from the people!
Editor: This is a guest post by Don Barnett, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a resident of Tennessee.
If you are from Tennessee, the most important thing you can do is to post this information on your facebook page/other social media, and send to your e-mail lists.
Since the governor is supporting the status quo on refugee resettlement in Tennessee, TN he needs to hear from the people. Be sure to let your other elected officials know how you feel as well.
Barnett:
Supporters of maintaining the status quo in refugee resettlement in Tennessee – that is, allowing the federal contractor to run the program for its own benefit without a requirement that it report refugee social services usage or accurately report the numbers resettled – often point out that refugees pay more in taxes than they consume in benefits, so why all the fuss?
The resettlement program is so little understood and secretive that the contractors can make blatantly false statements and be assured those statements will be reported as fact by the media.
As reported in The Tennessean, the contractor notes that “a 2013 report presented to the Joint Government Operations Legislative Advisory Committee determined that refugees and their descendants provided $1.4 billion in revenue for Tennessee between 1990 and 2012, compared with requiring $753 million in state support.”
The 2013 study was actually very limited and makes no such sweeping conclusion.
In assessing the cost of publicly funded benefits for refugees the study looked at just 2 programs – public education (including ELL) and Tenncare(Medicaid). It ignored a whole range of programs which Tennesseans use and fund both with Tennessee tax dollars and as federal tax payers.
Sen. Mark Norris noted that at last count 11 state funded programs were being accessed by arriving refugees.
The study assumed that refugees were using Tenncare (Medicaid) at the same rate as average Tennesseans even though up to 59% of refugees have been placed into Tenncare upon arrival in recent years.
A recent federal study found staggering welfare usage rates even among those in the country for 5 years – majority still on food stamps, 44% on Medicaid, 29 % of families with one or more members on SSI, 17% on TANF and so on.
In spite of known high welfare usage among refugees, the report assumed refugees pay state taxes at the same rate as average Tennesseans.
The study, which was supposed to have determined to what extent the feds had placed an unfunded mandate on the state of Tennessee, was hijacked by the pro-refugee lobby, i.e. the local Chamber of Commerce and refugee contractors.
The seemingly positive outcome of the study was foreordained even though the study authors themselves concluded “The information necessary to complete a comprehensive study on the possible cost shifting from the federal government to the state for the resettlement of refugees is not available.” And even though a complete reading of the study does not allow for any positive conclusion despite refugee industry statements.
Perhaps Tennesseans best hope is passage of senate resolution SJR467 which would allow The Thomas More Law Center to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement on 10th amendment grounds. The public services law center will take the case at no charge to the state of Tennessee. Not only might it shed light on this program, but most importantly it would clarify to what extent, if any, the federal government can force a state to use state taxes to cover unfunded costs imposed by a federal program.
The resolution has overwhelming support in both houses of the Tennessee legislature but has stirred fierce opposition from the usual suspects, including Governor Haslam.
All Tennesseans concerned with this should sign the petition included here http://keeptnsafe.com/petition/ and tell the Governor to stop trying to block the democratic process.
For our extensive Tennessee archive, click here. See here for background on what the governor is doing.
This political work on-going in Tennessee, on the question of refugee resettlement and states’ rights, is groundbreaking!
Montana writer: "…the U.S. to become welfare agency for the whole world."
Unfortunately this is one of those days where I have too many demands on my time to be able to write much.
But, definitely wanted you to see this excellent opinion piece in the Montana Standard about the proposal to re-open refugee resettlement in the state of Montana.
As you know, Wyoming has never had a program, see our recent post by clicking here, but Montana had a tiny program that died nearly eight years ago. Open borders activists are working now to re-open big sky country to third worlders.
This is Paul Nachman, a Montana citizen activist, who knows just how the program works and opposes it for the state. Use this piece for guidance when writing letters-to-the-editor where you live.
Montana Standard:
First, refugee resettlement in the U.S. is hardly the work of private, sacrificial charity that one might expect from the names — such as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and Episcopal Migration Ministries — of prominent national “voluntary agencies,” or “volags,” involved.
Nachman goes on to discuss the International Rescue Committee (the refugee contractor that would like to open its doors in Montana), fraud in the program, and the expansion of the definition of who is a ‘refugee.’
Go here to read it all. Leave a comment!
Visit all of our posts on the raging controversy in Montana by clicking here. See especially this post where we reported on a presentation by Nachman to an audience of 500 in Kalispell—a pocket of resistance!
And, especially since this is election year, don’t miss all of our posts on Hillary and David Miliband! Click here and see how the one-worlders (including George Soros) have been pals for years.