Category: health issues

Terrorists, TB and Tyson Foods

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I don’t mean to say there are terrorists at Tyson Foods.  I should be saying ‘Terrorists, TB and meatpackers,’ but it doesn’t have quite the same ring.   Yesterday we learned that Iraqi refugees, alleged terrorists, were resettled in Bowling Green, Kentucky and at least one worked in meatpacking.

Today I’ll tell you about Burmese refugees (with TB and other health issues) recruited by Tyson Foods to work in meatpacking in Waterloo, Iowa.    Actually if you are a long-time reader of RRW you know I’m a broken record on the subject of resettlement contractors (even supposedly church groups) and the US State Department supplying cheap immigrant labor to meatpacking giants.  Until the meatpackers got addicted to immigrant labor (first it was illegal immigrant labor), meatpacking was a good and desirable well-paying job that Americans were happy to do.

Looks like Tyson, and maybe other meatpackers, have given up on the Somalis and their religious accommodation demands and have now moved along to the more malleable Burmese refugees.

We first learned about problems with Tuberculosis in the refugee community in 2007 from Allen County (Ft. Wayne) Indiana.   Ultimately the county got additional funding from the US taxpayer to help them cope with refugee health issues.

From WCF Courier:

Nearly all of the Burmese who have come to Waterloo are “secondary migrants” who were resettled elsewhere after leaving refugee camps and then recruited by Tyson.

“Those who like it here and are finding good work are referring other refugees from other locations,” said Bruce Meisinger, director of public health for Black Hawk County. He expects their numbers to grow to at least 300 by the end of the year as additional workers and family members arrive from other places.

Since the influx began, the Black Hawk County Health Department — which Meisinger oversees — has been leading efforts to provide support for the Burmese. He said the main reason the department got involved with the refugees was to screen, test and treat them for tuberculosis.

“Virtually all of the cases of TB we have are from persons not born in the United States,” Meisinger said. “You inevitably come across other health concerns. We’re fulfilling a need to coordinate for multiple health issues.”

Michelle Devlin, a UNI professor and director of the Iowa Center on Health Disparity, said recently arrived refugees will often experience changes in health because of new diets and less physical activity. Foods they have traditionally eaten may not be readily available. Instead, they have easy access to simple carbohydrates, junk food, and canned or processed food.

“We always take a look at refugee dental issues,” she said. “We like to take a look at safety issues or accident issues.” Mental health concerns, like the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder, are another area of focus for public health officials.

Some of the new arrivals may have witnessed ethnic conflict or genocide. They may suffer from depression, anxiety, loneliness, culture shock or “cultural bereavement” — grieving for the loss of the culture they left behind. [Oh, but we all know life will be better in the US working in slaughter houses!  They will get used to it! Right!—ed]

The health department is working with Tyson to meet other needs of the refugees, as well. Tyson staff have helped the new employees find housing, get driver’s licenses and worked with local agencies [This means local welfare agencies, like those that distribute food stamps.  Tyson gets the cheap labor and the taxpayer supports the needs of the refugee family-–ed]

Read it all.  Sorry I am out of time today to give you a lot of links, but our first evidence that politicians were working to bring refugee labor to meatpackers was from this story about the Clinton Administration supplying Bosnian labor for IBP (ultimately sold to Tyson Foods) in Iowa.  And, interestingly we now know they must also have resettled Bosnians to Bowling Green as well.

Diversity is strength alert! Massive drug bust involving Somalis/Yemenis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Eighteen US citizens or legal permanent residents of Somali and Yemeni origin have been arrested according to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office,  Eastern Division of Virginia, for an international conspiracy to transport the illegal drug, khat, into the United States and to distribute it to at least 15 states.  Hat tip: Patrick.

The next time you hear someone say, “I’m o.k. with legal immigration, it’s illegal immigration I’m opposed to,” ponder this story.   These legal immigrants hailed from Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and New York (the press release names each one).

Their ‘profits’ were sent out of the country—to terrorists perhaps?

From the US Attorney’s Office:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Eighteen individuals have been arrested for their alleged roles in an international conspiracy trafficking more than 4.4 million grams of khat throughout the United States. All 18 were taken into custody yesterday, including 10 in Northern Virginia, two in Maryland, four in New York, and two in Ohio.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and John P. Torres, Special Agent in Charge for ICE’s, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Washington, D.C., made the announcement after the charges were unsealed.

According to court documents, Yonis Muhudin Ishak, a/k/a “Yunis Sheikal” and “Shak,” a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia living in Arlington, Va , is the leader of a conspiracy that allegedly uses human couriers to transport khat into the United States from England, Canada, and Holland. In addition, the alleged conspirators sent packages of khat to the U.S. via the U.S. Postal Service and delivery companies. The conspiracy would then allegedly distribute the khat, via couriers and the postal system, to at least 15 states, including California, Washington, Tennessee, New York, and the Washington, D.C.-metro area. The conspirators allegedly transmit proceeds from their drug sales to others in England, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda.

Fresh khat leaves contain the drug cathinone, an addictive stimulant with effects similar to but less intense than that of methamphetamine or cocaine. Over time, the cathinone in khat leaves degrades, and the court documents allege that Ishak placed priority on ensuring the khat smuggled into the United States was fresh. He allegedly used at least 14 couriers, whom he would pay about $1,000 per trip to travel to England and return with khat smuggled in their passenger luggage. Ishak and other conspirators would use rented vehicles to provide couriers with transportation to and from the airport and designate locations throughout the United States for couriers to retrieve or ship khat to conspirators in other parts of the country. At times, Ishak is accused of suggesting that conspirators use their children as couriers to evade detection.

Read it all and check out the perps!  Maybe someone in the refugee resettlement business will recognize some of their past downtrodden kids just looking for the American Dream!

In addition here is a Reuters story on the case—they are looking at 20 years in jail (add that to the cost of the Refugee Resettlement program).    LOL!  Come to think of it, that’s a good idea, how about if the cost of imprisoning former refugees and asylees comes out of the Refugee budget!

Use our search function to learn more about Khat.

*For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US.   To check out the numbers visit this post, one of our most widely read posts over the last few years.   In FY2010 which ended September 30th the US State Department resettled 4,884 Somalis (here) to towns near you.

Also, after being closed for nearly two years, the US State Department is on the verge of resuming the fraud-ridden family reunification program that admitted as many as 36,000 Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008.  See the latest on new regulations, here.  The State Department has probably re-opened the program by now.

Canada: Refugees have trouble fitting in and are thus drawn to gangs

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a story from Vancouver about the psychological problems related to trauma experienced by some immigrant and refugee youths.

From the Vancouver Sun:

He [Hieu Van Ngo, a PhD candidate with the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Social Work] said the numbers of refugee or immigrant youths who get involved in gangs isn’t known because Canada does not keep race-related crime statistics. And while Ngo said he suspects the majority of refugees don’t get into gangs, “We can’t be complacent by bringing refugees in and leaving them to struggle without supports.

“Are we setting up the school system so that it is responsive to students with complex needs? Across the country, a lot of times schools neglect to give ESL [English as a second language] support to young people,” he said.

Giving the example of the 14-yearold, Ngo said the boy didn’t do well in school because English wasn’t his first language and when he acted out, they expelled him.

Read on.

I have absolutely no doubt that this is a growing problem, not only in Canadian schools, but American ones as well.  In my view, first, there needs to be a vigorous debate about how many refugees a western country can handle financially and part of that decision must be made with these troubled youths in mind.

The taxpayers are going to have to decide if these young immigrants who were traumatized and in need of special education should get it—separate from the other students.  That will be very costly, but it’s pretty costly to society to hold back the educational progress of normal kids, and it’s pretty costly to cope with gang violence.

Unfortunately, refugee  and migration advocates won’t even let such a vigorous debate occur because they are too busy calling anyone who suggests a moratorium or a slowdown in the refugee flow to the First World a bunch of  evil hatemonger bigots, xenophobes and racists.

No immigration slowdown, or no special accommodations for troubled youths?  Then the next best thing is to get your kids out of public schools (as a starter)!

Is in-breeding causing a decline in IQ (and other maladies) among Muslims?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an interesting study and for posting it I’m sure to be called racist.  Islam permits and indeed encourages in-breeding and this author suggests it’s a growing problem in the West as Muslim immigrants bring the practice with them.  The cost to society is great.

The article made me think of the autism epidemic in Minneapolis among Somali children.  Interesting that two Islamic practices might be at fault and not those vaccines Muslims are avoiding—-lack of sunshine (Vitamin D) as pregnant women are completely covered in a far northern climate and in-breeding.

From Liveleak:

Massive inbreeding within the Muslim culture during the last 1.400 years may have done catastrophic damage to their gene pool. The consequences of intermarriage between first cousins often have serious impact on the intelligence, sanity, and health of their offspring, and on their surroundings.

Nicolai Sennels’ latest essay concerns the deleterious effects of cousin marriage within the Muslim world, and the impact the practice is having in Western countries with large numbers of Muslim immigrants.

Here is mention of a study from Denmark which is way ahead of the US in trying to cope with a large Muslim population.

The cognitive consequences of Muslim inbreeding might explain why non-Western immigrants are more than 300 percent more likely to fail the Danish army’s intelligence test than native Danes: “19.3% of non-Western immigrants are not able to pass the Danish army’s intelligence test. In comparison, only 4.7% of applicants with Danish background do not pass.” (TV 2 Nyhederne, 13/6 2007 “Immigrants flunk army test”). It probably also explains — at least partly — why two thirds of all immigrant school children with Arabic backgrounds are illiterate after ten years in the Danish school system: “Those who speak Arabic with their parents have an extreme tendency to lack reading ability — 64 percent are illiterate… No matter whether it concerns reading ability, mathematics, or science, the pattern is the same: the bilingual immigrants’ skills are exceedingly poor compared to their Danish classmates.” (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit [pdf], May 2007 “Ethnic students do not make Danish children worse”). The high expenses of special education for slow learners consumes one third of the budget for the Danish schools. “Immigrant children are clearly overrepresented on Copenhagen’s schools for retarded children and children with physical handicaps… 51 percent of the children in the three schools in Copenhagen for children with physical and mental handicaps have an immigrant background, and in one of the schools the figure is 70 percent… These amounts are significantly higher than the share of immigrant children in the municipality, which is 33 percent. The many handicapped children are clear evidence that there are many intermarried parents in the immigrant families.” (Jydske Vestkysten, 4/4 2009 “Tosprogede i overtal på handicapskoler”).

They have been in-breeding for 1400 years!   Ban first-cousin marriages.

There is no doubt that the widespread Muslim tradition of first-cousin marriages has harmed the gene pool among Muslims. Because Muslims’ religious beliefs prohibit marrying non-Muslims and thus prevent them from adding fresh genetic material to their population, the genetic damage done to their gene pool since their prophet allowed first cousin marriages 1,400 years ago are most likely massive. The overwhelming direct and indirect human and societal consequences have been explained above.

[….]

A legislative ban on first cousin marriages is a logical and compassionate imperative for the Muslim world, the EU, and our Western national governments.

Read the whole article.

More measles in Minnesota; baby brought it from Kenya

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update on the Minnesota measles story I posted the other day.  Number is increasing.

From Fairwarning:

Seven children in Minnesota have come down with measles since February in an outbreak that public health officials are blaming, in part, on parents’ fears about having their youngsters vaccinated for the disease.

The seven children with measles have ranged in age from 7 months to four years, and they include two Somali children who had not been given the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Officials said the vaccination rate has dropped in Minnesota’s Somali immigrant community, largely because of concerns about a possible link between the vaccine and autism.

One doctor estimates that as many as 70 percent of the Somalis he knows have not given their children the vaccine. “Every family will tell you that, ‘We’re not going to give our children the MMR. We’re afraid that they’re going to get autism,’” Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed told Minnesota Public Radio.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield said that before the current outbreak, there had been only six measles cases in Minnesota over the previous five years. Investigators have traced the outbreak to an infant who traveled to Kenya and returned home in the beginning of February.

Nationally, as the Associated Press reports, the most recent federal figures show only 140 reported cases of measles across the country in 2008. Worldwide, however, the disease strikes nearly 10 million people, and kills 200,000, annually.

I thought the refugee resettlement agencies were supposed to make sure Somali kids got vaccinated.