Amazing! Not that “refugees” are scouting which states have more “robust” social services for them, but that there is a news article like this one that basically makes it sound perfectly normal to do so. Although, one definite plus for the article is that the reporter refers to Lutheran Social Services as having been “contracted” to resettle refugees. Glad to see the mainstream media noting that these church groups are federal contractors! That is a step in the right direction and not something we would have seen mentioned five years ago!
Fargo (ND)-Moorhead (MN) often linked as if they were one city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo%E2%80%93Moorhead
And, would someone on the Open Borders side of this debate please explain what “vibrant diversity” is and how it benefits American citizens besides some mumbo jumbo about how we can appreciate the world better by having aliens living next door.
MOORHEAD, Minn. — Husni Hassan and his family left the unrest of Iraq and moved to Texas two years ago. There, he found peace, but something was missing.
“It was very hard to find somebody from your culture who speaks your language,” said the 33-year-old from the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Hassan wanted his young children to grow up around other Kurdish people and enjoy the benefits of a close-knit community. So not long ago, when he learned of the roughly 1,100 Kurds living in Moorhead, he and his family resettled here and became part of the city’s small collection of refugees. [O.K.so what about the America community they have inserted themselves into—are Americans allowed to have close-knit American communities?—ed]
Like Hassan, many of the refugees in Moorhead lived somewhere else in the U.S. before migrating here. A low number come straight to Moorhead, often to be close to relatives or friends.
In the past few years, just 32 newly arrived refugees, all from Iraq, have landed in Moorhead. Compare that with Fargo, where close to 1,000 have settled during the same time, according to data from Lutheran Social Services, a nonprofit group contracted by the government to aid refugees.
One explanation for the drastic difference is that LSS can provide five years of services to refugees in Fargo. But in Moorhead, those services end after 90 days. [I don’t know what this five years is in reference to—ed]
[***Update*** A reader asked me a very logical question—if, as we are repeatedly told, refugees are self-sufficient in an incredibly short time, why do they need “services” for five years? Good question!—ed]
“Then they’re kind of on their own,” said Darci Ashe, an LSS spokeswoman.
In Moorhead and Fargo, refugees are eligible for federal cash assistance for eight months after they arrive in the U.S. Though those payments vary – and are somewhat higher for a single person in North Dakota – Minnesota generally has more robust benefit programs.
But services, such as a caseworker to help a refugee who doesn’t speak English make a doctor’s appointment or enroll a child in school, are available longer in Fargo than Moorhead because of basic differences in how the two states’ systems of helping refugees are designed.
This article is well-worth reading. It discusses Wilson-Fish as ND is a W-F state (see our FAQ on W-F herejust a few days ago) and it tells us that the extent of medical care/medicaid for refugees is a deciding factor when refugees scout out new places to migrate.
Despite the five years of services LSS can offer refugees in Fargo, Newzad Brifki, a leader in the Kurdish community, said he believes that in the long run, Minnesota provides refugees with more support than North Dakota.
No doubt Brifki would like more refugees to resettle in Moorhead and he must be wishing his new organization (Kurdish Community of America) could get the contract to bring them there!
Brifki said he thinks Moorhead would gain much by having more refugees.
“I know Fargo is benefiting a lot from these newcomers,” he said.
“Having a diverse city is just – it’s vibrant.”
By the way, both North Dakota(hatchet-man and machete-man in the same month!) and Minnesota have had their share of diverse immigrant crime cases—but I guess he doesn’t mean that sort of diversity!
Update June 1: More negative news—refugee charged with ripping off resettlement contractor and a whole lot more, here.
Kentucky isn’t the largest of the refugee resettlement states but falls within the top 20 for the number of refugees it receives. In a recent 5 year period—2006-2011—Kentucky resettled 7,883 refugees making it the 17th largest resettlement state, of course nowhere near the top two: California (46,218) and Texas (34,069) for the same time period.
From now to eternity, the poster boys for refugee resettlement in Kentucky will be convicted Iraqi refugee terrorists!
Kentucky (well, not the state itself, but the non-profits) resettled 1,368 refugees in 2011 which moved them to 16th place for that year. We know this from the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Annual Report to Congress for 2011. The ORR is two years behind in supplying Congress with legally required reports for 2012 and 2013 which of course makes it hard for Congress (they don’t seem to care) and for you to see what is going on in your state.
In 2012, Kentucky got 1,452 refugees. Go hereto see where they came from.
Kentucky is a Wilson-Fish state. We told you about that herein a FAQ on W-F.
As a Wilson-Fish state, the federal government (the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS) has chosen, in this case, Catholic Charities to administer the program for the state.
That means that state resources are being used to care for refugees, to educate the kids, to provide housing and healthcare, etc. with NO OVERSIGHT or no control from elected officials in Kentucky!
Catholic Charities is the Kentucky Office for Refugees. According to a recent Form 990 (2011, most recent available at Guidestar) the ‘Kentucky’ office received $13.1 million in revenue that year and $11.3 million came from you, the taxpayer, in the form of Government grants. About 86% of their funding comes from taxpayer dollars.
To learn more than you ever wanted to know about Kentucky’s program go here(Kentucky Wilson-Fish Policy and Procedures Manual).
But, Catholic Charities isn’t alone in bringing refugees to Kentucky, according to the ‘Manual,’ five of nine major refugee contractors operate in Kentucky. They like to call themselves “Voluntary Agencies,” VOLAGs for short. They are anything but! Most of them receive as much as 90+ % of their funding from government sources, they are paid by the head to resettle refugees and thus have no incentive to slow the flow to cities and towns they have deemed “preferred.”
In Kentucky right now the “preferred resettlement sites” are Louisville, Lexington and Owensboro. Bowling Green used to be “preferred” but has had too many problems with refugee overload, crime and even terrorism so the feds have likely stopped highlighting it as a fabulous place to send refugees at the moment (other than family reunification cases that is).
The nine contractors that monopolize the program, along with their hundreds of subcontractors, have America carved up and turf wars are not uncommon!
But, I had to laugh when I saw the list of contractors operating in Kentucky, heck! five of the nine are there and I bet competing and squabbling among themselves. The five helping supply Kentucky industries with cheap labor (chicken plants perhaps?) are: Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (helping build Kentucky’s Muslim population?), the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (they all bring Muslims, not just HIAS!).
Before we get too far into the weeds of this thing, let me tell you about some news involving Kentucky’s claim to fame in the refugee resettlement world.
This is so ironic! Our first mention of Kentucky here at RRW was in 2007when then Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey (Bush appointment) went to Louisville and said we need to bring refugees to America to keep them from becoming terrorists! I think you know where this is going!
Then in 2008, we had the hot news from Bowling Greenthat a Bosnian refugee teen was shot in the head by a homeowner who was awakened by the kid breaking in. Thankfully, the homeowner was not prosecuted having every right to protect himself and his property.
In 2009 we learned from a reader who actually went to meet with the Burmese refugees of Bowling Green in their slum apartments about the deplorable conditions in which the International Center there (a subcontractor of USCRI) had placed scores of Burmese families. We wrote many posts on the controversy at the time and those can be found by going to our Bowling Green archive. See also ‘Friends of Refugees’on the International Center’s mismanagement of refugees there.
The most stunning refugee news to hit Kentucky and the Nation in 2011 was the arrest of two Iraqi refugees on terrorism charges. They have since been found guilty and are in prison. Think about it, US taxpayers paid an enormous sum to bring them here and now we get to care for them for life behind bars. We wrote extensively on the news as it developed, click hereto see all of our mentions of the KY Iraqi refugee terrorists.
So what do you think Ellen Sauerbrey would say now when it appears we did bring Iraqi refugees to America and they still wanted to be terrorists!
Senator Rand Paul
Initially we were surprised and grateful that Senator Rand Paul took an interest in the refugee program that had brought those Iraqis to his home town of Bowling Green. The Senator spoke up several times demanding to know why we were bringing Iraqis and other refugees to America. Here (in June of last year) he was roundly criticized for saying (correctly!): ‘we bring’em in and sign them up for welfare.‘
In the nearly seven years we have written about refugees, he is one of only a handful of Senators or Members of Congress to question the program, but unfortunately we haven’t seen much from him on the subject lately. Gee, I wonder why?
Congolese human trafficker?
And, as we run out of steam on Kentucky, we can’t forget the news last month about accusations that a Congolese refugee could be charged in a human-trafficking case. Sifa Ndusha’s alleged victim has filed a lawsuit claiming that she was trafficked by Ndusaha. This is happening in Lexington (a preferred community!). Read all about it here.
A recommendation to readers in Kentucky and every other state:
If you are troubled by what you see with this federal program, a program we obviously believe has gone completely off track by becoming a money-making scheme for the religious right on the backs of US taxpayers when we have our own poor people in need of “services” and is bringing large numbers of culturally incompatible people to targeted cities, please take the initiative and find out what is going on in your city or in your state.
And, by he way, when you begin following the activities of your local resettlement contractors, they aren’t just using your money for the “refugees,” they also use it for “advocacy” for political issues locally and nationally. They are all advocating for the Obama amnesty plan. So do your sleuthing and then…..
….. PUBLISH YOUR FINDINGS so that others may learn from you because the mainstream media is either too lazy or in the tank for the program. Take some lessons from the political Left and begin agitating your elected officials starting on the city and state level to do something about it. Some aspects of this program are, we suspect, being administered illegally, so be sure to let your local elected officials know that and perhaps you will find a few of them with some guts willing to fight to protect Americans first. You might even get really lucky and find some pro bono lawyer willing to take them on.
Don’t let the contractors trap you in their humanitarian do-gooder mumbo jumbo pitch either—remember this is a business they are in and the only difference is that their product is moving immigrants around and finding them “services” with money from you! They are also busy turning red states blue.
Let your representatives in Washington know too what you have learned, but don’t hold your breath that your solution rests in DC. We have visited Congressional aids there who tell us they are too scared to take this one on. Why? Fear of being called racists? Fear of the lobbying power of entities like the Catholic and Lutheran Churches? Fear of the loss of campaign donations from big corporations looking for cheap legal labor? Maybe all three?
Every month the Refugee Processing Center reports on the number of refugees admitted to the US in the previous months of a given fiscal year. Go here for the stats as of April 30th, 2014 (the fiscal year 2014 began October 1, 2013).
That testimony you are preparing for fiscal year 2015 is for refugees who will begin arriving this October first.
Below are the refugees numbering over 1,000 in this fiscal year (so far). The total number over the previous seven months is 37,595, here. The contractors and the Obama State Dept. are shooting for 70,000 by September 30th.
Iraq: 10,299
Burma: 8,207
Bhutan (really Nepal): 5,133
Somalia: 4,508 (this number puts us on target for a banner year for Somalis)
Cuba: 2,447 (yes, we are still bringing in Cubans)
Iran: 1,582
Dem. Rep. Congo: 1,558
Note to Wyoming: You will not just be getting Congolese refugees, but most likely will be taking a lot of Iraqis, Burmese, Bhutanese and Somalis—the ones who are overloaded (jobless and receiving social services) in other “welcoming” states.
Buffalo, NY has become a grand experiment in multiculturalism as resettlement agencies pour refugees into the area and other NGOs make the area a magnet for illegal aliens and phoney asylum seekers. See this 2012 post about the changing demographics of Buffalo—-Christians and Jews moving out, Muslims moving in.
For more on Buffalo immigrant crimes see our entire Buffalo archive here. When immigrants supposedly rebuild decaying cities, crime abounds.
Don’t miss this 2013 post about the US State Department sending an official delegation to Buffalo late last year — problems developing? Gee, I wonder if the State Department will help foot the bill for court expenses that the local welcoming Erie County taxpayers will have with this trial. Heck, they will need a Spanish interpreter and an Iraqi court interpreter!
Thanks to several readers for sending links on the latest murder case involving a refugee, this time as the victim—‘pungentpeppers’ and Creeping Sharia especially.
Mourners leave the Masjid Al-Eman Mosque on Connecticut Street after the funeral of 13-year-old Ameer Al Shammari, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. (Derek Gee/Buffalo News)
A 13-year-old Black Rock boy has confessed to killing Ameer Al Shammari, also 13, law enforcement officials say.
The boy, identified by authorities as Jean Sanchez, was arrested at about 3:30 a.m. today after homicide investigators developed leads that helped them to identify the suspect.
Sanchez has been charged as an adult with second-degree murder, an official told The Buffalo News.
[….]
Neighbors and family friends believe the killing was tied to Ameer’s attempt to retrieve an iPhone that was stolen from him Friday. Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said today during a news conference that the stolen phone may figure into the killing.
[….]
Ameer’s funeral was held this morning in the Masjid al-Eiman & Islamic Center at 444 Connecticut St. The casket was brought into the mosque at about 9:45 a.m.
[….]
After the funeral, Ali Kadhum, executive director of the newly formed Iraqi American Society, described the family as shattered by their son’s death.
For more details on Sanchez and how the police think the murder happened go here, also at Buffalo News.
The murdered boy had been in the US for 18 months. There are questions about whether a gang might have been involved in his beating death.
By the way, Iraqis represent the largest ethnic refugee group we admitted to the US in fiscal year 2013—just short of 20,000 (click here). I’m pretty sure we are approaching the 100,000 number for Iraqis invited to America (no time to dig out the numbers this morning).
The courtroom erupted in chaos when the guilty verdict was read in a San Diego courtroom yesterday.
Iraqi refugee wants help from “overseas” to get him out of American prison. http://www.njnewsday.com/national/25437-iraqi-kassim-alhimidi-found-guilty-of-killing-wife-and-making-it-look-like-hate-crime.html
Kassim Al-Himidi was found guilty in the bludgeoning death of his wife who had asked for a divorce (she didn’t die right away, but lingered for three days).
Besides shouting that he was innocent, Al-Himidi demanded that someone get him “international help” to pursue the hate crime allegation and to get him someone “overseas” to get him out of jail.
Update April 24th: Son speaks out about his own outburst in courtroom, here.
A broken family’s screams erupted in a San Diego courtroom after a guilty verdict was announced in the trial of an Iraqi immigrant who killed his wife.
As the defendant cried out in Arabic “not guilty,” his mother-in-law flailed her arms, screaming “you killed my daughter,” while his two teenage sons chose opposing sides.
Jurors found Kassim Al-Himidi, 49, guilty in the death of his wife Shaima Alawadi — a bloody, brutal beating once considered a hate crime that was, in the end, an act of domestic violence.
I guess these Iraqi’s haven’t quite assimilated (or is it integrated?) enough to accept that they live in America and their crimes are judged in an American justice system.
“This is bulls—!” This is f—ing bulls—!” the son yelled. “My dad is innocent. He was tried unfairly.”
Al-Himidi smirked, crossed his arms, shook his head, wagged his finger and began praying as the jury was polled one by one. At one point, he put his head on the table in front of him. Then, he too began yelling.
According to a translator, Al-Himidi screamed out in Arabic, “God knows I’m not the killer. I’m not the killer! I’m innocent. Not guilty.”
As deputies rushed to place handcuffs on Al-Himidi, he continued to yell, telling his family to seek international help on this case and have investigators look at it as a hate crime. He said to get him help from overseas to get him out of jail, the translator said.
By the way, the “hate crime” hoax had frightened Muslims in the El Cajon area into thinking there was a raving Islamophobe on the loose killing Muslims in their kitchens. CAIR and the Southern Poverty Law Center were right in the forefront helping fan the flames.
Brenda Walkertells us about the NY Times “hate crime” coverage which I didn’t know about. Gee, do you think the NYT will have an update story now?
By the way, note to “welcoming” San Diego: California and county taxpayers had to foot the bill for this trial (translator alone probably cost a bundle!), why not submit the bill to the US State Department for repayment!
I’m beginning to lose track of how many major criminal trials involving refugees that we have posted in recent months—the Iraqis are especially busy in court.
Every month the
