Category: Iraqi refugees

Two Iraqis, most likely refugees, have been arrested on terrorism charges in Kentucky

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 4th:  KY Senator Rand Paul calls for hearings, here.

Update June 2nd:  Why take any Iraqis at all? here.

Update:  Louisville Courier-Journal is reporting they are refugees, here, thanks to a reader for sending it!   Here is my post on the Courier-Journal investigation.   More questions being asked, here.

Here is the story yesterday from AP* (thanks to several readers who spotted it):

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) – Two Iraqis living in Kentucky have been arrested on charges that they tried to send sniper rifles, stinger missiles and money to Al-Qaida operatives in their home country, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.

Thirty-year-old Alwan and 23-year-old Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, who both have lived in Bowling Green since 2009, were charged in a 23-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury Thursday. Neither is charged with plotting attacks within the United States, and authorities say their weapons and money didn’t make it to Iraq because of a tightly controlled undercover investigation.

Alwan is charged with conspiracy to kill a United States national, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Hammadi is charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists and knowingly transferring, possession or exporting a device designed or intended to launch or guide a rocket or missile.

The FBI said Alwan told an informant that he took part in insurgent attacks on U.S. troops and had “f–ked up” Hummers and targeted Bradley fighting vehicles.

The indictment and criminal complaints were unsealed Tuesday after the pair made their initial appearances in federal court in Louisville. Both men entered pleas of not guilty and were remanded to federal custody.

Read it all.

And, here is the press release from the US Department of Justice which opens with the following paragraph—they weren’t just planning they had allegedly been working to harm our troops in Iraq before coming to the US!

WASHINGTON — An Iraqi citizen who allegedly carried out numerous Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and another Iraqi national alleged to have participated in the insurgency in Iraq have been arrested and indicted on federal terrorism charges in the Western District of Kentucky.

These were Iraqi insurgents who got into the US!  So much for the security checks for refugees!

One of the things I find so interesting about this story and many others like it where an immigrant is arrested on terrorism charges, reporters (indeed even the Justice Department doesn’t mention it) never tell us through which LEGAL immigration program the alleged terrorist entered the US.  Was he a refugee, an asylum seeker, a family reunification case, on a student visa, an E-2 treaty investor, or a diversity visa lottery winner, and the list goes on.

The average American reader, who knows little about how someone gets here legally— although you hear all the time the mindless words:  “if he/she came here legally then that is o.k!”—isn’t ever informed about which program the terror-suspect used to get in.  Or, indeed, if he came across the border illegally, which is still a possibility in this case.

Just last week I reported that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops was whining about the slow flow of refugees to the US and one of the main reasons for the slowdown is increased security checks.   I linked a piece by an immigration lawyer, Jason Dzubow, who also complained about increased security measures, here.

A couple of days ago when I told you about Attorney General Holder visiting Somalis in Minneapolis, I speculated also that something was up.  I think Homeland Security knows they are sitting on a powder keg—legal immigrants or their offspring (refugees even!) may indeed be the greatest threat from so-called “home grown” terror planning.

Coincidentally, the pro-Open Borders Migration Policy Institute released a report just last week complaining also about how stepped up security measures were slowing the arrival of refugees to the US.  Obama’s goal for this year was 80,000 refugees and possibly only 60,000 will get in.   The report (which I haven’t mentioned because I haven’t had a chance to read it carefully) does address the Iraqi refugee security clearance checks.  In a confusing section (on page 5) author Donald Kerwin (The Faltering US Refugee Protection System) reports that first Iraqis do have to get clearance through a SAO (Security Advisory Opinion), but then says they don’t have to have that clearance before they get a refugee interview.

Iraqi refugees do not have to receive SAO clearance prior to the USCIS refugee interview; all others subject to SAO procedures must be precleared.

Earlier Kerwin made this comment:

SAO delays have been an issue of particular concern to stakeholders in the refugee resettlement process.

Translated for readers this means:  Refugee resettlement contractors (like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops) are ticked off that if security clearances become more burdensome, the flow of refugees will slow and they won’t get their taxpayer funding which is calculated on a per head resettled basis and  consequently they might have to let staff go and they will have less money for political activism.

Only their resettlement contractor (or the State Department) knows for sure!

Which leads me to the fact that Bowling Green is a “preferred community” for refugee resettlement (resettlement contractors get extra federal goodies for bringing refugees there).  That is our tip-off that possibly the two accused Iraqis were refugees resettled in Bowling Green by one of the federal refugee contractors, maybe even by USCRI of the revolving door (USCRI’s  former VP is now head of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement!).   There was much controversy about refugees in Bowling Green (another of those meatpacking towns the State Department likes to help out), here in 2009.

By the way, Iraqis presently top the list of the number of refugees we bring to the US.  In 2010, here, we resettled over 18,000 Iraqis.

For new readers, this is our 492nd post on Iraqi refugees, go here to our archives to learn more!

* LOL!  Where is Matthew Lee, the AP reporter who like clockwork at the end of the Bush Administration whined every month that we weren’t bringing Iraqis to the US fast enough.  Search ‘Matthew Lee’ here at RRW for amusement.

US Law Schools getting into the act and helping Iraqis get to the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

She got an idea, found a friend to go to Jordan with her and now runs a new legal aid business helping Iraqis convince the US State Department and Homeland Security that Iraqi clients need to get to the US.

From Connecticut Law Tribune:

It started at Yale Law School

So then Heller and a Yale Law School classmate, Jonathan Finer, decided the next semester to start the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project to help Iraqi citizens on the run gain official refugee status either in America or in another country.

They were onto something.

IRAP is the only such project in America devoted to helping refugee Iraqi’s settle elsewhere, and roughly 100 Yale law students volunteered that first year.

Now there are ten Law Schools involved

Heller never imagined how fast the project would grow. Already 10 other law schools, including New York University, University of California-Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania, have started taking on cases. Two more law schools will start up in the fall.

At Yale, students can participate in the project through a seminar. During the academic year, Heller commutes to New Haven from New York City once a week to teach alongside clinical professor Michael Wishnie.

Through fellowship and grant funds, Heller opened a main office for IRAP last year at the Urban Justice Center in New York City. She hopes additional funds would allow her to hire a full-time staff attorney in addition to herself.

Heller estimates volunteer supervising attorneys and students have donated $2.4 million worth of legal help. Project volunteers help prepare visa applications, submit appeals, and try to successfully negotiate the resettlement process, an intimidating process for the Iraqi’s.

Helping them prove their persecution claim

The father, who had been kidnapped and tortured, fled Iraq and found a temporary haven in Jordan. But the family had trouble proving it had been persecuted, and its initial application for U.S. refugee status was denied.

Homeland Security relented when the daughter got sick

But the daughter had health problems, and that turned into a silver lining. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security relented after the girl had a series of epileptic seizures. Once the family won their appeal, IRAP got the girl free medical treatment with a local neurologist.

Makes me wonder how all this works with the International Organization for Migration which has a federal contract to do this same work in Jordan?

Iraqi refugees clash with police in Sweden

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They were protesting the deportation of fellow Iraqis, but it is not clear if these are Christians or Muslims (or both) being returned.

From Assafirpress:

Gothenburg, Sweden, INN – A number of Iraqi asylum seekers clashed with police forces at the Swedish Immigration Board protesting planned deportation of Iraqi refugees back to Baghdad, informed sources said Wednesday. Around 80 refugees gathered at the facility and tried to prevent police from taking 25-30 Iraqi refugees to Gothenburg’s Landvetter airport to fly them back to Baghdad. Protestors were dispersed by police who used batons and sprinkled pepper spray which causes no harm to human health to keep the protesters away from a bus which carrying to the airport the refugees who failed to get asylum permits., the sources said. Earlier this year, 20 asylum seekers were deported back to Iraq from Stockholm and another six from Denmark despite heated protests against their expulsion by human rights organizations including the UN Higher Commission for Refugees ( UNHCR), a number of the asylum seekers who were sent back belong to religious and ethnic groups targeted by violence in Iraq. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have fled the war in their country to resettle in Sweden, with official statistics showing 117,900 people born in Iraq lived in the Scandinavian country in 2009, up from 49,400 in 2000.

Here is one of several previous posts we have written on Sweden returning Christians to Iraq.

Apartment building fire displaces Iraqi families in Worcester, MA

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A fire a month ago has resulted in a whole group of Iraqi refugees living in a motel.  The bill is being paid for by the state of Massachusetts.

From the Telegram:

When the early morning fire hit their apartment building on Feb. 22, the first thing the refugees attempted to save — after themselves — was their documents. They waited years to receive refugee status, and were not about to lose more ground to red tape.

While the refugees escaped without physical injuries, they still endure psychological damage.

Mr. Jabar’s daughter has been experiencing emotional stress since the fire.

“She re-experiences the events every day. When she hears a voice or a loud noise, she thinks it is a fire alarm,” said Mr. Jabar, whose family lived in Syria for four years while they waited for their refugee status to be approved.

Because of the fire, he said his daughters felt safer in Syria.

Their resettlement agency and the apartment building owner paid the hotel tab for a few days, now the taxpayers of Massachusetts are footing the bill.

The next day, the refugees were transferred to the Quality Inn located at 50 Oriol Drive. The hotel costs were paid for by the property manager Bill Holmlund and Lutheran Social Services.

A week later, their case was transferred to the state Department of Transitional Assistance, because almost all of the families involved had children [one woman without children was sent to a homeless shelter]. The refugees remained in the hotel, but the bills began being paid by the state.

My questions are many.  How did the fire start, I see nothing in this story about a report from the fire marshall?   Didn’t the property owner have insurance to take care of tenants in such a situation?  What is the financial relationship between Lutheran Social Services and Bill Holmlund or the unnamed property owner?  Since Lutheran Social Services (with funding from the US State Department) placed the refugees in this building, why is it not LSS’s responsibility to now take care of those refugees’ needs? Why has it become the Massachusetts taxpayers problem? Is this one more story about refugees placed in unsafe housing?  And, I could go on and on and on….

What’s driving Obama and the radical Left to increase immigration?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They are transforming America—more needy people=a greater demand for stuff (goodies from you, the taxpayer). Immigrants will then reliably vote for Democrats who promise stuff.

I’m asked frequently, why don’t they (the open borders gang) see that America can’t afford all those immigrant workers and social services, it makes no logical sense to bring so many people who end up suffering, they say.    It is perfectly logical and it is not about helping the world’s downtrodden, it is all about transforming America as Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies clearly tells us in an opinion piece yesterday, here.  (Emphasis mine)  Hat tip: Brad.

In 2008, President Obama described his goal as “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” This is as true for immigration as it is for health care and other issues.

President Obama’s support for what advocates call “comprehensive immigration reform” — amnesty, loose enforcement and increased legal immigration — which he reiterated in his State of the Union address, is not just another item on a laundry list.

In the same way that critics of Obamacare warn that it will lead to irreversible changes in the nature of American politics, the president’s immigration goals — effectively, open borders — would alter the political system itself, leading to inexorable growth in government and consequent constriction of personal liberties.

In short, immigration is the health of the state.

Leftists have been quite open about the politically transformative effects of immigration. Eliseo Medina, vice president of the Service Employees International Union and an honorary chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America, said immigration “will create a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has publicly made the same point, as has Ruy Teixeira, author of “The Emerging Democratic Majority.”

Krikorian says there are two parts to the strategy:

First, mass immigration — both legal and illegal — serves to import voters who will back statist, big-government politicians and policies. But more deeply and permanently, mass immigration changes American society in ways that make statist solutions more attractive to voters in general, expanding the transformative effect beyond merely immigrant voters to the electorate at large. [Sympathetic Americans look around, see immigrant poverty, and then too demand that government solve it—ed]

Immigrant groups, almost by definition, will lean Democrat.

[…..]

What’s more, immigrants are disproportionately poor, reliant on government services, and “minorities,” and thus it’s simply in their interest to vote for the party of welfare and affirmative action. Calls to cut taxes and shrink government just aren’t relevant to people who don’t pay a lot of taxes and who are dependent on government largesse.

But the electoral preferences of immigrant voters are only part of the story. Perhaps even more important is the fact that immigration — both legal and illegal — creates a political, social and economic environment more favorable to the statist Left.

Krikorian’s concluding message to conservatives:

On immigration, the president and his allies are playing the long game. The Left’s current difficulties will prove merely temporary if mass immigration keeps working its transformative effects.

The necessary response from the Right is clear: Reach out respectfully to legal immigrants already here, but work tirelessly for comprehensive enforcement of immigration laws and reductions in future levels of legal immigration.

Every line in Krikorian’s piece is insightful. Read it all here.

What is this all about?

About ten days ago the Palm Beach Post published an article about the US State Department (through their federal contractors) resettling Muslim Iraqis to Palm Beach County, Florida when there are few jobs, no low-cost housing, and virtually no other Iraqis.  It’s my opinion that this is a twofer—import poverty to wealthy Palm Beach County, show the suffering Iraqis with stories like this one, and THEN SALT MUSLIMS INTO COMMUNITIES WHERE FEW LIKELY EXISTED.

Endnote: Smart Harvard-educated Republicans like Grover Norquist know this is happening—Democrat voter rolls increase with the increased importation of poverty and yet he and other supposed conservatives continue to promote open borders.  I don’t get it.  Kinda makes you wonder which side he is on!