Iraqis bring costly mental problems to Illinois…

02/25/2011 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and the mean governor will make their problems worse with budget cuts!

Well, that is basically what this article is about—I’m just saying it more directly. These Lefties are masters at planting sob stories, one after the other, as propaganda for their political goals. As I said the other day, the radical agitators at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights are scared of being dumped off of the taxpayer gravy train.

So stories like this one pop up everywhere. From Medill Reports (you can read the whining stuff), but below is the pertinent takeaway message from the article:

While refugees in the past typically came from specific areas all at once, today those settling in Illinois come from 62 different countries according to the Illinois Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Services. This poses new challenges for those aiding refugees as there are many new language and cultural differences to take into account. Additionally, private social service agencies may find themselves financially pressed given deep cuts proposed for refugee assistance programs in Gov. Pat Quinn’s 2012 state budget.

I wonder to the Lefty organizers give this paragraph to a news outlet and then instruct the reporter to build a sob story around that paragraph?

FBI Director admits some Iraqi refugees may be connected to terror groups

02/11/2011 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It surprised some, but it’s no surprise here.

From Fox News:

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of refugees who sought shelter in the United States during the early years of the Iraq war are coming under fresh scrutiny from U.S. government security officials for possible links to Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq.

FBI Director Robert Mueller surprised some terrorism experts Thursday when, in response to a question about threats inside the United States, he said the FBI was closely monitoring Al Qaeda’s Iraq-based offshoot. The group has killed thousands in Iraq but had not been viewed as a threat inside the United States.

Mueller said the possible threat rested with “individuals who may have been resettled here in the United States that have had some association with Al Qaeda in Iraq.”

Lawmakers did not follow up on the remark, but a U.S. intelligence official confirmed that multiple agencies were working to determine whether the group posed a domestic threat. A second U.S. official said the focus was primarily on Iraqis who arrived in the early years of the war. Security screening was not as rigorous then as it became in 2007, when the U.S. significantly increased the pace of resettlement.

Unfortunately, sometimes I think the only way the refugee program will come into the national spotlight is when there is some horrible terror attack and we find its perpetrated by some legal immigrant. The mainstream media will gasp and wonder how it escaped them. It escapes them because they are too busy writing puff piece stories about refugees seeing their first snow!

Not really related unless you have been following the kerfuffle surrounding the Conservative Political Action Confab going on in DC as I write this—-about conservative stalwarts and CPAC board members David Keene, Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan being soft on the Muslim Brotherhood (best summary of that controversy is here by Don Feder), but I just came across this post I wrote in 2007 about Keene pushing the Kennedy bill to bring more Iraqis to the US.

Sweden: Iraqi refugee dilemma exposed through Wikileaks

01/23/2011 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Wikileaks documents are bringing information to the fore on the worldwide refugee situation (I bet there is so much we would love to see) and one such communique gives us some background on the present situation in Sweden where Sweden is deporting Iraqis in the midst of public protests.

This is from Monsters and Critics: (emphasis mine):

Stockholm – Two Swedish cabinet members raised concerns over the flow of refugees from Iraq in 2007 during talks with US officials, a Swedish daily said Friday, citing leaked US diplomatic cables.

While Sweden was prepared to receive asylum seekers there was need for ‘a return agreement’ with Iraq for refugees whose applications were rejected the ministers said, according to US diplomatic cables leaked by whistle-blower site WikiLeaks and quoted by the daily Svenska Dagbladet.

During a September 2007 visit to Iraq, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Tobias Billstrom, minister for migration and asylum policy, met with Iraqi officials and US embassy officials in Baghdad.

According to the US cable, Bildt and Billstrom mentioned concerns that many arrivals after 2003 were ‘more difficult to assimilate.’

Contributing factors were that the asylum seekers were destitute, and often had poor education or lacked language or professional skills. [Since when did anyone consider those factors in refugee resettlement or in granting asylum!—ed]

Iraq and Sweden in early 2008 agreed on a repatriation agreement stipulating that Iraqis whose applications were rejected should voluntarily be sent back to Iraq. Baghdad would guarantee their security.

Sweden in 2007 expected some 20,000 asylum seekers from Iraq and about three in four applications were likely to be approved, Bildt said according to the US cable.

In 2007 there were some 100,000 Iraqis in Sweden, a country of 9 million.

So Swedish immigration officials thought they had an understanding that the new Iraqi government would protect anyone Sweden rejected. But, so much for agreements, when pro-migration political activists in Sweden demonstrate against every departing planeload.

From AFP:

STOCKHOLM – Swedish authorities detained about 70 people while breaking up a protest against the deportation of Iraqis near the southwestern city of Gothenburg, police said Tuesday.

The demonstrators had started protesting at the weekend, notably by blocking the entrance to the Swedish Migration Board offices in the Gothenburg suburb Kaallered with parked cars.

“Some 70 people were arrested overnight (Monday) for disturbing the peace and three cars that were obstructing traffic were moved,” the Gothenburg police said in a statement, adding that all those arrested were released at 9:40 am (0840 GMT) after questioning.

A public hearing on the deportation of Iraqis was to be held at the building on Tuesday as many non-governmental organisations called for a halt to expulsions.

Amnesty International has called on Swedish Immigration Minister Tobias Billstroem to “stop all forced expulsions back to Iraq.”

I would really like to see the facts on who is being deported and would protest myself if they are sending Christians back to face the Muslim lions.

Readers, if you are interested in more information on Iraqi refugees, we have posted 484 posts on the subject since 2007. Here is a link to our archive on the subject. We have also written a lot about “welcoming” welfare-state Sweden. Use our search function for Sweden for more. See especially ‘Sweden joins the club’ about a terrorist attack in Sweden perpetrated by a former refugee.

Iraqi Christians still running for their lives from “extremists”

12/26/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

More on the politically correct dance around who the extremists are. From The National:

Iraqi Christians have suffered at the hands of extremist [Muslim–ed] groups that have forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes since 2003.

Meanwhile, various Christian and Jewish groups have joined to urge more protection for Christians in Iraq and to speed up their resettlement to the US (hat tip: Judy). From National Review OnLine:

Dr. Carl Moeller, CEO and president of the evangelical Open Doors USA, urged Congress to pass House Resolution 1725, a measure introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.) last month that calls on the U.S. government to work with the Iraqi government to strengthen its security plan for religious minorities and accelerate the resettlement applications of Iraqi refugees. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace also supports the measure.

I wonder do Catholics across America know that the USCCB and Catholic Charities are bringing Iraqi Muslims to your towns and cities while Christians suffer in the Middle East? Wouldn’t you think they might stand on principle and say they will protect the Christians first and tell the money changers in Congress and the State Department to take their money and (you know what).

Do Catholic leaders truly believe that just by being in America these ancient animosities won’t continue in American cities where Muslims and Christians are resettled together?

Iraqi refugees in America have shattered expectations

11/29/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m beginning to think there is some boilerplate outline for stories on Iraqi refugees in America being passed around by mainstream media reporters. Although we haven’t had as many such stories lately, here is one that was published in the Washington Post on the day before Thanksgiving (probably to make you feel bad before the holiday). The stories are all the same—shattered expectations.

The articles about Iraqis (actually most refugee stories) begin with a few opening paragraphs, as this one does, about an Iraqi family with a very sad story to tell.

Then come a few facts like these:

Like 3 million or more Iraqis in recent years, she [Mrs. Jafer of the opening paragraphs–ed] and her three children fled across the border. They went first to Jordan and then to the United States, where the number of Iraqi refugees has swelled dramatically in the past three years after the Bush administration was criticized for accepting only a trickle.

Since 2007, more than 54,000 Iraqi refugees have been admitted to the United States, and an additional 6,651 Iraqis and their families have received “special immigrant visas” for people who have worked for the U.S. government and U.S.-affiliated agencies.

Then comes the “but.”

About 1,000 Iraqis have been resettled in Northern Virginia. But some now say they would hesitate before advising others to follow.

“We came here looking for a better life,” said Jafer, who arrived in 2008. “But . . .”

[….]

For refugees from anywhere, America comes with a lot of “buts” – the harsh realization that life here is not the Shangri-La they imagined, the discovery that it can be costly and lonely.

Then the shocked-by-reality segment.

“We had heard so much about America,” she said. “We thought that the life would be easy, easy, easy. But when we came here and faced the reality, we were shocked.”

The Washington Post does not disappoint, the story is just like dozens ( maybe a hundred!) we have written before. All the elements are here:

* Iraqis are highly educated, thus more disappointed than other refugees in America.

* Iraqis had wonderful lives in Iraq before the US came and took out Saddam.

* USA is bad.

* There are no jobs here other than menial work.

* Iraqis feel they are owed more ‘stuff’ than other refugees.

* They are tempted to go back to Iraq or the Middle East.

* Some did go back.

* USA is bad.

* Refugee agencies make excuses.

* Iraqis here are getting financial help from family in Iraq.

* They go to food banks and get welfare.