Storm Lake, Iowa: Filling America's "dead spots" with diversity!

11/22/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Storm Lake population 10,600 in 2010.
Looks like we have found another of the 47 new resettlement sites we learned that the US State Department has identified to place some of Obama’s 110,000 refugees for FY2017. Of course, as we just said for Rutland, VT, some locations are on hold as the contractors try to figure out how far out on the limb (financially) they wish to climb.
Since refugee contractors get most of their federal money on a per head basis, any slowdown in resettlement after Trump is inaugurated cuts in to their budgets.

storm-lake-tyson-plant — Surprise (not)! Tyson Foods has a pork processing plant at Storm Lake and the first refugee from Thailand (Burmese?) went to work there. Wikipedia tells us there is a turkey processing plant there too. More refugee labor on the way? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Lake,_Iowa

This is the second story we have seen lately about Catholic resettlement agencies spreading out their responsibilities to smaller organizations (or churches) presumably to make resettlement cheaper for themselves. We told you about Hudson, Wisconsin here last week.
The problem of transparency is something I will be pushing the Trump Administration on as soon as we know who will be Secretary of State. It is maddening that here we are nearly 2 months in to FY17 and we have only identified some of the 47 new sites*** we heard the DOS has chosen. Citizens have a right to know when their towns have been selected for refugee placement.

Once again from a local paper, we learn (inadvertently) some nuggets that should help all of us.
From the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune last week:

The Bridge of Storm Lake’s mission has grown in an unexpected direction. The neighborhood ministry has become a refugee resettlement agency along with its other programs.

The first two refugees from Thailand have been successfully settled in Storm Lake, and a mother and small child will be arriving before the end of the year, freed from the desperate conditions of refugee camps.

The role was not one the program expected to play.

Catholic Charities, one of the national agencies charged with resettling refugees accepted to enter the United States, had reached out to The Bridge to see if could help.

There are placement agencies in larger cities like Omaha and Minneapolis, but Storm Lake sits in a “dead spot” in the midst of a vast rural region, unserved by any existing resettlement office.

Jay Dahlhauser of The Bridge explained that the national resettlement agencies [The Contractors—ed] meet each Wednesday to see what refugees are arriving, from where, and figure out which refugees each will handle.

We should demand that the Trump State Department not hold these meetings in secret. Imagine this! Non-profit groups are sitting around a table in DC every Wednesday making decisions that will effect your community for decades/generations!
Pilot-Tribune:

With the country beginning to reach out to more rural regions for resettlements, The Bridge accepted the challenge from Catholic Charities, but not before wrestling over the decision. [What do they mean the “country” is reaching out to place refugees in rural areas! The Obama State Department and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops may be reaching out, but they are not the “country!”—ed]

So here (below) we learn something completely new—the feds can send up to 30 refugees to a town before making a formal agreement with the agency! BTW, none of this is in the law, this is all decided within the Department of State without any legal underpinning (so it could easily be undecided by a Trump Secretary of State).

Pilot-Tribune:

Storm Lake and The Bridge are currently capped at a maximum of 30 resettled individuals. If the number reaches that level, a more permanent agreement would be necessary, or possibly a formal resettlement office to be located in the community.

Continue reading here.
I would love to know if the contractors get any little rewards from the meatpackers when they supply them with cheap refugee laborers.
***To see if your town is an existing resettlement site check out the US Department of State database.
But when you look at that data base know three things. 1) the data base is out of date, 2) we are told there are 47 new sites not listed and, 3) see if you live within 100 miles of one of these offices because that means your town is fair game to receive refugees.
Here are some of the new sites being chosen by the US State Department (that we know of!). We are adding Storm Lake, Iowa. If anyone there is interested in learning more, check out our ‘Ten Things Your Town Needs to Know‘ by clicking here.
Asheville, NC
Rutland, VT
Reno, NV
Ithaca, NY
Missoula, MT
Aberdeen, SD (may have been thwarted as a primary resettlement site!)
Charleston, WV
Fayetteville, AR
Blacksburg, VA
Pittsfield, MA
Northhampton, MA
Flint, MI
Bloomington, IN
Traverse City, MI
Poughkeepsie, NY
Wilmington, DE
Watertown, NY (maybe)
Youngstown, OH (maybe)
Storm Lake, Iowa

Washington Post does big article on Twin Falls, Idaho: Big business needs refugee/immigrant labor

11/20/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

twin-falls-mayor-shawn-barigar — Twin Falls Mayor Shawn Barigar whines to WaPo about Breitbart reporting. As Chamber of Commerce Prez. he helped get Chobani Yogurt plant built in town.

I have other things I want to post today, but since the WaPo has devoted many column inches in its Business section to the Twin Falls, Idaho refugee controversy, I need to at least direct you to it.
Thanks to reader Brenda for sending it my way. (For decades I had a subscription to the WaPo but cancelled it years ago when they savaged Sarah Palin.)
Go here where reporter Chico Harlan tries to cover all the issues, but the focus is on the symbiotic relationship between the refugee program, big business, and white workers/politicians who benefit.
See our YUGE archive on Twin Falls by clicking here.
Just one more reminder that the Refugee Admissions Program is largely about cheap labor (at taxpayer expense!) and NOT first and foremost about humanitarianism.

Church World Service head honcho sucking up to the NYT and Chobani Yogurt tycoon

11/12/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you recently that the NY Times has gone to bat for Hamdi Ulukaya who is changing Twin Falls, Idaho with a refugee worker flow for his world’s largest yogurt plant there. As I said yesterday, some of the big players in the UN/US refugee program are giant corporations, some of them foreign-owned, that want CHEAP labor.
Think about it! If companies like Chobani didn’t have the steady supply of immigrant/refugee labor they might have to hire American workers and pay them better wages!
Since I’ve been writing about Church World Service this morning, I thought you might like to see what CWS’s highly paid CEO is saying to the NYT. Is he looking for a little moola from Hamdi?
Here:

Re “For Standing Up, Scorn” (Business Day, Nov. 1):

On behalf of CWS, a global humanitarian organization and refugee resettlement agency, I commend Chobani’s founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, for making the concerted effort to employ more refugees at his yogurt company. In a time of widespread xenophobia and hateful rhetoric, his compassion, boldness and good entrepreneurial sense are especially uplifting.

rev-john-l-mccullough-arrested-in-nyc-with-rob-rutland-brown-624x414 — CWS CEO Rev. John McCullough being arrested in Washington, DC protesting in support of Obama’s executive amnesty. Photo and story here: http://njfon.org/2015/04/08/faith-groups-challenge-fifth-circuit-court-on-presidents-immigration-actions/ McCullough pulls down an annual salary of over $300,000 a year from his CWS work and from “related organizations.” Page 13- 14 http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2015/134/080/2015-134080201-0c44e710-9.pdf

Through his own employment practices, he helps demonstrate that refugees are hardworking, productive members of our society, not the economic burden some suggest.

Mr. Ulukaya, an immigrant from Turkey, also warrants our praise for establishing a foundation that assists migrants, traveling to Greece to witness the refugee crisis firsthand and committing to give away most of his fortune to help refugees.

Mr. Ulukaya illustrates tangibly what’s right about our country: longstanding values of hospitality, diversity and industry.

(Rev.) JOHN L. McCULLOUGH

New York

The writer is president and chief executive of CWS (Church World Service).

Learn about CWS’s finances here.
See our extensive archive on CWS, by clicking here.
Our Twin Falls archive is here.
About the photo on McCullough’s arrest: Why would a non-profit group, that is being paid millions of tax dollars each year to help legal refugees get established and find jobs in the US, be out protesting on behalf of illegal aliens who will in turn (if granted amnesty) be in direct competition with refugees for jobs? I have never understood the sense of this.
The only logical explanation is that CWS and McCullough are out to change America by changing the people no matter how they have to do it!

What should Trump do about refugees on January 21, 2017

11/11/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is not unprecedented to reduce refugee numbers dramatically, we did it following 9/11! By Inauguration Day 2017 we will already be at 35,000 for the fiscal year!

Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated on the 20th of January as our 45th President. Many of you worked very hard to make it happen. He said he will stop the flow of Syrian (majority Muslim) refugees to your towns and cities and at minimum we expect him to do that!

But, reducing the numbers is not enough, he must demand the repeal of the Refugee Act of 1980. The system as constructed is rotten to the core and I no longer believe it can be reformed.

us-chamber-donohue-ap-640x480 — This isn’t just an ideological battle between ‘do-gooders’ on the Left and ‘haters’ in the conservative grassroots, but a third player is the Chamber of Commerce which will fight tooth and nail to buck Trump. They want the cheap immigrant labor! Tom Donohue, friend of Paul Ryan, here: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/12/chris-wallace-establishment-business-groups-ready-to-primary-conservatives-if-they-dont-play-ball-with-paul-ryan/

A simple reduction in numbers, that has been suggested by some in the immigration control movement, is not adequate. If it is deemed in the national interest to resettle third worlders in America going forward, an entirely new program must be constructed by Congress.
In my view, there are three issues that must be addressed in a White House and Congressional review and they are: 1) National security concerns, 2) the VOLAG system where non-profits are paid by the head (out of the US Treasury) to resettle refugees chosen by the UN, 3) lack of transparency (the outrageous secrecy by VOLAGs and the feds involved in choosing target towns). There may be others I can’t think of at the moment.

So as we knew, and as a Newsweek article yesterday confirmed, on January 21st, Donald Trump can turn off the spigot of refugees flowing in to the US and tell Congress if they want a refugee program to get to work and come up with a new one!

He can hold the hammer over their heads by turning off the flow!

But! He will have to battle the major corporations and the US Chamber of Commerce looking for a plentiful supply of CHEAP LABOR.

As much as some want to frame it this way—as a battle between two major forces of Democrat Left wing open borders ‘humanitarian’ activists on one side and Republican Right wing believers in tightly controlled immigration on the other, there is a third player with enormous power—BIG business and US Chamber of Commerce lobbyists always on the hunt for CHEAP (some say captive, compliant) LABOR!
Trump will have to battle Republican Congressional leaders who follow the lead of their industry friends!
That (above) is my main point, for those who want to wade into the numbers weeds, here is what I’ve been looking at this morning.

What do the numbers look like now?

Using data provided by the Refugee Processing Center, we have admitted 12,272 refugees of all stripes between the beginning of the 2017 fiscal year (October 1, 2016) and election day (November, 8, 2016). This rate (319 a day) is higher than anything we have seen in the last ten years (see chart in this post).
If that rate continues until Inauguration Day on January 20th, 2017, then we will have admitted over 35,000 refugees in just over 3 1/2 months, more than we brought in 2002 and 2003. Obama wants 110,000 for the entire fiscal year (319 a day would bring the total over 110,000).
However, it is not unprecedented to dramatically reduce numbers. See here that in the two years following 9/11 we admitted less than 30,000 refugees for each year 2002 and 2003!
So where would the greatest impact be if the spigot were closed on January 21st? On the contractors of course. They will have to close some offices, not open new ones, reduce staff and overhead, and gee maybe even reduce the excessively large salaries their CEOs are getting. Of course they will scream bloody murder and say how mean Trump is by leaving refugees in the pipeline.
By the way, if you like to do research, check USASpending.gov in the coming weeks and see if the federal agencies—US State Department and Health and Human Services—are pouring excessively large amounts of grant money into the coffers of the nine major contractors before Obama leaves office.
More numbers….
When I checked the data this morning, I see that the following numbers have been admitted from Muslim sending countries (from October 1 to November 8):
Iraq (1,635)
Somalia (1,684)
Syria (1,602)
Smaller numbers come from places like Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Keep an eye on Burma because originally we resettled mostly Christian Burmese, but Burmese Muslim (Rohingya) numbers are ticking up (269 since Oct. 1).
One final note: The UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program is only one program of many LEGAL immigration programs admitting large numbers of Muslims and others from the third world. I previously wrote about the Diversity Visa Lottery which admits another 50,000 migrants to America via a lottery system each year because we need more diversity (!). I hardly see it mentioned, so I need to start writing about it again because we have the best chance ever now to review and possibly throw out programs which are detrimental to American workers and our communities.
The Republicans previously have tried to stop the Diversity Visa lottery (some call it the Green Card lottery) and I don’t know why they have shut up about it.

Why is North Carolina a swing state while South Carolina is still RED?

11/03/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is because the demographic change (remember they are changing America by changing the people) is far advanced in North Carolina while it is only beginning in South Carolina.

trump_v_hillary — Trump and Clinton are both in North Carolina today. Is it a swing state because of its huge refugee/immigrant population? I think so! http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/north-carolina-poll-polls-2016-election-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-winning-losing-new-forecast-percent-men-women-independent-undecided/

Of course all that will change for SC in a few years as Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham and Rep. Trey Gowdy are making little to no effort to hold the line in terms of the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program, and Graham himself was one of the Senate ‘Gang of Eight’ that pushed through an amnesty bill for illegal aliens a couple of years ago.
I don’t understand how Rs like Graham don’t see that as the immigrant population grows it will be attracted to the Democrat Party which promises to keep their welfare goodies flowing and will ultimately lead to the downfall of the Republican Party in states like his.
But, it isn’t SC I want to tell you about.

Trump and Clinton going to North Carolina today!

***Update*** November 4th: 1/2 million federal grant to encourage ethnic separation awarded in Raleigh.
I’ve wondered how North Carolina, the land of Senator Jesse Helms, is now a toss-up state and today as both Hillary and Trump head there, we see very clearly that it is a traditional red state turning blue and both parties are fighting for it.
So, I did a little numbers research. And, I am not saying that there are enough refugee voters to swing the election, but the vast disparity between the states is stunning. Also, NC has obviously thrown out the welcome mat to illegal aliens. (Note in my previous post that it is clearly in the top ten for the placement of the ‘unaccompanied alien children.’)
All of the following data can be found at the Refugee Processing Center. And, I found a bit more at an ORR annual report to Congress.
From 1983 to 2001, North Carolina resettled 16,640 refugees, while South Carolina only got 1,925.
Then from FY 2003 to FY 2016 the states break down this way: NC (27,748) and SC (2,042).

Total refugee tally for NC is roughly 44,388 to SC’s 3,967.

(In between those two documents, I was too lazy to look up 2002, but you get the idea).
So, I am maintaining that it is the influx of vastly more immigrants and refugees to North Carolina than South Carolina that makes the difference—why NC is turning blue and SC isn’t (yet!).
***Update*** And, I should have mentioned all those worker visas for NC, here.
We have a pretty substantial archive on North Carolina and problems there with refugees, go here to learn more. Don’t miss a stunning murder case, contractors not taking care of the refugees, companies looking for cheap labor and posts on how NC colleges lured Arab students, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to the state to boost their student enrollment.
Then I found this stunning. From FY2003 to FY2016, North Carolina received refugees from the following 56 countries. This list does not include illegal alien-sending countries like Mexico and some from Central and South America. Can you imagine the problems with languages in the medical system, the school system and the criminal justice system!
screenshot-63
Where were they placed?
I started to look at all the towns and cities and when I got to 35 I quit. Bottomline, I bet there were at least 50-60 towns and cities in North Carolina that received refugees. Maybe only a couple in some towns, but they were very widely distributed and surely helped destroy community cohesiveness.
Eight of the nine major resettlement contractors are operating (competing!) in North Carolina. The only one missing is the International Rescue Committee. Go here for office locations.
The wild card for Trump and Clinton is whether the African American community there gets it—that they are being out-competed in the job market by tens of thousands of refugees pouring in to the state. And, if Hillary is elected there will never be a slowdown.