Category: Legal immigration and jobs

Sensible Senator Sessions: Slow down immigration and give people time to assimilate

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The US Census Bureau is reporting that the US is on the cusp of the Second Great Wave of Immigration where the immigrant population of America is at or near the historically high level of 15%.    Most people, especially the youngsters in the Open Borders movement assume we have been pouring immigrants into America at high levels forever.  Not so!  We dramatically reduced immigration levels around 1920 because the nation needed to catch its breath and immigrants needed to assimilate.  The public demanded the slowdown.

That all changed in 1965 when Senator Ted Kennedy was among those pushing the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (a bill signed by Lyndon Johnson).  Previously most immigrants to America were Europeans, this law opened our doors to Latin Americans, Africans and Asians and so the cultural leap they would have to make to assimilate became even greater.

Today assimilation is a dirty word and the motives of the immigration lobby are frankly to push America toward more socialism (Dems want the voters), more diversity (frankly less whiteness) and for others (some Republicans/big business) it’s all about a cheap labor force.

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) gave the Keynote address at the 5th anniversary celebration of the Tea Party in Washington DC.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/27/Jeff-Sessions-The-Tea-Party-is-right-on-every-issue

So for those of us who think Senator Sessions makes enormous sense, I fear that common sense is not in vogue these days.

Before you read this, check out the Migration Policy Institute graph (to get to the graph click on ‘Number and share total US population 1850-2012’) which puts us much closer to the 15% mark than does this Census Bureau report.

From The Hill (hat tip: Robin):

If Congress passes immigration reform legislation this year, it will dramatically add to what the Census Bureau is calling the “Second Great Wave” of immigration in U.S. history.

Opponents of the legislation have seized on the Census Bureau’s analysis of migration patterns to warn of an explosion of foreign-born population over the next few decades.

“Once again, the country is approaching a percentage of foreign-born not seen since the late 1800s and early 1900s,” the Census Bureau wrote on its blog this week. “Will this proportion continue to increase, perhaps exceeding the high of nearly 15 percent achieved in both 1890 and 1910?”

The agency estimates that 40 million people living in the United States in 2010 were born elsewhere, approximately 12.9 percent of the population. That is the highest population of immigrants, percentage-wise, since the 1920s, according to the Census Bureau.

Opponents of granting citizenship to 11 million illegal immigrants and expanding legal immigration flows have pounced on the study.

“After 40 years of large-scale immigration, rising joblessness, failing schools and a growing welfare state, would not the sensible, conservative thing to do be to slow down for a bit, allow wages to rise, assimilation to occur, and to help those struggling here today?” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Thursday, when he delivered the keynote address to commemorate the Tea Party Patriots’ fifth anniversary.

An aide to Sessions estimated the number of foreign-born people living in the United States has now reached 45 million.

Sessions’s office estimates that number could swell by at least 30 million over the next decade if Congress passes the Senate immigration bill.

For readers reaching retirement age, look back to the early 1970’s and see that things have really changed in the last 40 years (you aren’t wrong to have suspected it).

The immigrant population reached a low in 1970 when 9.6 million people — 4.7 percent of the total population — residing in the United States were born in another country.

If you missed it, check out our post last week about MENA (Middle Eastern/North African) immigrant populations in the US, a group that will resist assimilation more than some others.  That post went off the charts for some reason with 1,000 readers in one day.

Poll: Majority of Evangelical Christians want LEGAL immigration numbers reduced

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

NumbersUSA is reporting on a poll released in Nashville today at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. (Hat tip: Robin)

A brand new national poll of only evangelical Christians finds that they are deeply compassionate when it comes to immigration policy but not in the way the news media have been reporting because of a well-funded public relations campaign by a few dozen pro-amnesty religious leaders.  [Some of those pro-amnesty religious leaders are included in this list of refugee contractors.—ed]

Released today here in Nashville at the National Religious Broadcasters giant annual convention, the poll found that most evangelicals are deeply concerned about unemployed and struggling low-paid American workers, particularly Black and Hispanic Americans who have the highest jobless and poverty rates.  And most evangelicals want an immigration system that protects their ability to work and support themselves.

Read the results on illegal immigration, and then this is what interested me the most.

The poll [Pulse Opinion Survey] found even less support for increasing legal immigration:

* only 8% of evangelicals supported doubling legal immigration and 14% favored keeping it at the current 1 million a year,

* 64% said immigration should be cut at least to 500,000 a year, with half of all evangelicals supporting a limit of no more than 100,000 a year,

* 29% said legal immigration should be reduced to zero.

If you have never watched NumbersUSA’s youtube presentation —Immigration by the numbers—take ten minutes and watch it now by clicking here.

Is Amarillo, TX joining the “pockets of resistance” to refugee resettlement?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Readers may wish to contact Rep. Thornberry and encourage his willingness to speak up.  Contact info. is here—best to try the Amarillo office first then ask for a staff person who works on immigration issues.

It looks like David Lubell and his mind-police at ‘Welcoming America’ have another emergency on their hands, this time in Texas!

In my previous post this morning I mentioned that ‘Welcoming America’ has been hired by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to help head off “pockets of resistance” to more refugee resettlement in immigrant over-loaded cities.  And, no sooner did I post it than reader Joanne sent along this hot news story—‘Amarillo struggles to handle influx of refugees‘ from the Texas Tribune.

Wyoming, why do you think the State Department needs you now?  They are running out of places to resettle thousands of new refugees entering the US each month!

US Rep Mac Thornberry: “We cannot keep going at the rate we’ve been going,”

Texas Tribune (emphasis is mine):

More international refugees were resettled in Texas in 2012 than in any other state, according to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. And one of the leading destinations is Amarillo, where members of Thawng’s church and other newcomers from places like Myanmar and Iraq often work in meatpacking plants.

Now local officials are worried that Amarillo’s refugee population is straining the Panhandle city’s ability to respond to 911 callers who speak numerous languages and to help schoolchildren learn English and adapt to a new culture.

“We’ve raised some red flags and said this isn’t good for some entities in the city or for the refugees themselves,” said Mayor Paul Harpole.

Amarillo, the state’s 14th largest city, with 195,000 residents, receives a higher ratio of new refugees to the existing population than any other Texas city, according to 2007-12 State Department data from U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon. And the only Texas cities that receive a larger number of refugees than Amarillo (which received 480 in 2012) are also the state’s largest: Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio.

But those numbers show only a refugee’s initial placement and do not account for secondary migration, Thornberry said. Many refugees who initially settle elsewhere relocate to Amarillo for jobs or to join family members.

The State Department decides how many refugees are resettled in an area, and states review those recommendations. Last fall, the department, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and refugee placement organizations agreed that for 2014, placements in Amarillo should be limited to family reunifications, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the commission.

“We cannot keep going at the rate we’ve been going,” Thornberry said.  [Readers:  we often see mayors raise red flags, but rarely is a Member of Congress brave enough to say something like this publicly!—ed]

Catholic Charities brought refugees for meatpacking jobs!  Where have we heard that before?

Now there aren’t so many of those jobs (someone please tell Grover to call off the amnesty, there are legal immigrants here looking for work!).

Even so, she soon considered Amarillo her home, and 17 years later, she’s still there. She is now interim director of refugee resettlement at Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle, which helps people who have fled war and persecution find homes and jobs. Many find work at area meatpacking plants, which often pay $14 an hour, Lohony said.

But Harpole said demand for workers at the plants was declining. “We just think it’s going to be more difficult for the refugees to do well here,” he said.

Educational challenges, cultural challenges and how not to go hunting for food on private property!  What! The do-gooders at Catholic Charities can’t feed them?  Shame on you!

For schools, challenges include educating students who sometimes cannot read in English or in their native language, Thornberry said.

“You look at the burden you’re placing on the school system not only to meet the testing requirements but to help integrate these kids into modern American life,” he said.

Cultural differences are also an issue outside schools, he said. Recently a refugee was found on a local ranch hunting for food.

“Obviously, it was quite a shock to some of the ranchers,” Thornberry said.

Check out our previous mentions of Amarillo—a preferred resettlement site in 2009—here.

Nashville: David Lubell’s immigrant entrepreneurs busted for selling illegal drugs …

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..from, what else, their convenience stores!

David Lubell of ‘Welcoming America’ founded ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ and now works for ORR and George Soros promoting immigrant entrepreneurs, among other multi-cultural joys.

Who is David Lubell?  He is the much bally-hood founder of ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ and now he runs a partially government-funded non-profit (they get funds from GEORGE SOROS too!) called ‘Welcoming America’ that has been hired by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to get YOUR minds right about immigrants.  We first showcased them here in June of 2013.

Keep in mind this is not a community organizing group geared toward encouraging refugees and other immigrants to try to fit in to your cities and towns, they are working on YOU (the “receiving community”), to make you more “welcoming” to the diversity coming your way. 

Two days ago, Lubell was showcased at the New York Times blog which tells us that without David Lubell and his ‘Welcoming Tennessee‘ there would be no ‘vibrant’ immigrant city—Nashville— filled with foreign ‘entrepreneurs’ (one of their favorite themes involves immigrants bringing new business to your pathetic city) and ‘vibrant diversity.’

Nashville has the fastest growing foreign-born population in the US, here.

I have a pressing question, as do some of our readers:  If immigrants were bringing economic boom times to beleaguered cities then why aren’t these cities—Lewiston, ME, Manchester, NH, Clarkston, GA?—clamoring for more immigrant entrepreneurs?  Instead they are begging for less! LOL! Welcoming America and ORR calls these “pockets of resistance.”

Why, also, are those who resettle refugees always out scouting new fresh unsuspecting territory in which to place refugees—-like Wyoming!

So to the New York Times…..

First some stats that blew me away.  Surely you are all familiar with the great wave of immigrants that came to America in the late 1880’s to early 1900’s (there was no welfare for them by the way, they had to survive and learn English or go back to where they came from and most were Europeans).

The wave was so great that the US cut off immigration to any large extent for decades following the 1920’s so that there might be time for the huge flood to assimilate, and to allow time for the American voters to calm down.  Get this!  We have allowed more immigration in the last 20 years than we did in 40 of the great wave.

From the NYT blog:

The need has rarely been greater. From 1990 to 2010, the United States immigrant population increased by 20 million, roughly the same number of people who entered the country during the great wave of immigration between 1880 and 1920. Today, there are about 40 million foreign-born people in the United States (about 46 percent are naturalized citizens).

Unlike the immigrants of the past, the new immigrants are more diverse and more scattered — many living in midsize cities like Boise, Idaho; Louisville, Ky.; Dayton, Ohio; and Memphis, where, until recently, the foreign-born populations were small.   [Cities cited here are sites of refugee resettlement, immigrants just don’t “find their way” from Africa or the Middle East to Boise or Memphis!—ed]

Mohammad Amer busted in Nashville for drug sales out of a liquor store—Lubell immigrant entrepreneur?

Lubell’s Nashville entrepreneurs:

You can read the rest of the opinion piece, a paean to David Lubell, yourself because I want to tell you about some of Lubell’s Nashville entrepreneurial stars–Ebrahim Fahim, Maged Youssef Milkhail and Mohammad Amer!   Word on the street in Nashville is that some of those charged are Egyptians who received asylum claiming religious persecution back home (are they among the 70% found to be frauds?)

From The Tennessean earlier this month:

Two convenience stores could go out of business after their owners — one of which has now been busted twice — admitted in court Friday that they sold a liquid form of synthetic marijuana

Metro police in January padlocked First Discount Tobacco & Beer and Dolphin Market Discount Tobacco & Beer on Lebanon Pike after they say the owners sold a liquid designed to get electronic cigarette users high. The products were sold for $40 per bottle with names such as “Relax” and “Maui Maui.” A worker at Dolphin Market marketed the drug to one customer as a way to get high.

It wasn’t the first time First Discount has been accused of selling illegal, synthetic marijuana. The store was shuttered in 2012 after they were found selling products called “7H Kush” and “Purple Diesel” marketed as “incense” but designed to get people high.

On Friday, that business’ owners, Said Ebrahim Fahim and Maged Youssef Milkhail, pleaded guilty to contempt of court charges for violating an order stemming from the 2012 raid. Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier, who had made the 2012 order, ruled that the pair would avoid jail time, but First Discount would be padlocked for 90 days. He ordered that Dolphin Market, which had no priors, be closed for 30 days and forfeit $14,000.

Nashville police shut down 20 such businesses (at least temporarily)!  I hope they were investigating food stamp fraud too!

With the help of a 2012 law, Nashville’s police and prosecutors have used public nuisances statutes to shut down nearly 20 businesses found to have been selling these illegal drugs, which are typically synthetic variants of marijuana, ecstasy or amphetamines marketed as incense or bath salts.

What’s a good Muslim entrepreneur (see photo of Mohammad Amer) doing running a liquor store?  I guess that is a question for another day.  But, here is the other bust reported in Nashville recently.

Once your city is deemed “welcoming,” get ready for more immigrant schemers (oops! entrepreneurs!) like these!

Syrians by the “hundreds” arriving in North Jersey, thousands more expected in 2015 and 2016

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“Hundreds?” Well, how could that be I wondered, since we are constantly reminded that the unwelcoming US has only admitted a hundred or so Syrian refugees.  It turns out that “hundreds” of those being granted ‘temporary protected status‘ are choosing to go to established Syrian communities, like those in North Jersey, to be with their people.

I continually find it amusing that no one ever questions the desire of ‘immigrants’ to congregate with their ethnic and religious groups in certain sections of cities or states, yet if any people of European background (you or me) would say I want to live with my kind of people we would be excoriated by the diversity-is-beautiful crowd as racist, rednecked boobs!  But, I digress.

Mahmoud Alzouabi, one of the stars of this story, traveled to Jordan with his wife and 8 kids and got a visa to the US. How did he pull that off when several hundred thousand others couldn’t? CARMINE GALASSO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Back to North Jersey and the Syrians.  Emphasis below is mine.  From North Jersey.com:

Syrians fleeing war and devastation in their homeland have settled in North Jersey by the hundreds since turmoil broke out three years ago. While family members, houses of worship and a social services agency offer support, many struggle to find work, afford housing and deal with grief amid harrowing experiences in war.

Then we hear about the first star of the story (there are always the sad tales in these articles designed to pull the heartstrings of your unwelcoming racist heart!):

Mahmoud Alzouabi, a 42-year-old Syrian refugee now living in Paterson, fled to a refugee camp in Jordan before getting a U.S. visa. Alzouabi saw a close friend shot to death at a demonstration.  [So how did this man with his family, of all the “refugees” arriving in Jordan get a visa to America?—ed]

They want to be with Syrians:

Drawn to North Jersey by long-established Syrian-American communities, many arrive with little more than the clothing they are wearing and with bitter memories of the life-threatening conditions that drove them from their homes.

[…..]

The Syrians who have come to North Jersey are largely unrecognized as they blend into Arab-American neighborhoods in a diverse state that is home to more than 9,000 Syrian-Americans, according to the Census Bureau.

Thousands being approved to stay in US under ‘Temporary Protected Status’ but as we have reported here at RRW over the years—no one ever goes home!  Just ask the over 100,000 Salvadorans here “temporarily!”  It is a joke.  However, unless they can figure out some fraudulent way to do it, those on TPS are not allowed to dip into welfare (maybe in Maine!) while refugee status confers on those lucky people a whole array of social services.

The United States offers financial aid and transitional help to Syrians who are accepted into its refugee resettlement program, but only 108 Syrians have been officially designated as refugees. Many others are stymied by stringent U.S. security concerns over people arriving with no identification papers. Others face a high legal barrier in the requirement that they prove they are victims of persecution and not merely people displaced by war.

Many of the Syrian refugees have arrived with visitor’s visas and extended their stays, legally, through what is known as temporary protective status, which allows them to get Social Security numbers and authorizes them to find employment.

No work!  (Someone please tell Grover that there are LEGAL Syrians over here looking for work!):

With temporary protected status, he has work authorization and a Social Security number, but he cannot find work. He [another star of the story—ed] applied for health care coverage but did not understand the responses he got. His wife is eight months pregnant.

“Everything is difficult here. Everything is complicated. There’s no help,” said Askar, who has applied for refugee status, fearing religious persecution back home.

They want refugee status so they can get taxpayer-support!

Syrians who are granted asylum are eligible for help from programs funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, including cash and medical assistance, job preparation and placement and English-language training. But only 108 Syrians have been granted official refugee status by the U.S.

TPS numbers:

Most have come to this country as visitors and stayed. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has accepted 5,261 applications for temporary protected status from Syrians already in the U.S., approving 2,038 of those and denying 59; the rest are pending. Of those, 335 applications came from Syrians in New Jersey; 150 were approved, three denied and the rest are pending.

Big rush of Syrians expected in US in 2015 and 2016.  Will Mr. Open Borders himself, Chris Christie, be welcoming them on the tarmac at Newark’s Liberty International airport?

With no end in sight to  the war, more Syrians can be expected to arrive in North Jersey. The U.S. government expects to receive thousands of referrals for resettlement from the United Nations’ refugee agency in 2014, with arrivals expected in 2015 and 2016, according to the State Department. It is not known how many will be accepted.

Some elected officials and human rights groups have called for the U.S. to do more and take in 15,000 Syrians refugees. According to news reports, the Obama administration expects to take in only as many as 2,000.

For years we watched the media drumbeat to bring in the Iraqis (and they are coming by the tens of thousands now) and henceforth we will see one story after another, like this one, as the media and the open borders movement builds their Syrian “refugee” PR campaign.  And, just watch, even if their ‘civil war’ ends before 2015, the flood gates to Syrian refugees will be open and they will keep coming (just as the Iraqis are still coming to this day)!

Addendum:  Check out the story we posted recently about one Syrian family getting into the US via Cuba, here.  They too are in North Jersey.