Category: Nashville

Every Jurisdiction in America is Up for Grabs: Tennessee Website Doing What You Must Do

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

Have you taken 15 minutes to make your calls?

As I have been saying ad nauseam for days now, the President has given you an opportunity to say whether you want your town/city/county to be a resettlement site for impoverished refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East and if you don’t act now, there may never be another time!

If you’ve looked at my maps from a week ago where I show you the existing resettlement offices*** and have said, thank goodness my town/city/county isn’t on the map, so I don’t have to do anything, you are very wrong!

Here we see that a website in Tennessee, did a very simple little exercise using the information that resettlement contractors can place refugees within a hundred mile radius of their offices (we are told not across state lines, but I know for a fact that they are ignoring that supposed prohibition).

Dailyrollcall.com created a map for Tennessee.

The stars indicate where existing resettlement offices are located and the shading demonstrates that almost the whole state of Tennessee is in play.

Here is a bit of their story:

Tell Greedy Refugee Contractors to Keep Their Hands Off Your Community!

 

But you’ll need the help of your mayor and your city council and/or commission.

President Trump’s Executive Order is giving power back to Tennessee citizens to decide whether they want federal refugee contractors to “transform” their communities with imported refugees.

Here are the rules of this game:

~both the Governor and the “locality” for refugee placement, have to say “yes” we want refugees. This means they also agree to pay any and all short and long-term costs imposed by the federal program.

~however, if either the Governor or the “locality” say no thanks, then supposedly, newly arriving refugees from overseas won’t be placed in that “locality.”

~however, the Governor may consent to resettling refugees in only certain consenting localities within the state. This option is a total fiction and is as good as agreeing to put almost ALL cities and counties in Tennessee up for grabs for resettlement – even if they’ve never been an initial resettlement site.

FEDERAL RESETTLEMENT CONTRACTORS ARE ALLOWED TO PLACE REFUGEES ANYWHERE FROM 50 TO 100 MILES FROM THE REFUGEE CONTRACTOR’S OFFICE.

This is just one of the many dirty little secrets that the federal contractors keep to themselves.

And it’s been going on in Tennessee for years. Here’s the proof – the State Department’s reports show that over the years refugees have been resettled in Clarksville, LaVergne, Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Mt. Juliet, Franklin, Spring Hill, Shelbyville, Gallatin, Johnson City, just to name a few.

A few years ago, Catholic Charities of TN employee and federal contractor Holly Johnson who became the state refugee coordinator after the State of Tennessee withdrew from the voluntary refugee program, insisted during testimony to a legislative committee, that refugees were never directly resettled in Bedford County.

Well oops!!! A report subsequently issued by TIRRC about the victimization of Muslims in Tennessee, disclosed that in fact, at least 13 refugees had been directly resettled in Bedford County during the time period Johnson was asked about.

There is much more, continue reading here.

Have you taken 15 minutes to call your local government offices—call county commissioners and mayors!  Instructions are here.  No excuses accepted!

 

*** Since President Trump took office some resettlement offices have closed, so fewer offices are shown on the map I posted than were on it in the waning days of the Obama Administration.  I hope to go back and post an earlier map so you know that the contractors will likely be seeking permission in those other towns/cities so that they have those “permissions” for future expansion by their dozens of subcontractors.

For new readers these (below) are the nine refugee contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America.  For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!

Reason Writer: Bring the Kurds to America as Refugees (WTH!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

Reason, as many of you know is a Libertarian operation.

Here Reason senior analyst Shikha Dalmia makes the argument that we (America, you, the taxpayers!) could save the Kurds (Sunni Muslims) from the Turks by resettling them in our towns and cities.

Let the Kurds Come to America

 

Shikha Dalmia

America could safeguard Kurdish lives by offering them a quick way out and arrange their evacuation. There are less than a million Kurds in SDF-controlled Syria.

Even if they all came to the U.S., America could absorb them without breaking a sweat. And not all of them would even come. Kurds have been fighting for their own homeland ever since the European powers carved the Kurdish population into several pieces after World War I, handing each to Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. So many of them won’t abandon their struggle and flee. But Kurdish fighters may appreciate a safe haven for their spouses and children. The least America can do is give them that option.

Of course that will require Trump to lift his “Muslim” travel ban and revive America’s near-dead refugee program.

More here.

This is nuts as you will see if you take a minute and search for ‘Kurdish gangs in Nashville!‘

The inter-Islam conflicts of the Middle East that have gone on for centuries are not our problem!

Tennessee appeals earlier dismissal of States' Rights Refugee case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The only state in the nation to attempt to get some control back for the state when the federal government sends them refugees is appealing an earlier decision by a judge to dismiss the case.
This is the latest from the Tennessean:

Tennessee is appealing a federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit against the federal government over refugee resettlement.

logo thomas more

The Thomas More Law Center, which is representing the state in the case, filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee on Thursday.  

The case comes after state lawmakers approved a resolution in 2016 ordering the lawsuit.

Teatro
Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the state’s appeal will “continue dragging our state’s reputation through the mud.”

In the case, Tennessee alleged the federal government violated the 10th Amendment, which says the federal government only possesses the powers delegated to it by the U.S. Constitution and that all other powers are reserved for the states.

When the lawsuit was filed in March 2017, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to sue the federal government on the matter using such grounds.

Tennessee argued that the federal government was not complying with the Refugee Act of 1980, which was designed to create a permanent procedure for the admission of refugees into the United States.

Lawmakers have previously said the lawsuit is necessary to halt all refugee resettlement to the state until all associated costs are paid by the federal government.

Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition have frequently slammed the lawsuit, saying it will negatively affect the state’s refugee community and perpetuate a culture of fear.

More here.
See the statement from the Thomas More Law Center by clicking here.
See all of my posts on Tennessee/Tenth Amendment.
And, learn more about the problems with refugees in Tennessee at my huge Tennessee archive here.  You will find a lot of meatpacker stories among those posts.
 

Tennessee: World Relief accused of not taking care of their refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When refugees were initially being placed in the county where I live (now more than 10 years ago), our community’s first impression was that the ‘Christian’ resettlement agency—the Virginia Council of Churches—was basically dropping off a couple hundred refugees, placing them in deplorable housing, and then not providing them with some of their basic needs.
I wanted to know what sort of program was this.  Did the government allow this? But, of course as we know now, nine major federal resettlement contractors (including World Relief)*** are federal government contractors who oversee a network of over 300 subcontractors.  The nine sign agreements with the US State Department laying out what services they will provide refugees in their care. Indeed the contractor is paid by the head for each refugee it is assigned.
Over the years, we have reported on many cases like this one being made in Tennessee that the contractor is not fulfilling its end of the bargain.
From The Tennessee Star:

During the March “Murfreesboro Muslim Youth” (MMY) meeting soliciting help for refugees brought to Rutherford County by federal resettlement contractor World Relief, it was disclosed that goods and services that the government paid for were not provided to the new refugees.

Abdou Kattih has been an outspoken critic of efforts by the legislature to keep Shariah law out of TN and to rein-in the refugee industry in the state. http://www.dnj.com/story/news/politics/2016/01/20/legislative-proposals-prompt-muslim-community-efforts/78809062/

According to Abdou Kattih, founder and president of MMY, were it not for his organization, special emergency needs such as getting medical care for the refugee who arrived with a broken jaw or simply providing household essentials and even clothing, would not have been addressed, explaining they had taken care of “someone that does not have literally anything but the clothes they had off of last month.”

Melissa Sohrabi, who merged her group “Roots for Refugees” with MMY, was more direct in detailing the deficiencies of the government contractor in this talk she delivered in March:

“There is an expectation of what should happen and there’s reality of what really does happen. . . Why didn’t World Relief give them a table and chairs? Why didn’t they bring them a couch? What’s going on? . . . Not only did it not happen but if it did happen, those families are charged for every belonging, every item that is donated to World Relief, the family is then charged for, for having it delivered to them.”

World Relief (WR), based in Baltimore, is one of nine national refugee resettlement organizations that sign a “Cooperative Agreement” with the U.S. State Department to receive federal funding to resettle refugees. This is taxpayer money allocated for each refugee brought to a community; the funds are split between the refugee and the agency. In addition, the resettlement agency is required to provide the goods and services as detailed in the signed agreement.

Between fiscal years 2016 -17, WR was paid over $40 million by the federal government to resettle refugees in communities where they operate local offices which also receive federal funding through grants administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Continue reading here.
One of several things that came to mind when I read this, is something I have been wondering about for some time.  Five of the nine resettlement contractors are ‘Christian charities’, one is Jewish and three are secular.
They all eagerly resettle Muslim refugees, but I have wondered when will some Muslim charity demand to get in on the federal gravy train? Laying the groundwork in this story?
***Here are the nine federal contractors that monopolize the US Refugee Admissions Program:

 

Trump may increase funding for refugees in FY18 budget…..

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….but before you panic, as I did when I read Breitbart’s headline (‘Trump Budget Includes ‘Significant Funding of . . . Refugee Program’), some of the funding proposal likely involves humanitarian help abroad and development of the ‘safe zones’ (abroad!) concept.

President Donald Trump salutes after laying a wreath at the Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson, to commemorate Jackson’s 250th birthday, Wednesday, March 15, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Here is Michael Patrick Leahy with an inside look at Trump Administration funding plans:

The blueprint for the Trump administration’s FY 2018 budget released on Thursday “allows for significant funding of humanitarian assistance, including food aid, disaster, and refugee program funding” in the State Department.

“This would focus funding on the highest priority areas while asking the rest of the world to pay their fair share,” the blueprint states.

“Taken together with the executive order, it looks like the president will keep the refugee program with a lower annual number, like the 50,000 limit specified in Executive Order 13780, and when the annual determination is released, identify countries of concern in a way that excludes Somalia, and other countries of concern that are known to harbor terrorists,” a source familiar with the federal refugee resettlement program tells Breitbart News.

[….]

“As long as he keeps the refugee program going, we are going to get more people from countries related to real security issues and regardless, the program needs to be legislatively reformed and regulations that have caused Constitutional violations repealed before restarting in FY 2018,” the source adds.

So, the Trump team is aware and is aiming to “legislatively” reform the program which we have been insisting is the only way to permanently fix (if possible!) the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.

Otherwise, if there is no legislative fix, then in 4, or 8, years the whole huge, uncontrolled, flow could begin again with a new president. (See ‘Where is Congress?’ here)
Reform of “regulations” is the Administration’s job!
Regulations do not need “repeal” (implying Congress gets involved), they need only be trashed or re-written by Trump’s people. (Could they trash the “regulations” that were written for the Wilson-Fish amendments? As I understand it, those regulations wrongly authorized a non-profit group to run a refugee program in a state that had withdrawn from the program.)
Leahy continues….

The language of the blueprint, however, could be interpreted to suggest that the Trump administration’s “significant funding of . . . [the] refugee program” defines the program broadly to include safe zones in other parts of the world in addition to the federal refugee resettlement program. As such, a further reduction of refugees resettled in the United States in FY 2018 could be entirely possible.

Leahy goes on to discuss the recent court decisions in Hawaii and in Maryland, noting that the judge in Hawaii did place a restraining order (we believe completely illegally) on Trump’s reduction of the Obama PROPOSED CEILING (see ceiling discussion here).
Then at the end of his informative piece, we get a laugh!  Leahy wraps up with this….

As to the number refugees who will be resettled in the United States during the balance of FY 2017, President Trump may take a page from President Andrew Jackson, whose tomb he honored during his visit to Nashville on Wednesday.

“John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it,” President Jackson said of an 1832 Supreme Court decision unfavorable to his policies issued by the Marshall Court.

President Trump’s attitude to the unfavorable decision issued by Judge Watson regarding a president’s Constitutional and statutory authority to limit the number of refugees arriving in the United States, a decision Judge Chuang [in Maryland case—ed] may agree with on March 28, may well be something like this:

“Judge Watson has made his decision; now let him pay for it.”

To read more and follow links, continue here.
See my FY17 and FY18 timeline here.  See my proposed areas to cut funding, here, yesterday because FUNDING IS POLICY.
All of my posts relating to the USRAP and President Trump’s efforts to restrain and reform it, are posted in my Trump Watch! category.
And, don’t miss Tennessee sues the feds! over Wilson-Fish program.