NJ Rep heading new effort to get tens of thousands of Syrians into the US ASAP

03/12/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But some of the Democrats cheering earlier for more Syrians have dropped like flies! (amazing how edifying a few Islamic terror attacks can be!).
As you know, Canada’s boy Trudeau visited Obama in the White House this week which became the news hook for those members of Congress pushing for tens of thousands of mostly Muslim Syrians for your towns.

I was interested to see that 37 members signed the March 7th letter, while back on September 11th, 2015, 72 members had signed a similar plea. So they’ve lost 35! (did Paris and San Bernardino drive off a few signers?).
Also, note that the letter this week doesn’t specify a number while their letter of September 11th (imagine the nerve to date it on that anniversary) said they want 100,000 Syrians seeded into America by the end of 2016 (the end of Obama’s term).
Here is the news at NJ.com:

United States Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-9th Dist.) is urging President Barrack Obama to follow our northern neighbor’s lead and take in more Syrian refugees.

In letter sent to Obama this week, Pascrell and other U.S. congressmen urge the president to use a visit by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday as a chance to discuss taking in more refugees.

Pascrell noted that the U.S. has only taken in 3,000 Syrian refugees since 2011, while Canada has taken in 25,000 in the last four months alone.United States Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-9th Dist.) is urging President Barrack Obama to follow our northern neighbor’s lead and take in more Syrian refugees.

Here are those who signed the letter this past week:

Signatories include U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ 9th District), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR 3rd District), Michael E. Capuano (D-MA 7th District), Matt Cartwright (D-PA 17th District), Judy Chu (D-CA 27th District), David N. Cicilline (D-RI 1st District), Yvette Clarke (D-NY 9th District), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA 11th District), Debbie Dingell (D-MI 12th District), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX 35th District), Donna Edwards (D-MD 4th District), Keith Ellison (D-MN 5th District), Chaka Fattah (D-PA 2nd District), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ 3rd District), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL 4th District), Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL 23rd District), Michael M. Honda (D-CA 17th District), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX 18th District), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX 30th District), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH 9th District), William R. Keating (D-MA 9th District), Rick Larsen (D-WA 2nd District), Brenda Lawrence (D-MI 14th District), Barbara Lee (D-CA 13th District), John Lewis (D-GA 5th District), Ted W. Lieu (D-CA 33rd District), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY 18th District), Betty McCollum (DFL-MN 4th District), Jim McDermott (D-WA 7th District), James P. McGovern (D-MA 2nd District), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Washington D.C.), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ 6th District), Chellie Pingree (D-ME 1st District), Mark Pocan (D-WI 2nd District), Mike Quigley (D-IL 5th District), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL 9th District), Juan Vargas (D-CA 51st District), Marc Veasey (D-TX 33rd District).

You might want to go back to the earlier letter and see if your favorite Democrat (they are all Dems) signed both letters or perhaps your rep has had a change of heart since Paris and San Bernardino.
Go here to see a map of Pascrell’s district which includes the location where Donald Trump observed Muslims celebrating on 911.
And, one last thing! Any of you who are planning to not vote, or write in someone, if Trump is the nominee, remember, you will be voting for tens of thousands of Muslim refugees to be admitted to the US (under either a Clinton or Sanders Administration).

Meatpackers and Somali workers (again) disrupt small town life in America

03/10/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This time it is the New York Times doing the story, but it is not new for us. We told you about problems in Ft. Morgan, Colorado way back beginning in 2008, see our huge archive on Ft. Morgan by clicking here.

Editor’s note: There is so much going on these days and life has been interrupting my writing time, please follow my tweets (right hand side bar here at RRW) because when I do get time at the computer, I do try to keep up with the news by tweeting. This NYT story is from a couple of days ago (I did tweet it then).

Cargill Somalis — http://coloradopols.com/diary/79378/fort-morgans-cargill-plant-fires-190-muslim-employees-in-prayer-dispute#sthash.DvrQ1LOw.dpbs

Back to Ft. Morgan….
I can’t resist repeating this little bit from a post I wrote on September 30, 2008 about the Ft. Morgan Times editorial excitedly inviting Somalis to town and calling out this blog!
Here is what I said:

Today [9/30/08] the Ft. Morgan Times has an editorial [~~original editorial is gone, so it’s a good thing I got it at the time!~~ Found by reader Jeff, here—ed] entitled, “Refugees taking root in Ft. Morgan.” I have read a lot of politically correct, diversity is beautiful, let’s all sing ‘kumbaya’ articles, but this one I’m going to print out and hang by my computer and wait for the day when something happens in Ft. Morgan, CO and I can refer to it again. [Needless to say much happened in Ft. Morgan, even an honor killing, since then!—ed]

Here is what the editor said about RRW (who else could it be!)

Of course, if it were up to some people, Somali refugees would not have a chance to resettle anywhere in the U.S. There is even a Web site devoted to teaching Americans how to chase refugees of various sorts out of town.

I’m going to encourage you to read the whole NYT story, click here, about the prayer break dispute at Cargill and the Somalis now packing up and leaving town. This is the takeaway for you:

As the demographics of small-town America shift and more Muslim immigrants move in, it is a dynamic that is likely to play out again and again.

Why is the US still taking Somalis after three decades?

The US State Department and its contractors like the Lutherans in Colorado Springs, Greeley and Ft. Morgan, Colorado are still bringing Somalis to the US by the thousands. Exactly why they are still colonizing your towns with Somalis isn’t exactly clear.
Since Obama was elected to office, the US admitted 45,718 Somalis. Many of those came from refugee camps in Kenya, but we picked up thousands of others around the world (screening?). Data here.
In that time frame (of the 45,718 admitted), Colorado got 1,412 of them while Minnesota got 6,037! But, Somali refugees were resettled all over American and often move (they call it secondary migration) to be with THEIR people in other seed communities.
In the first five months of this fiscal year (2016) we have admitted 3,107 new Somalis.
This isn’t about humanitarianism, it’s about large global corporations wanting cheap immigrant labor and the US State Department and ‘religious’ groups like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service acting as their head hunters.

Obama Administration tried to assure nervous governors that Syrian refugees would be screened

02/25/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Very interesting. While we were all distracted by the funeral for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday the White House was meeting with members of the National Governors Association (winter meeting) to assure them that it was perfectly safe for them to ‘welcome’ Syrian refugees to their states.
As far as I can tell, this Washington Times story is the only report on this intriguing bit of news.

Obama administration officials tried to reassure dozens of wary governors in a closed-door meeting that President Obama’s proposal to relocate Middle Eastern refugees in their states is safe, two governors said Monday.

Utah-Governor-Gary-Herbert — Utah Governor Gary Herbert was apparently not satisfied by Administration answers.

The briefing by senior administration officials last weekend was an effort to “find solutions to some misunderstandings and apprehensions that are out there,” said Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah Republican and chairman of the National Governors Association.

Asked whether the meeting eased states’ concerns about accepting refugees from crisis areas such as Syria and Iraq, Mr. Herbert replied, “We still have work to do.”

After Mr. Obama announced his plan last fall to admit up to 10,000 refugees into the U.S. this year, governors of 30 states from Maine to Wyoming publicly asked for the resettlement of Syrian refugees to stop until security concerns and procedures could be addressed. New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan was the lone Democrat in the group.

The resistance to refugees intensified after Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, which raised fears of Islamic State fighters sneaking into the U.S. as refugees.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe speaks during a debate at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) — Governor McAuliffe declared himself “confused by the process.”

Terry McAuliffe is confused! He is not alone! The UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program suffers every day from confusion as a result of the secrecy it has operated under for 35 years.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, conceded that some states “are confused about the process to go through.”

“A lot of issues were raised. We’re continuing to have the dialogue, and [Obama administration officials] promised they would get back to us with additional information as we go forward,” Mr. McAuliffe said.

Good luck getting more information.
Hmmm? I wonder if Tennessee Gov. Haslam was at the meeting?
Was your governor there? You should try to find out!
So far Syrian (mostly Sunni Muslims) are only trickling in, see here.

Syrians only trickling in, but Obama State Dept. says they will get to 10,000 this year

02/23/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve been reporting, see here, that the US State Department is way behind in meeting Obama’s goal of admitting 10,000 Syrians to the US by the end of the fiscal year (September 30th).
However, here at The Nation, Lawrence Bartlett, Director of Refugee Admissions at the US State Department, says they expect to get them in here and located in 48 states (they would like to make it 49 with Montana) before that deadline:

Bartlett with map — Putting pins in the map? Bartlett, US State Dept. Refugee Admissions Director says they are aiming to get the 10,000 Syrians in here this year as Obama promised. Here he stands in front of the map showing 190 towns and cities where they could be located. Map: http://www.wrapsnet.org/Portals/1/Affiliate%20Directory%20Posting/PRM%20Affilaite%20Map%20with%20details1.13.15.pdf

It’s common for resettlement numbers to start low and increase by the end of the fiscal year. Still, the difficulty the administration will have in admitting a mere 10,000 Syrians in a single year underscores the deep political challenges facing the Obama administration in responding to the ongoing Syrian civil war. In the months since the announcement, high-profile terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino have stoked anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, and the already onerous refugee resettlement application process has become even more stringent for Syrians. Despite this, the State Department says it still plans to meet its goal.

“We remain steadfastly committed to the President’s plan to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States in FY [fiscal year] 2016,” said Lawrence Bartlett, director of the State Department’s Office of Refugee Admissions, in a statement to The Nation. “We have met our admissions goals for each of the last three years, and we are on target to meet the goal of admitting 10,000 refugees from Syria and 85,000 refugees from all over the world, by the end of this fiscal year.” (The State Department didn’t set specific goals for Syrian refugees until this year, and only 1,682 were admitted in FY 2015.)

Has the so-called “interview surge” started?

Bartlett added that to meet the new goal, “from February through April, additional staff will be posted to Jordan, where they will conduct and support interviews of 10,000 UNHCR-referred refugee applicants,” referring to the UN’s refugee agency. In addition to the new efforts in Jordan, Barlett said the United States “will restart Department of Homeland Security refugee resettlement interviews in Beirut, Lebanon on February 18, 2016.” The vast majority of Syrian refugees are in the neighboring countries of Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Still, it’s unlikely that any of the refugees who begin the screening process this month would be able to travel to the United States by October, the end of the fiscal year.

Read the whole article. It sounds to me that (despite Obama’s pronouncements) we have many steadfast officials in our security apparatus that are taking the screening process very seriously.
See in red, one more reminder that the UN is picking our refugees!
For our many new readers: Just now as I retrieved the link for the resettlement office map I was reminded that we have a page for “Frequently Asked Questions” on the header above. Please visit it!
A list of all resettlement offices is here.

Syrians coming to NJ, Church World Service to hold gathering to educate citizens

02/21/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you live in North Jersey, especially in the area of Jersey City where Americans witnessed the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center across the harbor and where Donald Trump reported Muslims celebrating that day, you might want to attend this educational gathering being promoted by Church World Service, one of nine major federal resettlement contractors.
[For the record, CWS is the resettlement contractor that tried to set up shop in my county in 2007 and inspired me to write this blog!]
Mark your calendars for March 6th!
Here is the news on the event.
Syrians (mostly Sunni Muslims) are only trickling in so far, see here, but the Obama Administration is planning an “interview surge” to get more in here more quickly, here. CWS is getting ‘welcoming’ communities prepped for the surge of arrivals.

CWS Mahmoud — **Mahmoud Mahmoud**, director of Church World Service in Jersey City, will speak about ongoing efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in the New York area and ways the community can help at First Congregational Church of Westfield on Sunday, March 6, at 11:30 a.m. To register for this event, which includes a free soup luncheon, contact the church at 908-233-2494 or uccfcc@verizon.net. (courtesy photo)

Be sure to see my earlier post today on the NYT actually reporting on security screening inadequacy.
I’ll betcha now that Chris Christie is out of the Presidential race, the NJ governor won’t be talking with the same bravado, as he did previously, about not permitting Syrian resettlement in the state.
Click here for a huge archive on Church World Service.