Category: Other Immigration

Vijay Kumar: An immigrant to be proud of!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I don’t have time to give this post the time it deserves, but please go to New English Review and read about Vijay Kumar an Indian immigrant running for Congress —the district includes multicultural mecca Nashville, TN!  Here is one of the many encouraging things author Rebecca Bynum says about Mr. Kumar:

A major issue for Kumar is the revival of America’s melting pot standard of integration. Coming from the ultimate multicultural society in India, where many languages are spoken, Kumar sees this as detrimental to cultural cohesion and societal health. He calls for English to be instituted as the official language of the United States and for full assimilation to again be the ultimate goal of immigrants. He is also a strong opponent of illegal immigration and worries about the depression of wages for America’s poor. But more importantly, he worries about preserving American culture and national identity.

Obama and the taxpayer money trail

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars: 

The article that caught my eye appeared first at World Net Daily on February 28th entitled, “Obama raised funds for Islamic causes,”  and then I saw some of the same information posted at Atlas Shrugs here.   The articles suggest that Senator Obama is a closet supporter of the Palestinian cause (not a surprise in light of his Reverend buddy) and thus may be connected with questionable characters in the terror world, but I can’t speak to that.    What interested me is the more mundane issue of taxpayer money flowing through the “community” organizations of Chicago.

Here are some of the quotes from World Net Daily that sent me searching tax returns.

Abunimah (Ali Abunimah, a Chicago-based Palestinian-American activist) serves on the board of the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a “catastrophe” and supports intense immigration reform, including providing driver’s licenses and education to illegal aliens.

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WND reported yesterday the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit on which Obama served as a paid director alongside a confessed domestic terrorist, provided $75,000 in grants to the AAAN.

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Obama’s advocacy on behalf of Palestinians comes after WND reported yesterday the presidential candidate served on the board of the Woods Fund alongside William C. Ayers, a member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombings against government buildings.

It’s a free country right, and groups can form and advocate for their causes all they want.  It is one of our great freedoms.   But, what if the taxpayers are funding some causes and not others.    The Woods Fund is a private foundation with assets of over $70,000,000 in 2006.   The fund owns pages and pages of shares in companies of every sort, but pays only a pittance in taxes because it gives some (around $3,000,000 in 2006) of its earnings to charities of its choice and hires people like Bill Ayers and previously Barack Obama to govern it. 

The Woods Fund gave grants to groups such as the above mentioned Arab American Action Network, Prison Reform, Latinos United, Inner City Muslim Action Network and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to name a tiny fraction.    I was looking for groups like maybe Suburban Redneck Rights Coalition, or Nascar Fans United for Peace, or  Unemployed Conservative Trailer Park Citizens for Human Rights.   This community organizing B.S. that Obama brags about is really left wing political organizing couched in multicultural grievance language and paid for by us.

Maybe you are saying so what, it’s a private foundation.  But, get this!  The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) is getting direct government (taxpayer funded!) grants to work against you!   In the most recent Form 990 I could get for them (2004), they received $122,327 in government grants as part of their $394,687 income for the year.   That is about 31% of their budget to “organize” Chicago Arabs.   Lest you think they are running bake sales or pig roast fundraisers, much of the other “direct public support” they receive comes from grants from the likes of the Woods Fund.

Next I wanted to know what is this Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).  See what they do here.  And, while you are reading think about the fact that in 2005 you funded this group to the tune of $5,276,202 as part of an overall income of $6,779,751.  YOU are paying 78% of what they do.  To be completely accurate, if you live in Illinois you are paying much of this.

But, rest assured the ICIRR isn’t greedy, it doesn’t roll around in your money it passes it on to groups like Council of Islamic Organizations, Chinese Mutual Aid Assn.,  World Relief (Moline), Instituto Del Progresso Latino, Muslim Women Resource Center, Arab American Family Services, Bosnian-Herz American Community Center. and of course the Arab American Action Network ($82,000 in 2005) among 40 some other similar groups.

Funny I didn’t see any groups for people like me.

So, first Obama was busy getting these folks organized in the “community,”  then as a State legislator in Illinois (I’ll bet you a buck) he  made darn sure all his “community” groups got their fair share of your paycheck so they could keep organizing against you.  

Some racket, huh!

Iraqi Heavy Metal band looking for refugee status

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This blog tells a story that is a change of pace for what we normally write about.  Apparently a Heavy Metal rock band has escaped persecution in Iraq and sought refuge in Turkey, but Turkey, so the post says, does not take refugees from anywhere but the West!   Can you believe it!    A Muslim country does not take its fellow Muslims in from Asia, Africa and the Middle East!   What are they afraid of?  Do they know something we don’t know? 

Is this policy why we took the Meshketian Turks from Russia and Turkey didn’t take them?

In November 2007, the Iraqi metal band Acrassicauda was able to get to Turkey through the help of friends who donated money for them to leave Syria. Their visas in Syria were expiring and the government of Syria was threatening to force all Iraqis to return to Iraq.

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Now they are in Turkey and their money and options are running out. Life in Turkey is very expensive and very difficult for people waiting to find out if they can officially be resettled by the UNHCR in another country (Turkey does not accept refugees from anywhere other than the West). As it stands now, they may have to return to Baghdad, simply because they can’t afford to stay in Turkey much longer. It’s impossible to stress just how dangerous this will be for them.

You will find a link to the group’s music here.  

Asylum seekers on the rise, Switzerland not so eager to take more

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A European born cousin of mine asked me this past weekend about Switzerland.  Does it take refugees and asylum seekers?   I didn’t know, but just today comes a report about the rise in numbers of people seeking asylum in Europe that answers the question.   Iraqis are responsible for the rise according to this article in Swiss.info. 

After falling for five years, the number of asylum applications in industrialised countries rose by ten per cent in 2007, the United Nations refugee agency reports.

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Switzerland, where numbers remained almost static, was in 11th place overall for the number of asylum applications it receives, comparable with Austria and Belgium.

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The overall trend, which saw figures reach a 20-year low in 2006, has been reversed “largely because of an increase in the number of Iraqi asylum seekers”, the UNHCR said.

By the way, we haven’t mentioned Asylum much and can only say it differs from Refugee Resettlement in that those seeking asylum arrive in the country in which they request asylum on their own steam (and find good immigration lawyers!).  Refugees are processed abroad and then we pay their travel expenses.  Both groups are treated the same when they get here and are eligible for all sorts of healthcare and welfare.

We’ve heard stories of Africans (others probably too) who get on a plane somewhere in the world with a passport of some sort and dump it in the toilet upon landing in the US where they then ask for asylum.

Back to Switzerland, a Swiss refugee agency says that Switzerland could do more for refugees.  No offense to the Swiss, but I’ve spent a little time there and I was struck by how inflexible many of its citizens are, or at least the ones I knew.    They are complete neat freaks—I knew one girl who ironed her underwear!  They freshen their bed covers out the window every day!   Can you imagine the culture clashes they must have with some refugees.

According to Golay, the Swiss Refugee Council has also been calling on Switzerland to be more generous in admitting groups of refugees.

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“A policy of taking in resettlement groups would have its place considering how few Iraqis are currently being accepted into Switzerland,” he said.

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“Switzerland has not done this on a significant scale since the mid-1990s. We have asked Switzerland to re-adopt this policy, particularly in the case of Iraqis, some two million of whom are living outside their country in very difficult conditions with very little support.”

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The largest single nationality group of asylum seekers in Switzerland in 2007 was Eritreans (1,662), followed by Serbs (953) and Iraqis.

Here are some interesting numbers from the article:

The industrialised countries that lodged the most asylum applications in 2007 were:

The United States: 49,200
Sweden: 36,200
France: 29,900
Canada: 28,300
Britain: 27,900
Greece: 25,110
Germany: 19,160
Italy: 14,050
Austria: 11,880
Belgium: 11,120

Switzerland was in 11th place with 10,390.

Illegal alien: We are coming to Maryland

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Although this isn’t about refugees, we have from time to time brought you news about what’s happening with the illegal side of immigration in Maryland where we live.  

The immigration issue is without a doubt the hottest topic in the State of Maryland right now.

We can’t say we are surprised by an illegal alien’s assertion that they are on the way, but somehow it’s all more shocking when you see it for yourself.   Before you read on,  go to this CNN news story and watch the film about how the crackdown in Northern Virginia is sending illegal immigrants to the sanctuary state of Maryland.  I’m told that we are now one of only 5 states that give driver’s licenses to illegals.

Next read this informative article in The Tentacle by Steve Berryman entitled, “Casa de Illegals.”  If you recall Mr. Berryman is the spokesman for Citizens for Walkersville who fought hard to keep their rural town rural when the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect sought to develop a large convention facility (for 10,000!) adjoining the town.   We covered that issue extensively here.

And finally, because news is breaking literally hourly on the illegal immigration issue in the State Legislature go to Help Save Maryland, the grassroots group that is leading the effort to bring some sanity to this sanctuary state, and learn how you can help.     Write to Help Save Maryland and ask to be placed on their e-mail list to receive updates on breaking news   HelpSaveMaryland@yahoogroups.com .

See also this interview with Help Save Maryland director Brad Botwin in The Sentinel.