Category: Other Immigration

Walkersville, MD, still no decision, maybe today?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you are one of our many readers following the Walkersville, MD issue involving a zoning change decision that would allow the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to build a convention facility on agricultural land adjacent to the town, here is the latest from the Frederick News Post.

When I attended the session on Tuesday evening I was struck by a couple of things.  First, I thought about the whole issue towns must address all the time and that is that increasing population, mostly fueled by immigration, is putting a strain on our quality of life.  Walkersville is struggling with traffic, open space, and especially water shortage problems.     One way to deal with all that is for the town itself, perhaps with citizens help, purchase the open space around the town. 

I also thought about the issue of an entire group of people from another culture moving lock, stock and barrel into a community where they have never had any presence and what a shock that is to the local people whose families have lived there for generations in many cases.    And, before readers on a racist witch hunt get all wound up, can you imagine if we started setting colonies of Americans down in the middle of say Saudi Arabia (or even Pakistan where the Ahmadiyya are from), all hell would break lose.  They wouldn’t just be discussing peacefully the ins and outs of zoning issues, whether the project was in harmony with the surrounding land use, they would be pulling out the long curved knives.

If you are new to this issue, follow all of our coverage here.

Update:  Notice just received:

Tomorrow night (Thursday, 2/7/2008) is a critical night.  It is expected that the Walkersville Board of Appeals will make its decision concerning the W-B-07-1 Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMC) special exception request. Please plan to attend.  Those attending are expected to show respect to the Board of Appeals, Town Officials and staff and others in the audience.  Please refrain from outbursts or disruptive behavior.  Please remain quiet.  

  WALKERSVILLE BOARD OF APPEALS MEETING Walkersville Town Hall, 21 W. Frederick Street, WalkersvilleThursday, 2/7/2008 7:00 P.M

Where to find information category: Negative Population Growth

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have a category that we often neglect, but we are trying now to beef it up some with links to information you might need about refugees or immigration generally.  Actually it’s also a way for those of us with old brains to keep track of information that we might normally lose in the sticky note desktop jungle.

The other day I heard a local radio advertisement for an organization called Negative Population Growth; check them out here.    Some of our readers have wondered where the environmental organizations are on immigration and we have reported that the major groups are silent.  This appears to be an organization that is concerned with preserving the quality of life for Americans as uncontrolled immigration puts pressure on our resources.

Walkersville, MD: Muslim compound update

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 Update 2/6/08:   I went out to Walkersville last evening, will have more later but in the meantime here is the Frederick News Post on the meeting last night.    A decision tonight maybe? 

Apparently a decision may come as early as Tuesday night on the special exception zoning request by the Ahmadyyia Muslim Community in Walkersville, MD.   If you are new to Refugee Resettlement Watch you can catch up on this issue by going to our earlier posts here.    This is the official announcement for Tuesday evening:

WALKERSVILLE BOARD OF APPEALS MEETING

2/5/2008 7:00 P.M.

The Walkersville Board of Appeals will continue the public hearing to consider W-B-07-1 Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMC) special exception request on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 7 p.m. at the Walkersville Town Hall, 21 W. Frederick Street, Walkersville, MD. The Board will begin their deliberations and may reach a decision on the special exception request. At the meeting the Board may ask questions of or request information from the applicant, staff or others who participated in the hearing. Part of the meeting may be conducted in closed session in accordance with the Open Meetings Act.

Bring in more foreign labor, are we nuts?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday the Washington Times top headline read “U.S. economy losing jobs” and these lines jumped out at me in light of all the other things we are reading and reporting on here lately.

Revisions by the department also showed that the economy created 376,000 fewer jobs during 2007 than originally reported. The total of 1.14 million new jobs was less than 100,000 a month — not enough to keep pace with the growth in population and job seekers. As a result, the unemployment rate rose from a low of 4.6 percent to 4.9 percent last month.

“–not enough to keep pace with the growth in population and job seekers.”    The Center for Immigration Studies has reported the increase in US population is completely a function of immigration.   Then why on earth are we bringing more foreign labor?

A few days ago we reported that 100 Nepalese workers are missing from Huntsville, Alabama where they had been brought to the US by a large company and had just literally disappeared into the woodwork of America.  But note in this article they were working 12 hours shifts and taking home $88 and recently the number of shifts had declined for them.   Cinram Corp. thinks they just packed up and went back to Nepal.  You would have to have worked an awful many weeks to afford a return ticket to Nepal.

Then there is Emporia, KS the city that is now in a state of mourning because 1500 Tyson’s Food workers have been sent packing too.   

It was a grim picture at Emporia Presbyterian Church on Friday morning as more than 200 people — Tyson workers and their families — packed the church for a meeting to address some of their concerns and learn about what help is available for them.

Most of those attending were foreign workers who will need translation help to apply for unemployment, if they are here legally.    No documents and you are out in the cold.

Some audience members were concerned about what to do if they don’t have legal documentation. Workers without documentation are not eligible for unemployment.

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“You need to ask Tyson to help out,” Rios said

The list goes on!   Recently I wrote about the poor job prospects in Michigan for refugees.   But, look at this article on REAL ID from the Detroit News.     Apparently Michigan has so many foreign workers its economy will suffer further if those workers cannot get driver licenses easily.

Archer, an attorney whose law firm represents the Japanese Consulate, said those harmed include 10,000 Japanese citizens, working up to seven years apiece at more than 400 in-state Japanese firms.

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“It will disrupt business and cause problems at a time when we want to bring more business to Michigan,” Archer said.

[ ]

Officials of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. said foreign investment in Michigan is at risk if the fix-it bills aren’t enacted.

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The agency is working with firms in nine countries representing $300 million in investment and 3,100 jobs, they said.

Testifying at the hearings the director of a refugee agency in Lansing says that finding jobs for refuguees would be difficult if REAL ID is implemented.  But, as we pointed out it’s already a problem for refugees in Michigan to find work.

Shirin Timms, director of the nonprofit Refugee Center in Lansing, said Michigan is a top “resettlement state” for those escaping strife in other lands, who are here legally but now can’t get licenses and IDs that will help them land jobs.

So, back to my original question, are we nuts?   We will bring 70,000 additional low skilled workers to the US in the Refugee Resettlement Program this fiscal year!  And, that is just one of many immigration programs; it’s no wonder we can never defeat poverty. 

100 Foreign workers missing in Alabama tonight

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Coming right on the heels of the anger at Tyson’s Food for disrupting communities by bringing Somali refugees in large numbers to small American cities, comes the news that another big business has lost 100 Nepalese workers this week.   

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — About 100 people who came from Nepal to work at a north Alabama factory seemingly vanished from a pair of apartment buildings, along with a lot of furniture and appliances, and can’t be located, officials said Tuesday.

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Immigration agents are trying to determine what happened to the Nepalese workers, among hundreds brought to the United States to work at a DVD factory operated by Cinram Inc., said Lauren Bethune, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Homeland Security.

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“We do not in any way consider it a security threat, but we do think it is important,” she said.

The AP article goes on to say that the workers were part of a group of 1350 foreign workers brought to the Cinram plant.  Missing along with the people are hundreds of thousands of dollars of furniture, TV sets, and kitchenware.   The Homeland Security agent went on to say maybe they went home.  Yeh right, they just loaded all the loot on commercial flights and headed back to Nepal!  (Hat tip: Lori)

More:  Blulite sent us a link (in comments) to a story in the Huntsville Times a day earlier that adds more to this shocking story.   These aren’t refugees admitted under the Refugee Resettlement program.   But, this further points to the need for someone to do a blog on other immigration programs that allow foreign nationals to enter the US from troubled parts of the world.