Sobia Siddiqui, communications coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Texas Chapter, said the cuts are discriminatory.
“Our president ran his campaign and one of his strongest and most vocal points is that he called for a ban on all Muslims,” said Siddiqui.
She said there are refugee families in Houston who can’t be reunited with family members facing dangerous situations abroad because of the ban.
“There’s a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about if people will be able to have their families rejoin them back here in the United States or even in Houston,” said Dan Stoecker, CEO of The Alliance, which offers refugee services in Houston.
The Alliance is a subcontractor of the Ethiopian Community Development Council, the smallest, and likely most vulnerable to a federal budget cut, of the nine refugee contractors that monopolize all resettlement to the US.
In 2016, I excitedly reported that the State of Texas withdrew from the US Refugee Admissions Program, but you can see that without a follow-up legal challenge by the state it was a meaningless move. The contractors now run the program in the state!
Editor’s note: As I reportedhere last week, I received a letter at my home from a Washington, DC lawfirm representing Chobani, LLC and its principal shareholder Hamdi Ulukaya. The letter also references Mr. Ulukaya’s foundation (The Tent Foundation).
They claim that several points I made in a post below are false based on information published by the New York Times, Bloomberg and CNN.
After considering how best to address their many concerns with my post, I determined that it would be most efficient and transparent to simply present their point of view.
So here it is:
~They say that Chobani and Mr. Ulukaya support diversity of opinion.
~They say that Chobani and the Tent Foundation have not advocated bringing more refugees to the US. (They do not say whether Mr. Ulukaya has called for an increase in refugee admissions to the US, only that the Chobani company and Tent have not.)
~They say that Chobani, the Tent Foundation and Mr. Ulukaya have been clear about their objective to provide opportunities for refugees. (Ed—That transparency includes having the Tent Foundation publish a refugee hiring guide jointly with a US refugee resettlement contractor, see here.)
~They say that private companies like Chobani are not involved in selecting refugees or the number of refugees to be admitted and that only the federal government plays that role. (Ed.—of course Chobani cannot make, or be involved in, federal decisions on refugee selection, numbers, and their placement. Any such involvement, if shown would be the proper subject of an Inspector General investigation. But, as evidenced by the refugee hiring guide, the Tent Foundation has become an important vehicle for Mr. Ulukaya to show support for the the federally-funded resettlement contractor community.)
~ They say that the Foundation, Chobani LLC or Mr. Ulukaya have not lobbied to influence the refugee resettlement work of the federal government. (Ed.—Even without lobbying, as shown by the hiring guide prepared by the largely federally-funded Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service for the Tent Foundation, the Foundation has shown support for the federal resettlement contractor community.)
~ They say they do not approve of my discussion about a business model built on a steady supply of cheap legal immigrant labor that must rely on welfare to supplement inadequate wages.
~And they clearly disagree with my opinion that it isn’t humane to remove people from their cultural comfort zones to supply the labor needs of large global corporations. (Ed—they say they support diversity of opinion.)
~ They report in the letter that they told World Net Daily to remove a false statement about Chobani pledging to hire more refugees. (Ed.—I assume that means they want it to be clear that Chobani has not pledged to hire more refugees, but isn’t that what the Tent Foundation is all about?)
~Taking offense at my inference that refugees are at the lower end of the pay scale, they cite several media outlets reporting that Chobani employees are paid well above state and federal minimum wages, receive group health benefits and participate in a retirement plan.
A 2016 report from CNN (cited in the letter as documentation of salaries) mentions that Chobani is proud of its starting hourly wage that is in the $11-$12 per hour range (below the presently accepted living wage of $15 an hour), but that Mr. Ulukaya says he is planning to move gradually to the $15 an hour wage. That sounds good, but the CNN article is more than two years old so it would be useful to know if clear progress toward that higher wage has been made in keeping with Mr. Ulukaya’s “Humanity First” solution to immigration.
~They state that Chobani has never tried to exploit wage discrepancies between American workers and the refugee workers at the Chobani plants. (Ed.—In case you are wondering how many refugees are employed by Chobani, a 2016 report at the Huffington Post says the company employs refugees at 30% of the work force. I have seen other reports with up to 40%. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chobani-ceo-refugee-immigrant-hamdi-ulukaya_us_58189ac4e4b0990edc336cab )
We will be seeking more information from primary sources to make our own assessment of the issue of wages. As for welfare utilization, perhaps Chobani LLC in both New York and Idaho, seeking to set the record straight, would undertake a survey of their refugee employees use of social services including food stamps, housing subsidies and medical care, etc. and make public that information.
More later…..
Below is the original post that prompted the October 2, 2018 letter to me from the law firm representing Chobani LLC. The post should now be read with the additional context provided above.
The original post follows:
What does this have to do with refugees?
Everything(!) because Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya is the primary pusher, through his Tent Foundation***, for global corporations to promote bringing more refugees to the US (and to move others around the world) to provide them with a steady supply of cheap LEGAL immigrant labor.
We have written a lot about Chobani Yogurt and its hiring practices in New York and in Twin Falls, Idaho. See my Chobani files here.
Chobani was back in the news this week because he received a Global Citizen Awardalong with the ‘maverick’s’ widow. I suspect if someone researched the Atlantic Council you would find George Soros lurking somewhere in its background!
The gang is all here…..
I laughed to see the headline at Breitbart, thanks to Richard @highblueridge for sending it:
Chobani CEO Pleads with Corporations to Hire Refugees: U.S. Needs ‘Humanity First’ Immigration Policy
LOL! Humanity first! really!
Is it humane to bring more low-skilled workers to the US, yanking them from their cultural comfort zones around the world so they can work menial jobs in the food industry (think Meatpackers! and of course Yogurt manufacturers) via refugee contractors (aka head hunters) who then help the refugees sign up for all of their welfare services (because wages aren’t high enough, they need to be subsidized by you!).
You have to hand it to them! They have figured out a great business model.
I swear that these big global companies must send everyone to some sort of Public Relations 101 class where they are taught to fit the word “humanity,” “humanitarian,” or “humanitarianism” in to every public utterance they make.
Note that the word ‘humanity’ is never applied to impoverished, job-seeking, Americans!
Read my lips: It is about cheap compliant labor!
(With the Democrat’s side-benefit being that they get more socialist-leaning voters from the refugee arrivals.)
Then, you can have even more fun if you follow the link to the CNN report about Ulukaya’s big award—awarded to him by no less than another of our old favorites from the Obama Administration—Samantha Power (see my many postson what one writer called Hillary, Susan Rice and Power—Obama’s “humanitarian Vulcans!”).
US yogurt billionaire’s solution to immigration: ‘Humanity first’
(CNN) Hamdi Ulukaya, who built yogurt empire Chobani after immigrating to the US in the mid-90s, is challenging Americans to rethink the way they view immigration.
“I have nothing against America first, but ‘humanity first too,'” said Ulukaya in an exclusive interview with CNN on the sidelines of an event for his nonprofit, called Tent Partnership for Refugees.
Staying out of politics but taking a whack at Trump (ROFLMAO):
Above the political fray? Here is Ulukaya at the Clinton Global Initiative with refugee contractor Lavinia Limon. It was her resettlement agency responsible for the refugees being placed in Twin Falls. Did they have a deal even before his plant was built? Imagine where we would be today if Hillary or John McCain had ever become President!
Ulukaya has sought to keep his mission of assisting refugees above the political fray.But on occasion he has denounced the administration’s immigration policies and the way it enforces them. The issue is deeply personal for Ulukaya — a self-made billionaire who grew up tending goat and sheep in rural Turkey.
Ulukaya started recruiting immigrants and refugees to work at Chobani in 2010 — a strategy that drew vicious attacks from far right-wing conspiracy theorists who have spread lies about the company, including allegations Chobani embarked on a secret plot to increase America’s Islamic population.
About 30 percent of Chobani’s employees are immigrants or refugees. He says his employees and suppliers are worried.
[….]
Ulukaya, who launched Tent in 2016, has successfully urged companies to develop solutions by “mobilizing resources, innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit of the business community.”
“They [companies] all know that if you don’t find the way to solve this problem, or make it easier, this human tragedy is going to turn into one of the biggest problems for our children going forward,” he said.
This week, Tent added 20 brands to a growing list of partners pledging to hire refugees or help them build a better life. The latest companies to commit to the cause include Hilton, pasta maker Barilla, Microsoft and Uniqlo. In total, Tent has secured promises from more than 100 companies.
Samantha Power, one of Obama’s “Humanitarian Vulcans” responsible for the destruction of the Libyan state and consequently the migrant invasion of Europe. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2012/05/31/white-houses-power-doing-rinkey-dink-do-gooder-stuff/
[….]
“Even if governments were stepping up to do the right thing, which many, including the US government, are not, the crisis is too big for government,” said Samantha Power, the former US ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017, as she presented Ulukaya the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Award this week.
[….]
In 2005, Ulukaya bought a defunct food factory in upstate New York with a small business loan to start making cheese. He eventually grew that into Chobani, which has become the top-selling Greek yogurt brand in the US. Several years after opening his factory, he started hiring refugees who lived in nearby areas.
He tapped the refugee community again in Idaho when Chobani opened a plant in Twin Falls, which is close to the dairy farmers who supply the raw material for his yogurt. Because of his efforts to hire and help refugees, Ulukaya has become the target of far-right websites and bloggers. One site accused Chobani of “call[ing] on [the] biggest American companies to join [an] Islamic surge.”
Laughing again! So will Chobani threaten to sue CNN for bringing all this up again???
Do not miss my postabout how the Tent Foundation hired the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (one of nine federal resettlement contractors) to write a refugee hiring guide.
***Go hereand have a look at the global corporations supporting the movement of refugee laborers around the world. Notice Twitter is one of Tent’s corporations. And, I am sure you will find others that you might not have suspected.
P.S. Why has no one written a book on Samantha Power, a dangerous woman who will be back if the Dems regain the Oval Office?
I’ve been watching the news unfold for a couple of days about what happened at Valley Fair, an amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota, not far from Minneapolis when fights broke out throughout the park—enough fights to require hundreds of police being called to clear the area.
The mainstream media in Minnesota says, ho hum, nothing to see because no one was hurt. And they steadfastly refuse to use the word “Somali” when discussing the incident they say involved “multiple-ethnicities.” (Could there ultimately have been multiple ethnicities fighting back against the roving gangs of Somalis?)
From a video taken by a witness….Multiple ethnicities?
On Saturday September 22, 2018 at the ValleyFair amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota, police and emergency responders had to evacuate all guests after a mob of Somali teenagers and men rushed through security and caused several violent fights to break out inside the park.
According to eyewitnesses who were at the park to celebrate Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, a group of nearly 100 Somali men mob rushed past security and amusement park staffers at the front entrance, and proceeded to run through the park and instigate fights among themselves and with guests.
Shakopee is 30 minutes from Minneapolis. Interesting! When I looked at the map I recognized other US State Department refugee resettlement sites. Bloomington, Burnsville, Eagan, St. Paul and Roseville have all ‘welcomed’ Somali refugees in the last ten years.
As several violent fights broke out, guests began to panic as reports of people being stabbed and shot began to circulate.
Cliff Hallberg, who was inside the park with his children at the time the fights broke out said it was very frightening for his children. “I saw about 60 Somali teenagers push their way through lines and scream at guests.”
[….]
The violent fights erupted during Law enforcement appreciation day when the park was full of police officers and other members of law enforcement who received discounted tickets so that their families could enjoy the amusement park. An estimated 263 police officers responded to the fights inside the park, according to witnesses.
“This looked like a targeted attack on law enforcement,” Hallberg added.
Hallberg also told Big League Politics that his car was spit on and that the rioters were setting off car alarms and causing chaos in the parking lot, all of which can be seen in video that was exclusively obtained by this reporter.
[….]
According to eyewitnesses and police officers who wish to remain anonymous, they believe the media is covering up the fact that the violent rioters were Somali men because the media and police don’t want to offend the Muslim Somali population or influence the upcoming election.
Officers in Minnesota have told this reporter that they are often told to avoid using the word Somali when discussing crimes committed by members of the Somali population because police and local Democrats have asked them to “stand down” in an effort to create positive community relations between Minnesota natives and the continually increasing Muslim Somali “refugee” population.
In the United States, Minnesota is the state with the largest Somali population.
Continue here where Loomer has much more plus videos from witnesses who were at the park last Saturday evening.
When you search around on the story, you will see that a mention of the Somalis at Valley Fair comes only in a story attacking Loomer which (I know firsthand!) is par for the course in that state!
Just like Lake Calhoun intimidation!
When I read Loomer’s story, I was reminded of a similar incident at Lake Calhoun, five miles from downtown Minneapolis, two years ago. Although involving fewer people, a similar scenario was described by eyewitnesses as gangs of Somali youths roamed the park and the adjoining neighborhood threatening whoever they encountered. The frightening incident was swept under the rug by the police department there.
I have no sympathy for giant globalist meatpackers because they brought this on themselves when they actively sought out (with the help of federal refugee contractors like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service) Somali refugee workers.
However, what we increasingly see is an accommodation of Islamic religious practices in the workplace with this settlement and others like it. CAIR is very happy!
Big Meat! Changing America, one meatpacking town at a time!
Ft. Morgan has a mosque now. https://www.denverpost.com/2016/03/19/somalis-struggle-to-make-new-home-in-colorado/
DENVER — A big U.S. meatpacker has agreed to pay $1.5 million to 138 Somali-American Muslim workers who were fired from their jobs at a Colorado plant after they were refused prayer breaks, a federal anti-discrimination agency said Friday.
Cargill Meat Solutions, a division of Minnesota-based agribusiness company Cargill Corp., also agreed to train managers and hourly workers in accommodating Muslim employees’ prayer breaksat its Fort Morgan beef processing plant, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said.
Wichita, Kansas-based Cargill denies wrongdoing but agreed to settle to avoid further litigation, the federal agency said. The dispute dates back to the firings of the workers in late 2016 after management rescinded policies allowing Muslim employees to take short breaks for prayer.
In 2017, the agency found that the workers had been harassed and discriminated against for protesting the unannounced policy change that denied them opportunities for obligatory prayer. Hundreds of Somali-Americans work at the plant in Fort Morgan, about 50 miles southeast of Greeley.
The Teamsters union also agreed to pay them, an admission that they too were not happy with the Somali workers and their religious demands.
In a related announcement, a Teamsters union local that was supposed to represent the workers will pay them $153,000 to settle discrimination complaints.
The federal agency said it determined that Teamsters Local Union No. 455, based in Denver and in Fort Morgan, failed to advocate for the Muslim workers in their dispute with Cargill and even harassed them because of their race, religion and national origin. The workers were dues-paying union members.
Union officials denied wrongdoing, but the local unit agreed to pay the workers, undergo training in handling grievances, and publicize employee rights to be free of discrimination based on race or national origin.
[….]
Like other U.S. firms that employ Muslim line workers at meatpacking and processing plants, Cargill managers must balance religious accommodations with demands of processing meat in an operation that frequently runs 24 hours.
Managing possible disruptions not only slow production but can create safety issues for line workers.
Here comes CAIR:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group, and Qusair Mohamedbhai, a Denver attorney who represented the workers praised the settlement.
See my Fort Morgan file here. I visited that small city on my tour of midwestern and western towns and cities disrupted by an influx of refugee workers. I spoke with residents who told me that at one time Cargill paid very good wages, but then discovered the ‘benefits’ of immigrants and refugees who would work for less.
You might want to search RRW for the word ‘meatpackers’ because I have dozens and dozens of posts going back ten years about how BIG MEAT is changing America.
Here is just one postyou should see. It isn’t just meatpackers, but others in the food industry, the hospitality industry and other manufacturing companies that drive the US Refugee Admissions Program.
This post is filed in my category ‘Stealth jihad’for obvious reasons.
This story would not be worth posting except for the fact that it once again informs us that the refugees are here to supply cheap labor for industries that want to keep wages low. (Cheap for industry, but not for taxpayers who subsidize the refugee families with welfare!)
And, it is worth posting because the refugee agency head in Twin Falls is mistaken when he thinks the citizens of Idaho have been sufficiently ‘educated’ and now will be more welcoming of refugees.
Twin Falls has long been a city in turmoil about the refugee flow there partly due to the labor needs of the massive Chobani Yogurt plant there and the dairy industry that supplies it.
Lack of refugees has Idaho businesses scrambling for workers
(Be sure to click on the link and see the story which features a photo of a Muslim woman giving free Arabic lessons to Americans. Gee, so why is that needed?)
TWIN FALLS — Idaho has welcomed far fewer refugees this year, which means resettlement agencies have more time to work with families, but South Idaho businesses are scrambling to find workers.
The College of Southern Idaho’s Refugee Center*** is on track to resettle 71 people this year, a fraction of the 300 people it typically serves each fiscal year. It’s received 64 refugees so far this year, with another family of seven expected soon. The fiscal year ends at the end of September.
“I think the decline in arrivals takes a toll, especially with our super low unemployment right now,” said Tara Wolfson, director of the Idaho Office for Refugees. “And I think there’s a loss to our ingenuity, to our workforce, to our bringing new ideas and creations to our state, that refugees tend to bring.” [This is such BS—refugees bring new ideas and creations to the state.—ed]
[….]
“It’s really a tough thing because we need workforce,” Roeser said. “We have so many Baby Boomers retiring. We have so many services that need warm bodies to work because of the aging workforce.”
I have said innumerable times that since the US Refugee Admissions Program is primarily to supply cheap labor for big global businesses (like Chobani), let’s have that debate, but shut up about it being a ‘humanitarian’ program.
Refugee resettlement across the state has declined dramatically since 2016 when 916 people resettled in Idaho. That number dropped to 611 the following year, and the Idaho Office for Refugees has resettled 341 people so far in the 2018 fiscal year.
[….]
Zeze Rwasama thinks people are not complaining about refugees now because they have been sufficiently re-educated.
Wolfson said she expects that the low resettlement rate will continue into next year.
But Rwasama [Director of the Refugee Center at CSI] is hopeful that federal policies and practices “could change at any time.” He said these days he less frequently hears certain anti-refugee sentiments that he used to hear often, such as concerns about safety or complaints about refugees “taking jobs” from other workers.
“I think people have actually received correct information and that’s why I don’t hear it anymore,” Rwasama said.
“And I hope those answers are getting to the president as well, and soon he will allow more refugees to come.”
Things are only quiet because Donald Trump has taken the pressure off for now.
So, dear readers, the flood gates will open again if there is a new President elected in 2020 (there isn’t another Republican who would do what Trump is doing). I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to reform the whole program while we have him in office. So get out and get involved in election year politics where you live!
***The Refugee Center at the College of Southern Idahois a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (one of the big nine federal resettlement contractors).
