House Immigration Subcommittee to hold oversight hearing on refugee program tomorrow

10/25/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 26th: Hearing was a bust in my opinion, see here.

Here is the press release (hat tip Joanne): from the Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee with jurisdiction over the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.

See the list of Subcommittee members below. If any of those members are your representatives you should reach them today with your opinion on the program.

Raul Labrador — To have some real impact on this hearing, folks in Idaho must get to Rep. Labrador today! https://labrador.house.gov/contact-me/

Supposedly they will be addressing “fraud” (we’ll see!) and lack of consultation with communities!

Contacts on the press release are these:

CONTACT:
Kathryn Rexrode or Jessica Collins
(202) 225-3951

Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 9:00 a.m., the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee will hold an oversight hearing on the United States Refugee Admissions Program.

The Refugee Admissions Program is tasked with vetting and resettling refugees in the United States and is administered by the Department of State in conjunction with the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services. In recent years, there have been concerns that the program is susceptible to fraud and poses national security concerns due to the inability to thoroughly screen refugees seeking resettlement. In addition, the program has been criticized for its resettlement process, including that state and local governments are not consulted when refugees are resettled in their communities. The Trump Administration has taken these concerns seriously and is implementing changes to enhance the security of the program and the processes to ensure smooth resettlement.

At this week’s hearing, members of the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee will hear from officials from the agencies that administer the Refugee Admissions Program on what steps they are taking to address concerns about the program. Additionally, the Subcommittee will hear from the Government Accountability Office regarding their reports on fraud and security issues within the program.

Editor: Of course they NEVER hold a hearing with citizen witnesses who have vast experience in how the program has gone wrong where they live. Watch these witnesses spin! Please restrain yourselves from throwing a shoe at the screen!

Witnesses for the hearing are:

Mr. Simon Henshaw, Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, Department of State [Shamefully Trump has made no move to put his own choice to head the program at State.—ed]

The Honorable Lee Francis Cissna, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security

Mr. Scott Lloyd, Director, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Health and Human Services

Ms. Rebecca Gambler, Director, Homeland Security and Justice Unit, U.S. Government Accountability Office

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee Chairman Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) issued the statements below in advance of this hearing.

Chairman Goodlatte: “For generations, the United States has been a safe haven for those around the world fleeing persecution in their home countries. We must maintain our nation’s generosity toward those in need but must also ensure that our nation’s humanitarian programs are not abused by those seeking to harm our nation and our citizens. This week, the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee will closely look at the Refugee Admissions Program and examine the concerns that have been raised about it in recent years, including fraud and abuse, vetting procedures, the lack of consultation with state and local communities, and the arbitrary annual ceiling. I look forward to hearing how the Trump Administration is addressing these concerns to enhance the safety of our nation and ensure that the program works as intended to benefit those most at risk of persecution.”

Subcommittee Chairman Labrador: “As Americans, we have a long tradition of helping refugees who are fleeing persecution and wish to become contributing members of our society. However, our refugee program needs to be reformed to keep pace with the security challenges of today’s world. President Trump recognizes those challenges, and I look forward to hearing how his administration is working to restore confidence in the refugee program. Congress has a role play, as well. I’ve introduced legislation, H.R. 2826, which enhances refugee screening, curbs fraud, and gives states and communities a voice in refugee settlement decisions. This bill has already been approved by the Judiciary Committee, and I am eager to hear from the witnesses how the solutions featured in my bill can further improve the refugee program.”

This hearing will take place in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building and will be webcast live at judiciary.house.gov.

Here are the subcommittee members as of July 2017:

Screenshot (1008)

I have little confidence (after 10 years of observing the issue) that Congress is going to ever go so far as to trash or seriously reform the US Refugee Admissions Program (hearings like this one are extremely rare), but hope springs eternal, and if you would like to tell them what is happening where you live, try contacting those contacts listed above. Good luck!

But, don’t stop working hard where you live! See here.

No such thing as ‘Minnesota nice’ as St. Cloud mayor and council play dirty

10/25/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you that a St. Cloud, Minnesota councilman was planning to introduce a resolution on November 6th asking for a moratorium on refugee resettlement in order to understand better the economic impact of thousands of mostly Somali refugees being placed in the town over recent years by a Lutheran resettlement agency.

(Don’t miss yesterday’s post about Lutherans being paid directly by meatpacking companies to find and retain labor, here.)

So what happens the week before the planned debate on the moratorium resolution?

On Monday night (on the 23rd):

The Mayor and most of the council sprung a “welcoming” resolution, with no advanced warning, and allowed only a few minutes of discussion before voting in support in front of a large audience that was out of control.

Here Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily tells us what happened. Embedded in the story is a video of the meeting that was described by many as total chaos.

What happened at the St. Cloud, Minnesota, City Council on Monday night is being described as a well-organized “ambush” designed to shut down a citizen uprising or “pocket of resistance” against runaway refugee resettlement in the small city.

Screenshot (1005) — Councilman Jeff Goerger, who introduced the “Welcoming and Just City” resolution before his colleague’s resolution could be introduced and voted on.

College-age students filled the council chambers. Only five people were allowed to approach the podium and speak, all of them in favor of unlimited refugee resettlement with no accountability to the taxpayer.

A resolution was hastily introduced, read and voted on.

Mission accomplished.

The ambush was successful.

And the local Somali community is now celebrating.

It all started when several of the council members who support unlimited refugee resettlement with no financial accountability to the taxpayer were informed that one of their colleagues, Councilman Jeff Johnson, planned to introduce a resolution at their Nov. 6 meeting calling for a moratorium on all resettlements in St. Cloud until an economic impact study could be completed.

Johnson’s resolution would also require the city to verify that it is in full compliance with all facets of the federal Refugee Act of 1980 as signed by then-president Jimmy Carter.

But Johnson’s opponents, clearly having collaborated among themselves beforehand, sprung a new resolution on the public at the Monday, Oct. 23, meeting and passed it 5-1 after begrudgingly allowing only a few minutes of debate.

The efforts by Johnson to support financial accountability were undercut before they were even heard in a public forum.

Councilman Jeff Goerger made sure of it.

[….]

Councilman Jeff Goerger, who introduced the “Welcoming and Just City” resolution before his colleague’s resolution could be introduced and voted on.

Goerger stated, to a resounding applause, that the city has absorbed the thousands of Somalis “without an impact on the city budget or our quality of life.”

The families of the 10 people stabbed at the mall by Dahir Adan last year might disagree with that “quality of life” remark.

There is much, much more, continue reading here.

‘Minnesota nice’ is dead and gone!

Actions like this (playing dirty) are all the more reason for citizens to organize in towns with mayors and councils like this one in St. Cloud and campaign to elect your own people to local office. See what I said here.

You might not win the first time, or even the second time, but nothing beats the publicity you can get for your greatest concerns than having your own candidates voice them. What do you have to lose?

The other option is to move.

See my huge archive on St. Cloud that extends back to 2008 when I first reported on the beleaguered city forever changed by Lutheran Social Services of MN.

Foreign-owned Big Meat hires Lutherans to help them find and retain refugee labor

10/24/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is the crux of this story and not in my wildest dreams did I think that money was directly changing hands between the meat industry and a federal refugee contractor, in this case Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service headquartered in Baltimore, MD.

jbslogo-mob

I always assumed it was an informal relationship where the largely federally-funded ‘religious’ charity (LIRS is 96% funded by you and not via the collection plate) just happened to be bringing immigrant workers to small town America.

Now we learn that there is a formal (secret!), contractual arrangement planned for pilot projects in four states with JBS USA a Brazilian-owned company. And, it makes me wonder if this isn’t new and whether similar arrangements are being made with others of the nine federal refugee contractors.***

For those of you in places like St. Cloud, MN frustrated that you can’t get local elected officials to listen to you, remember their seemingly illogical resistance to slowing the flow of refugees has nothing to do with humanitarianism and everything to do with changing America for the almighty dollar!

From Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily:

Global meatpacking giant goes all in for refugee labor

A Lutheran resettlement agency that places United Nations refugees into dozens of U.S. cities and towns is working with the world’s largest meatpacking conglomerate to train refugees for work in four American states while also softening up the local natives to be more “welcoming.”

LIRS logo

The secretive pilot program between Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the U.S. subsidiary of JBS Swift aims to pump more refugees into Georgia, Texas, Iowa and Michigan to work in the company’s meat plants. If successful, the pilot program could be renewed for a second year and replicated at JBS meat plants across the U.S., WND has learned.

JBS Swift, the Brazilian-based global meat-processing giant, has agreed to pay Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, or LIRS, $155,000 to implement the pilot program over the next year in the four states, according to a draft of the partnership agreement obtained by WND from a person with inside knowledge of the deal.

“The shock here is to find out that a religious agency is being paid by a foreign global corporation to train refugees and ultimately transform the demographics of small towns in America’s heartland,” said Ann Corcoran, an expert on the international movement of refugees and the nine volunteer agencies that resettle them for the U.S.

The deal between the global meat producer JBS and the Lutheran agency has been dubbed “Rebuilding Dreams,” and is described in the draft document as a “grant and collaboration agreement” between JBS USA and LIRS in the four states.

“The primary goal of this agreement is to improve the capacity of JBS USA and local resettlement agencies to support and improve the hiring and retention of refugee employees at four pilot sites in Michigan, Texas, Iowa, and Georgia,” according to the document.

The following are the cities in those states where JBS has meatpacking plants:

Iowa – Council Bluffs, Marshalltown and Ottumwa, mostly pork production
Michigan – Plainwell, mostly beef
Georgia – Elberton, Douglas, Athens, Ellijay, Canton and Carrollton, mostly chicken
Texas – Waco, Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Pittsburg and Mount Pleasant, mostly chicken

“Rebuilding Dreams will achieve this goal by creating customized trainings and resources for key stakeholders, building stronger relationships through communications and technology platforms, enhancing the collection and evaluation of data, and improving the overall quality and culture of the workplace experience for refugee employees,” the agreement states.

The agreement also calls for improving the local “welcoming culture” in the cities where the refugees will be placed.

Part of United Nations agenda for sustainability

JBS is a transnational, global corporation that beats the United Nations “sustainability” drum on its website, and it also cashes in on the globalized “labor mobility” concept pushed by the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Read more here. The story is a detailed must-read about how a global corporation and a supposedly religious charity are changing America by changing the people.

And as a side reading project, see this 2006 article from the Greeley Tribune involving Swift (JBS bought Swift) explaining how the meat industry went from being a desirable place for Americans to work to their model today that is increasingly reliant on the global movement of labor—-middle America be damned!

Don’t miss Bloomberg: Big Meat worried about Trump’s reduced refugee flow, here.

For Republicans it’s about money!

We know the Dems are pushing refugee resettlement in order to boost the number of Democrat voters, and if you are wondering why the Republicans aren’t doing enough to get the program controlled—look to the Chamber of Commerce and GLOBAL Corporations that have convinced the Republican leadership that the free flow of cheap and captive (uncomplaining) labor across borders is the future.

The jig is up!

Big Meat gets cheap labor, the Dems get voters, and you, the taxpayer, get to subsidize it all (including welfare for workers paid insufficient wages!). If you complain you are a hater, a racist and an Islamophobe!

lirs-building — LIRS is headquartered here in Baltimore. This is their own description: The Lutheran Center (LIRS headquarters) is a six-story structure constructed in 1999 on property owned by Baltimore’s historic Christ Lutheran Church. The building is located near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in the historic Federal Hill neighborhood, a charming area rich with history and an eclectic array of eateries and shopping venues.

Making it clear!

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is the lead federal contractor for the following list of subcontractors.

LIRS, in Baltimore, is not a separate group from the others on the list! LIRS is the lead contractor that deals directly with the US State Department and divvies up incoming refugees between the agencies below—LOL! it is the ‘mothership’ to the following:

Arkansas
Canopy of Northwest Arkansas, Fayetteville

Arizona
Refugee Focus, Phoenix, Tuscon

California
Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, Los Angeles

Colorado
Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, Denver, Colorado Springs, Greeley

Florida
Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida, Jacksonville
Lutheran Services Florida, Miami, Orlando, Tampa

Georgia
Lutheran Services of Georgia, Atlanta, Savannah

Illinois
RefugeeOne, Chicago

Maryland
Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Hyattsville

Massachusetts
Ascentria Community Services, Westfield, Worcester

Michigan
Samaritas, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Troy

Minnesota
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, Minneapolis, St. Cloud

Nebraska
Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Omaha

New Hampshire
Ascentria Community Services, Concord

New Mexico
Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, Albuquerque, Santa Fe

New York
Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, Utica

North Carolina
Lutheran Services Carolinas, Raleigh

North Dakota
Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota—Center for New Americans, Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks

Oregon
Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Portland

Pennsylvania
Bethany Christian Services, Allentown, Lancaster, Philadelphia

South Carolina
Lutheran Services Carolinas, Columbia, Charleston

South Dakota
Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, Sioux Falls

Texas
Refugee Services of Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Houston

Virginia
Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Falls Church

Washington
Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Tacoma, Vancouver

Wisconsin
Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Madison, Milwaukee

So what do you do? Go to this post I wrote earlier this month and get to work where you live!

*** For new readers, these are the nine major federal refugee contractors largely funded by you, the taxpayer, see here. Refugee resettlement is not first and foremost about humanitarianism so don’t let them shut you up!

Lutherans on the offense in St. Cloud, plan propaganda webinar

10/22/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Readers, I do have news from elsewhere that needs to be posted, but the St. Cloud upcoming council vote is shaping up to be a pivotal event.

What I truly don’t understand is why Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota (a subcontractor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service headquartered in Baltimore) is so hell bent to bring more third worlders, especially Somalis, to a town where they (Somalis AND LSS) face such a backlash.

You would almost think the Lutheran resettlement contractor is benefiting financially beyond its per head payment for the refugees they place in Minnesota communities.

Now they plan to put on a webinar in mid-November to supposedly tell the public that refugees don’t cost taxpayers a dime just when a member of the city council wants a REAL economic assessment of what resettlement is costing the community beyond the trouble in schools and neighborhoods and the general social and cultural upheaval that comes with cities being rapidly changed demographically.

When you look at their list of handpicked webinar speakers (below from the St. Cloud Times), see who is represented and who isn’t:

No one from the police department is listed

No one from the school system

No one to explain the costs for interpreters in the criminal justice system and in hospitals etc.

No one who can speak to the amount of remittances being sent out of St. Cloud and back to Africa

No one to address the issue of jobs that refugees take from low-skilled American workers….

And, how about they put a representative of the Minnesota Meatpacking industry on the panel to explain how they need the Lutherans to supply their cheap labor!

Of course they won’t do that, and they won’t do this ‘fact finding’ in a public meeting because here they can control the information, who registers and what questions are asked in this webinar format. (Ha! Ha! wouldn’t it be fun to have a counter webinar that same day and time!)

The presence of this panelist explains much. Teresa Bohnen is not only President of the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce, but also Vice Chair of the state chamber and works closely with the US Chamber of Commerce that lobbies for amnesty for illegals and for more refugee laborers. If only they would all be truthful about their wish for a steady flow of migrant labor. Come on just say it! We work for the meat industry! http://www.sctimes.com/story/money/2016/02/05/bohnen-elected-state-chamber-board/79840982/

Here is the St. Cloud Times announcing the webinar:

A group hopes to distinguish between fact and myth about refugee resettlement with a public webinar in November.

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota will have a webinar from 3-4:30 p.m., Nov. 14.

Panelists, including staff and state and local leaders, will talk about how resettlement works and the costs and benefits of the program in the St. Cloud area.

Panelists include:

Yusuf Abdi, director of refugee services, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.

Karin Blythe, resettlement supervisor, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.

Teresa Bohnen, president, St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce.

Melissa Huberty, human services administrator, Stearns County Human Services.

Mary Zelenak, health protection and promotion supervisor, Stearns County Public Health. [Be sure to ask her about TB rates in Minnesota immigrant population!—ed]

Rachele King, state refugee coordinator, Minnesota Department of Human Services.

The discussion over the cost of refugee resettlement in St. Cloud has been reignited recently, as a St. Cloud City Council member announced a plan to temporarily stop refugees from resettling in St. Cloud.

Jeff Johnson, who represents St. Cloud’s Fourth Ward, submitted a draft resolution this week calling for a moratorium on refugee resettlement in St. Cloud.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also launched a petition Tuesday urging the St. Cloud City Council to vote no on the moratorium, which the organization called a “despicable, racist, Islamophobic, and ill-informed motion targeting refugees.”

More here.

There will be discussion at tomorrow’s council meeting and the vote on Johnson’s resolution could happen on November 6th.

For new readers, I have an archive on St. Cloud that goes back to 2008, click here to learn more.

Pay attention! Your town could become St. Cloud too!

10/20/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As St. Cloud goes, so goes the nation!

…..that is if you don’t do something now to stop it where you live.

I’ve been arguing that the national media is doing a great disservice by not showing the true picture of a city and a state undergoing a dramatic demographic change thanks to forces arrayed against us—against regular folks, American citizens.

Most Americans would be stunned if they had any idea of what is happening in Minnesota!

dayton — Mogadishu first! Minnesota governor Dayton said earlier this week that he would light the governor’s mansion blue (Somali flag color) because of the terrorist attack there recently that killed hundreds. Did he light the governor’s mansion in any color when the Somali refugee terrorist attempted to kill shoppers at the St. Cloud mall a year ago?

Topping the list of those changing America by changing the people are the global corporations seeking cheap compliant labor, and cheered on by the Chamber of Commerce, Democratic political activists looking for voters, ‘non-profit’ groups paid by taxpayers to place the third world in unsuspecting towns, Islamic supremacist groups like CAIR advancing the hijra and enabled by bleeding hearts in the media and the clearly frightened local elected officials.

The St. Cloud, Minnesota story will tell your community’s story next year, or ten years from now!

(See also, my St. Cloud post yesterday, here)

Here Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily pulls the threads together about St. Cloud. This is your future too!

A small city in the Midwest is becoming “ground-zero” for a long-simmering battle over refugee resettlement that could have a ripple effect across the United States.

“The long-term future of literally every city and town in America will be affected by who wins in St. Cloud and Stearns County, Minnesota,” says Ann Corcoran, one of America’s foremost experts on the resettlement industry through her website Refugee Resettlement Watch.

St. Cloud and the surrounding small cities of Central Minnesota have been the drop-off points for thousands of refugees coming from United Nations camps over the past 15 years.

[….]

If St. Cloud is successful in carving out a local role in determining refugee numbers flowing into its community, that will spread quickly to other cities, says Corcoran, who has followed the resettlement industry across all 50 states for the past decade.

But it’s an uphill fight.

One council member, Jeff Johnson, has decided to champion the cause and is expected to introduce a resolution on Nov. 6 calling for a moratorium on refugee arrivals until a study can be completed on the economic impact of the resettlements.

So far Johnson says he has only one other councilman who is willing to listen to his argument that economics matter, but he is hoping to convince others that they will be better able to make decision affecting the taxpayer if they have empirical data on refugee costs.

Citizens like Ron Branstner have become experts on the meat industry:

Branstner sees lots of winners when it comes to refugee resettlement. The meat-processing companies – Hormel, JBS Swift, Pilgrim’s Pride – all benefit from the cheap labor. The transportation industry makes money shuttling the refugees to and from work.

But the biggest loser is the taxpayer.

So-called “Big Meat” – with most of the companies foreign-owned – has plants scattered throughout the Midwest in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, the Dakotas, Kansas and Colorado. [States throughout the south are also affected. Big Meat/Big Poultry is in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and more—ed]

“These corporations, in cooperation with chambers of commerce, nonprofits like the Blandin Foundation, Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities, have transformed town after town throughout southern Minnesota since 1990,” Branstner says.

He believes the taxpayer is subsidizing the meat industry’s addiction to cheap refugee labor.

So please don’t let anyone tell you this is about humanitarianism and thus any criticism by you means you are a mean, racist boob! That is just what they do to silence you!

There is much, much more, continue reading here.

See also my huge archive on ‘Meatpackers’ by clicking here.

Endnote: One of my great frustrations is that I will get readers/commenters on this post who will say—what should I do? Where is an easy petition to sign or an easy fax to send?

I understand that some of you might be new and this is the first time you are seeing RRW, but geez, for the rest of you, I tell you almost daily what to do and even have a category now entitled ‘What you can do.‘ Please have a look!

Sorry this isn’t going to be easy or fast!

Don’t miss my recent step by step prescription for some thing you can do, here. The gist of that post is that you must get involved locally as the people of St. Cloud are doing and ultimately get rid of mayors and councils who are operating in secrecy and facilitating the destructive demographic change we see here in the city that is the canary in a coal mine.

(Twin Falls, Idaho, as I have mentioned often, is right up there with St. Cloud as a lesson for what will happen to your town next!)