Category: Pockets of Resistance

Every Jurisdiction in America is Up for Grabs: Tennessee Website Doing What You Must Do

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

Have you taken 15 minutes to make your calls?

As I have been saying ad nauseam for days now, the President has given you an opportunity to say whether you want your town/city/county to be a resettlement site for impoverished refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East and if you don’t act now, there may never be another time!

If you’ve looked at my maps from a week ago where I show you the existing resettlement offices*** and have said, thank goodness my town/city/county isn’t on the map, so I don’t have to do anything, you are very wrong!

Here we see that a website in Tennessee, did a very simple little exercise using the information that resettlement contractors can place refugees within a hundred mile radius of their offices (we are told not across state lines, but I know for a fact that they are ignoring that supposed prohibition).

Dailyrollcall.com created a map for Tennessee.

The stars indicate where existing resettlement offices are located and the shading demonstrates that almost the whole state of Tennessee is in play.

Here is a bit of their story:

Tell Greedy Refugee Contractors to Keep Their Hands Off Your Community!

 

But you’ll need the help of your mayor and your city council and/or commission.

President Trump’s Executive Order is giving power back to Tennessee citizens to decide whether they want federal refugee contractors to “transform” their communities with imported refugees.

Here are the rules of this game:

~both the Governor and the “locality” for refugee placement, have to say “yes” we want refugees. This means they also agree to pay any and all short and long-term costs imposed by the federal program.

~however, if either the Governor or the “locality” say no thanks, then supposedly, newly arriving refugees from overseas won’t be placed in that “locality.”

~however, the Governor may consent to resettling refugees in only certain consenting localities within the state. This option is a total fiction and is as good as agreeing to put almost ALL cities and counties in Tennessee up for grabs for resettlement – even if they’ve never been an initial resettlement site.

FEDERAL RESETTLEMENT CONTRACTORS ARE ALLOWED TO PLACE REFUGEES ANYWHERE FROM 50 TO 100 MILES FROM THE REFUGEE CONTRACTOR’S OFFICE.

This is just one of the many dirty little secrets that the federal contractors keep to themselves.

And it’s been going on in Tennessee for years. Here’s the proof – the State Department’s reports show that over the years refugees have been resettled in Clarksville, LaVergne, Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Mt. Juliet, Franklin, Spring Hill, Shelbyville, Gallatin, Johnson City, just to name a few.

A few years ago, Catholic Charities of TN employee and federal contractor Holly Johnson who became the state refugee coordinator after the State of Tennessee withdrew from the voluntary refugee program, insisted during testimony to a legislative committee, that refugees were never directly resettled in Bedford County.

Well oops!!! A report subsequently issued by TIRRC about the victimization of Muslims in Tennessee, disclosed that in fact, at least 13 refugees had been directly resettled in Bedford County during the time period Johnson was asked about.

There is much more, continue reading here.

Have you taken 15 minutes to call your local government offices—call county commissioners and mayors!  Instructions are here.  No excuses accepted!

 

*** Since President Trump took office some resettlement offices have closed, so fewer offices are shown on the map I posted than were on it in the waning days of the Obama Administration.  I hope to go back and post an earlier map so you know that the contractors will likely be seeking permission in those other towns/cities so that they have those “permissions” for future expansion by their dozens of subcontractors.

For new readers these (below) are the nine refugee contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in America.  For decades they have decided in secrecy where to place refugees and they don’t want to lose that power because even as they pontificate about their religious convictions and humanitarian zeal, they are Leftwing political groups working to change America by changing the people and using your money to do it!

Shame on You if You Don’t Take 15 Minutes to Do This!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 19 Comments

Turn off the damn faux impeachment hearing! And, for goodness sake forget about shopping and whether Prince Andrew did something to a blond girl whenever.

The President heard your concerns about refugees being placed in your towns with no warning and no local approval and did something about it! Are you going to let him down now?

For those of you who spend the day reading news to inform yourself, stop reading for 15 minutes and do something—I’ll tell you what shortly.

The President listened to your concerns about having no role in the decision making process about where refugees are placed in America.

He has gone out on a (another) political limb and created an Executive Order back in September with the lowest determination for the number of refugees to be admitted to the US since the Kennedy/Biden/Jimmy Carter refugee program became law in 1980.

And, in that Executive Order, although imperfect, he directed the US State Department to collect approvals in writing from governors and county/city elected officials saying they will opt-in (and accept refugees) so that the federal contractors can get their funding to move the Africans, Middle Easterners, Asians, etc. to your towns.

The deadline is approaching and…

….those approvals are now coming in!

Open Borders Inc. and the federally-funded refugee resettlement contractors are turning the process into a referendum on the President and the Refugee Program and have pulled out all the stops as I have been reporting here for days.

My analysis:

Every county in America is up for grabs!

This is the National Association of Counties map that the lobbying arm of the refugee industry is directing its followers to use in order to find the contact information for county government leaders. https://ce.naco.org/

 

Even counties that haven’t previously received refugees are on their hit list. 

They are not sticking with the established resettlement sites I posted here a few days ago. And, mark my words, those approvals from far flung counties will be held by the contractors and used as political cudgels no matter who is President.

By the way, there are 3,242 counties and county equivalents available to be resettled! And, that is how they are turning red states blue—one county at a time.

Both the governor and the local elected body (county government seems to be the primary goal) or possibly a mayor, especially for big cities, must agree to the placement of the impoverished refugees in order for the refugee contractors to get their plans to the State Department and to ultimately be paid to do their work.

(See my right hand sidebar for the governors who have already said yes, or at least the ones we know of.)

The contractors are pushing to obtain the approvals by Christmas in order to get their proposals to the State Department by January 21st.

This is what the Refugee Council USA is telling its followers to do (I told you about it here).  You should follow their model except obviously with a different message:

Your State & Local Officials Need to Hear From You

When you engage your local officials, we encourage you to educate them about the existence and content of the EO and ask whether they will provide written consent to resettle refugees. Here are the top two ways to take action:

 

  • Tell Your Governor to Declare Welcome for Refugees: Click here to contact your governor and tell them to declare that they welcome refugees in your state. Ask them to provide the necessary written consent to the federal government stating that refugees are welcome. A template letter that can be adapted to your state is available here.

 

Letters should be addressed to: Secretary Michael R. Pompeo, U.S. Department of State; and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Carol T. O’Connell, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State.

This is what Refugee Watchers Must do ASAP

For the sake of time, focus on your county government and your governor.

You can keep your message simple (choose any or all you like):

~Tell your elected officials that by agreeing to accept refugees they are agreeing that state and local taxpayers pick up the financial burden (refugees are eligible for all forms of welfare) that Kennedy once said would be a federal responsibility.

~Tell your elected officials that we have enough of our own poverty in America and that vulnerable Americans should come first.

~Tell them there are hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers (wannabe refugees) that must be processed first.

~Tell your elected officials that security screening is inadequate and that safety is an issue.

~Tell them that the ‘religious’ ‘charitable’ groups placing those refugees are actually federal contractors who depend on high numbers of refugees to receive their pay from the US Treasury.

~Tell them that the original law created an opportunity for states to opt-in or opt-out that has been ignored for decades.

~Tell them politely about any other concerns you have about the UN program that moves impoverished third worlders to your towns/cities.

If you haven’t been following RRW in recent days, go here, here, and here for more information.

Are you as tough as North Dakotans?   I guess we will soon find out!

Please spread this post far and wide, honestly if we can’t muster at least some small showing of support for the President’s efforts to slow costly, disruptive and possibly dangerous refugee resettlement to the far corners of America, then speaking for me, why should I bother to continue investigating and writing!

Endnote to readers in Ohio: A story here in September says your governor is on board with MORE refugees, but I haven’t seen anything in the last week or so.  Assume he hasn’t sent an official letter yet.

North Dakota: Cass County Caves to Lutheran Refugee Contractor; Votes for More Refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

But, continue reading!  There is good news too!  Wait for it!

Remember that I told you here that North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum went down the wimpy middle and said the state would take more refugees if local jurisdictions agreed.  So it looks like Cass County has given the governor his green light.

Read all about it here.

Cass County Commissioners Vote Yes to Refugee Resettlement

Unless the governor changes his mind, North Dakota taxpayers will be continuing to prop up a 4-decades-old federal program that was never supposed to be a burden on local and state taxpaying citizens.

If you are a new reader, be sure to see an important post yesterday where I explain what the Open Borders Left is doing to smash the President’s September Executive Order that gives state and local government an opportunity to opt-in or opt-out of being a refugee placement city or county.

Now to some good news!

Cass County might have caved, but the citizens of Bismarck came out in force to urge their county commission to say NO! to more refugees and the commissioners decided to postpone the decision.

Before I give you the news, know that it was 11 degrees in Bismarck last night!  Can you pull this off where you live?

So many people came out to oppose more refugees in Burleigh County that the Commissioners postponed their vote! https://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/Full-house-at-Burleigh-Commission-meeting-Refugee-Resettlement-decision-postponed-565717621.html

From KXNET:

Decision On Refugee Consent Delayed

BISMARCK — People came from all over Monday evening in the hopes of making their voice heard to the Burleigh County Commission.

Bismarck Mayor Steve Bakken was in attendance.

With a heavy police presence, you could feel the tension in the air as most of the crowd was there to convince the commission to vote against giving consent to Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota for a refugee settlement.

The consent is necessary after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September that requires state and local governments to give consent to whether they will accept refugees or not.

Some people KX News spoke with did not want that to happen.

“124 people statewide does not have an impact, however, if the 124 do a chain migration that could easily be 1,200. And in a state of 750,000 people, 1,200 is a lot,” said local resident Phillip Cohen, who’s against allowing the consent.

The problem was so many people turned up to the meeting, they couldn’t fit everyone inside, so in the interest of fairness, the commission decided to table the matter until a larger venue could be secured in the near future.

County Commission Chairman Brian Bitner

Brian Bitner is the chair of the commission and said he also has reservations about granting the consent for financial reasons.

“I haven’t seen anything in this package, anywhere, that tells me that we’re consenting to five or 50 or 500 or anything. So North Dakota is already the highest per capita state for refugee resettlement in terms of number of citizens, so in the absence of any sort of number, there’s no way we could know the cost to the state or the county, and I simply can’t support that,” said Bitner.

Opponents of the news said an increase in refugees could lead to a drain on government services and an increase in crime, something the pro-refugee crowd overwhelmingly denied.

[….]

But with no decision Monday, the clock is ticking, because agencies must submit their written consent by Jan. 21 or lose federal funds that could be used to reunite families and place refugees in places with jobs, and other supportive means.

More here.

As for the January 21 deadline, it is for the nine resettlement contractors and their subcontractors to have their plans submitted to the US State Department in order to get their federal funding.  At that time they need to have written permission from the governor and from the county government, or the city (if applicable), in hand.

(See the US State Department’s funding guidance here.)

They are shooting to get those approvals by Christmas, so you must get moving where you live!  As I’ll tell you in an upcoming post, the Leftwing refugee contractors and others in the Open Borders movement are putting every county in play!  (Not just those with existing sites, like these.)

This is not just a bureaucratic exercise! 

The Left has made it into a referendum on Donald Trump’s refugee policies in an election year.  The President is correct that state’s can choose whether to be a resettlement state or not. For us it is a referendum on state’s rights and whether local citizens will have a say in whether their communities will be changed (forever!).

Pope Gets Japanese Blowback When He Tells Them to Welcome Refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

Editor:  I hope you had a great day giving thanks with loved ones yesterday.

Much to my surprise the post I wrote on the day before Thanksgiving about 88 mayors demanding more refugees went off-the-charts viral, so if you didn’t see it, check it out.  

And, thank you dear readers for continuing to follow RRW and special thanks to the donations from many of you that have made it possible for Refugee Resettlement Watch’s renewed presence on the internet.

 

On a trip to Japan a few days ago Pope Francis learned first hand that Japan steadfastly maintains that it wants to keep its unique language and culture and not become a multiculty polyglot nation as so many European nations have become.

From the New Hampshire Union Leader:

Pope’s message of openness to refugees prompts backlash in Japan

TOKYO – A visit to Japan by Pope Francis and his dream of a nuclear-free world drew largely positive headlines this week in Japan. But when he tried to gently encourage the Japanese to extend a hand of friendship to refugees, the backlash on social media was significant.

Invasion of Europe news: Pope Francis welcomes refugees on the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013 helping to fuel the political and social crisis Italy has experienced ever since. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/07/09/pope-lectures-on-lampedusa/

Japan has some of the toughest policies toward refugees and asylum seekers among the world’s richest nations, and a reputation for being relatively closed toward outsiders.

The pope’s effort to preach a more accepting message was not universally accepted.

[….]

The story was one of the most read on the TV Asahi website on Tuesday and Wednesday and tweets with the words “accept refugees” were trending.

But the response seemed more negative than positive.

“Do that first in the Vatican,” tweeted @Ryounagasugi7, a tweet liked by 14,600 people and retweeted 4,700 times.

[….]

“I am sorry. We’ve seen how European countries have failed terribly. Even so, do you still say that? First of all, we are not a country where Christians are dominant. Would you please ask other ‘Christian countries’? Such as America, or America, or America,” tweeted @no_problem666.

Response by a bunch of No Borders activists:  Shut down the refugee-phobia on Twitter!

After seeing the flood of negative comments, a group of volunteers who support asylum seekers detained at a facility in Ushiku north of Tokyo called on Twitter to act.

“Tweets that would inflame refugee-phobia, xenophobia are growing, @TwitterJP should deal with it as its own platform has been used to inflame xenophobia,” they wrote on their account @freeushiku.

More here.

I’m thankful to have RRW’s extensive library available again!  See my Japan archive here and my Pope Francis posts here.

Refugee Contractors Use Trump September Executive Order to Organize Nationally

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

And, guess what? You, who either don’t want to see any more refugees coming to America or at least want a say in who we are accepting and whether they are placed in your town, are screwed.

Sorry to sound vulgar, but it is true, because the other side is highly organized and you have no national voice helping to guide you on what to do locally to push back.

It is make or break time! You’ve got a few more weeks to get your message to your local mayors, city councils, and governors.

And, locally is where the refugee contractors are making their big move now  (in addition to suing the President over the September EO that supposedly will give states an opportunity to opt-out of resettlement).

I’m not naming names, but for those of you hoping a national immigration control organization located in Washington, DC (or anywhere in America) will focus on the refugee issue and tell you what to do, forget it!

You are on your own.

And, notice where the debate is!  It isn’t on the issue of whether we should be bringing tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands!) of refugees to the US annually from countries that hate us; it isn’t on whether the whole program is unconstitutional and needs to be dumped and rewritten (if we even want more refugees); it is on which of your towns will be changed forever and who gets to decide that!

Trump’s EO was far from perfect, but he is concerned about the secrecy that has heretofore been the watchword of refugee resettlement decision-making in America. The contractors, which have monopolized all resettlement in the US for decades, love calling the shots from Washington and are fighting tooth and nail not to lose that power.

The nine federal contractors*** and their friends throughout the Open Borders Industry are highly organized with an extensive grassroots network, so when Trump opened the door with his September Executive Order about local and state governments having some say in the decision-making process they have turned on their networks and their people have gone to work.

Indeed, they expect Trump to be gone so they can go back to business as usual of changing America one town at a time, their Executive Order pushback has become a key element in their strategy.

I’ve always hated the expression, but since Trump handed them a lemon they are making lemonade!

Here is the first of many examples, Mary Poole the refugee advocate who opened the door to a new resettlement office in Montana says it best.

From the Missoulian:

Missoula refugee resettlement agency wades through Trump order

Missoula is one of roughly 190 communities in the U.S. that resettle refugees. Only a handful of states don’t. So far none has banned further resettlement, and letters of support are reported from city councils in the likes of Decatur, Georgia; and Alexandria, Virginia.

In 2016 Mary Poole successfully pushed for the opening of an International Rescue Committee subcontractor office for Missoula.

Gary Herbert, Utah’s Republican governor, wrote Trump a letter requesting he “allow us to accept more international refugees in Utah.”

Democratic governors Jay Inslee of Washington and Kate Brown of Oregon have voiced support for resettlement, and on Tuesday Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, announced North Dakota would continue to receive refugees “as long as local governments agree to it,” the Grand Forks Herald reported.

Such responses underline what Soft Landing Missoula’s Mary Poole sees as a bright side to the executive order.

“While it makes an additional hurdle and roadblock, and it’s unfortunate, I think what we’re really going to see are people going to bat for (accepting refugees) in a way we haven’t seen before,” she said. “I’m pretty excited to see that visual representation nationwide to show how important this is.”

And so they are!

Their people are pushing local governments everywhere to shove it back at Trump and put in writing that they WANT MORE REFUGEES!

Some examples that have come across my desk in recent days:

In Holland, Michigan, here.

In Lancaster, PA, here.

In Oklahoma, here. (The Oklahoma story is particularly informative.)

In Nebraska, here.

And, in Tennessee the Tennessee Office of Refugees run by Catholic Charities has sent out an e-mail with contact information for TN mayors to make it easier for their anti-Trump EO supporters to weigh in:

Contact your local elected officials to let them know their constituents support refugee resettlement.

Chattanooga City Mayor
Andy Berke
(423) 643-7800
mayor@chattanooga.gov

Hamilton County Mayor
Jim Coppinger
(423) 209-6100
Email: hamiltontn.gov/Mayor/form.aspx

Knoxville City Mayor
Madeline Rogero
(865) 215-2040
mayor@knoxvilletn.gov

Knox County Mayor
Glenn Jacobs
(865) 215-2005
Email: knoxcounty.org/email/email_new.php?email_name=county.mayor

Memphis City Mayor
Jim Strickland
(901) 636-6000
mayor@memphistn.gov

Shelby County Mayor
Lee Harris
(901) 222-2000
officeofthemayor@shelbycountytn.gov

Nashville Metro Mayor
John Cooper
(615) 862-6000

 

You can be sure that information like that is going out in your state too!

Because you aren’t going to hear it from any organization giving you marching orders….

…. my message to you is get to your local government and speak up before they do—a big challenge because they have a huge head start on you!

Contact your governor too!

Even if you think that your voices won’t be heard, tell your local and state elected officials what you think anyway, otherwise they will assume that supporting the idea of more refugees for your town or city is a political freebie for them!

Oh, and if you want to make a big splash—challenge your local elected officials in the next election.  Even if you think you can’t win the first time out, your local media will be forced to report on your platform.

A very simple message to your elected officials is this: care for refugees where they live in the world, and let’s take care of poor and vulnerable Americans here first!

 

***The nine federal contractors listed below have dozens of subcontractors working under them around the country.  So although your local resettlement agency has a name not listed here, you can be sure they work for one of the nine major contractors.

They are all very Leftwing political organizations, but the most actively anti-Trump in recent months are in red. You might argue that the Bishops are very political and they are, but I’ve noticed that they are laying low these days (there are a large number of Catholic Trump supporters) and USCRI has been unusually quiet.