Category: Resettlement cities

We Paid to Welcome Them to America, Now They Join the Mob

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I had been wondering if Minneapolis’s large population of African refugees had joined the throngs of rioters and looters. It seems they have.

It is more proof that the citizens of Minnesota’s St. Louis County who just last week protested against refugees for their towns and cities are right—diversity destroys the social fabric of communities.

Feel the rage!  From the refugees?  Or, from American taxpayers who for decades have been paying billions of their hard-earned dollars to bring, dare I say it, a bunch of ingrates who now say we are racists and they fear for their sons?

I suspect you have one answer for them!

From Channel News Asia (yes, an international news site painting white America as the root of all evil):

In Minneapolis, African refugees see American dream in tatters

(Their dream in tatters?  What about our dreams for the country we love?)

MINNEAPOLIS: African refugees living in Minneapolis were already struggling with their “American dream” when George Floyd died in police custody.

Now their dream is in tatters and they have joined their African American “brothers” in the streets to protest racism in their adopted homeland. [Cut the B.S. with the mushy “adopted homeland” lingo. They didn’t come here because they love America!—ed] 

[….]

The state of Minnesota, where Minneapolis is located, has the highest percentage of refugees per inhabitant in the whole country, with two percent of the US population but 13 per cent of its refugees, according to the most recent census.

Among them are a large number of people from the Horn of Africa – Ethiopians and Somalis – whose presence in the marches was noticeable because of the colourful robes worn by the women.

[….]

Deka Jama, a 24-year-old woman who came to the United States from Somalia in 2007, showed up with friends, all of them veiled, to protest the discrimination that met them in their new homeland.

“We thought that everyone would be equal, that we would not be judged by religion, by colour, by our dresses. That’s not how we were welcomed,” she told AFP.

She feels a close affinity to African Americans, many of them descended from slaves and who have been Americans for generations.

There is “something connects us,” she said. “We are all dehumanised, regardless of our cultural differences. We have to be here for them.”

Minnesota’s Somali community has a source of pride, though, in Ilhan Omar, a 37-year-old born in Mogadishu who was elected to Congress in 2018.

[….]

“So many people know a social and economic neglect,” Omar said on Sunday.

According to Minnesota Compass, a website that tracks the state’s demographics, families from Africa are particularly hard hit.

In 2016, Obama was President, he sure didn’t do much for African poverty in America (or was that part of the plan?)!

In 2016, 12 per cent of the population of Minnesota was living under the poverty line, but that number rose to 31 per cent among the Ethiopian community and 55 per cent among Somalis.

Immigrant-owned businesses destroyed too!  And, yet, it is all about racist white America.  Have they no eyes to see or brains to think?

That has meant that for many refugees, an important facet of the American dream — social mobility – has broken down over time.

And the riots that have followed some protests have not helped their plight, since some of the looted businesses were immigrant-owned.

Here is an idea!  If so many live in poverty, then we need to stop importing them. Clearly there isn’t enough work!  Clearly they are ungrateful.

Frankly more angry demanding refugees, like these Minnesota Africans, will be the death knell of America.

By the way…..

Where were all these angry Somalis (and their African-American “brothers”) marching in the streets demanding justice for Justine Damond when one of their people, a Somali police officer, killed an unarmed white woman in ‘Little Mogadishu’ in the summer of 2017?

That police killing didn’t send white mobs into the streets to demand justice by committing violence, and to rob and steal.  Civilized people respect our legal system—the legal system that is the bulwark of a successful and prosperous country.

 

Minnesota County Backs Out of Vote on Refugee Resettlement, Opposition Out in Force

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“It’s not lost on me the refugees people have such a problem with have black and brown skin.”

(Commissioner Beth Olson speaking in support of refugees for Louisa County)

 

A week ago, before I was called away for a (happy) family duty, I told you that the St. Louis County, Minnesota County Commission was planning to vote on an issue they tabled months ago—the question is should the county in northern Minnesota open its arms to refugees, or not?

Those who do not want the social and economic burden of ‘welcoming’ third worlders to northern Minnesota came out strongly in advance of the vote.

On Wednesday the Grand Forks Herald  gave this report:

Topic of refugees raises citizen voices in St. Louis County

Peacefully demonstrating in northern Minnesota on Tuesday!

 

VIRGINIA, Minn. — Throughout most of April and May, only one person who wasn’t previously scheduled to do so spoke on record to the St. Louis County Board.

As the board had gone straight to web-based conferencing once COVID-19 emerged, constituents held back, mostly emailing and voicing their opinions privately to commissioners.

But that changed Tuesday as calls poured in to the site of the board’s remote meeting at the Virginia Government Services Center.

An unofficial count of 94 residents spoke or left voicemails that were aired during the daylong meeting.

“I thought we’d have more calls — I expected more,” board chair Mike Jugovich said, still pleased people seized the opportunity.

Demonstrators in Minneapolis on Wednesday!

The callers were fueled by months of anticipation around the topic of refugee resettlement consent.

And while the board voted to file the issue away with county administration, citing a federal court injunction nullifying a President Donald Trump executive order, people were heard.

[….]

“I’d like to express my disdain for refugees coming to St. Louis County; they can go elsewhere,” said one Mountain Iron caller.

“It’s a disgrace they’re being shoved down our throat,” another woman said. “Nobody wants them here; put them in Minneapolis.”

Commissioner Beth Olson

[….]

Commissioner Beth Olson refuted doubts about vetting, saying refugees were vetted by nine agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service.

“It’s not lost on me the refugees people have such a problem with have black and brown skin,” Olson said.

More here.

It is not lost on the citizens of  St. Louis County*** that the Left’s insatiable desire for diversity destroys the social fabric of communities. 

Just look at the photos and videos coming out of Minneapolis in the last couple of days!  Any sane person would not want this coming to their towns and cities.

When Trump is gone…..

One of the most persistent arguments, by those who want more refugee resettlement for a given location use, is that the Trump Executive Order (requiring approval by the local county government for refugee resettlement) is tied up in the courts and besides so few refugees are coming now anyway.

Don’t fall for that argument to dodge the issue.

I can’t express strongly enough how important it is for groups like those who took to the streets this week and peacefully demonstrated in Virginia, MN are helping to insure that the message gets out—find another resettlement location in future!

If the Dems win in November, the future is only months away! 

Joe Biden says he will open the doors to 125,000 third worlders in year one.

Or, it might be 2025 that the flood gates open!

Whichever it is, from past experience, I have found that the resettlement contractors and the feds will stay away from towns and cities they see as clearly ‘unwelcoming’ because they will still have plenty of locations eager to welcome the multi-cultural Nirvana they foolishly dream of—like the one they have been growing and nourishing for years in Minneapolis!

P.S. Work to make sure Ms. Olson is not elected again!

*** Sorry, I had the county name wrong in my first version of this post!

 

Minnesota County Plans to Vote on Refugee Resettlement Permission on Tuesday

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This news was a surprise.  I had been assuming all along that since the President’s Executive Order had been halted in the courts and that the Chinese virus crisis had halted almost all (but not all!) refugee resettlement that county governments had simply swept the sore subject under the proverbial rug.

Not so in St. Louis County, MN where a vote is expected on Tuesday although the public will not be there as they were here in January (seems strange that there were actually crowded meetings like this only a few months ago!):

Such meetings a thing of the past?

 

From the Duluth News Tribune:

Controversial county board meeting moved out of Buhl

Meetings will still be held online. Tuesday’s proceedings on refugee resettlement consent had figured to draw a large crowd.

 

The St. Louis County Board has seen its controversial upcoming Tuesday meeting moved out of Buhl and made online-only. The online meeting will emanate from the Virginia [MN] Government Services Center, county administration said in a news release Wednesday.

Meetings at the courthouse in Duluth and other locations throughout the county have been moved online for the past two months, since the county’s emergency declaration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We want to make sure everyone is safe,” Commissioner Frank Jewell, representing downtown Duluth, said during an online board workshop Tuesday, May 19.

Commissioner Keith Nelson, of Virginia, has been adamant the meeting — scheduled for the Buhl Senior Center and set to address the politically charged issue of refugee resettlement consent — should be a physical meeting held in public.

Earlier this month, he described the idea of moving the meeting as “a travesty.”

“We listened for many hours on multiple occasions to folks very much in support of this resolution,” Nelson said May 12. “I have listened to many hours, too, from constituents of mine that are absolutely not in support. They are asking when do they get their turn?”

The subject of refugee settlement consent had been tabled to Tuesday, May 26, during a board meeting in Duluth in January, following three hours of public testimony. Other board meetings, including one in Hibbing prior to COVID-19 restrictions, have also included several members of the public addressing the refugee resettlement issue. Citizens to date have been predominantly in favor of consenting to refugee resettlement.

[….]

The issue of refugee resettlement consent sprang up last winter, after President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring counties to consent to resettlement. Notably, Beltrami County in Minnesota voted against giving its consent. Many counties, including neighboring Carlton County, declined to take it up after a federal judge blocked the order, nullifying the need for boards to act.

Still, because the St. Louis County Board tabled its consent resolution, it will come up Tuesday.

Citizens of St. Louis County have a few days to comment!

In its news release Wednesday, the county said citizens can submit public comments for the public comment portion or for specific board agenda items prior to the meeting by emailing them to publiccomment@stlouiscountymn.gov, or by calling 218-726-2110 and leaving a recorded comment, or by raising your “virtual hand” while using the Webex software during the board meeting.

More here.

I have no idea of where the Executive Order court case stands these days, but with the COVID slowdown and a Presidential election in a few short months, there is not much happening with the UN/US Refugee Resettlement Program.

I do know this!  If Joe Biden (or any Dem wins in November) the refugee floodgates will be thrown open.

Will Refugee Resettlement Resume Tomorrow as Was Expected? News from Idaho

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

Tomorrow is the previously stated date for refugees to begin arriving again in large numbers.  They have been trickling in, probably a couple of hundred in the last two months since refugee travel was halted by the United Nations, but the US Refugee Program is largely shut down.

Special Immigrant Visas do continue to arrive from Afghanistan by the hundreds, but I’ll leave that discussion for another day.

Meanwhile the only news coming out of the mainstream media about refugees in America are sob stories about how they are struggling, out of work, fearful of being evicted, and trying to cope with COVID (like all of America!).

Some are working in essential services like meatpacking (Yogurt making?), others like those in the hospitality industry are out of work in large numbers.

Here is one such story from Twin Falls, Idaho where controversy over refugee resettlement has been muted after years of public protests about how the program was changing Idaho.

(I have a huge archive on Idaho, see it here.)

The third world moving to Twin Falls, Idaho. Map from the heyday of the Obama years. https://www.eastidahonews.com/2016/12/starting-over-a-young-african-father-of-six-seeks-a-new-life-refuge-in-idaho/

 

From MagicValley.com:

‘It’s like we’re living a half life’ — For refugees, COVID-19 impacts depend on where they live

The star of this story, a refugee from the DR Congo, says he is more worried about his brother in a refugee camp in Africa.

However, so far, the Chinese Virus has made no significant impact on refugee camps (although as I have reported it isn’t for the media’s lack of interest, they expect catastrophe momentarily).

The article mostly discusses how challenging it is for refugees to live here in America these days (especially as many can’t speak English) and how the refugee agencies are short of funding and also cannot help refugees in person. (Why not? Where are their masks?)

They really aren’t short of funding as I pointed out here.  The nine major contractors that send money down to subcontractors are getting nearly as much as they did during the Obama years (some are getting more!) when thousands upon thousands arrived every month!

The motherships must be holding on to the cash in order to pay salaries of their top execs.  Besides, letting the low level staffers go makes for a better media story anyway!

Here is one little snip from this publication (these Idaho papers are prickly, they once sent me a letter telling me I couldn’t snip their stories).

Director Zeze Rwasama College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center in Twin Falls, Idaho. CSI is a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

The federal government pushed the date resettlements would restart from May 1 to May 15, but resettlement centers anticipate it will be pushed again.

“For that to happen involves the coordination of many government agencies to allow a refugee to travel,” Rwasama said.

“Many of those agencies are working with limited staff. I don’t see how we can receive refugees during this time.”

Coping with reduced budgets:

Now that refugee resettlement is halted in the wake of COVID-19, federal funding coming to resettlement programs will be drastically reduced…

You can read it all here.

Then there is an AP story  circulating mostly about Arizona Afghans you can read yourself entitled:

New refugees struggle to find footing in US during pandemic

Coping with reduced budgets! Not!

The College of Southern Idaho Refugee Program is a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants which is almost 100% funded by taxpayers.  Its chief executive officer makes at least a quarter of a million a year in salary (last we checked) that YOU are paying.

Here is how they are doing financially from USA Spending….

The $90 million in the left hand corner is the amount of federal funding they have received in the last 12 months!

 

 

The International Rescue Committee, also mentioned in the Twin Falls sob story, has seen little change in its financial position from the Obama years.  Its CEO, David Miliband, is pulling down a salary approaching a million dollars annually.

How about if they pony-up some of their federal funding to directly feed and house refugees they have distributed around America for years.

Why should taxpayers first pay for the resettlement and now pay for refugee care during the virus crisis?

$215 Million in the last twelve months!

 

This is no time to resume admitting more poverty to America!

Meat Giant JBS Closes Greeley, CO Plant Due to Chinese Virus Outbreak

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

That was last week’s news in the Denver Post.  The Brazilian-owned plant was forced to close as 277 employees tested positive for the Chinese virus.

According to the Post, the closure was necessary earlier this month to avoid overwhelming local health care services.

State and local health officials in a Friday letter warned JBS CEO Andre Nogueira of the virus’ rapid spread among employees, particularly those who work the first shift at the plant, and said continued exponential spread would “quickly overwhelm” medical resources in Greeley and the surrounding communities.

The JBS slaughter house at Greeley, Colorado has played a large role over the years on the pages of RRW.

JBS US headquarters are in Greeley. This is a photo I took when I traveled through the Midwest and West in 2016 mostly to have a look at a few meatpacking towns.

In fact, it is through the controversy surrounding refugee (mostly Somali) workers there in 2008 that I became interested in the concept of foreign-owned meatpackers (I call BIG MEAT) encouraging the admission of cheap legal immigrant labor—refugees—which then changes the character of American towns.

Not to mention the fact that US taxpayers subsidize those low wage workers.

I had devoted an entire category I labeled Greeley, Swift, Somali controversy.  See it here.  Posts go back to 2008!

But problems for the beef giant are bigger than a few facility closings…..

We can thank the COVID-19 situation for helping to expose the globalist fat cats that own these plants—like the Brazilian brothers featured in the New York Post on Saturday.  Hat tip: Judy.

And, don’t miss my post about Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods and how the leftwing media (and refugee contractors!) have for years supported the movement of migrants to the US to work these kinds of jobs.

Corrupt billionaire brothers’ meat plants are riddled with coronavirus

The world’s largest meat-processing giant was forced to shut down some of its US plants as more than 100 of its workers tested positive for COVID-19 last week, but the pandemic may be the least of its problems.

The Brazilian billionaire brothers — one of whom owned a Manhattan penthouse — controlling the massive meat producer JBS, which slaughters 13 million animals a day and has revenues of $50 billion a year, have been linked to high-level government corruption that has rocked the South American country.

Joesley (left) and Wesley Batista are the controlling shareholders of two prominent U.S. companies, JBS USA and Pilgrim’s Pride. https://foxwilmington.com/politics/tainted-beef-how-the-meat-you-buy-could-be-supporting-venezuelas-socialist-regime/

The Batistas’ company is also being probed in America now for bribery, and has been accused of price-gouging during the COVID-19 crisis. The New York attorney general, meanwhile, has been asked to look at the company as “an imminent threat” before it goes public on Wall Street.

[….]

After admitting to bribing nearly 2,000 elected officials in Brazil in order to secure government funding to fuel their company’s US expansion a few years ago, Joesley and Wesley Batista were slapped with more than $3.2 billion in fines in 2017, the highest in the country’s history.

Now JBS’ parent company, J&F Investimentos, is reportedly the subject of US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations for alleged bribery here. Last year, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) urged the federal government to investigate the beef conglomerate and its alleged dealings with the Venezuelan government after the company developed business ties with the administration of President Nicolas Maduro. The US has levied sanctions against the Venezuelan leader.

Last week, US legislators, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), renewed calls for the federal government to investigate alleged price-fixing by JBS and other big beef producers during the pandemic. According to Grassley, big meat processors are using the pandemic to “gouge” US cattle producers.

[….]

Last week, JBS, which sells beef and chicken under its Pilgrim’s Pride and Swift labels, said it was closing a packing plant in Greeley, Colorado, where four workers died from the coronavirus, including longtime plant employee Saul Sanchez, 78. Sanchez, a father of six, had worked for more than 30 years at the plant. A daughter, Beatriz Rangel, said Sanchez was willing to work at the plant even during the outbreak because he trusted his employer.

There is much more here.

We will be watching to see if the President follows through on his tweet last night, here.

LOL! Is he listening to my man Jeff?