Category: Resettlement cities

An Idaho Voter Sends Fabulous Letter to His Governor! You Can Do This Too!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 7 Comments

Update December 10:  A reader suggests you copy your letters (that you are writing to county commissions and to your governor) to the US Secretary of State. See here.

Well, heck the Refugee Council USA (the lobbying arm of the refugee industry) prepared a “tool kit” for their followers to use to help them organize against the President and to argue for more refugees.

Governor Little is a fan of Chobani Yogurt (just so you know)!

They prepared template letters for their people!

(I’ve posted their “tool kit” here.)

Well, we can do that too!  A reader from Idaho shared his letter to Republican Governor Brad Little.

It’s great, you can use it too! 

Simply substitute your governor’s name and your state!  Maybe add a few more points you want to specifically make!

 

Dear Gov Little,

I am writing to urge you to advise the State Dept that Idaho will
NOT accept any more refugees. While I suspect Chobani and other Big Ag interests will push for a massive increase in refugee numbers, the
fact of the matter is that many parts of Idaho are already
experiencing a housing shortage as well as burgeoning school
enrollments. We need to take care of our state first.

Idaho has a relatively small population and you can bet that most
refugees will vote for Democrats, the party of Open Borders and Free
Stuff. We can’t out-pander the Dems, so let’s not try.

A major problem for states in taking refugees is that local
governments end up paying most of the costs for their healthcare and
education. Most refugees arrive with no English proficiency or useful
skills, many are illiterate in any language. This places a huge burden
on our educational system, a burden shouldered by local taxpayers.
Refugees often arrive with serious health problems that local hospital
districts are expected to pay for. Local governments are required to
provide interpreters in hospital, court and educational systems,
regardless of how exotic the language and expensive those services
are.

These are the kind of costs that “welcoming” states are required to
provide. I’m sick and tired of the feds dumping costs on local
taxpayers. The Refugee Act of 1980 promised that state and local
governments would not be forced to pay these costs. They lied, but
what else would you expect from a bill written by Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden and signed by Jimmy Carter? That says it all.

Finally, once a state says that refugees are welcome they will have
no choice as to what kind of refugees they receive. This is a problem
because most refugees are chosen by the UNHCR, a corrupt institution
run by an organization that hates us. Politicians are always saying
these people are seriously vetted, but that’s a lie. Many countries
sending us refugees are failed states that have little info on the
people they are choosing and we’re supposed to trust the UN.

While I am sure you’ll be getting lots of mail from refugee
contractors, this is one from an actual voter. Just say NO to more
refugees!

Thank you for reading!

By the way, Idaho has taken a lot of refugees over the years, so the Governor could simply say that the state needs a breather, time for the existing refugees to assimilate.

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

This post is filed in my ‘Where to find information category’ where all of my recent posts on this make-or-break issue may be found.

See the right hand side bar for the governors who have caved already and told the President that they want more impoverished refugees placed in their (your!) state.

As I said in my post this morning:

If you are contacting elected officials please send me feedback at refugeewatcher@gmail.com

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.

Concord, NH Likely to Support More Refugees as Questions Remain about Trump Order

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

In the wake of the news I reported yesterday, that Republican Governor Chris Sununu has said NH wants more refugees assuming cities concur, Concord Mayor Jim Bouley says he will support the continued placement of impoverished third worlders in his city.

Concord’s Democrat Mayor Jim Bouley: “I see no reason why we would not sign it” (at December 9th council meeting)

That isn’t surprising, but what did surprise me in this article from the Concord Monitor is that apparently guidance has gone out to those in the refugee industry about a December 20th deadline when both a state governor and someone (?) at the city/county level are in agreement that refugees are welcome, and that welcome must be forwarded in writing to the Secretary of State.

I’ve been searching and have yet to find any such published guidance. However, in this post and a couple more to follow I’ll tell you what I have found that should help you to know what you must do where you live.

So far as we have noted, six governors are on board for more refugees: Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and now New Hampshire.  North Dakota’s governor took a wishy-washy position and said he will go along if his cities want more refugees.

Here is the Concord Monitor:

After Trump rule, Concord must opt-in to accept more refugees

For years, Concord has been a state leader in the acceptance of refugees, taking in more than any other New Hampshire city since 2010.

But whether that practice continues will require a sign-off from the city, following a new policy from President Donald Trump.

In an executive order issued in September, Trump required that both states and localities actively approve refugee resettlements moving forward. Without explicit written consent from both the state’s governor and the city or town, new outside refugees may not be housed in those cities, the order states – a change prompting outcry from refugee rights groups.

On Wednesday, Gov. Chris Sununu announced he had given that statewide consent, penning a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo granting permission for New Hampshire to accept refugees broadly. But he left it up to individual municipalities on how to proceed.

“With this action, it is now up to each city’s mayor whether they want to opt-in to accepting refugees,” Sununu said in a statement.

So far, I have been unable to find any published guidance referenced in this next line:

Now, the pressure is on. Cities and towns have until Dec. 20 to submit their letters of approval to accept resettlement of refugees, according to new guidance from the federal Health and Human Services department and the U.S. Secretary of State that follows the executive order. Sometime around Christmas, HHS will release a list of the states and municipalities that have done so, according to the order.

In an interview Friday, Concord Mayor Jim Bouley said he supports resettlement and that he’ll bring the question before the City Council at its Dec. 9 meeting.

“I see no reason why we would not sign it,” he said. “I think this only makes sense. So I look forward with the blessing of the council to sign it.”

I’m not the only one confused!

Meanwhile, as states and cities begin responding to the late December deadline, aspects of the new rule are in flux. Some refugee advocacy groups have called the executive order illegal, with the national Catholic Legal Immigration Network arguing it contravenes federal law giving the Office of Refugee Resettlement the authority to place refugees.

Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig is on board for more refugees and is just waiting for guidance about whether her whole council must sign off.

And the rules are silent on whether approval is necessary from select boards or city councils – or whether mayors can signal approval on their own prerogatives.

That uncertainty is creating some delays. Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig is supportive of continuing the acceptance of refugees, her office said Friday, but is seeking clarity on whether that move needs sign-off from the Queen City’s full city council.

More here.

Here is what I do know:  The refugee industry has filed suit to stop the Executive Order, see here.

But they are also hedging their bets in case they can’t get it stopped in time which is why they have gone all-in for a grassroots campaign (more in my next post) to pressure governors and mayors into saying they want more refugees.

As I noted here, they see their grassroots and media campaign as a win-win.  They can make Trump look bad, and at the same time force governors and local elected officials to go on record supporting more refugees. (They are looking ahead to the day when Trump is no longer in the White House and they expect the refugee spigot to open wide!)

And, although we see the Executive Order as flawed, you need to get moving and at least let your local elected officials (and governors) know that you are not in agreement with supporting more poor immigrants especially as there are plenty of vulnerable Americans in need of help.

If you remain silent then your elected officials will assume their position for more refugees will have no political cost to them.

And, if you are waiting for instructions from some immigration control organization, forget it!

Not sure if your town/city is already a resettlement site?  See the State Department’s map here.

 

88 US Mayors Want Trump Refugee Executive Order Rescinded; say 100,000 is the Right Number

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 11 Comments

Two days ago the US Conference of Mayors told America that 18,000 refugees for fiscal year 2020 is too low and that 100,000 a year is their preferred number.

Washington DC mayor Bowser signed the letter. No surprise as she was a leader of the DC Women’s (pussy hats) march against the Prez. Checked the data and just as I suspected DC takes very few refugees—only 135 in TEN years.

They also made it clear that they do not want a local or a state role in deciding where refugees are placed saying it would create a “patchwork of conflicting policies.”

That means of course they are affirming that Washington (and its nine contractors that monopolize all refugee resettlement in America) knows best.  (Well, except for when Trump is in the White House!)

Here (below) is their press release and a screenshot of all those mayors who signed the letter. (I told readers three days ago that the aim of the Open Borders community organizers was to get local elected officials on board.)

This once again confirms that the Left has captured local elected offices and the only hope of pulling out of this decline is for you all to get involved locally where you live and find candidates to challenge them.  It is a tall order that will only be accomplished if Trump gets four more years to buy time for America Firsters to get to work!

From the US Conference of Mayors:

(There are 1,408 mayors in the conference, so I guess these 88 are calling the shots! What do the other 1,320 think about the Conference taking this position?)

Nation’s Mayors Urge Administration to Rescind Executive Order Reducing Refugee Admissions

 

 

Washington, DC – Today, 88 bipartisan mayors from across the country sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, urging the Administration to rescind a September 26 executive order that revamps the U.S. resettlement system and could drastically reduce, if not entirely stop, the resettlement of refugees in cities.

The mayors also urged Secretary Pompeo to return this year’s refugee admissions to previous annual levels. The Administration announced the same day that it is slashing the number of refugees who may enter the country in 2020 to 18,000–the lowest since the program began in 1980 and a reduction of nearly 80% from just a few years ago.

The feds and their nine contractors (not elected by anyone!) know best!

The letter states, “The Executive Order would fundamentally change the structure of the U.S. resettlement program by devolving key decisions primarily to the states and ultimately lead to a patchwork of conflicting policies running contrary to the purpose of a national resettlement program….

[….]

In addition to addressing the country’s strong tradition of providing safe haven, freedom and opportunity to refugees fleeing the world’s most dangerous and desperate situation, the letter also cites the positive impact refugees have on the cultural and economic prosperity of cities and the nation as a reason to increase the cap.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has long advocated for policies that provide adequate support for refugees and refugee resettlement.

The most recent policy adopted by USCM on this issue calls for admitting at least 100,000 refugees per year.

Here (below) is a screenshot of the signatures.  Does your mayor want to cede all power to the UN/US State Department and its contractors to decide how many impoverished people your city will host?

Remember fed’s contractors only are responsible for placing refugees and getting them signed up for their “services.”  Most of their care is on you—local and state taxpayers!

That is what these mayors are asking for—more poverty for your town or city!

They say the list is bipartisan but I don’t have the time to go through and figure out who might be a Republican, so let me know and I will do an update and tell readers which ones are Rs. 

Here is what you should do!

Make sure that your mayor knows that this is not a freebie political position for them!

If you find your mayor on the list, write a letter to the local paper and say that your mayor is advocating for 100,000 refugees for America and stating unequivocally that he/she does not want to have any say on how many are placed in your city.  

The mayors who signed the letter want that decision left up to bureaucrats in Washington along with the nine contractors that monopolize all refugee resettlement in America (below):