Category: Resettlement cities

Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto refused to meet the President yesterday

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Surely you know all about Democrat Mayor Bill Peduto shunning the President and his family when they went to Pittsburgh yesterday to pay their respects to those murdered in the synagogue attack last Saturday.  Here is one of many stories about the Mayor’s snub.

And, here is Peduto with Chris Matthews:

 

 

By the way, the Rabbi, who was leading services on Saturday when the attack happened, welcomed the President saying “he is my President.”

So, what does this have to do with RRW?

Let’s take a trip down memory lane!

Mayor Bill Peduto was one of 18 mayors who signed a 2015 letter to then President Obama telling the President that 10,000 Syrian refugees for America in the upcoming fiscal year was too few and they wanted Obama to ultimately admit 100,000.

The letter was organized by Cities for Action which says it is: “A coalition of city governments who stand in support of stronger cities through immigration action.”

As you know, President Trump is permitting very few Syrians to enter the US at the present time.

If you missed it in 2015, here are the 18 mayors pressing Obama for more Syrian refugees for their cities:

Ed Pawlowski, Mayor of Allentown, PA
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor of Baltimore, MD
Martin J. Walsh, Mayor of Boston, MA
James Diossa, Mayor of Central Falls, RI
Mark Kleinschmidt, Mayor of Chapel Hill, NC
Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago, IL
Edward Terry, Mayor of Clarkston, GA
Nan Whaley, Mayor of Dayton, OH
Domenick Stampone, Mayor of Haledon, NJ
Pedro E. Segarra, Mayor of Hartford, CT
Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, CA
Betsy Hodges, Mayor of Minneapolis, MN
Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City, NY
Jose Torres, Mayor of Paterson, NJ
William Peduto, Mayor of Pittsburgh, PA
Javier Gonzales, Mayor of Santa Fe, NM
Francis G. Slay, Mayor of St. Louis, MO
Stephanie A. Miner, Mayor of Syracuse, NY

Some posts on that campaign by the leftwing open-borders mayors, especially Pittsburgh’s Mayor Peduto, worth revisiting:

18 US Mayors tell Obama: We want MORE Syrian (Muslim) refugees!

Pittsburgh letter writer: Mayor is wrong to invite Syrian refugees to city

ACT for America launches citizen action campaign urging 18 mayors to re-think their demand for more Syrian refugees

Pittsburgh, PA Mayor Peduto: Bring us Syrian Muslims!

 

And, a few additional posts on Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh: Jewish agency and Islamic Center working together to bring more Syrians to the city

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial: Are there holes in US refugee vetting process?

Pittsburgh: Refugees placed in dangerous housing complex….

Jewish refugee resettlement agency: Let’s bring Rohingya Muslims to Pittsburgh (to increase diversity!)

Pittsburgh at “tipping point” as refugee population mushrooms

Pittsburgh working hard to “welcome” refugees

More on refugee mental health issues from Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh: World Refugee Day brought out the diversity, but few Americans

Pittsburgh Catholic Bishop defends Catholic Charities and calls a meeting

And, there are more, but you get the idea!

What the heck! Armenians brawl with Blacks and Hispanics in California high school

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Armenians?

You learn something new every day.

Did you know that the center of the Armenian immigrant community in America is located in Glendale, California and that we are still bringing Armenian ‘refugees’ to the US to be placed mostly, where? in California, in and around Glendale where there are obviously ethnic and racial cultural clashes going on.

According to wikipedia, Glendale has the highest concentration of Armenians in the US.

Glendale, just a few miles away from Downtown Los Angeles, has a population of about 200,000, of which, according to some estimates, 40% is Armenian.

Thanks to reader ‘ganjagrandma’ for sending this story from the Atlanta Black Star.

It is several weeks old, but this news about racial and ethnic tensions at Glendale’s Hoover High sure didn’t make the national news.

So much for the mythical American melting pot!

Shocking Video Shows Brawl Parents Described as a ‘Race Riot’ at California High School

Several students have been disciplined after shocking footage of what concerned parents called a racially-motivated melee between dozens of teens at a Glendale, California high school.

School_Brawl_Caught_on_Camera

 

Students involved in last Wednesday’s brawl at Hoover High School were remanded to separate rooms Monday and spoke little during “restorative circle” sessions with school counselors, according to KTLA.

The fight reportedly erupted during lunch period Wednesday, starting as a dispute between two students and quickly growing to involve dozens. That’s when police arrived to restore order, as the fists continued to fly.

No serious injuries were reported.

Parents said their kids tell them there’s been mounting racial tension on campus between Armenian students, the largest ethnic group at the school, and members the football and baseball teams who are mostly Black and Latino, among other ethnicities.

Ah, the joys of diversity.

More here.

Michigan story about refugee slowdown reveals what citizens really think

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Today when I saw one more story about some gathering somewhere meant to tell the public how bad the Trump administration is as it slows the flow of third worlders to unsuspecting middle America towns, my first thought was: blah! blah! blah!

However, for a change I had a good look at the comments to the story at Michigan Live, and I am glad I did!

‘America looks terrible’ with record-low refugee admissions, panelist says

ANN ARBOR, MI – The U.S. accepted a record low number of refugees in 2018, and now Michigan resettlement agencies are questioning their future.

 

Hetfield at NY protest
This is Mark Hetfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society protesting the Trump presidency at a rally in New York shortly after Trump was inaugurated in early 2017.  Last I checked he was pulling down a salary and benefits package of nearly $350,000 a year as HIAS CEO.  Good work if you can get it!  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/06/27/hebrew-immigrant-aid-society-urges-followers-to-take-to-the-streets-in-wake-of-supreme-court-decision/

 

 

Right now America looks terrible because we are no longer out there defending the most vulnerable people in the world,” said Mark Hetfield, CEO of HIAS, the world’s oldest refugee resettlement agency, based in Maryland. “That’s something that we have done consistently across Republican and Democratic administrations, and we have stopped doing that and thrown refugee protection into reverse.”

Hetfield participated in a panel discussion on present and future challenges related to refugee resettlement on Monday, Oct. 22, at the University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School.

The panel was part of a two-day “Keeping Our Door Open” symposium in Ann Arbor coordinated by UM’s School of Social Work, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County.

Needless to say  the panelists go on to complain about how the refugee program is being diminished by this president.  See more here.

If readers simply look at the title and read a bit of the story one would think that the propagandists might actually be reaching people.

That is, until one looks at the comments.

Get a load of these (and this is just a sampling!):

 

  • Space Ace
  • 5 minutes ago
Don’t we have our own poor people to be concerned about? Since when is it our moral imperative to alleviate all the suffering of the world? Homelessness is up 50%, FIFTY PERCENT, in many parts of the country from 15 years ago. How about we deal with that first, then maybe consider importing more poor people?
  • Xchips
  • 8 minutes ago
“Right now America looks terrible because we are no longer out there defending the most vulnerable people in the world,” said Mark Hetfield, CEO of HIAS who’s nearly $350,000 compensation package is nearly wholey paid for by taxpayers.

So here’s a guy getting taxpayer dollars to help other people get taxpayer dollars. Nice racket.

  • Tom
  • 1 hour ago
Refugee (noun): a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

How many of these “refugees” are actually falling into one of these categories? How many are coming here because they just don’t like where they live and they heard you can get in by claiming refugee status.

According to the article – “Refugees are entitled to government assistance coordinating travel plans to get to the U.S. and then resettlement services that can include assistance with transportation, housing, English language classes, health care, food, education, employment and citizenship services.”

So if I lived in a very poor country – that sounds like a good deal to me.

So maybe consider those actual refugees are being turned around because they actually aren’t refugees.

  • E
  • 1 hour ago
I’d say the lovely citizens of Ann Arbor sponsor refugees and house/feed/guarantee non-reliance on government programs to show their support.
  • Freedom Lover
  • 1 hour ago
Have you noticed that most of the immigrants in the horde coming from Guatemala and Honduras are males in the 20 to 30 age group. They carry their country’s flag but refuse to stay in their country and make it better. I’m sure glad the colonialists were not like them. They stayed and fought to make a better country. Also many who are interviewed say they are coming to the USA for a job. A job is not a reason to seek asylum.
  • Shawn Letwin
  • updated 1 hour ago
Yep, you are at risk of losing your jobs and no longer living off the trough of the taxpayers…”Que Sera, Sera”
  • Rbg1
  • updated 1 hour ago
Did these opportunist mouthpieces disclose the taxpayer-funded profits (BILLIONS) involved with resettling and wrap-around assistance? This isn’t compassion, it’s greed. Everyone involved is making money off the scam. Except, of course, middle class taxpayers.

This is an encouraging example of how educated citizens are becoming about the US Refugee Admissions Program.

All of you should take the opportunity every chance you get to comment to news stories in your communities.

And, then go vote!

Episcopal Migration Ministries might be dropped from federal refugee program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But so might seven other refugee contractors?

Before you get too excited….

…..there must be an error in this report, but I am posting it just to see if we can get the truth shaken loose.

When I first started writing this blog in 2007 there were ten federal resettlement contractors that monopolized all refugee placement in the US, but the number dropped to nine and has remained there ever since. The nine are listed below.***

Earlier we learned that Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) was as much as 99.5% funded by you (taxpayers!) for their charitable good works for refugees. So it would be no surprise to learn that they would be one of the federal resettlement contractors dropped by the US State Department as the Trump administration slows the flow of paying clients to the US.

By the way, when the present Refugee Admissions Program was set up, it was supposed to be a public-private partnership, but over the years the private funds dwindled as they became more dependent on public money (aka taxpayer dollars).

The headline for the story which is mostly about Episcopal Church business is this:

Executive Council passes budget, grants diocesan waivers, praises work of Episcopal Migration Ministries

A few paragraphs into the Episcopal News Service story we learn this:

Robertson EMM
The Rev. Charles Robertson predicts EMM will be cut off from refugee contracts. “We are prepared for the worst.”

 

Members of Executive Council also received briefings from church officers and staff members during the week, including a bleak assessment of the future of the church’s refugee resettlement work from the Rev. Charles Robertson, the presiding bishop’s canon for ministry beyond the Episcopal Church.

Episcopal Migration Ministries, one of nine agencies with federal contracts to resettle refugees in the United States, expects to learn in the coming weeks if its contract will be renewed, at a time when the Trump administration has dramatically reduced the number of refugees being resettled. The odds are not in Episcopal Migration Ministries’ favor, Robertson told Executive Council’s Ministry Beyond the Episcopal Church Committee.

Could seven be given the boot?

“If we were going to bet on it, we’d bet we’re not going to make the cut,” Robertson said. He predicted only two of the nine would receive contracts. Though unlikely, he said it is still possible Episcopal Migration Ministries will be one of the two.

I’m thinking that the reporter got that wrong and meant to say that ‘seven of the nine would receive contracts.’  If it is true that seven would be cut, that would be earth-shaking news.

Episcopal News Service continued….

Later that afternoon, Robertson gave a sobering outlook on Episcopal Migration Ministries’ future to the committee on Ministry Beyond the Episcopal Church.

“We are prepared for the worst,” Robertson said – the worst being the end of Episcopal Migration Ministries’ contract to continue the resettlement work it has done for the federal government since the 1980s.

 

emm partner map
EMM’s interactive partners map. Go here to see if one of their offices is near you:           https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/our-partners/

 

The U.S. Department of State announced Sept. 17 that it would lower the ceiling to just 30,000 refugees for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, down from a ceiling of 85,000 just two years ago. And that 30,000 is just the upper limit, Robertson stressed. The actual number of refugees to be welcomed into the United States likely will be much lower.

Episcopal Migration Ministries once oversaw 31 resettlement affiliates in 26 dioceses, but that number has dwindled to 14 affiliates in 12 dioceses. With even fewer refugees to resettle, the federal government isn’t expected to keep all nine of its contracted agencies, Robertson said, and Episcopal Migration Ministries, though well equipped to do that work, is one of the smaller of the nine.

Even in the worst-case scenario, however, Episcopal Migration Ministries will remain an important part of the Episcopal Church’s outreach efforts. If the resettlement work ends, the agency may find other ways to support refugees and, possibly, other immigrants, Robertson said. He estimated it would take about a year to fully realize that new vision for the agency.

More here.

I wonder what the loss of millions of federal dollars will do to the church.  I once had a reader, knowledgeable about the budget of the Episcopal Church, tell me that some of the refugee dollars went to other programs, however we were never able to confirm that.

By the way, there likely won’t be any tears shed by the remaining contractors since the nine have been competitors as they ‘bid for bodies!’

 

 

***Below are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.

I realize I haven’t posted this list for twelve whole days!

The present US Refugee Admissions Program will never be reformed if the system of paying the contractors by the head stays in place and the contractors are permitted to act as Leftwing political agitation groups, community organizers and lobbyists paid on our dime!  

And, to add insult to injury they pretend it is all about ‘humanitarianism.’

The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees into your towns and cities and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)!  And, get them registered to vote eventually!

From my most recent accounting, here.  However, please see that Nayla Rush at the Center for Immigration Studies has done an update of their income, as has James Simpson at the Capital Research Center!

Maine: Dunkin’ Donuts apologizes for banning Somali social justice activist from store after altercation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a classic case about how change happens!

Businesses, eager to prostrate themselves out of fear once confronted by an angry demanding refugee like Hamdia Ahmed, quickly make news by backing down when activists for Muslim immigrant rights cause a stir.  The message to the public: be silent.

Hamdia Ahmed
Social justice activist Hamdia Ahmed 

Even as it is clear, when you do a little reading about Hamdia Ahmed, that she has a pattern of stirring up controversy, her latest stunt in Portland is now being spread widely through gullible national media outlets painting her as innocent as a dove while staring down racist Americans.

Thanks to MaineFirst Media for the tip. (See their more detailed story.)

Here is a story from Wednesday from the Portland Press-Herald which is pretty straight news, but when you read the newer articles at national news outlets you will see that her social justice advocacy and past history of creating controversy has been downplayed or not mentioned at all.

A Dunkin’ Donuts store owner met Wednesday with a Portland college student and activist who called out the business on social media after a store employee refused to serve her Somali-speaking family and then called police following an argument in the drive-thru lane.

Hamdia Ahmed, 20, said she felt that the employee discriminated against her and two relatives for speaking Somali as they waited to order coffee at the St. John Street Dunkin’ Donuts on Monday afternoon.

Ahmed said she and her relatives drove to the coffee shop around 12:30 p.m. and waited for a store employee to ask for their order. As the family chatted in Somali in the car, a woman’s voice crackled through the speaker and admonished them for yelling, Ahmed said.

“All of a sudden we heard a woman say, ‘stop yelling, stop yelling,’ ” Ahmed said “We’re like what’s happening. We’re just having a conversation. We were talking in Somali. She told us she’s not going to take our order and for us to leave and she was going to call the police.”

You know there must be more to the story.  Chatting in Somali caused the clerk to refuse them service?  Give me a break!

Ahmed, a refugee from Somalia who arrived in the United States more than a dozen years ago, has emerged in recent years as an outspoken anti-racism social justice activist and organizer.

After the argument in the drive-thru lane, Ahmed said she parked her car and went inside the store to speak with someone.

A store employee called Portland police, and after an officer spoke to Ahmed and store employees, the police issued Ahmed a no-trespass notice barring her from returning to the store for a year. The officer listed the cause of the no-trespass notice as “disturbance – yelling at staff.”

Miss Maine 2
Ahmed made the news also this year as the first hijab-wearing contestant in the Miss Maine pageant.  She said everyone there treated her just like every other American girl. So much for her latest stunt to prove that Americans are racists.     https://therefugeecenter.org/hall-of-fame/the-story-of-hamdia-ahmed-the-first-miss-maine-pageant-contestant-to-wear-a-hijab/

I repeat: Ahmed and her family members must have been doing a lot more than chatting in Somali!

The company later issued a statement:

“Dunkin’ and our franchisees are committed to creating a positive customer service experience for all of our guests,” the company’s emailed statement said. “The franchisee who owns and operates the store has confirmed he has met with the guest, sincerely apologized to her for the poor experience and is working on providing additional customer service training to his store crew.”

“I appreciate their apology but what I really wanted to get out of the meeting is I want training for their workers,” Ahmed said. “Because they can’t treat people like that, and the police should have never been called.” [Would that be shariah-compliance training?—ed]

Ahmed, a University of Southern Maine student who has been an outspoken anti-racist activist in Portland who does not shy from public demonstrations and discussions about race, said she felt compelled to speak up and publicize her encounter through social media.

“I can’t just ignore stuff like this because that would mean I’m allowing it to happen,” she said.

Ahmed had a similar encounter in September at an Old Port Starbucks, where she said an employee laughed and rolled her eyes at her when she asked for the employee to check the alcohol content of a vanilla flavoring, News Center Maine (WCSH) reported. Ahmed, who is Muslim, abstains from alcohol.

Starbucks apologized to her after the encounter, a response she said was “adequate.”

More here.

If Ahmed thinks her Dunkin’ Donuts publicity stunt will somehow improve relations between immigrants and Mainers she is naive.  But, then again, maybe that isn’t her goal at all.

This post is filed in my ‘Stealth Jihad’ category for obvious reasons!

New readers might want to look through my huge Maine archive.