Former refugee contractor CEO: America needs refugees to teach us how to love one another

10/31/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Stephen Bauman, a former CEO of World Relief, one of nine federal resettlement contractors*** (paid by the head to place refugees in towns that are kept in the dark about the resettlement process) was speaking to an interfaith gathering in North Carolina recently when he said some annoying things.

Bauman justice conf — We love refugees, but regular ol’ Americans obviously not so much!

The one that really got me is the one about needing refugees to teach us how to love.

What the heck, what’s wrong with loving the neighbors in your own town, the low income Americans of all colors who are suffering. In fact the first question I get when someone first learns about refugee resettlement is:

We have our own poor people why aren’t we taking care of them first?

Here is the story from Baptist News Global:

America needs refugees as much as refugees need places like America, says Stephan Bauman, former president and CEO of World Relief, which has helped to resettle thousands of desperate wanderers.

Bauman addressed refugees and volunteers who have helped to make them at home during a “refugee welcome” event attended by more than 350 at Knollwood Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., Oct. 21. [Can we conclude that Winston-Salem has no American poor people remaining, that these good Baptists have taken care of them all?—ed]

In the past two years, Knollwood has helped to settle four refugee families — three of them in partnership with Temple Emanuel, a Jewish community in the city. Their resettled families have been Muslim.

[….]

Diane-Lipsett-feature-image — Baptist minister Lipsett

While other such relationship building events are not unique, organizer Diane Lipsett said this event paid special attention to why helping refugees “matters to our faith.” She led panel discussions with volunteers from three faiths, and had the entire discussion translated into both Arabic and Swahili so refugees primarily from Syria and the Congo would be fully integrated.

Bauman, who this year became executive director of Cornerstone Trust, a grant management firm in Grand Rapids, Mich., said America needs refugees “so we can love one another, because we don’t naturally love each other.” The common task of service for others induces us to drop our regard for differences.

Resettling refugees, sometimes those from countries not friendly to the United States, shows us “how to love our enemies,” Bauman said.

[….]

For Bob Schwartz, it is the Jewish tradition of “Tikkun olam,” the mandate to repair the world, “to make the world a better place.”

What! It isn’t sufficient to love those around you and repair your own neighborhood? And, why isn’t Bauman still heading World Relief (National Association of Evangelicals) if resettling refugees is such a wonderful thing?

Continue reading here. This article is better than a cup of coffee to wake you up!

Feel the love!

All this phony-baloney love-talk reminds me how much Bauman and World Relief don’t love you—people who ask questions and want to know how the refugee program is working in your home towns (what it costs and the potential cultural/social upheaval that could follow)!

In 2015 I traveled to Minnesota and was interviewed on a local radio station. (BTW, World Relief was one of three federal contractors originally responsible for the placement of Somali refugees in the state).

I told listeners that they needed to get a copy of the R & P (Reception & Placement) Abstract, that is the plan each contractor operating in a city prepares for the federal government. It tells how many refugees the contractor wants to bring and what amenities your town/city has to offer the refugees. (See the recent one from St. Cloud here).

Not only should this document be available to you after it is prepared, but frankly taxpaying citizens should see it and be able to comment on its drafting. For most areas of the country this document is still SECRET! (Feel the love!)

And, shame on any mayor and council that is not even aware there is such a planning document!

So if Bauman loved YOU, why would he have been running such a secretive program?

Or, is his love limited to only those who agree with him politically (and for the “strangers” he places in your towns)?

See below in this internal memo sent from World Relief headquarters (while Bauman was still CEO) to their subcontractors (they call them affiliates) around the country and shared with me.

Feel the love!

(I’ve removed the names of recipients and highlighted the portions of most interest to me.)

Screenshot (1030) — Stand for the foreign-born vulnerable should be their motto!

From: Casey Leyva
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 5:07 PM
Subject: Potential Anti-Refugee Contacts

Dear Office Directors,

We’ve heard recently from other members of RCUSA (Refugee Council USA) that local affiliates have been contacted by individuals questioning the U.S. refugee program. This is a result of an interview Ann Corcoran, a blogger who runs Refugee Resettlement Watch, with a local news station in Minnesota. She has told her followers to to ask you for your R&P abstract – please do not send it. And please let us know if you are contacted.

Finally, please don’t go searching for this woman’s blog. I give you her information so you know if and when someone calls that this is the same topic. Here are Scott’s tips on interacting with these types of blogs:

Here is an important remember of how blog analytics work. Remember that what feeds the beast essentially are clicks. Ever hear the term “click-bait”? Seeing something in your Facebook feed that says “Velociraptor eats Skittles and your mind will be blown at what happens next!”, would be a dramatized example of that. In other words, while we all don’t really like anything this blogger has to say, every time we share the link, she gets a click. Bloggers have some very useful tools. They are able to tell when people read articles, what they are interested in, and what they search for on the blog. The more times this article is shared, the more the blogger will think they are onto something here and post more about it. Just as a news organization may hammer on a specific story, not because it is a great story, but because it builds up ratings and viewership. What can be done about this?

The best thing I recommend is if a blog such as this is posted by ForRefugees (Chris C.) or Refugee Resettlement Watch (Ann C.) and we believe it is worth sharing for FYI, that the person who locates it simply copy and paste the text from the blog into the e-mail. This will ensure that the clicks are limited. It will get 1 or 2 clicks from WR, versus 20 clicks. Those add up.

Casey Leyva
R&P Program Manager

7 E. Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
T 443.451.1916
E cleyva@wr.org
www.worldrelief.org

Fascinating isn’t it how hard they tried to keep my posts from being widely read. And, I love it that they didn’t want any conflicting information reaching the sensitive ears of their staffers.

The Refugee Council USA mentioned in the first paragraph is the lobbying arm of the refugee industry and we have mentioned them many times here. Most recently they (including World Relief) were involved in joining CAIR to march at the #NoMuslimBanEver rally against the President here.

***These are the nine federal refugee contractors that are responsible for placing all refugees in your towns. These nine get the refugee cases from the US State Department and distribute them to over 300 subcontractors operating in your towns. They all keep the R & P Abstracts under wraps because they don’t want you to know their plans.

Federally-contracted resettlement agencies do hold secret refugee planning meetings

10/29/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have been over this ground so many times I want to barf.

St. Cloud council meeting (2) — If the program is so wonderful for St. Cloud, OPEN THE MEETINGS!

US State Department contractors (non-profit groups paid with taxpayer dollars and hired to resettle refugees in your towns), hold quarterly “consultations” where they meet with other government agencies and sometimes representatives of ethnic groups they serve to discuss problems with refugees and to make plans for the next batch they are bringing in.

The US State Department in Washington says such “stakeholder” meetings are open to the public, but apparently that message hasn’t reached the arrogant contractors.

A picture is worth a thousand words and I am surprised this one is being used to illustrate an otherwise mealymouthed editorial in the St. Cloud Times.

Taxpaying citizens in St. Cloud have been barred from federal contractor Lutheran Social Service’s “quarterly consultations.”

By the way, federal law requires the consultations, but they only started following the law in about 2013.

(I have links for everything above… search RRW for “stakeholder meetings.”)

See my ever-growing archive on St. Cloud, Minnesota by clicking here.

Shame on the House Immigration Subcommittee for never getting to this huge and growing problem (citizen anger in refugee-saturated cities!) with the US Refugee Admissions Program in its rare “oversight” hearing this past week.

What you can do!

LOL! Have some fun in Minnesota and complain about closed meetings to your US Senator Amy Klobuchar who was running her mouth about more openness in government earlier this year! She wants increased government transparency and accountability. Tell her to start here! We are told after all, that this is a federal program!

Baton Rouge coffee shop to hire only refugee workers

10/28/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

What is it with coffee shops and their desire to selectively hire a certain class of people? Isn’t there a law against this sort of discrimination?

Earlier we learned about Starbucks’ hiring event in San Diego, now a little start-up coffee shop plans to open in Louisiana and hire refugees and political asylees .

What! no needy Americans looking for jobs in Baton Rouge?

What happens if some African American or (gasp) white citizen applies for a job? Will their application be rejected?

From the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report:

A new coffee shop that will hire and help refugees has leased a space in the Bayou Duplantier Shopping Center on Lee Drive, near the intersection of Highland Road, with plans to open in early 2018.

Screenshot (735) — Following the San Diego Starbucks model? https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/08/08/starbucks-making-good-on-promise-will-interview-refugees-in-california-for-jobs-as-baristas/

Light House Coffee has been in the works for nearly a year and is the brainchild of Amber and Steve Elworth. He is a minister at Chapel on the Campus. Until recently, she was an English instructor at Catholic Charities of Baton Rouge, which is an official refugee resettlement agency of the federal government.

Through her work at Catholic Charities, Amber Elworth came to realize the many challenges refugees and political asylees face as they try to become self sufficient, so she determined to establish a small business that will help them.

“I wanted to create a structure that will enable more people to get involved in helping refugees,” she says. “The needs are overwhelming and no one person can solve even one person’s needs.”

Light House Coffee will serve a variety of coffees and pastries as well as a few light meals. The cafe will hire refugees and asylees to work as baristas, servers and cashiers.

More here.

I don’t think Starbucks’ gimmick has won them many new customers, and if comments to RRW are any gauge, it has lost them a good number.

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.

Rutland Firster shows it is possible to defeat mayors who secretively work with federal refugee contractors

10/23/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been talking a lot about mayors (and councils) lately because I believe that we can’t count on the DC swamp being drained anytime soon. Our focus should be close to home and making sure local elected officials aren’t working secretively with big businesses and federal agencies and their contractors to change America (your town) by changing the people.

And, as I said the other day, I’m compiling a dirty dozen list of mayors*** who need to go. But, LOL! this one in Rutland, VT is already gone thanks to Rutland First.

Recently one of the leaders of Rutland First was honored for his hard work by ACT for America at its annual conference.

Here is the news from True North Reports:

Don Chioffi, a retired Vermont state legislator, educator and Vietnam veteran, has been named “Citizen Activist of the Year” by Washington, D.C.-based ACT! for America.

Chioffi, a resident of Rutland Town, co-led the formation of Rutland First, a coalition of local citizens opposed to less-than-transparent efforts by Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras to resettle 100 Syrian refugees in the area starting in early 2016.

Chioffi was presented the award by ACT! for America founder Brigitte Gabriel at a special ceremony in Washington earlier this month. Gabriel is a prominent Lebanese-born conservative journalist and immigration activist. Earlier this year she took part in a national security briefing with White House officials.

Under Chioffi’s leadership, Rutland First was credited for bringing the secretive refugee placement program to light, which ultimately resulted in the defeat of Louras on Town Meeting Day in March. Louras spearheaded the resettlement effort with support from the Obama administration and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, among others. Another local group, Rutland Welcomes, worked with Louras to help refugees find housing and job opportunities.

“It’s a tremendous honor to receive this award,” Chioffi told True North Reports. “It was a humbling and surreal experience. For somebody that’s steeped in Vermont and the trees here, it’s tremendous. But I accepted the award not for myself but for Rutland First. There are several of us who are founding members.”

Chioffi said the honor really recognizes Rutland First for shining a light on the secret government program sprung by the mayor.

There is more, continue reading here.

If they can do this in Vermont, surely you can do it where you live!

The major contractor operating in Vermont is the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).

We covered the Rutland controversy extensively. To learn more go here.

***I have about 9 mayors targeted for my first Dirty Dozen Mayors and am looking for more. Send your suggestions!

By the way, here are the nine major federal contractors who have hundreds of subcontractors working for them in all states but Wyoming. Click here for my most recent accounting of their finances.