Michael Patrick Leahy writing at Breitbartpublished one more reportin his series that extensively analyzes the Tuberculosis problem in the US refugee population. Here we learn that in Illinois, 8 cases of ACTIVE TB were discovered in newly resettled refugees. If you volunteer with a resettlement agency and spot any of these symptoms report it immediately and protect yourself.
This report demonstrates one of my greatest concerns and that is: how long are refugees with active TB wandering around your towns and cities, going to school, shopping at Walmart, and otherwise interacting with the community before anyone even tests them?
Here is Leahy:
The Illinois Department of Public Health has confirmed that eight refugees were diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB) “during the initial health screening or within 90 days of the refugee arrival” in the four years between 2012 and 2015. [Within 90 days! So they are walking around with active TB for months!—ed]
This data was not included in the Reported Tuberculosis in the United States documents published annually by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) between 2012 and 2015. Those reports confirmed 1,565 cases of active TB diagnosed among refugees in the 46 states that reported immigration status upon first arrival among foreign-born residents of the United States diagnosed with active TB.
Illinois is one of four states that do not share this data with the CDC. Arizona, Virginia, and Washington are the other three states.
[….]
“CDC encourages states/jurisdictions to provide as complete information as possible, but there is no requirement that they provide immigration status as part of routine surveillance,” a spokesperson told Breitbart News on Monday.
Limiting reporting of cases of TB diagnosed upon arrival, however, fails to capture the majority of the refugee TB cases which develop and are diagnosed more than a year after their arrival.
And, since we are told constantly that refugees can move anywhere they want within the US, how are those cases followed up?
Please go here to read the rest of the story.
And, to see all of Leahy’s reports, click here.
Where is Congress?
There are many things Congress can do to reform the US Refugee Admissions Program and dealing with the health issues presented by refugees who have apparently not been screened and barred from entry is a pretty easy fix.
Congress could require screening abroad and turn away all with both LATENT and definitely those with ACTIVE TB! Many with latent TB will eventually become active TB and you, the US taxpayer, will foot the bill for their meds! You are footing it right now!
And, your health and your family’s health is at risk!
Every one of you working in your local communities and questioning plans for either expanding the number of refugees in your city or where new sites are planned, pay attention! Do what this housing authority member did—don’t take the contractors word on the economic benefits that refugees supposedly bring to your town or city. I’ve been begging for years for someone with an economic/business background to thoroughly debunk (with a focused economic study) this illogical notion that bringing more poor people to a poor and struggling city benefits the city economically! I’ve suggested Utica, NY as the case study location.
Gail Johnson, a Rutland resident and Board of Aldermen hopeful, likes to confirm her facts. This practice grew out of necessity when, as a U.S. Navy finance officer, she was in charge of payroll for an entire naval base in Charleston, S.C.
In 1996 Lavinia Limon was Bill Clinton’s Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. After leaving government where she doled out grant money, she took the reins of one of nine major government refugee contractors receiving grant money, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. See Breitbart’s Michael Leahy’s dossier on Limon here last August: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/08/05/twin-falls-refugee-crisis-clinton-appointee/
Now, a member of the Rutland Housing Authority commission, Johnson continues to fact check. “Whatever I say or do, I have proof. I back it up. I expect others to do that as well,” she said.
Johnson never thought she would find discrepancies in a letter by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) to the Rutland Board of Aldermen, but she did.
[….]
In October, the Board of Aldermen sent a letter to USCRI, asking for justification of Rutland’s selection as a refugee relocation site. The agency still has not released the original grant application, which is supposed to spell out in detail Rutland’s suitability. Instead, USCRI CEO Lavinia Limon responded to the board in December, sending a letter that cited numbers of available jobs and housing.
Limon said that, as of Nov. 28, 2016, The Vermont Housing Data showed “284 housing units available for rent in Rutland City.”
Johnson noted that the 284 figure could be a result of expanded search parameters, to potentially place refugees in rent-to-buy situations, homes or condos. However, USCRI only places refugees in apartment rentals. [However, because the numbers coming in now are so astronomical, we are hearing refugees being placed (against federal regulations) in hotels!—ed]
However, when Watchdog checked the site on Jan. 11, only 23 housing locations are listed in Rutland City. Of those listed, none have availability.
[….]
“I’ve worked with people from many backgrounds. I’ve studied Arabic. Refugee settlement is a wonderful humanitarian effort,” she said.
But she said she becomes concerned when settlement agencies claim refugees will be beneficial to Rutland’s economy.
“They say that bringing in refugees is good for our economic recovery. I don’t know that that’s the solution. What I do know, in a bigger sense, is that the logic behind improving our economic recovery in Rutland by bringing in low-income people to generate business, it’s not a logical economic model,” she said.
Instead, Johnson contends, Rutland’s unemployment and lack of affordable housing makes bringing low-income refugee families into the city counterproductive from an economic standpoint.
Please read the whole story, Ms. Johnson found many more discrepancies in Lavinia Limon’s letter.
See myprevious poston Rutland where I said Ms. Limon was setting this up (with the New York Times help) to use as a cudgel against Donald Trump should he stop the flow of Syrians after January 20th.
See our many posts on the Rutland controversy, here. And, learn more about Lavinia Limon and USCRI by clicking here.
Update January 12th: Don’t miss Leo Hohmann’s expanded news on the Bishop’s Migration Week, here.
Just now when I was writing aboutCatholic Charities crowing about the Somali Muslims they are placing in Minnesota, I came across this news. Sheesh! And, I almost missed it. If you are a Catholic you are likely being bombarded this week (January 8th -14th) with propaganda about welcoming the stranger. William Canny at the United Nations. Time to tell Catholics you are mostly funded by American taxpayers.
Longtime readers know that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is one of the nine major federally employed refugee resettlement agencies in the US. Here the Cruxtells us the Bishops are the largest of the nine:
Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is the largest private refugee resettlement agency in the United Statesand has helped to resettle more than one million refugees since 1975.
Nearly 80 Catholic Charities agencies across the country are involved in refugee resettlement work, helping refugees with housing, legal services, language proficiency, trauma counseling and employment training. [Implying that this is all done with Christian charity!—ed]
If you want to, you can read the rest of the Crux’s glowing report on what the good Bishops are doing on immigration, here.
What is missing from this long story is any mention of the MILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS the Bishops receive to do their work!
And, guess what I learned! The Bishops don’t file an IRS Form 990 (no wonder we haven’t been able to find one). That is the tax form that non-profit organizations must file every year which is of vital importance for citizens to understand how their money is used and what salaries are paid.
The Bishops say they are a PRIVATE refugee agency (I say they are a quasi-government agency), but then use the religious exemption to avoid reporting to the IRS! Why do you think their office is in Washington? Maybe they need to stay close to keep the pressure on Congress to keep their funds flowing!
Because we can’t get a Form 990, we have had to rely on the USCCB Migration and Refugee Service’s annual report, but unfortunately the most recent one available (that I can find) is for 2014. But, you get the gist of it—they get millions from you. And, frankly, if they would be honest with the public and their parishioners about these vast amounts of government funding, I will shut up about it. Hereis the breakdown of their income for 2014: Federal grants is your money. But, so is the ‘travel loan.’ Makes them 97% funded by you! Now just to impress upon you how much money the Bishops are getting from the US treasury, here (below) is a screenshot of one small portion of the list of grants and contracts they have gotten in recent years at USASpending.gov.
In the last few years the total is over $200 MILLION in grants, subgrants and contracts. And, that is just what went directly to the Bishops (when doing your own search, spell out United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). It doesn’t include government grants and contracts for individual dioceses. You will have to look those up separately and find more pots of money. This is just a section of one page at USASpending.gov!
So come on Bishops! Fess-up! Tell your loyal Catholic flock that this Migration and Refugee Services isn’t being funded by them, through their Christian charitable giving, but by the taxpayers of America!
And, it begs the question, when it comes down to taking moral stands on controversial social issues, will the USCCB choose government funding if it comes down to a choice between a moral stand or millions of free bucks?
Time reporter, Maya Rhodan, quotes Anne Richard the Obama Assistant Secretary of State, and public relations people at two resettlement contracting agencies, an academician, but no one on the side of slowing the flow of refugees to America for economic and security reasons! And, there are plenty of us out here now! She does quote Kellyanne Conway to be sure you know that it is Trump vs. the humanitarians! Here is the story (actually we thank Ms. Rhodan for giving us so much information we didn’t have!): Poor Anne Richard has been constantly challenged about how she does her job.
Officials at the State Department and beyond are anxious about what the Trump presidency means for their work.
The past year had been tough for Anne Richard, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration. Ever since the body of 3-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi washed up on the shores of Turkey in 2015, her office, which processed 84,995 refugee claims last year, has been caught in political crossfire. [Notice how the propagandists have to get that poor baby in the story!—ed]
Richard says she’s been challenged constantly about how her office does its job, from members of Congress and everyday Americans…. [Glad to know this!—ed]
[….]
“I get these letters saying ‘Oh, you’re naïve, terrorists are going to use this program to infiltrate the United States,’” Richard said. “I don’t think I’m naïve. I’m looking at facts. The debate in the United States centers on this question of whether or not people should be afraid of refugees. I think not.”
The problem for Richard and her allies is that the next President of the United States, who will effectively run her office when she leaves on January 20, disagrees with that conclusion. [Anne Richard is an Obama appointee, so Trump will be choosing her replacement.—ed]
[….]
Inside and outside of the State Department, those who handle work around refugee resettlement are worried about the future of their work in the Trump administration. [And, the future of their paychecks!—ed] Many are working to share positive refugee stories with hopes of changing the hearts and minds of skeptics. While questions loom, the work continues—a little over 25,000 refugees have already been admitted to the U.S. since the beginning of the fiscal year—but on day one of the Trump administration things could change significantly.
What hardened the public against the refugee program was indeed the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. We noticed a huge jump in readership at RRW at that time.
Rhodan continues…. I know you can’t see it clearly, but wanted readers to know that Brenda in Charleston, WV has created this homemade poster of US refugees who have been arrested/convicted of Islamic terrorism or other heinous crimes. She plans to use it at meetings where the refugee advocates are promoting the meme that refugees are pure as the driven snow.
After a slight shift in opinion in the wake of Kurdi’s death, the majority of the public hardened on refugees after the terror attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. In September 2015, the Pew Research Center recorded that about 51% of Americans supported the government’s decision accept more refugees in response to the European migrant crisis. Two months later, a Bloomberg poll found 53% of Americans wanted the U.S. to stop accepting refugees altogether.
[….]
Around that time, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which houses the refugee admissions program and funds and manages the nine Resettlement Support Centers around world that prepare refugee applications, started playing defense.
When Senators Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and President Jimmy Carter created the Refugee Admissions Program in 1980 they gave the President inordinate amounts of power to determine who comes and how many. Now, as refugee skeptic Donald Trump arrives in Washington it could come back to bite them. (Both Bushs were soft on refugees).
In October, President Obama set a new goal of resettling 110,000 refugees in 2017—a number that president-elect Trump can decide to either reduce or ignore. The goal functions as a ceiling that the country can’t go over, and Trump can change it once he is president without an act of Congress.
At this point reporter Rhodan quotes from two representatives of refugee contracting agencies without mentioning that many jobs are at stake now at these quasi-government agencies since both of these organizations receive millions of taxpayer dollars to place refugees in your towns and cities. After discussing the International Rescue Committee, here is what she reports that Church World Service is doing.
What is so galling to me is that CWS is likely using funds you, as taxpayers, give them to organize lobbying efforts, marches on Washington and media propaganda campaigns. They use your money to work against you!
The Time article continues…..
Church World Service is working on sharing refugees’ and volunteers’ stories through a digital campaign called #GreaterAs1. They’ve also been encourage partners across the country to reach out to local and national officials to share refugee success stories and comment on the impact of their work. The group also plans to have refugee presence at both the confirmation hearing of Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as well as a women’s march planned for after the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump. [So they are going to parade refugee pawns in to Senator Sessions’hearing to be Attorney General?Once again, thanks to reporter Rhodan for this information.—ed]
As Richard’s appointment comes to an end, she’s still working to get the word out about refugees. After a young Somali refugee carried out a knife attack at Ohio State University, she penned a letter to the editor to USA Today. “The biggest issue that I’ve tried to get across is that refugees are not terrorists,” she said.“They are the victims of terrorists, and victims of war, victims of persecution.”
There is more, click here to read the rest of the biased Time story. Remember, even as Ms. Richard packs up and leaves, there are career bureaucrats who will carry-on until Trump puts someone in there to rein them in! Endnote:You might want to see yesterday’s post about Rochester, NY where we learned that the State Department is not only countering negative news, but pushing resettlement agencies to the brink with a huge number of mostly Muslim refugees they are bringing in as they come up against the clock—Inauguration day January 20th.
This is direct confirmation from a resettlement contractor in Rochester, NY that indeed the pipeline of refugees headed to America is packed to overflowing and that local resettlement agencies are struggling to cope with the numbers.
Of course this means that refugees will suffer as will local communities, governments/school systems that must adjust to rapid cultural and demographic change (in addition to shelling-out for taxpayer-funded expenses for schooling etc.). Not sure what the 10 different options are that Trump could choose, but we can think of one at least—pause the program on day one and force Congress to trash the present law or reform it.
On January 20th, Donald Trump could simply turn off the spigot, and if he does there will be howls of rage by contractors who say he is mean and hateful as he cuts off the flow of not only refugees, but the MONEY that comes with them from Washington!
This article at the Democrat and Chronicle (hat tip: Jim, LOL! Not the Jim quoted in the story!) tells us that the local resettlement contractor is in a tough spot because they can’t cope with the uncertainty. They can’t go out and hire staff to take care of the huge, unexpected influx!
Nearly 1,200 people arrived in Rochester as refugees in 2016, a huge spike from 2015 that has put serious strain on the local agencies through which they pass.
The influx a 56 percent increase over last year’s total mirrors a nationwide increase and reflects Rochester’s role as a major center for refugees like Haidar Al-Hasooni, a 16-year-old from Iraq.
Like most newly arriving children, he attends the Rochester International Academy (RIA), which has nearly doubled its enrollment since the start of the school year. [For more on this part of the story, be sure toclick here.—ed]
[….]
The increase in refugee arrivals coincides with President Barack Obama’s decision to raise the total national number from 70,000 to 85,000 for the 2015-16 fiscal year, which ended in September.
That includes Syrians, 80 of whom settled in Rochester in 2016.There were also significant increases in arrivals from Somalia (231, up from 103); Cuba (179, up from 119); Iraq (105, up from 54); and the Republic of the Congo (99, up from 39).
Rochester welcomed 756 refugees in 2015. This year, it was 1,176, and the pace has remained frenetic into the winter.
“This is usually a very slow time for us, but this year it’s the opposite because there are so many people in the pipeline,” said Jim Morris, associate vice president for family services at Catholic Family Center.
[….]
Even when refugee arrival trends are apparent, it is difficult for local agencies to plan very far in advance. Numbers can fluctuate in response to a variety of domestic and international factors, with the election of Donald Trump as president foremost at the moment.
“We’re not really built for the (current) level of arrivals,” Morris said. “We can get through a couple of months like this, but a sustained high level for seven or eight months makes it very difficult. … But we can’t really scale up, because it will likely go back down. The new administration could do one of 10 different options.”
