Update: This group of Syrians will NOT now be placed in Hudson because the Dept. of State says they need more medical care than Hudson has to offer. They are going somewhere else. This case is all very strange from start to finish and it strikes me that Obama’s outgoing resettlement team is in disarray. Read about it here. See what the Catholic Church says, here.
I told you about a proposed (strange) arrangement to resettle 5 Syrian refugee families in the small town of Hudson, Wisconsin, here last month. A Catholic Church was being asked by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (a federal refugee contractor) to take full responsibility for the Syrian families. I wondered if that church would get the full per head amount of federal resettlement contract money.
A large meeting is (was?) scheduled in Hudson in early January to take the pulse of the community.
Local readers (who have formed a citizens’ group in opposition) tell me that that plan was suddenly scrapped and Lutheran Social Services out of Milwaukee came to town this week and condescendingly told residents, no, they (LSS), were going to bring the Syrians to Hudson and it was going to be a whole lot more than 21 (believed to be included in the five families).
Then, when I looked around this morning, I see that 7th District Congressman Sean Duffy sent a letter yesterday to the CEO of Lutheran Social Services in Wisconsin asking questions that every careful and concerned Member of Congress should be asking if he/she is being told ‘out of the blue’ that Syrian refugees (or any refugees!) were being chosen for the district.
Here is Duffy’s letter:
I think most of you are surprised to see a reference to any assessment!
Where is the assessment for any of the 47 new sites we are told the US Department of State is considering in the closing days of the Obama Administration? If Rep. Duffy and others want to do a service to America they could reform the Refugee Admissions Program legislatively and require PUBLIC assessments of the suitability of communities to absorb large numbers of third world refugees!
Endnote: When I checked my archives, I see I wrote about Hudson, Wisconsin in January 2014 when rival Somali gangs came over from Minnesota and got into a fight in Hudson, see here.
Our Wisconsin archive is here.
***Update*** Wimpy Walker weighs in on refugees to Wisconsin here. It isn’t clear that he understands the present process. If he wants to see things change he better get in touch with pal Paul (Ryan) to change the law in Congress!
Category: Taxpayer goodies
23 years after Black Hawk Down we admit Somali 'refugees' to US at highest rates ever
“Somali refugees are probably an even bigger risk than Syrians, as Somalis have committed several terrorist attacks on U.S. soil recently.” (Leo Hohmann)
We gave you some numbers yesterday for Somali resettlement in the waning weeks of the Obama Administration and the numbers are astronomical.
Why is Somalia our problem more than 25 years since the civil war there and 23 years since, as part of a United Nations mission, we lost 18 of our finest men in the infamous Battle of Mogadishu ‘Black Hawk Down’ attack.
Why must American cities and towns be roiled decades later because the Somali people can’t govern their own country?
And, once the Syrian flow has begun in earnest, what makes you think it will ever stop?
Yesterday, World Net Daily reporter Paul Bremmer asks the same question. And, frankly, as we ramp up the Syrian resettlement, if Donald Trump doesn’t come through for those millions of voters who want to see the program curtailed especially from terror producing regions of the world, then we are in for another quarter of a century admitting Syrians along with the Somalis!
Here is WND:
While many Americans worry about the influx of Syrians, the U.S. has taken in even more refugees from Somalia this year. Through the first 11 weeks of FY 2017, the U.S. resettled 3,269 Somali refugees. At this rate, the country would absorb more than 15,550 by fiscal year’s end. At this point in FY 2016, the U.S. had only admitted 1,721 Somali refugees on its way to taking in 9,020 for the year.
More than 99.9 percent of the Somalis admitted this fiscal year are Muslims, as was the case in FY 2016 as well.
Hohmann noted Somali refugees are probably an even bigger risk than Syrians, as Somalis have committed several terrorist attacks on U.S. soil recently.
“There’s been no debate in Congress or the media asking the obvious questions: Why is America still taking thousands of refugees every year from Somalia more than 25 years after that country’s civil war broke out?” Hohmann asked. “How many is too many, and why aren’t the Somalis doing a better job of assimilating? Dozens have gone off to fight for overseas terror organizations while even more have been charged, tried and convicted here at home of providing material support to overseas terrorists.”
At the end of this informative article is a slight change of subject worth highlighting. New low income housing in your town=you will get refugees!
Hohmann said while he can’t prove the State Department and the federal contractors have targeted red states over blue ones, it wouldn’t surprise him. But he warned that the availability of housing is the biggest factor in determining the placement of refugees.
“They are bringing the refugees in so fast right now that it’s difficult to find places to house them,” he revealed. “I’ve been hearing stories from my sources that some are being secretly housed in Muslim-owned hotels and being held there until openings can be found in local apartment complexes. Housing is always the key for this program. That’s why I often tell people to be wary of government-subsidized housing projects being built in your city because this is often a precursor to refugee resettlement, especially if you have a liberal mayor at the helm of your city.”
If you have been a loyal follower of Ben Carson and want to help fight this fight, you should try to reach him and tell him to scrap Obama’s ‘Affirmatively furthering fair housing’ initiative which funds housing projects in largely white communities where politicians promise diversity will be injected into the community.
Be sure to get Leo Hohmann’s new book: Stealth Invasion. It is the first full-length book on the US Refugee Admissions Program and where it has gone wrong.
***See my accounting that began in 2008 of the Somali resettlement each year and note two things: The big influx began with Bill Clinton’s first year in office (1994), but up until this year (FY17), the greatest rates of admission of Somalis came in the George W. Bush Administration.
Unaccompanied refugee minors program, small but could grow
Two days ago we reported that Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) had introduced a bill in the waning days of the Congress to admit 25,000 Syrian ‘orphans’ to the US.
So I found this story interesting and something you should know about. We do have a program for ‘unaccompanied refugee minors’ not to be confused with the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ flooding across our southern border at the moment (and for the last few years). The refugee minors program is for children who are deemed refugees (not the phony asylum seekers from Central America). Although I think the reporter in the story at US News has the efforts confused.
Or, is it possible that the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement really has no authority to pay out over a billion dollars a year for those illegal alien children and is doing it under this one?
This news says they (resettlement agency reps) can find very few truly ‘unaccompanied’ children from Syria (although they are looking!) because most, if separated, quickly find parents or family members who take them in. This makes me wonder why Rep. Honda felt there was a need to bring in 25,000 orphaned Syrian children on a “temporary” basis.
From US News:
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, or LIRS, and eight other refugee resettlement groups have worked with the federal government to resettle roughly 17,000 Syrian refugees, including many children within family units, since the conflict broke out in the country in 2011. But of those, the State Department says only one has been a minor without a parent or guardian to care for him or her. Out of privacy concerns, they could give no details about the minor.
The U.S. has the capacity to accept more orphans from the war-ravaged country, Haynes and other experts say. It’s just that for now – as jarring as it might sound while Aleppo’s trapped children plead for help – there aren’t many Syrian minors who qualify for this particular form of assistance.
The Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program in the United States is the only formal program in the world that is specifically designed to bring unaccompanied refugee children into a unique domestic foster care system, says Haynes. Since its founding after the Vietnam War, the program has accepted about 13,000 minors. It’s a relatively small program, admitting about 200 children last year.
The system gives refugees access to all the support available in the regular foster care system, but also provides additional assistance for things like language training and mental health services. It’s a federally funded program, and like all refugee resettlement services, can be changed or terminated at the whim of the president.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service monopolize this federal grant program.
Children can come into the program a range of ways. They’re frequently referred by United Nations refugee agency partners based in other countries. In other scenarios, they’ve crossed the southern border and are classified as victims of trafficking or asylum seekers. LIRS works with another group, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to place the children. The program prioritizes family reunification, meaning officials try to place minors with relatives who are able and willing to care for them before putting them in the foster care system.
Now, pay attention to this! Once the ‘unaccompanied’ refugee reaches the age of 18, he she doesn’t leave, but can apply for family members to come to America!
Ensuring that minors are truly unaccompanied takes time, she says. And once they qualify and arrive in the U.S., they can’t apply for any family member to join them in the U.S. until after they are 18.
Bloomington, Indiana: Plans for new resettlement site on hold; federal money drying up
“We in Bloomington and groups all throughout the United States are waiting for the new budget to come out. Like a lot of vulnerable populations, we will have to see how much funding will be allocated.”
(Refugee promoter Diane Legomsky)
This is the first in what I expect to be many reports from controversial potential refugee resettlement sites that the Obama State Department was attempting to get open quickly. Why? Because actions by Congress to limit funding in the appropriations process are causing the DOS and the ORR to start pulling in the reins on new sites.
Elections have consequences and the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) may be changed beginning January 21, 2017 (the day after inauguration day).
We expect the present political appointees, Anne Richard at the Dept. of State and Bob Carey at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS) to be job hunting soon if they aren’t already. Indeed, they could go back (revolving door!) to the ‘non-profit’ resettlement contractor they both came from—the International Rescue Committee.
Showing once again the impact that federal funding (or the lack of it!) has on local resettlement offices, the announcement that the planned program is now on hold for Bloomington, IN was reported yesterday at the Herald Times (emphasis is mine):
The effort to resettle refugees in Bloomington has been put on hold as local and national aid organizations await details of the incoming presidential administration’s 2017 budget plans.
The announcement came Saturday from Bloomington Refugee Support Network chairwoman Diane Legomsky, who said while the organization is no longer expecting refugees to arrive this spring, she is confident this is just a delay of the inevitable.
“We in Bloomington and groups all throughout the United States are waiting for the new budget to come out. Like a lot of vulnerable populations, we will have to see how much funding will be allocated. However, this is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when.’” Legomsky said. “We certainly anticipate that resettlement will be happening here; it just might be in late 2017 or in 2018.”
The State Department has been clear that it considers Bloomington an ideal resettlement city: In addition to being extremely welcoming, it is an exceptionally well-resourced city, able to resettle and give support to refugees in a very cost-effective way. Any budgeting decisions about resettlement are based on national, rather than state or local, considerations, Legomsky said.
[….]
Local efforts to welcome refugees to Bloomington have sparked opposition from the Grassroots Conservative political group, which has raised concerns at public forums about safety and potential cost to host communities.
Earlier this month, Congress passed a continuing spending resolution to fund the federal government through April 28, providing an opportunity for the new administration to put its imprint on the 2017 budget. [Will Trump severely restrict federal funding in the second half of FY2017?—ed]
President-elect Donald Trump was critical of the Syrian resettlement program, in particular, during his recent presidential campaign, and he called for suspension of immigration from areas of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism until “extreme vetting” measures could be put in place.
The law is very clear on this last point, the President of the United States can stop immigration from any region of the world he wishes.
More here (but warning this requires a paid subscription).
One commenter said that local millionaire developers (who have empty apartments) will be disappointed! Remember refugee resettlement is big business! Federal dollars (your money) grease the skids.
Look for more from me going forward about the federal Budget and Appropriations process in the new year.
Ten US cases of refugee Islamic terror arrests/convictions
I’ve been procrastinating about writing this post, because it required work!
I had to go back through my over 2,000 posts on refugee crimes, here, and pull out Islamic terror cases involving refugees. I chose ten, not for any other reason than these ten below are at the top of my mind. And, I think ten is enough to counter the disinformation campaign going on.
For good measure, I have also added (below) a few spectacular crimes involving Muslim refugees.
But, I have to do it (to write this) because clearly the refugee industry has sent out talking points that I am seeing parroted many times each day which pretty much go like this: no refugee has committed an act of terror in the US. LOL! And, maybe that is because many were arrested and convicted BEFORE they could do anything!
And, let me ask you, when evaluating the fact that you (as a taxpayer) paid for a refugee’s opportunity to come to America and in some cases below even paid to raise the refugee to adulthood, does it matter for your anger level that he/she planned to kill Americans or planned to kill some innocents somewhere else in the world? So when the refugee advocates make a distinction about the location of the wannabe jihadist’s target, it’s a difference without a distinction to me!
Here are ten that come to mind:
~The Somali (Mohamed Osman Mohamud) arrested on charges he planned to blow up a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Oregon was a refugee. See here in 2010. He was arrested as he planned to detonate a bomb.
~ Two Iraqi refugees were convicted on charges that they helped Al Qaeda in Iraq and may have killed American servicemen there. They lied on their refugee applications. Best coverage of 2011 case here by ABC News. The entire Iraqi flow to America had to be re-screened that year!
~In 2012 Abdullatif Ali Aldosary (an Iraqi refugee) set off a bomb at a Social Security Office in Arizona. Sentenced here.
~As successful asylum seekers, the Boston Bombers were refugees who had benefited from America’s generosity. One of many stories here about the 2012 deadly Boston Marathon attack by the Tsarnaev brothers (Chechens).
~In 2013 Fazliddin Kurbanov was arrested in Idaho and later convicted on terrorism charges. Kurbanov is an Uzbek refugee. See here.
~In early 2016 an Iraqi refugee (Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan) living in Texas was accused of planning to bomb a local popular mall, see story at Newsweek.
~In September 2016, a Somali refugee went on a stabbing spree at a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Learn more here about Dahir Adan. Knife attacks are signature terror acts for devout Muslims.
~Also in September, the Chelsea bomber, Ahmad Rahimi, was arrested and we learned his family came to the US from Afghanistan and were given asylum. We need to be paying more attention to these asylum seekers since they enter the country completely unscreened and their numbers are on the rise. Story at CNN. Once granted asylum they are given all the same rights and privileges as the refugees we fly in.
~And, we can’t forget the most recent successful attack by Somali refugee slasher, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, at Ohio State, see here.
~For number ten, I’m lumping the dozens of wannabe Somali refugee jihadists (mostly from Minnesota) who have been identified and/or convicted of wanting to leave the country to fight for al-Shabaab or ISIS. See here. Several like those in that recent case, were convicted.
Now, here are some horrible crimes I’ve reported over the years!
And remember not only did you pay for the refugee’s trip to America and his welfare when he got here, but now you will pay for (in many cases) their lives in prison.
~It is hard to rank murder cases, but for me the top of the list is a horrible rape and murder of a Christian refugee child in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2008. The Burmese Muslim murderer (Esar Met) is now incarcerated for life. The child was the youngest child and only daughter of a Burmese Christian family.
~In 2013 a Somali refugee in North Dakota was sentenced to life in prison for the 2011 murder of a native American family he had become involved with.
~In this case in 2014, an Iraqi refugee murdered his wife (she was going to leave him in 2012) and he penned a fake note trying to pin the murder on Islamophobes in the neighborhood. He was found guilty here and he wasn’t too happy about it! Even CAIR had gotten involved when he tried to pin the murder on Islamophobic Americans.
~And this is an awful case from Colorado where a gang of Iraqi refugees brutally raped a local Colorado Springs woman—“the worst case in Colorado history.” Diana West did a great investigative report on the story, here, at Townhall.
~And, if you have never seen the 2009 Roanoke, VA kidnapping story, don’t miss it here! No one ever accused these refugees of being too bright! By the way, these guys only got about 5 years so they are probably out roaming Anytown, USA right now. I doubt they were deported.
I’m sure I have more, but I want to move on to other news today.
Here is an idea!
If your town is having a public meeting on whether to ‘welcome’ refugees, you know the pro-refugee team will be there with their talking points. Maybe print this post out and take it along to counter them. Or, better still, dig into some of these cases and be prepared with maybe even a poster with photos and talking points of your own!
And, when they tell you that refugees bring economic benefits to communities, ask if they are factoring in the costs of crime/trials/incarceration!