Senate voted (and Obama signed) the Continuing Budget Resolution overnight, refugee program comes up short

12/10/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The federal government will continue to be funded mostly at the Fiscal Year 2016 level until late April. The budget extension had passed the House earlier in the week and the Senate voted last night to send the bill to Obama’s desk.
Many Dems were unhappy because instead of funding the government for the year—until September 30th—the whole issue will be revisited in the spring. The election of Donald Trump was pretty much the deciding factor and this short term fix gives the Trump team time to get in place and put their funding priorities in the mix.

donald-trump — Elections have consequences as Congress defers to Trump’s wish to weigh in on the federal budget for a portion of FY17. Funding=policy.

You can read about the final vote here at The Hill.
For our purposes (we have been writing about the issue of funding for the Refugee program for months), the results are good news.
Last week we reported that the Obama Administration was looking for billions in additional funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement claiming that if they didn’t get their big tranche of money, ORR would go broke in February.
Well they didn’t get most of it which should make it even easier for Trump to stop or significantly slow the flow of refugees after January 20th since clearly the Congress is signalling that there is not much support for the high level of refugees that Obama wanted and surely Hillary would have enthusiastically supported had she won the election in November.
Obama’s 110,000 refugee goal for this year will now (in my opinion) be out of reach.
Here is what Numbers USA is reporting:

Fri, Dec 9^th

The House overwhelmingly approved, with bipartisan support, a short-term spending bill yesterday without any significant changes to the refugee program and without expanding the H-2B guest-worker program.

[…..]

The short-term spending bill would fund the government through late-April, so there will likely be another battle then. But negotiations will be with a different administration that’s more focused on eliminating fraud within the refugee program and protecting the jobs and wages of American workers.

We faced two threats with this week’s fight. First, back in September, Pres. Obama demanded an increase in funding for the refugee program to accommodate an additional 25,000 refugees over last year’s already inflated numbers. The White House more recently requested a doubling of refugee funding through the short-term spending bill. The money not only would pay for the additional refugees, but would house and resettle across the U.S. the thousands of border surgers who have illegally entered the U.S. in recent months.

Congress added a small increase in refugee funding, but none of the additional funds can be used to resettle new refugees in the United States nor can they be used by the Obama Administration to house and resettle the border surgers.

The budget battle will now resume in the spring—a battle which could be significantly less important for us if Trump acts on his campaign promise to halt refugee admissions from terror-producing countries—which is about half of the flow coming in right now.
This is strange…..
I searched around this morning to see if the VOLAGs (refugee contractors) or their lobbyists were wailing, but am not seeing anything. Delayed reaction? Maybe they had some leftover funds sloshing around? But, they have already said they don’t!
Keep me posted if you see anything.
What you might see before I do is some local news reports that say that the opening of a new resettlement site is being ‘delayed.’

This post and all posts on the budget process are tagged ‘Where is Congress.’

Message to new 'welcoming' towns: get out your wallets for your school system!

12/10/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ehtesham-Cating said… she cannot foresee the government penalizing Rutland schools if they cannot provide translation services right away.

This is yet another story from Rutland, VT where citizens and elected officials have been questioning a resettlement contractor (USCRI) and the federal government for months about the details of the US State Department’s decision to send the FIRST 100 Syrians there perhaps next month!
Board of Aldermen President William Notte wanted to know about school funding if the refugee children arrive in the middle of the school year.
As we point out in our 2015 post ‘Ten things your town needs to know‘ when ‘welcoming’ refugees, the impact of the resettled refugees will be felt first in your school system’s budget.
Here is what we learned at Vermont Watchdog:

Miriam Ehtesham-Cating, the English language program director for the Burlington School District, said the focus needs to be on elementary and high school kids, in keeping with the federal government’s requirements for English language learning.

vermont-refugee-agency-2 — In news dated December 2nd, USCRI says it is proceeding with plans for Rutland with a wait and see attitude toward the incoming Trump Administration. http://wamc.org/post/vermont-refugee-resettlement-opening-rutland-office

“Vermont and the federal government have a strict regulatory process for identifying English language learners, and providing language assistance,” Ehtesham-Cating said.

Ehtesham-Cating, who oversees English language instruction for 14 schools, said services for preschoolers would not likely be a priority. “It is more important for staff to receive coaching and to receive help in developing learning profiles for these children,” she said.

In addition, since schools are required to send materials home to students and parents in a language they can understand, Rutland schools will need to offer some sort of translation services.

Ehtesham-Cating said that in her opinion, she cannot foresee the government penalizing Rutland schools if they cannot provide translation services right away.

[….]

Winooski, another refugee resettlement community in Vermont, spends about $1 million dollars annually on language services. Rutland schools would have a much lower tab, said Ehtesham-Cating, since only two full-time liaisons would likely be needed to help an estimated 40 refugee school kids.

“(Language services) aren’t just a requirement, they’re good practice,” she said. “Some of these children have grown up their whole lives inside a camp. They don’t know how to even go to school. … Rutland has to decide how they are going to help these children transition.”

Continue reading here.
See our complete archive on the on-going tension in Rutland, VT by clicking here.
The federal contractor WRAPSnet previously maintained a list of a couple hundred resettlement offices, here. As of this writing they have removed that list and so after years of being able to see where refugee offices are located that information is no longer available to you.
Rutland is one of 47 new sites the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement have quietly targeted as new resettlement sites. One of the first things the Trump Administration must do is to make all of this information public information. Here are some of the sites we have identified so far:

Asheville, NC

Rutland, VT

Reno, NV

Ithaca, NY

Missoula, MT

Aberdeen, SD (may have been thwarted as a primary resettlement site!)

Charleston, WV

Fayetteville, AR

Blacksburg, VA

Pittsfield, MA

Northhampton, MA

Flint, MI

Bloomington, IN

Traverse City, MI

Poughkeepsie, NY

Wilmington, DE

Watertown, NY (maybe)

Youngstown, OH (maybe)

Storm Lake, Iowa

Surprise! Lutheran refugee contractor got more refugees last year than they planned for

12/09/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For all of you in ‘welcoming’ towns, do not believe the numbers you are being told! Because the feds are short of locations and they are on a tear to bring in as many refugees as they can (at least up until Trump takes office or their federal money runs out) your state is likely to get more refugees than they initially ‘promised.’
This news from Inforum in Fargo, ND makes it even more clear that Donald Trump must slow the flow in to the country across the board as soon as he is inaugurated.

FARGO — More refugees were resettled here in the last fiscal year than Lutheran Social Services North Dakota had expected, the agency reported Thursday, Dec. 8.

mary-scherling — Cass County Commissioner Mary Scherling suggests that Lutheran Social Services send some of the refugees destined for the state to Minot (270 miles from Fargo). What? since they aren’t getting the joys of diversity yet! Photo and bio: https://www.casscountynd.gov/county/Boards/Commission/Commissioners/District5/Pages/MaryScherling.aspx

A total of 558 refugees came to the state by way of LSS in fiscal year 2016, which is 22 percent more than the agency was told to expect by agencies farther up the pipeline. The bulk of the refugees were settled in Fargo-Moorhead: 372 in Fargo, eight in West Fargo and 22 in Moorhead.

Some local government officials have expressed concern over the large number of the newcomers, fearing they would be a strain on resources.

Cass County Commissioner Mary Scherling, who attended the meeting, said Thursday she just wants to be sure local governments can help give refugees a good start in America. She and Commission Chairman Chad Peterson said they’d like LSS to add Minot as a fourth resettlement site in North Dakota. Refugees are now settled in Fargo, Grand Forks and Bismarck.

LSS officials said Thursday they, too, are concerned about their resources, but saying “no” is not easy.

Readers, please pay attention to this next paragraph. Once your town is set up as a resettlement site, not only will the numbers continue to grow, but others of the same ethnic group as your primary refugees will come to live there too. Our use of the word ‘seeding’ about this program is not an exaggeration.

That’s because some of the funding the agency gets for resettling refugees is based on the number it agrees settle in North Dakota, said Saurav Dahal, an LSS refugee coordinator. It has a much harder time with funding if those refugees move here on their own after resettling in other states.

Whining about funding! LSS could end up out on a limb with not enough funding because federal ORR funds are drying up (or more accurately being diverted to the Unaccompanied Alien Children crisis) and so is private charitable giving (in fact there was never much private charity to begin with!).

Here is my question: if most refugees are “self-sufficient” in a matter of months, as we are constantly told, then why do they need more “services” paid for by taxpayer “resources?”

For each primary refugee that LSS resettles, the U.S. State Department provides enough funding to give them three months of assistance, Dahal said. That funding is not available for secondary refugees.

For assistance beyond three months, LSS relies on funding from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and charitable organizations; its aim is to cover as many as eight months. But funding from ORR is not directly tied to the number of refugees resettled, and funding from charities are not assured from year to year.

Dykshoorn and Dahal said the latter two sources of funding aren’t keeping up with the numbers.

Continue reading here.
See our complete archive on North Dakota here (this is one of the states I visited on my fact-finding tour last summer). ND has had some spectacular criminal cases involving refugees. Don’t miss this: Somali sentenced to life in prison for killing native American family. And the Somali who went on a knife attack in St. Cloud, MN last September was originally resettled in North Dakota.
North Dakotans who think you are getting too many refugees must continue to put pressure on your governor, your state legislature, your local elected officials, but do not forget to pound Senator John Hoeven who sits on the all powerful Senate Appropriations Committee which could dry up resettlement dollars for North Dakota if he had a will to do it! See here.
I see an important part of my job going forward is to educate you and me on the Appropriations process in Washington. Funding is policy!

Bates College students petition administration to become a sanctuary college; protect Somalis of Lewiston too

12/08/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

All over the country (we are told) college administrators are setting up sanctuaries for illegal aliens (and refugees!) to protect them from Donald Trump and his “deplorable” voters.

The Annual Puddle Jump is a tradition at Bates College.

Here is what the students are saying at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
BTW, Bates is the alma mater of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte who is responsible for most immigration issues that come before the House. Can’t he get a little pressure going among other alums to stop sending donations if sanctuary is approved.
Or better still, how about seeing what federal money the college is getting and cut it off!
From Bates College students:

We, the concerned students of the Bates Community, move that Bates College follow the lead of over 200 colleges and universities across the nation in seeking official status as a sanctuary campus for undocumented immigrants living at Bates and in Lewiston. This is an imperative step as we prepare to protect the members of our community directly threatened by President-Elect Donald Trump and his administration.

Within the first 100 days in office, President-Elect Donald Trump plans to block funding for sanctuary cities and states and overturn Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA specifically grants protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants who came to the United States under the age of 16 and before June of 2007. With the repeal of DACA, over 13,000 U.S. college students will be in danger of deportation. It is the duty of college and university administrations across the country to act in defense of students most vulnerable to President-Elect Donald Trump’s proposed immigration policies.

screenshot-79 — Here is an idea for Mom and Dad! Instead of spending $50,000 a year for tuition at Bates, if you have so much extra money, maybe take some refugees/DACA kids in to your homes. Why waste it on Bates! Total cost with room and board: $66,000! http://www.bates.edu/financial-services/costs-and-payment/

Sanctuary spaces around the country—including cities, states, and college campuses—serve to protect undocumented immigrants by refusing to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Colleges and Universities hold unique power in that ICE officials cannot step foot on campus property without authorization (policy number 10029.2). Not only will sanctuary status serve to protect DACA-mented, undocumented students, faculty, and staff, but it will also serve as a gesture of protection and kindness to Lewiston’s large Somali refugee population (one of the largest populations in Maine with approximately 7,000 Somali refugees)—a group of people whom Donald Trump has directly targeted in his campaign, blaming them for Maine’s increasing crime rates.

I guess the kids haven’t heard about Ohio State? Trump will be there today to meet with student victims.
Continue reading here to see what else the little darlings want.
As a country we could do with far fewer colleges (like Bates) busy brainwashing kids. Let’s focus on creating trade schools that might train students for something useful.
Go here for our complete (lengthy) archive on Lewiston, Maine. And, definitely don’t miss this news from Lewiston—Maine has a sexual assault problem!

Nebraska received (per capita) more refugees last year than any other state

12/08/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a story from the Omaha World-Herald which used those Pew numbers we reported yesterday, as the hook for this story about how “welcoming” Nebraska is for refugees.
Nebraska is one of the states I visited over the summer, and I am here to report that even if the Republican governor is thrilled about welcoming refugees, the citizens whose towns are being impacted by refugee labor at meat and chicken processing plants, aren’t too thrilled.

nickerson_nebraska_downtown_1 — Downtown Nickerson, Nebraska where citizens objected to plans to locate a chicken processing plant in the area. One reason they said NO! is that they did not want an influx of Somali refugee workers.

No mention in this heartwarming report about Nickerson, Nebraska that actually fought and kept out a new chicken plant here last May.
Cut the humanitarian guilt-trip mumbo-jumbo and be truthful!
I live for the day when resettlement contractors like Lutheran Family Services here are completely out in the open about the work they do providing laborers for BIG MEAT and BIG POULTRY and also tell the public that their salaries and offices are paid for by the US taxpayer (this is not a Christian charity! this is not about passing the collection plate on Sunday morning!).*** Then we can have the debate about why it is in the interests of the American taxpayer to supply foreign labor to giant corporations some of which are not even US-owned!
From the Omaha World-Herald:

todd-reckling — Todd Reckling of Lutheran Family Services at least hints here that LFS works with BIG MEAT which wants refugee workers.

LINCOLN — Nebraska led the nation in resettling the most refugees per capita during the last year, according to newly released federal government data.

The state welcomed 1,441 refugees, or 76 per 100,000 Nebraskans, between October 2015 and September 2016, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U.S. State Department’s Refugee Processing Center and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nebraska is a strong draw for refugees because of its strong economy with accessibility to jobs in hospitality and meatpacking, said Todd Reckling, a vice president of Lutheran Family Services, the state’s largest of three placement agencies. About 90 percent of refugees come to the state to reunite with family already living in Nebraska, he said.

“I’d say Nebraska has a reputation for being a welcoming state,” he said, “a place to provide safety and hope for the families that are coming together.”

Continue reading here, especially if you live in Nebraska!
You will notice at the end of the story that some who are not thrilled about the security concerns with refugees are hanging their hat on Donald Trump to take care of that problem.
For any of you in states (especially with Republican governors who are squishy on the refugee program) do some research on who is donating to their campaigns.
***Lutheran Family Services in Omaha is a subcontractor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service headquartered in Baltimore which is 95% funded by taxpayers, go here.