Category: Taxpayer goodies

Minnesota: Opposition to Welcoming America is growing….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..as more citizens are waking up to Leftwing community organizing tactics!
The Winona Daily News published a story last evening that is mostly meant to show that opposition to Welcoming America is coming from a bunch of nativist naysayers, but for me it shows how grassroots activists (paid by no one!) have been successful in educating small communities across the upper Midwest about the goals of the Soros-spawned Welcoming America community organizers.
Screenshot (441)
I first heard of Welcoming America in 2013 when they were a featured presenter at a meeting in Lancaster, Pennsylvania put on by the Obama Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The ORR had contracted them to beat back “pockets of resistance” to refugee resettlement.
You should take a moment to read that post.
It is a good thing I quoted the Soros connection directly from Welcoming America’s website at the time because that page is mysteriously absent from their site now!
For the really ambitious among you, please see my entire archive on Welcoming America and its founder David Lubell.  They are your classic, hard Left community organizers promoting diversity is beautiful for your towns (more Democrat voters and more cheap labor!).
But, it is more than that…..

They are changing America by changing the people!

And using taxpayer dollars to do it!
Continue reading “Minnesota: Opposition to Welcoming America is growing….” →

Syrian refugees sue landlord and feds over housing complaints

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is Saturday and, in recent weeks, I’ve made this my day to try to catch up on your e-mails and take care of other bits of maintenance here at RRW, but when I saw this story from New Jersey I just had to post it!

Screenshot (433)
Syrian ‘refugee’ safe in New Jersey had to shell out $200 of his own money to fix the heating in his US government funded apartment. Imagine that!

Syrian temporary ‘refugees’ say their government funded housing is dirty and bug-infested and so they hired a lawyer to fight for their ‘rights’ to better government funded housing in Paterson, NJ.
You will see that the story is about Syrians apparently granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Those would be people who got in to the US on their own somehow and miraculously were able to sign up for TPS.
These are apparently not refugees selected and screened through the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
(The hot news on TPS at the moment is that Hondurans who have been here ‘temporarily’ for nearly 20 years—TPS is usually for 18 months—have been told they must leave the US in 2020.)

I did know that the usual refugees we fly in get help with housing, but I did not know that TPS recipients get housing help from the US taxpayer too!

 
Continue reading “Syrian refugees sue landlord and feds over housing complaints” →

Catholic Charities of Minnesota drops refugee program; will take care of poor and homeless already among us

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

At least one of the major players in Minnesota’s refugee industry has woken up and smelled the coffee—gobs of federal money is not going to flow to the resettlement of more refugees to Minnesota, especially Somalis, in the foreseeable future.
One of the first questions people ask me when they first hear about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program and the imminent arrival of third world poverty to their home town/city is this:

Why are we doing this when we have so many poor and homeless people right here who need care?

It looks like at least Catholic Charities is getting the message, perhaps from many faithful Catholic parishioners (like Kate below!)!
The primary story on the news is at the Star Tribune headlined (hat tip: Joanne):

Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis cuts refugee resettlement, adoption programs

The charity will instead focus on fighting homelessness and helping at-risk kids.

But, there are many news outlets including Radio KNSI with the story as well.  I had to laugh when I saw this comment at KNSI:
 
Screenshot (428)
Continue reading “Catholic Charities of Minnesota drops refugee program; will take care of poor and homeless already among us” →

Trump White House (again) thinking about moving refugee admissions OUT of State Department

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The stated reason to consider moving the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) to the independent USAID is to save money by bringing our admissions program and humanitarian foreign aid together under one roof.

pompeo and tillerson
What will new Secretary of State Pompeo do? (outgoing Rex Tillerson appeared to have been hands-off when it came to refugees).

I’m in no position to judge the wisest place to move it, but I am eager to see the little fiefdoms fall and cozy relationships broken between resettlement contractors and DOS bureaucrats.
And, I have long maintained that refugee admission decisions should not be used as part of our foreign policy wheeling and dealing!
As early as 2012 (when the State Department did formerly invite comment on the program), I gave 10 reasons for a moratorium and this is my number seven:

7)   Congress needs to specifically disallow the use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government, especially using certain refugee populations to address unrelated foreign policy objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come to mind.

If I were to write that today, I would be adding those Australian detainees we are magically transforming in to legitimate refugees for your American towns!

Either people are legitimate refugees deserving a shot at a better life and have no other options, or not. The program shouldn’t be used in any carrot/stick foreign policy wrangling.

But, that is exactly what a spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee is arguing at Foreign Policy in a story entitled:

White House Weighs Taking Refugee Programs Away From State Department

Mike Pompeo’s first test could be a plan to remove refugee aid from Foggy Bottom

Continue reading “Trump White House (again) thinking about moving refugee admissions OUT of State Department” →

Another month with small numbers of paying customers for the refugee contractors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Month number seven of fiscal year 2018 ended last night, and from the contractors*** point of view, it was another dismal one for agencies collecting a per head payment for refugees they place and ‘take care of’ for only a few months.
April’s total was 1,607 which is below average for the previous six months (average 1,758 for previous months this FY). 
The team….Bolton, Trump, Pompeo:

bolton, pompeo trump
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Refugee Program and those SIVs now that a couple of serious hardliners are in place.  CAIR recently called Pompeo an “Islamophobe.”

 
I know for many of you this is 1,607 too many, but believe me this is catastrophic for those NGOs that got fat and lazy on budgets as much as 99% supplied by the US taxpayers.
Continue reading “Another month with small numbers of paying customers for the refugee contractors” →