And, what about our own homeless elderly citizens?
It is insanity to consider bringing 50,000 or more refugees (more poverty) in to America beginning October 1, but that is what the Trump Administration is considering at this very minute!
(The Prez will make his announcement in about 2 weeks!)
Tell President Donald Trump what you think, click here.
What a coincidence, just as I posted my previous reportfrom California about refugees adding poverty to already impoverished areas, here comes more news about refugees who can’t afford housing (Afghans again too). Hat tip:Joanne
It is commendable that citizens may now take up the cause of this mother and son (private charity should be the primary source of support anyway!), but notice this is temporary until this Afghan ‘refugee’ can get herSocial Security Disability!
We (Chuck Ackerman & Catherine Donnelly) are looking to raise rent for our new neighbors on Cleveland’s west side, a mother and her 14-year-old son who are refugees from Afghanistan. We will call them “Aisha” and “Majid”. Because of the situation they have fled, we’re not using their real names.
US Together is a Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society subcontractor
As volunteers with refugee settlement agency US Together, we met the family soon after they arrived in the U.S. in December 2016. Aisha is an amazing cook and host while soccer-loving Majid wants to be a doctor someday. Although Aisha is working on her English, Majid uses his great English skills to translate for his mother.
But the violence they left behind has left Aisha with many physical and mental traumas that prevent her from working.As an educated woman, Aisha faced persecution in Afghanistan and bears the scars. Since her medical history has been tough to document, her first application for Social Security Disability was denied.
She is working with a great local lawyer to appeal and we feel they have a strong case. But the appeal is expected to take 12-18 months and in the meantime, the family needs to pay rent.
Their rent is $550 per month, so we are looking to raise $6,600, or 12 months of rent. That said, every cent counts! Each month of rent we can raise will get the family closer to the date they can get the benefits they need to meet their own needs. The next date they need $ for rent is December 1, 2017. We’ll be keeping the fundraiser going until we meet the goal or the family wins their appeal.
As refugee support groups face drastic funding cuts these days, the resources available for families like this one who are already here are dwindling. That’s why we are turning to you for help.
By giving to this fundraiser, you will help this family achieve the peace of mind and breathing room they need for Aisha to work on her health and recovery from trauma and for Majid to focus on succeeding in high school and build the foundation he needs to one day become a doctor and help others. [I don’t want to sound too cynical but I swear in every refugee story there is a kid who wants to be a doctor!—ed]
It’s true that the family has other needs, though this fundraiser is focused on the basics of maintaining their housing. But if you have any ideas or resources you’d like to share or have questions about their other needs, please let us know!
We are so grateful for your support!
Watch this space for updates—we may plan a good, old-fashioned rent party!
Help spread the word!
Bringing poverty to America…..
Mark Hetfield
New readers need to know that when the original Refugee Act of 1980 was debated in Congress, sponsors like Ted Kennedy, promised it was not about importing poverty!
Resettlement contractors like US Together get federal support for the family for about 3 months at which point they drop them like hot potatoes to get ready for their next paying clients.
By the way, US Together is a subcontractor of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society where its CEO makes over $300,000 a year. Sure hope Mark Hetfield is contributing to this poor woman’s rent as he is busy lobbying Congress for more refugees (and trashing Trump!).
This is an old story, in fact it is a story from when Obama was still in the White House, but here it is in the UKMirror on Saturday. One can only assume its purpose now is to make Trump’s America look bad.
However, it isn’t Trump’s America that made these refugees live this way—placed in substandard housing fearing the inner city scum preying on them. (Hint! It isn’t white nationalists stealing their stuff either!).
More evidence that the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program should be suspended and investigated!
Out of date by over year, the news is important to make my point—the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program should be suspended and investigated! President Donald Trump has a window of opportunity to do it right now—in advance of Fiscal Year 2018 which begins October first! See here.
Even (most especially!) if you are a ‘humanitarian’ and don’t give a damn about the costs to the US taxpayer, about your security or terrorism, or your health, you should be joining a chorus demanding an investigation of the resettlement contractors*** who placed these Afghans in dirty and dangerous housing.
Here is a photo from the Mirror. There are lots more (all with captions criticizing the US now under Donald Trump’s presidency).
Unhappy Afghan young men (they say they helped the US in Afghanistan so they have a special refugee category) now living jobless in squalor in Sacramento County. Good for America? Or, bringing us closer to chaos.
The Mirror is just using information gained in a 2016 investigation by the Sacramento Bee:
Aging suburban neighborhoods in unincorporated Sacramento County now have the biggest concentration of substandard rental apartments in the region – a reality reflected in a recent Bee series on Afghan refugees.
One area in particular, Arden Arcade, has become a problem. The Bee series, “No Safe Place,” documented how former interpreters and other Afghans who worked alongside U.S. forces in the war have been placed in run-down apartments infested by bedbugs and roaches.County documents show the problems go far beyond that. In recent months, inspectors have also found potentially life-threatening dry rot in three Arden Arcade apartment complexes that house many of the Afghan refugees.
[….]
To some degree, the county relies on complaints from residents to enforce building codes, Chamberlain [Barry Chamberlain, the county’s code enforcement chief] said. He said it’s unlikely that the Afghan refugees filed code complaints with the county, perhaps because some of them can’t speak English well. He said he wasn’t aware of the concentration of Afghan refugees in some complexes until he was interviewed by The Bee.
For the most part, the refugees have been placed in the complexes by four resettlement agencies: International Rescue Committee; World Relief; Opening Doors; and the Sacramento Food Bank, most of which have headquarters within a few miles of the complexes. [Opening Doors is a subcontractor of Church World Service—ed]
They say it’s growing increasingly difficult to find affordable housing for the refugees, who lack a U.S. credit history. In Arden Arcade, most of the refugees interviewed by The Bee say they pay around $700 a month in rent.
Back in 2008I reported on a letter-to-the-editor from an Iraqi teenager living in Arizona. He made this logical comment about the large numbers of Iraqis (applies to Afghans too!) who are resettled in the US and then find themselves jobless, disillusioned and unhappy. He said:
It is better to have 10 Iraqi refugees who are satisfied with their lives than having 100 angry ones with no life at all.
And, if that Iraqi boy can figure that out, why can’t the refugee industry contractors, the US Congress and the White House!
The answer isn’t to throw more money at the refugee program. The answer is to bring only the number of refugees that taxpayers can afford!
*** For new readers, these are the Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizers? paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities listed below. Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors.
The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US and because of that they have NO incentive to slow the flow.
If you are a good-hearted soul and still think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again!Big businesses/global corporations depend on the free flow of cheap (some call it slave) labor. It is for this reason that Republican leaders of Congress are supportive of an uninterrupted flow of refugees into America.
The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/Leftwing activists/big business head hunters from the process. (The three identified by the Sacramento Bee in this story are highlighted in red.)
Northern Maine Community College and Maine Community Foundation are partnering to bring Somali immigrants to Aroostook County to explore agricultural opportunities.
Officials from the college and foundation were joined Saturday by 45 Somali immigrants, including children, from southern Maine on a tour of farm operations in Aroostook County held on Saturday.
NMCC Pres. Timothy Crowley
The purpose of the tour is to introduce the Somalis to smaller-scale agricultural prospects in the region.
This effort stems from ideas germinated at a March 2016 conference at the college in which local business and civic leaders spoke about being more proactive in the face of a continuing decline in Aroostook County’s work force.
HIAS is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, one of nine major federal refugee resettlement contractors*** working for the US State Department.
Their goal at the rally is to push for 75,000 refugees in the FY18 Presidential “determination” Trump will be submitting to Congress at about that time. I don’t know what good a little rally will do, since I suspect the Trump Administration is close to choosing the CEILING number already.
Mark Hetfield, HIAS CEO, makes a cool $358,718 (doing well by doing good) and has been organizing against Trump from the beginning. HIAS led the pro-Muslim lawsuit against the so-called ‘travel ban.’ See my huge archive on HIAS by going here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/?s=HIAS
This time last year, groups, including HIAS, were pushing Obama to set a CEILING of 200,000, so they must be figuring the very best they can get to maintain their payments from you (the taxpayers), and not see their budgets go to hell, is 75,000. Anywhere from 50,000 to 75,000 would help them weather the Trump Admin.
Before I get to the details of the rally, know that I believe the only way the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) will ever be reformed is for Trump to come in with a determination of ZERO for FY18 and tell Congress to trash or reform the whole program.
Nothing will get Congress off their butts otherwise!
If Trump comes in with 50,000 (as rumored), nothing will ever change.
Here is what HIAS is sending to its supporters (hat tip: Cathy):
Friends,
Just wanted to let you know HIAS is planning a rally on Sept. 14 in support of the U.S. welcoming more refugees.
Per the Facebook event:
Join HIAS for a timely public action by the U.S. Capitol (exact location to be announced), where we will:
· Urge our leaders to bring at least 75,000 refugees to the US next year
· Tell refugees’ personal stories and raise greater awareness of the global refugee crisis through interactive trivia
Honey sticks?
· Hand out honey sticks and encourage others to take action for refugees
More information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1516509395058729
When you go to that facebook page be sure to see the video about the Presidential Determination. And, note that as of this writing, 10 people plan to attend.
What you should do….
Don’t go to their rally because it could be a set-up. I would not be surprised to find out that they staged someone with a Nazi sign for media consumption.
Instead organize small groups of citizens in the coming weeks to visit your local member of Congress office/US Senate offices (no matter how liberal your representative) and tell them what you think about the UN/USRAP.
If they refuse to meet with you, go to their local offices and stand outside with signs for a few hours. Get photos and put on social media. (Send me a photo and I will put it on RRW!)
Why are they pressuring Congress?Because HIAS thinks it can persuade the Congressional leaders (RINO pro-business Republicans) to oppose Trump should he come in with anything less than their dream number—75,000. And, they know it is Congress that can appropriate more money for the program than Trump requests!
*** For new readers, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is one of the Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizers? paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities listed below. Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors.
The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, but they also receive myriad grants to service their “New Americans.”
If you are a good-hearted soul and think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again!Big businesses/global corporations depend on the free flow of cheap (some call it slave) labor.
By the way, it was HIAS fear of RRW (me) telling the truth, that sent them to the SPLC which ultimately named me a hate “group.” Never mind that there is no group, just one blogger! See here.
The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/Leftwing activists/big business head hunters from the process.
