Category: Taxpayer goodies

UN High Commissioner for Refugees in US to lobby Trump Admin; needs more of your money

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment


There is nothing unexpected about this interview of UNHCR Filippo Grandi during his trip to Washington this week in hopes of getting a commitment by the Trump Administration for more refugees to be sent to your towns and more money for the UNHCR’s ‘vital’ work.
But, what prompted me to bother writing about it, is a strange omission in the subtitles (the original video this morning had subtitles) and text transcript of the PBS youtube clip.
LOL! The title of the interview is: U.N. refugee chief hopes for ‘robust’ resettlement programs in U.S. They love that word “robust” in relation to refugee resettlement. Pay attention going forward and you will see it used everywhere in the Leftwing media.
For new readers, it is the UNHCR which picks the majority of the refugees coming to the US. (BTW, UNHCR refers both to the man and to the agency).
Here is a snip of the text from PBS:

JUDY WOODRUFF: Brutal wars in the Middle East, Africa and Asia have forced the world’s populations of refugees and displaced persons to near record highs.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has signaled its intention to substantially change U.S. refugee policy.

Filippo Grandi, who is the United Nations’ top official leading the response to the refugee crisis, is in Washington this week for meetings at the White House and Pentagon.

Our William Brangham sat down with him earlier this evening.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Hi, Commissioner Filippo Grandi. Welcome.

At this point they yak about security screening, blah, blah, blah and Grandi says how excited he is by words Ambassador Nikki Haley recently uttered in favor of more refugee protection by the US.
Then this:

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lastly, a quick question on funding.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees glass-fronted building in posh Geneva. Imagine what this costs to staff and run in Switzerland! American taxpayers pay 37% of it! ($1.5 billion of an annual $4 billion budget).

I know this is obviously an enormous challenge for the U.N. Do you have enough money to do the work you need to do?

FILIPPO GRANDI: Certainly not.

Our budget last year was calculated at 7 billion U.S. dollars, 2016. We got billion U.S. dollars. So about 55 percent of our needs the covered. This means that we do a lot of prioritization. And we prioritize, evidently. With so many refugee crises, with 65 million refugees and displaced people around the world, we have to prioritize lifesaving activities.

What does that mean? Why is the sentence in red missing some facts?  Was his accent so thick that PBS couldn’t accurately transcribe what he said?
In fact, when I checked the video (you can see it here at about 4:58), there is a key word missing.  What is the key word (a number)—he said: We got $4 billion U.S. dollars (and his English is very good).  So why did PBS leave out such an important bit of news?
Are they saying that the US supplies $4 billion?  No, see here.  The $7 billion figure Grandi throws out is just their DREAM budget.  They get about $4 billion from all sources and the US ponies up $1.5 billion (Obama dollars) of that.

My suggestion for trimming the budget! Get rid of that grandiose building in Switzerland!

Endnote: Watch for it—a photo of Grandi with Senator John McCain (and or Lindsey Graham) will show up. Both Senators can be counted on to pressure Trump (the meany) for more refugee spending and for more refugee laborers for your towns and cities.

NYT: How Tyson Foods and its greedy demand for cheap immigrant labor 'saved' an Iowa town

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is pretty much the gist of the New York Times story here about Storm Lake, Iowa.
The opening paragraphs give the message that I, and others before me, have been giving for years.  When big global corporations like Tyson Foods discovered cheap (first illegal) immigrant labor and now legal refugees, the cultural make-up of American heartland towns was changed forever.

We told you here last November that the Obama State Department was making Storm Lake a direct resettlement site. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/11/22/storm-lake-iowa-filling-americas-dead-spots-with-diversity/

The NYT spins it as a feel-good story as this town that features a PORK (no Muslim laborers) plant would have died.
My question is, why would it have died? If Tyson had kept up the wages over the years, there would be more generations of rural Americans who would consider this work (if they weren’t brainwashed in liberal colleges that is)?
It is especially maddening because immigrant wages stay low and you (taxpayers) help support the families with your welfare dollars. Wow! What a business model!
I’m posting this story for a reason other than the fact that it confirms what I have been yammering about for years—-refugee resettlement is about labor, not first and foremost ‘humanitarianism’ by our government and its resettlement contractors***.  But, I am posting it to give readers an example of what you can do!
Here are the opening paragraphs about how Tyson Foods is ‘saving’ a town:

STORM LAKE, Iowa — When Dan Smith first went to work at the pork processing plant in Storm Lake in 1980, pretty much the only way to nab that kind of union job was to have a father, an uncle or a brother already there. The pay, he recalled, was $16 an hour, with benefits — enough to own a home, a couple of cars, a camper and a boat, while your wife stayed home with the children.

“It was the best-paying job you could get, 100 percent, if you were unskilled,” said Mr. Smith, now 66, who followed his father through the plant gates.

After nearly four decades at the plant, most of them as a forklift driver, Mr. Smith is retiring this month.

The union is long gone, and so are most of the white faces of men who once labored in the broiling heat of the killing floor and the icy chill of the production lines. What hasn’t changed much is Mr. Smith’s hourly wage, which is still about $16 an hour, the same as when he started 37 years ago. Had his wages kept up with inflation, he would be earning about $47 an hour.

Continue reading here to see what meatpackers have done to Storm Lake.
One more thing, you will see if you read it all is that the NYT is out to get Rep. Steve King (no surprise!).

So what can you do?

Readers ask me all the time, what can they do to help get the message out.  I’ll try to write a comprehensive (as comprehensive as I can) post in the coming days about what you can do, but here is what one reader did because every little bit helps! (I’ll make a new category and call it ‘What you can do’ for ideas like this!)

She actually took the time to comment to the NYT. 
The comments are closed now, but please have a look and see what readers of the NYT said, here.  The NYT probably did not appreciate the tone of many of them! (When you open that previous link, the comments should pop-up in the right hand side bar, they do on mine.)
Here is our reader:

D Flinchum
Blacksburg, VA

It should be clear from this article that the influx of cheap foreign labor is for the benefit of the company owners. Pay low wages w/no benefits, but because low wages don’t often pay for a 1st-world life, shift the cost to the community at large by gov social services and higher costs for housing, lower quality schools, and ER health care.

The refugee program has become a recruiting system for Big Meat. It is made out to be some great humanitarian system and anybody who opposes it is called a heartless bigot. This is nothing more than gas-lighting – trying to make people who see the truth believe something that they can see isn’t so by calling them names. It’s just like a philandering husband trying to gas-light his wife into thinking that she is crazy for suggesting he is out partying with Marcia in Marketing instead of working late when he comes home half drunk with lipstick on his shirt.

It is also important to note that most of these new workers and their children qualify for affirmative action. It is likely that these new workers’ children who do go on to college will be able to take advantage of programs not available to the white working class kids who might also be interested in advancing into the professions.

As one man in the article said, it’s hard to have ill feelings for someone just trying for a better life, but the company owners already have a good life and it is they who should be held accountable.

Thus we have Trump in the WH.

See our tag ‘Meatpackers’ for many more stories about BIG MEAT changing America. Don’t miss this one about meatpackers worried about the Trump ‘proposed’ slowdown.
*** US federally-funded refugee resettlement contractors are paid by the head (by you!) to bring migrant laborers to your American towns and cities:

 

HuffPo: Refugee processing pipeline being restarted, contractors optimistic

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I looked at this article (Huffington Post) more carefully, I see it only sends a garbled message about whether the refugee pipeline is being geared up to start seriously flowing again or is only trickling.
But, it does appear that the resettlement contractors are getting excited that it will flow with gusto soon since they are rehiring staff they let go shortly after Trump put out his first Executive Order.

Limbaugh: “Does he know that it’s the Republicans that are the roadblock here?”

I think the Trump team made a big mistake by placing the refugee moratorium (to assess the adequacy of our  security screening) and a reduction in the CEILING for refugee admissions in an Executive Order with the so-called travel ban for all those coming from the terror hot-spot countries.

It is my view, that Trump did not need an EO to slow the flow of refugees across the board!

By combining the two (the ceiling cap and the ban) and the subsequent rogue court decisions, Trump has lost (given up?) his power (the power the President is given in the Refugee Act of 1980 to set the admissions limit on refugees).  And, thus everyone is confused, apparently even within his Administration.
To add to the confusion the Republicans in Congress funded the US Refugee Admissions Program at a level for 75,000 refugees to be admitted by September 30th (the last day of this fiscal year), AND Trump signed it!

75,000 would be the second highest admission number in ten years! (see chart below)

Indeed, Rush Limbaugh was right yesterday when he asked (on a different issue): “Does he know that it’s the Republicans that are the roadblock here?” 
Again, the President has the power to set the ceiling in “consultation” with Congress. If Trump wanted to take them on he could ask for a rescission of those funds to admit the numbers he wants—which he said would be UNDER 50,000!

Every day that the White House is silent on the stunning news we heard last week says to me that the White House agrees with the 75,000 admissions this year.

Why do the Republicans in Congress want to keep the pipeline going?
It is because most of them work for their big business donors and the Chamber of Commerce to guarantee a steady supply of cheap immigrant labor! Adding insult to injury, your tax dollars support refugee families through the welfare system because wages are too low! You pay for the importation of the labor and for the laborers’ support once here!

It is really quite a difficult obstacle for us (who wish to see the USRAP reformed) to overcome—big businesses and global corporations pushing cheap labor in conjunction with so-called ‘religious’ charities (paid by taxpayers!) claiming this is all about humanitarianism while essentially acting as ‘head hunters’ for big business.
Anyway, here is the HuffPo’s latest on the pipeline flowing:

The United States appears to be resuming its longstanding efforts to resettle refugees after the program was derailed and almost completely upended abroad for several months.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “has begun to expand its interview schedule in the 3rd quarter of the fiscal year,” public affairs officer Marilu Cabrera told HuffPost in a statement on Friday. The Department of Homeland Security is working with the State Department to plan for a “further expansion” through the end of fiscal year 2017, she added.

[….]

Jen Smyers is a lobbyist for Church World Service in Washington, DC. “Director of Advocacy” is just a fancy name for lobbyist. https://cwsglobal.org/jen-smyers/

Even though both orders were blocked in federal court, the administration quietly pumped the brakes on various steps of the resettlement process that occur overseas. Vetting and screening refugees is an 18- to 24-month process, involving interviews with many branches of the U.S. government as well as various security and medical clearances.

[….]

USCIS noted in its statement that circuit rides ― a technical term that refers to DHS agent travel to different countries to conduct refugee interviews ― were suspended on Jan. 25, just prior to Trump’s first executive order, and continued on a reduced schedule from January through March.

In addition to stalled DHS interviews, security and medical checks expire after several months and “none of them [were] being re-run, said Jen Smyers, the associate director of immigration and refugee policy at Church World Service*** one of nine domestic resettlement agencies. “Also, our understanding is that for a while, [medical clearances] were not happening, with some exceptions for emergency cases.” [BTW, I don’t think they do any mental health screening as we learned here! —ed]

Because both of Trump’s executive orders attempted to lower the refugee admissions quota from 110,00 to 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year, “the State Department and USCIS assessed that it was not necessary to interview large numbers of refugee applicants in order to meet the new ceiling,” the USCIS statement said.

[….]

Resettlement experts said they’re cautiously optimistic about the expanded interview schedule.

“We’re waiting to celebrate until we see the pipeline of refugee processing look healthier,” Smyers said. “All of this is really preliminary.”

But they are already in the process of hiring back some of the almost 600 staffers they had to lay off worldwide during the executive order legal limbo.

[….]

Congress recently passed a budget with enough funding to resettle a total of 75,000 refugees through the end of the fiscal year. This should mean significant increases in the number of refugee arrivals in the coming weeks.

More here.
By the way, in a report on Trump’s original idea of choosing Christian refugees as a first priority, Smyers called it “shameful.”
***See my most recent post on Church World Service finances. 67% of their budget comes from you—taxpayers!

No refugee “clients” means no payola for them!  For new readers here are the nine contractors:

 

 

What not to tell the Canadian taxpayers about Syrian refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an excellent use of 6 minutes of your time!
I don’t know this program, but thank Paul for sending the youtube clip from The Rebel.
I’m guessing that what Faith Goldy learned about Canada’s new 40,000+ Syrian population applies to America’s flow as well.
We have followed Boy Trudeau’s rash Syrian resettlement program since it began in 2015, see our Canada archive for previous posts.
The Rebel learned that they can’t speak the language, that they are sick (TB!), and that they use large amounts of welfare because they aren’t finding work, but worst of all it was revealed that the documents, obtained by investigators, are littered with admonitions to not tell the taxpaying public the bad news!
If the video doesn’t play below, then watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iqUq1Rmekw
 

 
 

Burmese biter was headed for New Bern, NC; are we importing mentally ill in refugee program?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yes, we are. We have been doing so for all the years I’ve written this blog. Many stories show up in our ‘Crimes’ category as those with mental illness end up committing crimes of greater or lesser degree.
This is just the latest, in case you missed it a couple of days ago.

So much for extreme vetting!

Two points jump out at me—first, where is our supposed extreme vetting? And, these refugees coming in in ever- increasing numbers now (here) are Trump’s refugees and I will be referring to them as his!
Here is the headline and story in the latest case (that we know of!) of a mentally impaired refugee coming to a town near you! (Hat tip: Ann)

Documents: Man tried to bite flight attendant before jumping out of plane

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A man who traveled thousands of miles to get the United States has been charged with jumping out of an American Airlines plane Thursday onto the tarmac at Charlotte Douglas Airport.

Burmese biter Tun Lon Sein. Is he a Rohingya Muslim? We will never know! BTW, what is that on his neck?

Tun Lon Sein is facing federal charges. He appeared Friday morning in federal court.

The incident was reported on American Airlines flight 5242 from Charlotte to New Bern, according to the federal complaint.

Sein is from Myanmar [aka Burma—ed] and had traveled halfway around the world to get to his final destination in New Bern. He flew from Thailand to Hong Kong to New Jersey. Charlotte was his last stop before heading to New Bern.

But in Charlotte, he got out of his seat, went to the main aircraft door and tried to open it, according to the criminal complaint. The document said the flight attendant and two other passengers got out of their seats and attempted to get Sein to return to his seat.

Sein is accused of trying to bite the flight attendant’s hand before opening the galley service door and jumping onto the tarmac.

[….]

Court documents said Sein spoke little to no English, which turned out to be an issue in federal court. The prosecutor said officials couldn’t find an interpreter who could translate Sein’s dialect from his native Myanmar***. It will be at least a week before the courts can bring a translator so he will have to stay in jail. [Local and state taxpayers are on the hook for expensive translators!—ed]

The Episcopal Migration Ministry sponsored Sein’s immigration to the United States. The agency said it’s talking with the law enforcement and the State Department to see what they can do to help.

***Didn’t the resettlement contractor have someone who spoke the biter’s dialect waiting at the airport for him? Where is that person to help authorities?
So, what the heck will EMM do?
Nothing! This “man” is now going to cost the US taxpayers tens of thousands of  dollars, maybe more, as he goes to a mental hospital and through the court system! Do you think there is a chance in hell that the refugee contractor—Episcopal Migration Ministries—is going to take any responsibility for this “man”?  Will one of their employees invite him to live with them? Not a chance in hell!

Eh Lar Doh Htoo, 18, killed three young brothers ages 1, 5, and 12 in New Bern in 2015. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/n-teen-murders-3-boys-machete-attack-cops-article-1.2153935

Tun Lon Sein is not the first Burmese mentally disturbed person to arrive in the US, and not the first in North Carolina (home to a huge Burmese, mostly Christian, population, however we are increasingly bringing large numbers of Burmese Muslims to the US).
As we told you here recently, the refugee contractor propaganda campaign going on now promotes the big lie that refugees don’t commit crimes in America.
 Here is a case we told you about also in New Bern where a Burmese refugee slaughtered three children in 2015.
LOL! Sorry to laugh when the stories are so horrendous, but virtually never is the word ‘refugee’ used. In the 2015 case the criminal is a “teen” and in the biter case he is simply a “man” in the headline.
Esar Met (Burmese Muslim refugee) in prison for life for killing Christian Burmese girl in Utah.

I’m wondering if the refugee contractors discount cases, like this one (left) and that horrific murder in Salt Lake City also by a Burmese refugee (Esar Met) who brutally raped and murdered a little Christian Burmese girl at his resettlement housing complex, where the killer kills his own ethnic people rather than Americans.  Maybe somehow that doesn’t register as a crime to them?
For folks in New Bern, you need to ask your Congressman to look into whether refugees headed to your city have been screened for mental illness.  Tell him to call the Trump State Department and ask what is going on?
For all of you looking for more on refugee criminals, please see my ‘Crimes’ category because there is no archive or compilation that I know of for refugee-committed crimes.
Also, see my ‘Health Issues’ category for more on refugee mental health.
For new readers, the federal resettlement contractor, Episcopal Migration Ministries is one of nine that monopolize all resettlement in the US: