Changing America one meatpacker at a time, now it’s Montana’s turn

11/16/201704/02/2020 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“It’s a really smart place for China to put in investment and to partner with Montana to have a really good packing industry and processing plant here.”

(Fred Wacker, rancher)

You know the phrase often used during Obama’s tenure in the Oval—changing America by changing the people. Well, that’s what is happening because greedy global corporations, especially food processing like BIG MEAT, BIG CHICKEN and BIG YOGURT, say they can’t find enough Americans to work low wage jobs so they need compliant immigrant laborers.

To hell with what flooding unsuspecting towns with third world workers does to rural America!

Trump with Republican Senator Daines giving Chinese investors a foothold in Montana?

Most egregious are the cases where the company (changing your town by changing the people) is foreign-owned.

We know this because we have been writing about the subject for ten years. In the early days the refugee resettlement contractors hid their relationship with global companies, but recently we reported on one—Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—signing a contract with Brazilian-owned JBS Swift in Greeley to help them “train” refugees as good employees for the meat giant. They signed another pact with Tyson Foods.

Now comes news that President Donald Trump made a deal with China to purchase Montana beef!

And, here is the catch: (To save money!) Montana needs a big new Chinese-owned meatpacking plant! What could go wrong?

From the Daily Mail:

US Senator Steve Daines and ranchers from the northwestern state of Montana on Wednesday applauded a 300-million-US dollar beef deal between Chinese commerce giant JD.com and the Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSGA).

“This landmark agreement has the potential to substantially increase Montana opportunity and agricultural exports to the fastest growing overseas market for beef,” Daines said in a statement.

JD signed the agreement with Errol Rice, executive vice president of MSGA, on Wednesday in Beijing as U.S. President Donald Trump began his three-day state visit to China.

[….]

JD also intends to invest up to another 100 million dollars to build a brand-new slaughter house and feedlot infrastructure in Montana to help set up its supply chain there, with construction beginning as early as the spring of 2018.

Win-win deal! Not!

Wacker says it’s cheaper to build a BIG MEAT plant in Montana than to ship to existing plants in other states. To hell with the disruption to Montana towns which will be flooded with migrant laborers, not to mention the impact on the environment!

The agreement follows an agricultural roundtable meeting in early September between a Chinese delegation and Montana farmers and ranchers, hosted by Daines at the Morgan Ranch House, near downtown Bozeman, Montana.

Fred Wacker, owner of Cross Four Ranch in Miles City, Montana, said at the meeting that it would cost him about 80 dollars a head to send cattle to feedlots and processing plants in the Midwest, so as to ship beef products to China and other overseas markets. He would like to seek partnership with Chinese companies to build a world-class processing plant in Montana.

“It’s a really smart place for China to put in investment and to partner with Montana to have a really good packing industry and processing plant here,” Wacker said, arguing that would help bring down logistic costs and guarantee stable supply of high quality beef to China, a win-win deal for both sides. [Losers are the citizens of Montana!—ed]

More here.

I suppose there is one bright side–unlike Chobani Yogurt in nearby Idaho, I doubt the Chinese owners will approve of Muslim workers in light of their clear historical animosity to the ‘religion of peace.’ I can just see the mess when the Chinese company gets hit with some discrimination lawsuits when they say “NO” to Somali workers.

Heck, maybe they will insist on bringing in Chinese workers!

For my mushrooming Montana archive, click here.

My Meatpackers archive is here.

In the summer of 2016 I traveled around the country to visit mostly meatpacking towns and haven’t eaten store-bought meat since. I raised beef cattle on a small scale for 20 years, but when I saw those mile-after-mile feedlots, cattle standing in the hot Colorado sun (and the migrant labor disrupted towns), I lost all interest in supermarket beef.

Montanans you don’t want massive feedlots in your lovely state!

Readers should know that the US State Department opened a controversial refugee resettlement office in Montana two years ago. Paving the way for the arrival of cheap refugee labor?

More on Montana wannabe meatpackers next! Here it is!

Obama to UN in 2013: We will take 50,000 from DR Congo off your hands

11/15/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is what we learned here in June 2013 when Anne Richard, then Asst. Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration for President Obama, announced the deal presumably to begin in Fiscal Year 2014 and continue for five years.

anne richard-and-unhcr — Richard with then UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Gutteres who is now Secretary General of the UN.

I just checked the numbers (at Wrapsnet) and see that we have admitted 38,431 from FY14 to the present. So, expect UN pressure to take 11,569 more Congolese from UN camps in Africa over the next couple of years.

(By the way, going back to FY08, we have admitted 48,870 from DR Congo in nearly a decade.)

But…..

We learned the stunning news just a couple of days ago that some of those DR Congo ‘refugees’ would return to African camps if they could. See Utah here.

Although the Trump Administration has slowed the flow from camps in countries like Tanzania, we sure hope that maybe the trend (saying “no” to the UN) will continue.

We can’t afford to bring more extremely impoverished and uneducated people to America (with huge families to boot) to live jobless and unhappy in roach-infested apartments! Doesn’t sound very humanitarian to me!

(In case you are wondering, only 1,860, 3% of the DR Congolese we have admitted since FY08 are Muslim. The remainder represent many religious groups.)

One of the key takeaways for readers is that once we begin admitting large numbers from certain countries, mostly because the UN tells us to, the flow never stops.

Anyone suggesting stopping the flow is hit with the ‘how can you be so cruel to keep family members out’ meme.

Somalis are a prime example—we’ve been admitting them for decades—will we ever stop? How many decades do we continue to clear out the never-ending UN camp pipeline?

Over the next few days I’m going to tell you about some other ethnic groups we aren’t ever going to stop—from Burma, Nepal (Bhutanese) and Iraq—unless someone has the guts to tell the UN NO! No more.

And, this is why it’s a good thing we didn’t open the Syrian spigot in a big way!

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society sues Trump Administration again

11/15/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They apparently want to make it clear to the Muslim world that they are the good people.

HIAS we support Muslim neighbors — From The Jewish News of Northern California https://www.jweekly.com/2017/11/13/jewish-family-services-silicon-valley-files-suit-halt-refugee-ban/

Here is what Mark Hetfield CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (aka HIAS) said in an e-mail yesterday. (Emphasis is mine)

The Trump Administration shows no signs of backing off their policies against refugees, so we’re taking the Administration to court. Again.

Hetfield_Mark_lg — HIAS could lose more than half of its funding if the US Refugee program was dismantled. See below. Don’t miss Hetfield’s salary! Doing well by doing good!

From the moment the first executive order banning refugees and travelers from Muslim countries was issued on January 27th, HIAS and our partners in the American Jewish community have opposed every attempt by President Trump to close America’s doors to those in need of protection.

Our outrage has only grown stronger with every new executive order that prevents thousands of refugees from finding safety in the U.S.

Enough is enough. Together with our longstanding local resettlement partners Jewish Family Service of Seattle and Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley, HIAS yesterday filed a suit to again challenge restrictive policies that seek to prevent vulnerable refugees from finding freedom and safety. As we have for the last 136 years, we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that America remains a country that welcomes refugees instead of turning them away.

Then here is the news from Seattle:

Lawsuit: ‘It’s the dismantling of the U.S. refugee program’

rabbi berkowitz — Rabbi Berkovitz says Trump is dismantling the whole refugee program which would mean HIAS will lose millions of taxpayer dollars for its advocacy work. (LOL! he didn’t say the last part!)

“People are dying who were given permission to come into this country. It’s tragic,” said Rabbi Will Berkovitz, CEO of Jewish Family Service of Seattle, one of the refugee agencies that’s filed the lawsuit.

“The agenda that’s really thinly veiled here is the dismantlement of the refugee resettlement program as a whole,” Berkovitz said. “Not for now, but forever.”

The lawsuit claims the order is unconstitutional, discriminates against Muslims and gives preference to Christian refugees. [The US might actually give preference to Christians, what is the world coming to!—ed]

You have to give them credit for chutzpah!

HIAS has been a long-time supporter of the Lautenberg Amendment which gave preference for resettlement to Soviet Jews among others, see here.

So are they now saying that the Lautenberg Amendment must go? Look for HIAS to reverse itself and ask Congress to abolish Lautenberg (Ha! Ha!).

Here is what we learned from the Jewish agency in California:

Plaintiffs are being represented by the International Refugee Assistance Project at the Urban Justice Center; the National Immigration Law Center; attorneys Lauren Aguiar, Mollie M. Kornreich and Abigail Sheehan Davis; Perkins Coie; and HIAS.

Learn more about the director of the National Immigration Law Center when she was bragging and disparaging then candidate Donald Trump by clicking here. Jim Simpson and I attended the spectacle.

This is a screenshot from a recent financial accounting post on the nine federal refugee contractors:

Screenshot (1077)_LI — Since all of the refugee contractors receive funding by the head for the refugees they place in your towns, and if the Trump Administration continues to lower the incoming numbers it blows a hole (a crater!) in the budgets of the big nine. HIAS could lose about $23 million if the program was dismantled as they (supposedly) fear.

Chobani Yogurt update: plant expansion planned for Twin Falls, Idaho

11/14/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Idaho Republican governor Otter praised the yogurt tycoon.

Here is the story from the Utica, NY Observer-Dispatch:

The founder and CEO of Chobani has no regrets about moving part of his Greek yogurt company to south-central Idaho, a region embroiled in the national debate over refugee resettlement that spread to company boycotts by far-right bloggers and conspiracy theorists. [So there were boycotts—who knew?–ed]

lavinia and chobani — Not a conspiracy, they are now out in the open about cozy relationships between refugee agencies and companies looking for immigrant labor. That is Hamdi Ulukaya on the right with the head honcho of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Lavinia Limon (Bill Clinton’s former Director of ORR). USCRI is the major contractor placing refugees in Twin Falls. It is 98% funded by taxpayer dollars. Limon makes over $300,000 a year in salary and benefits for changing America by changing the people (and finding Chobani Yogurt its laborers)!

“I hear the conversations here and there, but it’s a peaceful community that we all love,” said Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant. “It’s the home of Chobani.”

Ulukaya spoke to The Associated Press before a Thursday announcement of a $20 million expansion of the company’s facility in the city of Twin Falls — the world’s largest yogurt plant — to serve as its global research and development center tackling how yogurt is made and consumed.

[….]

The company employs 2,000 workers, including 300 refugees.

However, Chobani’s time in Idaho also has taken a darker turn as anti-immigrant advocates have seized on the company’s open stance on refugees. Fringe websites have falsely claimed that Ulukaya wanted to “drown the United States in Muslims.” Other websites, like Breitbart News, falsely attempted to link Chobani’s hiring of refugees to an uptick in tuberculosis cases in Idaho.

To counteract the hateful rhetoric, Chobani sued right-wing radio host Alex Jones earlier this year, saying that Jones and his InfoWars website posted fabricated stories linking Ulukaya and the company to a sexual assault case involving refugee children in Twin Falls. Jones originally promised to never back down in his fight against the yogurt giant but eventually retracted his statements in a settlement. [We are aware that Chobani lawyers threatened other news outlets as well—ed.]

Ulukaya declined to comment on the Jones lawsuit but said the rise in anti-refugee sentiment has never delayed a project he wanted to pursue. And he says he is committed to being a welcoming company.

[….]

During Thursday’s expansion launch, Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter praised Chobani’s impact on the community.

More here.

See my entire Twin Falls archive by clicking here.

See what is messy here!

Utah: Struggling refugees now look on refugee camps in Africa with longing

11/13/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“Life got harder for me when I came to America…Most of the time, I wish I could go back to the refugee camp in Africa.”

Congolize refugee

Update November 15th: See how many from the DR Congo we have brought in already, here.

This story represents one of my major reasons for writing RRW for the last 10 years.

The do-gooders want ever-greater numbers of refugees admitted to the US despite the fact that many will live in poverty while many of the CEOs of the major resettlement agencies are raking in large 6-figure salaries.

Damn it! If you ‘humanitarians’ care so much for the world’s downtrodden, why do you need to be making salaries in excess of $200,000, $300,000, $500,000 largely funded by the US Treasury?

Nigeria Refugees Miliband — For the camera, IRC CEO David Miliband shows compassion for children in Nigeria, but where is the compassion for refugees his organization dropped off in Utah and are now living in squalor or are homeless. Doing well by doing good, Miliband makes $591,846 annually. Photo: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3349940/Refugee-kids-bring-David-Miliband-knees-Nigeria.html

And, readers, it isn’t refugees like these in Utah that should be criticized or castigated (they were sold a bill of goods), it is the refugee industry (the globalists) that obviously turns a blind eye to the refugees they brought in previous years.

Instead of admitting only the number of refugees communities can afford or otherwise accommodate, the nine contractors*** always want more. Why?

Because the newly arriving refugees bring-in money by the head to the resettlement agency and that is the primary reason they are so angry at Trump. He has reduced the number of their paying “clients.”

From Deseret News where the story features refugees from the DR Congo.

For new readers, back in 2013, here, Obama’s State Department said it would help clean out UN camps in Africa by bringing 50,000 from the DR Congo to Anytown, USA. We may have already exceeded that number.

When he felt hopeless, the Bible’s words lifted him up and renewed his faith that God had a plan for him. He prayed that the Lord would deliver his family to America.

If he ever made it there, he imagined, he would have a home of his own with a large backyard, where he could tend a garden and watch his children play.

Instead, this is Ngunza’s reality: He lives in a tiny, roach-infested apartment with his wife and 11 children. His job slicing meat at a local deli pays just above minimum wage, which barely covers his monthly rent, and leaves him precious little to feed and clothe his family.

Instead of dreams, these days Ngunza only has fears – that he won’t be able to provide for his family’s basic needs and still keep a roof over their head.

“Just like in the camp,” he says, “I feel trapped all over again.”

Where are you Senator Mike Lee? Why don’t you take the lead and call for an investigation of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program!

[….]

On its face, the resettlement program is a feel-good story, a symbol of America’s commitment as a global citizen, and for refugees, the epitome of the American Dream.

[….]

Utah is the only state that allocates funding for resettlement agencies – the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Community Services – to offer case management services for a full two-year period. During this time, they provide refugees with job training, housing placement and English language lessons, and more, all with the goal of helping refugees reach self-sufficiency as quickly as possible.

Nevertheless, despite the best of intentions, the Deseret News has found that many refugees are living well below the poverty line. Some are facing eviction. Others have become homeless.

In part, that’s because it is very difficult for arriving refugees to find jobs that pay a living wage and housing they can afford.

It is not the Mormon church doing the resettling in Utah, it is Catholic Charities and the International Rescue Committee (IRC is headed by David Miliband, a Brit, who pulls down a cool $500,000 plus a year salary).

Aiden Batar, director of Migration and Refugee Services at Catholic Community Services, says he does not know how many refugees in Utah are homeless or living in poverty. Neither does Poulin with the International Rescue Committee. [Of course they don’t—see no evil!….–ed]

[….]

At the Road Home shelter, the Deseret News met a Congolese refugee family of 11 evicted from their apartment three months ago who have been unable to find another place to live. At an apartment complex in South Salt Lake, a single mother named Feliz, also from the Congo, has been unemployed for two months after losing her job as a maid at a downtown hotel, and she has struggled to find other work.

“Life got harder for me when I came to America,” says Feliz. “I constantly worry that I will be evicted and my family will end up on the street. Most of the time, I wish I could go back to the refugee camp in Africa.”

It is a huge article, go here for more.

Dear Donald, maybe it’s time for that repatriation fund we talked about years ago. Set up financing for unhappy refugees to go home! LOL! take it out of the salaries of the top executives of the refugee industry!

What you can do! If you live in Utah (or otherwise have contact with the Senator), call on Senator Mike Lee to launch an investigation!

***The nine federal contractors that monopolize all resettlement in the US are below. Go here to see a recent accounting of their finances and salaries.