Revolving door between government agency and its contractors finally being exposed!

Michael Patrick Leahy writing at Breitbart has put pen to paper and pulled together some of the facts about how the refugee resettlement industry is in an incestuous arrangement between agencies that dole out your tax dollars and the contractors that receive them.  If this isn’t illegal it should be!

Lavinia Limon
She is looking to open offices in Rutland VT and Reno NV next! See our Limon archive here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/?s=Lavinia+Limon

The arrangement is unethical at minimum and I fault Congress for its lax review of the expanding UN/US Refugee Admissions Program for the practice Leahy exposes.
Disallowing the present arrangement is the least Congress could do to begin to reform and rein-in the program that will bring 85,000 refugees to the US this year, including 10,000 Syrian Muslims.
Here is Leahy:

A revolving door in the Democratic administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama has sent millions of dollars in federal funding to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants [USCRI], which is led by two former directors of the Office of Refugee Resettlement [ORR], the federal office that selects the voluntary agencies [VOLAGs] who get lucrative federal contracts to resettle refugees.

President Bill Clinton appointed Lavinia Limon as director of ORR in 1993, a position she held until the end of his administration. After a brief interlude at the Center for New American Communities, a project of the left-leaning National Immigration Forum, Limon was named executive director of USCRI in August 2001, a position she still holds.

In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Eskinder Negash, an Eritrean refugee on Limon’s USCRI staff, as director of ORR. When Negash resigned abruptly in December 2014, he went back to USCRI, where he now serves as Vice President of Global Development.

All of you concerned with the arrival of refugees in your towns, or the expansion of existing resettlement sites must read this report! Click here to continue!

USCRI wants Rutland and Reno next!

I have to head out early today (I’ll pass the 4,000 mile mark on my road trip) and can’t elaborate, but I want to make two additional points.
Lavinia Limon’s USCRI has two (maybe more) new sites they are targeting:  Rutland, VT and Reno, NV!
And, although the focus here was on the Office of Refugee Resettlement at HHS, don’t forget that Anne C. Richard, the Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration has also revolved into the door at the US State Department from a contractor—the International Rescue Committee.  See her bio here.
She had an earlier stint at the State Department and see her connection to the International Crisis Group (a Soros project). Richard says in her bio that she helped create this group!
 

Lobbying arm for refugee resettlement contractors wants US to take 200,000 refugees in FY2017

We have written often about the consortium of members of the refugee resettlement industry calling themselves the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA).  Go here for our archive on the group which includes the nine major federal resettlement contractors.
Thanks to reader Joanne for sending this recent statement from their Washington, DC office. They are, needless to say, thrilled that the Obama Administration is going to host a big pow-wow on refugees at the UN in September. (I hope Trump’s people are getting ready for this huge propaganda stunt!)

melanie-nezer
Melanie Nezer of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (one of nine federal contractors) is the present chair of RCUSA. She says 200,000 is the magic number for 2017.

As you read through this statement, remember that, in recent years, 70,000 was the target number for the refugees to be admitted to the US (from all countries).  In FY2016, Obama is shooting for 85,000 and then he signaled he wanted 100,000 in FY2017 (begins October 1, 2016).  (Yes, he has one more shot at dictating how many we take.)
If re-elected will Speaker Paul Ryan do a thing to stop the funding for this huge new number? Based on recent statements and last year’s actions, that is doubtful!

The Refugee Council USA is urging Obama to go for 200,000 (from all countries) for FY2017!

Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), a coalition of 20 U.S.-based non-governmental organizations dedicated to refugee protection, welcome, and excellence in the U.S. refugee resettlement program, commends the Obama Administration for coordinating the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees that will take place on September 20, 2016.

The Leaders’ Summit, as well as the UN General Assembly Summit on Large Movements of Migrants and Refugees on September 19th, are both critical opportunities for the U.S. and other members of the global community to show collective leadership by taking concrete steps to address the tremendous refugee protection needs that exist around the world, including right here in the Americas. This leadership must be demonstrated through concrete new commitments to expand and strengthen humanitarian assistance to refugees and the host countries carrying a disproportionate responsibility for them. But leadership also means demonstrating a resounding rejection of xenophobic and racist rhetoric that increasingly dominates global discourse around refugees today.

Yikes! So the US won’t be embarrassed in September, they want Obama to propose that 200,000 refugees be admitted to US beginning in October!  And, they want more $$$ for “services.”

The U.S. should commit to provide protection to 200,000 refugees through admission to the United States in FY17 through a combination of traditional refugee resettlement and additional legal, proven and secure approaches. At least 140,000 of these refugees should be resettled through the existing U.S. refugee resettlement program, with the necessary support for receiving and integrating them in American communities. To do any less would represent a U.S. commitment that falls short of the call made by the White House for a collective doubling of resettlement commitments in advance of the Summits.

The United States should also ensure that there is a commensurate increase in the social services and integration support [read TAXPAYER dollars!—ed] that are available to refugees as they start their new lives in this country.

 In addition to higher numbers, the U.S. should also demonstrate a commitment to a more equitable distribution of resettlement opportunities, ensuring that refugees in desperate circumstances everywhere have a chance of accessing this life-saving program.

Go here to read more.
And, remember readers, they NEVER quit!  It is all about changing America by changing the people! So, we can never quit exposing the facts and their real agenda either!

All politics is local: Get rid of mayors like these!

Tomorrow I’ll have been on the road for two weeks and I’ve made stops in 7 states and put 2,000 miles on my car. There is a very clear pattern developing and I’m going to take each piece one at a time. Frankly, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know with my revelations from the road!

FILE PHOTO: Mayor Mike Brown gives the State of the City Address to a full audience on Thursday, April 2, 2015, at the Alerus Center. (Logan Werlinger/Grand Forks Herald)
Mike Brown has been mayor of Grand Forks since the year 2,000 so he is responsible for the refugee flow to that city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Brown_(mayor)  (Logan Werlinger/Grand Forks Herald)

If you are troubled by the secrecy you see with the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program as it disrupts the social and economic stability of your communities, look first at your local elected officials.
Yesterday, I mentioned the controversy on-going in Rutland, VT with a mayor who invited a federal resettlement contractor to bring in 100 Syrian Muslims a few short months from now.
Concerned citizens there have stirred the political pot as they should and the issue has now bled over to the governor’s race (here).
And, don’t miss Leo Hohmann’s WND article yesterday about how the elected officials of Bloomington, MN have betrayed their people.

Before I go any further watch this interview with Mayor Mike Brown of Grand Forks, North Dakota last week.  With mayors like these who needs enemies!

Valley News Live Fargo, ND reports:  Click here to watch.  And as you watch this mayor fumble questions about what data supports his contention that refugees have benefited Grand Forks, consider that this man is a medical doctor and thus should be smart enough to understand the importance of economic data to make his point.  The problem is that no one, until now, has probably ever demanded he go beyond talking points. 
It appears that Brown, who has no data to support his glowing assessment that refugees have brought economic prosperity to Grand Forks, is actually reading from some fluffy puffy statement that must have come down from on high at “Welcoming America” or one of its many local clone organizations.

You must work to change your LOCAL elected officials!

That is my message for today.  I’m seeing the same clear message everywhere I go—local elected officials either because there is money to be made from industries needing cheap labor, or simply because they have bought the whole progressive (multiculturalism is beautiful) agenda—must be defeated at the polls!
To do that you must (besides finding some good candidates—a tall order I know), investigate the ones you have. Dig deep into public records and expose their connections/donors and deals.  And, to do that effectively you must have a means of communicating what you have found to your community.  Friendly media for us is very rare since most small town newspapers have sold out to the progressive agenda, so if you can’t get local media, you will have to create your own media!
I see it over and over, great research going on with our folks locally, but the work sits on computers or in stacks of documents that never leave a small circle of hardcore patriotic activists.
Create your own media by creating localized/statewide websites (I like that Watchdog.org working in Vermont!), start a radio show of your own, and report hard research information, don’t just talk about liberty and the Constitution, although important subjects for sure, but expose local crony capitalists running (ruining!) your towns with serious investigative work!

Ohio: Active TB in refugees there too!

Michael Patrick Leahy’s latest expose’ on where ACTIVE Tuberculosis is found in America reveals that the Akron, Ohio area has it too.

Elaine-Woloshyn-300x300
As Executive Director of the International Institute of Akron, Elaine Woloshyn is in charge of the refugees arriving in the city. The IIA is a subcontractor of USCRI the same federal contractor working to expand to Rutland VT and Reno NV. It is also the major federal contractor in Twin Falls, Idaho. http://iiakron.org/our-team/

We have a few posts on Akron here at RRW.  I’d like to direct you to one in particular because it is an example of what I am learning on my road trip through the heartland.  There is money involved in refugee resettlement and local elected officials and their cronies are figuring out how to tap it!  It is your money as developers look to the taxpayer-funded gravy train coming from Washington! (In addition to the foreign money that is buying up real estate!)
I digress.  Along with the money (for special people) comes other problems, including frightening health risks for all of us.
Leahy at Breitbart:

CLEVELAND, Ohio–Eleven refugees have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis in Summit County, Ohio, over the past six years, Dr. Margo Erme, medical director of the Summit County Public Health Department tells Breitbart News.

The case of active and communicable tuberculosis were in the county that holds Akron, with a population of 199,000. It is the largest city in Summit County, population 541,000.

The county lies immediately to the south of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. Many of the delegates and members of the media attending the Republican National Convention held in Cleveland this week are staying at hotels in Summit County and are shuttled on buses thirty plus miles each way.

“From 1/1/2010 through 12/31/2015, 37 cases of tuberculosis (both pulmonary and extrapulmonary) were reported in Summit County,” Dr. Margo Erme, medical director of Summit County Public Health, tells Breitbart News in an email.

Of those, “16 were US-born” and “21 were foreign-born.” Of the 21 foreign-born, “10 did not come into the US on refugee status, 11 came into the US on refugee status,” Erme says.

Of the “US-born” I would like to know how many live in households with the “foreign-born?”
No time to write more, but check out this fluffy puffy piece on the growing Arab population of Toledo—a city I just visited!  A “model city” for Syrian refugees they say!  Ahhhh!  More when I have time.

New Hampshire: Are they priming Laconia for a new resettlement site?

I could be wrong, but the fact that a refugee is going to tell you his success “story” at a roundtable discussion tomorrow night sure looks suspicious to me. Why bother with a propaganda event if they aren’t getting Laconia primed for a new resettlement site?

Laconia map
Manchester has been overloaded with refugees and so are they out scouting more sites in the state?

Here is the news at the Laconia Daily Sun:

LACONIA — As present global conflicts are forcing millions of individuals to flee their home countries, nations around the world are opening their borders to refugees in need of a place to resettle. Recognizing that Laconia has been one of the cities in New Hampshire welcoming refugees for the past 20 years, the Laconia Human Relations Committee is hosting an educational refugee resettlement roundtable forum in Laconia which will allow community members to better understand the process of resettlement in the region.

The forum will be held on Monday, July 18, at 6:30 p.m., at the Woodside Building at the Taylor Community. The forum aims to educate citizens on why refugee resettlement occurs and the process individuals must go through to get refuge in the United States. Carol Pierce, director of the Laconia Human Relations Committee, will facilitate a conversation with local refugees who have first hand accounts of how the process works in our region.

[….]

Stories like Ragassa’s will be shared at the roundtable forum, specifically discussing what challenges refugees had when they came to the United States and how they overcame them, as well as an informational presentation explaining the difference between immigrants and refugees. The forum is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested by calling 524-5600.

What the heck? Laconia has been welcoming refugees for 20 years we are told.  Well, I’ve been following the refugee program and Laconia has not been a resettlement site.  I didn’t go back 20 years, but I did go back into the data for the last nearly 8 years and other than 35 Bhutanese resettled there in 2009 and 2010, Laconia has not been a target site.
This ‘forum’ sounds to me like Laconia is in their crosshairs next!
For an extensive archive on New Hampshire (and especially Manchester) click here.