I’ve got other things I’m working on this morning, but have put them on hold so I can blow off steam! A reader just sent me this story….grrrrr!
Wall Street Journal reporter Miriam Jordan writes ‘authoritatively’ on Muslim refugees going to”welcoming” Utah and fails to mention the horrific murder case that dragged on for years in Salt Lake City.
Some of the best reporting I’ve seen on refugees in my over 8 years of following the issue was done by Julia Lyon a reporter at the time for the Salt Lake Tribune.
Surely, Ms. Jordan was aware of the case, but mentioning it might mess up her goal in reporting on how everything is just wonderful with Muslim refugees in Utah (and so what is wrong with you in your not-so-welcoming state).
In 2008 a Burmese Muslim refugee raped and murdered a little Christian refugee girl. The medical examiner testified that she died in “excruciating pain” and first responders said the apartment where her body was found “looked like a horror scene.”
Met was ultimately found guilty in 2014.
Perhaps one of the greatest shames, besides some naive refugee resettlement agency placing Muslim refugees in the same apartment complex as Christians (who had hated each other in Burma!***), is that no major US media outlet ever picked up the story. Why? Because it doesn’t fit the ‘story’ they want to tell about refugee resettlement in America.
In Ms. Jordan’s case her title tells us everything we need to know: ‘With Welcoming Stance, Conservative Utah Charts Its Own Course on Refugees.’ The implication of course is that if “conservative” Utah can welcome Muslims, why can’t you!
She reports that there are no organized pockets of resistance in Utah.
And, her article (here if you can even open it) confirms once again the reason I started writing this blog in 2007. Now there are many many good writers and bloggers ‘balancing’ the news on refugees, but back in 2007, I was so sick of the fluffy stories that it drove me to bring some balance to the news. Guess I’ll just have to keep on balancing the news!
And, you can be sure that if someone writes about Utah and doesn’t mention Muslim murderer Met, I will be pointing it out. Met is most likely a Burmese Rohingya Muslim (very devout Muslims) and we are admitting thousands to the US right now.
***Btw, reporter Julia Lyon went to the camp in Thailand and found out that these two groups (Christians and Muslims) were housed in separate sections of the camp for good reason!
Category: The Opposition
Georgia refugee agency worried about Trump Presidency
For those of you in ‘pockets of resistance’ in Georgia, have a look at this article.
I don’t have time to say much, just want everyone to know that federal refugee contractors (like New American Pathways) are shaking in their boots because they may be ripped off the government teat if Donald Trump is elected President. We can only dream!
From Global Atlanta (Title: Refugee Resettlement Agency Eyeing ‘Contingency Plan’ for Trump Presidency):
Ted Terry, mayor of Clarkston, Ga., has taken up a banner of hospitality and integration, despite opposition he has faced from vocal critics worried about things like job displacement and even the establishment of Shariah law on U.S. soil.
[….]
“In Clarkston, we are providing sort of a microcosm of what the world may very well look like in the future,” Mr. Terry said.
Georgians who are concerned about this news should join with Refugee Resettlement Relief, click here to learn more.
So why aren’t they worried about a Ted Cruz presidency? Just asking.
Tennesseans urged to sign petition, Governor must hear from the people!
Editor: This is a guest post by Don Barnett, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a resident of Tennessee.
If you are from Tennessee, the most important thing you can do is to post this information on your facebook page/other social media, and send to your e-mail lists.
Since the governor is supporting the status quo on refugee resettlement in Tennessee, TN he needs to hear from the people. Be sure to let your other elected officials know how you feel as well.
Barnett:
Supporters of maintaining the status quo in refugee resettlement in Tennessee – that is, allowing the federal contractor to run the program for its own benefit without a requirement that it report refugee social services usage or accurately report the numbers resettled – often point out that refugees pay more in taxes than they consume in benefits, so why all the fuss?
The resettlement program is so little understood and secretive that the contractors can make blatantly false statements and be assured those statements will be reported as fact by the media.
As reported in The Tennessean, the contractor notes that “a 2013 report presented to the Joint Government Operations Legislative Advisory Committee determined that refugees and their descendants provided $1.4 billion in revenue for Tennessee between 1990 and 2012, compared with requiring $753 million in state support.”
The 2013 study was actually very limited and makes no such sweeping conclusion.
In assessing the cost of publicly funded benefits for refugees the study looked at just 2 programs – public education (including ELL) and Tenncare(Medicaid). It ignored a whole range of programs which Tennesseans use and fund both with Tennessee tax dollars and as federal tax payers.
Sen. Mark Norris noted that at last count 11 state funded programs were being accessed by arriving refugees.
The study assumed that refugees were using Tenncare (Medicaid) at the same rate as average Tennesseans even though up to 59% of refugees have been placed into Tenncare upon arrival in recent years.
A recent federal study found staggering welfare usage rates even among those in the country for 5 years – majority still on food stamps, 44% on Medicaid, 29 % of families with one or more members on SSI, 17% on TANF and so on.
In spite of known high welfare usage among refugees, the report assumed refugees pay state taxes at the same rate as average Tennesseans.
The study, which was supposed to have determined to what extent the feds had placed an unfunded mandate on the state of Tennessee, was hijacked by the pro-refugee lobby, i.e. the local Chamber of Commerce and refugee contractors.
The seemingly positive outcome of the study was foreordained even though the study authors themselves concluded “The information necessary to complete a comprehensive study on the possible cost shifting from the federal government to the state for the resettlement of refugees is not available.” And even though a complete reading of the study does not allow for any positive conclusion despite refugee industry statements.
Perhaps Tennesseans best hope is passage of senate resolution SJR467 which would allow The Thomas More Law Center to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement on 10th amendment grounds. The public services law center will take the case at no charge to the state of Tennessee. Not only might it shed light on this program, but most importantly it would clarify to what extent, if any, the federal government can force a state to use state taxes to cover unfunded costs imposed by a federal program.
The resolution has overwhelming support in both houses of the Tennessee legislature but has stirred fierce opposition from the usual suspects, including Governor Haslam.
All Tennesseans concerned with this should sign the petition included here http://keeptnsafe.com/petition/ and tell the Governor to stop trying to block the democratic process.
For our extensive Tennessee archive, click here. See here for background on what the governor is doing.
This political work on-going in Tennessee, on the question of refugee resettlement and states’ rights, is groundbreaking!
Another story about refugees living in slums, Syracuse this time….
….where Catholic Charities is seeding the city with Somalis!
Let me repeat! Catholic Charities is responsible in this story about Somalis living in slums in Syracuse.
Watch! Instead of recognizing that we are resettling more impoverished people (with no chance at upward mobility) to American slums in the name of ‘Christian charity’ than we can afford, they will all be demanding more tax dollars rather than a slowdown in the process.
Obama and his ‘religious’ contractors, are expecting to resettle a whopping 85,000 this year alone!
Cloward and Piven live before your very eyes!
From Syracuse.com (emphasis is mine):
Syracuse, NY — There’s no heat or water in the dead of winter. Urine and feces dirty the hallways. Children go to school scarred by bedbug bites. Drug dealers take refuge inside busted doors.
This is what America looks like for dozens of refugees, who fled war and persecution to find a North Side apartment complex that is no refuge.
And U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, paying thousands of dollars in rents each month to owners who haven’t consistently paid water bills, maintained the property or provided adequate security.
That’s according to a class-action lawsuit filed in February on behalf of more than 40 Somali refugees living at the Kimton Apartments, 1313 Butternut St., for years known as “Little Mo” after the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The lawsuit argues the problems are so big that they affect everyone living in the building.
Tenants “came to this country with the promise of a new life, where they and their children would be safe,” lawyer Josh Cotter wrote in the lawsuit. “Upon their arrival, they found their new home is not much better than the refugee camps they just left.”
[….]
“African houses are more beautiful than American houses,” she said.
[….]
Very few Somali refugees make it to America. [The reporter apparently has no clue that the number of Somalis admitted to the US is well on its way to 150,000!—ed]
Continue reading about the slum landlord and its property manager connected to Catholic Charities.
The report says the Somalis have been offered opportunities to leave, but don’t want to break up their Somali “community.” So much for assimilation!
Photo: Learn more about the man running the resettlement program in Syracuse, here.
For new readers, click here for past posts on New York, one of the top 5 resettlement states in the nation.
Update! This morning Chuck Todd on Meet the Press suggested that what happened in Belgium wouldn’t happen here because our Muslims were not living in slums with no assimilation going on….oh really Chuck!
Two (more) state legislatures attempting to wrest some control from feds for refugee resettlement
South Carolina moved one step closer recently to advance a bill to try to get some control over who is being resettled in the state, and in Michigan bills were introduced to do the same.
I know it should be my job to explain the ins and outs of the various bills and attempt to predict what will happen with them, but honestly I don’t have the will power (or the legal skills!) to sort through it all. So, instead, I’ll give you a couple of news accounts from this week (AB–After Belgium) for you to read yourself.
South Carolina…
First, check out what Think Progress says about the South Carolina initiative. The closest they come to mentioning that Lutheran Social Services is a government contractor is to say they have been “tasked” with the job of getting refugees established in the state. No mention of the millions of your tax dollars paying them for their ‘task.’
Needless to say, if the South Carolina bill would become law, it will have a chilling effect on resettlement in the state as the Lutheran federal contractor could be held liable for crimes committed by their clients.
It is good to read publications like Think Progress from time to time. You know it is a publication of the Center for American Progress (Soros, Clinton, John Podesta).
There is another article with wailing and moaning about the bill here. For once, the contractors are on the defense.
Then there is the new effort in Michigan.
See Leo Hohmann writing at World Net Daily yesterday for the skinny on that pushback.
After telling us all the troubles Michigan is having with a rapidly expanding Muslim population, he reports that a citizens group (a pocket of resistance) has formed to push back. Here is WND:
That is sparking an organized backlash from Michigan residents.
A citizens’ group called Secure Michigan has formed as a watchdog over the refugee resettlement program in the state. Secure Michigan issued a statement Tuesday after the jihadist attack on Brussels, Belgium, that killed 34 people and injured 200. The statement urged Michigan GOP Gov. Rick Snyder to renew his opposition to President Obama’s Syrian refugee program.
Obama wants to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S., about half of them in Michigan.
All of this has put pressure on state lawmakers to do something to slow down the flow of Third World refugees into Michigan.
State Rep. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, has answered the call. He introduced legislation to make refugee placements in Michigan both safe and more transparent, while also giving local government a voice in the process as required by federal immigration law.
“House Bills 5528 and 5529 will protect both our communities and refugees entering our communities.
Continue reading here. Then see our complete archive going back to 2007 on Michigan, here. For more on South Carolina over the years, go here.