We wish there were more hours in a day to write about other legal immigration programs that are changing the demographics of America and swamping our culture besides refugee resettlement, but alas there are not.
Here are reports on two Visa programs for you to watch. Both offer opportunities for massive immigration fraud.
CA Rep. Mike Honda wants to make Visas for “religious workers” a permanent program.
The first is the Investor Visa, as described in this article from Michigan Live (Hat tip: Dianne):
Michigan luring “entrepreneur aliens” from Asia and the Middle East!
LANSING, MI — Michigan’s new status as a federally designated center for an increasingly popular investor visa program — just the second of its kind in the nation — will uniquely position the state to attract foreign capital and create local jobs, according to experts and stakeholders.
United States Customs and Immigration expedited and approved Michigan’s application to run its own EB-5 Regional Center, the Snyder administration announced this week, citing support from the governor, the state’s entire Congressional delegation and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
The federal EB-5 visa program is designed to attract “entrepreneur aliens” by offering them a green card in exchange for domestic investments that produce at least 10 new jobs in the U.S.
Read it all. The Center for Immigration Studieshas done a lot of reporting on problems with this program, here. Michelle Malkin calls it the “cash-for-visas racket,” here.
Religious workers Visa
This isn’t just for the Imams, Priests, Ministers, but for “religious workers” supposedly needed to back-up the leaders. Rep. Honda wants to make the program permanent so Congress doesn’t have to revisit it every few years with the possibility each time of killing it!
Washington: Aimed at facilitating immigration of religious workers including those of Hindu and Sikh faith, a US lawmaker has introduced a legislation in the House of Representatives.
Introduced yesterday by Congressman Mike Honda, the Freedom of Faith Act (HR 4460), will make permanent the special immigrant provision for non-minister religious workers.
The current religious workers programme is set to expire in 2015.
When passed by the Congress, the Act would cover religious workers, who provide a variety of services, such as translating for Korean Presbyterian churches, singing as cantors in Jewish temples, delivering sermons as mullahs (clerics) in Muslim mosques, and helping with Hindu pujas during Dussehra, Naimittika, Shivaratri, and Sikh ceremonies such as Akhandpath. [What! We don’t have enough religious workers here already? If not, how about training some right here—ed]
Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Jain, Mormon, Catholic, Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim workers would benefit from this.
“For over two decades, Congress has reauthorised this programme time and time again,” Honda said.
Can you just imagine how broadly the “workers” definition is being interpreted!
The next time you hear someone say: ‘I don’t like illegal immigration, but we welcome legal immigration!’ Think about these kinds of LEGAL immigration and give them a bop over the head!
The newly elected Minneapolis City Council member, Abdi Warsame, has been a busy guy lately. On Friday he presented a resolution to the city council to proclaim July 1 ‘Somali American Day’ to celebrate the African country’s independence from Italy and the UK. (And we all know how well that worked out!). Then he lead a protest against Kenya.
MN Governor Mark Dayton congratulates Abdi Warsame.
Somalicurrent – The Minneapolis City Council voted Friday to mark July 1 as “Somali American day” in the city, which is home to many immigrants from the east African country.
The date holds significance among Somalis, who celebrate independence day on July 1 both in Somalia and the United States diaspora.
Abdi Warsame, the first Somali-American on the Minneapolis City Council, praised the resolution at a council meeting on Friday. A gathering of Somali-American men were in attendance.
“This is a very important resolution for me,” Warsame said. “And it actually came from the elders and the community leaders who wanted to highlight the contributions, the culture, the values of the Somali-American community, which is a large and growing population in the city of Minneapolis.”
The July 1 independence day commemorates when the Somali Republic was created by uniting two territories previously controlled by Italy and Britain.
Minneapolis Somalis protest against Kenya!
Meanwhile, as we know, Kenya is trying to save itself from Somali terrorists (remember the Westgate Mall slaughter) and Minneapolis Somalis are protesting against Kenya.
And, look who is denying that Somalis had anything to do with the Mall attack—Abdi Warsame—appropriately reported at Al-Shahid network:
Somalis live in Minnesota (USA) protested against Kenyan brutal arresting of Somali community in Nairobi, especially in Eastli village.
With especial interview to voice of America Somali service, Minneapolis council member, Abdi Warsame, who hails from Somalia, has told that hundreds of Somalis in Minnesota marched the streets for showing their refusal of Kenyan indiscriminate harassment against Somalis.
“We can’t bear this twenty first century that our citizens are harassed. I am calling Kenya to stop this brutal action. Somalis are not terrorists. They are not responsible the terrorist attacks in the country”, Abdi Warsame, the first Somali man who hold such post in American territory said.
If Warsame really wanted to help “his country,” he could return to Africa and help Somalia lift itself out of squalor and chaos rather than run his mouth from the safety of Minneapolis!
For new readers, Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis? Thank the US State Department and its contractors: Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration Services and World Relief (facilitators of Al-Hijra).
And, to top it off—you, the US taxpayer, most likely footed a large portion of the bill!
Take a minute and go to a post we wrote last spring (Don’t break our rice bowls!see their lavish Baltimore office building) about the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (one of the nine major federal refugee contractors***) which was the ring leader of the event in Washington last week. Out of approximately $31.5 million in annual income, $30 million is from government grants and contracts, in other words, from you. Their CEO (photo below) makes over $200,000 in salary and benefits.
Linda Hartke, LIRS CEO: ‘We honor the gifts new Americans bring to the country.’ (and we get paid by US taxpayers to push that line!) http://blog.lirs.org/linda-harke-bio/
I have it from a good source that the average Lutheran in America has no clue about what their leaders are doing.
WASHINGTON, DC April. 4, 2014 – 42 Lutheran leaders visited lawmakers Wednesday on Capitol Hill and at the White House, calling for virtuous and compassionate immigration reform.From the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran ministry organizations, they emphasized that as people of faith, they are called to welcome the sojourner and walk alongside migrants and refugees as they rebuild their lives in the United States.
The leaders had face-to-face conversations with more than 20 members of Congress, including House and Senate leadership and members of Congress who are themselves Lutheran. They also met with staff at nearly 70 congressional offices, sharing stories of how our nation’s broken immigration system affects their congregations and communities by creating a culture of fear and leaving children without parents. The meetings were part of the annual Lutheran Immigration Leadership Summit, hosted by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS).
The US has an “unjust immigration system,” they told the White House:
A group of ten leaders also met with the President’s Domestic Policy Council and the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the White House. A letter was delivered to President Obama after the meeting, signed by 37 of the leaders. The letter thanked President Obama for his leadership on immigration reform and for reviewing immigration enforcement. However, it also called on President Obama to “ease the pain caused by unnecessarily high rates of detention and deportation.” They wrote: “we urge you to alleviate the hardships and separation experienced by families caught up in our unjust immigration system.”
Here (and below) is the text of the letter they delivered to the White House. If you are a Lutheran who disagrees with your church leadership for pushing amnesty and advocating for no detention for most illegal migrants, click hereto see which leaders of your church signed the letter.
April 2, 2014
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
As people of faith, we pray and call for immigration policies that keep families together, protect individuals forced from their homelands or fleeing persecution, and value the great gift immigrants are to our churches, communities and nation.
On behalf of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and the undersigned leaders from the Lutheran Immigration Leadership Summit and the communities we represent, thank you for today’s meeting with staff from your Domestic Policy Council and the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and for your willingness to hear our concerns.
We join the cry of the prophet Amos: “…let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
We lift our voices in speaking to members of the House and Senate, and to your Administration. Compassionate immigration reform must become the law of the land. Every day without action does harm to families, to communities, and to our nation.
We were encouraged by your announcement that you will review immigration enforcement practices. We believe that such a review is long overdue. While we await legislative action on just, compassionate and comprehensive immigration reform, we are counting on your Administration to exercise its authority to bring about an end to the excessive detention and deportation of immigrants by providing for:
*Broader and increased use of prosecutorial discretion at all points of law enforcement decision-making to reduce harmful enforcement practices and family separation.
*An end to the arbitrary use of detention and to the detention of vulnerable migrants such as asylum seekers and survivors of torture, and true access to justice.
*Increased availability of community-based alternatives to detention that do not unnecessarily deprive individuals of their freedom and for migrants who are neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk.
Today, we and fellow Lutheran leaders are meeting with Congressional leaders to call for swift immigration reform that reflects our American values and the calling of our faith to love and serve our neighbors. We yearn for a nation that honors the contributions that new and aspiring Americans make to our society and economy, and we long for immigration policies that strengthen families within our borders.
You, as President, can ease the pain caused by unnecessarily high rates of detention and deportation. While we appreciate your leadership on comprehensive immigration reform, we urge you to alleviate the hardships and separation experienced by families caught up in our unjust immigration system. We pray that you follow this way of justice, and by doing so, show the positive impact that stabilizing migrant communities can have of all of us.
Yours in faith,
Here is an articleabout one of the Lutheran leaders excellent adventure in Washington.
*** The federal gravy train steams on! If the Senate version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform should become law, the contractors, including LIRS, will be in line for MORE federal grants to provide “services” to the millions of newly amnestied. They will be contracted to get the “new Americans” set up on welfare, help them find jobs, get them micro-loans to start businesses, teach them English etc. There are even federal grants to teach the immigrants how to have healthy marriages!
Do we see a trend developing here! It appears that the Open borders activists must have sent out talking points—tell the media that there is unfair treatment of refugees/asylum seekers and other migrantsrampant in America!
We just now posted on the not-so-nice Minnesotans,here. And, we have a story from Portland, Maine last week that we didn’t get to about problems asylum seekers are having with landlords there.
Hawa Abdullahi: We would like more low-income housing for our people. http://www.centerforrefugees.org/our-team/
Now comes the news from Nashville, a major resettlement site for Catholic Charities, that they are having problems with “fair housing” in that ‘welcoming’ city and surrounding counties.
Not mentioned, of course, are the problems that impoverished or disabled native Nashville area citizens are likely having getting housing when they have to compete with the immigrants!
From The Tennessean (Hat tip: Joanne). Emphasis is mine:
Immigrants and refugees in Nashville have more help than ever finding stable housing, but forces beyond their control have made life tougher in recent years.
Increasing apartment rental costs have been hard on international newcomers, said Hawa Abdullahi, social services coordinator with the Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee, at a conference on fair housing in Nashville.
“We have seen a lot of rent going up, which is hard for people to cover,” she said. “We see a lot of people getting pushed … moving to Antioch, Smyrna, and places like that. It’s really getting hard right now to find apartments.”
Abdullahi spoke about immigrant housing experiences as part of the Fair Housing Matters Conference. The fight against housing discrimination has taken on new urgency locally and across the nation because of increased federal funding and new directives meant to make housing available to all people.
Abdullahi described how the refugee families she works with struggle to get by on wages that rarely top $10 per hour.
The panelists said immigrants struggle to find housing because of language barriers, discrimination, poor credit histories, and limited options near public transit.
And refugees, in particular, arrive with debt. People approved by the U.S. government to move into America to escape persecution in their home countries, they receive financial assistance for eight months but must pay back the travel costs that move them to America in the first place. [This plane fare issue is bogus—many just walk away from the debt. What they never tell you is that the ‘church contractor’ (in this case Catholic Charities) gets to keep a portion of the loan if it is repaid! Only a small portion of your tax dollars are reimbursed to the US treasury.–ed]
About 1,300 refugees are resettled in and around Nashville each year — with more than two-thirds joining families that already live here.[Just a reminder readers, that when yours has become a “welcoming” city, the first refugees arriving apply to bring their family members. It is called chain migration—ed]
[….]
“The city of Nashville is getting better. Definitely (officials) are aware Nashville is a destination for immigrants,” Morales said. “For surrounding counties, that’s a different story.”
Nashville has been such a hot spot over the years that we have a whole category designated just for Nashville, here, with 65 previous posts. Nashville was recently chosen by the federal government as a “preferred community” for refugee resettlement, here.
Our Minnesota readers will be angered (or rolling on the floor laughing) at this news!
Robin Phillips: Minnesotans violate refugees/migrants human rights!
From the Star Tribune (hat tip: Robin). Emphasis is mine:
Despite a self-professed sense of acceptance of newcomers and a well-worn notion of “Minnesota Nice,” the state does not provide some of the most basic protections to the more than 350,000 immigrants and refugees living here, a new report claims.
From public safety policies that force immigrants to live in fear of deportation to some of the worst racial disparities in the nation in income, health, and educational outcomes, the failures undermine the state’s values and squander the potential resources newcomers can contribute, according to a report from the Advocates for Human Rights, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit.
The study, “Moving from Exclusion to Belonging,” looks at a number of federal policies that the report says have combined to create a sense of exclusion. Those include what it calls “meager provisions” of a maximum 90 days of assistance for refugees after arrival, and a six-month wait before asylum seekers become eligible to apply for a work permit.
[….]
“Laws, policies and practices exclude immigrants and refugees from full participation in our community and violate their human rights,” said Robin Phillips, executive director for the organization.
And, then you might want to revisit this old post from 2011, ‘Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis‘, where we learned that it was due to the “welcoming” social services in Minnesota that US resettlement contractors (Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and World Relief) have been pouring them into Minnesota for more than 25 years! We recently learned that secondary migrants are flooding into Minnesota as well.
This is one of the strategies we see all too often—Leftists write reports and then use them as news hooks.
