“It’s not lost on me the refugees people have such a problem with have black and brown skin.”
(Commissioner Beth Olson speaking in support of refugees for Louisa County)
A week ago, before I was called away for a (happy) family duty, I told you that the St. Louis County, Minnesota County Commission was planning to vote on an issue they tabled months ago—the question is should the county in northern Minnesota open its arms to refugees, or not?
Those who do not want the social and economic burden of ‘welcoming’ third worlders to northern Minnesota came out strongly in advance of the vote.
Topic of refugees raises citizen voices in St. Louis County
Peacefully demonstrating in northern Minnesota on Tuesday!
VIRGINIA, Minn. — Throughout most of April and May, only one person who wasn’t previously scheduled to do so spoke on record to the St. Louis County Board.
As the board had gone straight to web-based conferencing once COVID-19 emerged, constituents held back, mostly emailing and voicing their opinions privately to commissioners.
But that changed Tuesday as calls poured in to the site of the board’s remote meeting at the Virginia Government Services Center.
An unofficial count of 94 residents spoke or left voicemails that were aired during the daylong meeting.
“I thought we’d have more calls — I expected more,” board chair Mike Jugovich said, still pleased people seized the opportunity.
Demonstrators in Minneapolis on Wednesday!
The callers were fueled by months of anticipation around the topic of refugee resettlement consent.
And while the board voted to file the issue away with county administration, citing a federal court injunction nullifying a President Donald Trump executive order, people were heard.
[….]
“I’d like to express my disdain for refugees coming to St. Louis County; they can go elsewhere,” said one Mountain Iron caller.
“It’s a disgrace they’re being shoved down our throat,” another woman said. “Nobody wants them here; put them in Minneapolis.”
Commissioner Beth Olson
[….]
Commissioner Beth Olson refuted doubts about vetting, saying refugees were vetted by nine agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service.
“It’s not lost on me the refugees people have such a problem with have black and brown skin,” Olson said.
It is not lost on the citizens of St. Louis County*** that the Left’s insatiable desire for diversity destroys the social fabric of communities.
Just look at the photos and videos coming out of Minneapolis in the last couple of days! Any sane person would not want this coming to their towns and cities.
When Trump is gone…..
One of the most persistent arguments, by those who want more refugee resettlement for a given location use, is that the Trump Executive Order (requiring approval by the local county government for refugee resettlement) is tied up in the courts and besides so few refugees are coming now anyway.
Don’t fall for that argument to dodge the issue.
I can’t express strongly enough how important it is for groups like those who took to the streets this week and peacefully demonstrated in Virginia, MN are helping to insure that the message gets out—find another resettlement location in future!
If the Dems win in November, the future is only months away!
Joe Biden says he will open the doors to 125,000 third worlders in year one.
Or, it might be 2025 that the flood gates open!
Whichever it is, from past experience, I have found that the resettlement contractors and the feds will stay away from towns and cities they see as clearly ‘unwelcoming’ because they will still have plenty of locations eager to welcome the multi-cultural Nirvana they foolishly dream of—like the one they have been growing and nourishing for years in Minneapolis!
P.S. Work to make sure Ms. Olson is not elected again!
*** Sorry, I had the county name wrong in my first version of this post!
“It’s an absolutely brutal time to be arriving in America.”
(Ben Winsor, co-founder of Ads-Up a group that is helping them get settled)
A couple of those who arrived previously are infected with the Chinese virus and others have no jobs. So it makes sense that more are coming?
Sure why not! You can’t travel safely! You may be jobless. And, the virus is costing trillions of taxpayer dollars so what the heck, a few more mouths to feed shouldn’t matter, right!
Dozens of refugees flown from Australia and PNG to US despite coronavirus travel bans
Dozens of refugees who have spent years in Australia’s offshore processing regime have been flown to the United States for resettlement, despite COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Transfers from Papua New Guinea and Australian immigration detention centres under the US resettlement program are continuing as the US struggles to contain the pandemic that has killed more than 93,000 people there.
Thirty-five refugees departed Port Moresby on Thursday morning bound for the US via Singapore,and one refugee is due to fly to Finland, according to sources and documents obtained by SBS News.
A handful also departed Australia for the US this week, including several from the Kangaroo Point hotel being used as an “alternative place of detention” (APOD) in Brisbane and from community detention in Melbourne.
[….]
The men are due to arrive in Los Angeles and then be resettled in 18 cities across the US.
[….]
“It’s an absolutely brutal time to be arriving in America,” Ben Winsor, co-founder of Ads-Up, told SBS News.
“These guys are landing with barely more than the clothes on their backs and they’ll be looking for work alongside millions of recently unemployed Americans.
“Since COVID-19 hit, more than 100 refugees reached out to us for help, they’ve lost jobs and are struggling to pay rent and for basic supplies.
“Refugee resettlement agencies were already overstretched and providing only very basic support, now they’re at breaking point.”
Many of the refugees have underlying health conditions after years of detention and medical neglect on Manus Island and Nauru.
“Their condition puts them at higher risk from COVID-19,” Mr Winsor said.
“We are in daily contact with two refugees in Texas who have contracted COVID-19.”
[….]
In Senate estimates in March, the Home Affairs Department said 702 refugees had been resettled in the US under the agreement reached by then Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and US president Barack Obama in 2016. [Trump called it a “dumb deal” but went along with it!—ed]
Under the deal, up to 1,250 refugees who were in offshore processing on Manus Island and Nauru could be resettled in the US at its discretion after clearing “extreme vetting” procedures.
The department said a further 260 were approved but had not yet departed, and some were transferred to Australia under the now-repealed medevac laws for medical treatment.
Our government is interviewing more of Australia’s illegal aliens who will soon be on the way!
Yet, I haven’t heard one word recently about Australia’s part of that deal.They are supposed to take in refugees from Costa Rica and that begs the question, why are those refugees our problem?
In exchange for the US considering to resettle 1,250 refugees from Australia’s offshore camps, Australia has agreed to take refugees from US-run refugee camps in Costa Rica.
See my ever-expanding archive on the Australia dumb deal byclicking here.
The whole thing is maddening!
I wonder how many Australians were planning dream vacations to America or conversely how many Americans had been planning to travel to Australia for work or pleasure and have been forced to cancel their plans, yet, these unhealthy young men who tried to break into Australia are flown to the US and resettled on your dime!
And, as we learned in the SBSstory, no quarantine is required for them!
This news was a surprise. I had been assuming all along that since the President’s Executive Order had been halted in the courts and that the Chinese virus crisis had halted almost all (but not all!) refugee resettlement that county governments had simply swept the sore subject under the proverbial rug.
Not so in St. Louis County, MN where a vote is expected on Tuesday although the public will not be there as they were here in January (seems strange that there were actually crowded meetings like this only a few months ago!):
Controversial county board meeting moved out of Buhl
Meetings will still be held online. Tuesday’s proceedings on refugee resettlement consent had figured to draw a large crowd.
The St. Louis County Board has seen its controversial upcoming Tuesday meeting moved out of Buhl and made online-only. The online meeting will emanate from the Virginia [MN] Government Services Center, county administration said in a news release Wednesday.
Meetings at the courthouse in Duluth and other locations throughout the county have been moved online for the past two months, since the county’s emergency declaration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We want to make sure everyone is safe,” Commissioner Frank Jewell, representing downtown Duluth, said during an online board workshop Tuesday, May 19.
Commissioner Keith Nelson, of Virginia, has been adamant the meeting — scheduled for the Buhl Senior Center and set to address the politically charged issue of refugee resettlement consent — should be a physical meeting held in public.
Earlier this month, he described the idea of moving the meeting as “a travesty.”
“We listened for many hours on multiple occasions to folks very much in support of this resolution,” Nelson said May 12. “I have listened to many hours, too, from constituents of mine that are absolutely not in support. They are asking when do they get their turn?”
The subject of refugee settlement consent had been tabled to Tuesday, May 26, during a board meeting in Duluth in January, following three hours of public testimony. Other board meetings, including one in Hibbing prior to COVID-19 restrictions, have also included several members of the public addressing the refugee resettlement issue. Citizens to date have been predominantly in favor of consenting to refugee resettlement.
[….]
The issue of refugee resettlement consent sprang up last winter, after President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring counties to consent to resettlement. Notably, Beltrami County in Minnesota voted against giving its consent. Many counties, including neighboring Carlton County, declined to take it up after a federal judge blocked the order, nullifying the need for boards to act.
Still, because the St. Louis County Board tabled its consent resolution, it will come up Tuesday.
Citizens of St. Louis County have a few days to comment!
In its news release Wednesday, the county said citizens can submit public comments for the public comment portion or for specific board agenda items prior to the meeting by emailing them to publiccomment@stlouiscountymn.gov, or by calling 218-726-2110 and leaving a recorded comment, or by raising your “virtual hand” while using the Webex software during the board meeting.
I have no idea of where the Executive Order court case stands these days, but with the COVID slowdown and a Presidential election in a few short months, there is not much happening with the UN/US Refugee Resettlement Program.
I do know this! If Joe Biden (or any Dem wins in November) the refugee floodgates will be thrown open.
I’m posting this news because I have been following (for weeks!) the media’s hyper focus on the Chinese Virus and its potential threat to large refugee camps worldwide. Now it appears the first cases have arrived.
The value of social distancing (or lack of it) is about to be tested.
Over two weeks ago I told you that the carnage watch was on, see here.
In case you don’t think the Rohingya have anything to do with you, think again.
You need to know that Rohingya Muslims (there is no Muslim ban!) are being resettled in the US in large numbers (prior to the COVID shutdown) during the Trump Administration.
Here is one story about Rohingya refugees staging a political protest in Arizona a couple of years ago with a little information for you on the Rohingya back story.
See over 200 additional posts on Rohingya in myRohingya Reportscategory.
Their situation is much more complicated than the superficial media-created meme that depicts them as pure as the driven snow while Burmese Buddhists are their persecutors.
Coronavirus: Two Rohingya test positive in refugee camp
Rohingya camp at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
Two Rohingya refugees have tested positive for coronavirus in the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, officials say.
These are the first confirmed cases among refugees in Cox’s Bazar, where around one million Rohingya are encamped, a government doctor said.
Officials told the BBC that those infected were now being treated in isolation.
About 1,900 other refugees are now being isolated for tests.
The Rohingya in the crowded camps of Cox’s Bazar have been living under lockdown since 14 March.
In Greece, which is also home to large numbers of refugees, officials are hoping to relocate around 1,600 vulnerable persons from its camps to other countries as the pandemic eases.
Two migrants who reached Greece’s Lesbos island this week tested positive for Covid-19 and were isolated with no contact with refugee camps on the island.
Go here to read about the big Greek camps. A couple of newly arrived African migrants have tested positive for the Chinese virus, but notice that the big island camps are still largely not impacted.
In a letter to their candidate to defeat Donald Trump in November, 51 of the hardest left groups in the US tell Biden what they want from him if he is elected.
They’re baaack—the Code Pinkers!
The Hill has a story here, but it took me a while to find the letter the stories all reference. I found it at HuffPo, here.
The Hill:
Liberal groups ask Biden to support progressive foreign policy agenda
The liberal groups are now asking Biden to support 10 key measures they say will usher in a new progressive vision for U.S. foreign policy…
[….]
The liberals are asking Biden to admit at least 125,000 refugees in his first year in office, and to increase refugee numbers every year after.
That is nothing new. Somehow 125,000 has become the Open Borders magic number for refugees. What was surprising, when I finally found the letter, is that none of the nine federal refugee contractors signed it.
Here is what the letter says and the list of those who signed it. You will notice that they use the Chinese virus and Climate change as a way to tie their demands together.
This is the wording of the immigration section:
Rejecting discriminatory immigration policies and supporting refugees
We call on you to repeal the Muslim, African, refugee, and asylum bans, restore access to asylum, and support a robust refugee resettlement program. This includes a commitment to admit at least 125,000 refugees in your first year in office, increasing refugee admissions every year, and investing in infrastructure needed to rebuild our refugee resettlement program and restore U.S. leadership on refugee protection given that we are now facing the worst global displacement crisis in history. As we urge other countries to admit and protect refugees, the U.S. must also ensure all asylum seekers have a meaningful opportunity to be heard before a judge and utilize community-based alternatives to immigration detention.
If you are a one issue voter, then this is all you need to know about Joe Biden and those who hope to put him in the White House—refugee resettlement will be on steroids in January 2021.
You may have noticed that I have a category for the 2020 Presidential campaignwhere you can see some of my posts on the topic recently and expect to see more archived there in the coming weeks and months.
