Category: Where to find information

Comment worth noting: reader asks when will refugee problems come to Montana?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Reader, Carol, asked that question in response to my previous post on Boise, ID.

It occurred to me that it’s been awhile since I told you where you could get information on your state programs.  Here is the list of State Refugee Coordinators at the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

I urge all of you to write or call your coordinator and ask for a copy of their most recent PLAN for your state.  Technically all states must have an approved plan every year!  If they say they have no PLAN for this year, tell them you want the most recent PLAN approved by ORR.

Also, you should visit WRAPS from time to time to check on the numbers and nationalities of refugees being resettled where you live.  I mentioned WRAPS here recently.   Go here then scroll down to the data base for ‘Arrivals by Destination City by Nationality by FY’ for the stats for the last five years.

Note that Montana has only had a few refugees resettled in recent years—then continue scrolling to the states that follow in the alphabet—Nebraska, Nevada and New Hampshire—and note the THOUSANDS dropped-off from every corner of the world.

Visit our ‘where to find information’ category for other fun facts.

Immigration and jobs continued: foreign college students taking low wage jobs

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you are wondering why the unemployment rate is so high for teens and college students looking for summer jobs—look no further than the State Department’s Summer Work Travel program that imports 100,000 kids from abroad each summer.  They work cheap and are described as virtual slaves to big business.  The Center for Immigration Studies will hold a panel discussion on the program in Washington, DC on March 13th.   Read all about it here.

If you are trying to help legitimate refugees find scarce jobs you should be telling your legislators in Washington that this program stinks!

When did the US State Department become the headhunter for big business?

ORR: Where is the annual report?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here we go again, BY LAW (here) the Office of Refugee Resettlement is required to send to Congress an annual report three months after the close of the previous Fiscal Year on September 30th—that means by January 31st of the next year.

The last annual report prepared by ORR (Department of Health and Human Services) and available to the public is for FY 2008, here.  That means that ORR is now BEHIND FOR THREE YEARS!  They owe Congress the reports for 2009, 2010 and 2011.  

What that says to me, is that the ORR doesn’t want Congress and the public to know how bad things are—how few refugees are employed and how many are on welfare.

Check back here periodically to see when we might see some new (albeit old by the time you see it!) hard data on the program.

And, if you know any public interest lawyers willing to look into this matter, send them my way!

Kentucky: Iraqi terror suspect lied on refugee application

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

NO!  Imagine that!  He failed to tell the overseas processing entity in Syria that he was a member of a terrorist organization.

Readers, you know how this story began with the arrest of two suspected Iraqi refugee terrorists last summer, here.

One of the accused has already admitted he is guilty.

Now comes the latest on his accomplice, here, at the Bowling Green Daily News.  And, by the way, this failure to properly screen Muslim refugees is what has slowed the entire refugee resettlement program to a crawl in recent months.

An Iraqi refugee facing federal terrorism-related charges is now accused of falsifying information on refugee admission papers he filed in Syria in 2009 and on his application to register for permanent residence status that he filed in Bowling Green in 2010.

A federal grand jury in Bowling Green indicted Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 24, of Bowling Green, on Wednesday in a superseding indictment adding the two perjury charges to 10 previous charges filed in May that accuse Hammadi and a co-defendant, Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, also of Bowling Green, of attempting to provide material support and resources to terrorists in Iraq. Alwan pleaded guilty in December to all 23 charges against him. An April 3 sentencing date is set for Alwan.

The latest charges against Hammadi allege that he “denied having previously engaged in terrorist activity and having previously been a member of a terrorist organization,” according to Wednesday’s indictment.

How did they know he was lying?  They found his fingerprints on an IED used against American troops in Iraq, but only after we had let him live among us.

And, you can be sure he was receiving much more of America’s social safety net then the subsidized housing noted here:

Hammadi lived in Section 8, government-subsidized housing on Flanigan Court before his arrest. He entered the country in July 2009 in Las Vegas and moved to Bowling Green in December 2009.

So, he was first resettled in Nevada and then migrated to Bowling Green (to work in a chicken plant there? or to hook up with his fellow Iraqi terrorist?).

Fun with Numbers!  Have a look at the US State Department’s data base here.  First, look at the one for Iraqis since 2007.  We resettled 390 Iraqis in Nevada and 1,183 in Kentucky.  California got the most Iraqis since 2007—14,953!

Then scroll down and have a look at the data base on what nationalities went to what cities and towns.  Bowling Green (a meatpacking town) got 2,688 refugees from all over the world over the last ten years.  Las Vegas (where our Iraqi terror suspect was first resettled by a government contractor, maybe Catholic Charities, but I didn’t take time to look it up) received 3,876 refugees in ten years.

Readers, this is our 519th post on Iraqi refugees since July 2007, visit our Iraqi refugee archives here.

Fun with numbers: find out how many refugees came to your town in last 5 years

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just this morning as I wrote the previous post on an Iraqi woman who beat her daughter, I had a close look at some databases at the US State Department’s Refugee Processing Center.

They have a database where you can see how many refugees and from what countries were resettled in your town.  And, I mean town!  Apparently the cities are overflowing with immigrants and the State Department is busy spreading new refugees out to even small towns.   They want to make sure you too experience the joys of multiculturalism.

Keep in mind, a refugee might be resettled in a particular town, but they are free to move after in some cases 3 months (it’s called secondary migration).   No one tracks where they go (this is America you will be reminded by open borders activists), but the problem is that, assume they are receiving treatment for TB where originally resettled, there is no way of knowing if they continue the meds after moving.

So those resettled in your town may no longer be there, or conversely they have attracted secondary migrants to come to your town and the numbers of a particular nationality are now larger.

Go here and scroll down to “Arrivals by destination city by nationality” open link to a ‘fun’ database.

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