Hurry! Get those New Americans their citizenship before September 2016 (government grants fueling the process)

Since I’ve been fixated on the Obama plan to replace (old) Americans with New Americans.  You know the “seedling” plan!   And, then we learned that there is even a non-profit group funded by big money foundations also pushing for immigrants to get their legal permanent resident status swapped for citizenship called the New Americans Campaign, you should know that your tax dollars are fueling the process!

As if it’s any surprise, we learned in our previous post that immigrants most often vote for the Democratic Party!

Citizenship class in Maryland run jointly by Casa de Maryland and AmeriCorps. Your tax dollars at work! http://www.citizenshipmd.org/classes/

From the Dept. of Homeland Security (USCIS) comes this pipeline flowing with your money to ‘non-profits’ to get those immigrants signed up pronto! before a deadline of September 2016 (gee, I wonder what the rush might be!).  (hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum):

Citizenship and Integration Grant Program

On Sept. 18, 2014, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the award of nearly $10 million in grants to 40 organizations that will help permanent residents prepare and apply for U.S. citizenship. Located in 24 states and the District of Columbia, these organizations will receive federal funding to support citizenship preparation services for permanent residents through September 2016.

[….]

Grant recipients are public or private nonprofit organizations with recent experience providing citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to permanent residents. They include public school systems, community and faith-based groups, adult education organizations, and literacy organizations.

Recipient organizations are geographically diverse and represent both traditional immigrant destinations and new immigrant gateways across 24 states and the District of Columbia. Grant recipients plan to provide citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to approximately 22,000 permanent residents from more than 50 countries. Grant recipients represent:

Eighteen of the top 20 states with the largest permanent resident populations (California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Washington, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, and Connecticut);

Eight of the top 10 metropolitan areas with the most new permanent residents in the past 10 years (New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, greater Washington, Chicago, Houston, Boston, and Atlanta); and

Nine of the top 10 states with the most naturalizations over the last two years (California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Georgia and Pennsylvania).

So who are the groups with their hands out to the feds through this one program (obviously, AmeriCorps has another funding stream).  We recognize many refugee resettlement contractors on the list.

FY 2014 Grant Recipients

Grant recipients are (in alphabetical order):

ORGANIZATION LOCATION
Asian Counseling and Referral Service Seattle, Wash.
Asian Services in Action, Inc. Akron, Ohio
Baltimore City Community College Baltimore, Md.
Boat People SOS, Inc. Houston, Texas
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa Santa Rosa, Calif.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Stockton Stockton, Calif.
Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas Overland Park, Kan.
Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties San Bernardino, Calif.
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County San Jose, Calif.
Catholic Migration Services, Inc. Brooklyn, N.Y.
Center for People in Need Lincoln, Neb.
Central American Resource Center Washington, D.C.
Chinese American Service League, Inc. Chicago, Ill.
Church World Service, Inc. Greensboro, N.C.
City of Littleton Littleton, Colo.
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles Los Angeles, Calif.
Colombian American Service Association Miami, Fla.
Council for the Spanish Speaking, Inc. Milwaukee, Wis.
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon Portland, Ore.
Federation Employment and Guidance Services, Inc. New York, N.Y.
Fresno Unified School District Fresno, Calif.
Hartford Public Library Hartford, Conn.
Hispanic Unity of Florida, Inc. Hollywood, Fla.
Hope Community Center, Inc. Apopka, Fla.
Horizon Cross Cultural Center Orange, Calif.
International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit Detroit, Mich.
International Rescue Committee, Inc. Atlanta, Ga.
International Rescue Committee, Inc. Glendale, Calif.
International Rescue Committee, Inc. Miami, Fla.
Jewish Family and Children’s Service Pittsburgh, Pa.
Jewish Family and Children’s Service Waltham, Mass.
Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle Charlottesville, Va.
Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota Sioux Falls, S.D.
Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest Tucson, Ariz.
Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance Minneapolis, Minn.
Nashville Adult Literacy Council, Inc. Nashville, Tenn.
Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights New York, N.Y.
Refugee Aid Project San Antonio, Texas
World Relief Corporation of National Association of Evangelicals Wheaton, Ill.
Young Men’s Christian Association of the Greater Houston Area, Inc.

 

http://www.uscis.gov/about-us/citizenship-and-integration-grant-program

US Census: Immigrant population boom happening now

This is the headline from the UK Daily Mail yesterday.  You may have already seen it:

White US children will be minorities by 2020 after immigrant ‘baby boom’, Census reveals

 

In the infographic linked below, the author of Diversity Explosion tells of all the warm and wonderful things that will come to America as diversity expands and blossoms—one of those wonderful new frontiers will happen with governance as the immigrants, we are told, will mostly register as Democratic voters!

 

Here are the first few paragraphs:

White children will be outnumbered by minority kids in the United States in just five years, new Census Bureau projections reveal.

This is the result of an ongoing trend of declining birth among white Americans and a baby boom among immigrant groups, as well as a surge in immigration.

By the year 2020, 50.2 percent of all children in the US are expected to be non-white, according to the Census. By 2044, whites will be outnumbered by minorities.

The Census study, released this week, predicts that by year 2060, nearly 20 percent of the population will be foreign born – thanks to an influx of 64million new immigrants.

The “seedlings” are sprouting at a rapid rate!  We are being replaced and Obama is one step ahead of us.

Read it all and see the graphs.  Be sure to click on the cute little infographic by Brookings where we are told in gleeful tones that the immigrants will vote Democratic (so as to get their government goodies?)!  See the book, here.

 

RRW weekly round-up for week ending February 28th, new heights reached in February

This is one more of our sporadic weekly updates mostly to let readers know what posts were the most interesting over this past week and to provide tips, especially for new readers, on how to find information among our 6,000 plus posts.

And, February saw a new record set for daily visitors–-highest daily numbers in our over 7-year-history.  The numbers aren’t astronomical, but for a narrowly focused blog, we are thrilled at the interest.

Here are the top three most-visited posts this week.

No surprise that all three had to do with Minnesota Somalis. (Daily top posts are in the right hand side bar.)

1. Somali Islamic terrorists threaten attack on Mall of America; we are bringing in over 800 Somali refugees a month right now!

2. Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis?

3. US State Department and resettlement contractors salted Minnesota with over 10,000 Somali refugees since 2005

Although not with the shock value of those three posts, I do want you to take note of this post on the structure of the Refugee Admissions Program so you know the names of those responsible for what is happening in your town or city.  It is an important post for members of the media and government watchers in general.

Instead of the top ten countries of the week from which readers came to RRW, this is a list of the top ten countries for the month of February (not including the US of course):

Australia

Canada

UK

Sweden

Germany

Netherlands

European Union (this is new and I don’t know how they come up with this when EU countries appear individually on the list)

France

South Africa

Malta  (of all the countries on the list, I would like to see Malta where they must have a high percentage of people with the will to save their little country!)

 

As we mentioned above, the primary purpose of our occasional weekly updates is to help new readers get oriented and to help you all find useful information among our 6,000 plus posts!

For new readers!

Since we get new readers every day, here is my usual spiel with two points I need to make:

First, we do screen our comments and don’t post any that threaten any kind of violence and we don’t post ones filled with foul language.  An occasional expletive might slip in if the comment is otherwise a good one.  You are always free to disagree with our point of view if you follow those two simple rules.

And the other thing I want to mention is about e-mails that come to you every time we post.  They come directly from wordpress to subscribers.  We don’t send out e-mails.  So, if we are posting too much for your e-mail inbox, then just unsubscribe and visit RRW when you have the time.  I understand completely about too many e-mails!  You might want to simply follow us on twitter or on facebook (below).

This is where you can find information (in addition to our fact sheet). We have over 6,000 posts.

*  See our categories (left hand sidebar)

*  See the tag clouds (right hand sidebar)

*  Also, we have a great search function and since neither the categories nor the tags go all the way back to our first posts more than seven years ago, use the search window with a few key words.  You might want to first try your city, state, or country to see what we have reported from there over the years.

Readers from Europe should search for key words ‘Invasion of Europe’ for all of our many posts on the migration crisis on the Continent.

By the way, our category entitled ‘where to find information’ is filled with reports and documents, but with 326 posts archived there, it is pretty unwieldy now.

Past weekly roundups can be found in our category entitled ‘blogging.’

If you wish to be notified when we post, consider subscribing or follow us on twitter (@refugeewatcher) or facebook (RefugeeInfoResource).  ‘Like us’ on facebook!

And apologies to all who e-mail and comment, sorry if I don’t respond much, there are just not enough hours in my day!

It occurs to me that I do see everyone’s comments to posts because we do screen them (no foul language, no threats), so if you have something you want me to see, I don’t at all mind if you send the link as a comment to a post, even if it’s off-topic.

To regular readers, thank you for your continued concern for this very important issue.

P.S.  In case you are wondering, this blog is a charitable enterprise on the part of its writers!

US State Department and resettlement contractors salted Minnesota with over 10,000 Somali refugees since 2005

In the wake of the terror scare over the past weekend, the Washington Times has published a pretty thorough piece on how the Refugee Admissions Program of the US State Department has changed/stressed Minnesota with the resettlement by three refugee contractors—Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services of MN, and World Relief MN (now Arrive Ministries)—of thousands of Somali refugees.   (For anyone interested in finding the resettlement contractors in your state and city, click here for a handy directory).

Someone should prepare a map showing all of the towns in Minnesota that have ‘welcomed’ refugees of all stripes. Some of the towns we mention are here especially the hottest sites: Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Cloud and Rochester.

We told you here, that Minnesota is the go-to state for the resettlement of Somalis. Generous welfare was the original draw.

You can read the whole Washington Times article by reporter Kelly Riddell, here.  As of this writing there are 626 comments!

If you are living in small town/suburban Minnesota (or small town America) and are thinking this isn’t happening where you live, it is a big city issue, think again.

I went through the State Department data base again yesterday to see just where in Minnesota Somalis had been resettled over the last ten years (I started my search in February 2005).

I was shocked!

Remember as you look at this list below that the Somalis may not have stayed where they were originally placed, they may have moved to bigger cities in the state or others may have joined the ‘seed community’ in these other towns.

In refugee industry lingo, those who move are called “secondary migrants” and Minnesota is getting the lion’s share of those from across the US.

Do you think all of these towns (over 60 in number!) were consulted before they were expected to take on the financial burden of housing, healthcare and education for the kids?

The total number of Somalis placed in Minnesota, since February 2005 to date, is 10,804. 

(Many more were resettled in Minnesota before 2005, but we only looked at the last ten to eleven years.)

Anoka (2)

Apple Valley (13)

Barnesville (5)

Blaine (5)

Bloomington (124)

Brooklyn (2)

Brooklyn Center (38)

Brooklyn Park (50)

Burnsville (282)

Chanhassen (6)

Chaska (2)

Colombia Heights (112)

Coon Rapids (16)

Crystal (16)

Eagen (38)

Eden Prairie (400)

Edina (27)

Fairbault (10)

Falcon Heights (7)

Faribault (211)  (is this the same town as Fairbault, or is this a typo?)

Fridley (14)

Golden Valley (9)

Hill Top (1)

Hopkins (143)

Hutchinson (5)

Inver Grove Height (7)

Inver Grove Heights (11)  (typo again?)

Lakeville (4)

Mankato (34)

Maple Grove (6)

Maplewood (4)

Marshall (35)

Mendota Heights (1)

Minneapolis (4,868)

Minnetonka (40)

Moorhead (8)

New Brighton (18)

New Hope (80)

Norcross (1)

North Mankato (14)

Norths St. Paul (2)

Oakdale (1)

Owatonna (140)

Pelican Rapids (113)

Pine Island (3)

Plymouth (58)

Richfield (193)

Richville (7)

Robbinsville (4)

Rochester (595)

Rosemount (9)

Roseville (52)

St. Anthony (7)

St. Cloud (1,123)

St. Louis Park (100)

Saint Paul (1,491)

Saint Peter (11)

Savage (30)

Shakopee (18)

South St. Paul (11)

Waite Park (23)

Waseca (6)

West St. Paul (13)

White Bear Lake (1)

Willmor (122)

Woodbury (2)

By the way, Minnesota also ‘welcomed’ many other refugees of many nationalities, but we only looked at Somali numbers because they are dominating the news.

 

Who makes the decisions on refugee resettlement in America? UN is at the top of the pyramid

This is the third in a series of primers of sorts for the media on the present Refugee Admissions Program.  The first two are here and here.

(I’m doing this series so that I don’t have to give lengthy explanations to reporters! Looking for a quote, below are the offices you should call!)

I wish I knew how to make one of the those flow chart things, but since I don’t, here is a list of who is responsible for which refugees are resettled in the US and ultimately where they are resettled.

At the top of the pyramid is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The present UNHCR is Antonio Guterres the former Socialist President of Portugal.

UNHCR Guterres and Asst. Sec. of State Richard. LOL! is this how Guterres looked when he heard about the FBI testimony and learned that the US can’t resettle the 9,000-10,000 Syrians he wanted us to “welcome” this year?

Then next is the President of the United States who sends a determination letter to Congress each September which contains a ceiling for the number of refugees to be admitted in the upcoming fiscal year (fiscal years begin on October 1 of the preceding year, thus we are nearly 5 months into FY2015).  The President also sets ceilings for various regions of the world.

The ceiling for FY2015 is now at 70,000.

Supposedly Congress can change what the President wants, but as far as I know no one on the House or Senate Judiciary Committees ever says boo! about any of it.

BTW, the determination letter is prepared in the US State Department after what amounts to phony hearings where they say they want public comment on the “size and scope” of the program for the upcoming fiscal year, but they really only listen to their contractors (see contractors below).

In the House of Representatives, the present chairmen of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security (of the House Judiciary Committee) is Rep. Trey Gowdy.

In the Senate, the present chairman of the Senate Immigration and the National Interest Subcommittee (of the Senate Judiciary Committee) is Senator Jeff Sessions.

Both the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees are involved too.

Under the President there are three cabinet level agencies intimately involved in Refugee Resettlement:

US State Department where the Asst. Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration is Anne C. Richard.  Under Ms. Richard are Lawrence Bartlett (in charge of bringing refugees in) and Barbara Day (in charge of working with contractors to distribute them around the country).

The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for screening refugees.  At the USCIS, Barbara Strack is the chief of the Refugee Affairs Division.

And, finally in the Department of Health and Human Services the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which basically acts as the distributor of money to refugees and contractors, the new director is Ken Tota.

I should mention that there are State Refugee Coordinators which have varying amounts of power depending on which type of Refugee program is being carried out by the contractors.  Here is a directory of those contacts.

Then ostensibly under all those layers are the nine major resettlement contractors, but LOL! it is often said that they are in fact running the show!  They call themselves VOLAGs (short for Voluntary Agencies but they are paid mostly from the US Treasury).  There are 350 subcontractors under the nine biggies who are resettling refugees in your towns and cities.

The nine major contractors:

For reporters focusing on your own cities or states, here is a link for a directory of subcontractors in almost every state in the nation.  Do  you see the abbreviation in the left hand corner of each listing?  That is the abbreviation for which of the nine biggies that subcontractor is affiliated with.

Here is a map of the US showing where those subcontractors are located.