Northhampton, Massachusetts will become new resettlement site

08/27/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a short news item at New England Public Radio.
Because the resettlement contractors are wearing out their welcome in places like Springfield, Mass. they are moving out to fresh territory. Moves like this one (20 miles up the road) are also to accommodate the large increase in the number of refugees expected in 2017 if Obama gets his way in September. (If Paul Ryan lets him have his way!)

alisa Klein — Alisa Klein is one of two city council members who promoted a resolution to urge the resettlement of Syrian Muslims (99% of those arriving are Sunni Muslims) to Northhampton. Learn more about her here where she got in trouble for remarks about the police last year. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/northampton_city_councilor_ali.html

City council members last fall said they wanted Northhampton to be a sanctuary for Syrians, here.

Residents of Northampton, Massachusetts, are laying the groundwork for the likely arrival of refugees in the next year.

Catholic Charities, based in Springfield, expects to resettle 51 refugees from Syria, Iraq, Burundi, and the Congo, and they’re focusing on Northampton, where the city council last year passed a resolution to welcome the groups.

[….]

Catholic Charities says the first refugees could come as early as January.

We have many posts on Springfield, Mass (click here) where the mayor there begged for relief as his city became overloaded a few years ago.
Like Ithaca, NY there seems to be no resistance in Northhampton to the arrival of impoverished and not thoroughly screened refugees.
Just a reminder to have a look at ‘Ten things your town needs to know when welcoming refugees.’ 51 might not seem like much, but once the door is opened, I guarantee the numbers will mushroom year after year.
I was recently shocked to see that in ‘welcoming’ Lancaster, PA they get 700 refugees a year and that the local school district is now embroiled in a costly legal battle about how best to educate older teenage refugees. Are you ready Northhampton?
Hey! I just remembered! Whatever happened to the Syrian refugee resettled to Lowell earlier this summer and ultimately arrested for an unwanted sexual advance on a little girl at a public swimming pool? Does anyone know?

Norway building border fence with Russia, too many refugees coming through arctic

08/26/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news….
Everybody wants a fence these days!
From the Independent:

Norway is building a steel fence at its arctic border with Russia after an influx of thousands of refugees last year.

Storskog map

The new fence, which will be around 660 feet long and 11 feet high, will stretch from the Skorskog [typo apparently, should be Storskog—ed] border point, sources in the Norwegian government told Reuters.

Construction of the fence is due to finish before winter frosts set in, making it harder to enter Norway through the forest.

[….]

Last year, Russia and Norway battled to repeatedly reject the same refugees.

Norway said it would begin sending refugees who have Russian residency permits back to Russia, arguing it had received no “satisfactory” explanation from Russia as to why it sent so many refugees to Norway rather than Finland.

Go here to see the graphic with the huge spike in Syrians claiming asylum in Norway in the last year.
For our complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive go here.

NC Rep confirms it: The buck stops with him and others in Congress

08/24/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m not sure that Rep. Mark Meadows’ goal in holding the town hall in the Ashville area last night was to direct his constituents right back to him and other members of Congress when it comes to stopping, slowing, or putting on steroids the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, but that is what he did with these comments.

Rep. Mark Meadows answers questions about refugee program in his district. Will he be one of the leaders to remove funding for refugee resettlement in funding battles this fall?

The President, Obama, can make determinations all he wants about how many refugees the US tax payer will pay for next year, but it is Congress that supplies the cold hard cash for the federal agencies (both the US State Department and the Dept. of Health and Human Services).
Bringing in large numbers of refugees obviously requires more money!

So, the question this fall will be this: Will Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republicans fully fund the Obama invasion or not? It is that simple!

Here is the news about the town hall meeting. The article doesn’t say it, but it sounds like most of those present OPPOSE more refugees for the US (and none for their community!).

FLAT ROCK, N.C. — Congressman Mark Meadows held a town hall Tuesday night to discuss efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in our area.

International Rescue Committee, a resettlement agency, said it is still looking at Asheville. Meadows said Saint James Episcopal Church in Hendersonville is backing off the idea, in part, because of the community reaction.

[….]

One man said the money was better spent on Americans. [A sentiment we hear everywhere.—ed]

“I just feel that we have enough people now that we have to take care of,” Tom Mcrary Jr., from Brevard, said.

Meadows explained the money for refugees comes from the U.S. State Department. Once the money is budgeted to the State Department, it cannot be moved to another department.

Well, Rep. Meadows don’t give it to the State Department this fall! The State Department doesn’t grow it on trees, you appropriate it to them!

Meadows informed the crowd refugee resettlement is a federal program, and state legislators cannot prevent refugees from coming.

But, you can Mr. Meadows! Will you?

See Refugee program is major issue for November election! Your member of Congress is home right now (for the next two weeks) and every one of them is up for re-election. Find them and ask them if they will be funding Obama’s invasion or not!

Trending? Connecticut resettlement contractor farming out refugee families

08/24/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This may be happening already where you live, but this is the first time I’m seeing such a strategy.
A subcontractor of both Episcopal Migration Ministries and Church World Service (two of nine major contractors) in Connecticut is lining up towns to take refugee families, raise money for them and take over much of the responsibility for the family.

Senator Blumenthal with the Connecticut Director of CAIR. We want Syrians resettled in CT!

I would really like to know if this is a new strategy for the federal contractors who are in fact doing a pretty lousy job of assimilating new refugees as the numbers keep rising beyond what they can handle. The article I’m posting (below) says there are 50 such arrangements in CT.
Connecticut politicians have made it very clear over the last year that the state is going to welcome as many Syrian Muslims as possible. See this post from last fall where CT Senator Blumenthal announces that he wants to see a reduction in screening time for Syrians (he got his wish since the Obama Administration did indeed reduce the normal 18 months or more down to 3 months to get his 10,000 Syrian Sunnis here by the end of September).
Here is the news item that caught my eye this morning at the Hamlet Hub. Mark your calendars:

In response to the global refugee crisis, a group of area residents has applied to sponsor a refugee family in Ridgefield in partnership with Integrated Immigration and Refugee Services (IRIS), a non-profit agency that has been resettling refugees in Connecticut for over 30 years. This local group, the Refugee Resettlement Committee—Ridgefield (RRCR), will host an information session for the public at the Ridgefield Library on Thursday, September 15 at 10am.

According to IRIS, there are 19 million refugees in the world today, the largest number since World War II. The U.S. Government is inviting 85,000 of those refugees to become Americans in 2016; that number will increase to 100,000 in 2017. Eight hundred are arriving in Connecticut this year; 450 of them will be welcomed by IRIS and its more than 50 state-wide co-sponsors. These refugees will arrive legally, fully vetted, fully documented and with many skills, but most likely without English or money.

Ridgefield-1.8 — IRIS is headquartered in New Haven, home of Yale University.

As an IRIS co-sponsor, the RRCR will help the family secure affordable housing, find jobs, access language training, and navigate the education, health and social services systems. The goal is that the family be relatively self-sufficient in six months. During that first six months, however, they will need help with transportation and living expenses, so the committee is recruiting volunteer drivers and trying to raise $15,000 for the family.

To learn more about the process and how to get involved, come to the information session or contact the committee at RRCRidgefield@gmail.com. To make a tax-deductible donation, go to the ‘online giving’ tab at www.ststephens-ridgefield.org, which is managing donations on behalf of the committee.

A cautionary tale….
Just about the time I started RRW, a church in my town privately sponsored an African family. It became a nightmare for the church that finally ended when the family left for Minnesota to be with others of their African ethnic group. Church members were ultimately left with a bitter taste in their mouths. They first became weary of driving members of the family everywhere, and then were left with a mess in the donated home they permitted the refugees to use free of charge as the family packed up and left. The appliances in the home had to be trashed and the place repainted.
I would like to know who will be responsible for rental property etc. (or if some crime occurs) in Ridgefield, IRIS or the local welcoming citizens? And, do the Ridgefield citizens get to pick their family—perhaps a quiet Buddhist or Christian family?

First African refugees arrive in Montana; Helena advocates say they will wait until after November for theirs

08/23/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update: Be sure to see the mayor of Missoula’s op-ed of a few days ago. Not so much for what he says, but for the large numbers of comments on both sides of the issue. Makes you realize that there is a huge divide in Montana about whether it is wise to bring in the third world.
A family of 6 “Congolese” refugees have arrived in Missoula, MT as the first “east African” refugees we are told. (The Congo and the DR Congo are not in east Africa. The countries producing refugees in east Africa are Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan. Just saying!)

Stephen Maly of World Montana has been advocating for refugees to be placed in Helena, but says he is backing off until after the November elections. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/06/26/montana-alert-group-wants-to-bring-in-syrian-refugees-to-replace-your-aging-population/

Here is the story (Montana Public Radio) on the family that will be very costly for Montana and US taxpayers to support:

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — An exhausted Congelese family of six experiencing culture shock has arrived in Missoula, the first of an anticipated 100 east African refugees expected to be resettled in Montana over the next year, a resettlement agency official said.

The family arrived last Thursday and International Rescue Committee Missoula director Molly Short Carr declined to identify them because of privacy concerns, but said three of the family’s four children spent their entire lives in a Tanzanian refugee camp.

Temporary housing? The US State Department normally requires that they be placed in permanent housing upon arrival, and heck this contractor in Missoula has had months to get housing organized.

The family has been placed in temporary housing. The IRC will help them apply for social services, Social Security cards, register the children for school and help the parents enroll in English classes. The parents speak Swahili and French.

A total of 25 refugees are expected to arrive in Missoula by the end of September. Missoula County commissioners previously invited 100 refugees a year to resettle in the county, and the IRC re-opened its Missoula office earlier this year.

Meanwhile advocates for diversifying Montana in Helena say they will wait until after the November election to renew their call for Africans/Middle Easterners for their city.

Great Falls Tribune (hat tip: Joanne):

HELENA – The head of an effort to relocate Syrian refugees to Helena said Monday the group is delaying efforts until after the Nov. 8 election, saying the current political climate has stifled progress.

Stephen Maly, vice president of World Montana, said a grass-roots effort to bring Syrian refugees has been in “arrested development because of political turmoil surrounding the issue.”

“We’re trying to make progress without getting involved in politics,” he said.

Maly said there is draft legislation for the 2017 session to change refugee policy. But that is a federal issue and “not in the state bailiwick.”

He said the timing is horrible for his group of volunteers “to push something forward in political climate. People are misinformed and angry.”

“It’s not in the cards until the election is settled,” he said.

Continue reading and see how the subject of refugees has become a big issue in the gubernatorial contest there. This is the sort of effort you should make where you live—inject the refugee controversy in to any race you can in your state!
But, it also confirms what we have been saying—November is it! If Hillary is elected the flood gates to the third world will be flung wide open!
See our extensive archive on Montana, here. And, why are we getting so many refugees from the DR Congo? Because in 2013 the Obama Administration said we would take 50,000 because the UN told us to!