Lowell, Massachusetts: Alleged sexual assault by Syrian refugee puts refugee program in the spotlight

08/01/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 2: This post reached thousands more readers than usual when Michael Savage linked it on the same day he was briefly suspended from facebook for posting on Muslim refugee crimes.
The US Refugee Admissions Program was created 36 years ago by Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and was signed into law by Jimmy Carter in 1980. It has evolved in secrecy in towns that have been receiving third world refugees for decades and where citizens only begin to hear about it when something like the alleged assault by a newly arrived Syrian Muslim refugee in a public swimming pool forces the program into the daylight.

Kevin Murphy Lowell — Former State Rep. Kevin Murphy (D) runs the city of Lowell and will get reports from the federal resettlement contractor “now and then.” Did Murphy ever get an invite to “stakeholders” meeting? Photo: http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_25460940/kevin-murphy-named-new-lowell-city-manager-by

Here is the latest from reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey in Lowell, Mass. Pak-Harvey has done some great reporting on the arrest of the Syrian (see our earlier post), however, clearly here she is parroting the talking points of the contractor (International Institute of New England an USCRI subcontractor) which, as a federal contractor, has a financial interest in bringing more Syrians and other refugees to Lowell.
LOL! Refugee program is “complicated!” Yes, and it is that way for a reason—they don’t want anyone to understand how it works!
Here is the latest from the Lowell Sun:

LOWELL — Understanding the refugee resettlement process requires a handful of acronyms — USCIS, ORR, ORI, and the local International Institute of New England, or IINE.

It’s a process even federal and local officials admit is complex, one that often gives cities like Lowell less than a month’s notice to prepare for the arrival of refugees.

It’s also one that seems to usher in much confusion and misinformation — in March, rumors abounded that an influx of Syrians would be pouring into Lowell. Since the beginning of the federal fiscal year in October, the city has only received 18.

But after a 22-year-old Syrian refugee was charged with indecent assault and battery this month, city officials are hoping to have more contact with IINE-Lowell on resettlement.

They are going to give the city manager reports “now and then!”

Pak-Harvey continues:

“I think it was agreed that maybe it’d be good in the future to have more communication between the city side and the International Institute,” said City Manager Kevin Murphy, who met with the nonprofit. “They agreed, and they’re going to give me reports every now and then and we’ll sit down and discuss issues more often, so that we have a good give-and-take between the two.”

Then here is one of the most important pieces of information in this story for those of you concerned with refugee resettlement where you live:

In Lowell, the International Institute already meets quarterly with local stakeholders — including school and police officials — for updates on the latest numbers.

If you live in a refugee-receiving town, g0 to your local “stakeholders” meetings.

As a taxpayer, you are a stakeholder! I was shocked in one town I visited recently where the elected officials seemed to not even know that such meetings were occurring! Does Kevin Murphy know? Does Murphy know that the International Institute has prepared a document for the US State Department (an R & P Abstract) that lays out how many refugees will be dropped in Lowell in FY2017 and what amenities Lowell is offering the refugees?
I’ll bet he has never seen the document!

Unraveling Rutland (VT) may help every town in the same boat!

07/27/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

With mayors like these who needs enemies!
Update: Refugees now a hot topic in gubernatorial race, see here.
Rutland VT map
As I travel around the US meeting with citizens concerned about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, patterns are developing and one of those is that there is no doubt that when your town is targeted for a new resettlement site (or expansion of an old one) it is done with the utmost secrecy and very often involves an over-zealous elected official (a mayor or city council member).
I have no time to write before I hit the road again this morning, but I want you to see this! This should resonate with everyone I’ve met with in 6 states so far.
Rutland, Vermont residents were shocked to learn a couple of months ago that their mayor had quietly “welcomed” the resettlement of 100 Syrians to the town for later this year.
To catch up, see our Rutland archive here.
Here is the latest from Watchdog.org, story titled:

‘Lone alderman in on refugee secret ‘stunned’ at speed of decision‘

A secret plan to make Rutland a permanent refugee resettlement community has divided residents and put the mayor’s political future in doubt. But at least one member of the Board of Aldermen knew about the secret, and that official told Watchdog he is “stunned” at how fast the plan was carried out.

Prior to announcing the resettlement of Syrian refugees, Rutland Mayor Louras held secret meetings with representatives of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, the State Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and Gov. Peter Shumlin. He also consulted with a single alderman: Board of Aldermen President William Notte.

In this interview, Notte answered Watchdog’s questions about his role in the backroom deal to make Rutland a refugee resettlement community.

Continue reading here for the interview.
The lesson I’m learning is this—-as it is confirmed to me repeatedly that refugee seeding plans are done in secrecy, you must be working locally to get the right people elected to political office and get mayors like this one out!

Canada: Diversity is soooo beautiful! Is this website for real?

07/24/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is rich! At a Somali website, a guy named Mohamud is blasting the Chinese in Canada. I thought all this multiculturalism was going to be so wonderful and we would all be “strengthened” by it.

Welcome to British Columbia sign along the Cassiar Highway, British Columbia and Yukon border, Canada.

Editor’s note: Normally I’m a prude and don’t post profanity, but I am making an exception this time so you can get the full flavor of Mohamud’s comment.
From Somalispot (an online forum) on the topic: 100,000 Chinese millionaire immigrants in Vancouver

They are actual fucking cancer. Like BC is giving away our land to foreigners who have ZERO intentions of staying.

People who will never in a million years apply for citizenship and thus will never be taxed nor add to Canada’s revenue. Just google the water ordeal. Wallahi you’ll cry. Just google Nestlé and BC to see what these asshats are doing.

Ugh. I hate ’em. I hate them so much.

Ironically funny (sort of!).

Changing the subject….

In my travels I heard about Somalis walking across the border from Canada to North Dakota. This particular batch was apprehended by border patrol, but how many made it through?
For more on Somalis in Canada, go here.

Rutland, VT: City aldermen demand answers as rift with mayor grows

07/23/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As regular readers know by now, I am driving through the heartland to learn more about how towns and cities, seeded through the UN/US State Department with growing enclaves of ethnic diversity and where in most cases no effort to assimilate by the newcomers, is creating politically and socially tense communities.
Rutland VT map
If I were to pick one motivating force (for RRW and this trip) it is to expose the secrecy with which towns and cities have been populated by third worlders through federal refugee contractors working for the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Dept. of Health and Human Services.
The controversy swirling in Vermont (of all places!) about the establishment of a new resettlement site for Syrian Muslims is instructive. Initial plans were put in place between the refugee contractor and a rogue mayor. When citizens caught on, only months from ‘welcoming’ the first Syrians, all hell broke loose. (See our previous posts on Rutland by clicking here.)
Here is the latest from VTDigger.org. City council excludes mayor from discussion of their next moves!

Rutland’s Board of Aldermen held a closed-door executive session with the city’s attorney last night to discuss legal issues surrounding the refugee resettlement process. In a rare move, the board excluded Mayor Chris Louras from the meeting.

The board approved three motions: one directs the City Attorney to request the full abstract*** and application for Rutland’s resettlement program from the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and its affiliate, the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program; the second asks the attorney to conduct a review of the mayor’s actions and whether those actions comply with the city charter and any other applicable law; and the third recommends that the Charter and Ordinance Committee review subchapter 9 of the charter which lays out the mayor’s executive powers.

In an interview outside the boardroom Mayor Louras said this was the first time he’d been excluded from an executive session.

“I think this is the board acting out in a relatively juvenile manner,” he said.

[….]

He also said he wanted to know if there was a “contract or paper trail between the mayor’s office and VRRP.”

The mayor has stated on numerous occasions that refugee resettlement is a federally administered program involving no contracts or agreements with the city. The only paper trail, beyond correspondence with the various agencies involved, Louras says, is the letter of support he wrote to the State Department as part of the application process. Louras says he writes similar letters for grant applications on a regular basis without board approval.

[….]

At a tense board meeting on May 25, one month after the announcement was made that Rutland was being considered as a possible location for Syrian refugees, members of the board were provided with hard copies of the three-page abstract pertaining to Rutland and submitted to the State Department by USCRI.

More here.

***Get your FY2017 Abstract! Knowledge is power!

I feel like I’m beating a dead horse when I say this, but every one of you living in on-going resettlement sites and proposed new ones must demand to be given the R & P Abstract for FY17. This is a document prepared by every contractor and it goes to Washington as the document used to FUND the resettlement program where you live. It is a treasure-trove of information.
Also, these documents (payment planning documents) will be used for the creation of Obama’s last decision on how many refugees he will propose for FY2017 which begins October 1, 2016.
The discussion above, that for Rutland there are only 3 pages, is suspicious. I have the one prepared by USCRI (the same major contractor) for FY17 for Reno, Nevada and it is 16 pages! Significantly there are many pages attached which are letters of support from the school system (you must identify who is behind more refugee resettlement!), Catholic Charities (the major contractor in the state) and the local Islamic Center, etc.
It also lists the companies that are apparently eager for cheap immigrant labor.
Demand transparency for your communities!
Call your local resettlement contractor and ask for the R & P Abstract for 2017. They will likely tell you NO! Then contact your state refugee coordinator and ask for it. If you get a NO there, then try using your state’s Public Information Law and and try to get it that way (may not work in Wilson-Fish states where the program has been essentially de-coupled from any elected body within the state).
If you get the document, make it publicly available and open a debate. Put it before your local elected body and demand a public hearing or meeting on it. If you don’t get it raise a ruckus!

This isn’t some sort of silver bullet, but is an important part of the process of demanding transparency for American citizens paying the bill for all of this. As someone said to me yesterday. We have no silver bullet, but we are building one!

Refugee news roundup! Trump is the only hope for America on most important issue—immigration

07/22/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

First, I’ve been seeing a whole lot of America since I left Maryland a week ago today. Thanks so much to all of you who have met me along the way to tell me about what is happening to your towns and cities as a result of the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program.
I’m now 1/4th of the way through my listening tour of the heartland. I hope to get time this weekend to tell you a bit about what I am learning. In some cases I’m stunned, in others disheartened, and then there are bright spots (mostly those involve the hard work you are doing to try to stem the tide!).
But, in the meantime, there are all sorts of nuggets of news I’ve been missing. So, here is a quick re-cap.

Trump acceptance — This is the most important election of our lifetimes (possibly even since our founding).

First, the Trump speech last night was remarkable in the detail in which he addressed immigration policy and specifically refugee admissions policy. The indispensable Julia Hahn (does she sleep?) at Breitbart tells us about how CNN is ignorant of refugee policy in its so-called “fact checking.” Read it here.
One of Hillary’s possible VEEP picks (Tim Kaine) speaks to leaders of one of the most dangerous mosques in America, see here.

A reminder! If Hillary is elected and Speaker Ryan is still in office, we are finished!

Refugees by the numbers! Be sure to see Leo Hohmann’s WND summary of which states are getting Syrian refugees as we approach Obama’s deadline—September 30th—to place 10,000 mostly Muslim Syrians into your towns.
Congolese going to be placed in Montana. An announcement has been made that the first refugees to be placed in Montana will be Congolese. We are told the Congolese flow is mostly made up of needy and traumatized women and children. Most are not Muslim, but these refugees will contribute little to the economy and require more social services than the usual because they need mental health counseling.
Controversy continues to swirl in Rutland, VT where the mayor secretly worked with a refugee contractor and invited 100 Syrian Muslims to live there. Learn more here at Watchdog.org.
More Syrian Muslims for Michigan at Arab American News, here. This story is about Grand Rapids, but every American should see Dearborn as I did earlier in the week.
Connecticut wants to be known as the “go-to state” for refugees according to CNN, here. The resettlement contractor there brags that CT has welcomed more Syrians than any other state. Not so, according to WND, here.
No refugees entering the US since 2010 have been screened for HIV. We knew about it here in 2011. Taxpayers pay for their meds.
Editor: I’ll continue to update this post later (if I get some time). Moving on to the next town this morning.