Syracuse citizens not happy with Mayor's invite to Syrians

09/30/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you, here, the other day about Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner inviting more*** Syrian ‘refugees’ to Syracuse, but it appears her constituents are not thrilled.
Here is a portion of a letter to the editor (Mayor, how will we fund refugee resettlement?) that appeared at Syracuse.com in response to their earlier article. I suspect that all over the country citizens are asking the same questions!
The most interesting thing is the huge number of comments the letter received, most also critical of the mayor.

Mayor Miner — Reader PistolPete wanted to know how many refugees the mayor was taking into her home. This is not the mayor’s home, but this is pretty funny. Apparently while campaigning for the job, the candidate took photos of ‘code violations’ (like this one) and posted them. Why not take photos of code violations that will surely be found in the slums where the refugees are living and post those on facebook. The refugee resettlement contractors (and the politicians that support them) must be called-out for causing the further decline of already impoverished minority neighborhoods. Photo: http://syracusesearch.pbworks.com/w/page/6360859/Syracuse%20Search%20%231%20-%20%235

Let’s take care of our own first! seems to be the common theme.
To the Editor:

This letter is in response to Mayor Stephanie Miner’s letter to President Barack Obama in her call for an increase of Syrian refugees. I currently work with refugees and have worked in a number of human service agencies. I commend her commitment to help those in need.

Last year Americans committed to resettle 70,000 refugees, and we fell short of meeting that number. This next year we have taken on an additional 10,000 refugees from Syria alone. With the ongoing dire circumstances in Syria and those around the rest of the world, we should absolutely do our part to help.

However, with all the letters and articles I have been reading lately, I have not seen a proposal of how we plan to financially support the resettlement of more refugees. How can we support those in need outside the United States if we cannot take care of our own? How does one decide whose life is worth providing resources to?

More….

Candice Fry

Now, check this out. Someone in the Syracuse area is doing his/her homework!

Do the same where you live! Go on the offense and make them answer to you. (Gino, get in touch with us to join with like-minded people in the growing grassroots network around the country!).
From commenter GinoChalupa (emphasis added is mine):

Stephanie Miner and her friends at the Catholic Charities and Interfaith Works are talking out of both sides of their mouths. A few weeks ago they expressed collective shock and outrage that Syracuse has one of the nation’s highest poverty rates and that the number of census tracts with concentrated poverty tripled in a matter of a few years. It just so happened to be that the census tracts on the north side where these organizations have settled the vast majority of its refugees all had the highest poverty rates in the city with nearly 80% of the population below the poverty line. These north side census tracts had much lower levels of concentrated poverty in the 2000 census before the Catholic Charities and Interfaith Works began tripling the number of refugees settled in Syracuse. Beth Broadway, Executive Director of Interfaith Works told local reporters that the high rates of concentrated poverty among blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in Syracuse was unacceptable and a sign this community has much work to do. Stephanie Miner and a host of other groups which claim to share the same goal of alleviating poverty claimed the community would address this issue.

What Ms. Broadway of Interfaith Works, the Catholic Charities, and Stephanie Miner fail to acknowledge is that the high rate of poverty is driven in part by the influx of 10,000 refugees to the City of Syracuse since 2000. The vast majority of refugees settled by these organizations are from countries in Africa and Asia. It should come as no surprise that the percentage of black residents living in poverty and the percentage of black residents living in high poverty census tracts increased as thousands of the refugees settled from Africa are “black.” The 52% poverty rate among Asians in the City of Syracuse in the latest census should also come as no surprise as a plurality of the refugees settled are from Asian countries. The percentage of Asians living in poverty in suburban Syracuse is in the single digits (with the exception of the Town of Salina which has seen an increase in Vietnamese families relocating there due to the rapid deterioration of the north side).

According to monthly data posted on the website for the NY Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, the number of welfare caseloads in Onondaga County has nearly doubled since 2007. In June 2015, the most recent month data is available, a total of 7,468 families in Onondaga County received temporary assistance. This is the equivalent of 16,054 people. In one month alone, the number of families receiving assistance increased by more than 200 from 7,237 families in May 2015 to 7,468 families in June 2015. The number of Medicaid caseloads has more than doubled in 10 years (this number had doubled before the Affordable Care Act was implemented, so the increase cannot be attributed to the increasing number of needy residents enrolling in Medicaid). Onondaga County had struggled with a growing welfare caseload in the 1990s and was able to whittle down the number of families enrolled in temporary assistance by the year 2000. It wasn’t until the mid 2000s, that welfare caseloads began to increase again. This increase was more than 3 years prior to the Great Recession of 2008. When comparing Onondaga County to other upstate counties with large urban populations (Albany, Erie and Monroe), Onondaga County is the only major upstate county that has not experienced a decline in the number of families receiving temporary assistance, Albany, Erie and Monroe Counties have seen declines during the past two years and the number of families receiving assistance is now back down to levels seen prior to recession. In Onondaga County, however, the number of families on welfare is at its highest level since records were posted online in 2001. Compared with the other major urban counties, Onondaga County has seen a much larger settlement of refugees. The latest census estimates also show that the percentage of residents lacking any formal education and the % that don’t speak English has increased significantly. Local governments and service providers that are already stretched thin are going to have to provide additional services that the community can ill-afford.

Interfaith Works [a subcontractor of the far Left Church World Service—ed] recently paid $1,024,520 for an office building on the 1000 block of James Street. The previous owner was a financial services company which left for the suburbs. It would appear that these organizations are heavily dependent on the $1,000+ administrative fee they are paid by the federal government for each refugee they settle. The City of Syracuse and Onondaga County cannot afford to allow these two organizations to balance their books and generate revenue at the expense of an already stretched social safety net. If Interfaith Works and the Catholic Charities were genuinely concerned about reducing poverty, they would not continue to exacerbate the situation by settling 1,200 to 1,400 refugees each year.

LOL! Another reader PistolPete wanted to know how many refugees “Steffi” (the mayor) was taking into her two homes!
We have written a lot about Syracuse over the years, click here, for previous posts (Diversity is so beautiful! Catholic Church becomes a mosque, African Americans beat up Burmese refugees, convenience store fraud by Palestinians, refugees booted from sub-standard housing in which they were placed, etc.).
*** Syracuse has already started resettling Syrian refugees according to US State Department data, here.

Plumas Lake, CA is on the US State Department list of cities that have already received Syrian refugees

09/29/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Unless the US State Department has made an error in reporting its own data.

John_Garamendi_113th_Congress — Rep. Garamendi (D-CA) represents the 3rd district of California easily within the US State Dept. approved hundred mile radius of Sacramento where resettlement contractors are abundant. The Congressman must now ask the State Department if their data base is wrong! Or is someone not being truthful!

This popped up in my alerts just now from the Appeal-Democrat. The editor must be referring to a blog post here at RRW and he tells us that we are wrong.
Here is the editor:

Syrian refugees in our neghborhood? Not likely, but if it were, what ramifications?

A reader sent along links to a website purporting to advise citizens around the country that Syrian refugees were already coming into the U.S. and had settled in several towns.

The list included Plumas Lake. But we asked a member of U.S. Rep. John Garamendi’s staff to help us find out about it, and it was reported back to us that there are no known refugees in Plumas Lake and that’s it’s pretty unlikely there would be Syrian refugees settled anywhere around the Yuba-Sutter area.

Then this that shows the stunning ignorance of the Congressman or his staff:

Garamendi’s message went on to make a couple other important points:

Syrian refugees are likely to be settled in areas with existing Syrian communities — most likely the metro areas of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Detroit.

It is possible some of the refugees could be settled in additional areas, with the assistance of the nonprofits.

All of the cities listed in my original post are receiving Syrian refugees according to State Department data (not just large cities with Arab populations!). (The State Department and its contractors are well known for keeping resettlement sites secret.)
And, apparently the Office of Congressman Garamendi doesn’t know how to access State Department data.
I just rechecked the Refugee Processing Center data base and Plumas Lake, CA is listed as having received 7 Syrian refugees this year and 3 Ukrainians. So, I would suggest that Rep. Garamendi go back to the US State Department and ask if they have an error in their data base, or have they mislead him?
For anyone else who would like to have a look (don’t be shy or lazy!), go to the data base and search for ‘arrivals by destination and nationality.’ You will enter the parameters of your search. I have been using 1/1/2012 as the start date for Syrians entering the US. I usually search by calendar year.
By the way, Plumas Lake is only 30 miles or so from a whole host of federal refugee resettlement contractors so it is no surprise if they are moving the excess out to surrounding towns. (Affordable housing is often a limiting factor in cities like Sacramento!).
You can also use that same data base to learn the religions of the refugees entering the US and we found that 97% of those who have entered from Syria in 2015 are Sunni Muslims.
Go here to see the map of all resettlement contractors operating in the US—including those near Plumas Lake.
To the editor of the Appeal-Democrat, when the US State Department reports the truth—either there are Syrians in your community, or that their database is wrong, let us know!

More from Twin Falls: Is our security threatened so big business can bring in cheap labor?

09/29/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

One of the citizens concerned about what is happening in Twin Falls, Idaho had an ‘opportunity’ to meet with three of the big players who flew out from Washington for a stacked public “forum” last week to try to tamp down the growing controversy about more refugees arriving in Twin Falls—more refugees than many in the town believe the town can handle.
The issue started boiling in earnest here in April when the local refugee subcontractor (financially entwined with a public junior college—very fishy arrangement) bragged that Syrians were on the way to Twin Falls. By the way, Syrians have already been resettled in Boise (see all the cities where Syrians have been resettled so far).

Here Vicky Davis, who attended a pre-meeting with three of the Washington men in charge of changing communities through refugee resettlement, reports on what was said.
From TVOI News:
The three from Washington included:

Larry Bartlett, director of the U.S. State Department’s Office on Refugee Admissions, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration

Ken Tota, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement

Lee Williams, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). [USCRI is the Arlington, VA based contractor which subcontracts to CSI Refugee Program in Twin Falls.—ed]

Ms. Davis continues (emphasis is mine):

Larry Bartlett’s focus was primarily on the security issue. He talked about their system for checking on people declared to be refugees. They are interviewed, fingerprinted, photographed, etc. The government also has computer systems for several agencies – DOD, DOJ, DHS, etc. that have – data bases of known or suspected terrorists and criminals. Apparently the system worked reasonably well for Iraqi refugees because when Iraq was captured, all of their records were found intact. However, some terrorists did slip through because they didn’t have police records but the DOD did have their fingerprints on some IEDs that they set up for American soldiers to “find”. Those Iraqi “refugees” were found living on the public dole in Kentucky.

Of course we know that Syria is a failed state so there are no records for Syrians but that little detail did not diminish Bartlett’s optimism that their system is working. The interview combined with the running of searches on virtually empty databases is the process. If they don’t get a hit on the search (as would be expected in an empty database), the refugee is good to go. In fact, Bartlett wasn’t worried at all about the security of Americans. His concern is for the safety of the refugees. [Safety of the refugees! What a direct slap in the faces of anyone who has questions about refugee resettlement—he is implying we are violent people!—ed]

When I watched the videotape of the evening meeting, here, I was surprised to hear Bartlett referring to a two hour interview with the prospective refugee that was supposed to determine their legitimate status as a refugee. That’s it? That is the security screening when data is not available? Come on! We aren’t that naive! What prospective refugee is going to let on in any way (in an interview) that he/she might be inclined toward Islamic extremism? Has Bartlett never heard of taqiyya (lying to infidels is permitted in Islam)?
Davis’s narrative continues:

One of the most revealing things that Bartlett talked about was supply chain for refugee resettlement. Of course he didn’t use the term supply chain but that’s what he was talking about – a steady stream of refugee inputs to keep the refugee resettlement network intact and growing. That should scare the hell out of any red-blooded American because the resettlement network is a function of the United Nations and the Socialist International and they are deeply embedded in our government at this point.

Bartlett brings up Tyson Foods! Readers might want to visit this post from 2008 where we learned that Bill Clinton brought in thousands of Bosnian ‘refugees’ to Iowa for meatpacker labor. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2008/05/17/bosnians-iowa-meatpackers-and-more/

Cheap labor, money, Chamber of Commerce, money, meatpackers, money!

I have been for years maintaining that a major driving force behind refugee resettlement in America is that big businesses, like BIG MEAT, need a steady stream of cheap and reliable immigrant labor and here Bartlett appears to confirm that.
For all of you wondering why your RINO Republican elected officials are not up in arms about the impoverished people pouring into ‘red’ states this is the explanation! It is all about MONEY!
Davis continues (sorry to snip so much, but this is so important!):

Jobs Americans Won’t do

The most important question in the afternoon meeting from this writer’s point of view was “how many of these refugees are economic migrants?” Bartlett assured us that none of them are economic migrants. They all fled their countries for fear of persecution. Interestingly, then Bartlett mentioned that we need the labor anyway. He mentioned Tyson Foods (chickens) and “jobs Americans won’t do”. That was the wrong thing to say to this writer. That statement alone told me everything I needed to know about this refugee program and the U.S. State Department. The State Department has become nothing more than front men for big business.

[See our many many posts here at RRW on Tyson Foods, refugees, and changing American towns here.—ed]

“Jobs Americans Won’t Do” is a propaganda slogan promoted by the Chamber of Commerce and other big businesses that profit from cheap labor. Tyson apparently has switched from using illegal labor to using “refugees”. Destroying the country and the lives of American citizens isn’t even a consideration. The entire global system is about nothing but global labor arbitrage – exploitation of working people for high profits for the businesses of the few.

I did a search on ‘Chamber of Commerce’ and ‘refugees’ and here you go… Refugee Crisis – Corporate Aid Tracker. It’s a program of the Chamber of Commerce Foundation – a non-profit for a non-profit that serves profit.

Open for Business… The Chamber of Commerce. Note one name on the list: Jan Reeves, Idaho Office for Refugees. The Idaho Office for Refugees made their website look like it was an agency of the Idaho State government, but in fact, they are a business unit of the Jannus Group, the “non-profit” agency that serves as the Public Health system in Idaho and that operates the ratline for “refugees” who are cheap labor for business and soldiers for the Chamber of Commerce program of economic warfare on the American people.

The refugee resettlement program is a racket backed by the Chamber of Commerce.

Hiding under the white hat of humanitarianism!

I can’t emphasize enough that as we face charges of being racists, xenophobes and just plain unkind to suffering humanity, stand firm! This is not about humanitarianism it is about MONEY straight up—cheap immigrant labor where our welfare system supports the refugees (the pawns!) while industry gets away with offering low-paying jobs. Indeed a great business model helped by the power of the federal government (and its resettlement contractors!).
Please visit TVOI to follow links and learn more by clicking here.
Our complete Twin Falls archive is here.

Scottish first minister changes her mind about inviting Syrians to share her home

09/28/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news……

No surprise is it! A lot of political big shots as well as Lefties in the entertainment business bragged in recent months that they would invite Syrian families to live in their homes. Now that Syrians are actually on the way (in this case to the UK) there is much backtracking on that obviously politically motivated promise of just a few weeks ago.

Nicola Sturgeon home — Nicola with hubby in their lovely home: Syrians welcome to share it (NOT)! Photo: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3039333/Sturgeon-s-right-buy-betrayal-parents-bought-council-house-8-000-1984-won-t-Nicola-Sturgeon-allow-aspirational-Scots-privilege-today.html

Case in point is this story about Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of Scotland and head of the Scottish National Party.
Let me be clear! Anyone who is willing to open their home to indigent people and use their own private resources to care for them is to be greatly commended. However, and this is a driving force behind my writing, stealing money (yes stealing!) from taxpayers to fund one’s charitable endeavors is an abomination in my view.
Why should some struggling family, with two parents working to just get ahead, have to be taxed so some rich big shot do-gooders can don their white hats of humanitarianism and pat themselves on their backs for being charitable?
And, I find it shameful that this Pope and his US Bishops are also stealing from taxpayers to fund their faux ‘Christian charity.’
The Pope has invited one Christian Syrian family to live at the Vatican—big deal!
Here is the story at the Daily Mail (but I see it reported lots of other places as well). Emphasis below is mine:

Nicola Sturgeon was accused of backtracking last night after it was revealed she had ‘no plans’ to let Syrian refugees live in her home despite promising to do so during a television interview.

The Scottish First Minister made national headlines after she claimed she would be ‘absolutely happy’ to open her home to people fleeing war and violence in the Middle East.

But as the first of the 20,000 Syrian refugees due to come to Britain by 2020 arrived on Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon said she would not be offering them the chance to stay at her home.

Her spokesman said: ‘She said she would be willing to do it if that’s what it took, but she did not say that there were any plans for that to happen. So if you’re phoning to find out if there’s an update, then there is no update.’

Asked in an interview on Sky News on September 6 if she would house Syrian refugees in her own home, Ms Sturgeon replied: ‘Yes, I would.

[….]

Thousands of people have offered to house refugees in their homes in recent weeks, among them Live Aid founder Bob Geldof, politician Yvette Cooper and actress Emma Thompson.

[….]

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: ‘This just demonstrates the dangers of politicians making glib promises to get favourable headlines, when they have no intention of delivering. First Nicola said she’d welcome a refugee family to her home, obviously for political gain.

‘Now she is quite clearly back-tracking. It is very insincere indeed, but this is what we’ve come to expect from the SNP. The public now see they’re a party that will say anything for a headline, then when it doesn’t suit them, they do the complete opposite.’

Continue reading here.
By the way, since the UK is going to rely on the UNHCR to pick their Syrian refugees, the vast majority will be Sunni Muslim Syrians that inhabit UN camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. Christian Syrians, we are told, do not go to these camps out of fear for their safety.
Inhabitants of those camps (in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon) will not be permanent residents with citizenship, however, all those coming to the US, the UK, Canada, etc. will become voting citizens of our western countries.
Click here for our complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ series.

Connecticut elected officials welcome Syrian (Muslim) refugees

09/28/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I was on the Lori on Liberty show from Connecticut yesterday, but hadn’t seen the news that Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) is out stumping for more Syrians (mostly Muslims) to be resettled in Connecticut. Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, a Democrat from the 5th District, is on board too. The governor, according to the Washington Times is warming to the idea.

chris-murphy-ap — Murphy to Obama: 10,000 Syrians for next year is not enough! BTW, next year begins on Thursday.

Get ready Connecticut (where Yale has accepted a Saudi billionaire’s gift to build an ISLAMIC LAW CENTER there).
From the Washington Times:

With heart-rending images of desperate migrants flooding into Europe, some have called on the U.S. to do more. President Obama recently issued an order allowing up to 10,000 refugees from Syria into the United States during the next fiscal year, but even that is not enough, said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy.

[….]

In addition to the humanitarian obligations, he said there are practical reasons for helping the refugees. “We’re losing credibility (in the Middle East) if we sit on the sidelines,” said Murphy, a Democratic freshman who recently visited refugee camps in Jordan.

We knew 2016 Presidential candidate Marco Rubio was using weasel-words on the Syrians, but here the Washington Times reports that he is on board to increase refugee numbers to America.

Several Republican presidential candidates, including Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida, are also pressing for an increase in the number of refugees allowed into the U.S., as long as they are thoroughly vetted to determine that they are not part of a terrorist group.

Elizabeth Esty — We welcome Syrians to western Connecticut! Photo from ALIPAC when Esty voted for amnesty for illegal aliens here: http://www.alipac.us/f34/elizabeth-esty-d-ct-5-us-congress-voted-amnesty-illegal-aliens-311997/

The FBI testified in February that the Syrian refugees could NOT BE THOROUGHLY VETTED—where have those Senator been?
The Washington Times continues….

Murphy agreed, saying the U.S. should “spare no expense” in investigating the refugees to ensure they have no terrorist connections. But, he added, “just because a place like Syria is violent, that doesn’t mean everyone who lives there is violent. We have a very sophisticated process for vetting refugees.” [No we don’t—ed]

[….]

Rep. Elizabeth Esty, a Democrat from the 5th District, last week signed onto a letter to President Obama urging additional aid for the refugees. She said she would welcome refugees that have been thoroughly vetted resettle in her district and her community. [Danbury, Litchfield, Waterbury etc.—ed]

Continue reading here.
Waterbury reminds me of ‘Whoop-de-do’ in Waterbury several years ago when the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants‘ subcontractor was exposed in a local paper for neglecting mostly Burmese refugees in their care. The US State Dept. at least temporarily shuttered the program there. It may be up and running now for all I know.
I just noticed in that 2008 ‘Whoop-de-do’ post that refugees were receiving $850 per head upon arrival and the contractor was keeping half. Here we are 7 years later and the amount per refugee now stands at $1975 per refugee!
For more information, go here to see if your city has already gotten Syrian refugees. If so, you have been targeted for more.
Go here and see that Hartford’s mayor is one of 18 to write to Obama telling him to admit not 10,000 Syrians this year, but 100,000!