The school system in this refugee ‘seed’ community must educate students speaking 30 different languages. (Imagine what that costs the local tax payer!).
Welcoming Winooski: Remember this story from last summer? The ‘bacon’ ad had to be removed from this coffee shop when a Muslim woman claimed she was offended by the sign. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/08/vermont-restaurant-ad-for-bacon-removed-after-muslim-claimed-it-offended-her
This story is about the first Somali School Board member in Winooski’s history.
“There’s over 30 languages spoken among the families in our schools,” said Winooski School Superintendent Sean McMannon.
[….]
“The only challenge we have here was the weather, and we compared that between cold weather and the other violence in other cities, then we chose to be here,” Abdi said. [He is talking about violent American cities, not those in Africa!—ed]
Mr. Abdi hopes his voice will speak for those who can’t, in a Winooski community that sees more and more refugees move here every year.
“In the Winooski school district about 38 percent of our students qualify for English language learning services,” Superintendent McMannon said.
For years the federal resettlement contractor and the US State Department have ignored the Mayor’s pleas that the city can’t handle more impoverished third-worlders.
The Mayor of Manchester, NH has been battling the federal government and a refugee contractor for years in an attempt to slow the flow on the refugee-overloaded city. See our extensive Manchester archive by clicking here (be sure to see Manchester in trouble for no Dinka interpreter!).
I first heard that the feds called Manchester a “pocket of resistance” at the same meeting I heard about the immigrants as seedlings being planted in your community’s soil.
There is no possibility of ‘assimilation’ when the numbers of ‘new Americans’ are so high.
LOL! of course this article refers to ‘integration’ not ‘assimilation’ and it sure sounds like the reporter is already getting with the Obama word gameby helping make the case that integration=availability of services (aka welfare).
From the Manchester Union Leader (emphasis is mine):
MANCHESTER – While many immigrants enter the U.S. with dreams for a brighter future, city officials say it’s their aim to help with services needed by new arrivals to achieve their goals.
“I think at last check we had something like 82 languages represented at Central High School,” said Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas. “I asked a few years ago for a waiver from the federal government to exempt immigrant and refugee children from testing. I’m still waiting on that one.”
The U.S. has accepted refugees since the early 1980s. New Hampshire welcomes between 250 and 550 legal immigrants each year. Most take up residence in communities along Interstate 93 from Nashua on up to Concord, with some showing up in Laconia.
Gatsas has had a frosty relationship with the International Institute of New England, headquartered in Boston, which has settled several thousand refugees in Manchester, more than it has in any other community in the state.
Cities and towns cannot block refugee resettlement, just as they are prohibited from restricting people of any race or ethnicity from moving into town. [Maybe they can’t block it, but any elected officials better darn well ask a lot of questions in advance!—ed]
Gatsas has charged in the past that the institute has been uncommunicative and unresponsive to his concerns, disregarding the struggles they are facing in the city.
According to Gatsas, the city has received between 60 and 70 refugees since October.
“We want to give them every opportunity to succeed here,” said Gatsas. “We try to provide services to help with that goal, and we ask the feds for something like a waiver for students from testing, and we’re still waiting. I guess they turn a deaf ear to something like that.”
If only every town knew what we know now! (See here for Ten Things your town should know!)
Contemplating “welcoming” refugees? Call Mayor Gatsas and ask his opinion. Here is a linkto the Mayor’s office.
As we have been writing ad nauseam lately, the Obama Administration is now out of the shadows with its plan to “seed” towns and cities across America with diversity.
‘Seed’ is their word! Your community is the soil into which the migrants of all sorts (legal and illegal) are being planted according to Obama’s Task Force on New Americans. It begs the questions: Are we being colonized? Do they plan to replace us some day? Sound far-fetched? Knowing Obama, are you willing to gamble on that?
President Barack Obama, flanked by Cecilia Muñoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, left, and senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett are changing the people by ‘planting’ immigrant “seedlings” in towns across America!
We have long maintained a ‘fact sheet’ about how the UN/US State Department’s Refugee Admissions and Resettlement Program works, click here to learn more.
But, I realized yesterday, while thinking about the newest proposed seed community*** in Rep. Trey Gowdy’s backyard in Spartanburg, SC, that we needed a quick primer on what elected officials and citizens should know if they are being pressured to ‘welcome the stranger‘ (this guilt-tripping language is one way they pressure your town!).
So here are my Ten Things you need to know!
1) In most cases, the United Nations is choosing our refugees. Topping the list right now are Iraqis, Burmese, Congolese, Somalis and Bhutanese. The UN is pressuring the US to take a large number, 10,000 or so, Syrians. We are bringing in refugees from countries which hate us. Your town does not get to choose who you get! You will receive racially, culturally and religiously diverse people, usually very different from your local population and very different from each other. That old ‘melting pot’ concept is dead because the numbers are too high.
2) Often the US State Department’s chosen resettlement contractor for your town, sounds like a church group, or other benign-sounding non-profit. They may have a religious-sounding name, but know that they are being paid by the head from the federal treasury to bring refugees to your town. It is not the case that they are passing a plate on Sunday morning to pay for this very expensive program. Here are the nine major contractors which have 350 subcontractors working for them (headquartered in over 180 cities so far).
3) The contractor’s job is to get the refugee family their “services.” That means they hold the refugees’ hands until they are settled usually in tax-payer subsidized housing, get them signed up for most forms of welfare including food stamps and other cash assistance, sign them up for health care and enroll the kids in school. This special class of legal immigrant is entitled to welfare! The contractor is also paid with your tax dollars to give refugees job counseling and training. The contractor may also be working closely with some big business (and the Chamber of Commerce) nearby which is looking for cheap labor.
4) The contractor’s job ends in 3-6 months at which point they move on to bringing in the next fresh group of “clients,” often the relatives of the first group. Earlier, and still struggling, refugees are left in the care of your social services department. At this point the contractors are entrenched in your town and will call you racists, rednecks and xenophobes if your citizens want to slow the flow.
5) Your town will never get out of the program once the contractor has an office set up and staff to pay. Many cities are trying to get out now and can’t: Manchester, NH, Springfield and Lynn, Mass, Amarillo, TX come to mind. Because there have developed “pockets of resistance” (their words), the State Department is desperately out scouting for fresh territory.
6) The greatest impact on your local social and economic welfare will be felt first in the school system, followed usually by the shortage of government subsidized housing. Your school system may end up with 50 or more languages represented in the student population. The number-one language of refugees entering the US right now is Arabic, Somali is number four.
7) Refugees are permitted entry into the US with HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis among other medical problems. Physical and mental health challenges will most likely overburden your local health department.
8) Your local government is responsible (Clinton-era Executive Order) for providing costly interpretersfor the myriad languages being spoken in the school system, the health system and the criminal justice system should problems arise.
9) Refugees who do find work, work at entry level jobs and minimum wageso they will still be able to benefit from many welfare programs open to low-income Americans. Elder refugees are eligible for SSI. The refugees are Legal Permanent Residents and can begin the citizenship process quickly.
10) If they say they are coming to your town with the first group of refugees, there is only one thing you can do! ASK QUESTIONS IN PUBLIC. Demand that your elected officials get involved. Demand that a community meeting be held, for the US State Department, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in HHS), your state refugee office (if there is one) and their contractors, to answer questions from the citizens of the town or city. Get your Member of Congress and US Senators involved too! Don’t forget your state legislators! The State Department and its contractors HATE to answer questions! Tell your local elected officials you want a public hearing! Tell your elected officials that you want the federal government and its contractors to provide a plan!
You want them to answer questions such as these below.
Remember you have every right to know what is being planned for your town. They will bully you, call you names and say you can’t stop them anyway, but refuse to be bullied!
Demand answers (in public)!
Who is coming? From where and how many?
Will they stop the resettlement if the town is becoming economically or socially stressed?
What security and health screening have the refugees undergone?
How many will come each year?
Who is paying for their health care?
Who is paying to educate the children who don’t speak English and may never have attended school?
Does your town have an adequate supply of government-supported housing? Will demands for housing crowd out American elderly, poor or disabled citizens?
Where will they work? Do we have high unemployment already?
I’m sure you can think of others. After getting answers (good luck!) and having a vigorous public discussion, then your town can decide based on all the facts whether you will eagerly “welcome” New Americans to your community, or not.
Endnote: There are other refugee experts in the country, so let me know if I’m missing anything here and I’ll add it!
Update!!! Call this #11: an experienced researcher just reminded me that concerned citizens must form a citizens’ groupto research the structure of the program in your state to obtain the FISCAL and legal facts about the program as the structure can vary from state to state.
*** This post (on Spartanburg) brought in the highest number of readers we have ever had for one post over a brief two days! P.S. I will be in South Carolina this coming weekend, here.
An afterthought: If you should get a public meeting/hearing be sure to educate yourselves on the Delphi Technique, a strategy often used by government agencies wishing to control the outcome of a meeting. Go hereto see what Judy said about it in advance of the public meeting held in Hagerstown, MD in September 2007.
….if the EU and the International Monetery Fund leave Greece hanging!
This would be very interesting to see. The ‘Invasion of Europe’would surely be on steroids if the Greeks follow through with the threat!
Kammenos, the Greek defence minister: We will send thousands of migrants and jihadists to Berlin!
Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, and Malta are all on the frontiers of the European Union and experiencing the brunt of the invasion by mostly economic migrants from the Middle East and Africa. Their economies can only stand so much!
Greece will unleash a “wave of millions of economic migrants” and jihadists on Europe unless the eurozone backs down on austerity demands, the country’s defence and foreign ministers have threatened.
The threat comes as Greece struggles to convince the eurozone and International Monetery Fund to continue payments on a £172billion bailout of Greek finances.
Without the funding, Greece will go bust later this month forcing the recession-ravaged and highly indebted country out of the EU’s single currency.
Greece’s border with Turkey is the EU’s frontline against illegal immigration and European measures to stop extremists travelling to and from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) bases in Syria and Iraq.
Panos Kammenos, the Greek defence minister, warned that if the eurozone allowed Greece to go bust it would give EU travel papers to illegal immigrants crossing its borders or to the 10,000 currently held in detention centres.
“If they deal a blow to Greece, then they should know the the migrants will get papers to go to Berlin,” he said.
Update May 20th: Spartanburg County Council obviously afraid to take a role in the controversy, here.
Update May 5th: Rep. Gowdy gets response from Kerry but wants more information, here.
Update April 19th: Local and state elected officials want answers, here.
Update April 17th: More media pick up the story, here.
Update April 14th: Rep. Trey Gowdy needs to help other towns, hold hearings, here. World Relief admits they get “push back” in some towns, here.
Update April 13th: Rep. Trey Gowdy, who represents the district, wants answers from Sec. of State John Kerry, here.
Update April 1st:If folks in Spartanburg have any doubts about how little control they will have once this office is established, see Concord, NH—no say in how many refugees come! Here!
Update March 31st: Spartanburg citizens want impact statement and public meeting on refugee plan for the city, here.
Update March 23rd: Spartanburg residents, please note that mid-western towns are having difficulty coping with large numbers of refugees, here.
Update March 21st: Folks in Spartanburg, where Syrians may be resettled, need to read about Indianapolis where the resettlement contractor admits the numbers will start small, but will grow!
Update March 19th: See ‘Comment worth noting: Since Spartanburg is my home,’ here.
Update March 17th: Everyone concerned about Spartanburg, must read about Worcester, Mass. here.
Update March 11th: This post has received the highest number of visitors we have ever had to a post in just a couple of days. I realized this morning that we needed a primer of sorts on what your town should do if the federal government is planning to “plant” refugees where you live. See our Ten things you need to know and what you can do, here. ***Update*** Don’t believe me, check out what is happening in Manchester, NH, here.
Update March 10th: This post went through the roof yesterday, thanks to all who sent it around. However, one reader pointed out that I failed to make it clear that refugees are one class of immigrant which can tap into most forms of welfare without being US citizens. That is why the Obama Administration is working overtime to expand the definition of ‘refugee’ so as to make our welfare system more accessible to the newly amnestied aliens.
Update! Please all of you South Carolinians forgive me for initially putting an ‘s’ in the middle of Spartanburg in my first post! And, secondly, I was just informed that some parts of the Spartanburg area are represented by Rep. Trey Gowdy. All readers should know that Gowdy is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security that has jurisdiction over the Refugee Resettlement program and should know the threat this resettlement poses for his district!
Editors note: In my previous post I said our next two posts would be about how far along the Obama Task Force on New Americans “integration” (aka seeding) plan is in a couple of cities that are overloaded with refugees, however, reader Robin spotted this news which is more pressing at the moment! Spartanburg beware! South Carolina beware!
Over the years, we have noticed that South Carolina has pretty much stayed out of the top tier of states where refugee seedlings are being planted. Looks like those days are over as it was announced that World Relief (Evangelicals) one of the TOP NINE federal resettlement contractors is about to open an office there!
They must be having refugee overload problems in North Carolina!
World Relief, like the other eight contractors*** are all Progressive advocacy groups, six of them represent the ‘religious Left.’
Demand answers!
Anyone in Spartanburg who is concerned about this news, must speak up now! You might want to look at how Athens, Georgia has so far been holding them at bay by asking the federal government and the contractor for a plan—who pays for this, where will the refugees work, is our school system ready for myriad languages and illiterate children, will our health department be overburdened, do we have enough public housing for our own low-income people, how about our police force, is it ready? Those are the sorts of questions any sensible local government should be asking! Tell the Mayor to ask questions!
Additionally, ask World Reliefif the flow can be stopped once started if the town can’t afford it anymore? Or if there is social disruption? I’ll tell you the answer now—NO!
The truth is that the UN/US State Department is running out of “welcoming” towns and cities, so they are constantly on the move to find new towns in which to “plant” refugees. “Pockets of Resistance” are forming in overloaded communities.
From GroupState.com. They say they will resettle 65 refugees from Syria, DR Congo, and Bhutan. Why not Muslim Iraqis and Somalis too? Of course they will be in the mix because the UN is picking our refugees! A city doesn’t get to choose the nationality of the refugees that will be dropped off!
Here is the story Robin sent:
Spartanburg will soon be home to dozens of people fleeing persecution in their homelands.
Refugees may begin arriving here as early as spring through a refugee resettlement ministry.
Lee, the new director of the World Relief subcontractor, worked with Somalis in Kentucky. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonalee
World Relief is establishing an office in Spartanburg. “In community with the local church, World Relief envisions the most vulnerable people transformed economically, socially, and spiritually,” according to the faith-based organization’s website.
Jason Lee has been named executive director of the Spartanburg office. He said 65 refugees are expected to move here this year.
Lee served more than five years as pastor of Oak Grove Baptist Church. He’s also ministered to Somali refugees in Kentucky and is a leader with Come Closer Spartanburg.
Come Closer Spartanburg [they come up with such warm and fuzzy names for themselves!–ed] is a partnership of faith leaders, Christians and business leaders with a mission to “to unite God’s people for the purpose of loving our city to Christ.” One need identified is serving residents born outside the United States.
[What! Has Spartanburg helped all of its own American poor people and it now needs to import more?—ed]
World Relief works with federal agencies to offer resettlement, placement and various services to refugees. According to the organization’s figures, it has resettled more than 250,000 refugees from more than 80 countries in the past 35 years.
Lee said it’s unknown what nations the refugees who will resettle in Spartanburg are from — Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo or Bhutan are possibilities.
Read it all, there is a lot of useful information in it.
Urgent! Help save Spartanburg!I don’t normally ask, but please send this story around, especially to people you know in South Carolina! Clearly they have no idea of what they are in for!
