US State Department: We are bringing thousands of Syrians out of Turkey to the US

09/13/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Syrians in Turkey: Yippee! We are going to America! Photo: http://www.voanews.com/content/turkey-concerned-about-growing-tide-of-syrian-refugees-124104939/170711.html

Update! If I had a million bucks I would bet that this offer to help Turkey deal with its Syrians was made to encourage the Turks to open their air bases to us. According to Breitbart the Turks have said NO! to the air bases. I have seen evidence several times over the years that we use refugees for extra-curricular purposes of the State Department. They can hide under their humanitarian white hat while using the refugees as bargaining chips!

Although there has been no big announcement from the White House rose garden, the US State Department (and their resettlement contractors***) seem unable to contain themselves and are announcing that THE SYRIANS ARE COMING!

The UN has already chosen thousands destined for your towns and cities, and I can assure you the large majority will be Sunni Muslims. (The State Department tracks the religions of refugees, but does not make those numbers available to the general public.)

So far we have had reports that Syrians will go to North Carolina and Ohio, but that is just the beginning.

If we are going to see numbers like the Iraqis in recent years, we are looking at 15,000-20,000 a year going forward! And, by the way “next year” means fiscal year 2015 which begins in 18 days!

From Today’s Zaman (emphasis is mine):

Deputy Asst. Sec. of State Henshaw: Our resettlement program from Turkey will be the largest in the world.

The US has launched a resettlement program that will admit thousands of refugees currently in Turkey into the US as of next year.

“Our commitment is to do thousands a year over many years,” said Simon Henshaw, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the US State Department, as he talked about US plans for asylum seekers. [Note that they don’t say ‘until the conflict ends.’—ed]

The US program, which was just launched a few months ago, is part of a UN project for the resettlement of refugees.

“We are committed to being a major part of the UN’s programs to have some of the refugees resettled in the US,” Henshaw, who was on a visit to Turkey, told reporters during a briefing on US aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Several thousand refugees in Turkey will begin the process this year, but it will take nearly a year to come to fruition.

“Next year, you will see thousands entering the US. We are committed to a large program on a par with other large [refugee resettlement] programs in the past,” Henshaw stressed at the meeting held in the US Embassy in Ankara, noting that 100,000 Iraqis have been admitted into the US in the past 10 years.

[…..]

“Our resettlement program from Turkey is one of our largest in the world, and it will continue to grow,” Henshaw added.

And, it will grow by the year says Henshaw!

One last thing, I bet the State Department is not only telling Turkey they are going to be helped, but Jordan and Lebanon as well.

Action Alert!

The best thing for you to do, is to alert your Members of Congress and US Senators and make this an election year issue. Bring up the costs and question the wisdom of bringing more Muslim refugees to America when you attend campaign events this fall. (Maybe fear of a backlash is why we are not hearing any formal announcement from the White House now—it will come after the November elections.)

For all of our posts on Syrian refugees go here.

***The federal migrant resettlement contractors which we have followed for years (Grant recipient big dogs (devouring federal cash) Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs are new on the scene in recent years and mostly due to UACs.):

Cleveland Health and Human Services to be challenged this next year with more refugees

09/12/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It looks like Cleveland, Ohio will join the Triad of North Carolina and get some of the thousands of Syrian refugees the UN has chosen for America.

Is it because Welcoming America came to town (to soften them up!)?

From Cleveland.com (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

City Councilman Joe Cimperman: “Why can’t Cleveland be that welcoming place.”

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Lead poisoning, women’s reproductive health issues and the hardships of immigrant refugees top the priorities of Cleveland City Council’s Health and Human Services Committee this legislative session.

In an interview Wednesday, city councilman Joe Cimperman said that the committee he chairs is “both perspirational and aspirational,” and while it must oversee the function of the city’s Health Department, it must also set the agenda to meet the needs of Cleveland’s changing social landscape.

This year, Cimperman said, that means anticipating a flood of refugees from Iraq, Syria and other war-torn countries, helping them settle in their new environment and connecting them with healthcare and social services.

“In the next 24 months, we are going to feel the effects of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq for sure,” Cimperman said. “I’m sad that they’re forced to flee their countries, but why can’t Cleveland be that welcoming place?”

Cimperman said the city will hold a Refugee Summit and luncheon on Oct. 30 in the City Hall Rotunda, where city leaders will explore ways to attract and accommodate an immigrant population.

Readers in the Cleveland area should plan to attend the “Refugee Summit.”

There are three preferred communities in Ohio—Cleveland, Columbus and Akron. To see who is running the refugee program for the federal government in Cleveland go here.

See all of our posts on Syrian refugees by clicking here.

Business publication beats up on Israel (again) over refugees

09/12/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and reveals more about UN/Obama Administration plans for thousands of Syrians to arrive in the US soon!

Our “refugee” alerts are full and overflowing with Syrian news. Here is an article from the Business Insider which shows which countries are taking Syrian refugees (something we have reported many times).

Business Insider / Oxford University Refugee Studies Centre

But, what caught my eye was the criticism toward Israel for not taking in Syrians.

Readers, Israel is one of only a few countries in the world trying to save itself from being overwhelmed by the third world on the move. Everyone in their right mind can see that Israel would be committing suicide if it opened its tiny country to the mostly Muslim migrants on the move around the world.

Business Insider:

Israeli Intransigence

Israel, which shares its northern border with Syria, has steadfastly refused to receive refugees.

Yuval Ben-Ami, an Israeli journalist and author based in Jaffa, told Business Insider, “at this point in its history, Israel seems determined to barricade itself, primarily of its immediate neighborhood.”

Ben-Ami says the idea of Israel accepting Syrian refugees is “extremely foreign” to Israelis, and that even refugee advocates speak little about the Syrian issue because it seems fruitless.

But near the end is another important part of this story. Once again we are being alerted to expect thousands of Syrians to arrive in the US soon.

We are going to be up there with Germany! 20,000?

While the United States is the largest donor to Syrian relief efforts, it has accepted only 63 Syrian refugees this year.

However, the UNHCR told Business Insider it expects the U.S. to rank up with Germany as one of the top two receivers of Syrians in 2015.

The U.N. said the U.S. accepted a request to load its resettlement intake toward the end of this year, with the organization already submitting 2,500 applications for consideration over the coming months.

Click here for our extensive archive on Syrian refugees.

More on those Syrian refugees going to North Carolina

09/12/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update: First Syrian family to arrive in Greensboro living in hotel, here.

This is follow-up story to our post of a few days ago where we learned that Syrians are arriving in the Triad area of North Carolina. Resettlement contractor World Relief/Evangelicals expects 30-100 this next year (the fiscal year begins October 1).

The Triad area of North Carolina—a major resettlement site.

Our top post for the last six days is this one about the State Department spokesperson’s comment that thousands of Syrians had been selected by the UN for resettlement to the US. The largest percentage will be Sunni Muslims.

Refugees are not self-sufficient in 90 days as World Relief says below, but have been connected to “services.” See our fact sheet for the list of social services (aka welfare) available to refugees. They will be deemed self-sufficient even as they remain on most forms of welfare.

From the Winston-Salem Journal:

Organizations such as World Relief and Church World Service work with the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees from around the world. [Both “church” organizations are actually federal contractors.–ed]

Timbie said World Relief High Point typically resettles 400 to 450 refugees in the High Point and Winston-Salem area each year. He expects to assist anywhere from 30 to 100 refugees from Syria in the next year.

The government provides money to help these families make it through their first few months in the United States. World Relief employees provide job skill and language training and help the refugees find jobs with local companies and connect to services.

“Our job is to make them self-sufficient within 90 days,” Timbie said.

That does not mean that they are on their own, Timbie said. It just means they are not relying on that upfront money.

Who is working in Tennessee?

09/10/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Grassroots citizen activists in Tennessee are doing the grinding work of pulling facts and figures together in one place so Tennesseans will be better informed.

The ‘tn council 4 political justice’ has published a two-part answer to that all important question—who is working in Tennessee? And, the short answer is that refugees and other immigrants are getting the jobs and it’s all about the political power and cronyism of their well-connected friends (all the way to the Governor’s office and beyond!).

We come for the jobs says Mohamed-Shukri Hassan (TN coordinator American Muslim Advisory Council). Photo: http://www.lipscomb.edu/www/archive/detail/101/27858

Here is how Part I opens:

An August 2014 Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis of Tennessee’s employment growth since 2000 shows that the jobs have gone to legal and illegal immigrants.

“Tennessee’s working-age immigrant population grew 176 percent from 2000 to 2014, one of the highest of any state in the nation. Yet the number of natives working in 2014 was actually lower in 2000.”

CIS used the same data the government uses to determine labor market participation.

Who are legal immigrants in Tennessee?

Refugees are legal immigrants that are brought to Tennessee by federal contractors like Catholic Charities. They come with work authorization and access to all forms of public assistance including TennCare, SSI and cash welfare, if they meet the eligibility requirements. Federal contractors like Catholic Charities always say that the federal government pays the full cost of the resettlement program. That is not true. The federal government has admitted many times that they have shifted the bulk of the program’s cost to the States.

More….

Part II is here:

The August 2014 Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis can tell you who isn’t working in Tennessee. Their conclusion based on the same data the federal government uses to determine labor market participation shows that the jobs in Tennessee are going to legal and illegal immigrants:

With Chamber of Commerce support for both amnesty and refugee resettlement, this should come as no surprise.

Bridge Refugee Services is a refugee resettlement agency in Knoxville. It partners with Church World Services (CWS), one of the nine national resettlement organizations. A volunteer refugee advocacy group has posted the complaints they received about Bridge’s treatment of refugees. One post addresses four reported worksite injuries in over eight months that the refugees claimed Bridge did not help them address. The volunteer that works with the refugees opined that the “agency even sided with the temporary employment agency that placed the refugees, and is more concerned about keeping up their employment placements than they are with the refugees’ welfare.”

In the federal resettlement contracting business, employment numbers are very important, however illusory they may be, as exposed by a former Bridge Refugee Service caseworker. Despite any reported problems, Bridge continues to receive federal grant money. The last publicly available report in 2010 shows $902,445 in taxpayer funds.

Keep reading…. We come for the jobs!

For new readers we have an entire category devoted to posts about news from Nashville, here. And here is our entire Tennessee archive. By the way Tennessee is a Wilson-Fish state and so the US State Department contractor Catholic Charities is running the refugee show there.