Add the International Institute of New Hampshire to the list of subcontractors of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) not taking care of refugees.   I know I said this before (in my Akron post), but I really couldn’t believe my eyes to see the complaints leveled against this volag in Manchester, NH and how similar they are to complaints in Waterbury, CT and Akron, OH.   The Union Leader says:

Even so, Sanderson’s [longtime director of the Institute] departure follows an approximate four-month period in which community refugee advocates brought concerns about refugee resettlement in Manchester to the institute’s Boston headquarters and U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, who relayed them to the U.S. State Department, his spokesman said.

Sununu, R-N.H., said his office is reviewing how many federal funds go toward settling refugees in New Hampshire and how it is spent.

“Are the right resources being allocated to housing, to health care, to education?” Sununu asked during a recent visit to Manchester.

Dear US State Department, why is the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants even one of the top ten refugee resettlement government contractors?  Is it because USCRI President Limon has come through the government/NGO revolving door?

Advocates said they raised other issues since late winter: poor quality, insect-infested housing; the institute’s alleged unwillingness to forge cooperative relationships with civic and church groups and volunteers whom refugees often turn to for help; questions about how federal funds allotted each refugee are split between the refugee and resettlement agency; and Manchester’s capacity to absorb more refugees.

Manchester sounds exactly like Waterbury.  Most puzzling to me is why do these International Institute’s not seek enough help from churches and apparently even turn volunteers off.  We have been advocating a reform of the program that would put more responsibility for resettlement on volunteer churches and other groups, not less! 

Baines [former mayor, Robert Baines] was mayor in 2004 when the city succeeded in getting a three-month moratorium imposed on refugee resettlement after Manchester became overwhelmed with an unexpected influx of mostly Africans, including 34 children who became lead poisoned. Baines attributed most of the problems to the state’s other refugee resettlement agency, the Concord-based Lutheran Social Services of Northern New England, which he said brought refugees to Manchester without notifying school, health and other city officials.

Since then, the state’s largest city — which historically has absorbed most of the state’s refugees — has suggested other communities share in taking in refugees. 

That is no surprise.  We are hearing that everywhere?   Why us?  Why so many to our city?  It is simply because you let the program take root in the first place and at one point some leaders in your city were perceived as “welcoming”.  And, anyone who squawked too loud was silenced with charges that they were racist, xenophobic and uncharitable.

Based on some hardhitting comments to the Union Leader, the city isn’t so “welcoming” any more.  Here are just two:

While the citizens of this state and this country continue to get strangled by rising prices and a devalued dollar, we are forced to be a host to people without basic means of support. This is done against our will and without a vote. Therefore every employee of the International Institute as well as Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charaties should be identified and then mandated to pay for every refugee that is settled here. They should also be mandated to serve the prison term each refugee recieves for any crimes commited. Then you would see how fast this BS would stop.
– John S., Manchester, NH 

Whether you’re a hard-nosed conservative or a bleeding-heart liberal, the bottom line is this: the will of the people must dictate political action. If a majority of residents are in favor of these programs, do it. If a majority are against, you don’t do it. Too often in this country, people like Bracy, Benedict-Drew and Sununu act without the slightest regard for the will of the majority of the community’s residents/voters.
– Matt, Manchester

John and Matt have hit the nail on the head.  If the volags (supposedly volunteer resettlement agencies) had to use their own funds (and not the taxpayers funds), resettlement would be slowed to a manageable level.  Also, we have contended from the earliest days of this blog that communities should be given all the facts and then the community should decide if they want refugees in the first place, or at some point should be able to say they have enough for now.

You know the old saying, “the buck stops here,”  well this buck stops with the US State Department and USCRI whose pres., Lavinia Limon , gets a few of those bucks herself ($195,000 annual salary courtesy of the US Taxpayer). 

Read about Waterbury, CT here and Akron, OH here. 

I’m posting this whole short article from the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette about a second refugee agency horning in on Catholic Charities territory in Ft. Wayne, IN.   The article is revealing in several ways.  First, it confirms what we have written about in the past that the top ten volags (not really voluntary agencies because they get paid) are competing with each other for customers (refugees).

The article also helps answer a question I had from a reader just this morning.  The reader (who learned about us because I wrote a letter to VDARE) asked how are cities picked to be resettlement cities?  This article confirms another thing we have written about, that the volags (and not the federal government) choose the cities.  Volags are non-governmental organizations!  They have no power over local community governments!   

And, pay attention!  This is really important!  Once a city is deemed “welcoming” and doesn’t squawk it will receive more refugees through family reunification.  The volags take applications for family members from the refugees they have previously placed and the refugee population increases while the volags get the per head government payment.

Here is the whole article:

 

An international humanitarian aid organization will visit Fort Wayne next week to discuss opening a refugee resettlement office in the city.

Five staff members of World Relief Corp., one of the voluntary agencies used by the U.S. State Department to place refugees in American communities, will conduct meetings with churches, business leaders and other support agencies, said Tanya Thomas, World Relief’s north regional director.

Currently, Catholic Charities, in cooperation with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been responsible for resettling refugees in this area – including more than 600 Burmese last year, according to the agency.

National representatives of the 10 voluntary agencies responsible for resettling refugees meet weekly to discuss incoming cases. Based on criteria such as community resources, refugees’ geographic preferences or reunifications of families, the federal government assigns each case to a local resettlement office. [Editor:  and whether they have deemed the city “welcoming”]

Because Fort Wayne has one of the largest concentrations of Burmese in the U.S. – estimated at more than 3,000 – refugees in camps in Thailand often request to come to the Fort Wayne area.

The frequency of requests for placement in Fort Wayne drew World Relief’s attention, Thomas said.

World Relief’s national staff spoke with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Indiana’s state refugee coordinator about opening an office in Fort Wayne, and both expressed support, Thomas said.

The office would primarily resettle Burmese of the Karen and Chin ethnic minorities and refugees from a few African and Asian countries.

Local resettlement offices receive less than $500 per refugee from the federal government. [Editor: this is deceptive because the volags receive all sorts of other government grants from other agencies in addition to this fee from the US State Department.]

If the agency decides to open a local office, the timing of its opening would depend on funding, Thomas said.

Debbie Schmidt, executive director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, said she is uncertain whether there is a need for a second refugee resettlement office in the city.  [Editor:  Hissssss]

She expressed concern that having two offices might cause confusion among the schools, medical offices and other community agencies that work with refugees.

 

We have written extensively about the huge refugee community in Ft. Wayne and the problems it has created for taxpayers, especially with the health department of Allen County (the cost of TB treatment alone has been burdonsome). 

I discussed the squawk factor the other day in my post on Aurora here.  That is World Relief involved there too.