Category: Who is going where

Another meatpacker/Somali love story

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a yet another article, this time from from Greeley, Co, about how great it is for a Swift meatpacking plant to have all these Somali refugee men handy, ready, and willing to work.   Yesterday’s article is here. Today’s news account begins:  

GREELEY, Colo. — The four Somalis moved into the apartment last August, six floors up in a downtown Greeley building. The living room is furnished with only a metal folding chair and small table covered in papers and a laptop computer. A Somali flag, a white star against light blue, is the only wall hanging, draped behind the table. 

Is it just me, or does this strike anyone else as a bit strange?   Four Muslim men living in an apartment with not much else but a laptop computer and a Somali flag on the wall.   Hum.

Back to the article which is nothing more than the boilerplate meatpacker story we see all over the country. 

Doug Schult, who heads employee and labor relations at Swift, said refugees are coming from several east African countries. They are working at Swift plants across the nation, from Greeley to Kentucky. 

Ibraham Mohamed is a Greeley caseworker for Lutheran Family Services, which provides refugee resettlement services. He estimates that about 300 east Africans are in Greeley, and that “every day, 20 or 30 people are coming to get started at Swift, maybe 15 (a day). It depends on how they get the job.”

I just checked our archives and sure enough I wrote about the opening of this refugee office for Ft. Morgan and Greeley back in July, read especially this post on July 13th with a link to Greeley’s historical role in the origin of modern day Islamic terrorism (yes Greeley!).  Those 4 guys with the laptop and the Somali flag probably have had a private little chuckle about the irony of that.

This meatpacker/Muslim refugee marriage doesn’t come together by happenstance.  The US State Department was probably working with Swift all along and helped them get the refugee workers out to Greeley, but they needed an office there to make sure the Swift workers had all of their other needs met compliments of the US taxpayer.

New readers, use our search function and find the many many posts we have written about meatpacking plants and refugees.  Check especially Shelbyville, TN and Emporia, KS.

Update on Texas Panhandle refugee influx

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here, thanks to blulitespecial, is an earlier story that sheds more light on how the Texas Panhandle refugee population is booming thanks to local meat packing plants.  See my post yesterday on nearby Amarillo.

First, the Dept. of Homeland Security raided local plants and removed illegal workers.   Note when you read this article about Cactus, TX, the local government is apparently annoyed at the US government for cracking down on the local illegals. 

Sixteen months ago, federal agents swept into the Panhandle town of Cactus, Texas, in Moore County as part of a massive raid of Swift & Co. beef processing plants across the country. They arrested 297 workers on immigration violations and sent hundreds more fleeing the community for fear of more raids.

“Things were a little rocky in the short-term, but the upheaval of the raids hasn’t hurt us financially,” Mr. DiPiazza [city manager] said. “Swift aggressively brought in new workers and had the plant working to capacity within months.” 

But, not to fear, the meatpackers and the city had a solution, just bring in refugees.

But with the new workers has come a fresh set of challenges.

Swift’s new owners, a Brazilian firm, recruited a different set of foreign workers to fill the gaps left by the Mexican and Central American workers caught up in the ICE raid in December 2006. This time, they hired refugees brought into the U.S. on a special visa. 

As for the extra costs to the schools, healthcare etc. created by the influx of refugee workers, let the federal taxpayers pay the bill.   

The county would like some federal help in paying for the extra costs to the schools, hospitals and police, Mr. Rhoades [Moore County Judge] said. But “we don’t have a solution yet,” he said. “We’ll just have to pay attention to the details and deal with it. It’s just another test.”

So, meatpackers get cheap labor (they don’t have to pay good wages demanded by American workers), and the taxpayer foots all the extra welfare bills.   What a racket and it’s aided and abetted by church volags.  ‘Volag’ is short for ‘voluntary agency’, but they are anything but voluntary because they too are paid by you.

Somali refugees in Amarillo, TX, Tyson’s too, what a coincidence

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is one of those chicken and egg stories, you know, which came first?    Did Somali refugees just happen to be resettled in Amarillo and conveniently a nearby Tyson’s Food meatpacking plant needed employees, or did Tyson’s bring the refugees to Amarillo with the help of friends in the US State Department and Catholic charitable organizations?     I don’t know, but I do know that wherever you find Tyson’s Food you find Somali refugees. 

“This is completely legal. The president sets a number of refugees who are invited to the country every year. They are given travel loans. So, the state pays for their travel, but they are expected to pay that loan,” Benita Medlock, with Refugee Services of Texas, said. “After they’ve been here a year, they get their green card and when they’ve been here for five years, they can become U.S citizens. “

Yup, travel loans to get to the US (which are rarely repaid) and on a fast track to citizenship.

Refugee Services of Texas and Catholic Family Service make sure they have their vaccinations, housing, ESL (English as a Second Language) classes and make sure they are able to enroll their kids in school. Most of them have adjusted, but others have hit some roadblocks. 

Yup, vaccinations, housing, and ESL lessons paid for by the taxpayer (while Tyson’s benefits with cheap “legal” labor).

“The biggest problems have been some of the children adjusting in school because a lot of children come in and they have never sat in a classroom. They have no idea what going to school is like,” Medlock said. “Most of the refugees are working with Tyson and the Cactus Swift plant. They like that because it’s a place that they can work and don’t have to speak English. They can make good money too.” 

Yup, good money and they don’t have to learn English.  Wait?  Then why are we paying for ESL lessons?

For regular readers of RRW, you know all about the Somali refugee issues that have plagued other US cities.  For new readers check out Emporia, KS and Shelbyville, TN posts.

 

More refugees from Malta: Have we gone mad?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Arghhhhh!   Many months ago I wrote that we were going to take refugees from the Mediterranean island of Malta—simply to do a good deed.   These are not refugees!  They are African illegal aliens who have broken into Malta because the boats they were using to get to the mainland of Europe could not reach their destination.  Here is an update— we are taking them.

This would be like us sending our illegal aliens from Mexico off to Malta. 

To date, the UNHCR is continuing the screening process and has referred more than 260 cases which are now in process. A group of 15 Somalian refugees are departing from Malta for the United States tomorrow, and in the next few weeks, another group of refugees will be embarking on their journey to resettle in the U.S.

Ambassador Bordonaro observed that all refugees are assigned a sponsor agency that provides initial services such as housing, food, and clothing, as well as referral to medical care, employment services, and other support during a transition period lasting up to two years in order to ensure integration and assimilation. “I have personally met many of the refugees who are part of the programme,” Ambassador Bordonaro said, “and they will make outstanding U.S. citizens.”

Our ambassador actually thinks this is a great idea.   “Outstanding citizens!”  I guess she hasn’t been in touch with Shelbyville, TN or Emporia, KS recently.

And, of course the officials in Malta are tickled pink that because we understand the illegal alien issue so well we are happy to take theirs. 

In his remarks, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tonio Borg noted that this process, which commenced a year ago, is a clear declaration that the United States does understand the illegal immigration problem which is being faced by Malta. “This is a continuous process that should lead towards having hundreds of people to be resettled in the United States. This is a sign of friendship between two countries whereby the United States is clearly helping out Malta.”

Silly question I guess, but doesn’t all this actually encourage more Africans to take boats to Malta?

Update:  Can you believe it!  The morning after I wrote this post the Times of Malta is reporting 3 new boats arriving this week!  Did Ambassador Bordonaro run down to the shore to greet them?

And yet another Update moments later:   Here is another glowing article about the so-called “refugees” going to the promised land.  

Asked whether the resettlement of refugees in the US could bring more asylum seekers to Malta, Dr Borg [Malta’s Foreign Affairs minister] said he did not think the numbers would increase because of this possibility. He added that this was a convenient argument that some countries put forward to avoid burden sharing.

I wonder did Dr. Borg not know about the three boats just landed this week?  And, I wonder which part of our “burden” is he sharing.

Here is another post on the spring migration from Africa to Europe.

Google Earth now helps you find refugees worldwide

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to a couple of readers, bluelitespecial and Brian, we have learned that Google Earth has partnered with the United Nations to bring you information on refugees and camps around the world.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released, with help from Google Earth Outreach, new Google Earth content which documents UN projects involving Refugee camps. The announcement was made today in Geneva where the UN world headquarters are located. Google Earth Outreach Director Rebecca Moore was on hand for the announcement as were several notables of the United Nations.

Cool huh?   Now, lets suggest that the US State Department and the Dept. of Homeland Security partner with Google Earth and track all the groups of refugees and H-2B visa workers that are roaming America.  Maybe eventually they could track those aliens coming across the borders.

I was thinking of the Somalis who in some cases will not sign leases for more than 6 months (Tysons Food and other meatpackers could help get the data), and then maybe that company in Alabama which lost 100 workers last winter.   And, of course just this past week over 100 supposed H2-B Visa welders who came up missing from construction work in Emporia, KS.

Come to think of it, I bet the government could pull this off pretty easily if they wanted to because a private citizen is already doing something along these lines.  Check out the map at the Illegal Alien Activity Tracking System.

We could call it the “supposedly legal alien activity tracking system!”