Category: Who is going where

Concerned citizens in St. Cloud, MN ask for a moratorium on refugee resettlement to their city

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As I said here, the swamp is not going to be drained anytime soon, so my best advice to all of you concerned about the economic and cultural disruption in your communities fostered by the US State Department and its contractors choosing your town/city as a resettlement site (and the lack of transparency by federal government contractors in the process) must renew your efforts at the state and local level.

Here we have an excellent example of citizen action to get their local mayor and council to pay attention to their concerns.  The citizens are asking for a moratorium on resettlement until their questions and concerns are addressed.

Watch the council meeting here.  Begin at 13:45 to hear private citizens and then here again at 1:17:50 to hear Councilman Jeff Johnson say that he will be placing a resolution before the board at the next meeting.  (Hat tip: Ron)

You too can do this!

 

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Again, go here to play the video: http://stcloudmn.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1324

 

I had to laugh, check out their rule that a citizen may have 2 minutes only two times a year to address the high and mighty. And, they only take 5 commenters at each meeting.

You can learn more about the St. Cloud council at their website, here. They said at the meeting that they accept letters and e-mail commentary.

Let me be clear, there is nothing in refugee law now to address the issue of a city having any power to halt resettlement to their city.  However, the State Department has repeatedly said they will not place refugees in communities that don’t want them. So, if the council were to ask the federal government for a moratorium, it would (should!) carry significant weight!

But, if the council turns down a resolution for a moratorium, it becomes a very important educational opportunity for the community. If council members votes are recorded, the political stance (in support of, or opposition to, more resettlement and continued secrecy) of each council member becomes clear to the whole city.

Again, see my post here.  Some of you in St. Cloud might decide to run for mayor or council based on what happens next. Even if you don’t win, the exercise will educate even more voting citizens.

Please visit my post yesterday where I told you about the ‘stakeholder meetings (quarterly consultations)’ held without the public, and the R & P Abstracts that are kept secret from the public.

You should be demanding that your mayor and council members (or whatever local govt. format you have) attend those meetings and receive the planning documents before they go to Washington and make an opportunity available for the public to comment on the plans before they are submitted to Washington each year!

Just fyi, I have been to St. Cloud twice in recent years. You can see my whole archive on the controversy there by clicking here.

I think RRW’s first mention of St. Cloud was by Judy in 2008 when she wrote about Somali students harassing a fellow student’s service dog, here.

Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota is the primary contractor in St. Cloud responsible for placing large numbers of Somalis there.

This post is filed also in my category entitled ‘What you can do.‘

Because frankly the Washington swamp is alive and well!  Some important swamp creatures are the Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbyists looking for more customers and cheap labor! Do not be fooled! Refugee resettlement is not, first and foremost, driven by humanitarian zeal!

First 98 of Trump’s refugees have arrived, see where they went

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Tillerson and Trump

The new fiscal year (2018) is now ten days old and we see that the first of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s and President Trump’s proposed 45,000 refugees have arrived!

According to Wrapsnet…..

Top ethnic groups arriving in the group of 98 are from the DR Congo (25), Bhutan (21) and Somalia (16).  For our friends in Minnesota know this: the Somalis were distributed to Missouri, New Hampshire, Washington and Wisconsin, but, as you know, they can and often do move within months to be with larger groups of Somalis in Minnesota, Ohio and in San Diego.

26 of the 98 are Muslims if you count the 4 Ahmadiyya from Pakistan who went to Maryland.

Here is where the first 98 were placed:

 

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Top five states are Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri and New Hampshire. Alaska and Hawaii got zip.

 

I repeat: all concerned citizens must ask to attend ‘Quarterly Consultations’ held by refugee contractors in your communities….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….transparency, transparency, transparency should be your mantra!

The ‘quarterly consultation’ is required by law and the US State Department has confirmed that the general public is permitted to attend.

One of the most important elements of the consultation is the discussion that should be held in public about how many refugees could be placed in your town in the coming year.

As I said here the other day, since the President has flubbed his great opportunity to push reform of the entire UN/US Refugee Admissions Program in late September, citizen efforts must necessarily now return to local action.

bartlett with map
Lawrence Bartlett is still running things at the US State Department because Trump has failed to put his people in place to supervise the career bureacrats. Here Bartlett told Senator Jeff Sessions that there are community consultations open to the public. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/10/02/senate-oversight-hearing-on-refugee-program-very-revealing-senator-sessions-did-a-masterful-job/

Shortly, I will tell you the latest about how citizens in St. Cloud, MN are doing just that, but because others of you are reporting a lack of cooperation from resettlement contractors to your requests to be notified to attend QUARTERLY consultations, we will walk down memory lane.

I wrote this post on October 12, 2015 (this is just a portion of it). Disregard the portion about contacting Trey Gowdy, he is no longer the chairman of the subcommittee responsible.

(LOL! I urge serious students to open the links and read related stories, so that I don’t go nuts having to repeat things!)

It has only been in the last year or so [2015] that we have been made aware that QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS with community “stakeholders” were being held quietly, out of public view.   In fact, I wondered why I hadn’t heard about them and now I know why!

The citizens of St. Cloud, MN, here and here, brought the issue of exclusion of taxpaying citizens from the meetings where the ‘non-profit’ refugee resettlement agency meets with local elected officials, fire/police, education, health departments etc. to assess how things are going with the refugees, and they discuss how many to bring in the upcoming year. [Open both of those links at the beginning of this paragraph, please!—ed]

According to a State Department spokesman (unnamed!) doing a press briefing for reporters on September 11th, we learn that they have only been doing these QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS since 2013!  WTH!  [Press briefing is no longer available so its a good thing I copied this bit of it.—ed]

And, they are lying!  “Private citizens” have not been welcome.

These agencies (‘non-profit’ resettlement subcontractors) work very hard to hold these meetings secretly and out of the view of local concerned citizens—the ultimate stakeholder, the taxpayer! Yet, we have a State Department official (why no name?) telling the mainstream media that private citizens can attend!

Why is the spokesman unnamed?

We are pleased to have [name and title withheld] with us today. Moving forward, [State Department Official] will be called State Department official for the purposes of this call. Again, this call is on background.

So much for Obama’s much ballyhooed transparency!  Now here is what ‘name and title withheld’ told a special group of reporters:

In addition, starting about two years ago, I believe it was FY13, we required that all of our resettlement agencies conduct quarterly consultations with stakeholders in their communities. So that means that not just once a year when they’re preparing a proposal, but every quarter they have to reach out to a wide variety of stakeholders. And that would include other community organizations. That could include the police department, the school, the mayor’s office, the fire department, other agencies that have a stake in refugee resettlement, and private citizens can be invited as well. And they hold those quarterly conversations and that is taken into account when we are making placement plans for the entire year and throughout the year.

You know Larry Bartlett told Senator Sessions this basic untruth here in the Senate hearing the week before last as well.

It gets worse!

We need lawyers on our team!  Have they been breaking the law for 33 of 35 years?  Or, have the states, which are supposed to prepare a plan every year and hold the meetings, not done their required duty to hold the quarterly meetings with communities?

Here are the federal regulations guiding the program (From CFR 400.5(h))

Provide that the State will, unless exempted from this requirement by the Director, assure that meetings are convened, not less often than quarterly, whereby representatives of local resettlement agencies, local community service agencies, and other agencies that serve refugees meet with representatives of State and local governments to plan and coordinate the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival.

What should you do now?

So, for all of you working in ‘Pockets of Resistance’ (and others too!).  Go here, and call the closest refugee resettlement office near you and tell them you want a schedule for the upcoming quarterly consultation!  Ask them as well for the FY2016 [now FY18—ed] R & P Abstract which will tell you their plans for your town/city this year.

Continue reading here.

If you get a runaround, find a local lawyer willing to send the resettlement agency a letter on behalf of you—taxpaying citizens (stakeholders!). And, also make all the noise you can through whatever media you have available—tell the public that the program is being run secretively between a refugee contractor and Washington.

To all of you who have gotten this far, please send this to your fellow citizen activists. I don’t want to sound too cranky, but, if year after year, we reinvent the wheel, we will get nowhere!

This post is filed in my ‘what you can do’ category.

Scranton, PA school district struggling under weight of needy immigrant students, working poor

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The next time you see one of those head-scratching claims that assert that bringing more third world poverty to a dying city will revitalize it, think about this news from Scranton.  (Pennsylvania is usually one of the top ten states ‘welcoming’ refugees.)

And, instead of leaving this admonition to the end where you might miss it, here is what you need to do.  (See my post on focusing on local and state action where one of the targets of your political action should be mayors!)

First, try to get your paper to do a study like this one about your local education department, the place where a negative impact on your community usually shows up first.  It is really unusual to see an analysis like this one.  If the paper won’t do it—you should do it!

Then of course use the information to ‘educate’ your elected officials.

Here is the Times-Tribune:

Scranton classrooms seat more students today than they have in at least 25 years. With 10,222 students enrolled as of last week, the district is also experiencing:

Low-income enrollment of 82.5 percent. The number is the highest in the region and up from 60 percent in 2010.

Mayor of Scranton
Democrat Mayor Bill Courtright: we welcome everyone (who will become Democrat voters!) to Scranton even as we go deeper into debt and might have our school system taken over by the state. (He didn’t really say that last part!)  http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/global-tastes-dinner-welcomes-congolese-refugees-1.2107781

A record-high population of students requiring special education services. As of last week, nearly 23 percent of children are classified as special education students — up from 19 percent just three years ago.

A record-high enrollment of 902 students requiring English as a second language services, now called English learners, or EL. That number could climb to 1,000, or about 10 percent of the population, by the end of the year.

The growth creates unique issues, such as staffing and resources, as the district faces a deficit expected to reach $40 million by the end of the year.

“As a public school district, we are required to serve all our students, and to provide a quality education for all,” said Superintendent Alexis Kirijan, Ed.D.

[….]

District demographics mirror the city’s population. Scranton’s population has increased 1.5 percent from 2010, to 77,291, according to U.S. Census estimates released earlier this year.

The district now must educate more students as it faces growing financial problems. The state put the district on “financial watch” status in June, the first in a series of steps that could eventually lead to a takeover by a state receiver.

[….]

As enrollment increases, so do the number of students who speak a language other than English. Scranton students speak 36 different languages, and as of last week, 902 students received English support, or about 9 percent of the total population.

Some of those students escaped from war-torn countries, as their families sought a better life in the United States. Through the refugee resettlement program of Catholic Social Services, 140 refugee children were students in the Scranton School District during the 2016-17 school year. Students include former residents of Syria, Bhutan/Nepal, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many lived in refugee camps, without access to education.

[….]

Over the last six years, low-income enrollment in the district has increased by 37 percent. According to data released by the Pennsylvania Department of Education last week, 82.5 percent of students in the district live in low-income households, meaning the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

For a family of four, students qualify for reduced-price meals when the annual family income is below $45,510. The students receive free meals when the annual income is below $31,980. Last year, Scranton became part of a federal program for school districts with high poverty levels, which allows all students, regardless of family income, to eat breakfast and lunch at school for free.

As poverty increases, area social service agencies see more families seeking services.

At United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania, people come in looking for assistance with rent, utilities and other necessities, said Michael Hanley, the organization’s chief executive officer. Many of the jobs available in the area do not offer a wage able to support a family, he said.  [But, they keep pouring in refugees anyway!—ed]

“More and more of the people we see are the working poor,” he said. “They just can’t make it paycheck to paycheck.”

[….]

Languages spoken in the Scranton School District

Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Chinese, Creole, Danish, Dari, English, Farsi, Filipino, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Kannada, Kinyarwanda, Lao, Mandarin Chinese, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Rohingya, Russian, Serbian, Slovak-Polish, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese.

This post is filed in my ‘What you can do’ category.

Polish Catholics celebrate Battle of Lepanto, send a clear message to Islamists

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news….

Poland is a Christian nation and they plan to keep it that way!

Gives me a glimmer of hope for the Catholic Church (at least in Poland!).

Interesting that the BBC would call Polish Catholic celebration for peace yesterday a “controversial” event.

From the BBC:

Tens of thousands have taken part in a controversial prayer day in Poland.

Catholics were encouraged to go to designated points along the country’s borders for a mass rosary prayer for the salvation of Poland and the world.

Lepanto3
https://www.amazon.com/Victory-West-Christian-Muslim-Battle-Lepanto-ebook/dp/B0014XU68S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507464233&sr=1-1&keywords=victory+of+the+west

Church leaders say the event is purely religious, but there are concerns it could be seen as endorsing the state’s refusal to let in Muslim migrants.

The feast day marks the anniversary of a Christian victory over Ottoman Turks at the sea battle of Lepanto in 1571.

People were bussed in from more than 300 churches to points all along the border.

They stood in lines, some on beaches on the Baltic Sea, some in fields and some in towns.

[….]

We want our Catholic faith to continue, to keep our children safe, that our brothers from other countries can understand that our faith is unwavering and that we feel safer, not only in Poland but also in the world.”

[….]

Halina Kotarska, 65, said she was expressing thanks for the survival of her son in a car crash, but also praying for the survival of Christianity in Europe.

“Islam wants to destroy Europe,” she said, quoted by the Associated Press. “They want to turn us away from Christianity.”

Some priests and Church commentators said the event could be seen as support for the government’s refusal to accept Muslim migrants, a policy backed by a majority of Poles.

[…..]

Poland, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic, refused to take part in an EU deal in 2015 to relocate refugees from frontline states Italy and Greece.

The Polish position has put it at odds with the Vatican….

Of course!

More here.

If you want to learn more about this last great sea battle to turn back the Muslim invasion of Europe and about the later land battle at the Gates of Vienna (victory thanks to a Polish king), go here.

The Poles get it! Puzzling how few Europeans (and Americans) can’t grasp the lessons of history.

For my lengthy archive on the Invasion of Europe, click here.

Addendum! What a coincidence that the Poles kicked off their prayer for Europe on the same day US Bishops launched their PR campaign to get Americans’ minds right on more migration to America!