We knew about this facility in Timisoara, Romania, and probably wrote about it before, but this is just one more piece in understanding the UN pipeline of Muslims to America and the West. Where are they picking up these “refugees”—some from Yemeni jails!
2009 ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Timisoara Emergency Transit Center. Eritreans from Libya are among those flowing through the UN facility to the US and other Western countries.
Mohamed is going into the welcoming bosom of Catholic Charities, now (since 2010) the only resettlement agency in Iowa. Will he be resettled in Des Moines where he will add to “Iowa’s cultural tapestry.”
TIMISOARA, Romania, 15 August (UNHCR) – After almost two years in a harsh desert camp on the Egyptian-Libyan border, Mohamed arrived in Timisoara’s Emergency Transit Centre. Although the ETC is only a temporary stop while Mohamed, a 28-year-old Sudanese, and other refugees await moves to new homes in other countries, it is a welcome santuary.
“I was so happy to get here,” said Mohamed, a former veterinary student forced to leave his family behind in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan. “I felt safe! There is water, food and a peaceful place to sleep.” [Sure, he was probably coached to say a profession that would soften up Americans—a vet—my foot!—-And, besides as a Muslim aggressor, this Mohamed was part of the reason there is war in Darfur—ed]
Timisoara gives refugees more than life’s necessities. Mohamed now attends UNHCR-funded English classes in preparation for his imminent resettlement to the U.S. state of Iowa.
The ETC is a safe-haven where refugees are assured six-months protection while they complete the procedures necessary for resettlement, including interviews with officials from countries accepting them; providing photographs and fingerprints; undergoing medical checks and psychological counselling; and learning the languages of their new homes.
A former prisoner in Yemen, Ali Osman, is going to Finland:
Ali Osman, a 20-year-old Eritrean, spent two terrifying years in a Yemeni jail with other Eritreans for illegal entry before UNHCR was able to gain their release. “I was in prison with murderers,” Ali said as he headed to a Finnish class to prepare for a new life in the Nordic country.
Erie has received 4,989 refugees since 2001, Springfield, MA ‘only’ 1,712. Why aren’t the citizens of Erie squawking?
Since we are on the subject of Bosnians (see previous post on the Des Moines sex abuse case) and since a reader (pungentpeppers) alerted us to the news last week from the “preferred” resettlement city Erie, PA, I’m posting this tragic story as a lead-in to a discussion of the Limon family business of resettling refugees in Erie. Why Erie?
Here is the sad story from last week (via the UK Daily Mail). Why is it that some of the most interesting stories don’t make much news in the US, but instead one can pick them up in the UK press? Let me be clear, this sort of thing can happen to any family, the ethnicity of the family has nothing to do with a kid gone wrong, but it does give us an opportunity to discuss Erie!
Bosnian refugee family’s SUV was driven by unlicensed 15-year-old. AP Photo
Little Emir Zilkic died in a car crash on Tuesday after his 15-year-old sister lost control of the family SUV after taking it without permission.
Eight-year-old Emir was riding with his two older siblings, the unlicensed driver and a 14-year-old girl, near their home in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night.
The teenage driver had sneaked away with the large 4-by-4 and was taking her younger siblings and two friends to McDonald’s when the car came off the road just four blocks from the family home.
Witnesses said the vehicle was speeding when it started rolling, and then flipped through the air.
At least three of the children were thrown out of the car as it flew through the air, but two were pinned underneath as it landed, Erie County Police said
Emir Zilkic was pronounced dead at the scene just after 9.30pm. The 15-year-old driver, their 14-year-old sister and two other children, a boy aged ten and a girl, 14, were taken to hospital.
The girl behind the wheel suffered a back injury and her sister a broken arm and internal bleeding, their mother Alma Zilkic told GoErie.
‘They say she was speeding, like 80 miles per hour, and lost control. And (Emir’s) gone,’ she told the paper.
The family, who hail from Bosnia, has lived in Erie for 14 years and Mrs Zilkic said the accident has hit them hard.
She added that she does not blame her daughter for the accident, as the Erie police continue the investigation of the scene of the crash.
So, why was Erie targeted as a preferred community for Refugee Resettlement?
Readers may recall Erie made the pages of RRW just ten days ago when neighbors cleaned up the yard of a Somali refugee woman who apparently has no husband (or no husband willing to do yard work), here.
All in the family!
We mentioned in that recent post that a few years back, the International Institute of Erie had some funny money problemsand the resettlement agency director was unceremoniously led from the office by Peter Limon (apparently Lavinia’s brother!). An audit at the time indicated the organization was in deep financial do-do and unlikely to survive. But, they have survived and are pouring the refugees into Erie to this day.
Go to the staff page, here, and scroll down from Lavinia to Peter. If you are just arriving here at RRW for the first time, Lavinia is President of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), one of the nine major federal contractors. The Erie office is a subcontractor. Lavinia has actively used the revolving door as she moved from contractor to ORR Director for Clinton (handing out your money) and then back to contractor (receiving your money). USCRI receives 94% of its funding from you, the taxpayer. You pay her over $200,000 annual salary and benefits too!
According to a comment at Friends of Refugees,here, a former employee of USCRI said they had a saying:
Peter Limon is Lavinia Limon’s brother. It’s a family operation all right. I’m a former employee. As we used to say, “When life gives you Limones, …keep your head down and don’t ask questions…or else…”
By even large city standards, Erie is being swamped with refugees from approximately 33 countries (see below), and what I want to know is where the heck do they work, or do they work at all in a mid-sized US city with no major meat packing company (that I know of!)? In fiscal year 2013 (to the end of July), Erie had received 471 refugees, in 2012 it was 773, 2011 (783) and in 2010 it was 654.
Now, I’ve brought you all this way to tell you I have no answers. I don’t know why Erie was targeted for resettlement (still is) and I don’t know why complaints haven’t reached our desk. Maybe a reader can give us the answers, until then we must assume that everything is copacetic in “welcoming” Erie! Or, no one is brave enough to speak up!
For some comparison the top five resettlement cities (since 2001) for Pennsylvania are:
Philadelphia: 6,782
Pittsburgh: 3,283
Erie: 4,989
Lancaster: 2,495
Harrisburg: 1,310
Here is the diversity USCRI has brought to Erie over the years. Refugees from the following countries:
Afghanistan
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Bhutan
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Burma
Burundi
Central African Republic
Croatia
Cuba
Dem. Rep. Congo
Egypt
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Iran
Iraq
Kyrgyzstan
Lebanon
Liberia
Moldova
Nepal
Russia
Rwanda
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sudan
Syria
Togo
Uganda
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Nashville: Legislative Plaza where citizens will reassert their State’s rights on Wednesday, August 21st. Tennessee patriots need you there!
Update August 22nd: Here is the first reportI’m seeing about yesterdays meeting. More later I hope. Hereis The Tennessean story. More later!
Update August 20th: Open borders gang plans to be there in force, here. Also, apologies—I had said in my earlier version of this post that the big meeting is Thursday, that’s wrong it is Wednesday (tomorrow!).
Tennessee is likely the first state in the Nation to set up a model plan for regaining its State’s rights.
Surely some other states are doing their best to begin to wrest control from an over-reaching federal government, but none are coming out of the chute attempting to get under control the federal Refugee Resettlement Program where the US State Department and non-governmental contractors have foisted on the states the cost of caring for destitute people from the third world.
When the framers crafted the 10th Amendment, they surely never dreamed Washington would encroach on the states to the extent it has.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
And surely, the framers could never have imagined a Federal Refugee program placing a financial and social burden on the citizens of certain states.
History will be made on Wednesday, August 21st in Nashville, TN
Below is an action alert from the Tennessee Eagle Forum which I’m posting in its entirety (emphasis is mine).
First for background on the new legislative committee:
Legislators and their constituents have long expressed concerns about the interactions and affects of federal actions on the manner in which our state government operates, or which could have a potential impact on the rights and privileges of the citizens of Tennessee.
Many had been wrestling for some time with the best way to address this very important issue of providing an established venue to examine these actions.
Rep. Judd Matheny (who came up with idea) and Sen. Mike Bell, Chairmen of the respective Senate and House Government Operations Committees went to the respective speakers seeking their support to establish a subcommittee of the Joint Government Operations Committee that would be authorized to review both introduced and enacted federal legislation, rules and regulations and executive orders, then report any relevant findings to the speakers, members of the General Assembly and Congressional delegation. Then decisions could be made about what actions might be appropriate moving forward.
Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and Speaker Beth Harwell agreed to this plan and the subcommittee was established. As far as we know, Tennessee is the first state to provide this kind of venue for the review of federal actions. We can only hope that other states will follow our lead! You can read the letter of authorization HERE.
Members of this committee are:
Rep. Judd Matheny, Chairman, Rep. John Ragan, Rep. Joe Carr, Rep. Josh Evans, Rep. Mike Turner, Sen. Mike Bell, Sen. Janice Bowling, Sen. Ferrell Haile, Sen. Thelma Harper, Sen. Jim Summerville.
This joint committee will hold their FIRST meeting on August 21st, at 9:00 am in Room 16 at Legislative Plaza. It is VITAL that we demonstrate support for the important work of this committee by filling the room with folks that support the 10th Amendment.The first issue that the committee will take up is the FEDERAL COST SHIFTING OF THE REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM. Please make your plans to attend!!
Refugee Resettlement has been a hot-button issue and glaring example of where Tennesseans believe the federal government has gone too far.
The Tennessee Eagle Forum alert continues:
At what level of taxpayer support for an entity do we stop calling that entity a “non-government organization” or a “religious nonprofit”?
Revenue in 2011 for Migration and Refugee Services, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) refugee contracting arm, was more than $72 million, about 98 percent of which came from the taxpayer in the form of government grants or federal contracts. Would it surprise anyone to find it subject to the same incentives and laws of behavior that have driven federal contractors since the birth of the republic?
USCCB’s main source of contracts and grants comes from refugee resettlement. The U.S. resettles nearly three times the refugees as the rest of the industrialized world combined, and the USCCB wants that number increased.
According to a recent report from the Washington think tank Migration Policy Institute (MPI), publicly funded private resettlement agencies, USCBB being the largest of nine, “meet with state and local agencies on a quarterly basis regarding the opportunities and services available to refugees in local communities and the ability of these communities to accommodate new arrivals. They also consult with the state refugee coordinator on placement plans for each local site. … If a state opposes the plan, the State Department will not approve it.” [LOL! In theory!—ed}
A July 2012 GAO reportwas a little more real world than the MPI report stating that “Most resettlement agencies … consult with some public entities such as state refugee coordinators; however, most public entities such as public schools and health departments generally said that agencies notified them of the number of refugees expected to arrive in the coming year, but did not consult them regarding the number of refugees they could serve…”
Both reports assume a state government role in the resettlement process. The state refugee coordinator evaluates the plans of the private contractors, representing the interests of the taxpayer in the process. That’s the way it is supposed to work, in theory.
In Tennessee, however, the state refugee coordinator is an employee of Catholic Charities, an affiliate of USCCB.Resettlement of the U.N.-selected refugees is Tennessee Catholic Charities’ largest mission and largest revenue item by far.
In 2008, Gov. Phil Bredesen thought he was streamlining the process and saving money by outsourcing the state coordinator function to the contractor. Instead, he gave up the opportunity for the state to have any input in a process that affects the state and set up a textbook illustration of a conflict of interest.
The annual cost of the program to Tennesseans went up immediately after the state handed over the position of state refugee coordinator. Today, Metro Nashville alone resettles more refugees than each of 29 states in the U.S.
Read on! This is the op-ed published by Don Barnett in The Tennessean ten days ago.
If you are anywhere near Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday, please give your support to the work of the citizen activists and attend this important and history-making event!
For more information on Tennessee, and Nashville specifically, please see our “Nashville” category. And, be sure to visit this post from this past February about how the contractors, the US State Department, and the religious Left are busy turning ‘red’ states ‘blue’ by changing the demographic make-up of its citizens.
African refugee witnesses got cold feet, were “terrified” to testify against Burundian man.
Diversity is beautiful update! We first reported the arrest of Aloys Nzeyimana here in 2010. I made a point then of mentioning that the man’s nationality was not published, but from this report we know now he is from Burundi.
The case involving a former interpreter who was charged with one count of indecency with a child, two counts of sexual assault and one count of burglary was dismissed Monday due to the lack of cooperation of witnesses and alleged victims with the district attorney’s office.
As it stands right now, Aloys Nzeyimana, a native of Burundi in central Africa, is not charged with anything. When he was first arrested in December 2010, Nzeyimana was a translator for the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District, working mostly with African refugees.
He speaks English, French and Russian in addition to three African languages. Nzeyimana’s trial was supposed to have started Monday.
“We knew there would be an issue with the refugee community (in Abilene) because they sort of have an inherent distrust of authority coming from their background in their home countries, so we knew it would be a difficult case,” Taylor County Assistant District Attorney Dan Joiner said Monday. “But the (Abilene) police did a very good job and spent many, many hours talking with them, but we knew that when it came to trial, there’s going to be an issue of the alleged victims coming forward.”
Everyone is too “terrified” to testify. Here is another report, this time from Big Country, where a reporter tries in vain to get someone to talk—most pretend they don’t understand English.
For new readers! Texas is the second largest refugee “welcoming” state after California. From 2007-2013, they “welcomed” over 40,000 refugees to the Red state that the Left is attempting to turn Blue, here, through demographic change. Click here to have a look at where your state ranks.
‘Paki’ arrested in the disappearance of Somali baby in bucolic Pennsylvania where the likes of Church World Service is changing America.
Here is another Somali in Pennsylvania story (see Erie earlier today) this time one with an apparently sad ending. A Pakistani man is under arrest for kidnapping his Somali girl friend’s baby. Authorities near York, PA are searching for the 7-month-old, but are not hopeful of finding him alive.
Here is how the article in the Philadelphia Inquirerbegins, but please read the whole sorry tale. (Hat tip: pungentpeppers)
A PAKISTANI NATIVE who a source said is on the FBI’s terrorist-watch list kidnapped his girlfriend’s baby from an Upper Darby home Sunday and may have killed the 7-month-old and buried his lifeless body along a rural roadside in York, police said.
Ummad Rushdi, 30, has been charged with kidnapping and related offenses after he was arrested early yesterday at his home in York. The baby, Hamza Ali, was last seen alive Saturday night and hasn’t been found, said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.
“Our hope is that the child is alive, but the reality of the investigation thus far . . . is that the baby is probably dead,” Chitwood said.
The baby’s mother, Zainab Gaal, 20, who was born in Somalia and raised in Yemen, began dating Rushdi just three or four weeks ago, police said. Gaal and her son were already living with Rushdi and his brother at their home in York, police said. Authorities didn’t immediately know when Gaal came to the United States, and did not know the whereabouts or identity of her child’s father.
For more information on the Somali woman, the police and reporters should check with the US State Department and the Refugee Resettlement contractors operating in Pennsylvania. Off the top of my head, the major contractors in PA include Church World Service, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (yes, they resettle Muslims too), US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. One of them will surely know where to reach this woman’s baby’s father or her extended family. Almost all Somalis in the US came in through Refugee Resettlement or the chain migration related to it.
****update**** We hear that the young mother is from Lewiston, Maine. So, check with Catholic Charities (primary refugee contractor bringing Somalis to Maine) up there to see if they will help find her family.
Last week, the three adults and baby Hamza traveled to Upper Darby to stay with Rushdi’s parents at their well-kept stone rowhouse on Chestnut Street near Powell Lane, police said.
Several days before the kidnapping, Rushdi allegedly hurt the baby’s shoulder, Chitwood said. Gaal wanted to take Hamza to the hospital because she feared his shoulder may have been broken, but Rushdi and his parents wanted to “self-medicate” the boy, Chitwood said.
On Sunday morning, Gaal and Rushdi’s family awoke to find Rushdi and Hamza missing, police said. Rushdi’s brother began to relay calls between Rushdi and Gaal, saying that the baby was fine and that Rushdi would return him to Upper Darby, Chitwood said.
Read on for the rest of what the police think may have happened…..
For new readers, Pennsylvania is the 11th state in the list of states receiving the largest number of refugees with 14,365 having been sent there by the US State Department between 2007 and 2013. See where your state ranks by clicking here.
