Immigration fueling rise in US population

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m planning to write more on this topic later today (hopefully), but just saw this and thought you might find it interesting.  The Washington Times is reporting on the latest Census Bureau figures.

A new immigrant — legal or illegal — is expected to enter the United States every 30 seconds by January, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

______

The agency estimates this foreign influx will increase the total U.S. population by one person every 13 seconds.

______

Immigrants were responsible for more than one-third of an estimated nationwide population growth of almost 2.87 million between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, according to a census report released this week.

Go to the article here and check out the top 10 states with the greatest increase in population.  A quick glance tells me they are states with high refugee resettlement numbers too.

More on special government deals for refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars: 

Thanks again for the Shelbyville sleuthing by both paper and its readers.  Hat tip to Blulitespecial (again!).  Here is a link to the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s special deals for refugees.  If you go to our category ‘where to find information’ we had previously written about how refugees can get cars, houses and businesses with special government savings programs and microenterprise loans.

However, I don’t think we have ever written about the Employment Subsidy Program.

The Employment Subsidy Program assists refugees who have experienced long-term difficulties with assimilation. The program increases rates of refugee employment and decreases rates of refugee welfare utilization by providing employment services to unemployed refugees and wage subsidies to employers who hire refugees.

This is a lead in to another sentence in this ORR report, but it pretty much sums up the problem for American citizens who question the use of their tax dollars to bring the world to America.

ORR, seeking to assure that refugees are welcomed in their U.S. communities of resettlement with sufficient services to begin their new lives…..

…..will have all sorts of government goodies available to them (that’s my ending to the sentence).  In our public meeting in Hagerstown last fall this was of the greatest concern to those questioning refugee resettlement:  what about our own jobless, poor and elderly?

We have a whole category called ‘September forum’ about the Hagerstown public meeting on refugees. If  you want to follow it, please start reading at the earliest post in that category.

Last year: Group called for reform of Refugee Program for African Muslims

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The series that ran this past week in the Shelbyville Times-Gazette has brought to light many new pieces of information that we weren’t aware of.   After a lengthy and powerful explanation the Pipeline News. org and the Militant Islam Monitor came to the following conclusion over a year ago (and long before others of us began looking into the whole issue of refugee resettlement.)  Read the whole document here.    Summary below:

Looking at the totality of the evidence in this matter a number of aspects stand out:

1. In general, American society has made a tremendous effort to accommodate tens of thousands of these Somali refugees and their perceived needs into the mainstream, offering them jobs suitable to their skill level along with housing, social welfare assistance and a cultural support structure.

2. For its part the federal government has expended hundreds of millions of dollars on plucking these people from East Africa, most likely rescuing them from early death. It has taken extraordinary steps to be understanding and accepting of the refugee’s culture and religion.

3. Unfortunately, in large part many of these refugees seem to have less than total devotion to the idea of actually becoming Americans as distinct from Somalis who happen to be currently sojourning here.

4. In many cases American hospitality has been repaid with a refusal by the Somalis to integrate into the larger society that hosts them, bringing lawsuits and allying themselves with radical Islamist organizations.

5. In fact many Somali Americans seem be intent on reproducing nothing more than “little Mogadishus” wherever they have been resettled.

________

The track record of America’s Somali refugees so far suggests that these people are largely unappreciative of the stunning commitment which has been made to them by the people of the United States.

_________

We therefore strongly recommend that the U.S. Dept. of State reevaluate the entire refugee program as it applies to both Somalia and also to other African Muslim countries.

_______

What has been demonstrated so far is that – for whatever reasons be they cultural or religious – the Somali refugees who have been granted asylum here, are unwilling to live as full citizens, demonstrating a singular lack of commitment to making the necessary accommodations that are required to live in a pluralist, secular Western society.

Linked in the above document is a reference to a booklet on how to understand Muslim refugees.  I came across this once before but had forgotten about it.  It is worth looking at.

Pro Bono American lawyers working in Iraq

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I came across this the other day and don’t know its full import, but throw this out to those of you following the Iraqi refugee issue.   I was surprised to see such a large effort going on behind the scenes to get Iraqis here (and it doesn’t sound like they are focusing on the truly persecuted Christians!).   My atennae went up when these immigration lawyers called their work a “paradigm shift in refugee resettlement.”

The violent complexity that is Iraq includes professionals now fleeing their country in fear of tormentors who consider the assistance they gave American lawyers and other U.S. government officials in Baghdad during the trial of Saddam Hussein to be a holy crime, akin to that of collaborating with Christian crusaders of centuries past.

_____

Until the cause of the tormented became the pro bono passion of attorneys Eric A. Blinderman of New York and Christopher Nugent of Washington, D.C., these Iraqi refugees were left to the common cruelties of the Middle East and a painfully slow response to their plight from the U.S. government.

_____

“If I may say so, we’ve created a paradigm shift in refugee resettlement,” said Mr. Nugent, 40, senior counsel with Holland & Knight’s community services team and a veteran immigration lawyer.

______

By a combination of law and custom, he explained, refugees are not allowed to have attorneys present during their multiple interviews before a battery of officials, beginning with United Nations agencies and ending up with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

______

“But we send correspondence, and it’s accepted,” said Mr. Nugent. “We’re not going to insist on our presence at interviews, but we are accepted as counsel of record. We prepare our clients for these interviews.”

______

Mr. Nugent and Mr. Blinderman have, in turn, recruited a total of 100 lawyers from their respective firms to aid those trying to escape Iraq, and those detained by authorities in neighboring states where torture is common – Syria, Jordan and Egypt in particular.

As you read down the article you will see they also praise the Kennedy (Bring More Iraqis to American Sooner Than Later) bill that was likely signed into law by President Bush this week attached to the Defense Authorization bill.  *Note:  As of noon time (12/28), Fox News is reporting that Bush will veto the Defense Authorization Bill.

And, finally this sealed my suspicion that maybe this wasn’t such a good thing.  Referring to an Iraqi translator working for the lawyers, Blinderman is quoted:

Ibrahim’s salary, said Mr. Blinderman, is provided by an anonymous donor.

Who?  The State Department?  Volags?  CAIR?  Some Islamic “charity”?   Refugees International?  Ted Kennedy? The Saudis?  Grover Norquist or David Keene?    Actually I’m getting silly, but why can’t we know?