Let employers pay for ESL instruction

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

     Your tax dollars:

     Since we want reform of US immigration policy (and Refugee Resettlement), this is an afterthought to yesterday’s post about the cost to the taxpayer for English instruction  for adult immigrants.  Let the employers pay!

     Why not?   I think its a brilliant idea.   All these factories and meat processing plants etc. could just hire an ESL teacher.   Afterall, they are the ones to benefit from the cheap labor.  Many companies are sending human resources people and NGO types to refugee camps scouting for potential employees and that must cost some serious money.

     In the workday there would  be a time set aside in each shift for an hour of English instruction.   And, then one would not even have the problem we see in Washington County of transporting the refugees to English classes.   Fuel would be conserved and the environment protected.   Presumably the business would have an incentive to assure that English was being learned because they would be paying for it.    ESL teachers would get jobs too.  Its a win-win situation all around!

We need more of your money!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

     The opening sentence of a Washington Post article on August 1, boldly stated:

  “Spending on English instruction must be quadrupled to more than $4 billion a year for the next six years to make legal and illegal adult immigrants proficient in skills crucial to their assimilation and the economic future of a country whose population is increasingly foreign born….”

This is according to a new national report from the Migration Policy Institute, a pro-immigration non-profit group.

        They say we currently spend $1 billion a year on ESL instruction for adults and that is not enough.   The report also states this little nugget:  the population of the US with limited English grew from 14 million in 1990 to more than 23 million in 2005.  I’m betting its higher than that because we don’t even know how many illegal aliens are here.

       The Post article concludes with a  comment about how learning English is good for business.  Yes, I guess it’s kind of hard to give instructions to the cheap factory labor when they don’t understand a word being said, could be kind of dangerous too.   

         Here is what I’ve heard happens with refugees and their ESL lessons.  First, they are not required to attend.  If they have a class at the local community college (paid for by you) and something more interesting comes up, like a group day trip, they don’t show up for class.  Then there is the problem of classes of Muslim men and women where the men intimidate the women into silence.  Not a good learning environment.     Since they have no baby sitters to watch the kids, the kids come along too which makes instruction more difficult.

     If the refugee is from some African countries, they often are completely illiterate so instructors can’t start with a book.  One must start teaching as if the person was in kindergarten, with simple materials.  So, it will be a long difficult haul.

     Refugees from some parts of the world are heavy smokers and skip out of class frequently to light up.   And, since many of these NGO contractors are keeping a tight rein on the budget, transportation to the local college is often limited.   This is where the NGO contractors are not doing their job, they are not lining up enough volunteer help.

       And, finally, there is such a push to get the refugees working (and granted we all want them working rather than continuing on welfare), that when jobs come along, usually factory jobs with odd shifts, the English lessons go by the wayside.

       So, I guess all that means we need to spend more money.

       When you start researching Refugee Resettlement in your state, ask your state Refugee office about what it costs for ESL classes where you live.

Update on yesterday’s Iraqi refugee drumbeat

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

         Thanks to the Center for Vigilant Freedom for analyzing the bill (HR2265) being promoted by so-called conservative leaders in Washington (see our post yesterday) that would vastly increase the numbers of Iraqi Muslim refugees that would be allowed into the US.  In addition, the bill would have far-reaching implications for immigration policy and national security, not to mention the fact that it completely undermines our war effort and the present surge strategy by admitting defeat.

        To learn more about this far-reaching legislation read Center for Vigilant Freedom here .

Refugee Drumbeat: Signaling our defeat in Iraq

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In previous posts we have written about the Save the Iraqi Refugee drumbeat. Granted the Christian Iraqis will need to be helped, there may no longer be a place for them in their homeland, or at least not for a long time. However, the drumbeat to bring waves of Iraqi Muslim refugees to the US is growing. I had thought it was all from the leftwing media, who say that those who have helped us are in danger for their lives and must be brought to the US for protection – all to signal the voters that the war is lost. It’s another argument by the left in their denial that the surge strategy is working…and their denial that entire villages are helping us because it saves their lives.

In this June/July exchange of Letters to the Washington Post, Julia Taft likens the Iraqi situation to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, responded with this Letter in which she says that Iraq is not like Vietnam because the war is not over!

But, you know the old saying “with friends like these, who needs enemies.” President Bush needs to take heed, because so-called friendly Conservative leaders in Washington may be the ones beating those drums to bring Iraqi refugees here, maybe from compassion – and maybe more, to signal the voters that they should lobby Congress against letting the surge strategy work.

Refugee Resettlement Watch received a forwarded email, with an attached draft letter (below in entirety) that may reveal who is behind the drumbeat to open the floodgates to Iraqi refugees. We can’t disclose the source of the email forwarded to us. However, our source alleged that they had received the email from someone in Grover Norquist’s office. Norquist is the once-respectable conservative (Americans for Tax Reform) who has since become a major apologist for the Islamist Lobby according to Paul Sperry in his book Infiltration, and founder of the anti-surge, pro-defeat lobbying group American “Conservative” Defense Alliance.

The source also alleged that the email included this line: “If you are interested in signing on to this letter, please contact David Keene at keened@carmengroup.com with your signature and logo.” That would be David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union and also a lobbyist with the Carmen Group in Washington, D.C. Keene spoke recently at a rally sponsored by ACLU and the extreme leftwing “United for Peace and Justice,” opposing Bush administration policies for homeland defense. For more on Keene’s retreat from conservatism into Islamism, see here and here.

The file attachment was named “wedletterdraft.com”. Norquist is known for holding a Wednesday weekly meeting that includes lobbyists such as Keene.

Here is the letter’s text in entirety:

Letter to Members on Iraqi Supporters of U.S.C.

—

We are writing to you today to express our support for legislation that would allow Iraqi citizens to come to the United States as refugees if they can prove that they are in immanent danger of being killed because they have worked with our forces.

—

Regardless of how one feels about the war in Iraq, we believe it is vitally important that that we as a nation provide a resettlement opportunity for those Iraqis who have risked their lives and placed themselves in danger by assisting the coalition forces.

—

This is not and cannot be allowed to become a partisan issue. Our Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, recently wrote a memo home arguing that the US is losing the ability to recruit talented Iraqis to work with us because of the real possibility that once they join us and put their lives at risk, they will be abandoned to the tender mercies of our enemies and theirs for their trouble. As a result, many Iraqis who might otherwise come out and join us in our effort to rid their country of terrorists are reluctant to do so.

—

Their number includes the thousands of Iraqis who have worked with our forces as interpreters and who as a result have already been branded by extremists within Iraq as enemies who must be killed to discourage others from working with us. We owe those who work with and for us a debt both of gratitude and loyalty and it is imperative that they and those who we hope will join us know that we do not forget our friends.

—

Given the situation in which these friends of the United States find themselves, we believe Congress should pass and the executive branch should implement legislation that would allow those who find themselves in this situation and who can prove that their lives are, in fact, in danger because of their assistance to us to come here.

—

This would not open the gates to a flood of Iraqis fleeing the uncertainty and general danger within which they live today, but would allow them to escape an intolerable situation in which they as individuals find themselves because they came to our aid when we needed them.

—

Legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to address this issue. HR 2265, introduced by Congressmen Blumenauer and Shays in the House, and S. 1651 introduced by Senators Kennedy and Smith in the Senate that would provide emergency resettlement options for these Iraqi friends of the United States.

—

This legislation should be passed with the support of leaders of both parties.

Hey guys, the war is not over! Granted we should make every effort to protect those who have helped us by supporting them financially in the countries where they have settled; it shouldn’t be left completely up to Iraq’s neighbors. We need to support our friends in Iraq by winning this war. Frankly the best and brightest would presumably want to see Iraq rebuilt, especially with the surge beginning to work. Large areas of the country are now secure. We know in the past people have moved back when security is established.

Why would the President of Americans for Tax Reform want to further burden our taxpayers? And who is David Keene’s lobbying client at the Carmen Group that required him to use his lobbyist email address rather than his email address as head of the American Conservative Union? That just seems strange to me, like an appearance at least of a conflict of interest.

Any of you have answers to what is going on here? Could someone analyze those bills mentioned in the letter – do they raise the levels of refugees coming into the country? Check out HR 2265 and S. 1651.

Here’s what puzzles me. It doesn’t seem in the interest of conservatives or even of Norquist or Keene to support bringing a large number of Muslim immigrants into the U.S., and to oppose letting General Petraeus win with the surge strategy. Yet, if this letter is for real, they’re banging the drum on this.

So who is calling the tune?

Kurdish gangs in Nashville?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

     It gets more amazing every day.   We are simply importing the world’s problems here.  Are we nuts?  We have to stop this insanity!    This isn’t new news to some of you, but every time I see stories like these I am embarrassed by my naivete.    Where are our leaders?   

The Kurds, most of whom are Sunni Muslim, come mainly from Turkey, Iraq and Iran but have their own language and culture. Kurdish immigrants have sought refuge in Nashville since the 1970s, creating the largest community of Kurds in an American city, with about 10,000 members, Karadaghi said. More Kurds fleeing persecution came to Nashville in the late 90′. 

 http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul31/0,4670,KurdishGang,00.html 

     Now those cute kids we saw in all the warm and fuzzy articles about Refugee Resettlement are growing up.   You can thank your local  government contractor (aka church group) when the kind of crime described in these articles arrives in your city.

 See this VDare article also:   http://www.vdare.com/walker/070719_kurdish.htm

The National Volags (NGO contractors) are listed here.   These are the major government contractors and each then subcontracts to many more.  If you have a name of a refugee resettlement group, you can do a little research at these sites and find out who your major Volag is.    http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/partners/volunteer.htm

In Hagerstown, MD ours is Church World Services.   Virginia Council of Churches is a subcontractor.