President Trump may be admitting new Somalis to the US every day, but at least the Administration is arresting those here illegally.
No time to say much about it, but want readers to see this storyfrom Georgia (hat tip: Joanne):
Federal immigration authorities have started arresting Somali nationals in parts of DeKalb and Gwinnett counties that have long been havens for newcomers, including in Clarkston, according to African advocacy groups.
Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry welcoming new mosque!
The arrests came after Somalia’s U.S. ambassador recently told Voice of America his embassy has learned that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to deport about 4,000 of his countrymen. ICE confirmed that, as of last week, there were 4,801 Somalis in the U.S. who have been ordered removed. The vast majority of them are not being detained.
Until about a year ago, according to ICE, U.S. authorities could not get travel documents to deport people to Somalia, which has endured persistent deprivation and violence. Since Oct. 1, ICE has deported 237 Somalis, according to federal figures through April 1.
[….]
Omar Shekhey, the executive director for the Somali American Community Center in Clarkston, said as many as 10 Somalis have been arrested in Clarkston, Stone Mountain and in Gwinnett this week alone. He worries they could be deported to Somalia, which is now in the grips of a deadly drought. Those who have been arrested have been in the U.S. for many years, Shekhey said.
[….]
Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry said he is looking into ICE’s activities in his city, adding he is worried how the arrests could impact the relationships between immigrants and refugees and local police.
See my previous post on Somali deportations, here.
Reader Mr. Parker has sent us this news from Clarkston (below). We previously mentioned what had happened to the town that was memorialized in the warm and fuzzy book—“Outcasts United”.
Debris from a condominium, left, in Brannon Hill (near Clarkston) remains five years after it was leveled. Units in several buildings, right, are in such poor repair that they have been boarded up for years. No money because area populated by Somalis says accompanying story. Photos by Andrew Cauthen
You might want to see what the General Accounting Office said about community overload in a reportthat came out in July 2012. Clarkston is given as an example of how communities aren’t properly warned or prepared (see page 12-14). Indeed no one really knew what was happening beginning in the 1990’s when refugees began “finding their way” to the town. GAO tells us obliquely that one of the reasons the resettlement contractors don’t properly alert local governments and other “stakeholders” about the arrival of refugees is that they fear the local governments (and citizens generally) will object!
Is Georgia one of those red states being turned blue by demographics? According to the 2009 ORR Annual Report to Congress (the most recent report we have due to ORR breaking the law and not producing the 2010, 2011, or 2012 reports!) Georgia was in the top ten states for refugee resettlement. The total number of resettled refugees for 2009 was 3,258 (number does not include secondary migrants!) which doesn’t come close to the enormous numbers that went to California, Texas, and New York for example.
From that report we learned that only 24% of Georgia refugees able and willing to work found employment that year (down from 45% in FY 2008). And, 51% of Georgia’s refugees are on some form of welfare (in California 80% are on welfare!).
Clarkston moratorium (on new resettlement, secondary migrants still coming)
This is what Mr. Parker (who helps refugees assimilate and survive in the Atlanta area) reported yesterday in response to my post onRed States turning Blue. He says the Bhutanese/Nepalese are turning the area around Clarkston into Little Nepal and will improve it.
Thought you may want to know that Georgia is reducing refugee resettlement by 20% and the city of Clarkston essentially asked for a moratorium.
The agencies agreed to only place folks in Clarkston if they already have relatiives there, as the city feels their resources are overextended.. What they do not realize is that many Bhutanese are moving to Clarkston from other states to be with family and because of the desire to be in the largest Bhutanese Nepali community in the US. We even had refugees from suburban Roswell with great schools and low crime move to Clarkston. As an experiment one agency placed 6 Bhuatanese in Roswell. Three have moved to Clarkston and one is going to Pennsylvania. What is ignored by the politicians is that there is a great economic benefit in Clarkston due to new ethnic businesses and that many families are buying homes in the area and utilizing stores in Clarkston.
If refugees are not placed in Clarkston, then there will be tons of empty apartment as whites will not move there and it becomes an African American ghetto. Also many refugees live in unincorporated DeKalb Count with a Clarkston address. Yes-our area is becoming a little Nepal,but there has been minimal crime committed by this population although some of the young men (5) have committed burglaries. No food stamp frauds either.
People also move to Atlanta for a better climate more similar to Nepal, a low cost of living and the truly international mix here. I am not surprised that other Southern cities are popular as it is no different then the rush by non refugees to the south over the last 20 years. I do not see any conspiracy by the way, I think the fact that is cheaper to live in Republican Southern states is the reason for placements and migration
On a sad note we had another Bhutanese suicide* in Clarkston-second in 3 months and 21st in the US. A young father stabbed himself to death. He was being evicted and was outstanding with rent for 3 months. He had gambling and drinking issues. He was Christian and his church was helping but no one saw this coming. The suicide rate amongst Nepali Bhutanese is twice the US average and was high in the camps.
There was actually a conference call with ORR on this issue on the same day that he died. Very hard to know how to predict/prevent this and suicides seem to be limited to this community mainly because of concerns about money, loss of community, family displacement all over the US and lack of language and awful jobs in the chicken plants, replacing Hispanics who left.
The photo is from this storyabout how the refugees flooding into Clarkston in previous years have driven out the white residents and brought more poverty and decay. I first wrote about it here. Don’t expect to see any balanced reporting any time soon in the mainstream media (including on Fox News) on changing demographics through refugee resettlement.
* We have written about the high Bhutanese suicide rate here. Culture shock? Twenty years of being cared for by the UN in camps in Nepal (in their own culture) didn’t prepare them for the joys of American cheap apartment living, bills to pay (like those airfare loans) and meatpacker employment. Does it ever occur to the wizards at the State Department (Asst. Secretary of State for PRM in 2007, Ellen Sauerbrey, announced that we would take 60,000 Bhutanese over 5 years, a number we have already surpassed) that some people are better off being left in their own cultures and may not survive in America?
