GoFundMe page demonstrates again: US can’t afford more refugees!

08/29/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

What a coincidence, just as I posted my previous report from California about refugees adding poverty to already impoverished areas, here comes more news about refugees who can’t afford housing (Afghans again too). Hat tip:Joanne

It is commendable that citizens may now take up the cause of this mother and son (private charity should be the primary source of support anyway!), but notice this is temporary until this Afghan ‘refugee’ can get her Social Security Disability!

GoFundMe:

We (Chuck Ackerman & Catherine Donnelly) are looking to raise rent for our new neighbors on Cleveland’s west side, a mother and her 14-year-old son who are refugees from Afghanistan. We will call them “Aisha” and “Majid”. Because of the situation they have fled, we’re not using their real names.

As volunteers with refugee settlement agency US Together, we met the family soon after they arrived in the U.S. in December 2016. Aisha is an amazing cook and host while soccer-loving Majid wants to be a doctor someday. Although Aisha is working on her English, Majid uses his great English skills to translate for his mother.

But the violence they left behind has left Aisha with many physical and mental traumas that prevent her from working. As an educated woman, Aisha faced persecution in Afghanistan and bears the scars. Since her medical history has been tough to document, her first application for Social Security Disability was denied.

She is working with a great local lawyer to appeal and we feel they have a strong case. But the appeal is expected to take 12-18 months and in the meantime, the family needs to pay rent.

Their rent is $550 per month, so we are looking to raise $6,600, or 12 months of rent. That said, every cent counts! Each month of rent we can raise will get the family closer to the date they can get the benefits they need to meet their own needs. The next date they need $ for rent is December 1, 2017. We’ll be keeping the fundraiser going until we meet the goal or the family wins their appeal.

As refugee support groups face drastic funding cuts these days, the resources available for families like this one who are already here are dwindling. That’s why we are turning to you for help.

By giving to this fundraiser, you will help this family achieve the peace of mind and breathing room they need for Aisha to work on her health and recovery from trauma and for Majid to focus on succeeding in high school and build the foundation he needs to one day become a doctor and help others. [I don’t want to sound too cynical but I swear in every refugee story there is a kid who wants to be a doctor!—ed]

It’s true that the family has other needs, though this fundraiser is focused on the basics of maintaining their housing. But if you have any ideas or resources you’d like to share or have questions about their other needs, please let us know!

We are so grateful for your support!

Watch this space for updates—we may plan a good, old-fashioned rent party!
Help spread the word!

Bringing poverty to America…..

New readers need to know that when the original Refugee Act of 1980 was debated in Congress, sponsors like Ted Kennedy, promised it was not about importing poverty!

Resettlement contractors like US Together get federal support for the family for about 3 months at which point they drop them like hot potatoes to get ready for their next paying clients.

They actually call them clients!

By the way, US Together is a subcontractor of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society where its CEO makes over $300,000 a year. Sure hope Mark Hetfield is contributing to this poor woman’s rent as he is busy lobbying Congress for more refugees (and trashing Trump!).

Ohio resettlement agency employee talks about his "clients"

05/18/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

His “clients” are refugees admitted to the US in recent months.
Yes! for resettlement agencies paid by your tax dollars, the ‘refugees’ they resettle are “clients.” I think that is a better word than ‘refugee’ since most aren’t legitimate refugees in the first place.

US Together is a subcontracting resettlement agency of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, see here.
Here is a bit of the interview at IdeaStream (All things considered) entitled: Uncertain Future Remains For Northeast Ohio Refugee Resettlement Agencies.
After you listen, I want to give you some facts about what the US Together employee is talking about and on resettlement to Ohio in general.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer yesterday said President Trump’s travel ban order is fully lawful, and he was confident the order would be upheld by an appeals court. The comments came after a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle heard arguments in Hawaii’s challenge to the ban. [As is the case with most reporters, they don’t know the difference between the ‘ban’ and the President’s lawful power under the Refugee Act of 1980 to set refugee admission numbers each fiscal year.—ed]

After the first executive order in January affecting travel from mostly Muslim countries, Northeast Ohio refugee resettlement agencies feared lay-offs and uncertain finances [because they are paid out of the federal treasury!—ed].

Yesterday I spoke with Evan Chwalek with agency Us Together, about how things were going:

CHWALEK: “The way I like to think about it is, there are the things that the judiciary can affect, and the things they can’t affect, and we’ve been able to continue the resettlement process, but because the President has essentially cut the number of refugees admitted to the country in this fiscal year in half, we have fewer refugees to resettle, and unfortunately because of that we had many lay-offs.” [You see how they do this, “cut…in half!” From what, from Obama’s 2017 dream number of 110,000 for a year he would be in the WH for only 3 and a half months!—ed]

GANZER: “How many would you say?”

Hear the whole interview with US Together employee Evan Chwalek here: http://wcpn.ideastream.org/news/uncertain-future-remains-for-northeast-ohio-refugee-resettlement-agencies

CHWALEK: “Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10, I would say, across the Cleveland office, and then we have offices in Toledo and Columbus, as well.” [Chwalek identifies the employees let go as “contractors.”—ed]

GANZER: “And you personally were affected by this. You were laid-off, right?”

CHWALEK: “That’s correct. I was laid-off in February and because of the changes in staff, they actually brought me back on as a full-time employee just three weeks ago.”

GANZER: “Not knowing many of the things that will come through the courts, or what the Administration might do next, what is the mood would you say around Us Together? Is it one of fear, or panic, or optimism?”

CHWALEK: “Fear isn’t the word I’d use. Resiliency comes to mind. Despite the uncertainties of the future, we have to continue offering the day-to-day services to our clients: getting them from medical appointments, applying for Social Security, making sure they understand how to use the bus on the way to work.” [If only poor Americans knew ‘refugee’ “clients” get such “services!”—ed]

[….]

GANZER: “How many families do you think will come to Cleveland this year, projected, would you say?”

CHWALEK: “I don’t really know the answer to that, but I would say somewhere around 175 individuals by the end of this fiscal year, which ends in September.”

GANZER: “In a pre-Trump Administration era, can you compare how many families we can look at?”

CHWALEK: “I look at the arrival sheets, and they are almost completely blank now. We probably had 400 resettled in the last fiscal year, individuals that is.”

[….]

CHWALEK: “We recommend that our clients don’t leave the country.

Chwalek goes on to say they are waiting to see what Trump does for the next fiscal year after admitting that Trump can change the numbers within a fiscal year (either up or down). We too are waiting to see what the Trump State Department does in September when the Presidential Determination is sent to The Hill for FY18.
First, on this last point I snipped above, if a ‘refugee’ is truly a persecuted person, why would he/she leave the safety of America to risk the danger they supposedly escaped?
I went to Wrapsnet to get a feel for the numbers that Chwalek is talking about.
Look up data for Ohio and you can readily see how deceptive they can be to reporters who don’t have their facts in advance.
I went back to FY12 (in the Obama Administration) and found that the average number of refugees admitted to the whole state of Ohio for FY12, 13, 14 and 15 was 2,709 per year. Then the numbers jumped in Obama’s last year as he pushed for the huge increase in Syrians. Ohio “welcomed” 4,194 in FY16 (obviously well above the previous average for 4 years).
So far in FY17 (about 7.5 months) Ohio has received 2,274 refugees. Again the pre-FY16 average for Ohio is 2,709 for the whole year, so they will likely hit their average this year (excluding the anomaly year FY16).
As for numbers for Cleveland/Cleveland Heights, the average resettlement there was about 75 per month during that anomaly year of FY16 and at this moment Cleveland/Cleveland Heights is getting an average of 60 per month—clearly not so far off the FY16 banner year. Chwalek was rehired because the numbers are not that drastically lower and paying “clients” are still coming in, but they don’t want reporters like this guy Ganzer to know that! The story line they are selling is that Trump is bad and the agencies need money (so please give!).
(There are several resettlement contractors in addition to US Together vying for paying “clients” in Ohio so some of those going to Cleveland are clients of other federal contracting agencies.)
For new readers, in 2013, I alerted Ohioans that the big push was on to diversify Cleveland by seeding it with ‘clients’ of federal contracting agencies like US Together and its parent organization the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Is Welcoming America "collaborating" in your town with your elected officials/businesses

06/29/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh boy, the newest buzz word in the refugee industry is “collaboration” (gee, is that what is driving the Twin Falls mayor and council too, they want to be like Boise?).
Here is a story on Cleveland where we are told that the refugees are better off than refugees anywhere else in America! Yes, you got it! The rest of you (200 towns and cities) better shape up!

REfugees welcome Ohio — She doesn’t understand that big businesses and Chambers of Commerce need people like her to shill for them as they need the cheap immigrant labor that refugees supply! Watch Maggie here (and don’t miss the Palestinian activist at the end!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qirFHWtSsr0

And who says Cleveland’s are the best, none other than Refugee Services Collaborative of Greater Cleveland. Go here to see what/who that is! I bet if you researched each group making up the “collaborative” most would be living off your tax dollars.
Read it all!
Go here to read about when Welcoming America first showed up in Cleveland in 2013.

Welcoming America is collaborator-in-chief!

Yesterday a reader sent me an alert from Welcoming America which says the deadline has been extended one week for you to get your grant requests in to them to see if you will be one of the big winners—you will get federal $ to be trained on how to collaborate to make your town the most welcome town it can be!
In the past year, Welcoming America (WA) received an Office of Refugee Resettlement grant to distribute to the those lucky winners who submit the best applications for projects that seek to develop strategies to (LOL! my phrase) ‘mind meld’ your community, to turn it from a town filled with a bunch of hateful unwelcoming redneck boobs to a town filled with love and understanding where multicultural joy reigns supreme for ever and ever.
Here is WA which received just short of $300,000 of your dollars for the project (go to USA Spending.gov). Deadline was this coming Friday (July 1), but has been extended for another week (what? not enough takers?):

Collaborations for Welcoming Refugees Deadline Extended to Friday, July 8

Apply for an exciting new opportunity to advance your local collaborative through customized coaching and training from Welcoming America. Local collaboration shows great promise for coordinating, expanding, and scaling refugee integration and welcome in communities. Many communities such as Boise and Cleveland have had great success in fostering greater community support for refugees through local community collaborations.

Collaborations for Welcoming Refugees participants will receive personalized technical assistance and will connect with and learn from other collaboratives participating in Collaborations for Welcoming Refugees. Whether your collaborative is just starting out or is more seasoned, apply now to be part of this new effort. Learn more and apply for this exciting opportunity by Friday, July. [They obviously left off the 8—ed]

They are called collaboratives in case you missed it.
Go here to see what you have to do to get a fistful of taxpayer dollars to promote the colonization of your town and thus help change the demographic makeup of America so that big businesses/Chambers of Commerce, like the members of Global Cleveland (a member of the Cleveland COLLABORATIVE) can increase their bottom lines!
Note to do-gooders! You and the refugees are being used!
Go here for all of our previous posts on Welcoming America.

Cleveland City Councilman seeing dollar signs for city: "USS Refugee ship is coming to port. Get on."

07/17/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

joe-cimperman — Councilman Joe Cimperman: Hurrah! Here come the third worlders to colonize Cleveland!

Update July 18th: More on Ohio, here.
If you live in Cleveland or any other Rust Belt city this may be the most important article you will read this year (or for years to come). I simply haven’t the time to analyze it all for you, but for any activists concerned with the future of your community, this reporter (Michelle Jarboe McFee) at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer has done her homework.
You now must demand full transparency from local elected officials and if necessary figure out where and how to throw a shoe in the machinery of government! Find out who is going to benefit financially from the re-development in this public-private partnership scheme to colonize Cleveland.

How much does Presidential candidate and Governor John Kasich know about the plan to welcome refugees to Cleveland?

If I lived in Ohio, I would also be trying to find out right now how “welcoming” Governor Kasich has been to this plan. He surely knows about it!
Before you read “Dream neighborhood….,” please go to a story we posted exactly two years ago yesterday about how Welcoming America had come to Cleveland to get this ball rolling.
Somalis will be invited to be part of the “Dream” neighborhood! Will they live in one big happy multicultural melting pot along side Hindu Bhutanese and Christian Ukrainians?

Changing America by changing the people! Story, sounds like a blueprint for Obama’s plan to “seed” your cities and towns with “New Americans.”

Here is how Ms. McFee begins her report at The Plain Dealer (hat tip: Julie).

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Kat Oberst Ledger and her husband, Art, recall when West 48th Street teemed with drug dealers and sounds of gunfire peppered the night. Now their street, near the intersection of Cleveland’s Stockyards and Clark-Fulton neighborhoods, is quiet at sundown. Empty houses sit, windows boarded, awaiting demolition. A hummingbird sanctuary and gardens have sprung up on vacant lots.

During the last decade, the Ledgers say, the neighborhood has improved. It also has emptied out, thanks to foreclosures, abandonment and urban decay. But the Ledgers could be welcoming new neighbors – hailing from places as far-flung as Bhutan, Somalia and Ukraine – over the next few years, if a consortium of community leaders, nonprofit groups and public officials has its way.

These newcomers, refugees fleeing danger or persecution in their home countries, need places to live. Cleveland has plenty of empty homes, many of which could be rehabbed rather than bulldozed if potential landlords knew tenants were on their way. That supply-and-demand equation is the basic premise of the Dream Neighborhood, a plan to reinvigorate a slice of the city’s West Side by appealing to refugees while improving living conditions for existing residents.

On Friday, the Cleveland City Planning Commission will get its first look at this land-use concept, during an introductory presentation at City Hall. At this point, there’s nothing that requires a public vote. There’s no mountain of government money on the table, though councilmen have pushed for more demolition spending to raze the worst eyesores in the neighborhood. But there appears to be city support, from Mayor Frank Jackson on down, for the idea of making Cleveland a more welcoming place, a haven for people forced to leave their home countries.

[….]

Cimperman wants to capture some of those new households and concentrate them near Thomas Jefferson school, chipping away at a citywide vacancy challenge that spans thousands of properties. He envisions a repopulated neighborhood where longtime residents live next door to refugees who help maintain shared gardens, find jobs in the area and start businesses on Clark and Storer avenues, two depleted commercial corridors.

“I’m telling you now,” Cimperman says, conveying his passion for the project with words that can’t be printed in a family newspaper, “the … USS Refugee ship is coming to port. Get on.”

Please read on, this is great reporting (even if you don’t like what you are hearing)!
One big problem—-so where are the jobs?

Cleveland urged to open city’s arms to refugees, even as they come with diseases!

11/03/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve written about Cleveland on several occasions recently as it sits in the cross-hairs of the US State Department and its refugee contractors*** as a prime target for a “welcoming” community for dropping off refugees. In fact, they even sent in federal contractor ‘Welcoming America’ last year to soften up the politicians there.

Remember readers, the refugee resettlement industry is running out of “welcoming” cities and needs to expand those already overloaded or find new locations before citizens catch on!

Here is the latest in an article entitled, ‘Cleveland hosts Refugee Summit, looks to become choice destination for newcomers’ (LOL! they love that sort of terminology—newcomers!).

BTW, one of the ways the refugee industry is attempting to sell resettlement is to say that refugees boost population and the economy in dying cities. What they are really doing is helping slum landlords fill their empty apartments and bring welfare dollars from Washington’s money tree. I wish someone would produce some real economic studies that include the welfare dollars from DC (from federal taxpayers) and the amount of money the refugees send out of Cleveland and America back to their home countries, among other costs, like healthcare.

Dr. Erick Kauffman, chief medical director of Neighborhood Family Practice: Forty percent have health conditions, and 14 percent arrive with infectious diseases. Photo: http://www.nfpmedcenter.org/our-providers.aspx

From Cleveland.com (hat tip: Joanne). The city council held a summit last week (emphasis is mine):

CLEVELAND, Ohio — As political turmoil and civil war escalate in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, Cleveland is readying itself to become home to international refugees looking for a fresh start in a safe and welcoming community, a panel of service providers told members of Cleveland City Council Thursday morning.

To kick off the city’s first Refugee Summit, which is open to the public and will be held in the City Hall rotunda from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. today, Council invited representatives from a cadre of social service, healthcare and resettlement agencies to describe the challenges that refugees face and the benefits of opening the city’s arms to the newcomers.

In recent years, refugees have generated more than $12 million in economic activity in the Cleveland area, said Brian Upton, of the nonprofit Building Hope in the City. They have taken 650 labor jobs since 2000, bought nearly 250 houses and represented $2.7 million in state and local tax revenue, he said.

And while Cuyahoga County loses an average of 11,400 residents a year, it has gained more than 3,500 refugees in the past decade, he said. [Obviously, there are few jobs available in Cuyahoga County or the Ohioans wouldn’t be moving, so where are the refugees going to work?—ed]

Refugees tend to bring strong work ethics, too, and are 23 percent more likely than the average Clevelander to take an entrepreneurial risk, he said. [They get federal grant money to take risks when opening businesses—ed]

Cleveland has apparently run out its own American poor people and local taxpayers are paying for housing for refugees!

City Councilman Joe Cimperman said that the city has invested $300,000 to rehab a four-unit apartment building for refugees. The facility on West 45^th Street is expected to begin welcoming tenants in January, he said.

Cimperman said that he would like to see about 150 units available by this time next year.

So what are a few expenses for medical care, when there is federal money to be made!

But Cleveland’s refugee population — which largely comes from Iraq, Burma and African nations — arrive under great stress, said Dr. Erick Kauffman, chief medical director of Neighborhood Family Practice, the primary refugee healthcare provider in Cuyahoga County.

Often, they’ve experienced physical and psychological trauma, were victims of torture and violence or have suffered multiple losses, including the death of their children or spouses, he said.

Forty percent have health conditions, and 14 percent arrive with infectious diseases, he said.

Yikes! Are they factoring health care costs into their budgeting?

See our Cleveland archive by clicking here. Cleveland should be taking a lesson from the Mayor of Athens, Georgia who says she wants a plan before giving away the keys to the city.

We have 254 previous posts on refugee and immigrant health problems.

See more on Ohio refugees here including information on health screening.

And be sure to see Columbus, Ohio mosques mushrooming here.

*** These nine major federal contractors, which laughingly call themselves VOLAGS (voluntary agencies), have approximately 300 subcontractors working for them and are running in most cases on 90% or more federal funding.