We reported the other day that a public meeting to discuss the possibility of Dover, NH, and surrounding towns, becoming new refugee resettlement sites had been called off. (Such public meetings are rare! So, we were not surprised that once the word got out it was cancelled.)
Executive Director of ORIS, former Somali refugee, Mukhtar Idhow, confronted with legitimate questions, says they are no longer interested in the Tri-City area.
Here is a longer article fromFoster’s Daily Democratwith more details of the abrupt cancellation with a declaration by ORIS (the non-profit resettlement agency wannabe) that Dover (the Tri-city area) was no longer under consideration due to “lack of support.”
There is much to digest in this revealing story, please read it. The Mayors expect a lot of good questions to be answered! But, clearly ORIS can’t or won’t answer them.
One thing that jumped out at me was ORIS’s statement that they weren’t yet a resettlement agency, but seemed to be out scouting locations nonetheless. I’m wondering now, do the feds require fledgling would-be resettlement contractors (that is where the federal bucks are!) to demonstrate that they have scouted-out “welcoming” communities?
DOVER — Information has been lost in translation between local city officials and directors of the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success, a group who has canceled a presentation planned for Aug. 13 due to perceived backlash from the Tri-City area.
Executive Director of ORIS Mukhtar Idhow said there is no longer interest in helping refugees resettle in the area after reading an article printed Saturday in Foster’s Daily Democrat with the headline, “Congolese refugees to resettle in region: Mayor says cities have no say in the matter.”
[….]
Though ORIS officials say they are not a resettlement agency and that there are many steps to be taken to gain that status through the federal government and learn answers to those questions, the purpose of meeting with Dover was to see how receptive the community would be if in the future they became one, Idhow said.
“This was a preliminary conversation with city officials,” Idhow said. “We are not interested now in moving forward with this process. [Of course not! They can’t or won’t answer questions about the economic and social impact that large numbers of refugees have on resettlement towns and cities.—ed]
This article was published on Tuesday and I expect there is more up-to-date news which I hope to get to over the weekend.
On Sunday, we reported that the town of Dover, New Hampshire and a couple of other towns in the area were being targeted for a new resettlement site for impoverished third-worlders presumably because nearby Manchester is overloaded and has become a “pocket of resistance.”
Now here comes news (that frankly doesn’t surprise me) because the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in HHS) and their contractors usually operate with greater secrecy and public meetings to answer questions and assess the mood of citizens in a target town are rare.
We have maintained since we first began writing this blog in 2007 that citizens of a community tapped for a new resettlement site are entitled to be informed through public meetings and discussions with elected officials of all the details involved with “welcoming” a large number of impoverished people to their community. The federal government doesn’t operate in the sunshine (as has become painfully obvious to most Americans following the border surge).
DOVER — A state group that helps facilitate the resettlement of international refugees has canceled a meeting with the City Council.
Representatives of the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success, based in Manchester, were scheduled to meet with the City Council on Aug. 13.
In a letter addressed to City officials, including City Manager J. Michael Joyal, Jr. and Mayor Karen Weston, the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success said it is premature to discuss resettlement in Dover and the Tri-City region.
Emma Tobin, Associate Director ORIS http://www.linkedin.com/pub/emma-tobin/31/20a/35b
“I would like to assure you that ORIS has no intention of moving forward with refugee resettlement in the tri-city area unless we have significant support from the communities,” wrote Emma Tobin, associate director for the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success. “Further, our initial meeting with you was meant to be the beginning of a very slow process; refugee resettlement in the tri-city area was never meant to happen overnight, or in a vacuum.”
ORIS is one of several agencies that help identify communities suited for refugee resettlement under the U.S. State Department’s Reception and Placement program. The program provides assistance for refugees to settle in the United States, including assistance with living expenses during a refugee’s first few months in the community. The Reception and Placement program is limited to the first three months after arrival; however, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement works with states and other nongovernmental organizations to provide longer-term cash and medical assistance, as well as language, employment, and social services.
ORIS indicated it would consider meeting with Dover officials and the community in the future.
Don’t hold your breath!
This does not mean that the towns have dodged a bullet. What the contractor and its federal handlers will likely do is bring more refugees into Manchester and then quietly, without public discussion, move them in 3-6 months to surrounding towns. They will tell critics—this is America and people can move to wherever they want and there isn’t anything you can do about it!
One fundamental fact about how the US Refugee Resettlement Program is structured that people need to understand is this—-contractors are paid by the head to resettle refugees, then they get all sorts of other federal grants to “support” them—like teach them English, grow gardens, and how to have healthy marriages (not kidding!)—so THERE IS NO INCENTIVE TO STOP THE FLOW ONCE IT STARTS (the “non-profit” organization has salaries and overhead bills to pay)!
One last thing! On their grants to teach English: If this is an important federal government goal, then there is no reason I can see why the feds couldn’t give grants directly to local community colleges for special ESL classes for immigrants. Why does a quasi-government ‘non-profit’ group need to set up entire new programs for teaching English? I would really like someone in the refugee placement industry to tell me why local colleges couldn’t do those English classes.
Update August 1st:More here on the cancellation of the opportunity for citizens to learn what refugee resettlement might mean for their towns.
Update July 29th: Public meeting cancelled—no surprise! Read all about it here. Keep this information below if your town becomes a target!
Forgetwhat you hear about local communities having no say, whether tiny historic Doveror surrounding towns will become new resettlement sites for Africans, Asians and Middle Easterners will all depend on the turnout and the questions asked (and answers given!) at an upcoming public meeting scheduled for Dover city hall August 13th, 7 p.m.
The US State Department, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in HHS) (yes, the same agency moving the illegal alien children around the country) and their contractors and subcontractors are running into “pockets of resistance” in already overloaded communities around the country and are out scouting for new fresh territory (like Athens, GA as well).
The federal government likes to intimidate (bully!) communities with this notion that they decide (from Washington) where to move the literally over one hundred thousand “refugees” entering the US every year, but they won’t move them to new communities where its citizens demand answers to the all important questions: Who pays for all of this? Where will they work? Who is going to pay for all the children’s education? Do we have enough low-cost subsidized housing for our own people? What other social services will they require? How many foreign language interpreters are available in our criminal justice system? Can our health department handle a flood of mental health problems and communicable diseases? (HIV-AIDS and TB cases are admitted to the US in the refugee program) When will it stop?
In answer to that last question, it won’t! Once a seed community is established the contractors are paid by the head to bring in the family members. At that point, if some in your community raise a warning flag, they will be called racists, xenophobes and bigots—and just plain cruel to oppose reuniting the poor families.
Before I go any further, here is the news I heard yesterday: First from The Granite Grok (3,000 to go to Dover!), a New Hampshire blog (hat tip: Richard) and then here in Foster’s Daily Democrat(hat tip: Joanne).
To prepare for this public meeting (you have 18 days!). This is what I would do (in no particular order):
* Call the mayors in those other New England towns where the community wants the flow stopped. Maybe one or two would even come to your public meeting! And, by the way, some elected officials in Dover or surrounding towns must have quietly suggested that the community would be open to this resettlement site. Find out if that is so, and identify them.
* Learn everything you can about the federal government’s refugee program (start with our fact sheet). Local taxpayers are definitely on the hook for most “services” needed by refugees after the first 8 months.
Blogger Skip Murphy has some questions to ask as well!
* In your research you will learn that the State Department is trying to resettle 50,000 Congolese (announced May 2013) 2,630 so far this fiscal year , but they won’t just resettle Congolese to Dover and surrounding towns. You will get a mix of Muslims and other religions/cultures among Iraqis, Somalis, Burmese and Bhutanese (just naming the top four right now) making the language problems even greater for your school system.
If you are within 100 miles of a refugee overloaded city like Manchester, you are in the target zone for resettlement of more refugees.
* Learn all you can about the supposed non-profit contractors. Know that there is a ‘pocket of resistance’in Manchester and that since Dover is less than 100 miles from Manchester, it is now targeted for the overflow. (100 miles is a magic number for the State Department reuniting families).
By the way, the contractor identified in the Foster’s Daily Democrat article—Organization for Refugees and Immigrant Success—began in 2005 as the Somali Bantu Community Association funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. This is your typical George Soros strategy to spin off other small groups with new names both to confuse people and to make it look like there is a huge movement.
History of ORIS
The Somali Bantu Community Association (SBCA) was a non-profit organization formed in 2005 by a group of Somali Bantu refugees living in the United States. The group, which was funded by the US Department of Refugee Resettlement, assisted refugees in integrating into American culture. In 2011, SBCA reformed as the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success (ORIS), expanding the original mission, as well as increasing and diversifying the staff and board members. Today, our ten-person staff represents six countries and speaks twenty languages.
ORIS has no Form 990’s on file with guidestar, but here are their government grants (you have to type their name in the search window). Here are their other funders. I’m guessing they are also affiliated with one of the big federal contractors, but don’t have the time to do the research at the moment (but you do!).
* This is an important election year and you have some hot races in NH—make this an election-year issue for sure in the US Senate race!
* In advance! Learn about the format of the meeting and study the Delphi Technique! It is a public meeting strategy that government agencies (and the Left!) use to direct the outcome of a meeting to a goal they have predetermined. Be ready to defeat any meeting strategy you identify. And, film the meeting!!!
You need to make sure someone is there for the US government (preferably the US State Department) or you won’t get all your answers. And, this is really important, and I can’t emphasize it enough—do your research ahead of time so they can’t give you a snow-job!
* Set up a blog or facebook page(right now!) to share what you learn with your fellow citizens. The feds don’t like publicity! Letters to the editor help too!
And, I’m sure you can think of a few more things to do—but mostly stay calm and stick to the economic and social facts involved with importing poverty (from anywhere!) to your town.
You will have some hotheads, but don’t worry about them, you gotta have them in any political controversy.
The religious LEFT activists will show up with their hotheads too, to call anyone who questions them racists, ignore them.
Here is what fellow RRW writer Judy said in that 2007 post on the Delphi Technique:
…..those who raise questions like the ones on this blog — questions of health, culture, money, resources, policy, etc. — will be cast as the enemies of everything good and noble. But our questions are valid ones, and we want to make sure they are answered, no matter what is done to make us look bad.
Check out our categories, this post definitely falls in the “community destabilization”category because that is what is happening here and across the country—the open-borders (anti-borders!) Left and the federal bureaucracy are in the business of bringing instability to unsuspecting American towns and cities (ala Saul Alinsky, Cloward and Piven).
