Tag: Ft. Wayne Indiana

Tensions grow in Ft. Wayne, IN over placement of Rohingya Muslims in Burmese neighborhoods

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 8th: 22 Rohingya (posing as refugees) in Bangladesh charged in massacre of Hindus, here.

This is not new news to me!

I’ve been hearing about this problem for years—the US State Department, with unwavering faith, seems to think it can place Muslims in Christian communities and the melting pot will perform its magic and presto! there will be love and acceptance all around.

esar-met-evil-face
Burmese Muslim Esar Met was placed in a housing complex in Salt Lake City (by the US State Dept. contractor there) housing mostly Burmese Christians. He was found guilty in 2014 of brutally raping and murdering a Burmese Christian child. A reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune found that the Muslims were separated from the other Burmese minorities and were housed in separate parts of the camps in Thailand.  But housed together in America! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/05/15/utah-burmese-muslim-refugee-sentenced-in-brutal-rapemurder-of-little-girl/

Burmese Christians and other Burmese religious minorities (including the Chin) have been terrorized back home by Rohingya Muslims for decades and they fear it will begin again in Ft. Wayne, Indiana!

(Ft. Wayne first came to my attention ten years ago because of the very high TB rates there in the Burmese community. Also, many years ago I received a call about how fearful the Burmese Christians there were when resettlement contractors began placing the Rohingya in their neighborhoods.)

Please pay attention readers!

We have been admitting thousands of Rohingya to the US for the last ten years (just short of 20,000 so far)!  Trump will be admitting more!

From this article we learn that the Rohingya enclaves growing in the US are in Chicago, Milwaukee and Ft. Wayne.  But, don’t forget the brutal murder in Salt Lake City! And, I have some recent stories about Rohingya in Phoenix and that sexual pervert in New Hampshire in my HUGE Rohingya Reports archive, click here.

Do you know what is the most remarkable thing about this story?

It is the fact that a publication like VOA is even putting this in print! The times they are a changin’…..

From Voice of America (hat tip: Joanne):

The crisis [latest conflict began in 2012 when a gang of Rohingya men raped and murdered a Buddhist girl—ed] has increased the number of Rohingya refugees arriving in the United States, and since 2015 they outpace the number of Syrians resettling here.

But instead of landing in Chicago or Milwaukee, two cities home to a large number of Rohingya, Tahir and her family instead arrived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and became one of the first Rohingya families in the area. [Don’t you just love it—arrived! Arrived like they picked Ft. Wayne on a map. They were placed there by the US State Department and its contractors!—-ed]

A Burmese community

Burmese community members believe there are now more than 150 Rohingya families living in Fort Wayne, and although their numbers are growing, their community remains a small fraction of the more than 6,000 Burmese of various ethnic groups now living in the city.

Can you believe it!  VOA continues:

Most of the foreign-born Burmese population in Fort Wayne speak a different language and practice different religions than the Rohingya, and the ethnic tensions and religious persecution that fueled their flight from Myanmar don’t necessarily end once they arrive here.

 

“Why I don’t like Rohingya to come to Fort Wayne is … most of them, almost 100 percent, are Muslims,” said Burmese Chin community leader Abraham Thang, who moved to Fort Wayne in the 1990s.

“They’re blood is Muslims, not Buddhist, not Christians. They did very terrible job, like attacking the military and police post, and killing and murdering the Hindus. That is not good for Rohingyas. That is the big mistake by Rohingyas.”

Thang, a pastor at the Myanmar Indigenous Christian Church, was one of the few Burmese willing to talk to VOA about Rohingya resettlement in Fort Wayne, and while he emphasizes these views are his own opinions, they are indicative of the same resentments Rohingya face in Myanmar.

“I don’t mind they practice what they believe,” Thang explained to VOA. “What I mind is extremism. Most of the terrorists come from the Muslim community. This is what I am thinking in my mind personally. So my opinion is, rather than sending Rohingya to Fort Wayne, and not sending them here is better don’t send Rohingya to Fort Wayne.”

Mayor-Henry-file-2
With mayors like these!  “We try to pride ourselves in being a welcoming community…”

Mayor: All welcome here

“That’s unfortunate,” said Fort Wayne’s mayor, Tom Henry. “I want anybody from Myanmar to know they are welcome in our community.”

Henry, a Democrat, has made Burmese integration into life in this city of more than 250,000 a priority of his administration.

“We try to pride ourselves in being a welcoming community, an inclusive community, a community that allows people to assimilate throughout our community and if they want to ultimately become an American citizen, we’ve got the tools in place to help that happen. So when I hear that there is that kind of tension and anxiety behind the scenes, that disturbs me.”

But some community members, like Thang, worry that an increasing number of new arrivals will only fuel tensions.

“I foresee the Burmese people and the Rohingya people in the future, sooner or later, we will have conflict and that is not good for the Fort Wayne community.”

Much more here.

My Ft. Wayne posts are here.

Again, my Rohingya Reports category is here (209 previous posts) with enough material to write a book!

See also my post yesterday about political action that should be aimed at mayors and local elected officials.

Go here to see which contractors are working near you.  Surprise! Not! Looks like Catholic Charities is the resettlement contractor in Ft. Wayne.  I believe they were responsible in Salt Lake too. Memory lane: In 2013 I was there to hear a Catholic Bishops’ lobbyist tell the State Dept.—we want more Rohingya!

 

Did you know that disabled and senior refugees get SSI? Fort Wayne, IN Somali case is illustrative

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, some receive it virtually upon arrival in the US.

Update May 13th:  Here is Part II of Said’s saga:  SSA wants some of the money back, here. When you read this see if you ask yourself the same question I do—do any of the do-gooders think any of this through before pushing more and more destitute refugees into our social ‘safety’ net?

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program that provides cash to low-income people who are either aged (65 or older), blind, or disabled.

This story is from the Fort Wayne New-Sentinel.

A few years ago we wrote extensively on Ft. Wayne and its huge Burmese refugee population.  In fact it is the first place we learned that refugees are admitted to the US with TB.  The Ft. Wayne (Allen County) health department was struggling with a large number of cases in 2007 (and may still be).

So, now comes a story about a Somali who hasn’t been able to work and has been receiving kidney dialysis.  But, he is up against the little-known ‘seven year rule’ which says an immigrant must become a citizen within 7 years of arrival in order to continue to receive taxpayer-funded services like SSI.

The focus of the story is Sugow Said who was resettled in Ft. Wayne in 2004 and is illustrative of the consequences and cost of resettling refugees who will make no contribution to America.

After arriving in Fort Wayne, Said first worked at a cemetery, then later for an office cleaning company.

Said’s life now revolves around dialysis treatments. He has end-stage renal disease, likely due to living for years with untreated high blood pressure before coming to the United States. Since starting dialysis in 2010, he has been physically unable to work at the cleaning job or another one that accommodates his stringent three-days-a-week dialysis schedule and his limited labor and very limited English language skills.

We are told that Nyein Chan, refugee resettlement coordinator for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, helps run the only resettlement program in Ft. Wayne at the moment.

Because of his disability, in early 2011, Said applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In an April 11, 2011, letter, Social Security informed Said: “We have carefully reviewed the facts of your case and have approved the claim for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits that you filed on Jan. 18, 2011.”

SSI initially provided a lifeline of $535 a months for the family, which includes the Saids’ three youngest children, all now teenagers. By 2014, annual adjustments by the Social Security Administration (SSA) had increased Said’s SSI monthly check to $721.

[….]

The SSA operations manual states qualified aliens with disabilities are told when first receiving SSI about the seven-year time limit in which they must gain U.S. citizenship or lose their SSI. An annual reminder about the seven-year rule is also to be mailed to each recipient.

Only in Said’s initial 15-page approval letter, which he was never able to read on his own, was the rule mentioned and explained.

[….]

Health department clinics see a growing number of older refugees with physical and mental disabilities, McMahan [Allen County Commissioner of Health Dr. Deborah McMahan] said.

“I recently had an 80-year-old who was seeing and hearing things,” she noted. “How am I going to teach him English?”

Congress in the past has addressed the seven-year rule, with National Senior Citizens Law Center, now called Justice in Aging, helping lead those efforts for nearly two decades, said Gerald McIntyre(cq), directing attorney for the agency whose mission is to fight senior poverty through law.

[….]

“No one is spending time on this now,” he said. “It is really hopeless. There is such hostility,” he said, even for humanitarian immigrants.

No kidding!  Too many refugees with too many needs will eventually sour initially welcoming and generous Americans on the whole scheme.  Concerned citizens and taxpayer are asking—-what about our own poor and disabled people?

There is much more, read it all here.

Catholic Resettlement Programs throughout the US—resettling refugees and ‘Unaccompanied alien children.’

I just discovered this handy list at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website of all their resettlement offices in the US!

Maybe the Bishops could pony-up the money needed by Mr. Said?

See our Ft. Wayne archive, here.  This post is filed in our ‘where to find information’ category and in our ‘health issues’ file.   New readers might want to check those out.

Holy smokes! Indiana DEMOCRATIC Congressional candidate: No Syrian refugees for Indiana; take care of our people first!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I think we are seeing a major trend developing where it seems that Democrats are more willing to say NO! to refugees while some Republicans fear mentioning the word, or as in the case of Grover Norquist and his Republican pals are actually pushing for more refugees in America!

Democratic candidate Justin Kuhnle: Take care of our people first! Photo: http://teapartycheer.com/bios/midwest/indiana/justin-kuhnle-in-bio/

Just yesterday we posted the World Net Daily story about mayors across the country questioning refugee resettlement and most of the mayors with guts are Democrats also, go figure!

From the News-Sentinel reporting on a Congressional candidate debate for the 3rd District of Indiana:

In a follow-up question [about Syria—ed] Kuhnle was asked, given northeast Indiana’s welcome of refugees in the past, should we welcome Syrian refugees here as well.

Kuhnle, who has some background in social work gave a surprising answer for a Democratic candidate.

“I would be hard pressed to accept that.” he said, adding “When we look at the needs of what northern Indiana has it can’t continue that open door policy. We must look to the need of our own citizens first.“

Kuhnle suggested it would be better to help them, in Syria.

This Congressional district in Indiana includes Ft. Wayne so that helps explain the answer.  We have an extensive archive on Ft. Wayne going back for seven years—the US State Department and its contractors have swamped the city with needy Burmese refugees.

Remember the 2010 spitting and urinating in the laundromat brouhaha.  People remember stuff like that!

What do you bet Kuhnle gets a visit from “Welcoming America” for a little mind-readjustment!

Ft Wayne health commissioner: greatest fear is increasing generational poverty

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story from the week the Boston terrorist attack happened and like so many it became lost in my stack as all of my attention became fixated on the fact that “refugees” were responsible for the marathon bombing.

The US State Department Director of Admissions, Lawrence Bartlett, visited Ft. Wayne, the Burmese capital of America (where they produce diversity wheelbarrows), along with a UN Representative to assess the damage there.  LOL!  that last part is my assertion!   However, I have noticed that the State Dept. does send out people when cities have problems, it must be to smooth feathers.

Lawrence Bartlett, State Department Director of Refugee Admissions visited Ft. Wayne, Indiana last month.

In this case, I felt sorry for the mayor who has blinders on to what this refugee overload has done to his “welcoming” city.

Here is the story from the Journal Gazette (emphasis mine):

Burmese refugees will continue to resettle in Fort Wayne, although in smaller numbers, an official for the U.S. State Department predicted Thursday.

The decline might be offset by an increase in refugees from Congo and Iraq, according to Larry Bartlett, director of refugee admissions for the State Department.

About 60 Congolese refugees have arrived in Fort Wayne in recent years.

“I would expect the program in Fort Wayne to remain strong,” Bartlett told a gathering of local, state and federal government officials at Citizens Square. “We certainly do not want to overwhelm a community.”

Mayor Tom Henry said that “for a while, we were being overloaded. … We just did not have the resources.”

Henry was referring to 2007-08, when Catholic Charities of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese resettled more than 1,400 Burmese refugees in Fort Wayne.

This year’s local cap for refugees is 170.

Bartlett acknowledged that the 2007-08 influx “probably is not the right model for how we manage a program.”   [Excuse me!  The State Department could easily have reined this in, there was plenty of controversy in the newspapers in Ft. Wayne at that time.—ed]

[….]

More than 2,700 Burmese refugees have come to Allen County since 1993 to escape military rule in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Democratic reforms taking shape in the Southeast Asian country are expected to slow and perhaps reverse the exodus.

Fort Wayne is home to at least 5,000 Burmese, Henry said.

“To me, it’s a good problem to have,” the mayor said about challenges to both the city and its refugee population. “They wouldn’t come here if we didn’t have something to offer them.”

Henry said Fort Wayne adheres to a “welcome mat” philosophy. In addition to Burmese and Congolese, the city is home to refugees from Bosnia, Darfur and Somalia.

[…..]

The new arrivals tend to lack the education, job skills and English-language proficiency needed for quick assimilation and advancement, service providers said. Some have to travel out of state to find work. There are Burmese mothers who are raising children while their husbands remain in overseas refugee camps.

I think they call this “burying the lead!”

“My greatest fear is that we are increasing the generational poverty,” said Dr. Deborah McMahan, city-county health commissioner.

Read it all.

Don’t forget!  You have until 5 p.m. today to tell Lawrence Bartlett what you think about refugee admissions for fiscal year 2014 because he will likely be presiding over the hearing on May 15th.  Go here for instructions.

Testimony already submitted by others is archived here.

Almost forgot, former Indiana Senator Richard Lugar is responsible for getting this critical GAO report done on the Refugee Resettlement Program because he saw what is happening in Indiana.

Fort Wayne: Too much debris, code violations close Burmese community garden

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you haven’t heard my rant about how your federal tax dollars are being spent on “community” gardens for refugees see my most recent post on the topic here.

W.O.W! World on Wheels, diversity wheelbarrows on display in Ft. Wayne to represent the 21 diverse immigrant groups in the area. Let’s hope federal tax dollars are not invested in wheelbarrows.

It is one thing if some truly charitable organization wants to help refugees grow fresh food, it is another for the US taxpayer to be supporting such efforts.

Here is the latest news from Burmese over-loaded Ft. Wayne, Indiana, headline (hat tip to an Indiana informant): ‘No more gardens for Burmese at Fort Wayne apartment complex’  in the News-Sentinel:

Burmese residents living in Autumn Woods, 1004 Fayette Drive, will no longer be able to grow their own vegetables behind their apartments.

Due to a large number of citations from the city in 2012 to the management company, residents were told no more gardens were allowed and their plots were removed last fall.

Current management at Autumn Woods was asked to comment but said it was not at liberty to do so at this time.

According to Cindy Joyner, of Fort Wayne Neighborhood Code, a large portion of the gardens were built in ditches, which is against city code, because it can block water flow. The department also found pieces of indoor furniture, which had been re-purposed for use in the gardens, which also is against city code. There was a lot of debris including animal cages that were also found in the ditch, another code violation.

“It was the amount of debris that really drove the citations,” said John Urbahns, director of Fort Wayne’s Community Development department.

Urbahns said the city has these codes in place to protect the values of the adjoining property.

John Perlich, city spokesman, said the city took a closer look at Autumn Woods after some concerns about the condition of the property had been raised in the community.

Some of the items that were removed from the complex were small swimming pools that had been donated to the residents through a program at the Catherine Kasper Place to be used as container gardens.

“Some of these were removed because they were not being used as functioning garden spaces; they had been left to deteriorate,” Joyner said.

It is not clear to me whether this Autumn Woods failed project received federal grants, but other Burmese gardens did as we see here at the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program (be sure to see quote from Michelle Obama–a model for the Nation, for the World!)  Go there and note that Holly Chaille, quoted in this News-Sentinel story, did get $75,000 of your tax dollars for her project(s).

Of course it would never be mentioned in a mainstream media piece but there has been some information leak out that the failed gardeners might be from a certain religious persuasion.   Ft. Wayne has “welcomed” both Burmese Christians and Burmese Muslims, a sure-fire way to build tension in a community.

Related:  I had been meaning to post on the State Department visit to Ft. Wayne, here, last month but didn’t get to it.  Clearly everything is not copacetic in Ft. Wayne or the head guy for admissions, Lawrence Bartlett, wouldn’t be visiting in an obvious effort to smooth feathers and repair damage.  The State Department needs to hang on to every “welcoming” city they can get.

Here is our entire archive on problems in Ft. Wayne going back to our earliest posts in the summer of 2007 when we discovered the problem that the Allen County health department was having treating all the TB cases.  The Ft. Wayne garden controversy is explained in a guest post here in 2010.