US State Department halts plans (for now) to send refugees to Athens, GA after mayor objected

10/15/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Actually the mayor did what every sensible mayor should be doing—she insisted on a delay so that the International Rescue Committee could “present a formal refugee integration plan” to local elected officials and others (presumably with public input!).

Athens, Georgia dodges a bullet for now as Democratic Mayor Nancy Denson insists on a formal plan for refugee integration before resettlement begins (what a novel idea!).

Make them have a long range plan for your town!

Such a plan would include research on where the refugees will work, what social services they will need, how many children can the school system accommodate, how much affordable housing is available, is the health department ready to take care of some communicable diseases, how long will the resettlement contractor be involved with refugees it resettles, how many, for how many years—etc. Make sure there is public input.

And, be sure to make them spell out exactly which refugees from which countries are coming to your city!

And, finally insist on an escape clause so that, if the State Department contractor brings too many, the city can say STOP!

(Remember there are several US cities trying to get them to stop to no avail—Manchester, NH, Springfield, MA and Amarillo, TX come immediately to mind.)

Our previous coverage of the Athens, GA refugee controversy can by found by clicking here, here, and here.

Here is the full story yesterday from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which sought comment from the US State Department and got none (no surprise there). Emphasis is mine.

The U.S. State Department has shelved a plan to resettle 150 refugees in Athens following objections from Mayor Nancy Denson and Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration.

The International Rescue Committee said it got an email last week from the federal agency saying it would consider the proposal “after additional planning and community consultation.”

J.D. McCrary, the IRC’s executive director in Atlanta, said in an email that he was “not entirely sure what is meant by additional planning and community consultation as this was extensively undertaken during the past year.”

“There is always hope in the future and the good news is that senior level officials from the State Department are planning a visit to Athens next month to view the area in person for future consideration,” he wrote. [Boy, would I love to be a fly on the wall!—ed]

“During the visit we will be clarifying with them what additional planning and consultations they are requiring, showing them firsthand why Athens has already become a preferred destination for refugees seeking a new life, and discussing a concrete plan to resubmit a proposal to establish an official resettlement site.”

[….]

The IRC has proposed resettling refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar and Syria in the region in the coming months.

In a letter sent to the U.S. State Department in August, Georgia Human Services Commissioner Keith Horton said he did not want the refugee resettlement plan to “go forward at this time.”

“The degree of cooperation, communication and consultation is not where I would like for it to be,” Horton wrote. “It is my hope that the community of Athens/Clarke County and the IRC will continue to work together to resolve the issues and concerns that have been raised.”

Horton’s letter followed one Denson sent Deal’s administration two days before. In her letter, the Democratic mayor complained the IRC did not reach out to enough people in her community early enough about its plans. She also raised concerns that the refugees could strain public resources in Athens-Clarke County, which is home to about 120,000 residents. Denson said she wanted the IRC to delay its efforts and to “present a formal refugee integration plan” to local elected officials and others.

LOL! Seeing a new “pocket of resistance,” I suspect we will see “Welcoming America” moving in to re-educate the mayor and others if they haven’t arrived there already!

Georgia on my mind: refugee numbers up, foreign-born numbers up, and Catholic Bishops lecture

09/25/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I already had two articles worth mentioning about Georgia and refugees before I saw this news from The Atlanta Journal Constitution this morning:

Georgia ranked eighth among states for the total number of refugees it received in the fiscal year ending in September at 2,710, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

Georgia Bishop HARTMAYER lectures, guilt-trips and urges Catholics to lobby for amnesty.

That is up 8 percent from the year before. But it is 810 fewer people than originally proposed by resettlement agencies.

The U.S. State Department confirmed earlier this year it had limited the number of refugees coming to Georgia, based partly on requests from Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration for sharp cuts. State officials have cited state and local taxpayer costs associated with taking in the refugees, school budget shortfalls and other concerns.

Deal has continued to push the Obama administration on the issue. In a letter he sent President Barack Obama in July, Deal complained Georgia has received a “disproportionate number of refugee placements over the past few years.”

Last month, the governor’s administration sided with Athens-Clarke County Mayor Nancy Denson in opposition to resettling 150 refugees there. The Democratic mayor complained resettlement officials had not reached out to enough people in her community early enough about the plans.

Local resettlement agencies are pushing back, saying refugees create a net gain for the state by working and paying taxes and attracting millions of dollars in federal aid money to Georgia.

[….]

The federal government provides refugees with funding that partially covers the cost of rent, furniture, food and clothing.

This last bit above confirms what I have been saying—not the working and paying taxes part (most don’t get paid enough to pay taxes!), but the part about millions of federal aid dollars following refugees. It’s as if we are expected to believe that there is a money tree growing in Washington!

There is a major disconnect happening—those aid dollars from Washington come from taxpayers, including Georgia taxpayers—it is not free money! And, there won’t be a net gain for the state when federal aid dollars arrive as refugees use more resources than they draw in from Washington.

Big whup if the feds help pay rent and get them some clothes and food stamps! It is the cost of health services, education, and the criminal justice system that push states into the red with the immigrant population increase. And, by the way, never mentioned is the unfairness of rent subsidized housing going to immigrants when poor and disabled Americans need that housing.

Then be sure to see this article from last week about the overall increase in the foreign-born population in Georgia. Georgia immigrant population increase confirmed by CIS here too.

Georgia Catholic Bishops lecture!

The nerve of the Catholic Bishops of Georgia to lecture Georgians about Christian charity when the US Conference of Catholic Bishops refugee and immigration program is almost completely funded by US taxpayers (98% funded by you) and this screed by ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY and BISHOP GREGORY J. HARTMAYER at The Georgia Bulletin never says one word about Caesar’s money which they depend on for their existence!

Please read their guilt-trip laced polemic here. And, remember this! It is not only ‘unaccompanied alien children’ and refugees that the Bishops are concerned about, they lobby for amnesty as well and admit it here. Are they using your tax dollars for their lobbying campaign, that is what I would like to know!

We also urge Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation, which will help fix our broken immigration system.

We strongly encourage you to support these principles by contacting your U.S. senators and congress members through the Catholic bishops’ Justice for Immigrants website.

On the State level, we ask legislators and officials to support policies that enhance the dignity of all people who come to our state.

See our complete Georgia archive by clicking here. See especially Athens, Georgia mayor attempting to put brakes on refugee resettlement (mentioned above).

Note that over a year ago, Georgia was identified (by the Office of Refugee Resettlement) at a meeting I attended in Lancaster, PA as a ‘pocket of resistance’ to refugee resettlement and was cited as a reason that the ORR hired Welcoming America (to get peoples’ minds right)!

Also, there is a grassroots group opposing more refugee resettlement in Georgia, click here, that you should know about.

Georgia joins other states where immigrants are getting all the jobs

09/16/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Center for Immigration Studies has had an on-going project of reporting which states have a high percentage of jobs going to immigrants while the native-born Americans working has declined.

Georgia Governor Deal asked for a reduction in the number of refugees going to the overloaded state. But, GA is still in the top ten receiving states. http://newsmanager.atlantaregional.com/anmviewer.asp?a=56685&z=21

We previously reported on their statistics from Tennessee, Florida and North Carolina. Now it’s Georgia’s turn. Here at CIS:

The Gang of Eight immigration bill (S.744) passed by the Senate last June would have roughly doubled the number of new foreign workers allowed into the country, as well as legalized illegal immigrants, partly on the grounds that there is a labor shortage. Many business groups and politicians in Georgia supported the legislation. However, an analysis of government data shows that, since 2000, all of the net increase in the number of working-age (16 to 65) people holding a job in Georgia has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal). This is the case even though the native-born accounted for 54 percent of growth in the state’s total working-age population. Perhaps worst of all, the labor force participation rate of Georgia’s natives shows no improvement through the first part of this year despite the economic recovery.

Among the findings:

~The total number of working-age (16 to 65) immigrants (legal and illegal) holding a job in Georgia increased by 400,000 from the first quarter of 2000 to the first quarter of 2014, while the number of working-age natives with a job declined by 71,000 over the same time frame.

~The fact that all the long-term net gain in employment among the working-age went to immigrants is striking because natives accounted for 54 percent of the increase in the total size of the state’s working-age population.

More here…..

Georgia is in the top ten refugee resettlement states for the 11 months of fiscal year 2014 (which ends on Sept. 30th).

And, keep in mind, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal asked the US State Department to slow the flow to his state.

Compared to illegal immigration the numbers are small, but remember refugees have employment services (federal resettlement contractors) assisting them in finding work. Check out your state by clicking here.

Texas: 6,398

California: 5,666

New York: 3,733

Michigan: 3,677

Florida: 3,227

Ohio: 2,700

Arizona: 2,675

Georgia: 2,502

Pennsylvania: 2,497

Washington: 2,323

Not far behind are: Illinois, North Carolina, and Minnesota

Refugee contractor to Athens, GA: the US State Department will decide if you get refugees or not!

08/26/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a follow-up to our post of last Thursday in which we reported that Athens, GA mayor Nancy Denson had concerns about whether her city could afford the importation of poverty that comes with ‘welcoming’ third-worlders to town.

The arrogance of the International Rescue Committee (headed by former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband) is beyond belief as it basically says to the citizens of Athens, Georgia that the US State Department will make the final decision about whether yours will be one more “preferred” community for refugee resettlement!

Unbelievable!!!

Here is the background on the latest “pocket of resistance” at Athens On Line:

The director of a plan to resettle refugees in Athens remains optimistic despite opposition from local leaders.

“I would still very much like to work together as partners here,” said International Rescue Committee Atlanta Director J.D. McCrary of his hope to bring refugees from war-torn countries to the area.

Athens-Clarke County Mayor Nancy Denson sent a letter last week to the state officials who control refugee resettlement in Georgia requesting that a plan by the Atlanta office of the International Rescue Committee to bring refugees to Athens be put on hold.

Denson worried that the presence of refugees might strain Athens’ already burdened social services and school system. Athens can offer very little outside of low-wage employment to the refugees, Denson said.

The mayor and other local leaders also expressed concern in recent interviews about adding to the area’s poverty level.

And, the IRC repeats the lie that refugees are self-sufficient in six months and it costs the local community nothing! It simply defies logic!

What about the local school system? What about the local health department? What about the local fire and rescue services? What about the local criminal justice system? What about the interpreters needed for the health department and for the criminal justice system? What about the fact that refugees use subsidized housing that would normally be available to Georgia’s own poor and handicapped people? Etc. etc.

The IRC even admits that the refugees “hover around the poverty level!”

The US State Department’s 2015 fiscal year begins October 1, so they are shooting for dropping off the refugees as early as November.

The biggest concern Denson and others had with the IRC plan was its time line. Resettlement was expected to begin in earnest in 2015, with the potential for some refugees arriving as soon as November.

The IRC contends they did communicate with local officials before submitting their plan to the US State Department and besides, says the IRC representative, the mayor should have been sending her letter to the US State Department which really calls the shots for Georgia and not the state’s own refugee coordinator.

Here is the unbelievable arrogance of the IRC representative on full display:

McCrary said he expects to hear the State Department’s decision on the Athens resettlement plan in four to six weeks. He is not deterred by the reaction of Athens officials.

“The State Department has seen this type of community reaction before,” McCrary said. “This is nothing new for them. They understand the difference between elected officials and community hospitality. They’ll see that Athens is supportive of refugees.”

Message to American citizens! We don’t care what local elected officials say—it is what the US State Department wants that matters!

Endnote: They knew a year ago that Georgia had developed “pockets of resistance” but are still planning to shove more immigrants down Georgians throats because this is more about turning red states blue than humanitarian concern. And, how do we know that? Vermont is eager for more migrants (Senator Patrick Leahy is a champion of the refugee program) so why not just send the ones planned for Georgia to that “welcoming” state? Why don’t they?—because Vermont is already blue!

Athens, GA mayor attempting to put brakes on proposed resettlement of (more?) refugees

08/21/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Another “pocket of resistance?” LOL! I can see “Welcoming America” scurrying to Athens at this very minute!

In July we reported on a plan by US State Department contractor—International Rescue Committee (IRC)—to open an office and begin resettling Congolese refugees to Athens, GA. See that story by clicking here.

Now comes news (hat tip: Joanne) that the Democratic mayor, Nancy Denson, is throwing cold water on the scheme by asking the IRC to “present a formal refugee integration plan.” That is exactly what every town or city faced with this crisis (yes, a crisis when a refugee contractor comes to your town!) should do—demand a plan for public review.

Mayor Nancy Denson: refugees will place an “inordinate service burden” on community.

There must be a social and economic impact statement prepared!

In the early days of writing this blog, when I thought reform of the program was possible, I had suggested that every location faced with the surprise notice that the US State Department, the Office of Refugee Resettlement and their contractors were planning to set up shop in their town should ask the federal government to prepare a social and economic impact statement (which included gathering information from the public through public meetings) modeled after the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) when federal money/federal action is being used for a project in a local community that might significantly effect the “natural or human environment.”

The refugee/migrant impact statement would include such measures as the economic costs to local and state government (schools etc). Health needs of the arriving population would have to be assessed in conjunction with the local health department. It would answer whether there was a good likelihood of the refugee ethnic group fitting in to the community. Is there adequate housing for newcomers that does not take away from the local needy? Where will they work? And, the final plan would put a cap on the number arriving (similar to the carrying-capacity concept of the natural environment). My concept calls for the plan to be reviewed and updated every few years.

It occurs to me in writing this, that in fact, since NEPA does address the impact on the human environment of a federal project, a sharp lawyer could possibly force the federal government to do an EIS for a new or expanding refugee resettlement plan.

So here is the latest news from Athens. It doesn’t matter whether the mayor is a Democrat or Republican, any elected official with a brain can see that bringing hundreds of mostly illiterate people to a community is going to have an impact and thus asking questions in advance is the sensible thing to do!

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Mayor Nancy Denson is seeking to put the brakes on plans to resettle 150 refugees in Athens-Clarke County in the coming months, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a letter to Georgia officials this week, the Democratic mayor complained that the International Rescue Committee did not reach out to enough people in her community early enough about its plans. She also raised concerns that the refugees could strain public resources in Athens-Clarke County, which is home to about 120,000 residents.

The IRC has proposed resettling refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar and Syria in the region over the next fiscal year. Denson said she wants the IRC to delay its efforts and to “present a formal refugee integration plan” to local elected officials and others.

“Serving refugees will add a burden to local charitable and other public resources, including safety net services,” Denson wrote Monday to Michael Singleton, Georgia’s state refugee coordinator. “Refugee students may also place an inordinate service burden on the school district due to limited English proficiency by the students and their parents.”

A spokeswoman for Georgia’s Human Services Department said Wednesday that the state agency is working on a response to the mayor’s letter.

You can read the next section of the article yourself, here, where the IRC makes its pitch for why Athens is great for them.

Then this:

The number of refugees coming to Georgia has been a source of controversy in recent years. Following requests from Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration for sharp cuts, the federal government has placed new limits on the number of refugees being resettled in Georgia. State officials started asking for reductions in 2012, citing worries that refugees are straining taxpayer-funded resources, including public schools.

Alarmed by the state’s position, resettlement agencies have been highlighting the economic benefits refugees bring. The agencies say refugees create a net gain for the state by working and paying taxes and attracting millions of dollars in federal aid to Georgia.

Another rare admission: Frankly refugee employment rates are abysmal, but here they admit that it is federal welfare money that flows to Georgia and other states along with the refugees as if Washington has a massive money tree, growing dollars by the bushel. This is the same dumb thing we heard from the Governor of Wyoming (a Republican!), who, in promoting his wished-for refugee program for that state, cited the federal dollars that would flow to the state—hey Gov! that is taxpayer money coming out of Wyomingites pockets too!

In addition to tax dollars that went to Washington and are benevolently (ha!) sent back, many of the needs of the refugees will come directly from local taxpayers for education, crime and health care.

We have a lot of posts on Georgia, go here for the complete archive. You might want to especially see the one from last week about the burden the ‘unaccompanied minors’ will have on one Georgia county.