Idaho petition drives underway to shut down refugee resettlement in Twin Falls, and in the whole state

10/13/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

On Sunday MagicValley.com reported on two petition drives being conducted in the Twin Falls area.

Republican Gov. Butch Otter is being asked to shut it down statewide. He does not have that power! But, putting pressure on him like this is still an excellent idea.

TWIN FALLS • Supporters of a ballot measure to ban refugee centers in Twin Falls County have started to gather signatures.

The Twin Falls County Clerk’s office approved the form of the petition on Oct. 5, giving them 180 days — or until early April — to gather the 3,842 signatures they need to get the initiative on the countywide ballot in May.

Rick Martin, the head of the Committee to End the CSI Refugee Center and the sponsor of the ballot measure, was gathering signatures outside the U.S. Post Office on Second Avenue West on Wednesday morning. He said their goal is to gather about 4,300 signatures, to make sure they have enough in case some get challenged.

[….]

The ballot measure would ban refugee centers anywhere in the county, including within the cities, and would take effect Nov. 1, 2016.

Another group, III Percent of Idaho, is working a petition to get the Governor to shut down refugee resettlement for the whole state. They will hold a rally this coming Sunday. See MagicValley.com for details.
Remember readers that Idaho is a Wilson-Fish state and as such decisions are made between a non-profit group (Jannus Inc, mentioned here) and the UN/US State Department. Neither the Governor, nor other elected officials, will be able to shut it down without first getting rid of the Wilson-Fish status.
Note to activists:
If the Governor is reluctant to do anything (to even speak up), check his campaign contributions and see if he is getting campaign cash from big industries like the one setting up the new meatpacking plant near Boise and Chobani Yogurt near Twin Falls. Both industries are looking for cheap refugee labor to make sure their profit margin is good (your culture, your local economy and your safety be damned!).
For all of you, wherever in the US you are located, be sure to research which industries are working closely with federal resettlement contractors (phony ‘church’ groups) to bring refugees to your community.
Idahoans! You really must focus some attention on your federal representatives, your two US Senators and your two Members of the House. I know, I know, we all think they are a bunch of do-nothings, but you still gotta hound them!

More on Chobani

chobani-yogurt-300x225 — Chobani changing America one cheap immigrant laborer at a time….

Remember I told you about the refugees getting the boot from an apartment complex in Boise, here. Now a reader tells us that Chobani has stepped in to rescue the refugees, here, here and here.

So let me ask this question: If refugees do not have enough money (or jobs) to get and keep housing without extra help from Chobani, why are we bringing more refugees to Idaho or to America for that matter?

Learn more about Chobani and its Kurdish-American founder in Twin Falls, here.
Go here for our HUGE archive on Idaho.
This post is also archived in our relatively new category—Pockets of Resistance.

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho newspaper confirms it: No refugees to be resettled in Northern Idaho ("right now")

10/09/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

However, the state refugee coordinator, Jan Reeves, while suggesting Northern Idahoans are too hostile to accept refugees, confirms that Syrian refugees will be resettled in Twin Falls.
Last week we heard a rumor that refugees were going to be resettled in Coeur d’Alene and/or St. Marie’s, Idaho and our story reached thousands and thousands of readers, see the original story here.
Then we heard from the Director of the World Relief office in nearby Spokane, Washington who told us that there were no plans to resettle refugees across the state line, but they were only looking for donations and volunteer help. See our follow-up post here.

Reeves and Johnson — That is Jan Reeves on the right with Holly Johnson of Tennessee (left) they decide for Idaho and for Tennessee (along with the US State Department) who gets resettled in their states with virtually zero input from elected officials in their Wilson-Fish states. In 2013, Obama chose Reeves as a “champion of change.”

It is not the purpose of this post today to discuss the donated stuff, but you should know that the ‘stuff’ (even junky donations) are counted as cash by the federal government for the purpose of demonstrating that the non-profit group was adding its share to the pot of money that is used for the refugees and for the agency’s salaries and overhead.
Also, volunteer hours are tracked and a dollar value is placed on them also for the purpose of ‘matching’ federal dollars. But, I digress.
Now thanks to some good sleuthing by Jeff Selle, at the CDA Press.com, we learn this (below) from Mr. Reeves (Reeves is largely responsible, along with the UN/US State Department, for determining who comes to Idaho, a Wilson-Fish state, with no Idaho state government input!). (Emphasis below is mine.)

Jan Reeves, director of the Idaho State Office of Refugees, confirmed what Kadel said.

[The Idaho State Office of Refugees, Jannus Inc, is a non-profit group, NOT an office of the state government. Kadel is the Director of World Relief Spokane—ed]

“I talked with Mark about this a couple of days ago,” Reeves said. “The last thing I would recommend is settling refugees in a community that doesn’t support them. Considering the (political) climate in North Idaho, we would not resettle refugees there.”

Reeves said the very notion that his office or the World Relief organization would clandestinely try to create a resettlement community is absurd.

Reeves may not “clandestinely” resettle refugees in Idaho, but I assure you that the taxpaying citizens of towns being chosen across the country are the last to learn (usually when refugees have already arrived in town!) the news.

“It isn’t done secretly by the dark forces of government,” he said. “In fact, it is a fairly long process.” [What is a “fairly” open process? How about a completely open process!—ed]

Reeves said North Idaho doesn’t have the service necessary to support a large number of refugees. He said the only two Idaho cities that will receive the Syrian refugees are Boise and Twin Falls.

He said Boise took 35 Syrian refugees this year, which amounted to seven or eight families.

“I do expect we will see more Syrians in Boise this year,” Reeves said, adding he is not sure how many they will take because those decisions are still being made in Washington, D.C.

“In about a month we should know much more,” he said, adding they are deciding how to distribute a total of 85,000 refugees among nine resettlement agencies and 200 resettlement communities.

There is much more, continue reading here. Be sure to see the many comments!
You need to know that in 2013 the White House chose Jan Reeves to receive its ‘Champions of Change’ award, here. Jannus Inc. was formerly Mountain States Group which I discussed here a little bit at the end of this post. Remember, Obama is changing America by changing the people!
My recommendation for Idaho patriots, especially those who have dodged a bullet for now in N. Idaho, you need to persuade your state legislature to take action and GET RID OF THE WILSON-FISH program in your state. Tell them to take control back from an un-elected non-profit group!
By the way, point out to your state and federal legislators that Montana and Wyoming take ZERO refugees. See map here.

Idaho: World Relief confirms that they will NOT be resettling refugees in Northern Idaho

10/08/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 9: More news here at CDA Press. No refugees planned for N. Idaho at this time.
We received this information from the Director of World Relief in Spokane, Washington. So all concerned citizens can rest easy for now! The controversial resettlement continues in southern Idaho (in Twin Falls), but we have been assured no resettlement is planned for Coeur d’Alene or St. Marie’s or anywhere in that region.

From the Director Mark Kadel:

My name is Mark Kadel and I am the Director of the World Relief office in Spokane, WA that you reference in your website post. I can officially state that our resettlement office has no plans to resettle refugees in Idaho. We are below capacity in Spokane and would have no need to extend resettlement across the State line. If churches or individuals would like to support refugees resettled in Spokane, there are many ways they can help by visiting our website at Worldreliefspokane.org. Before any future plans to resettle refugees in Idaho were to develop, we would need community and local church support before any plans to place refugees in any communities in Idaho.

Our experience with the controversy involving World Relief in Spartanburg, SC tells us that, yes, they do try to get local church support, but don’t inform the wider community until the refugees are actually on the way. We are very happy to hear that Northern Idaho cities will be getting some sort of advance notice as World Relief would seek “community…support.”

Wilson-Fish is not a good thing!

By the way, the other refugee resettlement contractors working elsewhere in Idaho are, in addition to World Relief, the International Rescue Committee, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, and Episcopal Migration Ministries. As a Wilson-Fish state the elected officials in the state have no involvement with the program run by a non-profit Jannus Inc.(formerly Mountain States Group) and the US State Department.
Citizens of Idaho should focus attention on getting your elected state legislature to get some control back for the state. There isn’t much states can do, but it is pretty amazing to think in Wilson-Fish states that an unelected non-profit and the federal government have the right to change your entire state AND commit the taxpayers to enormous extra costs for education and healthcare just to name two areas where the burden is on the taxpayers of Idaho!

The New York Times addresses the Twin Falls, Idaho refugee controversy

10/05/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

My overall quick impression of the NYT article from late last week (sorry I was away with no time to post) is that although it is still the New York Times it is a bit fairer than the article they posted from South Carolina about ten days ago. My take on that one is here.
Here is just a short bit:

In an echo of the ferocious debate that is gripping Europe about the fate of the millions of Syrians thrown from their country by civil war, Twin Falls is grappling with the question of whether taking in a next generation of refugees from the Middle East is wise and safe.

vicki davis — Vicky Davis, right, before a community forum, said she wanted to close the refugee center. Credit Kim Raff for The New York Times

The announcement last month by the Obama administration that thousands of additional Syrians would be accepted into the system nationally galvanized opponents of the CSI Refugee Center here, as it is formally known, who were already circulating a ballot initiative aimed at forcing the College of Southern Idaho to cut its ties or shut down the program.

“There’s a lot of concern about radical Islam,” said Richard L. Martin Jr., a petition-drive leader who graduated from high school here in the mid-1980s. Back then, Mr. Martin said, Twin Falls was still taking in refugees from places like Laos, including a boy who became one of his best friends. “Now it’s something different,” said Mr. Martin, the owner of a small medical products repair company.

See the whole article here.
Most of America still has no clue about how we are admitting thousands and thousands of third world refugees each year, distributing them to towns that have no say in the matter and placing them on all forms of welfare, so every bit of media attention is good (even when it doesn’t give our concerns a serious look). Sad to say, but most mainstream reporters are making completely emotional appeals to readers who are driven by surprise!—their emotions. Those people and their reporter friends simply can’t mentally handle the practical considerations some of us are focusing on. This NYT reporter, Kirk Johnson, was not as bad as he could have been.
Go here to read about concerned citizen Vicky Davis’s (see photo) analysis of her meeting with federal officials who traveled to Twin Falls to participate in the public “forum.” Thank goodness we still have other ways of reaching readers other than the NYT, Washington Post or LA Times!
Click here for all of our previous coverage of the on-going controversy about resettling more refugees, especially Muslim refugees, in Twin Falls, Idaho.
An afterthought: I forgot to mention that our post of late last week on Northern Idaho being targeted for refugee resettlement is breaking all records. I don’t know who all is reading it, but I hope that the many thousands who are live in No. Idaho.

World Relief targeting Northern Idaho for refugee resettlement!

10/02/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 9th: Local paper confirms—no refugees to N. Idaho for now. However, great additional information here.
Important Update October 8th: World Relief Spokane has notified us that they have NO PLANS to resettle refugees in Northern Idaho, see here.
Update October 3rd: Readers I am traveling so not much time to post, however, wanted to mention that this post has gone through the roof in the last 24 hours! Who knows why, but hopefully the citizens of St. Maries and Coeur d’Alene are passing it around! Reminds me to tell you to read ‘Ten things your town needs to know’ by clicking here.
People ask me all the time—how do I know if my town is targeted? I tell them, sorry, you will get no public announcement until plans are well underway, but if you watch very closely, you may see something that will tip you off!

Idaho map — Sorry I couldn’t find a better map, but I wanted to show you how close Spokane is to Coeur d’Alene, so it is no surprise that World Relief Spokane would move its excess refugees to Idaho. The map shows the other two resettlement sites in Idaho—Twin Falls and Boise.

Back in August we asked if St. Maries, Idaho was going to be a new resettlement site. Now, reader Barbara directs our attention to this tiny mention in a local church bulletin (Grace Bible Church, September 27 bulletin).
This is likely all the notice the communities near Coeur d’Alene will get (St. Marie’s is close by) and they wouldn’t even get this if Barbara hadn’t spotted it!

MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY!

World Relief has been helping refugees settle in Spokane and would like to involve Coeur d’Alene as well. If you are interested in learning more about how you could be involved in such a ministry, please see Paul. Thanks!

Regular readers know that it is World Relief (Evangelicals!), one of nine major federal contractors calling the shots about the future of your towns and cities (see here), that opened an office in Spartanburg, SC this year which is embroiled in controversy since a ‘Pocket of Resistance’ has developed there. See all of our posts on Spartanburg by clicking here.
World Relief has an office in Spokane (here), Washington and Coeur d’Alene is only about 35 miles away making it an excellent spillover site (within the US State Department’s magic 100 mile radius for resettlement).
Everyone reading this post who wishes to find out if your town could be next to be colonized (because frankly they don’t have enough sites for the thousands of Syrians and additional Africans they plan to resettle in FY2016 which, by the way, began yesterday), go to first this list of resettlement subcontractors and see this map. If one of these offices is anywhere near you, you are fair game!
People ask me all the time, what the legend is on the map. The abbreviations for the nine major contractors are represented in the legend.

So back to Northern Idaho—you have early notice now that they have plans for your towns! What will concerned citizens do?

We have an extensive archive on the conflict over refugee resettlement in Twin Falls, click here. To learn more about what citizens are doing there, visit those posts.
This post and hundreds more like it are posted in our ‘where to find information’ category which I urge all new readers to visit. I know it’s hard for new folks to grasp all of this, but please use that category and our search window to look around for useful information. I apologize in advance for not being able to answer all of your inquiries.