More from Twin Falls: Is our security threatened so big business can bring in cheap labor?

09/29/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

One of the citizens concerned about what is happening in Twin Falls, Idaho had an ‘opportunity’ to meet with three of the big players who flew out from Washington for a stacked public “forum” last week to try to tamp down the growing controversy about more refugees arriving in Twin Falls—more refugees than many in the town believe the town can handle.
The issue started boiling in earnest here in April when the local refugee subcontractor (financially entwined with a public junior college—very fishy arrangement) bragged that Syrians were on the way to Twin Falls. By the way, Syrians have already been resettled in Boise (see all the cities where Syrians have been resettled so far).

Here Vicky Davis, who attended a pre-meeting with three of the Washington men in charge of changing communities through refugee resettlement, reports on what was said.
From TVOI News:
The three from Washington included:

Larry Bartlett, director of the U.S. State Department’s Office on Refugee Admissions, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration

Ken Tota, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement

Lee Williams, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). [USCRI is the Arlington, VA based contractor which subcontracts to CSI Refugee Program in Twin Falls.—ed]

Ms. Davis continues (emphasis is mine):

Larry Bartlett’s focus was primarily on the security issue. He talked about their system for checking on people declared to be refugees. They are interviewed, fingerprinted, photographed, etc. The government also has computer systems for several agencies – DOD, DOJ, DHS, etc. that have – data bases of known or suspected terrorists and criminals. Apparently the system worked reasonably well for Iraqi refugees because when Iraq was captured, all of their records were found intact. However, some terrorists did slip through because they didn’t have police records but the DOD did have their fingerprints on some IEDs that they set up for American soldiers to “find”. Those Iraqi “refugees” were found living on the public dole in Kentucky.

Of course we know that Syria is a failed state so there are no records for Syrians but that little detail did not diminish Bartlett’s optimism that their system is working. The interview combined with the running of searches on virtually empty databases is the process. If they don’t get a hit on the search (as would be expected in an empty database), the refugee is good to go. In fact, Bartlett wasn’t worried at all about the security of Americans. His concern is for the safety of the refugees. [Safety of the refugees! What a direct slap in the faces of anyone who has questions about refugee resettlement—he is implying we are violent people!—ed]

When I watched the videotape of the evening meeting, here, I was surprised to hear Bartlett referring to a two hour interview with the prospective refugee that was supposed to determine their legitimate status as a refugee. That’s it? That is the security screening when data is not available? Come on! We aren’t that naive! What prospective refugee is going to let on in any way (in an interview) that he/she might be inclined toward Islamic extremism? Has Bartlett never heard of taqiyya (lying to infidels is permitted in Islam)?
Davis’s narrative continues:

One of the most revealing things that Bartlett talked about was supply chain for refugee resettlement. Of course he didn’t use the term supply chain but that’s what he was talking about – a steady stream of refugee inputs to keep the refugee resettlement network intact and growing. That should scare the hell out of any red-blooded American because the resettlement network is a function of the United Nations and the Socialist International and they are deeply embedded in our government at this point.

Bartlett brings up Tyson Foods! Readers might want to visit this post from 2008 where we learned that Bill Clinton brought in thousands of Bosnian ‘refugees’ to Iowa for meatpacker labor. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2008/05/17/bosnians-iowa-meatpackers-and-more/

Cheap labor, money, Chamber of Commerce, money, meatpackers, money!

I have been for years maintaining that a major driving force behind refugee resettlement in America is that big businesses, like BIG MEAT, need a steady stream of cheap and reliable immigrant labor and here Bartlett appears to confirm that.
For all of you wondering why your RINO Republican elected officials are not up in arms about the impoverished people pouring into ‘red’ states this is the explanation! It is all about MONEY!
Davis continues (sorry to snip so much, but this is so important!):

Jobs Americans Won’t do

The most important question in the afternoon meeting from this writer’s point of view was “how many of these refugees are economic migrants?” Bartlett assured us that none of them are economic migrants. They all fled their countries for fear of persecution. Interestingly, then Bartlett mentioned that we need the labor anyway. He mentioned Tyson Foods (chickens) and “jobs Americans won’t do”. That was the wrong thing to say to this writer. That statement alone told me everything I needed to know about this refugee program and the U.S. State Department. The State Department has become nothing more than front men for big business.

[See our many many posts here at RRW on Tyson Foods, refugees, and changing American towns here.—ed]

“Jobs Americans Won’t Do” is a propaganda slogan promoted by the Chamber of Commerce and other big businesses that profit from cheap labor. Tyson apparently has switched from using illegal labor to using “refugees”. Destroying the country and the lives of American citizens isn’t even a consideration. The entire global system is about nothing but global labor arbitrage – exploitation of working people for high profits for the businesses of the few.

I did a search on ‘Chamber of Commerce’ and ‘refugees’ and here you go… Refugee Crisis – Corporate Aid Tracker. It’s a program of the Chamber of Commerce Foundation – a non-profit for a non-profit that serves profit.

Open for Business… The Chamber of Commerce. Note one name on the list: Jan Reeves, Idaho Office for Refugees. The Idaho Office for Refugees made their website look like it was an agency of the Idaho State government, but in fact, they are a business unit of the Jannus Group, the “non-profit” agency that serves as the Public Health system in Idaho and that operates the ratline for “refugees” who are cheap labor for business and soldiers for the Chamber of Commerce program of economic warfare on the American people.

The refugee resettlement program is a racket backed by the Chamber of Commerce.

Hiding under the white hat of humanitarianism!

I can’t emphasize enough that as we face charges of being racists, xenophobes and just plain unkind to suffering humanity, stand firm! This is not about humanitarianism it is about MONEY straight up—cheap immigrant labor where our welfare system supports the refugees (the pawns!) while industry gets away with offering low-paying jobs. Indeed a great business model helped by the power of the federal government (and its resettlement contractors!).
Please visit TVOI to follow links and learn more by clicking here.
Our complete Twin Falls archive is here.

Boise, Idaho: Much wailing and gnashing of teeth as refugees get evicted, will they send some to Twin Falls?

09/26/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know whether to take this story at its face value—new landlord wants to refurbish the apartments and put them back on the market at a higher price (landlords can do that right?). Or, whether there is more to this story and the new landlord needs to let’s just say, clean up.
(Once refugee resettlement contractors get a foothold in certain apartment complexes they tend to keep bringing them there often to the chagrin of the landlords.)
Before I get to the news, as Obama plans to welcome 85,000 new impoverished people to America, low income housing is increasingly unavailable—not just for refugees but for Americans with low incomes. So unless Obama gets his HUD projects moving quickly, there is going to be an extreme shortage of housing available for this next year’s delivery of 85,000 third worlders to America beginning this coming Thursday (October 1)!
One way to slow the flow to your town is to get involved in blocking the HUD housing Obama wants so badly, and I am hearing from some of you that HUD and its developer pals are already showing up in your nice middle class towns.
By the way, when you watch the IRC contractor almost in tears, note that these refugee tenants pay rent month by month which tells me that they are not becoming self-sustaining as Lawrence Bartlett and other biased presenters told the audience in Twin Falls this past week was the goal.
And hey, Twin Falls, they have 400 poor refugees to move to new apartments in just a few weeks, some might be coming your way as Boise has a housing shortage!
From KTVB-7 (hat tip: an ever watchful reader):

To learn more about the International Rescue Committee (IRC), one of the federal contractors operating in Boise, go here. Their CEO, David Miliband (bff Hillary Clinton and George Soros), makes close to a half a million dollars a year to run the IRC and was one of the first to demand that the Obama Administration admit 65,000 Syrian refugees (now he is up to 100,000). Maybe he could pitch in a little cash to help the refugees he (a Brit) has invited to colonize America!

Drilling down on federal contractors that launder your money to local agencies—Twin Falls again

09/25/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The spotlight in the Twin Falls, Idaho controversy shifts from the big business interests we mentioned in our previous post, to the major federal contractor that is really calling the shots — not the local College of Southern Idaho Refugee Program.
The federal resettlement contractor, located in Arlington, Virginia is known in the refugee industry as USCRI (US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants) which passes your tax dollars through to their local affiliate—CSI.

Lavinia Limon again — Learn more about Lavinia here: http://thehispanicblog.com/2012/04/14/who-is-lavinia-limon-meet-the-ceo-of-the-u-s-committee-for-refugees-immigrants/

We continue to be perplexed why there is no federal Form 990 available for CSI’s refugee program and would like to see the College’s financials to see exactly how much is coming in through their books for the refugee program.
However, we get some idea by having a look at the most recently available Form 990 for USCRI.
First, the best page of recent Form 990s is page 9. I say recent because when I first looked at Form 990s years ago these numbers were more prominently presented on page 1.

In 2013, USCRI had an income stream as follows (in red are your tax dollars). Numbers are rounded to save me work!

Government Grants: $35.4 million

Other contributions: $247,000

IOM Collection Fees: $1.7 million (Refugees are loaned tax dollars via the International Organization for Migration, another contractor, for their airfare and must return the loan, however the resettlement contractors get to keep a portion of any money they can wring out of the poor refugees. This is USCRI’s share for that year. It really should have been all returned to the US Treasury.)

Interpreters: $1.2 million (This is probably mostly local tax dollars as the contractors are now in the business of providing their workers and refugees for interpretive services needed in the health care system and criminal justice system to name just two).

Childcare Service: $350,000 (will give them the benefit of the doubt that this is private income???)

Misc. small stuff

Total income: $39.2 million or about 98% funded by tax dollars!

BTW, CEO Lavinia Limon earned a cool $289,192 according to this Form 990 and another Limon (relative?) earned $139,869. These salaries are in the mid-range for CEOs and employees in the humanitarian business. One of them, in another non-profit, makes close to $500,000 a year.

Limon had served as Bill Clinton’s Director of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement having revolved in and out of government as did her right hand man Eskinder Negash (you saw him here the other day leading the charge for 100,000 Syrians to be admitted to the US this coming year).
Anyway, back to Twin Falls. On Page 10 of the Form 990 you will see that Limon passed $22.3 million of their income (from you) to subcontractors working for them around the country. I was going to list the Top Ten recipients of the money that one could say USCRI launders to subordinates (Does anyone in the federal government follow the money to be sure it is used properly? Are there federal audits?), but I am too lazy. Check the dollar figures yourself in Schedule I.
On their list of grantees is the College of Southern Idaho which received $807,380 (passed to them by USCRI). If they had other income (gifts, fundraiser income, etc.) we have no idea because there is no Form 990 for CSI Refugee Program.
I did check to see if some of the other USCRI beneficiaries have filed separate Form 990s and the answer is yes!
So where is CSI’s? This arrangement with the College of Southern Idaho is a strange one!
We have many posts on Ms. Limon, click here for our archive.
Note to the New York Times reporter who was in Twin Falls on Tuesday evening. I hope you are doing your homework! The finances! The secrecy! The revolving door! The big business interests! The lobbying push by USCRI and others for 100,000 Syrian ‘clients’ for them! All of it!

Big business drives refugee resettlement in America: Could Chobani Yogurt be behind the drive in Twin Falls?

09/25/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For years we have chronicled the involvement of BIG business in pushing for cheap immigrant labor.
We’ve told you about meatpacking plants and hotel chains. Large agri-business concerns, including dairy farming conglomerates/egg producers, claim they need immigrant labor. Most recently someone told me that a Lutheran nursing home chain was hiring refugee labor. Here is one of many posts we have written on the subject of meatpackers changing small town America.
Indeed, why else would the Chamber of Commerce have played a major role in pushing the ‘Gang of Eight’ amnesty bill a few years ago—cheap labor for their big business members of course!
And, you Lefties wonder why wages are so low!
(Americans would do the work if wages weren’t artificially kept low by a glut of immigrant labor (both legal and illegal)).
I’ve even suggested that the nine major resettlement contractors (which are selecting your towns for resettlement) and the US State Department act as ‘head hunters’ for large corporate interests all the while wearing their humanitarian do-gooder hats!
We know why Democrats want the immigrant influx (voting power), but, why do you think that RINO Republicans, as well as Republican governors, keep their mouths shut about the refugee program even in the face of vocal resistance in communities suffering the financial and cultural impact (and possibly a threat to security) of dozens of nationalities of third worlders in their towns?
Money! Money! Money! (That is why they don’t listen to you!)

Chobani Turk — Is Kurdish-American Hamdi Ulukaya behind the drive to bring Syrian refugees to Twin Falls? Just wondering!

Great business model!

This morning I see news that the Kurdish-American owner of Chobani Yogurt has hired 600 refugees for his New York yogurt plant and that he is spending millions to help refugees.
Spending millions where the refugees live in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq etc. is a wonderful thing and he deserves praise for that, but if he is using his financial power to bring Syrian refugees to small town America we have a right to be informed!
Refugees are here legally and make a better supply of cheap labor because they cannot go home!
Here we learn about Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani Greek Yogurt at the New York Daily News:

A Turkish yogurt executive is putting his money where his mouth is, hiring Syrian refugees and donating millions to the cause.

You will need to go to the NY Daily News link to watch the video where they brag about hiring 600 refugees for the New York plant.
By the way, there is a new large meatpacking plant opening soon near Boise, Idaho—are they going to be looking for the cheap refugee labor too?
Since these industries pay low wages, you lucky taxpayers get to supplement the refugee families through the welfare system. Great business model isn’t it!
See all of our coverage of the conflict on-going in Twin Falls, Idaho, here. See especially our initial report on the public meeting held earlier this week.
Incidentally, my research of a data base kept by the US State Department indicates that refugee resettlement to Twin Falls was slow up until Obama took office when the numbers going to Magic Valley Idaho ticked upward dramatically (so no wonder citizens began to notice changes in the community).

In Twin Falls, Idaho last night, US State Department official: we don't force refugees on communities that don't want them

09/23/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Correction! Bartlett didn’t say we don’t place refugees in unwelcoming communities, he said “unsafe” ones implying that those who are critical of the program might actually hurt the refugees—what a slap in the face!
Regular readers know that we have been closely following the controversy that has been brewing for months about the refugee resettlement program on-going in the Magic Valley of Idaho. See our post last week where we outlined a public meeting format that would be fair to all sides in the controversy (so it wouldn’t appear as a “dog and pony show”).

Bartlett: We don’t resettle refugees into communities that don’t want them.

Initial reports are that it was surprise! a “dog and pony show,” and that the Times-News refused to use any of the suggestions coming from the citizens in opposition that might have helped community members feel confident that the meeting was a fair one.
In fact, according to a leader of those who are questioning the program, Rick Martin, the public meeting might well be characterized as a meeting one would expect in “communist Cuba.”
We are anxiously waiting for a video tape of the entire meeting and will have more for you then.
However, here are a few nuggets to satisfy your curiosity in addition to the astounding statement reportedly made at the end of the nearly 3-hour meeting by Lawrence Bartlett representing the US State Department—we don’t send refugees to communities not willing to welcome them. (We will get the exact wording from the video taped recording).
From a first hand account:

The meeting was delayed because the line to get in stretched for about a mile and everyone was subjected to screening by a metal-detector and some were frisked.
Those in favor of more refugees being resettled in Twin Falls brought in van and car loads of people from outside of town (presumably from Boise). Some of those were refugees themselves (we have previously mentioned that ploy to play on public sympathy by using refugees as pawns at such meetings).
About 725 people were in attendance.
A New York Times reporter was there, so look for news from the NYT.
Disgusted with the biased way in which the moderator asked questions, about ten in the audience walked out after about 45 minutes. One man shouted, “this is propaganda.”
Opposition leaders were happy with the opportunity to distribute their informational handouts.
There was much discussion about the national security fears of residents.
Questions about the health status of refugees and whether any presented serious medical threats to the community were not satisfactorily answered.
Opposition leaders say only about four of the fifty or so questions they submitted were asked and then the question was paraphrased (spun!) by the moderator. By the way, we had recommended that the paper should not have allowed its editor to moderate the meeting because of previously demonstrated bias, but the paper refused to replace him with a retired judge.

Much more later when we have had an opportunity to view the entire videotape of the meeting.
Oh, and I nearly forgot, you can read the Times-News account of the “forum,” here. (They don’t like RRW to excerpt their material, presumably so you will go and see their advertisers.)
All of our previous coverage of the Twin Falls controversy and the growing ‘Pocket of Resistance’ there can be found by clicking here.