Refugees trickle in to Twin Falls, Idaho

04/13/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Add “trickle” to our descriptive media word-list about this years’ refugee flow to America.
Previously we joked about “plummeting” numbers (dip, tumble, drop dramatically, drastically decline, etc.). Now we can add “trickle.”

lavinia-and-chobani — Back in the good ‘ol days, Lavinia Limon (USCRI) was sending Mr. Chobani Yogurt (*Hamdi Ulukaya)* his workers for Twin Falls.

Mr. Chobani Yogurt must be a bit annoyed as the refugee worker stream to his Twin Falls yogurt plant must be trickling too.
And, heck, he even lost pal, doyenne of the refugee contractors, Lavinia Limon last fall. See here.
This article is just another of the ho-hum planted media stories about that mean ol’ Donald Trump and how his refugee slowdown is hurting their refugee industry.
It wouldn’t be worth posting except for the blatant admission that plummeting refugee arrivals are hurting the contractors’ budgets.
For longtime readers you are likely thinking—well we know that!
However, ten years ago, when I started writing this blog about the flawed US Refugee Admissions Program, the media didn’t know that refugee contracting agencies*** were paid by the head to place refugees, so I see this paragraph below as progress!
From the Idaho State Journal:

There are challenges that come with taking in fewer refugees. It’s hard to manage the Refugee Center’s budget, Rwasama said, because the center receives federal funding per refugee who arrives. “Everything is impacted when you don’t have funding to provide services.”

More here.
I was glad to see that they say they are taking better care of the formerly placed refugees since they are receiving so few new ones.
Rwasama is CSI Refugee Center director Zeze Rwasama. It has never been adequately explained just how the College of Southern Idaho became a subcontractor for USCRI, one of the nine (soon to be eight?) federal contractors.
Nevertheless, we are happy to see that the admission is being made regularly and the media is now reporting that:

Federal resettlement contractors (and their subcontractors) receive payment from you, the US taxpayer, on a per refugee head basis!

Progress!
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.

Uzbek refugee admits he wanted to kill California prison warden by slitting his throat

03/16/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is one of those stories I’m sick of writing about. I’ve followed Fazliddin Kurbanov’s ‘career’ since his arrest in Idaho in 2013.
He is one of those Uzbeks that we have admitted to the US since the Bush Administration who were already radical Islamists back home, and why we took hundreds is still a mystery. Rumor is that the CIA and State Department teamed up to get them here.
This is the latest at The Sun (San Bernardino):
By the way, some stories just list him as an “Uzbek national” but others, like ABC here have it right. He was a refugee, now he will cost US taxpayers a fortune as we care for him in prison!

An Uzbek national already serving a 25-year terrorism-related sentence has entered a guilty plea for trying to slit the throat of the warden of the Victorville federal prison in a 2016 attack.

Fazliddin Kurbanov, 34, faces sentencing on June 4 before United States District Judge Virginia A. Phillips in Los Angeles after he entered a guilty plea Tuesday, March 13, to one count of attempted murder of a federal officer.

Kurbanov attacked then-Warden Calvin Johnson of the Victorville Federal Correctional Institute on May 31, 2016 in a dining facility, where Johnson was standing “near the serving line to be accessible to inmates during the lunch service” court papers said.

Kurbanov, armed with an approximately 4-inch prison-made shank, grabbed Johnson from behind and tried to cut the warden’s throat; when Johnson raised his hands to protect his throat, Kubanov instead slashed the warden on his left side, the document said.

Kurbanov admitted in an interview with authorities that he had made the shank, found a way to conceal it, and intended to kill Johnson with it, the court papers said. The attack took place five months after Kurbanov was sentenced in the terrorism case in Idaho.

Johnson was seriously injured in the attack, but has recovered and is now working at another prison in the federal system, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles said in a statement.

wendy-olson — Obama’s US Attorney for Idaho, Wendy Olson, was concerned with American rabble that might act up during Kurbanov’s 2015 trial! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/07/14/as-trial-opens-for-idaho-refugee-alleged-terrorist-idaho-statesman-reports-on-refugee-program/

In January 2016, Kurbanov was sentenced to 25 years in prison for for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and possessing an unregistered destructive device. He was convicted after a trial.

Prosecutors in that case said Kurbanov made contact with a website for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and discussed with the website administrator “his animosity toward Americans, particularly the military; his desire to build a bomb; possible targets in the United States, including military bases in Idaho and Texas; and his need for instruction on how to construct and remotely detonate a bomb,” according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Idaho.

He also discussed possible targets with an FBI confidential source, including the United States Military Academy at West Point, the prosecutor’s office said.

Go here for my complete file on Fazliddin Kurbanov.
His Idaho trial came at a time when tensions began to rise in that state about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. The US attorney and others went to great lengths to minimize the news about the trial.
See my Idaho archive here.

Southern Poverty Law Center working to advance the establishment of Sharia Law in US

02/14/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is about all one can conclude when you see the great lengths the SPLC is going to in one state—Idaho—to stop any legislation (through intimidation) that would confirm that in America, US law is the law.

shariah_dearborn_michigan_fb — The SPLC works for Sharia law supremacy. What else can you conclude from their support of it in the US.

I have other things to get to, but I want you to see the SPLC tactics on full display here at their ‘Hate Watch’ web page.
Any of us wishing to block the establishment of Sharia Law in America are haters, so get used to it, stand proud against those, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR and the SPLC, who wish to see it established in America!
See all of my posts on Idaho, a state they are rapidly changing by changing the people, by clicking here.
SPLC posts are here.

The Tent Foundation hires Lutheran refugee contractor to write refugee hiring guide

11/18/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of Chobani Yogurt (we mentioned their expansion in Twin Falls, Idaho, here recently), created a personal foundation launched at Davos (Switzerland) in 2016 he called The Tent Foundation.

clinton and Chobani — I’m using this photo because I’m intrigued by the fact that last night on two different Fox News programs focusing on Clinton’s past indiscretions, they used a clip from this event with Ulukaya. Why? Sending some sort of message to viewers? Or, just coincidence because it was a quick and easy video to find? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgjqzO63XfM

To learn more about Ulukaya’s pitch to global corporations see his 2016 opinion piece published at CNN Money (watch the video!) where he says he has hired 600 refugees for his yogurt plants in New York and Idaho and that he has pledged to give half of his $1.4 billion personal wealth to refugee causes.

Now comes news that The Tent Foundation has hired Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service to pen a guide for their “member” companies (affiliated with Tent) to answer questions corporations have about hiring refugee labor.

Let me be clear:

We applaud global corporations (like those below) and uber-wealthy CEOs that send millions of their own dollars to care for refugees living in camps and in other difficult situations around the world.

However, when they rely on the federal taxpayer, through the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, to deliver their potential workers to the US (to compete with Americans for jobs), it becomes our business.

For new readers, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is one of nine federal contractors*** hired and funded (on a per refugee-head basis) by the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS to place refugees in towns where citizens have no say in the matter and are generally kept in the dark about the process and plans for their communities.

LIRS, approximately 96% funded by taxpayer dollars, is at the moment in a tight spot due to internal turmoil.

We have also recently reported on two other LIRS side ‘deals’ with global corporations— the meatpackers JBS Swift and Tyson Foods.

Now we hear that Ulukaya’s personal foundation, The Tent Foundation, has hired LIRS to write “a 15-page resource toolkit for employers laying out why they should hire refugees.”

According to a signed contract seen by RRW, the finished product was to be delivered to The Tent Foundation by the end of October.

It is unclear if that happened, or if it did, if the ‘guide’ will be available to the public.

Making a deal…..

Here, below, is a July e-mail provided by someone close to the arrangement from an obviously very pleased Linda Hartke, LIRS CEO, to staff members (recipient names removed by me).

From: Linda Hartke
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 3:05 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: RE: Recruitment of a contractor

For those who are not aware of the background on this project, the focus is the development of a 15 page resource toolkit for employers laying out why they should hire refugees, what are the legal and cultural issues to consider, how to go about it, and where to get help. The Tent Foundation is the foundation of the founder of Chobani yogurt who is himself a refugee and employs many refugees. They have many large corporate “members” related to the foundation, and their members have been hungry for such a resource.

While current LIRS staff will manage this project, the heavy lift of the research and writing will be done by a contractor as described below.

There is no formal contract or paperwork on the grant yet – but there is email communication confirming agreement on terms. We have asked them to proceed this week to finalize the necessary paperwork and begin the process to transfer funds. We did not provide a budget, but rather a fixed amount to produce the toolkit.

Congrats all, on this new funder for LIRS!
Linda
—
Linda Hartke
President and CEO | LHartke@lirs.org | 410-230-2762

Here (and below) are those companies and NGOs affiliated with Ulukaya’s foundation which wikipedia refers to as his “personal foundation.” You will surely recognize many global corporations on the list! Don’t miss Soros Fund Management!

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And, here are the non-profit’s working with The Tent Foundation including our old pals at ‘Welcoming America.‘

Click here for our complete archive on the community organizers at Welcoming America.

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*** These are the nine federal resettlement contractors paid largely with your tax dollars to place refugees in hundreds of locations around the US.

Go here to see a recent accounting of their finances and CEO salaries:

Chobani Yogurt update: plant expansion planned for Twin Falls, Idaho

11/14/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Idaho Republican governor Otter praised the yogurt tycoon.

Here is the story from the Utica, NY Observer-Dispatch:

The founder and CEO of Chobani has no regrets about moving part of his Greek yogurt company to south-central Idaho, a region embroiled in the national debate over refugee resettlement that spread to company boycotts by far-right bloggers and conspiracy theorists. [So there were boycotts—who knew?–ed]

“I hear the conversations here and there, but it’s a peaceful community that we all love,” said Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant. “It’s the home of Chobani.”

Ulukaya spoke to The Associated Press before a Thursday announcement of a $20 million expansion of the company’s facility in the city of Twin Falls — the world’s largest yogurt plant — to serve as its global research and development center tackling how yogurt is made and consumed.

[….]

The company employs 2,000 workers, including 300 refugees.

However, Chobani’s time in Idaho also has taken a darker turn as anti-immigrant advocates have seized on the company’s open stance on refugees. Fringe websites have falsely claimed that Ulukaya wanted to “drown the United States in Muslims.” Other websites, like Breitbart News, falsely attempted to link Chobani’s hiring of refugees to an uptick in tuberculosis cases in Idaho.

To counteract the hateful rhetoric, Chobani sued right-wing radio host Alex Jones earlier this year, saying that Jones and his InfoWars website posted fabricated stories linking Ulukaya and the company to a sexual assault case involving refugee children in Twin Falls. Jones originally promised to never back down in his fight against the yogurt giant but eventually retracted his statements in a settlement. [We are aware that Chobani lawyers threatened other news outlets as well—ed.]

Ulukaya declined to comment on the Jones lawsuit but said the rise in anti-refugee sentiment has never delayed a project he wanted to pursue. And he says he is committed to being a welcoming company.

[….]

During Thursday’s expansion launch, Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter praised Chobani’s impact on the community.

More here.

See my entire Twin Falls archive by clicking here.

See what is messy here!