The story is from the Des Moines Register today (hat tip: Joanne).
Hey, folks in Montana and Wyoming, listen up! When the wannabe refugee contractors tell you that the refugee resettlement program for your state will cost your state and local taxpayers zip, zero, nada, refer your elected officials to this article about the need for a jobs program and more “services” for the 10,000 refugees who have been placed in the state. (Apparently the meatpacker employers don’t pay enough!)
$350,000 is being sought from the state legislature to help fund RefugeeRise and it’s “advocacy” efforts on behalf of (mostly Burmese?) refugees who don’t have enough “services.”
Of course, the first question I have is where is the refugee resettlement agency that placed them in the first place, aren’t they already being paid to help refugees get “services” and jobs?
RefugeeRise appears to me to be yet one more taxpayer-funded subsidiary of an expanding refugee industry.
This is, after all, an industry!
Tag: Iowa
Marshalltown, Iowa, the town a foreign-owned company changed forever
This is one more in a long sad line of American towns and cities changed forever due to the needs of greedy global corporations (not just meatpackers!) and their appetite for cheap immigrant labor. They get the cheap labor, we get the poverty and extra welfare expenses, not to mention the cultural upheaval!
Marshalltown, of course, is in the news because all eyes are on Iowa today.
Be sure to see an earlier post on how JBS Swift (a Brazilian owned company) is destroying the American middle class in Marshalltown.
And, don’t miss my post of only a couple of weeks ago about foreign-owned companies like JBS Swift changing America by changing the people.
“Taking food out of our [American] mouths!”
From Philly.com thanks to a reader:
The blue-collar city, which has shed manufacturing jobs, epitomizes the economic squeeze of the American middle class. And Marshalltown has grappled for years with immigration, the issue that fires up conservative GOP base voters almost as much as terrorism.
Today, about a quarter of Marshalltown’s population of 28,000 is Latino. By contrast, Hispanics make up about 6 percent of Iowa’s population. A number of Burmese and Sudanese immigrants also have settled here.
Job cuts
In the 1980s the meatpacking industry mechanized production, boosting output and slashing wages. Meat processors already faced a labor shortage as the U.S. rural population shrank and fewer Americans wanted the repetitive, dangerous jobs, the industry says. Packers turned to Mexico and the rest of Latin America for workers. [B.S. they could have paid a decent salary and kept American workers!—ed]
“It’s like they’ve got a sign on the border, ‘Come to Marshalltown,’ ” said Mike Foreman, 66, who worked at the meatpacking plant until 2000, when a back injury forced him to retire.
“The company paid them less than they paid us,” he said last week at the city’s senior citizens center. “The way I look at it, they’re taking food out of our mouths.”
Continue reading here.
See all of our posts over the years about meatpackers by clicking here.
Des Moines, Iowa: State scrambling to figure out how to pay for refugee influx as fed money dries up!
This is more evidence that the federal government, which in the early years of setting up the Refugee Resettlement Program helped states cope, is no longer doing so.
The cost of resettling thousands of refugees into your state is falling almost exclusively on state and local taxpayers as the UN and US State Department send them out to ‘everytown’ America!
By the way, when I first started writing RRW there were 10 federal contractors and one of the ten was the State of Iowa. I’m not sure how that happened, maybe in response to Bill Clinton sending all those Bosnian Muslims there for meatpacking labor during his term in office. But, in any case the state is no longer a contractor.
Today there are the nine we always refer to who pretend to be private non-profit (charitable! hah!)groups, but are heavily funded with your tax dollars.
Here is the story from the Des Moines Register. I only have time to snip a few interesting bits. Please read the whole article because it is very informative for anyone contemplating creating a ‘Pocket of Resistance’ in the state. Or, maybe there already is one that we don’t yet know about?
Federal grants that once supported assistance programs no longer exist. Refugees speaking different dialects even in the same languages are adding pressure to state agencies whose workers are trying to help the refugees. And Iowans helping refugees from other countries say the state, and its governor, are not doing enough.
[….]
“There is always room to improve,” said Amy Doyle, a lawyer who works with a refugee resettlement agency in Des Moines. “It’s really a matter of providing state funding for the organizations (that assist refugees).”
Gov. Terry Branstad said more funding is needed, but from the federal government.
Here it is! WE need $$$ for hospitals and school!
Social service providers and other experts on immigration issues in Iowa said the state must do more. Mark Grey, a University of Northern Iowa professor of anthropology and director of the Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration, said that includes providing more resources for hospitals, school districts and English as a Second Language education.
After 90 days the refugees are your (local!) responsibility!
Refugees settled directly in Iowa when they arrive in the United States typically receive 90 days of core services from federal resettlement agencies, which provide assistance settling into housing, obtaining a Social Security card, and signing up for state aid.
Please urge your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Babin bill NOW! His bill seeks to get a handle on the exponentially growing cost of the program. Where is Rep. Steve King?
For all of our previous coverage of Iowa, click here. I see that a few years ago I did write about how the US State Department gave the State of Iowa the boot, here. I urge anyone forming a ‘Pocket of Resistance’ to read through all of this so you have an understanding of who the players are.
Midwestern towns trying to cope with large numbers of refugees
I’m speechless! After years of reading one fluffy-puffy piece after another about refugees seeing their first snow, we are beginning to see major mainstream publications (Christian Science Monitor in this case) reporting on the struggle small towns are having with the huge numbers of refugees the US State Department and its contractors*** are dispersing across America.
Pay attention Spartanburg, SC and any other town contemplating “welcoming” refugees!
The NYT might still be hiding the source of the influx by not reporting on the refugee program, but other media is not so deceptive. By the way, I expect every person who read the NYT story yesterday, scratched their heads and wondered how so many Somalis got here!
From the Christian Science Monitor entitled, ‘For small-town America, new immigrants pose linguistic, cultural challenges:’
Marshalltown, Iowa — The voice was frantic – and unintelligible to the 911 dispatcher. “Ma’am, I cannot understand you,” she said. After 80 seconds, one word leapt out: “Riverview.”
On a warm July evening in 2012, while Marshalltown, Iowa, celebrated Independence Day, three refugee children from Myanmar (Burma) drowned in the Iowa River. The drownings at Riverview Park cast a grim light on the challenges facing both the city and its newest immigrants, most of whom spoke little English and had scant understanding of life in their new home – including the perils, known to more established residents, of the river’s treacherous currents. [Where was their resettlement contractor which should have been assimilating the refugees to their new home?–ed]
“Many towns are struggling to cope!”
For two decades, rural communities across the Midwest have been finding ways to absorb Latino immigrants. Now, a new generation of immigrants arriving from far-flung places such as Myanmar, Somalia, Iraq, and West Africa has brought a bewildering variety of cultures and languages. Many towns are struggling to cope.
Again, speechless, a reference to the meatpackers wanting refugee labor (see our 2008 post about Clinton bring Bosnians to Iowa for the meatpackers):
Experts say the changing face of immigration in the rural Midwest reflects stricter federal enforcement. Tighter border security has slowed the influx of immigrants from Latin America entering the United States illegally. Meanwhile, the meatpacking industry has looked to refugees, who enjoy legal status, as a way of avoiding problems with undocumented Hispanic workers.
By the way, they don’t say it here, but due to a Clinton Executive Order that Bush did not rescind, local governments (you the taxpayers!) or any agency getting any federal funding is required to supply interpreters for the myriad languages and dialects the refugees bring to your town!
Much of the difficulty surrounding the new immigration is linguistic. Language barriers complicate services from law enforcement to health care. Ms. Beach recalls a school expulsion hearing that required two interpreters – the first to translate from one dialect of Myanmar to another, the second to translate into English.
See Ten Things your town needs to know before ‘welcoming’ refugees. See also our archive on ‘Meatpackers changing the face of small town America’ with their insatiable appetite for cheap labor.
*** Nine major federal contractors. Go here for a list of all the State Department subcontractors working in a town near you!
- Church World Service (CWS)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- World Relief Corporation (WR)
Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Rwandan refugee charged with naturalization fraud
The next time you hear one of the advocates for refugee resettlement claim that the screening is very thorough, remember this case!
I think one of our problems (well, the do-gooders’ problems) is that we (they) can’t wrap their minds around the incredible lies refugee wannabes are willing to tell. See all of our posts on lying (and other criminal) Rwandan refugees by clicking here.
From The Gazette (Hat tip: Joanne). Emphasis is mine:
CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids man who is originally from Rwanda was charged Tuesday in federal court with naturalization fraud.
Ken Ngombwa, 54, is charged with one count of unlawfully procuring or attempting to procure naturalization or citizenship; one count of procuring citizenship to which he was not entitled; one count of conspiracy to unlawfully procure citizenship; and one count of making a materially false statement to agents of the United States, according to an indictment.
The indictment said Ngombwa attempted to obtain citizenship for himself and family members who accompanied him to the United States from Rwanda from March 1998 through Nov. 19, 2004.
Ngombwa and others allegedly made a number of false statements to U.S. immigration authorities, who decided to grant Ngombwa refugee status and permanent resident alien status, which permitted him to become a citizen.
According to the indictment, Ngombwa claimed he was the brother of Faustin Twagiramungu, a former prime minister of Rwanda.
Ngombwa appeared in court Tuesday and was released on bond. He was ordered to surrender any passport or travel documents, stay in Linn County, have no contact with potential witnesses and undergo a mental health evaluation.
If convicted, Ngombwa faces up to 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine. He also faces loss of citizenship. [So we get to pay for him in prison for 30 years?—ed]
Ngombwa also faces second-degree arson and insurance fraud charges in Linn County District Court. He is accused of setting multiple fires in his home in July 2013 and giving his insurance provider false information about the fire.
So will he and his extended family be deported?
Be sure to visit The Gazette for the arson story involving Ngombwa from earlier this year.
I think the US State Department should be responsible for paying for all of the legal costs associated with THEIR mistake.
Check out this story about how much the lying Rwandan cost us in New Hampshire a few years back.
I know it is still our tax dollars no matter what federal or state jurisdiction foots the bill, but I would still like to see these criminal cases paid for out of the US State Department’s budget. Maybe they could even reimburse Iowa, Linn County and the city of Cedar Rapids for anything this liar cost the local and state government, even all the welfare they probably are still receiving.