Judicial Watch Corruption Chronicles: Millions in business loans to refugees not tracked by HHS

06/10/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m dashing out the door and cannot do this incredible work by Judicial Watch justice, but wanted to get it up now hot off the presses!
For years I’ve wondered how you get at this information on special loans for special people and now I know—someone does a Freedom of Information Act request (a specialty of JW as Hillary knows so well!).
Here is how the story begins:

The U.S. government gives refugees on public assistance special “loans” of up to $15,000 to start a business but fails to keep track of defaults that could translate into huge losses for American taxpayers, records obtained by Judicial Watch reveal. The cash is distributed through a program called Microenterprise Development run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Since 2010 the program has granted thousands of loans to refugees that lack the financial resources, credit history or personal assets to qualify for business loans from commercial banks. Most if not all the recipients already get assistance or subsidies from the government, according to the qualification guidelines set by the Microenterprise Development Program. It’s a risky operation that blindly gives public funds to poor foreign nationals with no roots in the U.S. and there’s no follow up to assure the cash is paid back. The idea behind it is to “equip refugees with the skills they need to become successful entrepreneurs” by helping them expand or maintain their own business and become financially independent.

You gotta read this, continue here.
If you are looking for an organization to donate to—Judicial Watch is it!
Afterthought: Repeatedly you see news stories that refugees are opening new businesses at record rates and thus boosting the local economy. (Opening businesses with your financial help.) This information makes me wonder how many of those new businesses survive for even a year or two?

Judicial Watch: Obama Administration admitted over 1,500 immigrants with connections to terrorists last year

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

806 of them were refugees….

Update: I see that Leo Hohmann at WND has a bit more on this story, here.
Here is the news at the Daily Caller (hat tip: Skip at The Flying Camel Dog):

The Obama administration granted asylum to more than 1,500 foreigners with ties to terrorist organizations last year because they were deemed to have provided support to the groups “while under duress.”

The figures are contained in an annual report that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) sent to Congress this month. The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained the report and published it online Tuesday.

During fiscal year 2014, USCIS applied exemptions to 1,519 foreigners with ties to terrorist organizations who applied for discretionary relief. Of that total, 806 of the foreigners granted discretionary relief were for refugee applicants while another 614 were applicants for lawful permanent resident status.

Of the 1,519 with terrorist associations, 627 provided material support, “while under duress,” to undesignated terrorist groups. Another 189 provided material support, “while under duress,” to designated terrorist groups.

Read it all, here. LOL! What are the odds a few of them lied in their interviews? And, this is such B.S. about fingerprints. Yes, sure there are fingerprints on all the foreign fighters going in and out of the Middle East these days!
All of us should be enormously grateful for the work Judicial Watch does for us every day. If you have a few extra bucks to spare, send it to them!

Judicial Watch sues DOJ for withholding documents on mysterious 2014 explosion and fire in Somali neighborhood in Minneapolis

04/04/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I love Judicial Watch!

Here is the headline of their press release this week:

Judicial Watch Sues DOJ for Records Regarding Suspicious 2014 New Year’s Day Explosion at Apartment Building in Minneapolis Muslim Neighborhood

We reported on the still-unexplained fire here and here (with links to other posts on the subject).

Judicial Watch press release (hat tip: Deb):

The building was demolished within days so many feel there was not adequate time to investigate the cause of the explosion and fire.

Documents already obtained by Judicial Watch raise serious questions about source of explosion, cursory local investigation, barring of ATF agents from investigating

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) to obtain records regarding its response to the January 1, 2014, explosion of an apartment building in the largely Muslim Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The FOIA lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v U. S. Department of Justice (No.1:14-cv-02212)).

The FOIA lawsuit, filed after the DOJ failed to respond to a March 12, 2014, FOIA request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), seeks:

Any and all records regarding, concerning or related to the investigation of the January 1, 2014 explosion and fire at the Cedar-Riverside apartment complex in Minneapolis, Minnesota, based on searches of the FBI’s Electronic Case File system, Central Records System and Electronic Surveillance records, as well as any cross-referenced files concerning the explosion and fire.

At 8:16 a.m. on New Year’s Day in Minneapolis, a building at 516 Cedar Avenue containing a grocery store and several apartments exploded, killing three people and injuring 13. All of the apartments were occupied by single men. Many were hurt while jumping out of the burning building’s windows in order to escape the carnage.

Continue reading here!

See Minnesota seeded with 10,000 Somalis in ten years, here.

The ultimate question! Why are we still bringing Somalis to the US at the rate of 800-900 a month?

What would we do without Judicial Watch?

12/05/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Two stories crossed my desk in the last 24 hours displaying the exemplary work being done by Judicial Watch to get the word out about the Obama Administration’s shameful activities involving immigration. I sure would like to get them to look into the Refugee Admissions Program of the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (beyond this great find on the cost to US taxpayers of the unaccompanied minors).

Please see the two stories that got my attention today (sorry I don’t have time these days to post more).

The first is a press release from JW on the unaccompanied alien children.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on September 9, 2014, it received documents from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealing that the Obama administration paid Baptist Children and Family Services (BCFS) $182,129,786 to provide “basic shelter care” to 2,400 “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC) for four months in 2014. The BCFS budget included charges for $104,215,608 for UACs at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and an additional $77,914,178 for UACs at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Read it all.

The other news, thanks to Judicial Watch, is this story at World Net Daily. Where is the Obama Executive Order on granting amnesty?

NEW YORK – Did President Obama just set up Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to be a candidate for impeachment instead of himself if conservatives convince the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate that his “executive actions” on immigration are unconstitutional?

The inquiry begins with the question: Where are the executive orders Obama supposedly signed to permit up to 5 million parents of young illegal aliens to remain in the United States for three years?

The White House appears to have engaged in administrative sleight of hand, changing U.S. immigration law not by executive order but by a memorandum “exercising prosecutorial discretion” Johnson signed the day of Obama’s Nov. 20 nationwide address that so far has not been filed in the Federal Register.

Tom Fitton, president of Washington-based watchdog institution Judicial Watch, told WND in an interview the legal status of Johnson’s memo is a serious constitutional question that deserves to be adjudicated.

Continue reading here.

By the way, since it’s the end of the year, consider donating a few bucks to Judicial Watch because they really are looking out for your wallet.

Maryland readers of RRW might be interested in MD CAN conference

01/07/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update January 10th: Controversy brewing. CAIR bullies speakers, here.

We won’t be talking about refugees, but we will hear from speakers on the issue of blogging and free speech, immigration generally, national security, and Obama’s war on the suburbs and much more at the Maryland Conservative Action Network conference (Turning the Tides 2013) on Saturday, January 12th in Annapolis, MD.

I’ve been involved in the planning and so my posts might drop off here at RRW later in the week. Check out the website and if you are a reader in Maryland or DC or anywhere nearby this is your chance to hear speakers such as Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs), Diana West, Stanley Kurtz and Tom Fitton (Judicial Watch) among many others.

Click here for the program and how to register.