I repeat: all concerned citizens must ask to attend ‘Quarterly Consultations’ held by refugee contractors in your communities….

10/10/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….transparency, transparency, transparency should be your mantra!

The ‘quarterly consultation’ is required by law and the US State Department has confirmed that the general public is permitted to attend.

One of the most important elements of the consultation is the discussion that should be held in public about how many refugees could be placed in your town in the coming year.

As I said here the other day, since the President has flubbed his great opportunity to push reform of the entire UN/US Refugee Admissions Program in late September, citizen efforts must necessarily now return to local action.

bartlett with map — Lawrence Bartlett is still running things at the US State Department because Trump has failed to put his people in place to supervise the career bureacrats. Here Bartlett told Senator Jeff Sessions that there are community consultations open to the public. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/10/02/senate-oversight-hearing-on-refugee-program-very-revealing-senator-sessions-did-a-masterful-job/

Shortly, I will tell you the latest about how citizens in St. Cloud, MN are doing just that, but because others of you are reporting a lack of cooperation from resettlement contractors to your requests to be notified to attend QUARTERLY consultations, we will walk down memory lane.

I wrote this post on October 12, 2015 (this is just a portion of it). Disregard the portion about contacting Trey Gowdy, he is no longer the chairman of the subcommittee responsible.

(LOL! I urge serious students to open the links and read related stories, so that I don’t go nuts having to repeat things!)

It has only been in the last year or so [2015] that we have been made aware that QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS with community “stakeholders” were being held quietly, out of public view. In fact, I wondered why I hadn’t heard about them and now I know why!

The citizens of St. Cloud, MN, here and here, brought the issue of exclusion of taxpaying citizens from the meetings where the ‘non-profit’ refugee resettlement agency meets with local elected officials, fire/police, education, health departments etc. to assess how things are going with the refugees, and they discuss how many to bring in the upcoming year. [Open both of those links at the beginning of this paragraph, please!—ed]

According to a State Department spokesman (unnamed!) doing a ~~press briefing for reporters~~ on September 11th, we learn that they have only been doing these QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS since 2013! WTH! [Press briefing is no longer available so its a good thing I copied this bit of it.—ed]

And, they are lying! “Private citizens” have not been welcome.

These agencies (‘non-profit’ resettlement subcontractors) work very hard to hold these meetings secretly and out of the view of local concerned citizens—the ultimate stakeholder, the taxpayer! Yet, we have a State Department official (why no name?) telling the mainstream media that private citizens can attend!

Why is the spokesman unnamed?

We are pleased to have [name and title withheld] with us today. Moving forward, [State Department Official] will be called State Department official for the purposes of this call. Again, this call is on background.

So much for Obama’s much ballyhooed transparency! Now here is what ‘name and title withheld’ told a special group of reporters:

In addition, starting about two years ago, I believe it was FY13, we required that all of our resettlement agencies conduct quarterly consultations with stakeholders in their communities. So that means that not just once a year when they’re preparing a proposal, but every quarter they have to reach out to a wide variety of stakeholders. And that would include other community organizations. That could include the police department, the school, the mayor’s office, the fire department, other agencies that have a stake in refugee resettlement, and private citizens can be invited as well. And they hold those quarterly conversations and that is taken into account when we are making placement plans for the entire year and throughout the year.

You know Larry Bartlett told Senator Sessions this basic untruth here in the Senate hearing the week before last as well.

It gets worse!

We need lawyers on our team! Have they been breaking the law for 33 of 35 years? Or, have the states, which are supposed to prepare a plan every year and hold the meetings, not done their required duty to hold the quarterly meetings with communities?

Here are the federal regulations guiding the program (From CFR 400.5(h))

Provide that the State will, unless exempted from this requirement by the Director, assure that meetings are convened, not less often than quarterly, whereby representatives of local resettlement agencies, local community service agencies, and other agencies that serve refugees meet with representatives of State and local governments to plan and coordinate the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival.

What should you do now?

So, for all of you working in ‘Pockets of Resistance’ (and others too!). Go here, and call the closest refugee resettlement office near you and tell them you want a schedule for the upcoming quarterly consultation! Ask them as well for the FY2016 [now FY18—ed] R & P Abstract which will tell you their plans for your town/city this year.

Continue reading here.

If you get a runaround, find a local lawyer willing to send the resettlement agency a letter on behalf of you—taxpaying citizens (stakeholders!). And, also make all the noise you can through whatever media you have available—tell the public that the program is being run secretively between a refugee contractor and Washington.

To all of you who have gotten this far, please send this to your fellow citizen activists. I don’t want to sound too cranky, but, if year after year, we reinvent the wheel, we will get nowhere!

This post is filed in my ‘what you can do’ category.

Is the Heritage Foundation selling you out on UN/US Refugee Admissions Policy?

09/14/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Sure looks like it!

On the morning we are getting news that the President is selling out American workers and sacrificing the safety of US citizens by soft talk on the border wall and DACA, we see this announcement.

First, readers may remember that the Heritage Foundation published a dreadful report, here, on the Refugee program demonstrating a total disconnect from what is happening in communities where refugees are secretly dropped off, and now this….

Here (below) we have a panel of bureaucrats and policy wonks who will discuss a bunch of esoteric BS in the Washington swamp about “reforming” the program. I don’t see one serious critic on the panel and not one person who knows what is happening in communities where the refugees are placed.

There are several very very good spokesmen for our point of view in Washington who could get over to the Heritage Foundation in a heartbeat—at FAIR, at the Center for Immigration Studies and at NumbersUSA—why isn’t one serious critic of the program on the panel?

“Reform!”

These people will suggest tinkering, or worse!

And, to top it off the program is headlined by Larry Bartlett, pro-refugee bureaucrat extraordinaire. Just two of many posts on Bartlett you should review are here and here.

In the first post Bartlett went to Twin Falls, Idaho and told the audience a whopper—that they don’t place refugees in communities that don’t want them—and he went on to say that was not because of sympathy for the townspeople, but for the refugees (he feared for them, that some local yokels might hurt them!) (go here for more).

And, here, we see Bartlett tell Senator Jeff Sessions that communities are consulted, but failed to mention that citizens everywhere were being blocked from attending the “stakeholder” meetings where plans were being made for the community, while representatives of ethnic groups could attend.

Here then is the Heritage panel lineup scheduled for next Wednesday:

Screenshot (836)

Screenshot (837) — This is a screenshot, so links are not ‘hot.’ Here is the 800 number for them: **(800) 546-2843**

Readers are always asking what they can do. Here is something you can do….

Call Heritage and tell them to stop the propaganda about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. Or, better still tell them to have a follow-up panel of experts who know what real reform should look like! (Don’t hold your breath!).

Because Heritage touts itself as a “conservative think tank” that tells Congress what to think, it is up to you to tell Heritage what you think!

If you have been frustrated where you live about how the US Refugee Program is working (about the lack of transparency, crimes, the cultural upheaval going on, and the cost to taxpayers of welfare, etc) tell Heritage what you think!

Here is the Heritage Foundation contact page if you prefer to comment on line: http://www.heritage.org/contact

St. Cloud, MN residents concerned with refugee resettlement told it is a federal issue

08/10/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

No it isn’t. Local governments want to pretend they have no role so as to get the monkeys off their backs!

St. Cloud on Monday evening. http://knsiradio.com/news/local/residents-sound-refugee-resettlement#.WYvzdZCv3y8.twitter

First, here is the news about citizens appealing to the city council for a study about the costs of resettlement. The council voted the proposal down by one vote and said this isn’t a local government issue.

Memory lane! In 2015 we learned that the US State Department had only begun holding so-called “stakeholder meetings” with local government agencies in 2013!

This is what I said:

It has only been in the last year or so that we have been made aware that QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS with community “stakeholders” were being held quietly, out of public view. In fact, I wondered why I hadn’t heard about them and now I know why!

Here Lawrence Bartlett, US State Department Refugee Program, told Senator Sessions that of course they consult communities and elected officials about numbers and impacts! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/10/02/senate-oversight-hearing-on-refugee-program-very-revealing-senator-sessions-did-a-masterful-job/

According to a State Department spokesman (unnamed!) doing a press briefing for reporters on September 11th [sorry, the briefing has been removed!—ed] we learn that they have only been doing these QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS since 2013! WTH!

And, they are lying! “Private citizens” have not been welcome.

More here.

Such meetings are required under the Refugee Act of 1980 as succinctly outlined here at Let Freedom Ring blog (hat tip: Katherine). This is a must-read. No time to pull quotes from it because I’m going away for a few days and dashing around this morning.

There is a local government role whether the city council of St. Cloud likes it (admits it!) or not!

US State Dept. announces 'new' program to admit Iraqis persecuted by ISIS

01/02/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Frankly folks, I’m suspicious. If the Obama Administration had any interest in saving the Yazidis, what took them so long? And, why this new category of refugee just as Obama exits the White House.

trump-serious — My opinion is that this is a political move to shame Trump if he tries to slow the massive flow from Iraq.

My first thought upon reading this article at Voice of America (VOA) is that the State Dept. is setting up this special category of Iraqi refugee (btw, we admitted 122,532 Iraqis over Obama’s 8 years), so when Trump comes in and tries to pause the program from certain terror-producing regions of the world, the Left/Dems will scream and holler that he is opposed to saving Yazidis, Christians and other religious minorities.
A brief mention of the Center for American Progress by Voice of America makes me suspicious and my guess is that this story was fed to VOA by CAP. You know that is the group John Podesta created with George Soros and the Clintons (see my 2009 post) and if you enjoyed reading John Podesta’s Wikileaks e-mails you will recognize the name Neera Tanden who is CAP’s Prez. and was on the Clinton team.

The article reads like we haven’t been hauling Iraqis to America by the tens of thousands during the Obama Administration (see numbers below).

Voice of America:
WASHINGTON —

The U.S. government is working to permanently resettle hundreds of Iraqis who were victims of Islamic State (IS) violence.

lawrence-bartlett — Bartlett is most likely a career government employee. Trump will appoint someone above him as Asst. Sec. of State for PRM, but like all federal agencies there will be many entrenched bureaucrats working their own angles against Trump policies.

Larry Bartlett, director of the Office of Refugee Admissions at the State Department told VOA that the U.S. is coordinating with the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to bring in hundreds of Iraqis to several to be determined locations in the U.S. Most of them are Yazidis and Christians whose communities were uprooted by IS. Many of them suffered brutality and torture at the hands of IS.

[….]

The resettlement efforts mark the first widespread attempt by the U.S. to admit Iraqis who survived under IS. [So who was persecuting the 122,000 plus we admitted in the last 8 years?—ed]

[….]

“We confirmed that Yazidis were the most traumatized [and] were the most victimized,” Bartlett said. “But there are other groups that were also affected by [IS] such as Christians and other religious minorities up there in the north.”

[….]

“We would expect that within a course of a year we would do hundreds of people,” Bartlett said. “One of the things we want to focus on is resettling families as a whole. There have been other programs in the past where just some of the victims were resettled for treatment. We are looking at this differently. We are looking at this as a family unity program of linking families together as much as possible.” [And, we haven’t been bringing families?—ed]

There is more, continue reading here.
BTW, interesting that Bartlett is making this announcement. Is Anne Richard (Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration) busy packing up her office?

So let’s look at the numbers for Iraqi refugees admitted to the US since Obama took office!

And, remember readers that refugees by definition are supposed to be escaping persecution for one of several reasons (including race, religion, political views).
From the very beginning I have asked: so if Sunni Muslims persecute Shiite Muslims in Iraq and vice versa, does it make any sense to bring in both warring factions, and place them in your towns as we have been doing for over 8 years (Bush reluctantly opened the Iraqi flood gates at the end of his Administration).
From Fiscal Year 2009 until December 1, 2016 (8 fiscal years and a few months) we admitted to the US 122,532 Iraqi refugees (in some of those years Iraqis were the top ethnic group we resettled).
The numbers break down like this:

Sunni Muslims: 44,367

Shiite Muslims: 32,766

Moslems (not specified): 1,887

Catholics: 13,306

Christians (not specified): 21,173

Yazidis: 1,215

There were many other groups, including some other Christian denominations that were smaller in number.
So, I will ask again, who was persecuting the Muslims? Are they persecuting each other and thus they are eligible for refugee status? Sure looks like it!
For ambitious readers, this is the 715th post I’ve written about Iraqi refugees, see Iraqi category here.

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!).
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