In my previous post I mentioned that in Fargo, ND yesterday, the major refugee resettlement contractor spoke to a gathering hosted by the Chamber of Commerce to dispel the “myths” about refugee resettlement in the US. Gotta keep the refugees flowing into North Dakota because LSS has a fancy new building to pay for. LSS is paid by the head to resettle refugees AND they receive other federal grants for all sorts of additional “programs” for their special charges. From a recent FORM990 we learned they received over $10 million in government grants. Here is what we said in August: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/08/24/backpedaling-on-the-numbers-of-refugees-expected-in-north-dakota/
After posting it, I came across this news account from Valley News Livewhich commissioned the poll. And, I want to commend them for taking this initiative!
Perhaps all of you in ‘Pockets of Resistance’ should encourage a respected news outlet to commission a poll like this.
The story begins:
Refugees coming to the United States is quickly becoming a defining issue for the field of 2016 presidential hopefuls. It’s an issue too that directly affects us here in the Fargo-Moorhead area. This is a major resettlement region, and Fargo is home to the largest group of refugees in North Dakota.
This is the first in a series taking a deep dive into this issue, exploring your opinions, the impacts to our schools, our neighborhoods and our infrastructure, how your tax money is being spent and how this issue extends well beyond supporting or opposing refugee resettlement.
We, at Valley News Live, wanted to really understand your viewpoints when it came to this issue so we had a solid starting point from which to work. We commissioned a study by Mason Dixon Polling and Research out of Jacksonville, Florida, paid for it and now have those opinions.
I’m not going to snip the poll results because I want you to go visit Valley News Live yourself by clicking here. Note that Independents made up the most number of respondents indicating very clearly that this issue is not a Republican v. Democrat issue.
But, almost more interesting to me (in this news account) was the fact that the local CHAMBER OF COMMERCE hosted the event to try to convince the citizens there that they are wrong.
Readers, if you don’t know it already—The Chamber of Commerce throughout America is FOR more migration to America and lobbies FOR amnesty and obviously is now openly out in front promoting more refugee resettlement. Can you say cheap immigrant labor! And, look at the Republican members of Congress and Senators who are wimps on immigration and you will likely find the Chamber behind them (and funding them!).
From the Grand Forks Herald (emphasis is mine):
FARGO — The head of the nonprofit agency tasked with resettling refugee groups in North Dakota gave a presentation Tuesday hoping to dispel misconceptions about refugees.
Jessica Thomason, CEO of Lutheran Social Services in ND. Photo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicathomasson
“Today, we are going to be clearing the air,” Jessica Thomasson, CEO of Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, told a crowd of about 200 people at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Fargo.
Among the notions that Thomasson sought to debunk was the idea that refugees are responsible for increases in crime. “We know there is no correlation,” she said, citing a study that showed: “Immigrants are less likely to commit serious crimes or be behind bars than the native-born population.”***
Thomasson, whose talk was hosted by the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce, said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security screens refugees before they enter the country. “The United States has as one of its policies that we don’t resettle people who have been aggressors in the conflicts,” she said.
Thomasson’s talk came at a time when refugee resettlement is a hotly contested issue in North Dakota, which leads the nation in refugee resettlement per capita.
The day before Thomasson spoke, Valley News Live aired the results of a poll the TV station commissioned. Of the 625 adults surveyed in Cass and Clay Counties, 57 percent opposed the continued resettlement of refugees in the area, 28 percent supported it and 15 percent were undecided. The poll had a margin of error of no more than 4 percentage points.
Continue reading here. ***Update***Hereare the survey results. And here is my post on the poll. And, one more update here—“myth” about free cars explained. Go herefor all of our previous posts on North Dakota. This post is filed in our ‘Pockets of Resistance’category,here.
By the way when you check our archives on North Dakota you will see several horrible crimes committed by refugees there—the one that jumped out at me was the Somali mass murder of native Americans,here. Then there was the “hatchet man”….
Editor’s note: I am still out of the country and trying to post when I get a minute. I see I have a boatload of e-mails and will try to get to those as soon as possible. I apologize for not responding sooner.
It was only a few weeks ago that WDAY-6 Newswas reporting that the number of refugees expected in North Dakota this fall was going to jump, but now following controversy that those statements generated, it seems that Lutheran Social Services North Dakota is moving quickly to say, oh, no!, the numbers will be ‘normal.’ Gotta keep the refugees flowing into North Dakota because LSS has a fancy new building to pay for. LSS is paid by the head to resettle refugees AND they receive other federal grants for all sorts of additional “programs” for their special charges. From a recent FORM990 we learned they received over $10 million in government grants.
In this article at Inforum, a spokeswoman for LSS says that people (citizens, taxpayers) don’t understand how this all works and that is how they/we get confused. But, here is the deal, the reason people can get confused is that these agencies have been for 35 years(!) working in SECRECY, so is it any surprise there could be confusion.
There should be a least one public meeting a year in each refugee receiving community where the resettlement agency, the feds and city and state elected officials explain to the community who and how many they will be expected to “welcome” to town in the coming year. How about a public meeting in Fargo or Grand Forks where LSS does explain how the whole program works!
Here is Inforum:
GRAND FORKS – Refugee resettlements in Grand Forks are expected to remain the same as in previous years, according to Lutheran Social Services.
The city can expect four to 12 refugees to arrive here by October, said Katie Dachtler, resettlement services supervisor. The total number expected is on par with previous years, she said.
Varied reports on the expected number of refugees to arrive this fall in the Fargo area led to the perception by some that the cities would have more refugees than each could handle by October, sparking harsh online comments and a Change.org petition asking LSS to stop further placement unless it’s approved by a vote from Cass County residents. As of Friday afternoon, the petition had gained 3,037 signatures.
Read the whole thing and follow links.
Be sure to see the section on the ‘Somali Community of Grand Forks’ which is what previously was called an ECBO (Ethnic Community Based Organization) ‘non-profits’ funded largely with tax dollars. ECBO’s help THEIR people get a start, help them find “resources,” help them get registered to vote, and then act as political spokespersons if some problem arises with THEIR people.
Now they are called Ethnic Community Self Helpgroups. Here is one recent list of grantees at the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. The Grand Forks Somali ECBO is not listed here, but has certainly received start-up money from some federal or state agency. I could not find any financials on the group. Concerned citizens in North Dakota need to do some research on this group and others like it.
The big question is why should taxpayers fund groups that seek to promote special treatment for THEIR ethnic “community.”
We have a category on ECBOs here, but haven’t had much news archived there lately.
This post is also filed in our new ‘Pockets of Resistance’category,here.
The other day we told you about how Lutheran Social Services seemed to be gleefully announcing that a big batch of new refugees was on the way to town, see here. I wondered if Fargo had any resisters (see ‘Pockets of Resistance’) and now it seems they do. This articlejust popped up in my alerts. Doing well by doing good! LSS North Dakota is paid by the head to resettle refugees and they have a brand spanking new building to pay for! http://www.inforum.com/business/3766264-new-home-lss-aims-welcome-clients-workers Note to our readers in Australia, Canada, and Europe: some of this information may be pretty ‘inside baseball’ for you, but in some ways it should also be useful information for you to know that there are Americans who are raising red flags about the resettlement of refugees in their towns and cities. They are trying to figure out how the secretive program works, digging into documents, asking public questions, informing their neighbors and hounding elected officials.
From WDAY-TV where we learn that an on-line petition has sprung up in opposition to more refugees being placed in North Dakota.
Fargo, ND (WDAY TV)-Hundreds of people have signed an online petition to send a message about the increased number of refugees expected in Cass County.
Many we spoke with said they think the petition is irresponsible and unfair.
[….]
But hundreds disagree, according to the list of signatures on the Change.org petition titled, “Stop Lutheran Social Services in Fargo!”
The document was created earlier this week and calls for an end to the flow of refugees into Cass County without a vote, as well as for information on the refugees already placed here.
Many wrote reasons for their support, including messages like:
“How can we afford to bring more people in to live off what we have, when we don’t have enough for the ones that are already here?” – James Williams, Fargo.
Mr. Williams’ comment is a common refrain we hear everywhere—why are we bringing in more poor people when we can’t take care of those already here?
Then get this! LSS CEO Jessica Thomasson says her organization has no say about how many come—the federal government is doing the picking—it is a decision made by Congress, she says! This exactly illustrates what Don Barnett said in our previous post. The media has no clue how this is all done and they simply parrot the local contractor. WDAY-TVcontinues….
But the thing is, Lutheran Social Services*** CEO Jessica Thomasson says, beyond a conversation once a year about how many refugees the organizations staff can handle, they don’t have much of a say in how many people are sent here or where they’re sent from.
That’s all up to the Federal Government.
Jessica Thomasson/CEO, Lutheran Social Services: “Lutheran Social Services really just facilitates resettlement in this community, this is a decision that’s made by Congress every year that is affecting the work across the entire United States.”
Go here for more and to see the petition.
She is right that Washington is making the decisions for North Dakota (and every other state) receiving the UN-chosen refugees, but her parent organization—Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—takes her suggestions that arrive in that R & P Abstractfor how many her local subcontracting office can handle and where they will come from!
Every week or so, her parent organization sits down with US State Department employees and they divvy up the refugees partially dependent on what amenities your town has to offer the refugees in the form of subsidized housing, jobs for low-skilled people and so forth. They even take into consideration the presence of a mosque or two. Maybe Congress should have a role, but they don’t (mostly because they have abrogated their responsibility!).
This is all done at the Administration level as the President sets the agenda every year for how many will be resettled and from what countries. He then sends his “determination letter” (2015 is here) to Congress for “consultation”where historicallymembers of Congress responsible for this program merrily rubber stamp whatever the President says!
***LSS of North Dakota is an over $40 million a year operation with $10 million coming from government grants, see here.
Warning!
By the way, on this Presidential determination letter, the Obama Administration is working on that right now for FY2016. They will send it to Congress around Sept. 30th since FY2016 begins on October 1. I am very concerned that instead of the usual 70,000 refugees the Obama Administration has been bringing in each year, that they will dramatically increase the number for 2016 to accommodate the 65,000 (mostly Muslim) Syrians that the United Nations wants us to take. The reason I suspect a rat is that it has been very very quiet ever since the Jihad Caucus wrote to Obama. I’m guessing Obama/Kerry told them to hush-up for now because something is in the works! Watch for it!
There must be people getting nervous in the Sioux Falls, SD area about the large number of Somalis resettled there mostly with the help of the Lutherans (again!) and the possibility that ISIS will infiltrate their youth, or else we wouldn’t be seeing a story like this one.
Something is fishy about the African Community Center of Sioux Falls.*** The AP story here mentions them at the end. Learn more about Justin Heinz’ report ‘Foreign Fighters’ here: http://securitydebrief.com/foreign-fighters/#axzz3bznzqJRd
From the Daily Republic (emphasis is mine):
SIOUX FALLS (AP) — Nearly 2,000 Somalis live in Sioux Falls, yet members of the city’s large immigrant community say they aren’t nearly as concerned about potential recruiting for the so-called Islamic State group as those in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
That may be because the smaller numbers make it harder for those immigrants to be isolated, according to one expert. Much of the Somali population in Minneapolis never fully assimilates, partly because Somalis tend to congregate in closed communities, Justin Heinz, who co-authored a recent report exploring the ongoing terrorist recruitment and radicalization in the Twin Cities’ Somali community, told the Argus Leader. [I’m guessing the message hasn’t reached South Dakota that the Obama Administration has banished the word ‘assimilate.’—ed]
A lack of assimilation probably is less likely in Sioux Falls because there aren’t any charter schools solely for Somali students, isolated Somali neighborhoods or replica malls, Heinz said.
Many of the Somali children in Sioux Falls are younger than those in the Twin Cities, according to Said Yusuf, a local businessman who’s originally from Somalia. [So could we have a problem when the youngsters grow up?—ed]
“We’re a small community. Everyone knows each other. That is the difference here,” Yusuf’s wife, Sofia Mohamed, said.
“They were Muslim. They were interested in pushing back against Kenya and Ethiopia’s influence in their country. So there was this nationalistic pull,” he said. [This has been a standard talking point, but it is all wet—they go back and fight for Islam (radicalized in local American mosques) not for their homeland of Somalia against the Ethiopians. The fighting-for-their-country theory falls apart when you consider their attraction to ISIS.–ed]
At least a dozen Somali-Americans have left Minnesota for Syria, where al-Shabaab has shifted its focus after developing a relationship with ISIL, in the past 17 months, according to law enforcement officials.
“Once they stopped going to Somalia, parents and friends (in the Twin Cities) couldn’t understand the draw,” Hienz said. “Why go to Syria, where they have no ethnic or cultural ties? Why was there this shift in destination?” [Can you say jihad!—ed]
See more here.
*** The African Community Center of Sioux Falls says on its website that it is a non-profit ‘advocacy’ group and that there are 20,000 African immigrants in Sioux Falls! The organization is collecting money and applying for government grants yet they have apparently never filed a federal Form 990tax return (or none is available for some unexplained reason).
Here they describe their “vision:”
African Community Center of Sioux Falls, INC provides advocacy, information, culturally specific support, and social servicesfor the approximately 20,000 African immigrants currently living in Sioux Falls SD. Upon resettling in the US, Immigrants often suffer from poverty, lack of education, high unemployment, the inability to speak English, and difficulty integrating into American society. ACCS’s goal is to provide the support and guidance that immigrants need to overcome their barriers to stability & prosperity. [Suffering from poverty? High unemployment? I thought the resettlement contractors brag about how self-sufficient the refugees quickly become?—ed]
No Form 990? Are they even a legal non-profit, has anyone checked?
Looking for something to do? If you live in South Dakota, please investigate this group as well as the local resettlement contractor there which is Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota. What a surprise! We just wrote about them yesterday, here.
By the way, Barbara Day, the State Department person in charge of resettling refugees in your towns and cities came from LSS (revolving door?).
