Pittsfield, Mass: Jewish resettlement agency going ahead with "community meeting" next Monday

02/07/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Readers, you may see more of this going on in the coming days and weeks. Since the Refugee Admissions Program is going to be slowed no matter what the outcome is of the legal arguments about the “ban.” The RAP is being capped at 50,000 for the fiscal year and we are at 33,081 this morning. That portion of Trump’s EO is not effected, see here.
I think you will see this gathering be turned into an anti-Trump propaganda stunt used to garner more media attention.
Pittsfield will not get many refugees in the coming months no matter what happens, so why bother holding this meeting?
The ‘bidding for bodies’ will be fierce!
By the way, since the numbers coming in will be so low, established resettlement sites will be getting most of the refugees. New sites will be at the end of the line for receiving paying clients (refugees!).
Our previous post on Pittsfield is here.
From iBerkshires.com:

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The organization heading the refugee resettlement program in Pittsfield will hold its second community meeting on the topic on Monday, Feb. 13.

maxine-620x350 — Maxine Stein says there is strong community support for resettling what will be mostly Muslim Iraqis and Syrians in Western Mass.

Jewish Family Services of Western Massachusetts is looking to resettle 50 refugees from Iraq and Syria in Pittsfield. The group announced its intentions in September and held a community meeting later that month. That meeting was so well attended that people were being turned away at the door.

In January, the U.S. State Department approved Pittsfield as being a site for resettlement and the group announced it will have another round of community meetings. One was scheduled for Monday at Morningside School but that has since been canceled. The second is still scheduled for Feb. 13 at Herberg Middle School at 6 p.m.

“Jewish Family Service has been helping refugees to build new lives in Western Massachusetts for more than 40 years. We have been incredibly fortunate to have the strong support of the community in this work,” said Maxine Stein, CEO of Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, said in a statement.

“Each year, we resettle more than 240 refugees through our Springfield office***. Last year alone, we helped more than 80 families begin new lives in safety and freedom in the Springfield area. By expanding to Pittsfield, we will be able to help welcome an additional 50 refugees this year.”

However, an executive order signed by President Trump put halt on resettlement programs. The impact of that order is expected to be discussed at the meeting on Feb. 13.

If there are any patriots left in Massachusetts you might want to attend.
***Nearby Springfield, Mass is overloaded and that is why they are moving out to fresh territory. See our archive on the problems in Springfield, here. Mayor begged for a moratorium!
One of my favorite stories from Springfield is the one about refugees hunting for food in the local public park! This is not fake news!

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society ready to open new office in Pittsfield, Mass

01/22/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The office was approved in the closing days of the Obama Administration. How many more did they push through right at the end?

pittsfield_map — Pittsfield is in Western Massachusetts

They have set it up so that if Trump stops or slows the flow, in all of these towns which were promised refugees, there will be open borders activists ready to wail and moan. If he doesn’t slow the flow, more United Nations diversity/third world poverty will be foisted on unsuspecting towns.
According to the Berkshire Eagle, the citizens of Pittsfield are ready and willing to ‘welcome’ the arrival of their first Muslim Syrians and Iraqis! Does Pittsfield have a mosque yet?

PITTSFIELD — A proposed refugee resettlement plan in Pittsfield is set to become a reality.

Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts this week received official approval for the resettlement program from the federal Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The program will resettle up to 50 refugees, primarily from Syria and Iraq, in the Pittsfield area.

An official commencement date for resettlement has not been determined. But the organization is hopeful that the first family will be settled sometime in the spring, said Maxine Stein, president & CEO of Jewish Family Service.

Hias***, a Jewish resettlement organization, had identified Pittsfield as a relocation community for refugees. Since July, the organization has been meeting with local community members about the program.

“[This is] an amazing opportunity for Pittsfield to once again became a welcoming community for refugees,” Stein said. Between 30,000 and 35,000 immigrants, primarily refugees, came to cities and towns in Western Massachusetts — including Pittsfield — from Russia and other former Soviet bloc countries in the 1980s and 1990s.

The organization had its first meeting with local stakeholders last July. Since then, the community has largely responded with overwhelming support for the program, Stein said.

[….]

screenshot-169 — State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier

State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, also expressed support for the project.

“The people of Pittsfield have made it clear that they [are] eager to open their hearts and welcome new neighbors to our community,” she said in a press release.

Jewish Family Service will work in collaboration with Hias to identify refugees to resettle in Pittsfield.

The organization plans to hire new staff members — a refugee resettlement coordinator, a caseworker and likely a volunteer/donations coordinator — and open up a local office in preparation for the refugees’ arrival. Its office is located in Springfield.

More here.
Apparently no pocket of resistance formed in Pittsfield.
Reminds me, whatever happened to that Syrian refugee in Lowell, Mass. who allegedly committed a sexual assault in a swimming pool there?
***We wrote about HIAS just this morning. They helped organize anti-Trump pussy protests in DC yesterday!

Refugee resettlement industry held emergency conference call on Friday: What will Trump do?

11/21/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update November 22nd: Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart investigated and found more details. In an update to his earlier article, he reports that the US State Department claims they did not organize or participate in the conference call, see here.
They are worried. And, as my good friend Richard (Blue Ridge Forum) would say, it has a lot to do with rice bowls. What? you ask! Have you ever heard the phrase ‘breaking rice bowls?’ It happens a lot when a new administration comes in to power and a lot of people have their livelihoods placed on the line perhaps for the first time ever!
donald-trump-quotes-thinking-big-600x400
In a story ostensibly about what is going to happen to the new resettlement site of Northampton, Massachusetts, the head of the local Catholic Charities tells us a good bit about what went on when 452 worried refugee resettlement workers got on a conference call with presumably leaders of the two main federal agencies that administer the program and dole out the federal bucks in Washington.
BTW, as we have mentioned previously, both the Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration and the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (as political appointees) will soon be on their way out.
Here is Masslive.com:

NORTHAMPTON — Asked if she thought a city refugee resettlement program would be subject to change under President-elect Donald Trump, Catholic Charities Executive Director Kathryn Buckley-Brawner pulled no punches.

“Of course it is,” Buckley-Brawner said. “Because Trump will be president. It’s less a question about ‘is’ as opposed to ‘will.'”

03/10/11 South Hadley Republican Photo by Mark M.Murray - Bishop Timothy McDonnell, Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield ,annouces the official begining of the 2011 Annual Catholic Appeal, during a press conference inside the St.Patrick Parish center kitchen thursday. Also on hand at right is David Bergeron, head of food services at the center , and Kathryn Buckley-Brawner, Direcor of the Catholic Charities Agency. — Kathryn Buckley-Brawner has been resettling refugees in Springfield, Mass. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/kathryn_buckley-brawner_named.html

Buckley-Brawner participated in a 452-person nationwide “post-election national refugee advocacy” conference call Friday headed up by people in government. [Advocacy on the taxpayers’ dime!—ed]

The call leaders said “don’t overreact,” prepare to advocate and argue in favor of refugee resettlement programs and hold steady until something changes, Buckley-Brawner said.

But feelings of uncertainty permeated the discussion, according to Buckley-Brawner.

“People whose job it is to have their finger on the pulse of what’s going on in our government don’t have a clue,” Buckley-Brawner said in a MassLive interview following the call. “If they don’t have a clue, the rest of us are in the same position.”

Members of the call seemed to think the most likely way a Trump administration might impact U.S. resettlement efforts would be by blocking refugees from certain places — like Iraq and Syria. [LOL! If Trump asks me, I’ll say Somalia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Burma (Rohingya) need to be on the list too!—ed]

Trump told CNBC on Monday he felt more against allowing Syrian refugees into the country than ever, calling the prospect “one of the great Trojan horses.”

[….]

Several different scenarios were discussed during Friday’s conference call, Buckley-Brawner said.

Among these, a complete shut-down of funding for refugee resettlement — thought very unlikely. A tightening of vetting procedures and slow-down of refugee intake — thought very possible. Finally, a dramatic decrease in refugee intake across the board.

“We’re simply going to keep on doing what we’re doing until somebody says ‘stop,'” Buckley-Brawner said.

Continue reading here about the elected libs in Northampton and their enthusiasm for taking Syrian Muslim refugees.
Be sure to visit our archive on Springfield, Mass. where the mayor called for a MORATORIUM and begged for relief from Buckley-Brawner’s resettlement of refugees there for years.
Northhampton is fresh territory and I will bet that although it is only 20 miles north of Springfield, the folks in Northampton likely have no clue about all the problems Springfield has had (unless they have been reading RRW for years!).
Endnote: My apologies to the good citizens of Northampton! I have been spelling the name of your town wrong for months! Sheesh, just found that I had spelled it wrong above!

Northampton, Mass. to hold two "welcoming" public "conversations" this month

09/07/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you the other day that Northampton, Massachusetts was ready and eager to “welcome” Syrian Muslims (99% of Syrians being admitted to the US are Muslims) this coming fiscal year which begins in only a few weeks, on October 1.
Catholic Charities, the primary resettlement agency there is holding two meetings this month to find support and help for the refugees because they do admit that after 90 days Catholic Charities’ (taxpayer-funded) help ends. At that time the refugees become dependent on the goodwill of the city and the welfare that Catholic Charities has signed them up for.

mayor-of-northhampton-mass — Mayor David Narkewicz is apparently on board with his city becoming a “host” city for Syrians and impoverished Congolese refugees. Do they have jobs for them in Northampton? Or, does Northampton just want some poor people because diversity is beautiful.

Here is the news at Masslive.com. Our earlier post on the new refugee program for Northhampton is here. How is the housing in this upscale city? A shortage of housing seems to be a growing problem everywhere.

Northampton residents are invited to attend two public conversations on the upcoming resettlement of 51 refugees into the city.

Catholic Charities of Springfield***, the agency contracted with the State Department to facilitate the resettlement, will host the sessions along with a “welcome home” steering group of local leaders.

The first, to be held Sept. 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the JFK Middle School cafeteria, will be attended by Mayor David Narkewicz. The second will take place Sept. 24 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Northampton Senior Center.

Susannah Crolius, the Catholic Charities coordinator of outreach and resource development, said the conversations are part of an effort to build a long-term support and integration network for the refugees.

[….]

The State Department typically provides funding for 90 days of services after refugees relocate to the United States….[Catholic Charities gets a cut of that for administering the program—ed]

[….]

Catholic Charities is adopting a small-scale, carefully planned approach, Crolius said; 51 is the minimum number of refugees a host community can accept. [The following year CC will ask for 100 until like Lancaster, PA, the city could get up to 900 a year.—ed]

The is more at Masslive.com.
***Readers who live in this area should read all of our posts on Springfield, Mass where the mayor has been begging for years for the flow to be slowed as the city was overloaded with poor refugees. LOL! the top post at that archive is about hungry refugees in Springfield being arrested for killing and eating the small wildlife in the public park. Does Northampton have a public park?
I’m going to bore readers to death with this, but if the Republican Congress does not increase funding (and maybe even cuts what the contractors like Catholic Charities have been getting!) for the massive numbers of refugees proposed for FY17 these new sites will not be opened. Catholic Charities does not have the money on its own to do this, it requires funding from the US taxpayer to administer this program.

Northhampton, Massachusetts will become new resettlement site

08/27/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a short news item at New England Public Radio.
Because the resettlement contractors are wearing out their welcome in places like Springfield, Mass. they are moving out to fresh territory. Moves like this one (20 miles up the road) are also to accommodate the large increase in the number of refugees expected in 2017 if Obama gets his way in September. (If Paul Ryan lets him have his way!)

alisa Klein — Alisa Klein is one of two city council members who promoted a resolution to urge the resettlement of Syrian Muslims (99% of those arriving are Sunni Muslims) to Northhampton. Learn more about her here where she got in trouble for remarks about the police last year. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/northampton_city_councilor_ali.html

City council members last fall said they wanted Northhampton to be a sanctuary for Syrians, here.

Residents of Northampton, Massachusetts, are laying the groundwork for the likely arrival of refugees in the next year.

Catholic Charities, based in Springfield, expects to resettle 51 refugees from Syria, Iraq, Burundi, and the Congo, and they’re focusing on Northampton, where the city council last year passed a resolution to welcome the groups.

[….]

Catholic Charities says the first refugees could come as early as January.

We have many posts on Springfield, Mass (click here) where the mayor there begged for relief as his city became overloaded a few years ago.
Like Ithaca, NY there seems to be no resistance in Northhampton to the arrival of impoverished and not thoroughly screened refugees.
Just a reminder to have a look at ‘Ten things your town needs to know when welcoming refugees.’ 51 might not seem like much, but once the door is opened, I guarantee the numbers will mushroom year after year.
I was recently shocked to see that in ‘welcoming’ Lancaster, PA they get 700 refugees a year and that the local school district is now embroiled in a costly legal battle about how best to educate older teenage refugees. Are you ready Northhampton?
Hey! I just remembered! Whatever happened to the Syrian refugee resettled to Lowell earlier this summer and ultimately arrested for an unwanted sexual advance on a little girl at a public swimming pool? Does anyone know?