Storm Lake, Iowa: Filling America's "dead spots" with diversity!

11/22/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Storm Lake population 10,600 in 2010.
Looks like we have found another of the 47 new resettlement sites we learned that the US State Department has identified to place some of Obama’s 110,000 refugees for FY2017. Of course, as we just said for Rutland, VT, some locations are on hold as the contractors try to figure out how far out on the limb (financially) they wish to climb.
Since refugee contractors get most of their federal money on a per head basis, any slowdown in resettlement after Trump is inaugurated cuts in to their budgets.

storm-lake-tyson-plant — Surprise (not)! Tyson Foods has a pork processing plant at Storm Lake and the first refugee from Thailand (Burmese?) went to work there. Wikipedia tells us there is a turkey processing plant there too. More refugee labor on the way? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Lake,_Iowa

This is the second story we have seen lately about Catholic resettlement agencies spreading out their responsibilities to smaller organizations (or churches) presumably to make resettlement cheaper for themselves. We told you about Hudson, Wisconsin here last week.
The problem of transparency is something I will be pushing the Trump Administration on as soon as we know who will be Secretary of State. It is maddening that here we are nearly 2 months in to FY17 and we have only identified some of the 47 new sites*** we heard the DOS has chosen. Citizens have a right to know when their towns have been selected for refugee placement.

Once again from a local paper, we learn (inadvertently) some nuggets that should help all of us.
From the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune last week:

The Bridge of Storm Lake’s mission has grown in an unexpected direction. The neighborhood ministry has become a refugee resettlement agency along with its other programs.

The first two refugees from Thailand have been successfully settled in Storm Lake, and a mother and small child will be arriving before the end of the year, freed from the desperate conditions of refugee camps.

The role was not one the program expected to play.

Catholic Charities, one of the national agencies charged with resettling refugees accepted to enter the United States, had reached out to The Bridge to see if could help.

There are placement agencies in larger cities like Omaha and Minneapolis, but Storm Lake sits in a “dead spot” in the midst of a vast rural region, unserved by any existing resettlement office.

Jay Dahlhauser of The Bridge explained that the national resettlement agencies [The Contractors—ed] meet each Wednesday to see what refugees are arriving, from where, and figure out which refugees each will handle.

We should demand that the Trump State Department not hold these meetings in secret. Imagine this! Non-profit groups are sitting around a table in DC every Wednesday making decisions that will effect your community for decades/generations!
Pilot-Tribune:

With the country beginning to reach out to more rural regions for resettlements, The Bridge accepted the challenge from Catholic Charities, but not before wrestling over the decision. [What do they mean the “country” is reaching out to place refugees in rural areas! The Obama State Department and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops may be reaching out, but they are not the “country!”—ed]

So here (below) we learn something completely new—the feds can send up to 30 refugees to a town before making a formal agreement with the agency! BTW, none of this is in the law, this is all decided within the Department of State without any legal underpinning (so it could easily be undecided by a Trump Secretary of State).

Pilot-Tribune:

Storm Lake and The Bridge are currently capped at a maximum of 30 resettled individuals. If the number reaches that level, a more permanent agreement would be necessary, or possibly a formal resettlement office to be located in the community.

Continue reading here.
I would love to know if the contractors get any little rewards from the meatpackers when they supply them with cheap refugee laborers.
***To see if your town is an existing resettlement site check out the US Department of State database.
But when you look at that data base know three things. 1) the data base is out of date, 2) we are told there are 47 new sites not listed and, 3) see if you live within 100 miles of one of these offices because that means your town is fair game to receive refugees.
Here are some of the new sites being chosen by the US State Department (that we know of!). We are adding Storm Lake, Iowa. If anyone there is interested in learning more, check out our ‘Ten Things Your Town Needs to Know‘ by clicking here.
Asheville, NC
Rutland, VT
Reno, NV
Ithaca, NY
Missoula, MT
Aberdeen, SD (may have been thwarted as a primary resettlement site!)
Charleston, WV
Fayetteville, AR
Blacksburg, VA
Pittsfield, MA
Northhampton, MA
Flint, MI
Bloomington, IN
Traverse City, MI
Poughkeepsie, NY
Wilmington, DE
Watertown, NY (maybe)
Youngstown, OH (maybe)
Storm Lake, Iowa

West Virginia: Is Catholic Charities bringing in foreign laborers for a poultry plant to compete with Americans?

09/26/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here are some of the facts as we know them:
West Virginia is a relatively new resettlement state which has received only 176 refugees in the last ten fiscal years.
However, in addition to Catholic Charities resettling refugees, Episcopal Migration Ministries wants to open a new office in Charleston. Presently CC has three locations and one of those is in Moorefield, WV.

jbs-greeley — This is the magnificent headquarters building Brazilian-owned JBS has in Greeley, CO. JBS owns most of Pilgrim’s Pride. So think about it! If you have Pilgrim’s Pride or any other JBS company in your town, it is being changed so a foreign-owned company can have cheap/compliant/foreign labor. (This is a photograph I took as I passed through Greeley on my RRW road trip this summer.)

What else is in Moorefield? I’ll tell you! There is a Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant located there.
Here are some things we know about Pilgrim’s Pride:
It is owned by the Brazilian meat giant—JBS (you may know them as Swift & Co.) headquartered in Greeley, CO.
And, now get this. The very same Labor Department, that I would normally be complaining about, says that in some locations in the US, Pilgrim’s Pride is DISCRIMINATING against African American job applicants, Caucasians and women! They are choosing Hispanic laborers (and it would appear refugee laborers) over Americans!
This is from a Dept. of Labor Press Release dated 10/7/2015:

ATLANTA — One of the world’s largest chicken processors systematically discriminated against qualified African-American applicants seeking entry-level jobs as laborers and operatives at its chicken plant in Marshville, North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs alleges in a lawsuit filed against Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation.

“Discrimination will not be tolerated by employers who profit from government contracts,” said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. “OFCCP will use every action available by law, including canceling Pilgrim’s federal contracts if necessary, to ensure workers are treated fairly.”

The complaint results from an OFCCP investigation into the company’s selection procedures. This is the second lawsuit filed by OFCCP against the company in less than 30 days. The first complaint, filed on Sept. 15, 2015, alleges that Pilgrim’s Pride systematically discriminated against qualified African-American, Caucasian, and female applicants for entry-level laborer and operative positions at its chicken plant in Athens, Alabama. Both complaints were filed with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges and seek complete make-whole relief, including instatement of qualified black applicants at the chicken processing facility, payment of lost wages, interest, front wages, and other fringe benefits, including but not limited to retroactive seniority.

[….]

As a result, some African-American, Caucasian, and female applicants were rejected despite having education and experience levels comparable to male and Hispanic applicants. The Athens plant is no longer in operation.

Based in Greeley, Colorado, Pilgrim’s Pride is the largest chicken producer in the U.S. The Brazilian food giant JBS S.A. owns 75 percent of Pilgrim’s Pride’s outstanding common stock.

From 2007 to 2011, Pilgrim’s Pride received more than $36 million in federal contracts as a provider of poultry to agencies such as the departments of Defense and Agriculture.

Could that same discrimination being going on in other Pilgrim’s Pride plants?
Back to Moorefield and Catholic Charities.
I checked the numbers from the Refugee Processing Center and here is what I learned. In the last 10 fiscal years, 176 refugees were resettled in WV. 49% of those went to Moorefield (CC lists poultry processing job availability there in its R & P Abstract).
Beginning in about Fiscal Year 2010, CC began resettling Burmese refugees (36 total) in Moorefield. In 2012 they began placing Eritreans there (42) and then 6 Iraqis and 2 Ethiopians followed. I know that numbers-wise it is small compared to the numbers being placed for the benefit of BIG MEAT around the country, but it strikes me as a very clear indication of how supposed ‘religious’ charities are working for the benefit of meat processors. But why? Is it all about money?
What is in it for the pols?
Then we get to the politicians. Moorefield is in WV District 2 (Rep Alex Mooney) who won that district when former Rep and now US Senator Shelley Moore Capito moved on to the Senate. Both are Republicans. What is in it for them to defend this practice of hiring refugees when African Americans, and Caucasian women need work in WV?
I don’t know the answer except for the Dems we know they are looking for more Democrat voters.
But as each of you begins to unravel why refugee labor is changing your towns (and why your elected officials aren’t listening to you), you need to figure out what is in it for Republican elected officials at all levels because I can assure you this is not about ‘humanitarianism!’ That is only the cover for big business (and the Chamber of Commerce!) to continue to push for more refugee admissions to the US.
Update: Reader Brenda sent this handy list of US poultry plants, wonder how closely it correlates to Refugee Resettlement sites?

Contemplating 'welcoming' refugees? Pay attention to Amarillo, TX

06/16/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Amarillo was in the news this week when a former refugee was shot dead in a Walmart store after taking hostages. If you are looking for excitement in your boring towns and cities, follow the Amarillo example. If you kind of like your peaceful all American town, then you better think twice about becoming a new refugee resettlement site. (And, make all the political noise you can when the feds come to town with their contractors).

Paul Harpole — Harpole testified April 21 before the state Senate’s Committee on Health and Human Services, which held a hearing on refugee resettlement

Amarillo has been getting refugees for years and years so that is why they are now overloaded and stressed. I suspect early on, the federal contractors snuck into town (they always set up the seed communities with the least amount of publicity they can get away with) and no one caught on until the schools were overloaded and multiculturalism had destabilized the resident population.
Before seeing Leo Hohmann’s detailed report on Amarillo see our post earlier this year that is turning in to one of the top posts of the year, click here.
Take note Rutland, VT, Missoula, MT, Ithaca, NY and Reno, NV among others!
Here is Hohmann at World Net Daily:

A man who took two co-workers hostage at an Amarillo, Texas, Walmart Tuesday was a Muslim refugee from Somalia, and that fact came as no surprise to those who track the federal government’s robust refugee resettlement program.

Amarillo is bursting at the seams with foreign refugees, from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and its mayor has pleaded repeatedly with the government to stop sending refugees to his city.

But they keep coming.

The schools are stretched, and the local police department is having a hard time getting a handle on the rising crime.

On Tuesday, it was just another example. Mohammad Moghaddan, a Somali refugee, was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies after he had taken two Walmart employees hostage.

Moghaddan, 54, was a current employee of the store, and his actions were quickly declared “a case of work place violence” by the sheriff’s office. The hostage taker, armed with a handgun, was shot dead by a SWAT team as terrified shoppers were ushered out of the store.

The city’s mayor has been on a crusade since 2011 to get the U.S. State Department, working with the United Nations, to put a damper on the number of refugees flooding into his city.

So far, Mayor Paul Harpole has had little success.

Continue reading here for all the details.
And, again for you in prospective ‘welcoming’ towns remember the message from Amarillo—once you go down this road and open an office in your town there is no slowing the flow later. Just ask another mayor, Ted Gatsas in Manchester, NH who like Mayor Harpole has tried to persuade Washington to stop sending so many, to no avail.
See our Amarillo archive which extends back to 2008. This May 2008 post may be our earliest realization that Amarillo was being changed by BIG MEAT in need of cheap immigrant labor or, because the federal government makes it attractive (financially beneficial) for them to hire non-Hispanic laborers (hmmmm?), see here. BTW, in a quick look around I saw that there are 11 meatpacking companies near Amarillo. Why is it the job of the US State Dept. to provide laborers for processing plants, that is what I want to know!

More active TB cases in the refugee population, Colorado this time

06/14/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you haven’t been following the great investigative work that Breitbart reporter Michael Patrick Leahy is doing getting information to the public about the FACT that refugees are permitted entry into the US with Tuberculosis (and other communicable diseases), you should.

Cargill workers — The US State Department resettles Somalis and other African refugees in Colorado to satisfy BIG MEAT’s need for cheap labor. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/03/10/meatpackers-and-somali-workers-again-disrupt-small-town-life-in-america/

Islamic terror attacks understandably make the news, but in the long run the return of diseases (thought to be virtually non-existent) and the arrival of parasites into the US should cause you to lose sleep especially if you are in one of 200 plus ‘welcoming’ American towns and cities.
Who do you think will be paying for all of the healthcare?
Here is Leahy yesterday,

Ten of the approximately 8,000 refugees who were resettled in Colorado by the federal government between 2011 and 2015 were diagnosed with active tuberculosis shortly after their arrival, according to the Tuberculosis in Colorado: 2015 report published by the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment.

A number of other states have also reported refugees have arrived with active TB, as Breitbart News reported previously. Four refugees with active TB were resettled in Indiana in 2015, and eleven refugees with active TB were resettled in Florida in the three years from 2013 to 2015.

The recent increase in the number of active TB cases reported in the United States is driven by increases in the foreign born population with high rates of active and latent TB, as Breitbart News reported last week…

Go here to learn more.
And, visit our health issues category (you will find Leahy’s series there), it isn’t just diseases and assorted health problems you pay for, but you are also paying for mental health treatment.
One post from 2007 is definitely worth revisiting about a refugee worker dying with TB in a meatpacking plant, here.

Athens, GA mayor questioned resettlement proposal for the city, and so it never materialized

04/27/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Jungle 2016!

I have been wondering for the last year whatever happened to Athens, GA after the Democrat mayor there said, give us a “formal refugee integration plan” to the International Rescue Committee (one of the top nine federal contractors) and the US State Department before opening a direct resettlement site in Athens.

nancy denson — Athens, GA mayor Nancy Denson: Give me a plan first! https://athensclarkecounty.com/315/Mayor

Click here for several earlier posts on the controversy. In one, the IRC representative in Georgia said the feds would send the refugees anyway! But, apparently they haven’t.
Two lessons here for towns being faced with new offices: the first is that mayors can “rebuff them” and keep planned direct resettlement offices from opening, and secondly, apparently the contractor and the feds DO NOT want to be in a position to prepare plans (set a precedent?) on how the resettlement will work!
So, if they are coming to your town or city, make them give your town a plan (with public hearings!).

Here I see in the Flagpole, that nothing has moved forward (so far) on the office proposal.

This is one of those long stories meant to play on your heart strings about the wonderful refugees (and I am sure this family is very nice) who have arrived in the area (as secondary migrants) to work in a chicken processing plant.
One of those gushing in this account is a local real estate agent who has helped them buy homes (which they work 60 hours a week to pay for!).
LOL! Gee sounds familiar! I’m re-reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in preparation for a ‘Jungle’ revisited (100 years later!) fact finding tour this summer. Although one big difference these days is that the US State Department and supposedly ‘humanitarian’ NGOs act as head hunters for BIG MEAT companies that are often foreign-owned!
So after wading through 24 warm and gushy paragraphs about the stars of the story—a hardworking Burmese Christian family—we come to the news I was looking for. Apparently there is no movement toward opening a direct resettlement site in Athens, GA (although this story might have been placed as propaganda to begin the re-education of the community on the subject).
From the Flagpole (emphasis is mine):

All of the adults in the family work at the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant. Esther and her father work the night shift, while her husband and mother work the day shift. They do it this way so someone can always be home with the children.

Most refugees living in Athens and Comer work at a poultry plant—the industry that provides the most jobs for refugees in Georgia. It’s tedious work and physically hard, but the poultry plants pay $10–11 an hour [Ha! wages would be at least $15 and hour if they had to pay Americans!—ed], more than you can get almost anywhere else for unskilled labor, and that makes it hard to leave.

Esther stands on her feet for eight hours, five or six nights a week, cutting chicken in the cold factory, moving fast to keep up with the conveyer belts. One day she’d like to get a job that’s not so hard, maybe in a retail store or daycare. “We don’t have much time to be social,” says Esther, laughing, “because sometimes we work 60 hours a week. On Sunday we go to church, and then the whole week is finished.” [Wow! The Jungle!—ed]

Last year the International Rescue Committee (a nonprofit refugee resettlement agency) proposed setting up a small office in Athens and bringing 150 refugees here, but it was rebuffed by local government leaders. Subsequently, an ecumenical group composed of clergy and other citizens formed Welcoming Athens, a group “working to nurture a culture of welcome for all people in Athens and the surrounding area.” Among other things, the group is advocating for the city to let the resettlement office come.

The main reason Mayor Nancy Denson gave for not wanting IRC in Athens was that resources are stretched thin, and her priority is “to take care of the people who are already here,” citing issues with homelessness and panhandling. But some in the U.S. also resist taking refugees because of a concern that some refugees coming in might be criminals, violent radicals or unable to adjust successfully to American culture.

“That’s not why they’re coming here,” says Drago, emphatically. “They’re coming here to work, to go to school and have a better future. Now, after having been here awhile, they’re also part of humanity, and some people do commit crimes, but no more than people from any country. But to say that people come here to sow discord and terrorism in our country, absolutely not. They’re fleeing that! They’re coming here because they want to live in a peaceful place.

Read it all.