World Net Daily writer Leo Hohmann has posted the third in a series of reports on Somalis in Minnesota in the wake of revelations that young Somalis from the refugee community there have gone to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq (and previously to Somalia to fight with Al-Shabaab). We posted on parts 1 and 2 (here and here).
Here are some snips from the article which I suggest you read in its entirety (Hat tip: Jeannine). Emphasis is mine:
Over the course of two decades, the federal government’s Refugee Resettlement Program has forcibly infused the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota with a large dose of Somali culture, and the transition has not always been smooth.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told WND that while many of the Somali transplants have been hard-working citizens, the experiment has been costly for her state. And too many Somalis remain dependent on public assistance.
Culture of dependency!
“And so tens of thousands of Somalis have been lifted out of a completely different situation and dropped into Minnesota,” Bachmann said. “They have been brought here in many cases by Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services and made homes here, but the problems of radicalization have come to Minnesota as well.” [Those “charities” are contracted by the US State Department to resettle the refugees.—ed]
While any refugee entering a new country could be expected to need some temporary government aid, Bachmann said problems arise with the culture of dependency that many Somali families have settled into. There have been ongoing issues with radicalization as well, as young Somalis have been targeted by preachers of Islamic jihad, drawing them into foreign terrorist networks such as al-Shabab in Somalia and ISIS in Syria.
Bachmann: Feds should receive permission to drop refugees into communities.
Bachmann, along with local activists in the state, say the federal government should not resettle refugees into communities without full disclosure of the costs to taxpayers. She believes the feds should also receive permission from elected leaders before dropping refugees into communities.
“I do believe localities and states should have a say in whether refugees come to their community. There was no opportunity to weigh in. When people come from areas of destabilization, the destabilization tends to come in with them,” Bachmann told WND.
Blame it on Ted and Joe (and by the way, Delaware gets only a handful of refugees each year, zero so far in 2014, but it received a whopping 6 refugees in FY 2013, see your state in the “statistical abstract”):
The resettlement program gets its authority from the Refugee Act of 1980, sponsored by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and former Sen. Joe Biden, and is overseen by the U.S. Department of State. The act allows the refugees to become U.S. citizens within five years. Once here, the refugees are allowed to bring in extended family members through the State Department’s Family Reunification program.
Living “in the heart of the beast”:
The charities – Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities and World Relief Minnesota – work with money largely provided by federal government grants.
Debra Anderson, a working mother employed in the health-care industry in Minneapolis, said she became concerned two years ago after she bought her house in the northeast quadrant of the city and found out a second mosque was proposed nearby.
“I basically live and work in the heart of the beast, and shortly after I moved in there was a proposal for another mosque in my neighborhood,” said Anderson, who is a member of American Congress for Truth.***
Read on! There is much much more about Anderson and her community, city and state.
Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis? See our post from 2011, here.
***The American Congress for Truth will be meeting in Washington this week and we will be there.