Tag: Montana

Canadian meatpacker wants a piece of Montana too!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“Having this in my backyard ruins everything about why we moved out here in the first place.” 

(Stacy Hermiller a neighbor to the proposed site)

In my previous post I told you about the Trump Administration deal with China to supply Montana beef to China.  To facilitate the deal, a Chinese company will build a huge feedlot and slaughter plant in the state—to hell with destroying the environment and disrupting the cultural make-up of Montana with migrant/refugee labor!

Now, we see that a Canadian company is one step ahead of the Chinese and trying to get its piece of Montana too!

From the Great Falls Tribune (hat tip: Caroline):

A prominent Albertan livestock production and animal nutrition corporation filed an application within Cascade County to develop Montana’s largest slaughterhouse and meat processing plant on the outskirts of Great Falls.

greatfalls_mt
In a highly controversial move, Obama’s US State Department opened a refugee office in Missoula two years ago. Learn about the controversy here:  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/?s=Missoula+Montana

If approved and constructed as described within a Special Use Permit (SUP) application filed with the Cascade County Planning Division, the proposed “Madison Food Park” complex could employ up to 3,000 people, exporting thousands of tons of meat to consumer markets throughout North America.

“The scope and scale of the proposed Madison Food Park (MFP) property and project will include, when complete, a state-of-the-art, robotically controlled, environmentally friendly, multi-species food processing plant for cattle, pigs and chickens and the related further processing facilities for beef, pork and poultry,” a Friesen Foods response to the special use application states.

[….]

Pie-in-the-sky” proposals for mass employment generating business enterprises are not uncommon, with varying degrees of reliability, but the prospects for the development of a Madison Food Park seem fairly reliable. [There is no doubt that they will be importing laborers—ed]

The Friesen family of businesses have been operating in Alberta for the past two decades. From a livestock production enterprise, the corporation has expanded to include meat processing and animal nutrition divisions.

 

Not mentioned in that article or this subsequent one ,where citizens are voicing concerns about their neighborhood near Great Falls, is the impact on the community from cheap migrant labor.

montana worried citizens
Worried neighbors concerned about environmental impact need also to ask—who is going to supply the thousands of workers needed?

Just ask any town that has seen what BIG MEAT, BIG CHICKEN OR BIG YOGURT has done, and is doing, to break up community cohesiveness. See Amarillo, TX, St. Cloud, MN, Greeley and Ft. Morgan, CO and Twin Falls, ID to name just a few. (Search RRW for each of those cities.)

Did all of these globalist food companies get together at Davos and listen to Mr. Chobani Yogurt? Hire more refugees!

Open a food processing company in America and the US State Department, at taxpayers’ expense, will provide you with cheap and compliant refugee labor and others with worker visas (and eventually the R’s will cave and grant amnesty to additional migrants)! American taxpayers will educate their kids and supplement their wages with healthcare/welfare/food stamps etc.  When citizens complain, get the do-gooders to call them racists and haters.  What a business model!

According to this story at Montana Public Radio, there isn’t enough beef being produced in Montana to justify this big plant, so how does that jive with the subsequent Chinese deal?  Will they be competing? Photo above is from Montana Public Radio.

By the way, the tiny town of Nickerson, Nebraska killed a plan  last year to open a chicken processing plant there. The citizens were concerned about the impact on the environment, but also raised the issue of refugee labor overrunning the town. 

See my complete archive on how Meatpackers are changing America, one town at a time!  My Montana archive is ever-growing, here.

And, don’t miss Canada planning to welcome a million migrants to the country over next couple of years, so why don’t they keep their polluting meat plant on their side of the border? All those low-skilled refugees (the new younger replacement Canadians!) will need some place to work!

Changing America one meatpacker at a time, now it’s Montana’s turn

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“It’s a really smart place for China to put in investment and to partner with Montana to have a really good packing industry and processing plant here.”

(Fred Wacker, rancher)

You know the phrase often used during Obama’s tenure in the Oval—changing America by changing the people.  Well, that’s what is happening because greedy global corporations, especially food processing like BIG MEAT, BIG CHICKEN and BIG YOGURT, say they can’t find enough Americans to work low wage jobs so they need compliant immigrant laborers.

To hell with what flooding unsuspecting towns with third world workers does to rural America!

Trump with Republican Senator Daines giving Chinese investors a foothold in Montana?

Most egregious are the cases where the company (changing your town by changing the people) is foreign-owned.

We know this because we have been writing about the subject for ten years.  In the early days the refugee resettlement contractors hid their relationship with global companies, but recently we reported on one—Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—signing a contract with Brazilian-owned JBS Swift in Greeley to help them “train” refugees as good employees for the meat giant.  They signed another pact with Tyson Foods.

Now comes news that President Donald Trump made a deal with China to purchase Montana beef!

And, here is the catch: (To save money!) Montana needs a big new Chinese-owned meatpacking plant! What could go wrong?

From the Daily Mail:

US Senator Steve Daines and ranchers from the northwestern state of Montana on Wednesday applauded a 300-million-US dollar beef deal between Chinese commerce giant JD.com and the Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSGA).

“This landmark agreement has the potential to substantially increase Montana opportunity and agricultural exports to the fastest growing overseas market for beef,” Daines said in a statement.

JD signed the agreement with Errol Rice, executive vice president of MSGA, on Wednesday in Beijing as U.S. President Donald Trump began his three-day state visit to China.

[….]

JD also intends to invest up to another 100 million dollars to build a brand-new slaughter house and feedlot infrastructure in Montana to help set up its supply chain there, with construction beginning as early as the spring of 2018.

Win-win deal! Not!

Wacker says it’s cheaper to build a BIG MEAT plant in Montana than to ship to existing plants in other states. To hell with the disruption to Montana towns which will be flooded with migrant laborers, not to mention the impact on the environment!

The agreement follows an agricultural roundtable meeting in early September between a Chinese delegation and Montana farmers and ranchers, hosted by Daines at the Morgan Ranch House, near downtown Bozeman, Montana.

Fred Wacker, owner of Cross Four Ranch in Miles City, Montana, said at the meeting that it would cost him about 80 dollars a head to send cattle to feedlots and processing plants in the Midwest, so as to ship beef products to China and other overseas markets. He would like to seek partnership with Chinese companies to build a world-class processing plant in Montana.

“It’s a really smart place for China to put in investment and to partner with Montana to have a really good packing industry and processing plant here,” Wacker said, arguing that would help bring down logistic costs and guarantee stable supply of high quality beef to China, a win-win deal for both sides. [Losers are the citizens of Montana!—ed]

More here.

I suppose there is one bright side–unlike Chobani Yogurt in nearby Idaho, I doubt the Chinese owners will approve of Muslim workers in light of their clear historical animosity to the ‘religion of peace.’  I can just see the mess when the Chinese company gets hit with some discrimination lawsuits when they say “NO” to Somali workers.

Heck, maybe they will insist on bringing in Chinese workers!

For my mushrooming Montana archive, click here.

My Meatpackers archive is here.

In the summer of 2016 I traveled around the country to visit mostly meatpacking towns and haven’t eaten store-bought meat since. I raised beef cattle on a small scale for 20 years, but when I saw those mile-after-mile feedlots, cattle standing in the hot Colorado sun (and the migrant labor disrupted towns), I lost all interest in supermarket beef.

Montanans you don’t want massive feedlots in your lovely state!

Readers should know that the US State Department opened a controversial refugee resettlement office in Montana two years ago. Paving the way for the arrival of cheap refugee labor?

More on Montana wannabe meatpackers next! Here it is!

IRC gives up plans for new resettlement site in Asheville, NC; write to Congress!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story is from about ten days ago (just getting around to posting it).  What it says to me is that the resettlement contractors are a) pretty worried that the Trump Administration will come in low when it sends its FY18 ‘determination’ to the Hill in September, and b) they aren’t going to push an office where the Congressman for the area is totally opposed to it.
On that last point, I am going to continue to hammer every day that you must hound your member of Congress on the refugee program.
In my opinion, the only way to bring about reform is for the Trump Administration to send a determination for ZERO refugees for FY18 and demand Congress get to work reforming the monstrosity. As it stands now the Republican leadership wants more cheap refugee labor available for big business and the Dems want reliable Democrat voters.  Taxpayers foot the bill!
Here is the news from Asheville (from the Citizen-Times).  And, btw, since 9/11 North Carolina is #13 on the list of states ‘welcoming’ refugees. It received 30,827 refugees in that time (overall, the US admitted 917,639 since FY2002).

ASHEVILLE – A global aid and humanitarian organization announced Thursday it was cancelling plans to make Asheville a resettlement site for 150 refugees.

The move comes six months after the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump and one year since staff with the International Rescue Committee conducted an exploratory visit in Asheville.

Sean Piazza at linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanpiazza

During meetings with stakeholders last June, the IRC received “overwhelming” support to move forward, said Sean Piazza, a spokesman for the large nonprofit.  [LOL! even the reporter here knows this is a large nonprofit!—ed]

But, executive orders issued by the new administration place in question admission of refugees to the United States in 2017 and beyond, he said.

“Unfortunately, in light of these current policies, IRC is not in a position to continue opening an office in Asheville,” Piazza said.

[….]

The IRC is in conversation with the Trump administration to ensure the United State’s commitment to offering a safe haven for the world’s most vulnerable citizens, Piazza said.

“We ask supportive communities to convey this same message to your members of Congress,” said Piazza.

“We appreciate the warm reception and support we received in Asheville.”

Rep. Mark Meadows strong opposition likely played a role in the IRC’s abandonment of the Asheville site.

The IRC helped resettle nearly 10,000 refugees in 2015 including people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Even before Trump’s orders, the expansion of refugee services into Western North Carolina was challenged some of the region’s more conservative residents.

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Buncombe, opposed the IRC’s plan in August.

More here at the Citizen-Times.

Meanwhile in Montana another IRC office is limping along

The International Rescue Committee is responsible for opening Montana to refugees (there was a small resettlement program there years ago), but against strong opposition, they convinced the US State Department in 2016 to let them open a new site in Missoula.  At present, Montana is #47 on the list of states ‘welcoming’ refugees (only Hawaii, Mississippi and Wyoming received less).
Here is recent news on that program.  See my Montana archive by clicking here.

So where else is the large, very rich and powerful IRC working?

Here is a list of the cities where the International Rescue Committee is planting third-world poverty (their effort to get a foothold in NC has failed for now):

 
And, since I hadn’t checked the IRC’s finances lately, I figured it was a good time to check a recent Form 990. (BTW, this is the first time I am using this ProPublica website. Try it out!) The IRC is about 67% funded by taxpayers (yesterday we learned that EMM is 99.5% funded by you, the American taxpayer!)
In addition to the income in my screenshot (below), they have another $1,451,183 listed as IOM Loan Collection Fee.  This is your money too. The contractors are the collection agencies for the loan given to refugees for their airfare to your town and as the collection agency they get a cut of what they collect from the financially struggling refugees. (LOL! this is justified as teaching refugees how to handle their money and their debt!).
 

 

Doing well by doing good!

Miliband center with George Soros and Soros Jr.

Editor: Let me be clear! If this was a private organization raising private funds, I wouldn’t care what kind of salaries they pay, but since approximately 67% of their annual income comes from taxpayers, this becomes our business!
The most fun part of reporting on the refugee contractors*** finances is always the salaries page of the Form 990.  Here is the page from the same Form 990 I got the income from above.
David Miliband, the CEO of the IRC, is a British national who was the former Labor Foreign Secretary.  He was feted when he arrived in New York City to take the reins of the IRC by the likes of Bill Clinton, George Soros and Samantha Power, here.
See my David Miliband archive here.  He was the first to call for Obama to bring in 65,000 Syrians in one year!
Drum roll please! Here are the top salaries at the IRC (most are higher than most members of Congress/Senators, here).
Look at it this way, you are paying 67% of these peoples’ salaries as they make decisions affecting your neighborhood!
 

 
I know this is getting long, but the more I think about it, if what you have read concerns you, you should consider writing a real letter (not a call or e-mail) to your member of Congress and US Senators and demand that the US Refugee Admissions program be defunded until an effort is made to reform it.
Because of the huge amounts of money sent from the US Treasury to these supposed non-profits for their ‘charitable’ work, there is never any incentive to slow the flow for any reason.  The Refugee Act of 1980 has set up a permanent class of activist lobbying groups who will naturally scream bloody murder if the flow is slowed because it is attached to their budgetary bottom lines.
And, if you do write a real letter, tell your representatives that you expect a letter in response.  Please feel free to take anything from these pages!
*** For new readers, these are the nine federal refugee contractors that monopolize the admissions program (and lobby Congress for more and more refugees!).

AP says Montana is an example of anti-refugee sentiment spilling forth in wake of Trump victory

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update December 29, 2016: Michael Leahy at Breitbart has a good piece on Montana here also.
This is an Associated Press story that ran on Christmas day so not sure how many of you saw it.
For background, Montana had a small refugee program many years ago, but up until this year it was alone with Wyoming in not having one at all.  That changed in 2016 as Missoula ‘welcomed’ its first African and Middle Eastern refugees. I traveled to the state this summer and can attest to the sentiment outlined in this story.

sk_rossi
S.K. Rossi, advocacy and policy director for the ACLU of Montana: “It’s pretty widely known that this is going to be a hard year…” Photo: https://www.aclumontana.org/en/about/staff

For new readers you might like to see our Montana archive, here.
From AP at The Seattle Times:

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The push to restrict refugee resettlements and immigration in the U.S. that figured so prominently in Donald Trump’s election is now headed to states that are preparing to convene their legislative sessions early next year, immigration advocates said.

In Montana, which took in just nine refugee families from January to early December, about a dozen bill requests related to refugees, immigration and terrorism have been filed ahead of next month’s session. The measures include requiring resettlement agencies to carry insurance that would defray the cost of prosecuting refugees who commit violent crimes and allowing towns and cities to request a moratorium on resettlements in their communities.

Refugee rights advocates say those measures are a sign of what is to come as the anti-refugee rhetoric that featured prominently in the presidential election spills over to statehouses and local governments.

“It’s pretty widely known that this is going to be a hard year for those of us who are seeking to protect the rights of refugees and immigrants,” said S.K. Rossi, advocacy and policy director for the ACLU of Montana.

The president-elect campaigned on building a border wall with Mexico to stop illegal immigration, deporting immigrants who are in the nation illegally and halting the resettlement of refugees to strengthen the federal program that vets them.

[….]

“It absolutely does not end with the presidential election,” McKenzie [Michele McKenzie, deputy director of the Minneapolis organization The Advocates for Human Rights] said. “It’s a national strategy by a small but organized group of anti-immigration advocates and anti-refugee advocates.”

[….]

“We need to get serious,” said Nancy Ballance, a Republican state representative from Ravalli County.

Ballance said refugees are a “gigantic issue” in her southwestern Montana county, just south of the liberal college city of Missoula. “People expect to see some legislation brought,” she said.

It is pretty clear that legally state legislators can’t do much to change the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), but here we have the ACLU lobbyist making the crucial point about efforts in the Montana (yours too!) legislature.

“Filing this and making it a public conversation automatically undermines the refugee process,” Rossi said.

“They can’t legally undermine the process, but they can socially undermine the process.”

Continue reading here.

Trickle up!

You have a right to ask questions and demand that your elected officials at all levels of government be transparent, and consider your economic worries and your safety concerns when the federal government targets your communities.
Efforts like these in the Montana legislature are important to help create controversy because the ultimate goal is for the controversy to ‘trickle up’ to Congress and to the new Trump Administration. There is no doubt that the USRAP must be trashed or reformed, but that pressure must come from the states (and local governments) to Washington.  Politicians hate noise and so it is your job as grassroots activists to make political noise!
To that end, since Montana’s lone House member is likely going to the Trump Interior Department, it is critical that you, in Montana, make the selection of his replacement a referendum on the refugee program. See The Hill (scroll down to Rep. Zinke).
Endnote: I am off to jury duty, be back later!

Which refugees have gone to Missoula, Montana's new resettlement office?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

montana-welcome
A reader recently commented that the new International Rescue Committee office was being silent on how many refugees they were getting.  It is easy enough to check at Wrapsnet.org.
For new readers, see our archive on the huge (and still on-going) controversy about the office that is now resettling third worlders from Africa and the Middle East in Montana, in Missoula to be exact.
Montana had resettled a handful of refugees years ago, but up until last year the state (alone with only Wyoming) did not have a program.
Here is a screenshot of the ethnicity and numbers placed in the city that we are told has a shortage of low-income housing. These are only resettled refugees, not secondary migrants or others who entered the US illegally or through different legal programs.
(The data below is for FY2016 and the first 2 months of FY2017, up until Dec. 1, 2016. Fiscal years run from Oct. 1 of the previous year to September 30th of the present year.)
screenshot-81
By the way, all three ethnic groups arriving in Montana have a certain percentage of Muslims in their group. See here. But, only the IRC (and its local volunteers) and the US State Dept. know if the refugees sent to Montana are Muslims (they could all be Christians or other religious minorities).