That would be in places like Jamestown, New York where a community meeting was held recently floating the idea of the city, about 70 miles from Buffalo, becoming a new hub for refugee placement.
The article at The Post-Journal does not mention Afghans (they are not real refugees anyway), but surely some would be in the mix if the city welcomes a resettlement contractor*** to town.
Remember that Biden is still shooting to admit 125,000 refugees other than Afghan evacuees this fiscal year.
As we have pointed out previously, housing almost everywhere is in short supply and so Small City, USA will be targeted.
Editor: In my previous postI might have left the impression that I had a list of where the Afghans will be going after they are evicted from military bases before February 15th. I don’t know that there is a list, but you need only enter your city or state into a search engine along with the word refugees, or Afghans and you can find the answer yourself if plans are in the works (usually in relative secrecy) for your community.
I’m posting this not because I need to warn Jamestown residents, they should already know about the meeting held last week, but because there are some nuggets in here that I need to warn all of you about.
‘Embracing Diversity’: City Eyed As Potential Location For Refugee Resettlement
The potential benefits of Jamestown becoming a resettlement location for refugees were discussed Thursday evening during a well-attended gathering at St Luke’s Episcopal Church.
The get together included representatives from a host of local and regional nonprofits and organizations and has been several months in the making. The discussion Thursday centered on refugees — people who have fled war, violence or conflict and are seeking safety in another country — and whether Jamestown has the resources available to welcome them.
Democrat Mayor Sundquist virtue-signals about “embracing diversity!”
“When we started to see an increase of refugees across the states, we heard a lot of comments, got a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls about ways our community could help and support those refugees,” Mayor Eddie Sundquist told a crowd of about 50 at St. Lukes. “It’s not often that we would see refugees here in the city, but as you all know we are a city built on immigration, built on a melting pot of different people, different ideas. That’s what made us strong many, many years ago and could make us even stronger as we continue.”
City officials have been in contact with Journey’s End, a refugee resettlement agency in Buffalo. Sundquist said on average, Journey’s End takes in about 500 refugees a year; this year they are also expecting an additional 500 refugees.
An issue arising in the Buffalo area for resettlement, Sundquist said following talks with Journey’s End, is the increase in housing costs. Resettlement agencies receive a set amount of money per refugee to assist them with housing, groceries and travel.
“Since they couldn’t even find housing, many of the refugees are actually being put up in hotels in the Buffalo area until they are able to find suitable housing,” the mayor said.
[….]
The mayor’s administration has been working with resettlement agencies, including Journey’s End, to look into establishing a pilot program in Jamestown. If it’s found the city has the right resources in place — appropriate housing, workforce development, health care and educational partners — as many as 20 refugees could be brought over initially.
Sounds reasonable, right? Here is the problem, pay attention! There is no such thing as a pilot program! Once your community has begun bringing in refugees, you can’t stop the flow!
The contractors will not honor any limit you set! Believe me there are many cities in America where mayors have tried and failed to stop the flow once they realized that their city was in overload.
Indeed once the immigrant seed community arrives, it is the contractor’s job to bring the extended family members, and, if you say no more, then you (the mean citizens) will be called racist and unwelcoming!
Sundquist said the pilot program could help set the framework for the community “embracing diversity.”
[….]
Also raised was the topic of safety for the refugees, with some stating that not everyone in the community may be as open to the idea of refugees settling in the city. Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone, also in attendance, said safety is a legitimate concern that would need to be taken into account.
That is the other major red flag in this story. You see how it is set up, if you voice an objection for legitimate reasons (housing, cost of health care and education etc.), then they have already pegged you as someone who might actually physically hurt a refugee!
Sundquist said his administration would take all the notes and input received Thursday and continue working with state and local partners on establishing a pilot program. Another community meeting could be set in the next couple of weeks.
If you live in Jamestown or anywhere nearby (refugees can be resettled within a hundred mile radius of the primary resettlement office), and have a problem with this you better get to the next meeting!
As I have said till I’m blue in the face, organizing locally is all you have!
And, if you aren’t in Jamestown, you need to search the web for media reports (or even reports directly on contractors’ websites) for plans for your community as the political Leftists are working as fast as they can (as Biden’s popularity plummets) to change America by changing the people.
I love the chance to post my favorite Church World Service pic!
*** For new readers, these are the nine major resettlement contractors. Whenever you read about some local resettlement agency, it is helpful to figure out which of the nine the local contractor subcontracts for.
In this case Journey’s End is a subcontractor of Church World Service.
My first thought when I saw this news was, everywhere we are told by the likes of Michael Bloomberg’s New American Economy that refugees are working and bringing economic boom times to dying cities, so why do they need more taxpayer dollars?
And, my second thought was, why can’t a bunch of entertainers like Stiller pool their excess cash and donate the $5 million. Why should the hardworking families of NY state, scrimping and saving for their kids’ college educations, have to pay anything for refugees?
Oh, but it isn’t really for the refugees, it is to keep the phony-baloney non-profit groups afloat.
Actor Ben Stiller joins advocates urging aid for New York refugees
ALBANY — Actor Ben Stiller’s latest role is no laughing matter.
The “Zoolander” star joined lawmakers and advocates Tuesday in the capital in calling for more money for a state-funded refugee program.
Stiller is an ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. How many refugees has he welcomed to his home?
“New York has a great history of doing this,” Stiller said. “These programs need to keep going. There’s institutional memory that needs to stay alive and as the refugee flow is lower right now at some point it’s going to come back up and these institutions need to be up and working when it happens.”
He means that they expect to oust Trump and then go back to full steam ahead with 100,000-200,000 annual refugee admissions (compared to Trump’s 18,000 this year).
And, as for this next bit, in my analysis of six of the nine major federal resettlement contractors, five are doing financially as well or better under Trump as they did under Obama.
Federal funding for refugee resettlement services has dropped significantly in recent years as Trump administration policies restricted the number of people being granted asylum or refugee status each year.
[….]
The New York State Enhanced Services to Refugees Program has received $2 million each year in the budget since it was formed in 2017 in response to the changes at the federal level.
But advocates say the state needs to step up and ensure funds are available to non-profits assisting the thousands of refugees already here.
[….]
The 14 resettlement agencies in the program, the Fiscal Policy Institute, and the New York Immigration Coalition joined Stiller, Ryan, and other lawmakers in calling for at least $5 million set aside for the program. [They have salaries to pay, after all!—ed]
Gov. Cuomo included no funds for the measure in his fiscal proposal earlier this year.
Cuomo trying to balance his budget to slow the bleed of taxpayers leaving the state?
But, heck, a state full of fully employed refugees and immigrants paying taxes should keep the state budget flush, right?
Easily the first question anyone asks who is hearing for the first time that we have admitted to the US, at great taxpayer expense, hundreds of thousands of refugees over the last four decades is this:
Why aren’t we taking care of our own vulnerable people first?
The other day when I saidthat we need a grassroots group called ‘Migration Moratorium Now!’I figure the subtitle would be something like this: ‘Take Care of Americans First!’
And, that is the gist of this letter, thanks to reader Joanne for sharing it, atSyracuse.com:
Syracuse is falling apart, and Mayor Walsh’s priority is refugees?
The writer, Paul Strail, is responding to a lengthy opinion piece written by the latest liberal mayor of Syracuse, Ben Walsh, with the help of Michael Melara executive director of Catholic Charities of Onondaga County.
Here is just a bit of Mr. Strail’s response to the mayor:
Mayor Ben Walsh establishing his bonafides as an Anti-Trump liberal.
The Post-Standard recently reported that Syracuse is still one of the poorest cities in the country. Nevertheless, Mayor Ben Walsh wrote in your paper that President Donald Trump was wrong to limit the number of refugees that the United States could allow (“Dear President Trump, Syracuse wants refugees,” Sept. 26, 2019).
This seems like a strange priority for Walsh to stake out, especially because his city is falling apart . At times, there seem to be homeless men and women panhandling on every street corner. Many of these folks are veterans.
[….]
The murder rate in Syracuse is too high. Academic achievement in the city schools is too low. So, when the mayor should be focused on meeting the many vital needs of his own city, he has to let everyone know that his real concern lies in preventing Trump from restricting the flow of foreign refugees into his city. How that misguided priority will help improve the crime rate, boost academic achievement in the schools, elevate the standard of living of the city’s poor and homeless, and give struggling homeowners some kind of tax relief, is anyone’s guess.
The truth is that Syracuse’s reputation as a sanctuary city must be maintained if Walsh hopes to win the support (and donations) of enough liberal Democrats in the next election. Loudly criticizing the president is the best way to do that. The suggestion that the president must hate refugees because he is an extraordinary bigot is the means by which Walsh is feeding red meat to Syracuse’s Trump-haters.
One of the first things I would ask the mayor is this: Since Syracuse has ‘welcomed’ 10,000 refugeesto the city over a recent ten year period, where is the proof that they have revitalized the city?
Indeed are they still there, or like the Bosnianswho supposedly helped boost the economy of St. Louis have they moved out of a city run by progressive politicians?
Amazing how either people don’t read, or have very short memories.
In 2015 we reportedon a story from the Atlanticabout how Syracuse is falling into perpetual poverty as its poorer sections become poorer with the importation of already impoverished refugees!
I call this illogical argument—that refugees bring economic boom times to struggling cities—the big lie!
I’m happy to report on a letter-to-the-editor at Syracuse.com because I had meant to post on the original article that generated this reader’s letter and never got around to it.
Letter-writer George Checksfield is referring to an article, here, in which we learn that the State of New York is plugging the “hole” created by lost federal revenue for Catholic Charities (from you really, the taxpayer).
He wants to know why does a private group like this need taxpayer dollars to hold on to employees they don’t need.
In 2014, Syracuse’s Holy Trinity Catholic Church became a mosque and these Catholic Charities refugee pushers don’t even get what is happening to them. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/03/30/syracuse-refugee-group-buys-catholic-church-will-be-converted-to-a-mosque/
The mainstream media rarely makes the connection clear to the average taxpaying citizen reading a story like this that there is a direct relationship between the number of refugees being brought in and Catholic Charities of Onondaga County (this one and many others throughout the US) budget.
Their payments from the feds are based on how many refugees the agency places. It is a per refugee head basis and so big families bring in bigger bucks to CC (sorry for the zillionith time I’ve repeated that!).
When the President reduced the number of refugees being admitted to the US, it caused all these federal contractors to see their budgets shrink.
