Fargo: Lutheran federal refugee contractor kept information on active TB from public

06/27/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In yet another in a series of investigative reports on Tuberculosis, and diseases generally, in the refugee population coming to America, Michael Patrick Leahy now reports that in Fargo, North Dakota the lead contractor bringing refugees to that state was not forthcoming about information one assumes they would know—-how many of the refugees they resettle there have latent and active TB.

Lutheran Fargo building — Doing well by doing good! This time last year, LSSND was busy with its grand opening of its huge brand spanking new headquarters in Fargo. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney was on hand for the ribbon cutting. http://www.kvrr.com/news/local-news/nd-lutheran-social-services-celebrates-grand-opening/33595274

Breitbart:

Dr. John Baird, Health Officer for the Fargo Cass Public Health Department in North Dakota, confirms to Breitbart News that the agency, which serves all of Cass County, has diagnosed and treated four refugees with active tuberculosis (TB) between 2012 and 2015.

Baird’s confirmation of active TB among refugees in the Fargo community comes barely a month after a spokesperson for Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota (LSSND), the resettlement agency hired by the federal government to operate the program in North Dakota, denied that any refugees it has resettled in North Dakota have been diagnosed with active TB.

“We have a good working relationship with NDDoH [North Dakota Department of Health], and have not encountered any issues pertaining to active TB disease among refugees,” an LSSND spokesperson told Fargo’s local NBC television affiliate, KVLY, as reported by the station’s Valley News Live program on May 16.

“Based on Dr. Baird’s statement, the LSS statement to Valley News Live in May was factually inaccurate at best, and an intentional deception at worst,” Breitbart News said in an email to LSSND, asking for a comment to explain their statement that they “have not encountered any issues pertaining to active TB disease among refugees.”

Continue reading here for more important details in an article that once again shows the complete lack of transparency on the part of federal contractors and some officials that work closely with them.
I continue to wonder if community members who sign up with the contractor (LSS in this case) to help refugees get settled are given any instructions in how to avoid exposing themselves to any communicable diseases or parasites. Does anyone know? Has anyone who volunteered for a resettlement agency been briefed on health issues?
See also our post last week about Fargo’s welcoming Democrat Mayor Tim Mahoney. Fargo has been selected by some millionaires and billionaires as a Gateway to Growth, here.

On the Bhutanese refugees

Leahy mentions that the large numbers of Bhutanese refugees (and some Somalis) come from countries with high levels of TB. For new readers, the Bhutanese (not! Muslims) are really ethnic Nepalis who had been expelled from Bhutan when that country sought to keep Bhutan for true Bhutanese people. The refugees’ (we call Bhutanese) original country is Nepal. Nepal wouldn’t take them back so they lived in UN camps on the border of Nepal for 20 years or so.
We had no national interest that would lead us to get involved in this refugee situation…but we did!
In 2007, the George W. Bush Administration said (heck yeh!) we would help the UN by cleaning out those camps and ‘welcoming’ (the original number was somewhere around 60,000) of them to live in your towns. I bet we are now up to 80,000 who have been transported on your dime from UN camps to your cities. And, the camps are still not cleaned out because more arrive at the camps looking for a plane ticket to the west!
We have a huge (and I mean huge!) archive on the Bhutanese here at RRW (find more than you ever wanted to know). The big medical issue that brought them to the attention of the federal government and the CDC was not TB, but the extremely high suicide rate after resettlement to the US. Why are they killing themselves asked the CDC and the ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement)? Could it be culture shock?
Endnote: Just now I had a look at LSSND’s website. So tell me why a Lutheran non-profit group is now in partnership to build low income housing in North Dakota. See here. Forget the humanitarian BS, this is all a money making racket! Lutherans get paid by the feds to bring in the refugees and then they make money building them housing!
This post is filed in our ‘health issues’ category with 304 previous posts. Leahy’s previous reports are posted there. You will find the Bhutanese suicide posts filed there too.

Fargo, ND mayor touted in story about Center for American Progress report on refugees

06/20/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

First, if you don’t know, the Center for American Progress is John Podesta’s creation. Podesta has been a long time friend of George Soros and a svengali of sorts for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clearly the Center for American Progress is now deeply involved in the refugee controversy (and in helping businesses find immigrant labor to compete with Americans!) and has produced a report (propaganda!) about how refugees help economies boom!
(I’m guessing they didn’t include San Diego in their study!)

Somalis working in Lewiston — Check out the cover of CAP’s report: Somalis working at LL Bean in Maine. Why doesn’t the Left ever admit that refugee resettlement is about $$$ for business interests, and voters for the Dems with humanitarianism as a smoke screen! https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2016/06/16/139551/refugee-integration-in-the-united-states/

We previously wrote about Podesta and his Washington lobbying operation (CAP) here on several occasions.
Here is the Voice of America story that includes comments from Mayor Tim Mahoney who makes it sound like everything is sweetness and light with the refugees placed in Fargo, ND.
So who is really driving the resettlement of refugees in places like North Dakota? Big business? And, who are the 33 businesses looking for cheap, captive (because they can’t go home!) refugee labor in Fargo? Does anyone have a list?
VOA:

During a panel discussion last week in Washington about refugee resettlement, advocates reviewed the importance of local government being part of helping newcomers become familiar with a new reality.

“While refugee resettlement is a matter of global importance, there’s need to find durable permanent solutions. This is not the time to pull back, but rather an opportunity to lead by example,” said Winnie Stachelberg, executive vice president of external affairs at the Center for American Progress.

Cities like Fargo, in North Dakota, are not “pulling back.” According to Mayor Tim Mahoney, the community has come together to help refugees recover and build new lives.

“We have a great growing city. Good economy and things are happening,” Mahoney said, adding that every year about 500 refugees move to Fargo.

“We have found them an important part of our work force …

[….]

Mahoney said the city has a network of 33 businesses “healthily” competing to have newcomers work for them.

Any BIG MEAT in N. Dakota? Poultry processors? That is what I would like to know!
Continue reading here.
See our North Dakota archive here. They have had some very interesting crime stories involving refugees in that state! Don’t miss the one about a Somali refugee murdering a Native American family.
Also, since Lewiston, Maine was invoked by the Center for American Progress, see our huge archive on Lewiston by clicking here.
Assimilation vs. integration! CAPs and the Leftist Open Borders gang do not like the word “assimilation” so you can see in the title of CAPs report that they use the word “integration.” See our discussion of the Left controlling the language, here.

TB controversy continues as refugees and their advocates protest TV station in Fargo, ND

05/24/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Questions surrounding the admission to the US of refugees with Tuberculosis are growing.
See last night’s latest report from Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart.
We knew that refugees with latent TB were being admitted to the US, but we didn’t know that a significant percentage of those with latent TB become active TB cases. Of course you are paying for their treatment (if they even get it!).
In a typical attempt to silence anyone in the media who dares to question our US refugee policy, a demonstration was mounted on Sunday against Valley News Live.

Moorhead, MN mayor Del Rae Williams supports more refugee resettlement for North Dakota and Minnesota.

Here is a report of what happened! Local elected officials joined the protesters who were removed by the police from private property. (Emphasis is mine)

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) A small protest that was advertised as a “peaceful demonstration” by a local Somali activist group turned into a confrontation outside the Valley News Live studios on Sunday.

Protestors confronted a Valley News Live photographer as she attempted to shoot video of the event.

Fargo Police removed the protestors from the KVLY property.

Moorhead Mayor Del Rae Williams and Fargo’s Deputy Mayor Mike Williams also showed up for the event. Both support refugee resettlement in the area.

The group demonstrated because they said they were upset over reporter Bradford Arick’s story on the risk of latent tuberculosis in local refugee communities.

Our story presented data and facts from the CDC, State of Minnesota and State of North Dakota on the numbers of latent TB cases in the refugee population.

The State of Minnesota says 22% of refugees in that state carry latent TB while only active TB cases bars someone from entering the country.

The Fargo Forum newspaper criticized Valley News Live’s reporting as blatantly false. Forum Communications owns our competitors WDAY and WDAZ. [These competitors should just do their own investigation and report on the issue rather than encourage the silencing of any other media—ed]

Fargo Deputy Mayor Mike Williams addresses the crowd of protestors outside of the Valley News Live offices in Fargo, North Dakota, on Sunday, May 22, 2016. Nick Wagner / The Forum — Fargo Deputy Mayor Mike Williams (wants more refugees too) addresses the crowd of protestors outside of the Valley News Live offices in Fargo, North Dakota, on Sunday, May 22, 2016.
Nick Wagner / The Forum

The newspaper also interviewed Cass County Health Department’s Dr. John Baird.

Baird told the forum that TB is quote “not a major problem” in the area but later admitted that Cass County Health is treating active TB cases in the community.

[….]

Valley News Live stands by the story and we plan to continue looking into the issues surrounding refugee resettlement in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Good for Valley News Live!

Don’t let them intimidate people and silence speech!
Here is Valley News Live’s contact information! Maybe some of you should write to them and tell them to hang in there, that they are doing a great service for America!
Fargo Office 1350 21st Avenue South Fargo, ND 58103 mail@valleynewslive.com
We have written a whole lot about North Dakota over the years, it is one of the top states for refugee resettlement on a per capita basis, go here for our previous posts. By the way, it is a Lutheran federal contractor running the resettlement program there.
About the photos: Are these elected officials related or are there just a lot of people with the ‘Williams’ last name out there? Just wondering!

More on Tuberculosis in the US refugee population, government is keeping info. secret

05/22/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update: Four cases of active TB reported in refugees in Indiana, here.
I was about to quit posting for the day and try to answer some e-mails when I spotted yet another story about TB on the rise in America and it is pretty clear that the rise is a result of the increase in the immigrant population.

Tuberculosis2-worldmap4 — In 2013 there were 100 multi-drug resistant cases of TB in the US. How many today? 80% of those were people who were born elsewhere. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tuberculosis-mdr-tb-treatment_us_56211f2be4b06462a13bc8fd

We have reported on the work of reporter Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart on the subject (here and here), and now here is a story at World Net Daily by Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vilet you should read. She says:

Yet there is another serious threat [in addition to terrorism—ed] to Americans not being adequately disclosed to the public by government agencies and most media outlets: the invisible invaders traveling with humans that carry bacterial, viral and fungal diseases rare or eradicated in the United States.

[….]

In 2014 I wrote three separate nationally released articles on the risks of these disease issues to alert Americans of the new threats. That same year, the Centers for Disease Control warned its own workers to expect a rise in tuberculosis and other infectious diseases in the refugees and detention centers for illegals.

But CDC, charged with protecting Americans from spread of serious disease, did not make this information public. Thus, the American public was unaware of the disease danger lurking in their communities and schools.

Continue reading here.

They will always tell you when you are over the target!

This growing story, about health risks involved with refugees permitted entry to the US even when they carry diseases or parasites, scares the you-know-what out of the leaders of the refugee industry.
In just a couple of hours (local time), there will be a protest of a TV station in Fargo, ND by refugees and their advocates claiming the station and one reporter are stoking “fears about refugees by unfairly labeling them a public health risk.”
They want the TV station to apologize.
The story, here, quotes a medical professional assuring readers that all refugees are screened for TB before entering the US! LOL! they may be screened, but they aren’t rejected if they are positive!
We have written often over the years about the risks and costs of refugees with TB and other diseases (and mental health problems) admitted to the US. Visit our health issues category here for much much more.

North Dakota State legislator signals interest in suing feds over refugee program

05/05/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

North Dakota is a Wilson-Fish state whose refugee program has, for about 6 or 7 years now, been run by a non-profit group, a Lutheran resettlement contractor.
This is big news to add to other big news we’ve had over the last few days and weeks about possible challenges to the federal government on how it turns over decisions on who is resettled and where and the resultant expenditure of tax dollars via unelected NGOs. (I am over simplifying, but W-F is all about the availability of welfare dollars to refugees and the job of the NGOs to make sure they get their ‘services.’).
See Tennessee, Kansas and New Jersey for the latest, then this…..
From Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart yesterday:

State Rep. Al Carlson of Fargo, the Republican Majority Leader in the North Dakota House of Representatives, tells Breitbart News he wants the state to sue the federal government over the refugee resettlement program.

map-refugees-distorted — What is this you ask? It is a map distorted to show which states are disproportionately receiving refugees based on their overall populations. You can readily see that North and South Dakota are both overly refugee-populated compared with states such as California and Texas. http://www.humanosphere.org/basics/2014/02/map-day-refugees-accepted-us-states-population-adjusted/

As in Tennessee, where the General Assembly recently declared its intent to sue the federal government on Tenth Amendment constitutional grounds, North Dakota is one of fourteen states that have withdrawn from the federal refugee resettlement program where the federal government continues to resettle refugees under the Wilson-Fish alternative program.

“If that Tennessee lawsuit is going forward when the state legislature convenes in January, I would push to do that,” Carlson tells Breitbart News about passing legislation authorizing North Dakota to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement on Tenth Amendment grounds.

“I think the current Attorney General [Wayne Stenehjem] would be behind doing that as well. I don’t know about the other candidate for governor,” he adds.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, could initiate such a lawsuit without waiting for the North Dakota State Legislature to act, but he has given no indication he intends to do so.

Watch the interview by reporter Chris Berg (we mentioned him here previously) with Rep. Al Carlson, North Dakota House Majority Leader (go to minute 8:14). By the way, there is a discussion here about ND expanding Medicaid. Readers should know that if your state does that it becomes a greater enticement for the feds and their contractors to drop refugees off in the state.
Continue reading Leahy’s detailed update on the Wilson-Fish controversy with this latest news from North Dakota.
And, for all of you in ‘pockets of resistance’ in North Dakota, this gubernatorial election (mentioned by Leahy) is a great opportunity to make refugee resettlement an issue in that election! Go out to every campaign event you can find and ask candidates their views on whether the federal government and a non-profit group have the right to change the social and economic character of your communities!
Go here for our complete North Dakota archive.