This is the second part of my report from the Pennsylvania Refugee Conference which I attended earlier this week in Lancaster, PA. If you haven’t read my earlier report it might be useful to check it out and then come back here for part II.
One of the many things that I found revealing about the conference was that problems with the program to resettle over 100,000 “refugees and asylees” to your towns and cities each year was not discussed (your classic hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil!). There was no direct discussion about problems with assimilation, tensions in communities, crime problems, cost to local communities, school conflicts, housing shortages for refugees etc. except for one session dedicated to how to silence people who might like to complain—the keynote speaker talked about how ‘Welcoming America’ was working to get YOUR minds right about your new refugee neighbors (and, they received a federal grant from ORR to do it!).
Before Susan Downs-Karkos from ‘Welcoming America’ spoke, we had been alerted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Director of Placement, Mitiku Ashebir that (gasp!) “three pockets of resistance against new arrivals” had developed. He assured the gathering it was not widespread and that Pennsylvania, thankfully, was not one of them. Drum roll please! Here are the pockets of resistance and Mr. Ashebir’s brief description of the unwelcoming problems:
New Hampshire—some mayors have problems, said Ashebir
Georgia—budget reductions for some service providers
Tennessee—they want to control arrival numbers! Imagine that!
But, Welcoming America is on the case! They want to “transform” communities by “Building a Nation of Neighbors”!
Downs-Karkos described her organization’s job as “promoting understanding and support for refugees.” The whole concept is that YOU must improve your attitude to your new neighbors, not that the refugees must learn to fit into American society. We are a Nation of immigrants, they are coming, so get used to it was the basic message.
The refugees and immigrants are the seeds and your community is the soil into which they are being planted is how she described what is happening. Her group is working on improving the soil.
She said ‘Welcoming America’ was created by David Lubell of TENNESSEE who had successfully launched ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ a few years ago where he mobilized support for refugees in Nashville and Shelbyville and promoted the propaganda film—Welcome to Shelbyville. If you are a new reader here you might want to visit our many posts where we traced the history of that deceptive film from its origin when a Hard Left documentary film group was funded to visit Shelbyville (where community tensions had developed around a large influx of Somali refugees who had arrived there to work for Tyson Foods)–-it is a classic case study in how to produce propaganda.
“Is everything perfect in Tennessee now?” asked Downs-Karkos. No, she answered herself, “but it is improving.” Really?
Follow the money!
Here is a summary from Welcoming America’s website about how the organization got its start (with the help of George Soros). Our friends in Tennessee will be amazed at the spin about their state! “Changing communities” indeed. I wonder does David Lubell understand what just happened in Manchester, TN last week?
The history of ‘Welcoming America’:
In 2005 the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), inspired by the Iowa campaign’s message and approach, started to make plans for a “Welcoming Tennessee Initiative” (WTI). Since launching in 2006, The Welcoming Tennessee Initiative – the model for all subsequent welcoming initiatives – has substantially improved the climate for immigrants within the state. Statewide polling by Middle Tennessee State University has demonstrated an increase in positive opinions towards immigrants, and thousands of Tennessee residents have become active supporters of Tennessee’s increased diversity as a result of the project. In 2009 WTI was awarded the E Pluribus Unum Prize for exceptional immigrant integration initiatives. [LOL! an award!—ed]
The success of Welcoming Tennessee inspired several additional immigrant support organizations across the country to follow its lead. In July of 2007, seven organizations interested in starting Welcoming campaigns met to combine efforts and expand Welcoming campaigns past Tennessee. Hosting the meeting was Four Freedoms Fund, a funding collaborative that has played a crucial role in the formation and development of Welcoming America.
Here is what Discover the Networks says about the ‘Four Freedoms Fund’ listed as one of many groups directly supported by George Soros’ Open Society Institute. Soros, as longtime readers know, is pushing to “change” America by swamping the country with third worlders. He can’t have you fighting the “transformation.” Therefore, “Pockets of resistance” must be stopped now!
Four Freedoms Fund: This organization was designed to serve as a conduit through which large foundations could fund state-based open-borders organizations more flexibly and quickly.
Longtime readers know that Soros has had his proteges installed as Asst. Secretaries of State for Population, Refugees and Migration throughout the Obama Administration. Type ‘George Soros’ into our search function for more.
A chuckle for Tennesseans—Tom Negri is on the board of ‘Welcoming America’! You may remember the story from back in 2009: Negri, who manages the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in downtown Nashville (hotels need cheap immigrant labor and that’s why so many are behind open borders), broke a contract just days before a conference that I and others (from around the country) had registered to attend saying we might be a danger to their other guests. Maybe the Muslim protesters would be a danger, but not us! The conference went on peacefully at another “welcoming” hotel!
Negri’s move was a stupid one because it just confirmed for all of those who knew about it (including thousands of readers of Newsmax) what dirty tricks the open borders advocates and Lefties are willing to use to silence speech they don’t like!
Bottomline is that ‘Welcoming America’ is spreading throughout the US–they are “community organizers” with affiliates in twenty plus states, here. If you are in one of those states, sign up for the group and begin learning what they are planning for your community. And, then spread the word!
For new readers: If you would like to learn more about those pockets of resistance in New Hampshire, Tennessee and Georgia, simply type the state name into our search function and dozens of posts will be available. Also, note that we have a separate category on Nashville (50 posts!) because it has been such a controversial site for refugee resettlement (by Catholic Charities!) and Islamic activism.
