Spartanburg residents not happy with "pontificating" from Asst. Sec. of State

This is Part II of my earlier post about South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley caving in to the federal government and signaling her willingness to ‘welcome’ refugees to South Carolina, a state which has heretofore not been a big target for resettlement (as have Kentucky, North Carolina and Georgia).  That all changed earlier in the year as residents there learned that federal contractor World Relief was planning to ‘seed’ Spartanburg with refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa which touched off a firestorm of criticism.
Yesterday, World Net Daily writer Leo Hohmann filled us in on how things went when the Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration came to town to try to tamp down the resistance.   See Part I here.
Following a discussion of what Rep. Trey Gowdy’s “murky” role is in the situation, we learn that two of those meeting with Ms. Richard—-Christina Jeffrey and Lynn Kisler—were not impressed.  Spartanburg is in Gowdy’s district.
WND:

Jeffrey said Richard admitted in Monday’s meeting that once a state agrees to participate in the federal refugee program, there is little local residents can do to stop it.

Christina Jeffrey II
Dr. Christina Jeffrey: Where are the hearings?

Another Spartanburg resident, Lynn Kisler, confronted Richard on the issue of national security.

This is priceless!

“Ms. Richard said she experiences terrorist threats whenever she travel overseas, and it was almost like they were already trying to condition us for that, kinda like a terrorist threat is an accepted way of life now, no big deal, and I could not believe my ears,” said Kisler. “I told her my house doesn’t have armed guards, it doesn’t have an 8-foot wall all around it, so for her to compare an embassy abroad to me being in my home among that population, when they want to bring that population here, it made me angry. I interrupted her and I said ‘you have armed guards, I don’t have armed guards.'”

Refugees just like American pilgrims?

Richard also began “pontificating” about how successful the refugee program has been everywhere it has been put in place, Kisler said. The assistant secretary even compared today’s refugees to the early pilgrims who settled America.

“I asked her how do you define success?” Kisler said. “Ask the people of St. Cloud, Minnesota, how successful it’s been there. It has destroyed that area.”

So many Somalis in Minnesota have been caught engaging in terrorist activity and sending money to overseas terrorists that the U.S. Attorney there, Andrew Luger, admitted in April that, “We have a terror recruitment problem in Minnesota.”

Dr. Jeffrey reiterated her call for Gowdy, who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security and thus responsible for the refugee program in Congress, to hold hearings:

“For the sake of the rest of the country, we need Trey Gowdy, chairman of the subcommittee with oversight in this area to hold hearings on this under-supervised program that has been around since Jimmy Carter created it,” Jeffrey said.

In fact, the Babin bill which seeks to temporarily halt refugee resettlement is a perfectly good excuse to hold a hearing.  So what is taking Gowdy so long?  Is he worried about ruffling the feathers of senior Senator Lindsey Graham a longtime advocate of amnesty for illegal aliens and one of the Gang of Eight (along with fellow Presidential candidate Marco Rubio) that would have expanded the role of the nine major federal refugee resettlement contractors among other things.
Surely Benghazi doesn’t consume all of Gowdy’s time.
Are you angry enough yet?  Want to help?  Sign the petition!

SC Governor Nikki Haley 'welcomes' refugees to South Carolina (Part I)

Angering her, Obama wants to send South Carolina some Gitmo prisoners, but in the meantime she has signaled her ‘welcome’ to third world refugees.
This is another informative article from World Net Daily investigative reporter Leo Hohmann which includes an update about the visit this past week of Anne Richard, Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, who traveled to Spartanburg, SC to try to quell the resistance there to a new plan to seed Spartanburg with refugees.
From WND:

Some are calling it the “height of hypocrisy,” bordering on demagoguery.

Haley and Jindal
If Haley has any plans to run for higher office, she should have a chat with fellow governor Bobby Jindal who has been very tough on the subject of Muslim immigration to America. Maybe he can help set her straight? Jindal wants to restrict Muslim immigration to the US: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/megyn-kelly-grills-jindal-on-his-proposal-to-restrict-muslim-immigration-to-u-s/

Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s Republican governor, came out last Thursday and blasted possible White House plans to bring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to her state.

The governor called a news conference and didn’t mince words.

“We are absolutely drawing a line that we are not going to allow any terrorist to come into South Carolina,” Haley said. “We are not going to allow that kind of threat, we are not going to allow that kind of character to come in.

“My job is to protect the people of this state, and I take that very personally,” she continued. “I will take that personally the entire way through, so that the president, the Congress and anyone involved in this decision understands they are not wanted, they are not needed, and we will not accept them in South Carolina.”

Yet, at the same time she was drawing a red line against Gitmo terrorists who would stay locked in a brig off the coast of Charleston, Haley was opening her arms wide to welcome “refugees” from jihadist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa.

[….]

Haley has come down on the side of the State Department and the refugees, saying she trusts the vetting process, despite hundreds of arrests and active investigations involving refugees or children of refugees across the U.S. She has chosen to believe the State Department over the FBI, which is responsible for screening the refugees and warned that in some cases it’s an impossible task.

Please continue reading here, there is much more!  And, don’t miss the hundreds of comments!
For all of our coverage of the Spartanburg seeding plan, click here.
See Part II here!

News from Spartanburg, SC, a "Pocket of Resistance"

This is one more in our new series of posts on what concerned citizens are doing to resist the colonization of their towns and cities by the UN/US State Department using impoverished third worlders (all part of the Obama Administration plan to “seed” your community with ethnic and economic diversity).
We will be bringing to you as many of these stories as we can so that you may find inspiration and support for what you are doing in your state.

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 23:  Candidate Christina Jeffrey, R-S.C., is photographed on the House Steps, January 23, 2009.  (Photo By Tom Williams/Roll Call/Getty Images)
Dr. Christina Jeffrey

For new readers, Spartanburg, SC residents learned in early spring that their town was targeted by one of the nine major federal contractors, in this case World Relief (Evangelicals), to begin receiving refugees this fiscal year (FY 2015 ends Sept. 30, 2015).  To catch up, go here to our first post (with updates).
Rep. Trey Gowdy represents the district and is Chairman of the all-important House Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.  Gowdy should have called for hearings on the program weeks ago!

Get the facts!

Sounds boring, but one of the first steps for those of you questioning a new resettlement site or an existing one is to gather your facts and get those facts to the general public. 
The US Refugee Admissions Program, as we have chronicled for the last 8 years, is largely a secretive program.  Why? Because once taxpaying citizens understand how it works and what it costs, they usually reject the whole scheme.
So here is Dr. Christina Jeffrey announcing the release of a document and fact sheet that she and her group have prepared for South Carolina citizens (really all of you across the country).  Emphasis is mine:

One of the biggest threats today to U.S. sovereignty is mass immigration. While we were focused on illegal immigration, massive legal immigration was increasing wildly under the radar. I was not aware of the huge pressure being brought to bear by various programs that have been bringing in tens of thousands of immigrants/permanent residents every year.

This year, Spartanburg was chosen to be the one hundred and ninety-first “welcoming city.” I had to do some homework to find out what that meant.

I learned that our new neighbors were being selected for us by a program called Refugee Resettlement, one of the largest legal immigration programs. It is run by the State Department in cooperation with the United Nations. To give you a quick overview of the program, I have prepared a 10 point fact sheet.

The fact sheet is a good place to start, but not enough. Some friends and neighbors, good writers and researchers, came together to research and write about the Refugee Resettlement Program. The material is carefully sourced with live links that should allow you to instantly read primary documents like the President’s April 15 report on “Welcoming New Americans.”

We call our local “pocket of resistance,” The Shoemaker Guild.

This report will enable you to approach your elected officials with good, “take it to the bank” information. Please feel free to share widely.

God bless you and God bless America.

Refugee Resettlement Program Fact Sheet [PDF]
Spartanburg Refugee Resettlement Program [PDF]

This post is archived in our new ‘Pockets of Resistance’ category and in our ‘Where to find information’ category.  Note that the category list is now a drop-down in our left hand side bar.

Rep. Trey Gowdy gets 2nd response from US State Department on refugee plan; wants a meeting

We’ll have more on this tomorrow, but here is a press release from South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy about the plan by the UN/US State Department and contractor World Relief to begin moving refugees into Spartanburg, a small city in Gowdy’s district.
***Update***  More here on June 4th.
For new readers, go here for our original post (almost three months ago) with updates on how the controversy has evolved.

Gowdy wants a briefing from Julia Frifield, Asst. Secretary for Legislative Affairs at the US State Department. Check out her bio! She was previously Chief of Staff for US Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/218067.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 3, 2015

Contact:
Amanda Duvall
amanda.duvall@mail.house.gov
202-225-6030

Gowdy Invites State Department to Brief SC Delegation on Refugee Resettlement

Washington, DC -Congressman Trey Gowdy (R- SC) issued this statement regarding the State Department’s non-response to his follow-up questions on the Spartanburg refugee resettlement:

“The State Department’s response to our office’s 14 follow up questions was again sorely inadequate and failed to provide answers. Additionally, our office met with World Relief in April, contrary to State’s most recent letter. Because the State Department was wrong on this account, and because our office did not receive answers to our questions during that meeting with the resettlement agency, we are inviting State Department Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Julia Frifield to provide a briefing to the South Carolina delegation on this issue.

“From the beginning, our interest in this issue has not been to advocate for an outcome, but to ensure transparency and get answers to constituent questions. We will continue to pursue those answers through a face-to-face briefing with the State Department.”

Click here to see the letter.
Again, for new readers, here is a post from a month ago where we reported on the first response Rep. Gowdy received from Sec. of State John Kerry’s office.

Spartanburg County Council dodges and weaves, wants no responsibility in refugee controversy

For new readers: this is an update of the two-month-old controversy about the secretive decision to place refugees in Spartanburg, SC.  See all of our previous coverage by clicking here.   We are all waiting to see what Rep. Trey Gowdy, who represents the district and just so happens to chair the House subcommittee responsible for the Refugee Admissions Program, will do.
In the meantime, the Spartanburg County Council is obviously trying desperately to get out of any responsibility for this all important decision for the future of the community.  If they had a little backbone, they could help, not only themselves, but every town in America facing (or soon facing) an edict from the federal government to “welcome” needy third-worlders to town without any local government involvement or community input.
This is the crux of the problem:

Local communities MUST have a discussion and some decision-making authority and not leave decisions about refugee resettlement to the UN, the US State Department and a bunch of government contractors masquerading as non-profit “religious” charities!

 

Spartanburg County Council: Leave us out of this mess! We don’t want to stick our necks out or make difficult decisions! http://www.co.spartanburg.sc.us/govt/depts/cc/

 
 
Here is the news (at GoUpstate.com) about Monday night’s meeting of the Spartanburg County Council:

Spartanburg County Council announced it plans to take no action on a proposal to bring refugees to Spartanburg and is holding steady for U.S. Congressman Trey Gowdy’s findings concerning the resettlement program.

World Relief, a faith-based organization, plans to bring 60 refugees to Spartanburg this year to assimilate into the community, as part of a U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program.  [The reporter apparently doesn’t know that the word “assimilate” is now a forbidden word among those working to seed American towns with migrants!—ed]

After several people spoke on the issue during a Monday evening council meeting, Chairman Jeff Horton said the County Council had no involvement in the matter and urged residents to be patient until all of the information has been gathered.

He pointed out that the state Senate adopted an amendment in its budget prohibiting state funds from being used for the refugee program until the county council approves the resettlement. The legislation originally stated that it was a decision for the legislative delegation, not the county council.

Horton said the amendment is wrong and should be “stricken immediately.” [In other words, he says, we don’t want this hot potato!—ed]

Christina Jeffrey, a citizen activist who spoke before the County Council on Monday, is concerned about security and wants public involvement in decisions about refugee resettlement. https://www.facebook.com/christinajeffrey

[….]

In April, Gowdy announced he had 17 questions about the program and asked Secretary of State John Kerry to put refugee resettlement plans on hold until questions are answered. Some of those questions revolved around security, education, funding and health care issues.

[….]

Christina Jeffrey, a former candidate for Congress, has voiced opposition to refugees resettling in Spartanburg and said during Monday’s council meeting that refugees cannot be adequately screened. She said the resettlement of refugees in the U.S. is a disservice to taxpayers, the education system, the job market and the safety of people.

She said the department of homeland security cannot ensure safety since screening is difficult, particularly for those coming from countries such as Syria and Iraq.

World Relief local director Jason Lee also attended the meeting and said the refugee resettlement program has traditionally not been a county council issue.

This last statement by Lee is telling.  The US State Department and their cabal of contractors DO NOT WANT ANY LOCAL GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE!

We must work to change that ‘tradition’ by making it the law to include local citizens and local governments in the decision-making process that involves adding more poverty and potentially changing a town’s culture forever.

It is too bad that the Spartanburg County Council apparently doesn’t have the spine necessary to look at the bigger picture.