We told you the other day that Northampton, Massachusetts was ready and eager to “welcome” Syrian Muslims (99% of Syrians being admitted to the US are Muslims) this coming fiscal year which begins in only a few weeks, on October 1.
Catholic Charities, the primary resettlement agency there is holding two meetings this month to find support and help for the refugees because they do admit that after 90 days Catholic Charities’ (taxpayer-funded) help ends. At that time the refugees become dependent on the goodwill of the city and the welfare that Catholic Charities has signed them up for. Mayor David Narkewicz is apparently on board with his city becoming a “host” city for Syrians and impoverished Congolese refugees. Do they have jobs for them in Northampton? Or, does Northampton just want some poor people because diversity is beautiful.
Here is the news at Masslive.com. Our earlier post on the new refugee program for Northhampton is here. How is the housing in this upscale city? A shortage of housing seems to be a growing problem everywhere.
Northampton residents are invited to attend two public conversations on the upcoming resettlement of 51 refugees into the city.
Catholic Charities of Springfield***, the agency contracted with the State Department to facilitate the resettlement, will host the sessions along with a “welcome home” steering group of local leaders.
The first, to be held Sept. 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the JFK Middle School cafeteria, will be attended by Mayor David Narkewicz. The second will take place Sept. 24 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Northampton Senior Center.
Susannah Crolius, the Catholic Charities coordinator of outreach and resource development, said the conversations are part of an effort to build a long-term support and integration network for the refugees.
[….]
The State Department typically provides funding for 90 days of services after refugees relocate to the United States….[Catholic Charities gets a cut of that for administering the program—ed]
[….]
Catholic Charities is adopting a small-scale, carefully planned approach, Crolius said; 51 is the minimum number of refugees a host community can accept. [The following year CC will ask for 100 until like Lancaster, PA, the city could get up to 900 a year.—ed]
The is more at Masslive.com.
***Readers who live in this area should read all of our posts on Springfield, Masswhere the mayor has been begging for years for the flow to be slowed as the city was overloaded with poor refugees. LOL! the top post at that archive is about hungry refugees in Springfield being arrested for killing and eating the small wildlife in the public park. Does Northampton have a public park?
I’m going to bore readers to death with this, but if the Republican Congress does not increase funding (and maybe even cuts what the contractors like Catholic Charities have been getting!) for the massive numbers of refugees proposed for FY17 these new sites will not be opened. Catholic Charities does not have the money on its own to do this, it requires funding from the US taxpayer to administer this program.
A judge earlier dismissed the governor’s lawsuit saying the state had no authority to stop the flow of refugees to the state. Apparently the governor will appeal. However….. If the political powers in Texas really wanted to stop the resettlement of refugees in Texas, they would start by getting powerful Senators and Members of Congress doing something in Congress this fall—cut the funding for it! And, then demand reform during the period the funds have been cut (either completely or to a level that would only admit a tiny fraction of the worst cases). Texas Senator Ted Cruz
Where is Senator Ted Cruzon this? He could lead a campaign to cut the funds this fall in the Senate. And, in the House, Texas Congressman Pete Sessions is in an important seat as Chairman of the Rules Committee. Texas Rep. Michael McCaul is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. And, then of course the brave Texas Congressman Brian Babinis the chief architect of a bill that seeks to halt the program until certain investigations regarding costs and security take place.
So if the Texas governor is serious, he needs to bring together key players in the Texas delegation to get something done now, for FY2017 in the budget and appropriations process! We know where the buck stops on all of this—in Congress and not with the governors.
Texas is appealing the dismissal of its lawsuit against the federal government and a refugee resettlement agency over the placement of Syrian refugees in the state.
As chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, McCaul has spoken up about the dangers of unvetted refugees. So, what is he doing about it when they are being placed in his home state?
In a notice dated Aug. 12, Texas alerted the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that it would appeal a June decision by Dallas-based U.S. District Judge David Godbey, who ruled the state did not have grounds to sue the federal government over the placement of refugees in Texas and that the state failed to provide a “plausible claim” that a refugee resettlement nonprofit breached its contract.
Representatives with the Texas attorney general’s office, which is representing the state in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Texas first filed suit in December against the federal government and the International Rescue Committee — one of about 20 private nonprofits that have a state contract to resettle refugees in Texas — in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead. Following those attacks, Texas’ Republican leaders raised concerns about the refugee vetting process, and Gov. Greg Abbott in November directed resettlement nonprofits in Texas to halt the resettlement of any Syrian refugees.
But the federal government warned Texas it did not have the power to reject Syrian refugees, and the International Rescue Committee’s Dallas branch informed the state it would continue aiding Syrian refugees placed in Texas.
Continue here.
Don’t get me wrong, this effort in the courts is important to continue the pressure and to educate the public, but the power to stop the flow of unwanted refugees rests with the REPUBLICAN Congress (with the power of the purse) and in my opinion many of those we sent to Washington to represent us are hiding on this issue (and others too of course)!
I know, I know, you all are so disillusioned with Congress and think they are useless, but it is still very very important for you to know that the Republican Congress is responsible for what is happening to your towns. There is no sense screaming at, or about, Obama, but it is important to point a finger at who really is responsible! One of the many good things Donald Trump said in his fantastic speech on immigration the other night is that legal immigration programs that have gone on for decades will be reviewed in a Trump administration. Folks, this Refugee Admissions Program is 36 years old and has never been seriously reviewed or reformed! It is way past time!
Last fall Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota which (has a brand new shiny building) and runs the refugee program in the state said no Syrians were slated for North Dakota, but now oopsy, here is a seed family.
From Valley News Live:
North Dakota has not had a Syrian family in the community, at least not until a few days ago.
Jessica Thomason and the US State Department are deciding the demographic and economic future of North Dakota.
Last November, Jessica Thomasson CEO of Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota said in a statement “LSSND has stated to these agencies, including the State Department, that it does not feel Syrian resettlement to North Dakota makes sense due to the lack of an established Syrian presence in our communities and due to its focus of resettling families wanting to reunite with family already living in North Dakota.”
Thomasson told me that LSSND resettled a Kurdish family just a few days ago who are from Syria and Iraq.
[….]
She stated LSS does not select who moves to the state, that decision is made by the federal government.
The short article reports on criticism from US Senator John Hoeven and Congressman Keven Cramer. Every one of you concerned in the state of North Dakota must pressure those two to help lead an effort to cut the funding for refugee resettlement this fall. They can mouth their complaints here in their home state news, but will they work to turn off the spigot of federal funding? That is where the rubber meets the road!
And, one final thought. Do you see how this works, they get refugees spread out in cities and towns, large and small, then they bring in the relatives so it makes it all harder to stop. (How can you be so hateful to break up families and friends.)
See our North Dakota archive here.
Update September 2:Vermont Diggertells us the original story was taken down and that there is no truth to any of it. Rutland is still a target site.
There is breaking news in Vermont that the controversial resettlementof 100 Syrian Muslims to Rutland has stalled in Washington.
But, local reports say that US State Department grants (contracts?) for resettlement have stopped nationwide. We are trying to track down that assertion. The only thing that makes any sense to me is that they have run out of funds for the final weeks of this fiscal year. If that is the case, it makes my point that money matters. No money=no refugees. Is the Vermont refugee resettlement contractor out of (your) money?
In the meantime this is from MyChamplainValley in Bernie-land (hat tip: Don):
A plan for 100 Syrian refugees to settle in Rutland, Vt. starting this October has hit a snag.
The U.S. State Department has halted its grant approval process for all resettlement programs nationwide.
The Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program applied for the grant.
Without this money, Rutland Board of Alderman President WIlliam Notte says refugees cannot be received. [Of course not, because there is no real charity here, it is all about taxpayer dollars!—ed]
Notte estimates the grant amount to be about $9,000 per refugee. However, he says lack of transparency has been an issue and he is not sure exactly how much it will cost.
Notte expects to hear back from the State Department about the status in September.
Wherever you are, don’t relax now. You have not won. They will be back!
Editor: As regular readers know, Rutland, VT citizens are not taking kindly to a plan to resettle 100 Syrians in their town—a plan the mayor made in secrecy with a federal resettlement contractor. For background, please click here for our Rutland archive. And, for future reference, this post is filed in our ‘Comments worth noting/Guest posts‘ category.
With grateful appreciation to Ann Corcoran and Refugee Resettlement Watch, it is with pride and pleasure that I attempt, here, to provide you all with the saga of RUTLAND VERMONT, a struggling, proud community facing the importation of even more needy refugees when our welfare overload is choking us even now.
STRAIGHT TALK—–with Don Chioffi
VERMONT’S AREA 51—THE SECRET RESETTLEMENT PROJECT
The proud, struggling city of Rutland, Vermont has been fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds to even get public information about the secret Refugee Resettlement Program since late April. Here it is now in late August and we have no more information than in April, despite numerous FOIA requests. The arrogance, impudence, and outright defiance by the USCRI, the secular agency responsible for this Refugee resettlement Program, with the compliant secret help of Mayor Chris Louras and his crony President of the Board of Aldermen, William Notte, would be more appropriately associated with some third world country, in fact it is headed by a woman that is, in fact, from one of those countries. Amila Merdzandovic, one of Lavinia Limon’s dutiful henchman, has stonewalled, lied outright, and threatened even those in our own state government for releasing even the most pitiful of information to the citizens of our state and of Rutland, and our mayor vowed to reject a lawful petition submitted by his own citizens requesting a moratorium on this program until facts were forthcoming.
Our three state senators from Rutland county, Peg Flory, Kevin Mullin, and Brian Collamore (all Republicans) have even tried to gain information from the State Health and Human Services department and were met with the response that even HHS was not provided with the complete Application and Abstract, a document that is supposed to have the coordination and cooperation of state and local government bodies and the public prior to even being sent to the US State Department. Our state senators were not even informed that this program was being instituted at the state level by our ultra liberal governor, Peter (lame duck) Shumlin. They were also rebuffed by US Sen. Patrick Leahy, who, to date, has also refused to produce the documents. It sure looks like all the Democrats at every level are closing ranks to protect the secrecy of these documents.
The Application has all the back-up information concerning Rutland’s ability to sustain the number of refugees intended for resettlement during 2016 and forward. Information on housing availability, law enforcement, medical capacity, social service capacity, the burgeoning drug problem in our community, the availability or lack of jobs in our community, and the severe drop in population over the last 15 years are all supposed to be in that document—-yet no one, I repeat, no one, has been able to see what has been put into that document as justification for hundreds and hundreds of refugees from a war torn country infested with terrorists being planted like seeds in our community.
Rutland City Treasurer, Wendy Wilton, shocks Rutland with a 35% tax increase prediction in 5 years if USCRI gets its way.
Indeed, USCRI (US Committee for Refugees and immigrants) AND VRRP (Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program) have treated the refugees like a commodity, at around $4,000 each, that will sustain their own taxpayer funded VOLAG (90% government funding), while adamantly refusing to release Rutland’s own application data, which we the people cannot even therefore verify as being accurate and appropriate as justification for the settlement of hundreds of needy individuals into an already impoverished region with a staggering welfare load and severe unemployment or under employment problem.
We, the people, constituted as RUTLAND FIRST, have been struggling on our own to do the research necessary to answer questions and develop information relative to this invasion of our community in the guise of “welcoming humanitarianism”. We have been battling for four months now against the “welcome wagon” which has literally shut its eyes to the costs, the security challenges, and the lack of quality jobs in our region, while at the same time labeling us as racists, islamophobes, or any other vile descriptive adjective in their lexicon of “Global Worldspeak” that they can conjure up, including un-American. This, in spite of the fact that our group boasts several retired and active service personnel who have fought for their country, professional leaders in the community, and active government personnel in both elective and appointed office in our community.
So, yesterday, August 29th, RUTLAND FIRST conducted a forum to attempt to inform our local legislators, state senators, candidates for higher office, and also the general public. Attended by well over a hundred people, the dynamic presentation was riveting in its focus on facts. That alone put it in great contrast to the so called forums presented by the Mayor and the settlement agencies, which characteristically were devoid of anything but emotional statements of support. Today the Rutland Herald had not one word on the dramatic presentation—but managed yet another full column welcoming editorial.
Rutland City Treasurer, Wendy Wilton presented some pretty startling financial impact data, including the most shocking prediction based on present and future costs associated with these programs. When she told the crowd there that based on her calculations, within five years City property taxpayers would be facing an increase of 35%, there were visible signs of multiple jaw dropping in the audience. With a steadily declining population base in the City, the remaining property taxpayers have been facing the high tax burden with no signs of a break and an ever increasing unmet Pension Benefit obligation. Recent comparative studies done by the city have shown that based on its population the number of city employees far exceeds other cities in Vermont. The very dramatic decrease in population has not, however, been met with anywhere near such a proportional drop in personnel.
Gary Shattuck, a local lawyer and a former prosecutor and investigator who worked for the US Department of Justice in Kosovo and Iraq as a legal advisor, presented a pretty bleak picture of any prospect that Syrian Refugees could be properly vetted, citing many qualified opinions by high level US officials specifically stating that there is no empirical data base left in Syria with which to compare any biometric, historical, or verifiable sociometric information. In other words, no matter what name they give the fact checkers, there is no data left in Syria to even check that name, let alone relatives, friends, operatives, or terrorists who may or may not have been associated with the applicant. Shattuck spent substantial time and expertise setting up a system for vetting Iraq’s 850 judges and prosecutors following the breakdown of order in that country to determine if they were, in fact, friend or foe.
David O’Brien, former VT Public Service Commissioner former director of the Rutland Economic Development Corporation (REDC) and presently a consultant in the Energy industry, presented some economic data relevant to the job prospects for refugees, and it was not a pretty picture. Dave cited the dramatic loss of manufacturing jobs in the entire Rutland Region and the tremendous shift from quality long term employment to a model featuring under-employment and service oriented jobs exclusively.
There were letters at the event to be signed by citizens and presented to the State Department, and a local attorney, Judy Barone, Esq. and Don Chioffi, as Rutland First committee members, presented a stinging letter*** to the local and state legislators demanding that they get answers to all the questions posed at the forum. Those present left with plenty of finally answered questions and the clear impression, if not a mandate, that this program should be stopped right now, in its tracks, until and as when the cloak of secrecy is removed and Rutland’s ability to assimilate hundreds of refugees is fully justified.
RUTLAND FIRST—-is—-RUTLAND STRONG!
For those of you in ‘pockets of resistance,’ Rutland citizens’ work should serve as a model for you to use to craft strategies where you live. If you have questions, you can reach Mr. Chioffi at this e-mail address: donsreelsports@comcast.net
***Here is the letter sent today to local and state lawmakers demanding they get answers and express their opposition to a plan created in secrecy! Your local and state elected officials may be telling you they can’t stop the federal government and its NGO contractor, but they sure can add their voices in demanding their constituents be given all the facts and that the federal government follows the law!
Mr. Don Chioffi of Rutland Town has worked with me to compose this letter and address you as our State Legislators, understanding your responsibility for representing the people of Rutland City and surrounding communities on matters affecting State Government.
We herein seek your attention and ask for your help to ensure that the Application for Resettlement of Refugees in Rutland is opposed by the State of Vermont for the reason that the Application is flawed.
Mayor Louras’ ‘letter of support’ submitted with the Application was without legal authority from the Rutland Board of Alderman, the governing entity. The Mayor misrepresented himself as having authority to act for the City as the City’s governing entity when nothing was further from the truth. The planning, information about Rutland and ‘letter of support’ signed by the Mayor alone, was done behind the backs of the City’s governing entity (the Board of Aldermen), secretively. The Mayor was not authorized to provide his ‘letter of support’ misrepresenting that the ‘City’ had a cooperative relationship with the Resettlement applicants, which relationship did not exist.
It is important that each of you act quickly on your oath to uphold the law and insure the Mayor’s unauthorized misrepresentations are not relied upon by the State due to lack of your complaint.
A collaborative effort between federal, state and local authorities is required for successful refugee resettlement and the governing entity’s cooperation is required to insure ongoing support. It is the responsibility of the Vermont Agency of Human Services (AHS) (Ms. Lamoureux), to ensure coordination of public and private resources in refugee resettlement in the State of Vermont. (See; U.S. Code, Title 8 and State Plan forVermont Refugee Resettlement, AHS Refugee Office, AHS Refugee Office, AUGUST 12, 2017). You may not be aware, but access to Ms. Lamoureax has not been possible on this issue and it needs to be made clear that the State of Vermont will not support the flawed application, and the secretive process under which it was orchestrated, planned and submitted.
We ask that each of you make clear to the Governor and Ms. Lamoureax and the State’s Agency of Human Services (AHS) AND our U.S. Senators that no resettlement can or should be approved for Rutland on the pending flawed Application being there is no support or cooperation of the Rutland City’s governing entity. The Board of Aldermen has been denied information it has sought including a copy of the FULL Application to examine and vet the facts represented about Rutland (apparently provided by some people in Dorset Vermont) upon which the Application will be judged.
Failing your intervention under the power of your offices, the Application, as flawed as it is, could be funded anytime in September even where it fundamentally fails to meet the requirements of Federal law and the Vermont Plan for Refugee Resettlement. Your surveillance and intervention is urgent and important to assure nothing is funded and the State is not called upon if the Application has not met the required standards in the law.
Failure on your part to intervene could well be interpreted as your support for the flawed Application and the secretive process that has left Rutland City and the City’s government in disorder and confusion. There is division, fear and mistrust in the City’s government and in our community concerning how government has acted.
Should you have information different than we herein represent, we ask that each of you please contact me or Don Chioffi and explain. On behalf of the people we write soliciting each of you to help us protect our government under the rule of law and afford the cities in our state the process instrumental to good governance .
Kindly copy me with any correspondence you have with AHS and the Governor, U.S. Senators, and others on this request made of you.
Thank you for your anticipated quick attention to this matter as it is urgent before the Application is decided on facts not vetted for accuracy about Rutland. If you can obtain the full Application, we ask that you send that to us, too.
We anxiously await your work, your questions and your replies.
