Tag: Syrian refugees

Connecticut Senator Blumenthal wants more Syrians here faster, proposes to eliminate some screening

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Colonizing Connecticut?

Update October 7th:  Follow-up post to the revelation that CAIR is behind (literally) Blumenthal’s proposal to lessen security screening for Syrian refugees, go here.
***Update*** Who is that sinister-looking man over Blumenthal’s left shoulder.  It is none other than the Executive Director of CAIR Connecticut.  Thanks to Kyle for identifying him.  You can bet his interest is not in saving persecuted Christians!  See bio below.
Here is the brief story at WTNH News 8:

Blumenthal_Has_Plan_to_Help_Syrian_Refugees_1200x675_539015235515
Senator Blumenthal making his announcement. Who is that guy looming over his left shoulder, does anyone know? http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Blumenthal-Unveils-4-Point-Plan-to-Expedite-Strengthen-Refugee-Processing-330799512.html

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — All eyes are on the 4 million people who’ve fled a brutal civil war in Syria that’s been raging for four years. Several European countries are offering to take in many of the refugees. The United States has also offered to help by possibly taking in 10,000 people. Senator Richard Blumenthal wants to see the process sped up.

[….]

Currently, it takes 18 months to two years for a refugee to come to the United States because of the lengthy process that’s involved. Sen. Blumenthal will submit a four point plan later this week to the powers that be in Washington that will hopefully eliminate some of the red tape. He announced some of his plan Monday morning in Hartford. Some of the points include:

*Expansion of the ‘Priority 3″ program that allows refugees with relatives in the United States to apply directly to the United States government for screening and resettlement.

*Improve coordination to end the repeat security checks that expire while refugees are still being processed.

*Use of videoconferencing for security screenings to greatly reduce the need for expensive and logistically-difficult travel.

*Notification of families when some, but not all family members have been cleared to come to the U.S.

We mentioned the ‘expansion of P-3’ when we wrote about the Senate hearing last week. This must be vigorously opposed as P-3 fraud has been rampant over the years!
See our post on the 18 mayors telling Obama to bring 100,000 Syrians here.  The mayor of Hartford is one of the 18.  Also, see this post from a week ago where other Connecticut elected officials were out stumping for Syrians.  Any connection to all the Muslim money flowing to Yale.
Connecticut you are in deep trouble!
***Update***

Mongi Dhaouadi
Executive Director

Mongi S. Dhaouadi was born and raised in Tunisia. He moved to the US when he was 19 years old and studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As The Executive director of CAIR-CT, he conducts civil rights workshops throughout the state of Connecticut under the title “Know Your Rights.” Also, he leads several workshops and discussions on Islamophobia and the Muslim experience before and after 9/11. He has participated in and led several media campaigns and press conferences on issues concerning the Muslim community ranging from discrimination cases to advocating for the change of racial profiling laws in the state of Connecticut. Dhaouadi was featured in countless local, national, and international media outlets including NPR, FOX News, and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. During the summer, he runs a youth internship program during which high school and college students work on several projects ranging from preparing a toolkit on Islamic cultural competency for schools, to writing and publishing articles from a Muslim youth perspective in the local papers and publications. Dhaouadi leads a Connecticut delegation at the Capitol Hill visits; an event that is organized every year by CAIR National, where members of the Muslim community visit their representatives in Wasington, DC and advocate for issues of concern domestic and foreign. Prior to joining CAIR-CT on a full time bases Dhaouadi was the Head Administrator at SKF Academy in Hamden Connecticut. Dhaouadi is married with three children: ages 11, 14 and 18. He lives with his family in New London, Connecticut. His favorite past time is playing or coaching soccer.

Pittsburgh letter writer: Mayor is wrong to invite Syrian refugees to city

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

bill_peduto_F5847_600
Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto: We’ll take a few thousand impoverished Syrians here. How does 5,555 sound? What! Has Pittsburgh run out of poor homeless people to take care of?

Last week we told you about how important it is to write Letters to the Editor on the refugee colonization plans for your towns and cities.
We posted a couple of sample letters here and here.
We also told you about Pittsburgh’s mayor (among 18 mayors) telling Obama to send some their way.
Let’s see if Obama decides to go with the number being proposed by the NO Borders agitators—100,000 Syrians—divide that number by the 18 mayors and it comes out to 5,555 Syrians per city.  Does that sound about right Mr. Mayor?
And, by the way, a recent Rasmussen poll found that 49% of likely voters DO NOT WANT ANY SYRIANS BROUGHT TO AMERICA (Trump and Carson must be seeing those polls!)
Now from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette comes this one:

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto has joined with several other mayors in offering to accept refugees from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries (“Peduto Joins Other Mayors in Pledging to Accept Syrian Refugees,” Sept. 28). This is a decision he should not be allowed to make without the consent of the voters and taxpayers of the city of Pittsburgh, who will ultimately be forced to pay for their housing, food, clothing, education, medical care and, if necessary, their policing.

Homeless in Pittsburgh
Just as we thought. Homeless living under a bridge in Pittsburgh. http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2015/03/23/Yearly-homeless-census-finds-38-homeless-people-living-without-shetler-in-Allegheny-County/stories/201503180236

Aside from the obvious security risk, these people will not have a knowledge of our language or customs and most probably will not have a level of skills to be able to support themselves, resulting in them becoming the responsibility of the taxpayers.

The city has enough of its own economic and social problems without being financially burdened and forced to take in any refugees who could be more easily resettled in countries closer to and more like their own.

BOB DATTILO
Brookline

Note from RRW:  If your mayor is asking for Syrian (mostly Muslim) refugees, try pinning him or her down by asking what number he or she would like to see each year going forward.  I bet they will run and hide from that question!  And, when writing letters be sure to mention the homeless and the veterans who are suffering in your city already.

The New York Times addresses the Twin Falls, Idaho refugee controversy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

My overall quick impression of the NYT article from late last week (sorry I was away with no time to post) is that although it is still the New York Times it is a bit fairer than the article they posted from South Carolina about ten days ago.  My take on that one is here.
Here is just a short bit:

In an echo of the ferocious debate that is gripping Europe about the fate of the millions of Syrians thrown from their country by civil war, Twin Falls is grappling with the question of whether taking in a next generation of refugees from the Middle East is wise and safe.

vicki davis
Vicky Davis, right, before a community forum, said she wanted to close the refugee center. Credit Kim Raff for The New York Times

The announcement last month by the Obama administration that thousands of additional Syrians would be accepted into the system nationally galvanized opponents of the CSI Refugee Center here, as it is formally known, who were already circulating a ballot initiative aimed at forcing the College of Southern Idaho to cut its ties or shut down the program.

“There’s a lot of concern about radical Islam,” said Richard L. Martin Jr., a petition-drive leader who graduated from high school here in the mid-1980s. Back then, Mr. Martin said, Twin Falls was still taking in refugees from places like Laos, including a boy who became one of his best friends. “Now it’s something different,” said Mr. Martin, the owner of a small medical products repair company.

See the whole article here.
Most of America still has no clue about how we are admitting thousands and thousands of third world refugees each year, distributing them to towns that have no say in the matter and placing them on all forms of welfare, so every bit of media attention is good (even when it doesn’t give our concerns a serious look).  Sad to say, but most mainstream reporters are making completely emotional appeals to readers who are driven by surprise!—their emotions.  Those people and their reporter friends simply can’t mentally handle the practical considerations some of us are focusing on.  This NYT reporter, Kirk Johnson, was not as bad as he could have been.
Go here to read about concerned citizen Vicky Davis’s (see photo) analysis of her meeting with federal officials who traveled to Twin Falls to participate in the public “forum.”  Thank goodness we still have other ways of reaching readers other than the NYT, Washington Post or LA Times!
Click here for all of our previous coverage of the on-going controversy about resettling more refugees, especially Muslim refugees, in Twin Falls, Idaho.
An afterthought:  I forgot to mention that our post of late last week on Northern Idaho being targeted for refugee resettlement is breaking all records.  I don’t know who all is reading it, but I hope that the many thousands who are live in No. Idaho.

Germany: Diversity not so beautiful after all

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news…..
Reader ‘domstudent11’ directed us to this Washington Post story yesterday—The Washington Post is actually reporting this! That is probably the big news!

tent city near Berlin
Tent city being constructed near Berlin. If this was happening in America, citizens would not tolerate it!

Germans not so welcoming now as ethnic groups clash in tent cities!

CALDEN, Germany — This German town renowned for its rococo palace threw open its doors to arriving waves of refugees.

Donations from clothing drives filled four garages. The volunteer fire department pitched in to build a tent city at the airport that now teems with 1,400 migrants.

But like other Germans in a country that has rolled out the welcome mat for Europe’s largest wave of asylum seekers since World War II, residents here are having second thoughts.

That is especially true after the riot. In this quaint municipality of 3,000 inhabitants, the chaos started at lunchtime Sunday when a 19-year-old Albanian cut in the food line at the town’s new tent city, prompting a reprimand from a 43-year-old Pakistani.

Pushes degenerated into punches. Soon, 300 migrants wielding pepper spray and metal pipes were attacking each other in rival mobs.

A caravan of ambulances and SWAT team vans careened down streets lined with gawking residents. More than 50 police officers struggled for hours to restore order, with three hospitalized with injuries, according to witnesses and local officials.

“You know, when the refugees started coming, I was one of those who saw people needing help and I thought we have to help,” said Harry Kloska, 46, a shaggy-haired instructor in the skydiving club based at the airport. He and his stunned clients huddled inside his office as the violence flared, Kloska said.

“But it’s been weeks [since the refugee camp opened], and I have a different opinion now,” he said. “I am not sure that we’re going to be able to do this, to help so many people from so many different countries.”

No kidding!
Read it all here.
More here at the BBC.
See our complete archive on the ‘Invasion of Europe’ by clicking here.  All of our posts on Mama Merkel’s mess are here.

Senate Oversight hearing on Refugee Program very revealing! Senator Sessions did a masterful job

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For all of you who had to do something productive yesterday afternoon, like go to work! here is a link to the C-span video of the hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest that ran a little over two hours.

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2013 file photo, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Senators weighing a landmark immigration bill defeated an effort by Republicans Tuesday to require biometric identification _ such as fingerprinting _ to track who is entering and leaving the country. The amendment by Sessions would have required a biometric system to be in place before any immigrant here illegally could obtain permanent residency or citizenship. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Senator Jeff Sessions, Chairman Judiciary Subcommittee Immigration and the National Interest

As far as we can tell this is the first Congressional oversight hearing held on the refugee program since 911!
Everyone in ‘Pockets of Resistance’ must watch it!  You will learn so much!
See our post here on the hearing so you know the background and who the players are.
I’ve got way too much to do before I leave for travel today, but there are a few things that interested me (among many!) that I want to draw your attention to when you watch the video.
If any readers would like to write a short commentary on what you found most informative/shocking or whatever, please send it my way and I’ll post when I return from Tennessee.
Below, not necessarily in order either time-wise or in importance.  (If anyone has time to send me the time stamps for these exchanges, I would be very grateful.)

Somali fraud!

Witness Barbara Strack (USCIS) actually mentioned the widespread fraud discovered in the family reunification portion of the program back in 2008.  She deserves credit for mentioning it, but of course most listeners probably did not know what she was talking about.  This was in response to Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) suggesting family reunification be expanded.
Here is the background!  First revealed by the Wall Street Journal in 2008, the US State Department learned that thousands of Somali refugees had entered the US by lying on their applications about family relationships.  The so-called P-3 program was suspended for years as a result!  None of the fraudulent entrants were ever deported.  Go here to see links for the news.
So all the discussion about “interviews” as part of the process of gaining entry into the US is suspect because, guess what!  They lie!

Consultation is a joke!

Near the end of the hearing, Senator Sessions asked about whether there was consultation with the communities that would be receiving the refugees, and Lawrence Bartlett (US State Department) said with a straight face that there are quarterly consultations with stakeholders and elected officials.
He did not mention that the taxpaying public is prohibited from attending!  He did not mention that if elected officials are hostile, they aren’t invited.  He did not mention that in many communities there is no quarterly meeting.  He did not mention that the meeting usually only involves ‘stakeholders’ that are friendlies.  Go here to a post we wrote in May about the efforts by citizens in St. Cloud, MN to get into a ‘quarterly consultation’ (while ‘leaders of the Somali ‘community’ had been invited), but were told initially that they were not permitted to attend.  (After a public outcry, a few representatives of the concerned public did eventually gain entry to a sanitized meeting.)

They really don’t know who the Syrians are!

Perhaps the most embarrassing moments of the hearing for witnesses were when Mr. Matthew Emrich (Associate Director, Fraud Detection And National Security Directorate of the USCIS) could not tell Senator Sessions how they could possibly collect data on the Syrians who have left their failed state.  When we get a bit of the video pulled for that exchange, we’ll link it. ***Update*** here (thanks to reader Robin) is the exchange between Senator Sessions and Mr. Emrich.

Boston Bombers exchange

If you were confused by the exchange on the Tsarnaev (Boston Bomber family) and Ms. Strack’s assertion that they were not “refugees,” she was technically correct.  We bring refugees into the country after we/UNHCR select them.
It was widely reported after the bombing that the family had been granted asylum (under the provisions of the Refugee Act of 1980). That means that one of them (the Dad we suspect) got into the US through some other means (perhaps overstayed a tourist visa) and applied for asylum and was successful and thus was allowed to bring in the family.  As asylees (successful asylum seekers) they are then generally referred to as ‘political refugees’ and can (and did!) avail themselves of all the same welfare goodies that refugees receive.
The fact that they were travelling back and forth to their place of supposed persecution should have been a red-flag to immigration officials.
Senator Sessions needs to press Ms. Strack further in follow-up questions to identify the exact LEGAL program the Tsarnaev’s used to enter the country, unless, and this would be headline news, they were here illegally (and being supported on the taxpayer’s dime).
See also, Brenda Walker’s take on the hearing, here at Limits to Growth (she posted Senator Sessions wrap-up statement).
I’ll add additional media reports here as they come in today (before I leave if possible).
Be sure to see Leo Hohmann at WND here on the hearing.