Tag: US State Department

Update: Springfield, Mass. refugee task force to meet today

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For our previous posts on Springfield, Massachusetts where Mayor Domenic Sarno asked the US State Department to halt resettlement of more refugees to the greater Springfield area until the ones already resettled had assimilated and dug their way out of poverty, go here.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno wants answers!

This is the latest from The Republican, which had been thoroughly covering the controversial issue.   It never ceases to amaze me how arrogant the resettlement contractors are and how unwilling they are to release even the most basic information about how the Refugee Resettlement program operates.  You can see that as you read through the full story.   Here is how it begins (emphasis mine):

SPRINGFIELD — Two months after Mayor Domenic Sarno urged the federal government to stop sending new refugees to Springfield, a local task force will meet Thursday to respond to the mayor’s concerns about hardships faced by the refugees and the city.

Sarno said the meeting, along with documents provided last week by the two refugee resettlement agencies in Western Massachusetts, seem to be a positive first step.

“Hopefully, this is the beginning of an open and honest dialogue with the resettlement agencies,” Sarno said Thursday, after receiving 14 documents that further explain the refugee resettlement program and the assistance received by refugees. “While we are an open and caring city, we cannot keep concentrating poverty on top of poverty.”

Sarno said he continues to have serious concerns that too many refugees are being placed in Springfield, straining city services such as schools, code enforcement, and police because of cases of substandard housing, claims of inadequate services by some refugees and their advocates, and challenges refugees face pertaining to language, education and employment.

The two resettlement agencies — the Lutheran Social Services of New England and the Jewish Family Services of Western Massachusetts – said they were unable to release information sought by The Republican last week regarding the numbers of refugees resettled in Springfield and the region in the past fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. In addition, they did not respond to a question if the refugees have continued being resettled.

There is more, read it all.

They say they can’t get the numbers easily? 

They know how many were resettled in previous years, and here is where you find the number for FY2013 Arrivals by Destination City by Nationality by FY as of Sep 30, 2013

Holy cow!  They resettled 1,771 refugees in Springfield just this year!   (Update! The more I think about this, it can’t be right, something is missing at the data table.  Maybe this is for the last ten years!)

Also, remember this may only represent a portion of the refugees who arrived in Springfield over the years because others may have come from other cities to join their relatives and friends there, so no one has the complete number of secondary migrants (they are not tracked).

Here are the countries from which they came (the highest number, 368, were Somalis):
Afghanistan
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Bhutan
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Burma
Burundi
Dem. Rep. Congo
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Iran
Iraq
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Liberia
Moldova
Russia
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sudan
Syria
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Vietnam

I don’t know the names of surrounding cities and towns, but a local reporter could visit the site and put it all together for the area surrounding Springfield.

Government shut-down slowing the flow of refugees to the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There are a spate of stories like this one in my alerts today.   Obviously the US State Department has put out the word, for media consumption, that there are many boo-hoo stories of families not being reunited thanks to those evil Congressional Republicans.  [The Administration has apparently worn out the National Park Service closure hardship theme and moved on to other sob stories like the refugee hardship story line!]

Lawrence Bartlett, testifying before Congress in 2012 about terrorists potentially using refugee resettlement to get into US, has sent out a letter telling contractors that the refugee spigot was closing for now.

Here is one from the St. Louis Post Dispatch (emphasis is mine). I bet most readers of RRW don’t even know that we are still resettling Cubans*** to America (they don’t have to get on a boat for a dangerous journey, just sign up to come)!

Today, Santos Landazury was to be reunited with his wife and their young son.

But as the Cuban refugee to St. Louis puts it, the “political problem” in Washington is preventing him from enjoying the land of freedom and democracy.

“The situation makes us feel like the government has let us down,” Landazury, 47, said Monday through an interpreter. “This is a government in which I put my trust …”

Because of the federal government shutdown, the U.S. refugee resettlement program has been suspended, leaving 34 people from six countries who were to arrive in St. Louis this month in limbo, including Landazury’s wife, Elizabeth, and their son, Ernesto, 9.

Other refugees whose arrival has been delayed include Burmese, Bhutanese, Iraqis, Eritreans and a Somali.

Landazury arrived here June 28 with his daughter, Rosmeri, 20. His wife and their son stayed behind so Elizabeth could care for her ailing mother. The plan was to arrive in St. Louis today.

But when the government shut down on Oct. 1, so did the resettlement program run by the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

Resettlement agencies throughout the country including the International Institute of St. Louis get federal funds to help the new arrivals get acclimated to their new home. The money is used to pay for a few months of rent, utilities and food.

[Of course the resettlement agencies could use their own money during the shut-down, right!—ed]

Lawrence Bartlett, the director of refugee admissions for the bureau, said in a letter to resettlement agencies that because of the shutdown, “it is unclear whether certain federally funded services and benefits will be available to arriving refugees.”

Read it all, the article goes on to blame Congress for not giving money to Obama so that he can give it to the contractors. And, it tells us that some security clearances may expire and thus subject the refugee to yet another security check.

***How many Cubans?  3,801 Cuban “refugees” have arrived in the US in the first 11 months of FY2013 (see those numbers here).

For new readers, we have a lot of stories on refugee problems, especially crime stories, in our St. Louis archive, here.

Bosnian man at center of airport bomb scare; was he a refugee?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Is Zeljko Causevic a refugee? Only the US State Department and his federal resettlement contractor know for sure!

We brought tens of thousands of Bosnians into the US in the wake of Bill Clinton’s phoney-baloney war and they keep turning up in the most interesting places (check our archive on Bosnians, here, and see what I mean!).

This story from Jacksonville, FL yesterday is another good catch by ‘pungentpeppers.’  From AP at NPR:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities said a man arrested at Jacksonville International Airport told security screeners he had a bomb in his backpack but they only found a luggage scale with a microchip inside, along with a remote control device he called a “detonator.”

Zeljko Causevic, 39, was booked into jail early Wednesday and was being held without bond on charges that included making a false report about planting a bomb or explosive and manufacturing, possessing, selling or delivering a hoax bomb, according to an arrest report.

The arrest report indicates Causevic approached a TSA agent Tuesday and said he had a bomb in his bag. The TSA agents notified authorities. Airport spokesman Michael Stewart said Causevic was detained between 5:30 and 6 p.m. The airport was evacuated and flights were stopped before reaching the gates. Passengers were displaced for nearly five hours.

Causevic was scheduled to appear in bond court in Jacksonville at 1 p.m. An arrest report indicates he is originally from Bosnia.

All I can say is, it is a good thing we have Obamacare and it will take care of all these mentally ill immigrants and refugees.

UNHCR puts pressure on reluctant ‘Bhutanese’ to choose third country resettlement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The camps in Nepal housing the Bhutanese refugees (who are really ethnic Nepalis and not Bhutanese) are being depleted because the US and other Western countries, but mostly the US, got in the middle of a dispute going on between Bhutan and Nepal and resettled nearly 80,000 camp dwellers.  It is still beyond me why the Bush Administration agreed to the resettlement plan.

Some of the camp dwellers, then and now, wanted the West to push for their “right to return” to Bhutan, and heck why wouldn’t they think the UN would help them when the UN continues after, what, 60 plus years!, to pressure Israel about a “right to return” for Palestinians.   And, of course one wonders why Nepal couldn’t just take its own ethnic kinfolk back!

Beldangi-2 camp in 2007 where clashes broke out between two refugee factions—one that wanted third country resettlement and the other that was holding out hope for repatriation to Bhutan.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that big corporations (and people like Norquist’s pals) needed docile cheap LEGAL labor.  Some big companies (especially meat packers) had already run into problems with the litigious Somalis and I surmise they then sent the word to the Bush State Department that they wanted workers who weren’t going to be troublemakers.

And, readers, remember that one of the great benefits to employers who want to keep wages down is that some of the living expenses of legal “refugees” are being covered by you, the taxpayer.

Of course we can’t discount the likelihood of the resettlement contractors needing a new batch of clients and therefore driving the resettlement.  Contractors are paid by the head to resettle refugees.

Back in Nepal there are still camp residents who don’t want to come and live “like beggars” in some American inner-city and are holding out for repatriation to Bhutan.  Here they are complaining that the UNHCR is (still!) putting pressure on them to sign up for third country resettlement.

From The Himalayan:

DAMAK: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee has granted a month’s deadline to Bhutanese refugees who had earlier filled forms for third country settlement, to reconfirm their choice.

Since the process of third country resettlement of refugees began in 2008, at least 83,000 Bhutanese refugees have been settled in eight countries, including US, New Zealand, Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Britain and Norway. Now, the UN Refugee Agency has granted a month-long deadline to those who had filled the interest forms for third country resettlement, but could not be contacted later.

The commission has notified all the three refugee camps at Beldangi, Damak and Shanischare, Morang. “We’ve granted extra time for those who had earlier filled the forms but failed to appear in the interview for the same. We have sent them forms to notify us their final wish,” said UNHCR Nepal office External Relationship Officer Nini Gurung, adding her office is now collecting the latest data of those who are willing to settle in a third country.

“I’ve got a form and I’ve written that I don’t have any interest in settling down in a third country,” said Beldangi-2 camp secretary Sanchahang Subba, adding that those refugees who want to return to their homeland were worried after hearing about the latest move of the commission. Harkajung Subba, one of the refugees who wants to return to his homeland, accused the UNHCR of trying to pile pressure on refugees to opt for third country resettlement.

Photo is from this story about the violent conflicts.  Those wishing to return to Bhutan believed that once their numbers were depleted by “dispersing their people to the four winds” there would be no hope of pressuring the Bhutanese government.

We have written a lot about the Bhutanese refugee resettlement, click here to view our archive.  Some have done well in the US, others have had lots of problems (and are creating some problems too according to sources who have worked with them!).

Diversity is strength alert: Arrests made in honor killing (NYC)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you don’t read The Muslim Issue, you should, the bloggers there have some informative stories that dovetail at time with what we write here at RRW.

Today (or last night) The Muslim Issue has a post about a professor of Islamic studies in Germany (a Muslim himself!) who is suggesting that Mohammed never existed—get ready for all hell to break loose in Germany!

But, it’s the “honor killing” story that I want to post.

Yippee! Here we come! Pakistanis second fastest-growing group of Asian immigrants in US. First are Bangladeshis (also Muslims). Chinese are way down the list.

Here is a bit of it:

NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (UPI) — Prosecutors said a New York man has been charged with conspiring to kill two family members in a dispute over the arranged marriage of his daughter in Pakistan.  [read on…they were killed!—ed]

Mohammad Ajmal Choudhry was arrested Thursday on charges of conspiring to commit murder in a foreign county, transmitting threats via interstate communications and visa fraud, federal officials said in a news release.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch — along with officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Homeland Security Investigations; and the U.S. State Department — said court filings indicate Choudhry directed that his daughter, Amina Ajmal, a U.S. citizen, be held against her will for three years in Pakistan.

She was forced to marry a Pakistani national so he could get a U.S. visa, prosecutors said.

Read the whole disgusting story of how two innocent relatives were killed.

So, how do all the Pakistanis get into the US?

Most people assume that the Refugee Resettlement Program of the US State Department takes all comers, but it doesn’t.  Pakistanis make up a small proportion of the program (156 came this year as “refugees”).   See this very handy map and list at WRAPS.net Map Arrivals by Nationality as of 31 Aug 2013

Here is an article from 2012 (a little outdated) that says that 65% of Pakistanis (the second fastest growing group of Asian immigrants in America) are foreign born and most get here thanks to chain migration—family reunification.  Another 16% were sponsored by businesses.  So once the seeds are planted, the extended family comes too!   In the terrible story above, the deaths were the result of Islamic ‘law’ and immigration fraud.

We have a ‘women’s issues’ category with other “honor killing” stories posted there.

Photo is from the Dawn.com article.