Our readership at RRW is going through the roof and it’s almost exclusively because the public is finally beginning to search for information, and understand better, how so many Somalis have “found their way” to America. Of course we know they didn’t find their way here, but were brought here over more than three decades now through the US State Department’s Refugee Resettlement program with the help of nine major federal contractors. The mall massacre in Kenyawith speculation (no official confirmation yet that I know of) that some of the killers are Americans (former refugees) has prompted this latest round of interest.
See the disturbing images from Nairobi in the UK Daily Mail (hat tip: Ed).
Thousands of new readers visited RRW in the last few days. And, I’m happy to report that we have exceeded our goal of adding 30 new subscribers in the month of September. We have 43 new subscribers with five days left in the month!
Almost every search term yesterday related to Somalis. Here (below) is what people are searching (I took out about 5 searches that didn’t involve Somalis).
somalis in minneapolis
why are there so many somalis in minnesota
maine somalis catholic charities
lutheran brotherhood and somali refugees
how many somalis in kansas city
where in minneapolis the somalias lived
somalis in minnesota
louisville somalians
how many somalis in america
number of somalis in minneapolis
which administration brought somalies to minnesota?
clarkston ga ann somalis
somalis minneapolis
somali maine mn clinton
how did all the somalis get to minnesota?
why so many somalis in minneapolis
somalias in wisconsin
bed bugs shelbyville,tn
To answer the question, which administration brought Somalis to Minnesota?—the answer is all of them since the 1980’s. George W. Bush had some really big years following 9/11! Check out our numbers here.
My alerts are full and over-flowing with news about Syrian “refugees.” They will surely be coming to America* and some local media is already predicting this (fill in the blank) city will soon be seeing them. Sweden, however, earlier this week made a sweeping promise inviting them, one and all, to their socialist dream nation.
Swedish Prime Minister Frederick probably put a bug in Obama’s ear, and what a coincidence that the decision to invite Syrians to “welcoming” Sweden was timed for Obama’s visit!
Already troubled by Muslim asylum-seekers from all over the Middle East and Africa, Sweden came one step closer this week to annihilating their Nordic culture and population in the decades to come—-why don’t they see it! Click here for our entire archive on Sweden—the canary in the coal mine!
Swedish migration authorities have ruled that all Syrian asylum seekers who have come to Sweden will be granted permanent residency in light of the worsening conflict in Syria.Sweden is the first country in the EU to offer permanent residency to refugees from Syria, news agency TT reported.
The decision covers all asylum seekers from Syria who have been granted temporary residency in Sweden for humanitarian protection. They will now receive permanent residence permits, the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) announced on Tuesday.
Previously, around half of Syrian asylum seekers had been granted permanent residency, with the remaining half receiving three-year residence permits.
[…..]
The decision means that the roughly 8,000 Syrians who have temporary residency in Sweden will now be able to stay in the country permanently.
They will also have the right to bring their families to Sweden. [Let the fraud begin!—ed]
Of course, what Sweden has done is put pressure on the entire EU and the US as well to open doors wide for what will be largely members of both sides of the warring Muslim factions.
The Muslim Issue has a story entitled “Mad Sweden…”and gives us the faces of Swedish insanity. Check out those faces here.
Then Marylanders were treated to an e-mail from Ellen Sauerbrey who ran the Office of Population Refugees and Migration in the Bush Administration with a link to this article which says—-bring ’em in! Thanks to all who sent this to me yesterday!
What the Forbes writer doesn’t get is that we won’t be bringing in only the Christians! He probably doesn’t know that contractors like the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, or Catholic Charities, or Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services have no problem resettling all the Muslims the State Department sends their way!
The politically-correct State Department does not seek out the Christians and place them at the top of the list!
We weren’t awake when the US began the resettlement of over a hundred thousand Somalis to our cities. We are a little more awake as the State Department will soon top the Somali numbers with Iraqi “refugees.” But, surely the public is now getting it—we can’t afford hundreds of thousands of needy Muslims!
* This post from early August went through the roof yesterday with 3,615 reads. You must tell your elected officials—NO! to the wholesale resettlement of Syrians to America!
Barbara Day, the US State Department Office of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) Domestic Resettlement Section Chief, in a letter Wednesday, said PRM would be reviewing the three major contractors resettling refugees to Massachusetts when they make their plans for FY2014 (which happens very soon as FY’14 begins October 1).
When you read this consider that Barbara Day came to the State Department from Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota (a subcontractor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, one of the three agencies she will be reviewing).
This is another example of the close ties between the grantors and the grantees. As we have reported many times on these pages, the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in Health and Human Services (Eskinder Negash) is also a former contractor. I am sure they are honorable people, but there really should be a law against contractors becoming the federal grantor to their former organization.
***Update*** How could I forget that the Asst. Secretary of State for PRM, Anne Richard, is also a former contractor!
Here is Day’s letter, and by the way, she is the person you should contact at the State Department if you have problems in your city!
This news (and the copy of the letter) was reported in The Republicanwhich has been doing a great job following this story. Read the whole informative article. This little segment (below) caught my eye because it shows what a large percentage of the money allotted to refugees goes to the “church” middlemen to run the operation.
I have said on these pages that these middlemen contractors (faux non-profits) should be shut out of the process and if a state agrees to resettle refugees it should be done through a state office COMPLETELY ACCOUNTABLE TO ELECTED OFFICIALS AND TAXPAYERS.
Here is what caught my eye:
Lutheran Social Services received $1,238,200 in refugee resettlement and refugee services funding in Hampden County in fiscal 2013. Of that amount, $362,500 goes directly to clients [refugees—ed] and $875,700 goes for operating the services, a spokeswoman said.
A significant portion of the funds, however, is not only for newly arriving refugees but for all refugees served, some for up to five years, the spokeswoman said. The grants include funding for services such as case management, education and employment efforts, according to a summary.
This is an update of ourpost from Tuesday about the meeting that was held in Springfield, Massachusetts last evening where Mayor Domenic Sarno invited representatives of the refugee contractors to a gathering to discuss the city’s complaints about refugee overload.
08/28/13-Springfield-Republican Staff Photo by Dave Roback-Archbishop Timothy Paul, left, president and CEO of the Council of Churches of Western Massachusetts listens to Katheryn Buckley-Brawner during a press conference after meeting with Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno on the refugee matter in the city of Springfield.
Let me say at the outset—Springfield is not an isolated case.
RRW is filled with stories of resettlement contractors “dumping” refugees on communities. I am here to tell you, the agencies are paid to get refugees into their first apartments, try to find them some menial job (even if it is short-lived so their records show they did find them employment), arrange for the refugee’s legal social services and health care and then basically let the refugees sink or swim—sometimes as soon as three months, but rarely does any agency hang around over 8 months.
SPRINGFIELD – Mayor Domenic J. Sarno did not budge from his request for a moratorium on new refugees in Springfield on Wednesday, but agreed to have the city take part in a joint task force to evaluate the current resettlement program and consider improvements to reduce any hardships on the refugees and the community.
Sarno and numerous city officials met for 90 minutes with approximately 30 representatives of agencies and advocacy groups involved in the refugee resettlement program.
During the meeting, and thereafter, Sarno continued to say the influx of refugees in recent years has strained city services, including the schools, police and code enforcement officials. He said he has serious concerns about refugees living in poverty and substandard housing, and not getting enough help and follow-up services from the service agencies.
He described the situation as “dumping” them on the city’s doorstep with language gaps, and lack of knowledge to get help and basic services.
“This is not an attack on refugees,” Sarno said. “It is about accountability of the agencies following through. What we are saying now is we are at a tipping point.”
Catholic Charity’s spokeswoman, Kathryn Buckley-Brawner, says they (the resettlement agencies) will investigate themselves about the “alleged” failure to follow-up on refugees (seems more and more lately, Catholic Charities is involved somewhere!):
Kathryn Buckley-Brawner, a spokeswoman for the coalition of refugee service groups, said there were “healthy disagreements” during the meeting, but it was “certainly very encouraging,”
“It’s our position that we want to maintain open communication with the mayor’s office,” Buckley-Brawner said. “What we want is to create a pipeline, so decisions are made in collaboration and communication with each other so that small problems don’t become huge problems, and to ensure resourses are there.”
The agencies will research the alleged lack of sufficient follow-up services “to determine to what extent the service agencies can do a better job with the city in meeting the needs of the refugees,” she said.
In your face Mayor!
The mayor cannot legally block refugee resettlement in the region, advocates said.
Frankly, I don’t think this is true! No one has ever tried it! I think there is a 10th Amendment (state’s rights) case to be made here. The problem is that the side that wants to bring the decision about refugees back to the state level hasn’t the resources to take this through the legal system, or politicians like Sarno don’t have the political will to do it.
But, short of a long drawn-out legal battle, citizens in the city can make such a political (media!) fuss that sometimes the State Department will step in and close a program so as to avoid bad publicity that might go national and damage the whole effort.
Maybe some of you remember that the State Department yanked the contract of another resettlement agency in nearby Waterbury, CT in 2008. The agency had come under fire in the newspaper for refugees living in sub-standard conditions. They may be up and running again by now, I don’t know, but they were at least stopped at that point in time.
The State Department and its contractors have been doing this, quietly resettling refugees to target cities for over three decades, and they have done so because the program is under the public’s radar screen, and heretofore the word “refugee” has invoked only warm, fuzzy feelings in the general public. I think all that is changing and I hope we have helped just a little to elevate the issue.
Click here for all of our coverage on Springfield.
Reader ‘pungentpeppers’ alerts us to a new “pocket of resistance” to refugee resettlement and it’s in the ‘Peoples’ Republic of Massachusetts’ of all places!
Democrat Mayor Sarno hopefully has the fortitude to stand up to the criticism that will come his way from the Open Borders/Religious Left lobby! Photo: The Republican
Here is the stunning news. I say stunning because very few Mayors or local elected officials have the guts to do what Mayor Sarno has done. There have been a few others, most notably Mayor Gatsas from Manchester, NH, but most local officials believe they have no recourse against the federal government and the contractors—in this case Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and Jewish Family Services—and just have to take it!
Most also fear the political ramifications of being labelled a “racist” for saying they are overloaded.
One reform we should all be pushing for is to legally enable cities and states to say NO to the feds!
Note to the Mayor: I see you supported Ed Markey for the US Senate, you need to ask his office for help!
The State Department ( Office Population Refugees and Migration) is very aware that they have a problem finding “welcoming” communities for the growing number of refugees AND asylees they are trying to place. Earlier this summer we learned they and the Office of Refugee Resettlement were having secret pow-wows (ORR did not answer several requests from me to learn of the location of the July “placement” meeting) to jointly agree on what communities might be welcoming. This is what I learned in June (see Lancaster meeting):
….apparently in light of failed attempts to get new seed communities established, the feds are having ORR-PRM joint quarterly placement meetings. The next one will be in July. Before any new site is opened (usually because some contractor thinks it would be a good place), ORR-PRM will visit the site together and decide if it will be “welcoming.”
By the way, when you read the whole Springfield story, note that one contractor says they aren’t resettling so many in Springfield directly, but are spreading them out throughout the county—this is one of their tricks when they start getting heat.
From The Republican (emphasis is mine). We have seen this before—refugees placed in slums!
SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Domenic J. Sarno on Tuesday urged federal officials to stop the flow of refugees into Springfield, saying the influx has become “a pressing issue of public safety.”
Sarno, in a letter to the U.S. State Department, said Springfield has “a long and successful history” of taking in refugees, but the growing numbers have led to his concern “for the safety of both our citizens and the refugees themselves.”
Many of the refugees are being placed in substandard housing, and are placing burdens on the Code Enforcement, Police and School departments, Sarno said.
The Police Department has reported an increase in fraud, robbery and property crimes committed against refugees, Sarno said. In addition, the refugees are placing a strain on the school system, coming from around the world,*** he said.
In his petition, Sarno said he has become aware of “some startling facts” from reports he has received from city departments. That has included housing with “significant life safety violations” of the state building and sanitary codes that have included “rampant insect and vermin infestations, the absence of any smoke detectors,” and illegal wiring, broken doors, and blocked exits, he said.
“The fact that refugees are being placed into properties containing the reprehensible conditions, cited above, is compelling evidence that local agencies are not employing people with the necessary qualifications to conduct adequate safety and habitability inspections for potential settlement units, and are not properly utilizing the funding being provided by the Federal Government,” Sarno said.
Sarno’s four-page letter was sent to Barbara Day, chief of domestic resettlement, refuge admissions for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
“We have done more than our fair share,” Sarno said Tuesday in an interview. “It’s not fair to the refugees or Springfield.”
“I have to draw the line,” Sarno said. “The number of refugee children who have little to no English language skills has overwhelmed the very limited interpretation capabilities of our public schools, and funding that was intended for use in assisting existing pupils.”
The mayor and some of his department heads met in July with organizations involved in the refugee resettlement efforts — Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and the Jewish Family Services.
Read on to hear what Jewish Family Services said about shifting refugees to the county. There was no comment from the Catholics or the Lutherans.
The numbers do not represent those who might have come to a town or city as ‘secondary migrants’ (refugees resettled elsewhere but who have gone to certain cities to be with their own kind of people).
Springfield has “welcomed” 1,712 refugees since 2001 from the following countries:
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
An afterthought: I wonder does the Mayor know that the Refugee Resettlement Program run by the State Department was the brainchild of former Mass. Senator Ted Kennedy?
Our readership at RRW is going through the roof and it’s almost exclusively because the public is finally beginning to search for information, and understand better, how so many Somalis have “found their way” to America. Of course we know they didn’t find their way here, but were brought here over more than three decades now through the US State Department’s Refugee Resettlement program with the help of nine major federal contractors. The mall massacre in Kenya with speculation (no official confirmation yet that I know of) that some of the killers are Americans (former refugees) has prompted this latest round of interest.
Barbara Day, the US State Department Office of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) Domestic Resettlement Section Chief, in a letter Wednesday, said PRM would be reviewing the three major contractors resettling refugees to Massachusetts when they make their plans for FY2014 (which happens very soon as FY’14 begins October 1).
