And, the health care system there is begging the feds for more money to help relieve this latest fallout from Biden’s totally screwed-up Afghan evacuation.
Americans turned away from Virginia hospitals over Afghan evacuees
(Editor: Glad to see that the Afghans are not being referred to as ‘refugees.’ They are not legitimate refugees!)
A massive influx of Afghan evacuees strained Northern Virginia hospitals so much this week that American citizens were being turned away.
Every Virginian should be complaining to Virginia Democrat Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. Let them know that Biden’s disastrous Afghan surrender will be hurting them and their party in the next election. Throwing more taxpayer dollars at the problem won’t get them off the hook.
A hospital near Dulles Expo Center has been running out of beds, forcing the facility to turn away non-Afghan patients who didn’t need critical care, according to The Washington Post.
The overwhelmed hospital system prompted a regional emergency response group to monitor the hospitals after one became so packed with patients that federal officials lost track of a number of Afghans receiving medical care, including a month-old child suffering from a possibly life-threatening condition.
Kristin Nickerson, executive director of the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System, said the child was later located in one of the hospitals. Nickerson, who also directs the Northern Virginia Hospital Alliance, confirmed that another hospital was forced to turn away American patients.
“Our hospitals are already almost at capacity,” she said, referring to patients with COVID-19. “It’s not like they have tons of free beds available. We are still in the middle of a pandemic.”
Nickerson said federal officials have not been responsive to requests for financial help. The Washington Post reported that a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said questions should be presented to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not respond to several attempts seeking comment.
The offices of both Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner said they are aware of and monitoring the situation.
[….]
Nickerson further explained that a federal contractor which was supposed to retrieve Afghan evacuees after their hospital visits has left them in the facilities for up to six hours. Cherokee Federal, the contractor in question, did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment. [Oh, gee, another contractor for me to investigate!—ed]
Surprise (not!):
As Afghan evacuees continue to arrive, the cost to care for them continues to rise.
On Aug. 28, top local administrators, who make up the board of the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System group, sent a letter to Virginia’s secretary of health and human services, calling for federal and state dollars to be allocated for the ongoing effort.
“To meet the current need, we are leveraging what little resources we have to augment the existing team at the moment, but this is not sustainable with only a staff of 12,” the letter said.
J. Stephen Jones, chief executive of the Inova Health System, said the hospitals shouldn’t expect the impact of the Afghan crisis to end any time soon.
By the way, I have 390 posts in my health issues category. See what other health problems refugees and migrants of all sorts bring to America. Health problems, including mental health problems, that you ultimately pay for, one way or another.
If you missed it yesterday, I wrote a refugee-related story at ‘Frauds and Crooks.’
This sob story from the Associated Press is meant to make naïve readers feel so very sorry for educated refugees, some in medical fields, who can’t get work here because they must get US licenses to practice (so that they can compete against your kids coming out of medical schools with degrees that cost you a fortune to provide).
But that isn’t the angle that interested me most in this report.
First and foremost, when someone is admitted as a refugee to the US under the US Refugee Admissions Program they are affirming that they can never return to their home country due to a legitimate fear of being persecutedfor one of several factors—religious, racial, political among them.
Here we see that since the parents in this story can’t immediately jump into professional lives here, one has opted to return to Kurdistan—TO WHERE THEY CLAIMED THEY WERE NOT SAFE! in order to keep money flowing to the family back here being supported partially by US taxpayers.
Workforce barriers keep refugees out of health care field
RICHMOND, Va. — Ferwerdin Al Barzanji has nightmares about what could have been — the promises she could have kept — if her almost 30 years as a university professor and medical researcher in Kurdistan were enough.
When she fled her home homeland bordering Iraq, Syria and Turkey to find refuge in Harrisonburg in 2016, families were depending on the monthly stipends she provided for food and housing. Students awaited her go-ahead to apply for grants at the college where she would teach.
She planned to bring more Kurds in!
Harrisonburg is a prime resettlement site. Protesting Trump’s refugee policies in 2017.
But within two years, she sent apologies instead. There was no money to send. There was no university job, no lab that would let her continue her work.
Like so many refugees, Al Barzanji’s options were limited, even with decades of experience and her fluent command of English, Arabic and Kurdish. Credentials, including her doctorate, were worthless in Virginia. To continue her career, she’d have to start over and go through school again. She couldn’t afford it, and it would be years before money flowed in again.
Eight months of tax payer financial assistance did flow in!
Refugees in the U.S. receive roughly eight months of financial assistance upon arrival, and after extensive interviews from federal officers abroad who determine their eligibility for resettlement, they’re immediately able to work. But neither Al Barzanji or her husband, Heja Al Sindi, could find employment that paid them a living wage.
Confirmed! Refugees are needed for cheap labor—“food factories” and “distribution centers!”
“They told me from the beginning, ‘You (can’t) think about your degrees. Ph.D.? Master’s? Teaching? No. You have to go to either the food factories or these distribution centers. Places like that in order to work,'” she recalled. “‘You can’t start like a university professor or a lab scientist.’“
So if they told her that in the beginning why is she whining now?
If both of them stayed in the U.S., they wouldn’t be able to give their five children [presumably being educated now in Virginia’s public school system—ed] a better education — the reason they left their hometown after 50 years and the one promise Al Barzanji refused to let go.
The ‘refugee’ Dad went back to the place of their supposed persecution, Kurdistan, so he can make more money!
So they made a decision that would separate their family: Al Sindi would go back and work as the vice president of the University of Kurdistan and send his salary to his family in Harrisonburg while Al Barzanji continued her work as an interpreter and full-time mother.
“I put all my feelings and everything into their success. I have to forget about myself,” she said. “So I have to think about it like this. This is it. I have to live like this.”
Oh poor baby!
There is much more we could discuss in this AP story. Virginia readers should definitely read on.
Of course Church World Service will give them rosy responses to their request for more information, but at least they can make a more informed decision before changing Winchester forever.
As I said at the time, this is likely happening in many locations around America as the nine federal refugee contractors*** scour the country for new fresh territory in which to place the tidal wave of 125,000 refugees from Asia, Africa and the Middle East that Biden says he is welcoming in Fiscal Year 2022 which begins on October first.
Winchester City Council wants more info before voting on refugees
WINCHESTER — City officials say they need more information before deciding whether to welcome international refugees to Winchester.
Councilor Bell
Councilor Richard Bell, chairman of City Council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee, told the full council on Tuesday night the proposal to allow refugees to live in Winchester needs more vetting at the committee level before a final vote is taken.
“We have requested that it be placed on a future Planning and Economic Development Committee agenda for a more in-depth presentation by the organization and for further consideration,” Bell told the nine-member council.
The organization Bell referred to is Church World Service (CWS), a global nonprofit that hopes to open an office in Winchester to serve people who have been forced from their homelands due to political, social or religious persecution.
Susannah Lepley, Virginia’s director of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement for CWS, told the Planning and Economic Development Committee at its meeting on April 29 the bulk of the refugees, at least initially, would come from Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
They will be invited to settle in the United States by the U.S. State Department after proving they have a credible fear of persecution, or have already been persecuted, because of their heritage, social status or religious beliefs.
CWS, Lepley said, would find housing in Winchester for the refugees, help them learn English and pursue U.S. citizenship, assist them with applying for public assistance until they find employment, enroll their children in school and so on.
The committee recommended council approve the request, even though member Kim Herbstritt said at the time that Winchester has a severe shortage of affordable housing so it may be difficult to find homes for the 100 or so refugees per year that want to resettle within city limits.
Bell did not say when Lepley would be invited to make a second presentation to the committee, which is next scheduled to meet on May 19. An agenda for that session has not yet been published.
What to ask…..
When, and if, Church World Service’s Lepley is invited back, it is vitally important that concerned members of the public, not just those in the city, but county residents as well, be present to hear what she has to say.
First, we must assume, that since the city government is even contemplating saying yes, that Winchester doesn’t have any homeless or needy Americans to care for and that the city is flush with funds for educating children who don’t speak English, has ample affordable housing, is prepared to deal with health issues and is in need of low-skilled workers.
Questions I would ask in no particular order are these:
How long does Church World Service take care of the newcomers they place in the city or county (yes, they can spread refugees out for a hundred miles of Winchester once the office is established)?
Since CWS supports an open southern border, will CWS also facilitate any movement of illegal aliens/unaccompanied children into the area?
Are the refugees screened in advance for diseases such as TB, HIV, and Covid-19? Who will pay for medical needs and for how long?
Does CWS have employers lined up?
Who pays for additional ESL teachers going forward?
What religions will be represented in the group of refugees? And, what other nationalities might be added later?
Who pays for translators when the refugees have a problem with the legal system or educational system? Or, if they have a medical issue? Local taxpayers?
In what neighborhoods will the refugees be placed? If Winchester has a minority neighborhood already, care must be taken not to place third worlders into those established areas especially African American neighborhoods. Cultural conflicts have been known to occur. Back in 2008 there was just such a rough period in Roanoke.
If, for instance, Winchester welcomes a hundred this year and another hundred the next year and finds it is straining local resources or causing tensions, can Winchester shut down the flow?
There are probably plenty more, but a beautiful day outside beckons….
One last thing!
R & P Abstracts
The Winchester council, in advance of another meeting with Lepley, must ask if an R & P Abstract has already been prepared for the city by CWS.
These documents, prepared at the level of your local resettlement contractor with the help and guidance of one of the major nine federal contractors, are the blueprints for what is being planned for your town for the upcoming fiscal year.
The R & P Abstracts must be submitted to the US State Department in Washington in advance of placing refugees in any target location.
***In case you are new to RRW, here are all of the nine contractors that have monopolized all refugee distribution in the US for decades.
They worked to ‘elect’ Biden/Harris andlobby for open borders. As taxpayers you pay them millions annually to change America by changing the people.
Two of the contractors, the USCCB and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are also paid to find locations for the Unaccompanied Alien Children.
This is Dadaab in Kenya, one of the largest refugee camps in the world. It is where most of our Somali refugees lived before coming to America (including Rep. Ilhan Omar). Kenya wants the camp closed by June 2022. So where do you think thousands of the 430,000 housed there now will go? Anytown, USA? https://www.dw.com/en/kenya-to-close-2-refugee-camps-next-year/a-57382561
***Update***Another Letter writersays he is happy refugees will be placed in his “rural community” where people know and love their neighbors. The point is that when Church World Service does its work, they soon won’t know their neighbors.
Editor: This is a follow-up to my post on Saturday:
A letter writer who lives in Frederick County (Winchester is the county seat) is critical of the plan to begin moving Biden’s refugees into the city.
But as interesting as the letter is, it is the comments that are most informative.
First, hereis the letter from county resident Dale Watten to the Winchester Star:
Letter to the editor: Winchester wrong location for refugee settlement
I think that Winchester is the wrong place and this is the wrong time to place a refugee resettlement office in our community. As Kim Herbstritt pointed out, Winchester does not have any excess housing, much less affordable housing for refugees. Our schools are overflowing as are the English as second language classes. After a year of COVID lockdowns and business closures, I don’t think this area has enough jobs for our own citizens let alone foreign refugees who can’t speak English.
I don’t think rural America should have to bear the burden of the Biden administration’s misguided policies that most of us in rural America did not vote for. Might I point out what has happened to once lovely Minneapolis in large part due to refugee resettlement. Send the refugees to NYC, San Francisco or Biden’s home state of Delaware. Don’t send them to Winchester. I strongly urge Winchester City Council to reject the proposed refugee resettlement office.
Dale Watten
Now, check out the comments.
They have devolved into controversy mostly between two commenters, one arguing that rural people (mostly Trump supporters!) should basically shut up about what the city does, demonstrating the great and growing divide between rural and urban America.
The fact is, and what readers need to know is, that once a resettlement office is established, refugees may be placed up to 100 miles of that office.
And the other area of discussion relates to the illegals flooding our southern border and whether Winchester will end up being the recipient of some of those illegal aliens, demonstrating exactly what supposedly Biden, or at least whoever is Joe’s brain, feared when expanding refugee admissions in the middle of the border crisis.
I found this tiny segment of aPolitico storyfrom Monday of interest.
The story is about the flip-flop-flipping the White House has been doing for the last couple of months on the issue of setting the refugee cap at a level 4 times higher than Trump had left it.
Near the end of Politico‘s report is this bit of information.
Biden, or his other brain, feared conflation of the two issues—expanded refugee resettlement and the border invasion would be one and the same in the minds of the increasingly angry general public:
Several sources have said that Biden himself has expressed distress over immigration issues overall and raised concern about lifting the cap before the system could catch up. The White House has also been sensitive to thesteady stream of bad press coming from conservative media about the border and predicted that if Biden announced a large number of refugees would be allowed in on top of it, critics would purposely conflate the two issues to accelerate a “open borders” false narrative.
There is nothing false about it, the Biden administration has gone full-on Open Borders and they know their time is limited to flood America as the 2022 Midterm elections loom!
The vast majority of Americans will see this for exactly what it is—an invasion run by Democrats to relocate poverty from every corner of the world and thereby putting Americans Last!
You have been told what they fear, and so it is incumbent on you to make sure the “steady stream of bad press” keeps coming!
Get some pockets of resistance going!
As I said yesterday, call your local government officials and find out if your community is being fingered as a new home to the third world, and if so, make your views known just as Frederick County, Virginia resident Dale Watten did yesterday.
But, be prepared for the vile verbal attacks that will come from the Socialist Leftwing pressing Harris/Biden for double 62,500 for admission to the US in FY22 which begins in less than five months.
This is probably going on in most of America right now!
The nine federal Refugee Resettlement contractors*** that work for the US State Department and ultimately the United Nationsare getting ready for Chairman Joe’s promise to begin the massive, possibly annual, flow of 125,000 refugees to America beginning October first!
(It is still unclear how many will be admitted before that date since the Biden team has beenflip-floppingon what they plan to do for the remainder of this fiscal year.)
This is exactly how it begins!
This is exactly what Church World Service did in Hagerstown, MD in 2007 when I first became aware of the federally funded plan to diversify America.
They send a spokesperson to a local elected board, in my case the county commission, to explain how wonderful it would be to bring impoverished refugees to the community.
Winchester is the county seat of largely rural Frederick County, Virginia. It borders West Virginia.
Then completely uninformed elected officials nod in agreement (fear of looking racist!) not having a clue what types of questions they should ask.
As for Winchester, Virginia, it looks like there will be an opportunity for some citizen input before May 11th, but even that may be too late because Winchester’s Democrat mayor is signaling that Winchester is welcoming.
WINCHESTER — A global faith-based organization thinks Winchester is an ideal community for international refugees who have been driven from their own countries.
Susannah Lepley, Virginia’s director of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement for the nonprofit Church World Service (CWS), told the city’s Planning and Economic Development Committee this week that her organization — formed in 1946 as a partnership between 17 religious denominations that wanted to feed, clothe and shelter the impoverished— hopes to open an office in Winchester that would serve people who have been forced from their homelands due to political, social or religious persecution.
[Lepley doesn’t mention that the majority of CWS funding comes from the US government (aka taxpayers) letting officials believe their work is purely driven by ‘religious’ charity—ed]
“We feel that refugees would add to the Winchester community,” Lepley said. “There would be more people to work here, and Winchester would be great for the refugees themselves.” [What? So Winchester is short on workers?—ed]
Lepley said the refugee resettlement office’s goal for the first year would be to bring in 100 refugees, which equates to about two families per month.
However, that number could increase in later years if President Joe Biden follows through on his pledge to raise the number of refugees allowed into the United States annually.
It will not end! Once the flow begins, elected officials in Winchester will have no say on how many more will be placed there. Schools? Healthcare? Social Services? Law enforcement? What happens when those services are stretched? Winchester will be out of luck!
By the way, Lepley’s office is in Harrisonburg, VAand they have likely saturated that area with impoverished refugees and so must now find new territory.
Currently, only 15,000 refugees are allowed in per year — a number that Lepley said is “a historic low” — but Biden has said he wants to elevate that number to 125,000, possibly as soon as October. Prior to the tenure of President Donald Trump, she said, the yearly average number of refugees allowed into the U.S. was 96,000.
“What we’re doing is building the structure so that when the presidential determination is 125,000, we’ll have places to send people that are welcoming towns, welcoming cities,” Lepley said.
The Winchester CWS office, at least initially, would primarily serve people who have fled Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After 90 days the refugees are the responsibility of ‘welcoming’ Winchester!
“Before they arrive, we find an apartment for them, we set up the apartment, we furnish it with everything from dishes to lights to beds, sheets, towels, shampoo, everything,” Lepley said. “We help them within the first seven days to apply for government assistance to get them through the first several months, provide very intensive case management for the first 90 days, and then we provide employment assistance, help put their kids in school, things like that for the first five years they’re here.”
CWS also helps refugees learn English and obtain permanent residence in the United States.
Why are they coming? Because the United Nations has “granted permission” for them to come to America!
Kim Herbstritt
Committee member Kim Herbstritt asked Lepley why the refugees would come to the U.S.
“They’re invited by the State Department,” Lepley said, explaining the refugees have already applied for, and been granted permission to, emigrate to the United States by the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees.
At least someone has the good sense to ask about housing availability!
Herbstritt said it may be difficult for Lepley to find enough local homes for the refugees. The city’s housing supply is so low that on Tuesday, only 19 homes were available for purchase in Winchester, and half of those cost more than $300,000 each. She recommended Lepley also look at available housing in nearby Frederick and Clarke counties.
If city officials give their blessing to the refugee resettlement office, Lepley said it would most likely open in April 2021 [that date has passed?—ed] somewhere within city limits.
Mayor Smith
“Winchester has always been an open community,” Mayor and committee member David Smith said before the panel voted unanimously to recommend City Council’s approval of a resolution supporting the refugee resettlement office.
Council will open discussions on the proposal at its next meeting on May 11.
So has Winchester run out of its own poor people to care for? That is what you should be asking the Mayor and city officials!
If you live in Winchester or anywhere in Frederick County, Virginia or adjoining counties and have problems with bringing third world poverty to your town or county when Americans are unemployed and homeless, you better get moving and make your voices heard.
That is the only way to stop this train.
***In case you are new to RRW, here are all of the nine contractors that have monopolized all refugee distribution in the US for decades.
They worked to ‘elect’ Biden/Harris andlobby for open borders. As taxpayers you pay them millions annually to change America by changing the people.
When, and if, Church World Service’s Lepley is invited back, it is vitally important that concerned members of the public, not just those in the city, but county residents as well, be present to hear what she has to say.
Susannah Lepley, Virginia’s director of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement for the nonprofit Church World Service (CWS), told the city’s Planning and Economic Development Committee this week that her organization — formed in 1946 as a partnership between 17 religious denominations that wanted to feed, clothe and shelter the impoverished — hopes to open an office in Winchester that would serve people who have been forced from their homelands due to political, social or religious persecution.
