Amarillo, TX, a pocket of resistance, is still trying to stop the resettlement of refugees to their overloaded city

07/24/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you about Amarillo, here, back in February. They were appealing to their Congressman for help in stemming the migrant tide.

Apparently their REPUBLICAN Congressman (did he get a visit from Grover Norquist?) didn’t do much for them because, according to this article, they are now turning to their state legislators.

[This is not a story about ‘unaccompanied minors,’ but for new readers it is one about the three-decades-old federal program quietly resettling the third-world into America via phony ‘non-profit’ contractors.]

We know this same-old-story well—city services depleted, health department stressed to the max, schools filled with needy children who don’t speak English, not enough housing or jobs. But, there is one thing that jumped out at me in the same-old-story (high-lighted in red below).

Wyoming and Athens, GA, are you listening?

A case of the dueling contractors?

From News Channel 10:

Amarillo, TX – Amarillo has one of the highest numbers of refugees for a city across the country.

The city has been working to reduce the number of refugees for two years now because they say the number is too high for the city to support.

One of the main concerns the city is seeing is with school funding.

Mayor Paul Harpole says the number of refugees Amarillo is receiving is putting a strain on schools.

“Our concern is that our schools get enough funding to take care of this or we limit the number to more with what our population is. We are getting a higher number of refugees in our city than any other city in the United States of America and we don’t think that is good for the refugees in our city” said Harpole.

Amarillo has been doing refugee resettlement since 1979.

The city says they will still welcome refugees to the area, but the large number is outgrowing the city.

“We have been traditionally accepting, we have Catholic Family Services and now Refugee Resettlement of Texas*** and they have worked well with the refugee population. But we just think it is getting a little too stout for what we should be getting in our city,” said Harpole.

I couldn’t decide if I should liken the contractors to dogs fighting over a bone (federal money) or sharks seeing blood in the water (federal money). But these dogs seemed appropriate (federal grants/contracts are, of course, the bone). For new readers, contractors are paid by the head for each refugee they resettle in your towns and cities.

And it makes you wonder if the US State Department is doing its job when it awards contracts???

News Channel 10 continued:

Nancy Koons, the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle, which provides refugee resettlement services.

Koons says they started reducing their numbers back in 2011 to help with the issue.

“When we reduced our numbers from 400 to 200, Refugee Services of Texas, another agency in town picked them up, so we ended up with a net of no difference … so we still have a high resettlement rate,” said Koons.

[….]

The mayor will meet with Senator Kel Seliger this week and other state leaders in Austin about the problem.

Learn how the federal government (ORR) has hired “Welcoming America” to try to clean up the “pockets of resistance.”

***Refugee Resettlement of Texas is a subcontractor of THREE of the major resettlement contractors: Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Church World Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries. Wow! I guess no one is mediating the contracting wars that must be going on in Washington!

The contractors (we may have to start adding grant recipient big dogs Baptist Children and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs to our list):

Is yours a “welcoming” city or state? If not, expect a visit from Lubell and company

03/30/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Clarkston, Georgia has signed up!

Yesterday, I gave you the latest ‘diversity is strength’ alert from Nashville, TN (Muslim immigrants busted for selling drugs from convenience stores), and I mentioned “Welcoming America” again which is the spawn of David Lubell* and “Welcoming Tennessee.”

Check out this useful graphic I found at “Welcoming America’s” website:

Clarkston, GA!

Also, their top story was one we missed from earlier in the month—Clarkston, GA, an overloaded refugee resettlement city, has become their 29th “Welcoming City,” this at the same time that the Governor has persuaded the feds to stop sending refugees there.

Learn more about the refugee and immigrant overload in Georgia by clicking here (A pocket of resistance in the land of Jimmy Carter).

It is amazing to me how ballsy propagandists are, the average person would have no idea of the problems that Atlanta and its suburbs have experienced as the refugee and immigrant population explodes. To read this one would think everything is just, well, beautiful.

“Welcoming America” is a federal contractor of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (Health and Human Services) so this is being done with your tax dollars.

From “Welcoming America” regarding Clarkston:

Clarkston Becomes 29th City in Nation to Join Decatur, Georgia based Welcoming America’s Welcoming Cities and Counties Initiative

Mayor Terry: Looking forward to working more with ‘Welcoming America’

Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry signs Welcoming resolution for the city.

On March 4th, 2014, Mayor Ted Terry and members of the Clarkston City Council passed a Welcoming Resolution, committing the city to building a welcoming and neighborly community in which diverse residents, including immigrants, are welcome, accepted and integrated.

Through the resolution, the City also joins Welcoming Cities and Counties, an initiative of Welcoming America that supports locally-driven efforts to create more welcoming, immigrant-friendly environments that maximize opportunities for economic growth and cultural vitality and position communities as globally competitive, 21st century leaders. Welcoming America is a nonprofit organization based in Decatur, Georgia that works across the U.S. to create inclusive, immigrant-friendly communities that expand prosperity for all residents.

The resolution (full version available here) recognizes that a welcoming community is critical to economic success for all residents, and identifies that Clarkston is committed to “enhancing its cultural fabric, economic growth, global competitiveness and overall prosperity for all individuals in the current and future generations who choose to make their home in the city.”

Said Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry, “I’m gratified that this was a grassroots effort. The residents of our city got together and worked out the details – and our government has responded in full support of Clarkston becoming a truly Welcoming community. In light of recent events, over the criminalization of gays and lesbians, in Uganda – our city felt it was important to add language that codified ALL people are welcome in Clarkston, including gay, lesbian and transgendered folks. It is incumbent upon our government to provide opportunity for all residents of our city. And I am looking forward to working with Welcoming America on a framework for the future welcoming policies of Clarkston.”

“This is a wonderful affirmation that the diverse character of Clarkston is indeed one of its great strengths,” commented Emily Pelton of Refugee Family Services, a refugee resettlement agency that works in the Clarkston community.

* See Lubell’s bio here. La Raza gave his Tennessee group an award.

We recommend that if your state has a ‘welcoming affiliate’ that you find out more about it and sign up for any news they send out to their supporters. Here is information on how to “join” them.

Nashville: More immigrant entrepreneurs busted!

03/29/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Diversity is strength! Right Mr. Lubell?

Nashville, Tennessee is the premier Bible belt destination city for refugee and immigrant migration thanks to people like David Lubell and his old friends (Avi Poster and Tom Negri) at ‘Welcoming Tennessee.’

Regular readers know that Lubell used his ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ franchise to turn it into ‘Welcoming America’ and now gets a grant (in addition to funding from George Soros) from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement to travel America and tell about Nashville’s successful immigrants. And, if you are a new reader, it is Catholic Charities that runs the entire refugee placement program in Tennessee.

You can read more about ‘Welcoming America’ on the technical assistance page of ORR’s ‘Key Indicators for Refugee Placement FY2014‘ (page 2).

We have a whole category on Nashville’s plight. Here is one important post about turning red states blue. Nashville has the fastest growing population of the foreign born of any city in America.

This is not the first time the Nashville police have had to crack down on Muslim store owners. I would be surprised to learn if this pair are refugees (asylees maybe), but the point is once your city is “welcoming” they will come.

From News Channel 5 (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Police shut down and padlocked a business in Nashville on Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into synthetic drug sales.

Metro Police said Rum Wholesale at 1305 Dickerson Pike was deemed a public nuisance for repeated distribution of synthetic opiates.

The owner, 40-year-old Mohammed Amer,*** was arrested Wednesday and charged with possession of counterfeit controlled substances with intent to sell. He will also be charged with felony tampering.

On March 17, three convenience stores in Nashville were shut down for allegedly selling liquid relaxation shots that contained mitragynine, a chemical specifically banned by Tennessee law because of its opiate characteristics.

At that time, the stores, which included Discount Tobacco & Beer on Robinson Road, Madison Discount Tobacco & Beer on N. Gallatin Pike, and Litton’s Corner Market on Gallatin Pike, were declared public nuisances and padlocked by order of the court.

During the investigation, detectives learned that Rum Wholesale was a supplier of the liquid shots. When they went to the business on March 17, they found an employee, 27-year-old Rabea Aldheleai, loading boxes of the illegal liquid shots into a BMW.

If you are wondering how it is that a liquor store is run by Muslims—it is a twofer. First they make a lot of money with schemes like this one and then there is the secondary benefit of potentially destroying the lives of infidels (encouraged in Islam).

Do you have a ‘Welcoming America’ affiliate in your state?

***That’s funny! Amer is one of the perps in our February story, but The Tennessean link is now dead—what is up with that? We know The Tennessean has pimped for more multiculturalism for Nashville, but are they removing stories that make Nashville’s Muslims look bad?

Is Amarillo, TX joining the “pockets of resistance” to refugee resettlement?

02/21/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update: Readers may wish to contact Rep. Thornberry and encourage his willingness to speak up. Contact info. is here—best to try the Amarillo office first then ask for a staff person who works on immigration issues.

It looks like David Lubell and his mind-police at ‘Welcoming America’ have another emergency on their hands, this time in Texas!

In my previous post this morning I mentioned that ‘Welcoming America’ has been hired by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to help head off “pockets of resistance” to more refugee resettlement in immigrant over-loaded cities. And, no sooner did I post it than reader Joanne sent along this hot news story—‘Amarillo struggles to handle influx of refugees‘ from the Texas Tribune.

Wyoming, why do you think the State Department needs you now? They are running out of places to resettle thousands of new refugees entering the US each month!

US Rep Mac Thornberry: “We cannot keep going at the rate we’ve been going,”

Texas Tribune (emphasis is mine):

More international refugees were resettled in Texas in 2012 than in any other state, according to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. And one of the leading destinations is Amarillo, where members of Thawng’s church and other newcomers from places like Myanmar and Iraq often work in meatpacking plants.

Now local officials are worried that Amarillo’s refugee population is straining the Panhandle city’s ability to respond to 911 callers who speak numerous languages and to help schoolchildren learn English and adapt to a new culture.

“We’ve raised some red flags and said this isn’t good for some entities in the city or for the refugees themselves,” said Mayor Paul Harpole.

Amarillo, the state’s 14th largest city, with 195,000 residents, receives a higher ratio of new refugees to the existing population than any other Texas city, according to 2007-12 State Department data from U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon. And the only Texas cities that receive a larger number of refugees than Amarillo (which received 480 in 2012) are also the state’s largest: Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio.

But those numbers show only a refugee’s initial placement and do not account for secondary migration, Thornberry said. Many refugees who initially settle elsewhere relocate to Amarillo for jobs or to join family members.

The State Department decides how many refugees are resettled in an area, and states review those recommendations. Last fall, the department, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and refugee placement organizations agreed that for 2014, placements in Amarillo should be limited to family reunifications, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the commission.

“We cannot keep going at the rate we’ve been going,” Thornberry said. [Readers: we often see mayors raise red flags, but rarely is a Member of Congress brave enough to say something like this publicly!—ed]

Catholic Charities brought refugees for meatpacking jobs! Where have we heard that before?

Now there aren’t so many of those jobs (someone please tell Grover to call off the amnesty, there are legal immigrants here looking for work!).

Even so, she soon considered Amarillo her home, and 17 years later, she’s still there. She is now interim director of refugee resettlement at Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle, which helps people who have fled war and persecution find homes and jobs. Many find work at area meatpacking plants, which often pay $14 an hour, Lohony said.

But Harpole said demand for workers at the plants was declining. “We just think it’s going to be more difficult for the refugees to do well here,” he said.

Educational challenges, cultural challenges and how not to go hunting for food on private property! What! The do-gooders at Catholic Charities can’t feed them? Shame on you!

For schools, challenges include educating students who sometimes cannot read in English or in their native language, Thornberry said.

“You look at the burden you’re placing on the school system not only to meet the testing requirements but to help integrate these kids into modern American life,” he said.

Cultural differences are also an issue outside schools, he said. Recently a refugee was found on a local ranch hunting for food.

“Obviously, it was quite a shock to some of the ranchers,” Thornberry said.

Check out our previous mentions of Amarillo—a preferred resettlement site in 2009—here.

Nashville: David Lubell’s immigrant entrepreneurs busted for selling illegal drugs …

02/21/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..from, what else, their convenience stores!

David Lubell of ‘Welcoming America’ founded ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ and now works for ORR and George Soros promoting immigrant entrepreneurs, among other multi-cultural joys.

Who is David Lubell? He is the much bally-hood founder of ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ and now he runs a partially government-funded non-profit (they get funds from GEORGE SOROS too!) called ‘Welcoming America’ that has been hired by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to get YOUR minds right about immigrants. We first showcased them here in June of 2013.

Keep in mind this is not a community organizing group geared toward encouraging refugees and other immigrants to try to fit in to your cities and towns, they are working on YOU (the “receiving community”), to make you more “welcoming” to the diversity coming your way.

Two days ago, Lubell was showcased at the New York Times blog which tells us that without David Lubell and his ‘Welcoming Tennessee‘ there would be no ‘vibrant’ immigrant city—Nashville— filled with foreign ‘entrepreneurs’ (one of their favorite themes involves immigrants bringing new business to your pathetic city) and ‘vibrant diversity.’

Nashville has the fastest growing foreign-born population in the US, here.

I have a pressing question, as do some of our readers: If immigrants were bringing economic boom times to beleaguered cities then why aren’t these cities—Lewiston, ME, Manchester, NH, Clarkston, GA?—clamoring for more immigrant entrepreneurs? Instead they are begging for less! LOL! Welcoming America and ORR calls these “pockets of resistance.”

Why, also, are those who resettle refugees always out scouting new fresh unsuspecting territory in which to place refugees—-like Wyoming!

So to the New York Times…..

First some stats that blew me away. Surely you are all familiar with the great wave of immigrants that came to America in the late 1880’s to early 1900’s (there was no welfare for them by the way, they had to survive and learn English or go back to where they came from and most were Europeans).

The wave was so great that the US cut off immigration to any large extent for decades following the 1920’s so that there might be time for the huge flood to assimilate, and to allow time for the American voters to calm down. Get this! We have allowed more immigration in the last 20 years than we did in 40 of the great wave.

From the NYT blog:

The need has rarely been greater. From 1990 to 2010, the United States immigrant population increased by 20 million, roughly the same number of people who entered the country during the great wave of immigration between 1880 and 1920. Today, there are about 40 million foreign-born people in the United States (about 46 percent are naturalized citizens).

Unlike the immigrants of the past, the new immigrants are more diverse and more scattered — many living in midsize cities like Boise, Idaho; Louisville, Ky.; Dayton, Ohio; and Memphis, where, until recently, the foreign-born populations were small. [Cities cited here are sites of refugee resettlement, immigrants just don’t “find their way” from Africa or the Middle East to Boise or Memphis!—ed]

Mohammad Amer busted in Nashville for drug sales out of a liquor store—Lubell immigrant entrepreneur?

Lubell’s Nashville entrepreneurs:

You can read the rest of the opinion piece, a paean to David Lubell, yourself because I want to tell you about some of Lubell’s Nashville entrepreneurial stars–Ebrahim Fahim, Maged Youssef Milkhail and Mohammad Amer! Word on the street in Nashville is that some of those charged are Egyptians who received asylum claiming religious persecution back home (are they among the 70% found to be frauds?)

From The Tennessean earlier this month:

Two convenience stores could go out of business after their owners — one of which has now been busted twice — admitted in court Friday that they sold a liquid form of synthetic marijuana

Metro police in January padlocked First Discount Tobacco & Beer and Dolphin Market Discount Tobacco & Beer on Lebanon Pike after they say the owners sold a liquid designed to get electronic cigarette users high. The products were sold for $40 per bottle with names such as “Relax” and “Maui Maui.” A worker at Dolphin Market marketed the drug to one customer as a way to get high.

It wasn’t the first time First Discount has been accused of selling illegal, synthetic marijuana. The store was shuttered in 2012 after they were found selling products called “7H Kush” and “Purple Diesel” marketed as “incense” but designed to get people high.

On Friday, that business’ owners, Said Ebrahim Fahim and Maged Youssef Milkhail, pleaded guilty to contempt of court charges for violating an order stemming from the 2012 raid. Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier, who had made the 2012 order, ruled that the pair would avoid jail time, but First Discount would be padlocked for 90 days. He ordered that Dolphin Market, which had no priors, be closed for 30 days and forfeit $14,000.

Nashville police shut down 20 such businesses (at least temporarily)! I hope they were investigating food stamp fraud too!

With the help of a 2012 law, Nashville’s police and prosecutors have used public nuisances statutes to shut down nearly 20 businesses found to have been selling these illegal drugs, which are typically synthetic variants of marijuana, ecstasy or amphetamines marketed as incense or bath salts.

What’s a good Muslim entrepreneur (see photo of Mohammad Amer) doing running a liquor store? I guess that is a question for another day. But, here is the other bust reported in Nashville recently.

Once your city is deemed “welcoming,” get ready for more immigrant schemers (oops! entrepreneurs!) like these!