Tag: Wilson-Fish

It's getting testy in Tennessee over states' rights lawsuit on refugee program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Republican State Senator Mark Norris criticizes Republican Gov. Bill Haslam in exchange characterized as the ‘gloves coming off.’
Readers, it is astounding to me, there is so much incredible (and critical) news about the federal Refugee Admissions Program in recent days and weeks and nary a word about it on any mainstream or cable media that I’ve seen.
In fact there will be a big public meeting in Rutland, VT this week and I’m seeing nothing in the media about it!
Back to Tennessee and another report from Breitbart’s star refugee reporter, Michael Patrick Leahy.  For new readers, please go here to read the background of this hot issue involving a Republican governor refusing to go along with his Republican legislature.
Leahy at Breitbart:

NASHVILLE, Tennessee—State Senator Mark Norris (R-Collierville) is sharply rebuking Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam for mischaracterizing the Tennessee General Assembly’s Tenth Amendment lawsuit against the federal government for its operation of the refugee resettlement program to the state’s Attorney General, Herbert Slatery.

Mark Norris 2
TN Senator Mark Norris, standing up for the Tenth Amendment!

In a letter sent on Monday, Norris, the co-sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 467, which passed both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly by wide margins, took the gloves off against the state’s Republican governor.

“I am troubled by the statement you released on Friday concerning SJR467,and I am uncomfortable with your mischaracterization of this important Resolution,” Norris wrote.

“The federal government must not do indirectly what it cannot lawfully do directly, and the Tennessee General Assembly must have the opportunity to approve, or disapprove, specific expenditures through the appropriation process,”

[….]

Norris then blasted Haslam for his poor understanding of the federal statutes and regulations upon which the federal refugee resettlement program is based.

Tennessee’s refugee lawsuit against the federal government “is not about ‘dismantling the Refugee Act’ as you said. It is about enforcing it,” Norris wrote….

There is much more here.
Come on governors of Wilson-Fish states, stand up for your states!!!  Where are you Chris Christie and Sam Brownback?

Rutland, VT refugee controversy confirms what we have been saying for years!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Federal refugee contractors, like the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program operate in secrecy making every effort to get resettlement programs up and running in unsuspecting communities before the general public gets wind of it!
See our earlier post on Rutland, here.  There is also another story on the uproar, here, which I never got time to post.

Amila Merdzanovic
Former refugee Amila Merdzanovic came to Vermont as a refugee in 1995 and now runs the resettlement program there for USCRI (one of the nine big refugee contractors). She says, no public meeting because all the “anti-immigrants” will come out of the woodwork. Photo and information on a propaganda event coming up June 1: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/syria-and-refugee-resettlement-in-vermont-registration-20679143876

Now this!  Good for MyChamplainValley.com . They actually filed a public information request and got this incredible admission! (emphasis is mine)

New information on how the City of Rutland came to be the future home of 100 Syrian refugees. Mayor Chris Louras made the announcement a few weeks ago, and many were shocked at the speed of the process.

While the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP) held meetings as far back as January 14th, the general public was never informed. The initial meeting included members of the VRRP, Mayor Louras, President of the Rutland City Alderman William Notte, State Refugee Coordinators, and a member of the Rutland Area Farm and Food Link group.

Through a public records request filed with the City of Rutland, we learned a public meeting was considered, but didn’t happen.

“This is just the beginning, it’s a historic moment for us as the Refugee Program and I think it’s a historic moment in Vermont,” stated Amila Merdzanovic, Director of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program. She hopes Rutland is the first of many communities to consider welcoming refugees.

While the City’s Mayor and many others are excited about the process, other elected officials and members of the public say they felt blindsided. “My initial reaction was I wanted more information,” said City Alderman Ed Larson in an April 28th interview. He didn’t learn of the plan until a day before the Mayor’s announcement.

Of course they want no public meeting!

They know they must get the program in place before anyone knows what is happening! Readers, look for this happening where you live.  They are desperate for more cities and towns.  Obama has made promises and there aren’t enough locations to accommodate all of the refugees he wants.

According to records we obtained from the City of Rutland, a public discussion was considered, but never took place. In an April 14th email to Mayor Louras, Merdzanovic wrote “if we open it up to anybody and everybody, all sorts of people will come out of the woodwork, anti-immigrant… anti-anything.”

[….]

The email went on to suggest that if a meeting were to be held, it should be controlled, and include groups like the United Way and Area Churches. But both United way and Rutland area church leaders told us they welcome the refugees, but were not contacted to be part of a discussion during the planning process.

Too bad local citizens! the UN/US State Department is going to seed your towns whether you like it or not!

Merdzanovic points out that resettlement has been happening in Chittenden County for 30 years, and people are used to it. She understand it will take time in Rutland, and adds no matter what, things are moving forward, “Our government invites refugees to come into the United States and to come to Vermont. we don’t control it, we don’t vote on it luckily.”

Continue reading here and be sure to watch the news clip—watch and listen to Merdzanovic.  
BTW, Merdzanovic’s boss is Lavinia Limon who ran the Office of Refugee Resettlement for Bill Clinton.
Vermont is a Wilson-Fish state which means the contractor and the federal government run the program there with no input from elected state representatives.  There is zero chance that the present governor would ever stand up for States’ Rights.
Click here for all of our previous posts on, as one of our readers once called it, the Green Card State!  And, be sure to visit or revisit, Ten things your town needs to know! by clicking here.  See especially #10—demand a public meeting!
 

Bowling Green, KY nervous about planned Syrian resettlement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It sure looks like another ‘pocket of resistance’ is forming, this time in Bowling Green, KY (a growing Muslim community) the hometown of Senator Rand Paul and the resettlement site of two convicted Iraqi refugee terrorists who had been placed there a few years ago.
Before you read the story, you should visit our very large archive on Bowling Green by clicking here. There has been much turmoil over the years with resettlement there generally relating to refugees being dumped by their resettlement contractors.
And, consider the fact that Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has never (to my knowledge) ever lifted a finger to question the program in his own state, it tells me that the program is driven there by Big Meat, the Chamber of Commerce and other industries who want a continuous supply of cheap immigrant labor.

Melinda Hill
Commissioner and Mayor Pro-Tem Melinda Hill is an outspoken critic of the Syrian resettlement plan for Bowling Green. Photo here: http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/q-a-with-melinda-hill/article_a755552e-335a-544c-9b4d-6a7b39c30b41.html

Senator Rand Paul has spoken up a few times over the years, but with a ‘conservative’ governor there now and if Paul sticks with past comments, it’s time to reevaluate Kentucky’s WILSON-FISH program.
Here is the news from WKU radio:

Bowling Green is preparing to welcome Syrian refugees later this year who are fleeing their country’s civil war. The Warren County-based Kentucky International Center has agreed to resettle 40 Syrians, but the decision is raising concerns in the local community.

[….]

The plan to open the city’s doors to Syrian refugees is creating backlash in what has otherwise been a welcoming environment. City Commissioner and Mayor Pro-Tem Melinda Hill has been one of the most outspoken critics of the plan to resettle Syrians in Bowling Green. She says she doesn’t have confidence in the federal government’s screening process.

“Our country has systems in place where our criminals, we know what they did, when they did it,” Hill tells WKU Public Radio. “Many of these people are from countries that do not have systems like that in place, or if they did have them, these people have not been entered into the system, they’ve not been kept up to date, or those systems have been destroyed. We don’t have access to any background checks. It’s all questions and answers.”

[….]

Some locals residents are more apprehensive since the 2011 arrest of two Iraqi men living in Bowling Green. Both are now in prison for conspiring to send weapons and cash to the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

[….]

The Syrians represent a small fraction of the 400 other refugees coming to Bowling Green this year, including from Africa, Asia, and Cuba. If approved by the federal government, 40 Syrians will start a new life that they hope won’t be derailed by fears of terrorism.

Concerned Kentuckians should be letting your governor know that he could be the one brave governor needed!  Go here and see what he could do!  If he is worried about being alone, he could call upon Chris Christie and Sam Brownback to join him! Three brave governors is surely better than one!
P.S. If anyone knows Commissioner Hill, please send her this post.  She may not know some information we have linked in here.

North Dakota State legislator signals interest in suing feds over refugee program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

North Dakota is a Wilson-Fish state whose refugee program has, for about 6 or 7 years now, been run by a non-profit group, a Lutheran resettlement contractor.
This is big news to add to other big news we’ve had over the last few days and weeks about possible challenges to the federal government on how it turns over decisions on who is resettled and where and the resultant expenditure of tax dollars via unelected NGOs.  (I am over simplifying, but W-F is all about the availability of welfare dollars to refugees and the job of the NGOs to make sure they get their ‘services.’).
See Tennessee, Kansas and New Jersey for the latest, then this…..
From Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart yesterday:

State Rep. Al Carlson of Fargo, the Republican Majority Leader in the North Dakota House of Representatives, tells Breitbart News he wants the state to sue the federal government over the refugee resettlement program.

map-refugees-distorted
What is this you ask? It is a map distorted to show which states are disproportionately receiving refugees based on their overall populations. You can readily see that North and South Dakota are both overly refugee-populated compared with states such as California and Texas. http://www.humanosphere.org/basics/2014/02/map-day-refugees-accepted-us-states-population-adjusted/

As in Tennessee, where the General Assembly recently declared its intent to sue the federal government on Tenth Amendment constitutional grounds, North Dakota is one of fourteen states that have withdrawn from the federal refugee resettlement program where the federal government continues to resettle refugees under the Wilson-Fish alternative program.

“If that Tennessee lawsuit is going forward when the state legislature convenes in January, I would push to do that,” Carlson tells Breitbart News about passing legislation authorizing North Dakota to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement on Tenth Amendment grounds.

“I think the current Attorney General [Wayne Stenehjem] would be behind doing that as well. I don’t know about the other candidate for governor,” he adds.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, could initiate such a lawsuit without waiting for the North Dakota State Legislature to act, but he has given no indication he intends to do so.

Watch the interview by reporter Chris Berg (we mentioned him here previously) with Rep. Al Carlson, North Dakota House Majority Leader (go to minute 8:14).  By the way, there is a discussion here about ND expanding Medicaid.  Readers should know that if your state does that it becomes a greater enticement for the feds and their contractors to drop refugees off in the state.
Continue reading Leahy’s detailed update on the Wilson-Fish controversy with this latest news from North Dakota.
And, for all of you in ‘pockets of resistance’ in North Dakota, this gubernatorial election (mentioned by Leahy) is a great opportunity to make refugee resettlement an issue in that election! Go out to every campaign event you can find and ask candidates their views on whether the federal government and a non-profit group have the right to change the social and economic character of your communities!
Go here for our complete North Dakota archive.

ACLU of New Jersey asks Christie to NOT withdraw from federal refugee program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They are talking big about not being bothered by the news from Kansas and New Jersey, but believe me they are getting nervous!
Who is “they?”  That would be the open-borders cabal that includes the American Civil Liberties Union (as we are learning here), and Human Rights First (see our previous post).  It surely includes the nine major federal contractors responsible for placing refugees in your towns as well.

chris christie 2
Sue Christie sue!

If they are so confident that refugee resettlement can continue without slowdown if a governor takes the state out of the program, then why is the ACLU bothering to badger Christie?

For new readers, it all began recently with the move by the Tennessee legislature to vote to sue the feds on States’ Rights grounds.
Once a state opts-out of the program (TN opted-out nearly ten years ago), the federal government claims they can simply assign a non-profit group to run things for the federal government in that state.  But, it’s looking like they haven’t a legal leg to stand on and so if a governor withdraws his/her state and follows up with step #2—suing the federal government when they assign a non-profit group to determine how state and local tax dollars are expended—this program could be ground to a halt.  
Here is what we just learned from North Jersey.com:

TRENTON — The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey is calling on Republican Gov. Chris Christie to reconsider withdrawing from a federal refugee resettlement program.

The group sent Christie a letter Tuesday arguing that the state has a long history of welcoming refugees from across the world.

Christie’s office did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment.

The group says the letter comes in response to the Christie administration’s decision last month to notify the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program that it intended to pull out.

For new readers, in addition to New Jersey and Kansas, these (below) are the so-called Wilson-Fish states where the federal program is being run by mostly unaccountable-to-the-taxpayers non-profit groups.

Folks in NJ and Kansas need to thank your governors and urge them to take step #2!  

And, if you live in one of these states tell your governor to look at the Thomas More Law Center case.
Wilson-Fish states (one city) and which NGO is running the program there:

Alabama: USCCB – Catholic Social Services

Alaska: USCCB – Catholic Social Services

Colorado: Colorado Department of Human Services

Idaho: Janus Inc. (formerly Mountain States Group), Idaho Office for Refugees

Kentucky: USCCB – Catholic Charities of Louisville, Kentucky Office for Refugees

Louisiana: USCCB – Catholic Charities Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana Office for Refugees

Massachusetts: Office for Refugees and Immigrants

Nevada: USCCB – Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada

North Dakota: LIRS – Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota

San Diego County, CA: USCCB – Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego

South Dakota: LIRS – Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota

Tennessee: USCCB – Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Tennessee Office for Refugees

Vermont: USCRI – Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program

And, one last thing, for the life of me I have never been able to understand how the ACLU can look the other way on the separation of church and state when these ‘religious’ groups are paid by the taxpayer to resettle refugees.  I guess it’s simply the fact that these ‘religious’ groups are on the political Left as is the ACLU!