Actually Wausau is not a new site altogether. Way before my time of writing this blog, which I started in 2007, Wausau saw a huge influx of Hmong refugees in the wake of our disastrous war in Southeast Asia.
Some Hmong went on to do okay as ‘new Americans,’ others not so much, as I pointed out here in 2019 at my other blog ‘Frauds and Crooks.’
I suspect Wausau has seen refugees continue to arrive in recent years placed there by the nearest resettlement office, but we can no longer get the data as the US State Department has closed to the public most of the information they store at the Refugee Processing Center.
Apparently Wausau has run out of needy Americans for the Christians to love and care for!
However, now it appears Wausau is on the target list for a new resettlement agency there, this time with the Ethiopian Community Development Council as the lead government contractor. (There are nine major contractors!***)
Look people! ARE YOU LISTENING? (Yes, I am shouting.)
How many times in the last 13 to 14 years have I written about this—enough to make me feel insanity setting in!
WAKE THE H*** UP!
We are losing our country!
Do you know, the other day someone asked me about Wyoming and I wrote this post:
In the post is a link to the present refugee resettlement sites.
Those are the sites where the contractors have subcontractor offices. I wrote the post on Tuesday and since then ONLY 16 readers have even bothered to open the link to see if their location is already an established resettlement site.
Those are the sites where very large numbers of additional refugees will be placed in the coming months as the Biden Administration seeks to find housing and social services for up to 125,000 refugees from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. And, that does not include the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens pouring in.
By the way, in my experience, once a refugee office is open in your town it will also ‘serve’ as a magnet for illegal aliens and asylum seekers who will be looking for guidance on where to get their free stuff.
It is increasingly difficult for me to continue to repeat things I have been writing about for over a decade and wondering if anyone is listening.
At the end of the Obama Administration, the contractors were looking for approximately 40 new sites because they had worn out their welcome in some long-standing resettlement cities.
They thought Hillary would follow Obama to the White House and the numbers that were high under Obama would expand even further. Trump created a hiatus for a few years, but we are now back to the big push to change America by changing the people.
As I said here about Winchester, Virginia in May, they are scrambling for new sites.
I said it again on Friday when I wrote about Asheville, North Carolina, see here.
In September, Biden will be setting the cap for FY22 and it is expected to be 125,000 beginning on October 1, 2021.
They are bidding for bodies!
That is what one longtime refugee watcher calls it because the contractors are paid by the federal government (by you, the taxpayer) on a per head basis!
To accomplish Biden’s goal, the nine contractors are competing with each other and madly scrambling to find new fresh territory and get sub-offices open.
In fact, they must get their plans in to the US State Department ideally in August or early September—the rush is on and that is why stories like the one from Wausau I’m about to mention are popping up.
The reader who alerted me about Wausau sounded desperate to know what they could do to stop the planned site.
Let me be clear! There is no lawsuit you can file, no national leader to help you (no Senators, no Congressmen), and no national immigration control group that will come and save you.
There is only one thing you can do and that is hard.
You must organize locally and make an enormous political noise against the plan (while being called a racist and xenophobe).
Back in February I began a series of posts about organizing locally.
I never did finish the series because so few people were bothering to read it (and when people don’t read, I get lazy!). I know that the mention of work sends people into hiding and I know it’s not being read even as it is linked on my homepage because I get data daily about what posts people are reading.
Local Religious Leaders Looking to Bring Refugees to Wausau
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A group of Religious leaders in Wausau is hoping to help settle dozens of vetted and screened refugees in the region in the next few years.
Pastor Rebecca Voss must believe it is so much cooler to welcome poverty from across the world than to help poor neighbors right here at home.
After meeting with the group led by First United Methodist Church Pastor Rebecca Voss, the Ethiopian Community Development Council has selected Wausau to receive around 75 approved refugees from Africa and the Middle East.Voss says it started as an idea in a Bible Study group that grew over time. [Just think about that, some non-profit group largely funded by the feds and located in Virginia has “selected Wausau!”—ed]
“We really were studying Christian hospitality, what it means to welcome the stranger and how we can be a place of refuge, safety, and healing for those who have been through some pretty traumatic experiences,” said Voss. “They have no place to call home, but we can create a community of love and respect for one another.”
The group is working with the ECDC, one of nine nationally recognized resettlement agencies. Voss says the group met them at “the right time and the right place,” to get the idea moving forward through a series of meetings with Voss’ group and some local businesses.
“They met with community leaders in both the non-profit sector and business sector, and really it led to a diversity of people being in solid agreement that we need refugees probably more than they need us,” she said. “They are resilient, many of them have been through a lot of trauma, so they will need a lot of compassion as they get resettled. But, we do know that they will strengthen our community.”
How Christian of them to find cheap foreign laborers for local businesses.
Do they have meatpackers in Wausau, I wonder!
She adds that’s especially true since many refugees are hard workers who can help fill some of the jobs that have been sitting vacant as the region comes out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This next bit makes me laugh! Yeh, yeh, volunteers will help, but guess what? Volunteers quickly burn out and the burden of the refugees falls on the community at large, or they simply fall through the cracks while they build ethnic enclaves where crime grows. I have seen it time and time again.
She went on to say that the group is not looking for any public money or support from the city. Each refugee would be paired up with a sponsorship group such as a Church, Bible Study group, book club, or anyone else with a desire to help out. They would provide some money upfront- around $2,000 or so- to get the refugees into a rental property with some light furnishings and furniture.
Then they would be expected to show them basics such as how to navigate the public transit system, use the library, get them set up with healthcare, get their children registered for school, and any other life skills they may need help with as they look to build a life in the region.
ECDC doesn’t pick Wausau’s refugees and neither does the city! They are chosen mostly by the United Nations! Those listed below are mostly Muslims. The Burmese coming in large numbers to the US right now are Rohingya Muslims.
Voss adds that despite the name “Ethiopia” being in the name of the group they are working with, there would be people from other African countries brought to the area along with some from Burma, Afghanistan, and Iraq. That could also include interpreters who worked with the US military during the recent wars in both nations.
Does Wausau have a satellite office forCAIRyet? If not, look for one getting established soon!
The first refugees could be settled by October of this year. Others will be placed throughout 2022.
Yup, that is what I said above—the drive is on to find ‘welcoming’ and naïve communities as fast as possible because they want to be ready by October first.
And, one more thing!
Once a site is chosen and the refugees begin to arrive it will be too late because the flow will never end as the contractors work to bring more members of the extended families of the first refugees they place in Wausau.
I hope you made it this far so that I won’t feel like I have wasted hours on a beautiful Sunday saying the same thing I have been saying for years!
*** Here for new readers are the nine government contractors that monopolize all refugee placement in the US. Some of the fake non-profits are almost completely funded by the federal government/you! ECDC is one of those as I pointed out here.
“I wanted to come here, have a nice house, a car, but they kill your son,” she said. “They broke my heart. They killed me, too.”
(Mother questioning why she ever came from the DR Congo to Chicago)
Stories are increasingly showing up in the media about refugees placed by federally funded resettlement agencies in to cheap housing in dangerous neighborhoods. 17-year-old Darlis was shot and killed in Chicago
Yesterday I postedthis story from San Antonio, and reader ‘ganjagrandma’ sent another story from last week about Milwaukee, Chicago and Rockford, Illinois where not only were refugees placed in slum housing, but were targets of violence and murder in the neighborhoods where they were placed.
(I suspect those refugees in a Boise housing complex are feeling like Darlis’ mother.)
Of course, I am a little suspicious about this spate of stories because I think what it is leading to is a demand for more federal money for refugee agencies and an opportunity to blame Donald Trump yet again for being heartless.
You need to know a couple of things before I go on with this latest news on the subject. Continue reading “Refugees placed in rough neighborhoods, not so sure it was a good idea to come to America”→
Update:This group of Syrians will NOT now be placed in Hudson because the Dept. of State says they need more medical care than Hudson has to offer. They are going somewhere else. This case is all very strange from start to finish and it strikes me that Obama’s outgoing resettlement team is in disarray. Read about it here. See what the Catholic Church says, here.
I told you about a proposed (strange) arrangement to resettle 5 Syrian refugee families in the small town of Hudson, Wisconsin, here last month. A Catholic Church was being asked by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (a federal refugee contractor) to take full responsibility for the Syrian families. I wondered if that church would get the full per head amount of federal resettlement contract money.
A large meeting is (was?) scheduled in Hudson in early January to take the pulse of the community.
Local readers (who have formed a citizens’ group in opposition) tell me that that plan was suddenly scrapped and Lutheran Social Services out of Milwaukee came to town this week and condescendingly told residents, no, they (LSS), were going to bring the Syrians to Hudson and it was going to be a whole lot more than 21 (believed to be included in the five families).
Then, when I looked around this morning, I see that 7th District Congressman Sean Duffy sent a letteryesterday to the CEO of Lutheran Social Services in Wisconsin asking questions that every careful and concerned Member of Congress should be asking if he/she is being told ‘out of the blue’ that Syrian refugees (or any refugees!) were being chosen for the district.
Here is Duffy’s letter: I think most of you are surprised to see a reference to any assessment!
Where is the assessment for any of the 47 new sites we are told the US Department of State is considering in the closing days of the Obama Administration? If Rep. Duffy and others want to do a service to America they could reform the Refugee Admissions Program legislatively and require PUBLIC assessments of the suitability of communities to absorb large numbers of third world refugees! Endnote: When I checked my archives, I see I wrote about Hudson, Wisconsin in January 2014 when rival Somali gangs came over from Minnesota and got into a fight in Hudson, see here.
Our Wisconsin archive is here. ***Update***Wimpy Walker weighs in on refugees to Wisconsin here. It isn’t clear that he understands the present process. If he wants to see things change he better get in touch with pal Paul (Ryan) to change the law in Congress!
First, this proposal to a specific Catholic Church to effectively become a resettlement agency in a town with no resettlement office tells me that the refugee industry is getting desperate.
Frankly, as Congress has not appropriated enough money for Obama’s large refugee numbers for FY17 (already underway) because it has not acted on the budget for the upcoming year, contractorslike the US Conference of Catholic Bishops are looking for ways to pawn off some of their responsibilities on, in this case, an individual church.
Members of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church are apparently in the process of deciding if they will take responsibility for five(most likely Muslim since 99% of the Syrians entering the US now are Muslims) families. (I saw this story almost a week ago, so maybe they have already decided.) US Conference of Catholic Bishops attempting to get the most bang for their federal bucks by not opening an office while turning over responsibility for Syrian families to a specific church.
This is a huge undertaking. I watched as a church near where I live in 2007 took on the responsibility for one family and it was an enormous chore that didn’t end well. My local story is a long story, but members of St. Patricks must be prepared for many duties not the least of which is shuttling refugees in their own cars to myriad appointments (doctors, schools, social service departments) and often to jobs for months (one of the first things volunteers ultimately become weary of!).
And, one of the other things that volunteers tire of is the lack of appreciation some ethnic groups of refugees show for volunteers. I can’t say that will happen here, but the fun and excitement of taking care of Africans and Middle Easterners wears thin when the refugees act entitled.
One more thing before I get to the story: Hudson, Wisconsin is on the border of Minnesota. Normally a federal contractor has an office within a hundred miles of where it places the refugees, but the three offices maintained by the Bishops in Wisconsin (Greenbay, Sheboygan, and Milwaukee) are all hundreds of miles away. However, the USCCB office in St. Paul, Minnesota is only 18 miles from Hudson so I assume that out-of-state office will be sending the federal money to St. Patrick’s. My first thought is that the USCCB is now making decisions from over the border in Minnesota for what happens in another state. Here is the newsfrom the Hudson Star-Observer:
Rev. John Gerritts and St. Patrick’s Church received a call from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for the parish to assist with the resettlement of five Syrian refugee families from a camp in Turkey to Hudson. The church has not yet made a decision.
The conference is one of several organizations that helps with the federal government’s refugee resettlement program. Through the program, the U.S. will admit 85,000 refugees this year [reporter has it wrong, that was FY16, the number for FY17 is 110,000—ed] , according to the U.S. State Department.
These five refugee families have been vetted by the government and approved for resettlement in the United States, a process that can take between 18 and 24 months, Gerritts explained.
Hudson is right across the state line from a huge resettlement area (mostly Somali refugee resettlement) in Minnesota.
“It’s quite thorough and lengthy,” Gerritts said. “They are fully approved to move here. This is working through the government.”
Hudson was selected as the families’ new home because they indicated they had a relative in Hudson during the vetting process. [One relative and five families are coming? Sounds fishy—ed]
Whether or not these five refugee families come to Hudson is not up to the church, as they have already been approved by the federal government. Instead St. Patrick’s is being asked to be a resource to spearhead the resettlement.
[….]
Usually, after a location for resettlement is determined, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will reach out to an agency in the area that specializes in resettlement. The Hudson community does not have an agency like this, so instead St. Patrick’s has been asked to assist. St. Patrick’s is one of the first parishes in the country who have been asked to take on this role.
[….]
St. Patrick’s would not bear any of the financial cost for these services. The church would be responsible for disbursing the government funding provided for refugee resettlement.
For the full story, go here.
LOL! Parishioners at St. Patrick’s better get that in writing and the town of Hudson’s elected officials are presumably being briefed because there will be many costs to local taxpayers!
For new readers in Wisconsin, see our ‘Ten things your town needs to know’ by clicking here. It is not just one Catholic parish that will be impacted by the decision, but the whole town! If you don’t like what is happening be sure to let Speaker Paul Ryan hear from you!
Call home Paul Ryan! This outrageous “savings” program is one of many, you as Speaker of the House, need to investigate! Speaker Paul Ryan has shown zero interest in reforming the Refugee Act of 1980. I wonder could we suggest Janesville (his home town) as one of the many new resettlement sites in America!
I’m guessing this is not an isolated case.
For new readers, Speaker Paul Ryan has not allowed any serious Refugee Act reform bills (he allowed one sham bill because he knew the Senate wouldn’t pass it anyway) to move forward in the House during his tenure as speaker and for that matter neither has Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
These so-called ‘Individual Development Accounts’ are an abomination and potentially rife with fraud. When taxpayers learn about them (we have mentioned them on many occasions) they are shocked.
The federal government actually gives grants to non-profit refugee agencies to administer a program which allows refugees to get matching funds when they save money for four things (Education, business, home or car).
How would you like to get such a deal:
For every dollar a refugee saves, he/she is matched a dollar out of the US Treasury (your pocket)!
But, again the program is managed by a resettlement contractor (with no accountability to the taxpayer) like this one in Milwaukee. Financial audits/investigations of the contractors are rare.
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (hat tip: Joanne):
A Milwaukee nonprofit that offers after-school programs for refugee children and other assistance for refugees is under investigation for alleged misuse of federal funds.
The Pan-African Community Association gave money to at least 32 people who were not eligible to receive funds, investigators with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement have found, according to records obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Ethiopian Community Development Council is one of nine federally funded refugee contractors that could not exist without your tax dollars. Go to this link to see if they have an office near you: http://www.ecdcus.org/Where_We_Work/affiliates.html
In addition, the organization violated terms of federal grants by spending more than 35% of its annual budget on administrative costs and paying individuals in the form of money orders, rather than paying vendors directly for items purchased, the reports state.
The association received more than $440,000 in federal funds from 2012 to 2015 to help refugees from Africa and around the world buy cars and houses and to open businesses in Milwaukee. Using Individual Development Accounts, the program was designed to offer matching grants to refugees who, for example, saved at least $2,000 of their own money to go toward the purchase of a car or $4,000 toward a house.
[….]
The Pan-African Community Association is contracted through the “preferred communities program,” with the Ethiopian Community Development Council. The council, in turn, is one of about 10 [nine actually—ed] national organizations— mostly faith-based — that the federal government contracts with to provide services to refugees.
Continue here for more of the gory details and denials.
I haven’t written about “preferred communities” since here in 2014. But, you might have a look and see if your city is one of them. They don’t change often.
Call Congress!
Time to listen to ‘Mom for Trump’ (I am not going to quit trying to persuade you that right now there is only one place to put pressure to slow the flow of third worlders to your towns—Congress!):
Ann, could you tell all your readers on a daily basis to call our useless Congress @ 202 224 3121 and have them say DEFUND REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM. I call daily and if enough of us do so, we can make a difference.
If you have problems getting a live person on the phone when you call Washington (like I did when I called my Congressman John Delaney (D-MD) the other day), then find out the locations and phone numbers of their district and state offices and call those. When you have someone on the phone on Tuesday (they surely won’t be there on Monday), in addition to telling them to defund the program, find out where your member or Senator will be in the coming weeks and be there! Ask (in person, in front of an audience) if he or she will Defund the Refugee Resettlement Program when they get back to DC after the election.
