A shooting at a liquor store in Hudson, Wisconsin resulted last Sunday when rival Somali gangs met outside a Hudson liquor store (Minnesota liquor stores are closed on Sundays).
Investigators say the weekend shootings of three men at a Hudson liquor store involved members of rival gangs from Minneapolis. Saint Croix County prosecutors filed a total of 30 felony charges Tuesday against 22-year-old Guled Abdi and 26-year-old Ahmed Hirsi. Both men remain in the Hennepin County jail awaiting extradition to Wisconsin, where they will each face six charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, six counts of reckless endangerment, and three counts of reckless injury.
The shootings occurred Sunday morning outside Spirit Seller Liquor in downtown Hudson. Investigators said six members of the Somali Outlaws gang were partying Saturday night, and drove their SUV to Hudson in the morning because liquor stores in Minnesota are closed on Sundays. Two people went in the store to buy the liquor, but their credit card was rejected. Outside, two men in a car approached and offered the group alcohol and cigarettes. A derogatory remark was apparently said during the exchange, and shots were fired at all six in the SUV. Three were wounded and one woman, 28-year-old Fartun Aidid, remained in critical condition at last word at a Saint Paul hospital. [Will the taxpayers,or the hospital, be paying her medical bills?—ed]
Another trial on the horizon? Another case where the local jurisdiction should be allowed to seek reimbursement from the US State Department for a refugee criminal case?
Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis? This 2011 post remains almost daily one of our top-read posts. Thank the US State Department and three of its top Minnesota resettlement contractors: Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities, and World Relief (Evangelicals).
Uh oh! The fur is flying (or something is hitting the fan!) in Wisconsin where an elected official is bucking the Mayor and other city council members about the plans for US State Department resettlement contractor World Relief*** (subcontractor World Relief of Fox Valley) to bring in more third world refugees from Burma (Myanmar), Iraq and the Congo.
I told you about Appleton here last Novemberand it’s a post worth re-visiting. Check, out the Mayor and his diversity coordinator!
In this story the Mayor says like a petulant child: “These are the diverse people I want in our city.”
Alderman Jirschele called for immediate suspension of refugee resettlement in Appleton.
Readers need to help spread this latest newsabout one (rare!) brave alderman standing up to the ‘diversity is beautiful’ crowd that has launched willy-nilly (as usual) into resettling more refugees before a city is capable of handling large numbers of poor and needy people.
The US State Department HATES news stories like this one where someone dares to say NO!—because consequently as the news gets out, others, elsewhere in America, learn that there is resistance!
APPLETON — An Appleton alderman says he has serious concerns about 75 refugees relocating in Appleton this year, setting off a furious response from City Hall.
Jeff Jirschele, who represents a portion of the city’s south side, said this week that planning has been lax and the region needs to be sure it’s prepared for the challenges with the resettlement — which is expected to bring people here from Congo, Iraq and Myanmar.
“I’m worried about these people and our social safety net when they arrive,” Jirschele said. “These are real people and real lives … we have no room to flounder on housing or medical care despite the best intentions of the groups involved.”
Jirschele authored a resolution with some tough language aimed at World Relief Fox Valley, the Oshkosh-based group shepherding the resettlement, and its selection of Appleton for a resettlement city.
He said the group had “not been vetted” and called for an immediate suspension of all city efforts in the relocation until a group could identify the impact of absorbing the refugees into the community.
“I understand it’s emblematic of our community to help people, but we need to slow down and take a breath,” Jirschele said. “I’m already hearing some folks that think this resolution is cold-hearted, but the reality is good intentions aren’t good enough to produce a successful outcome.”
Alderman hits a nerve!
Jirschele’s sentiment hit a nerve Thursday among fellow aldermen and Mayor Tim Hanna.
Hanna said he spoke for all City Hall departments in criticizing both the tone and content of Jirschele’s resolution.
Read on. A representative from World Relief says that most refugees are not on food stamps. Not so, from the latest available figures, 63% of refugees nationwide are on food stamps and I doubt the numbers are somehow much better in Wisconsin.
***So what is World Relief?
Just a little bit about World Relief whose full legal name is World Relief Corporation of National Association of Evangelicals. It is one of nine major refugee contractors the US State Department has chosen to resettle refugees. The State Department pays them by the head for each refugee they resettle. In turn, World Relief contracts two dozen subcontractorsincluding the one in this news story—World Relief Fox Valley.
It is very hard to track the federal dollars that flow from the primary contractor to subcontractors (there is no financial auditing done by the feds). I could not find a Form 990 for the Oshkosh/Appleton subcontractor, but World Relief’s most recent Form 990 is here. Note on page 9 that their income that year was $51.8 MILLION and you (the taxpayer) paid them $34.1 million of that. This is not a charitable effort from the goodness of their Christian hearts and pocketbooks—it is big business funded by you!
One item that caught my eye on that same page 9 was a line in the income ledger that is also YOUR money. They received $1.3 million for “travel loan commission.” What that means is that taxpayers paid the airfare (in a loan program) for the refugees to fly to your city and it’s up to the contractor to collect the loan from the refugees. When they are successful (and we don’t know how many loans go uncollected) they keep a cut. In this particular year, the cut was $1.3 million of taxpayer money that also went to the contractor on top of the $34.1 million! Racket huh!
And, on page 10 note that they pay out approximately $25 million for salaries and benefits/other payroll expenses.
For more about how refugee resettlement works, visit our fact sheet here.
And, one more thing, once your city is deemed “welcoming” these contractors are paid to do the paperwork to bring the family members of those they had previously resettled and there is no end in sight!
I have two complaints about this story, ‘Would-be business owners move one step closer to dream.‘
First, the next time you hear some open borders advocates saying immigrants create more new businesses, please remember that the immigrants get special loan deals and government-funded training to become “entrepreneurs.” You can bet there is no program like this one for some poor American women living in a mobile home community who might like to set up a daycare for their kind of people.
Then secondly, if we expect refugees to become integrated (oops! assimilated) wouldn’t the kids be better off in daycare (if they needed daycare) where people speak English and do activities that most Americans do instead of in ethnically and culturally segregated daycare centers? Don’t get me wrong, if people want to stay segregated, I’m o.k. with that, it is a free country, I just don’t think federal taxpayer dollars should be used to facilitate segregation.
Refugees who have the dream of starting their own business are closer to making that a reality.
Muslim women review their daycare plans
The participants of the Refugee Childcare Microenterprise Development Project are working to start their own home-based daycare businesses.
The program designed to help refugees is a project of the Social Development Commission (SDC) in partnership with the Pan African Community Association and the Multicultural Entrepreneurial Institute (MEI).
The participants have been taking classes to gain the knowledge and certification needed to start and successfully operate their own home-based childcare business.
[….]
The program participants said that it has been very challenging to reach this point in their efforts, pointing specifically to cultural and language barriers that have presented problems. [So, what language will they speak in their daycare centers?—ed]
Federal grant program at ORR funds this (well, actually you do!). Grant program expanded!
Here is informationon the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement funding that was more than doubled in 2012 for Microenterprise/Home based child care:
In FY2012, ORR increased funding to the program, raising it from $2.225 million to $5,752 million, and offering grants to a total of 34 agencies.
And, get this! In order to qualify one cannot be a US citizen!
All low.income refugees who are not citizens are eligible for services under this program.
I’ll betcha there are some potential lawsuit angles in this taxpayer-funded program. I wonder if there are any American citizen women in Wisconsin who are struggling to set up daycare centers and having problems doing so, either with paperwork/permits or lack of start-up money?
The Milwaukee JournalSentinelhas publish a feel-good story about how successfully Somali Bantus are settling in to Wisconsin. You can read the opening yourself about one boy who becomes the first Somali in Wisconsin to go to college. We are told that he changed his last name from Mursal to Mohamad.
The article follows with some nuggets of information on the program with a reference to Catholic Charities role in the resettlement.
According to the state’s Department of Children and Families, the first wave of Somali refugees began arriving in 1995. Since then the federal government has resettled approximately 700 Somali in Wisconsin, primarily in Brown, Barron, Dane and Milwaukee counties.
The largest population — about 400 people —lives in Milwaukee, said Joe Scialfa, communications director for DCF.
But Ussuf Mursal, Mohamad’s brother, who works at Catholic Social Services refugee program, thinks the actual number is considerably larger. He estimates as many as 1,300 Somalis are now living here.
There are about 250 families, he said, and most families have five or more children. For example, he said, he now has six children and his ex-wife has 11 children, including two of his.[I’m wondering if the ex-wife is an ex so that she can receive welfare benefits as a single mother?—ed]
With such large families, providing the necessary support is a strain, he said. And because so many Somali Bantu did not go to school, passing the U.S. citizenship test presents a problem. Still, many are getting established, buying homes and starting businesses.
Another Somali is quoted:
“We came here for security, education and a better life,” he said. He has 13 children, some grown, some who attend Riverside High School or Milwaukee Area Technical College.
And, he supports them all at his newly acquired halal grocery store.
Go herefor more on Catholic Charities and refugees in Milwaukee. Lutheran Social Servicesis their main competitor for contracts with the US State Department to bring refugees to this part of Wisconsin.
Here is a short AP story at The Republic of Columbus, Indiana. Apparently Appleton is a target city, among 6 others in Wisconsin, to receive the blessings of diversity—all kinds are on the way!
Appleton Mayor and Diversity Coordinator Flores celebrate on election night 2012. Photo from FairWisconsin.
The resettlement program is only three years old in Appleton—that is very new.
However, the chance of extricating itself from the situation is limited because with a DIVERSITY COORDINATOR on the city payroll, she will be working 9-5 to bring in the diversity and thus, in my opinion, dooming Appleton’s economic and social ‘future.’
APPLETON, Wisconsin — Plans are underway in eastern Wisconsin to resettle about 75 refugees from conflict zones around the world.
The nonprofit organization World Relief Fox Valley* is coordinating health screenings, housing and integration services for the refugees coming from Congo, Iraq and Myanmar in 2014. World Relief will work to help the refugees search for jobs that match their skills.
It is the third year for the operation, which has already resettled 174 people, mainly from Myanmar. Others have arrived from Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Darfur, said Myriam Mwizerwa, the Oshkosh office director.
“We’re expecting 135 in the next year, with about 75 of them in the Appleton area,” Mwizerwa told Post-Crescent Media (http://post.cr/1ioesLt). “We don’t get notification about who is coming and when until about two weeks before they arrive.”
With the first refugees expected to arrive in January, nonprofits, schools and city officials are coordinating efforts.
“Our goal is self-sufficiency,” Mwizerwa said. “We have to get everyone in an employment position within a year and work to find industries that match skills.”
Appleton’s diversity coordinator Kathy Flores said she will be working with churches, synagogues and mosques to prepare accommodations.
“These individuals have faced some trauma in their home countries and are coming here for some very serious reasons, and we’re excited to be helpful and welcoming,” Flores said.
Diversity coordinator! Do you have one in your town?
I see in 2011 there was quite a controversy involving Flores, a gay rights activist, and whether the city should fund such a position. Apparently she survived the fight, because here she is with the Mayor on Election night 2012.
What are the six target cities for refugee resettlement in Wisconsin, according to this story from earlier in the year they are:
Appleton, Barron, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh
For readers arriving at RRW for the first time, you might find our “fact sheet” very helpful. Click here.
