And, there are 350 of them in 180 cities. That means that in some cities two or more federally-funded agencies are falling over themselves to bring the joys of ethnic diversity to your neighborhood.
Have a look at who is responsible where you live and keep the list for future reference. Bear in mind that you might not have an office in your town (yet), but may be getting refugees from one of these offices nearby.
Ha! Ha! So much for Wyoming not having a refugee program, they sure do have an office listed!
Wyoming
LIRS
WY-LIRS-01: Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains
Address: 1600 Downing Street, Suite 600, Casper, WY 80218
Phone: 303-217-5184
Remember Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, here.
I wonder what blogger and immigration lawyer Jason Dzubow thinks of the Somali scheme (surely encouraged by Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains who resettled thousands of Somalis to CO to work in meatpacking) for “refugees” to high-tail-it to Wyoming to pick up subsidized housing vouchers to take back to Colorado (our top post for two weeks now! see also here) and thus rip-off the needy people of Wyoming.
We missed this blog post by Dzubow ten days ago (I’m not a regular visitor). But, this morning when I wanted to see what he has to say about the “unaccompanied alien children” issue, I saw this post, entitled: Wyoming, the “Equality State,” Is Anything But.
Washington, DC Immigration lawyer and blogger Jason Dzubow. http://www.lawmavens.com/html/jason_dzubow.html
Dzubow:
There is only one state in the Union without a refugee resettlement program–Wyoming. Late last year, the state’s Republican governor, Matt Mead, took some tepid steps toward establishing a public-private partnership to help resettle refugees in the Equality State. Predictably, those efforts were met by fierce resistance, both from inside and outside the state.
He credits Congolese refugee Bertine Bahigewith getting the campaign going to bring refugees to Wyoming. Truthfully Bahige doesn’t have that much power, Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountainslocated in Colorado was already casting around for fresh territory as Colorado is in refugee overload. (Reportedly an Idaho office was looking for fresh turf as well.)
A former refugee, and now a Wyoming resident and high school math teacher, Bertine Bahige, began a campaign to change the situation and encourage Wyoming to join the rest of the country and establish a refugee resettlement program. As a result of his efforts, in September 2013, the Governor made some preliminary inquiries with HHS about establishing a resettlement program.
[….]
But once word got out that Wyoming was considering thinking about possibly creating a resettlement program, hundreds of people called the Governor’s office to express opposition to the plan. In response, a spokesman for the Governor issued a statement, “Wyoming is not setting up a refugee camp…. This is still very preliminary.” [As I have said before, this comment about a “refugee camp” is meant to make the opponents look stupid—it is the Jonathan Gruber (voters are dumb) strategy being played out by elitists including this Republican governor.—ed]
Next, Dzubow suggests fear of fraud by the “religious charities” is of little significance.
Remember Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountainswanted their efforts in Wyoming kept secret until they were further along in the process. In my view, since Lutheran Family Services is almost completely funded with tax dollars it has forfeited the right to be called a “religious charity.” It is a quasi-government agency and thus open to taxpayer scrutiny and accountability. Here is Dzubow with his “religious charity” mumbo-jumbo:
Mr. Barnett is also concerned with fraud in the refugee system. Of course, fraud and costs are legitimate concerns, but so is protecting refugees, and to me, Mr. Barnett’s throw-the-refugee-baby-out-with-the-bathwater approach mischaracterizes and unfairly distorts the life-saving work of the religious charities.
Now here comes the BIG LIE!
In the final paragraph of Dzubow’s little lecture to Wyomingites, he says a state can determine how many refugees it will take! That is a myth. In reality, once a city or state has a refugee office opened (by one of the contractors or subcontractors of the US State Department and the Dept. of Health and Human Services), it takes an enormous and sustained effort by state and local elected officials to stop the flow—and it isn’t ever stopped completely once the office has begun bringing in the refugees. The best they can do is get a brief slowdown.
Here is what happens: The resettlement contractor brings in the original “seed community” (their term) and then they proceed to bring in the family members and then use a guilt-trip on those who say—it is too many! we can’t afford more!—suggesting that the complaining citizens of the city/state are mean-spirited, “unwelcoming,” greedy, racist boobs.
The federal Office of Refugee Resettlementmight even call in the dogs (contractor ‘Welcoming America’) to calm the “pocket of resistance.”
Here is Dzubow’s final little lecturing guilt-trip (including the big lie) to Wyoming. Blah! blah! blah!
In some ways, though, this is all a tempest in a tea pot.I doubt Wyoming would ever accept more than a handful of refugees (although it is a large state, it has a small population), and so in practical terms it wouldn’t mean much one way or the other. However, in symbolic terms, I think it is important. The United States has committed to protect a certain number of refugees each year. This commitment reflects our values as a nation and our position as the leader of the Free World. In fulfilling our commitment, it would be nice to see all 50 states doing their share. So come on Wyoming, we’re all waiting for you to join us. I think you will be glad you did.
Visit The Asylumisthere for the whole post and contact information.
See our continually growing archive on Wyoming and Governor Matt Mead’s refugee ambitions, here.
….and really pulls a lot of threads together for a larger audience than we have!
This is what Geller says at Atlas Shrugsabout our postthat was being so widely read over the last couple of weeks (hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum).
Let’s hope the story makes it to Fox News!
Tucker Carlson come in please!
Reportedly Carlson asked on Fox just this morning—why are we bringing refugees from countries that hate us? If you see that clip, send it our way!
For new readers, Wyoming is the last state in the nation to have a refugee resettlement office and last year the Republican governor Matt Mead invited the feds and a Lutheran contractor in to set up shop. The citizens of Wyoming rose up and so far newly re-elected Mead has not moved forward with the plan (unless of course it is being done in secret). See our lengthy archive on refugees and Mead by clicking here.
I didn’t get around to a weekly wrap-up of what was hot at RRW last week…but I need to mention this:
I don’t know why or how, but the post we wrote ten days ago about the Somalis going to Cheyenne, WY to get their subsidized housing vouchers is still coming in every day in the number one most-read posts tabulation. Thousands and thousands have read it.
Update November 17th: Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) reports on Wyoming, here. Washington, DC immigration lawyer whacks Wyomingites for not “welcoming” refugees.
It’s not for the jobs and the wide open spaces (or blanket-making lessons)!
They are going there to get subsidized Section 8 housing vouchers to take to another state!
***Update*** This post went through the roof yesterday, please help spread it further by sending to your lists, facebook friends and tweet it!
This is an incredible story and a great find by reader ‘pungentpeppers!’ After seven years of writing this blog I had no idea this was happening.
(See our earlier posts here and here about Somalis in Cheyenne.)
This is an NPR radio report at KQED that aired this past Wednesday. Here is the astounding transcript (but be sure to listen to the 3 minute story):
(Emphasis below is mine)
In the last few years demand for public housing assistance across the country has skyrocketed, while congressional funding has stayed flat
Cheyenne Housing Authority Director Mike Stanfield: That housing money was meant for local people.
Right now federal funds covers less than a fourth of families in the United States eligible for a Section 8 housing voucher. Waitlists for voucher in big cities are often years long, if not closed all together. As Wyoming Public Radio’s Miles Bryan reports that made small cities like Cheyenne more attractive to those seeking housing aid, because of shorter wait times.
Tuesday night is when Cheyenne’s Somali community gets together at the Free Evangelical Church to catch up and socialize. Its usually busy but tonight is packed: church volunteers have subbed out the regular english classes for a special lesson in blanket making. (Yeh, who needs English anyway—ed)
Cheyenne’s Somali population has grown rapidly in the last couple of years. That’s surprising because Wyoming doesn’t have an official refugee resettlement program, and most jobs around here require fluent English.
But Cheyenne has one really big draw: housing assistance.
Faiso Abdi moved to Cheyenne last year. She says she was happy living in Greeley Colorado, but she couldn’t even get on the waitlist for that city’s section 8 housing voucher program.
“The real problem is that people are desperate for the housing subsidy and they are willing to do almost anything to get one.”
Cheyenne’s voucher wait list runs almost a year, but many bigger cities like Greeley have simply stopped accepting new applicants entirely. But here’s the thing: getting your housing voucher in Cheyenne doesn’t mean you have to use it there. Organizer Gretchen Carlson says what’s called “portability” is a big draw.
“There are quite a few of them that have already lived here one year and then have moved elsewhere. But they lived here for one year in order to get that voucher.”
Housing voucher money is distributed city by city, but it all comes from the Feds, and they say that every housing voucher eventually has to become portable, or transferrable to any city in the US. Cities can decide whether to let you port your voucher immediately or require you to wait a year. So if you can’t get a housing voucher in say, Denver, you can get one in Cheyenne and, a year later, take it with you back to Denver.
“The frustration is that pot of money was provided to address housing needs here in Wyoming.”
That’s Mike Stanfield, Executive Director of the Cheyenne Housing Authority. When people take vouchers out of Cheyenne the receiving housing authority can chose to absorb the cost or keep billing Cheyenne. Stanfield says lately Cheyenne has been footing the bill more and more often. And while the average cost for a Cheyenne voucher is only about 400 dollars.
“The average cost for a ported voucher that moves somewhere else is 733 dollars.”
Now Cheyenne Housing Authority oversees about 1700 vouchers, with another 1400 families on the waitlist. Only about 70 voucher are currently ported out. Stanfield says that may not seem like much, but there are Cheyenne families on the waiting list who need help now.
“And when they are told that waiting list is 12 to 18 months that is almost beyond comprehension for those families. They are struggling trying to get to tomorrow. Let alone 18 months from now.”
Susan Popkin is a Fellow at the Urban Institute. She says portability is not a problem.
“The real problem is that people are desperate for the housing subsidy and they are willing to do almost anything to get one.”
Popkin says portability is a vital part of the system: it means families don’t have to pass up a better job somewhere else just to keep their housing. She says what’s happening in Cheyenne is a just one symptom of the overwhelming need for housing help across the United States.
“Things that used to be ‘oh well, we can handle it’ ten, fifteen years ago–they just they can’t anymore.”
In Cheyenne Housing Authority Director Mike Stanfield has decided he can’t handle the outflow of housing funds anymore. Recently he began a policy of giving preference for housing vouchers to Cheyenne locals.
Wait for it! Can we expect CAIR to ride to the rescue of the Somali Muslims in Cheyenne?
See all of our coverage of the conflict involving Governor Matt Meadgoing on for a year now about whether Wyoming should become the last state in the nation to directly “welcome” the third world to come on in—our welfare is great!
And, those resettlement contractors dare to tell us that refugees bring economic benefits to communities when, in fact, they are taking from American low income people!
I didn’t get around to a weekly wrap-up of what was hot at RRW last week…but I need to mention this: