While it might not be as fancy or futuristic as the name would imply, the Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport was christened to invite refugees from Jupiter who may have been fleeing a global catastrophe.
Consisting of little more than a dirt landing strip marked by a raggedy windsock, the “spaceport” in the northern part of Green River has been courting alien visitors since the mid-90’s. In 1994, NASA learned that Jupiter was in some danger of being hit by a number of errant fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet. The impacts were of great interest to the scientific community, but since the gas giant has never been thought to harbor intelligent life, the disaster seemed to be mostly academic. However a lack of evidence did not deter the city planners of Green River, Wyoming, who embraced America’s heritage as a refuge for the poor and huddled masses by making ready for any potential Jovian refugees.
Realizing that there would be nowhere for homeless aliens to land, the city officially renamed their small, 5,000 foot landing strip the “Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport.” Of course this change was not without opposition by residents who noted the already existing housing shortage and extant issue of terrestrial immigration.
There is a bit more at Atlas Obscura—-the leading guide for wondrous and curious places on earth.
I assume the governor, the Lutherans and the US State Department/ORR will be factoring this information into their refugee plan.
I don’t think so. He is a Republican (right?) and that is something out of the Democrats’ play-book! Any time someone disagrees with them on the issue of immigration, and they want to shut up the critics, out comes the “r” word. It happens so often, it has become a joke!
Governor Matt Mead with wife sworn into office in 2011.
If he, or anyone on his staff, had followed our work over the last almost seven years, he would know that, first and foremost, we inform the public about a federal program that in our opinion has gotten way out of control and acts, to a great degree, in secrecy, while spending your tax dollars!
Our driving motivation is to inform you of the details of the US State Department’s refugee program so that you and your community may have a thorough discussion about what it is that the federal agencies (including ORR in Health and Human Services) in conjunction with a private contractor (Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, in this case) have in mind for your town or city.
The most important thing the governor said in the Casper Star-Tribune interview over the weekend is this:
At this point, Mead is working with volunteers to gain more information about establishing a refugee program in the state. Wyomingites will get to comment on a program as it’s developed, he said.
Please! Anyone with concerns should ask to be involved as one of the “volunteers” he is working with and then Wyomingites should insist, at the very least, that hearings or public meetings be held in the Wyoming cities which are being targeted for refugee placement.
Here is more of what the Casper Star-Tribune reports from an interview with the governor:
CHEYENNE — Some of the opinions on the Internet about refugee resettlement in Wyoming are inaccurate and racist, Gov. Matt Mead said.
[….]
For instance, a blog called Refugee Resettlement Watch has a picture of a Gillette man and his family with the headline “The man who started the Wyoming refugee controversy.”
Refugee Resettlement Watch, run by a Maryland resident, also lists crimes committed by refugees throughout the United States, and in one place the site asks, “Are you ready for this in Wyoming?”
“In terms of the comments, I’ve seen some of those, too, in particular, the racist comments,” Mead said. “I don’t think that represents Wyoming. But it is hard to see and hard to read. And some of them, frankly, I will not read.”
Refugee resettlement in Wyoming is a worthy debate, Mead said.
“Let’s not have the debate in terms none of us would be proud of,” he said.
[….]
Ann Corcoran, who runs Refugee Resettlement Watch, did not respond to an email from the Casper Star-Tribune.
I’m so sorry to have missed that e-mail. As regular readers know, I’m pretty awful about getting to all of my e-mail (what I wouldn’t give for a secretary or an intern!). I apologize and going forward I should have more time to be more responsive to readers. I will e-mail the reporter today.
Then near the end of the article we learn this:
Mead’s spokesman, Renny MacKay, said Friday that the discussion of a program is in its preliminary stages. The governor’s office is looking at federal laws to understand the program. Mead doesn’t want to spend state money on it. Wyoming would work with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Just a reminder in case you (new readers) are confused: The US State Department (in conjunction with the United Nations) chooses and admits the refugees. Working with their major contractors***, the US State Department (Barbara Day) plays the significant role in deciding where the refugees will initially be placed. They are running out of “welcoming” communities and they need Wyoming!
The Office of Refugee Resettlement in the US Department of Health and Human Services doles out grants to contractors (rarely to state or local governments) to care for refugees for a short time. Because the program responsibility is divided by two major agencies of the federal government, it makes it more difficult for the average citizen or even state and local government officials to understand.
The program will cost the state of Wyoming money, but how much is always the ‘$64 thousand dollar question.’ Some states are attempting to figure out exactly what refugees do cost their state and local taxpayers (schools, healthcare, housing, crime etc.), but the feds make getting that information very difficult.
Our coverage of the Wyoming controversy is here. See for yourself if it’s “racist.” And, don’t miss the opinion piece by Don Barnett that the Casper Star Tribune published last month.
The Casper Star Tribune has very early on editorialized in favor of refugee resettlement for Wyoming, here.
If the governor really wants to know how the program works, he might visit our fact sheet, here. And, if he and his staff are ambitious, then they should check out our over 200 posts in a category we call ‘where to find information.’
***Nine major federal contractors, all others subcontract to the nine. In most cases these contractors (below) operate on 90 plus% federal funding. No longer may they be considered private charitable enterprises. They are also not financially audited, so between the major contractors and the 300 or so subcontractors it makes it hard to follow the (your!) money:
Governor Matt Mead keeps saying, they (refugees) are coming to Wyoming anyway, so we need a plan.
According to this article some immigrants are arriving in the Wyoming court system and require interpreters that are not readily available. The Wyoming Public Radio story mentions Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, and an occasional Laotian or Somali speaker.
However, keep in mind that a “refugee recruitment” office in the state is not going to solve the problem of immigrants on trial in Wyoming and in need of skilled interpreters—it will only exacerbate the problem because of the myriad languages refugees to America are speaking.
For review, the top nine languages (in descending order) spoken by refugees in the last 6 years are: Arabic, Nepali, Sgaw Karen, Somali, Spanish, Chaldean, Burmese, Armenian, Kayah and more than 8000 refugees in those 6 years spoke “other minor languages.”
Utah Burmese refugee found guilty earlier this year in rape and murder of little girl. Appropriate interpreter was initially difficult to find.
We have written much lately about the expensive refugee criminal trials where costs for court interpreters were a hefty portion of the bill (see Utah Burmese rape murder trialfor instance). Are you ready for this in Wyoming?
A refugee resettlement office will have no role in dealing with the secondary migrants already arriving in Wyoming. Their job will be to bring new refugees into Wyoming and that is what they are paid to do!
Wyoming is a largely rural state with limited diversity. But as the population grows and the state attracts all sorts of newcomers. Wyoming is learning to accommodate the changing population. One of the areas where the state is making headway is interpretation services in its courts. Wyoming Public Radio’s Irina Zhorov reports.
Not mentioned here is that it is federal law that appropriate court interpreters (and interpreters for all sorts of social welfare/healthcare/education) be provided to the newcomers and billed to LOCAL taxpayers. Note to “welcoming” communities—it is expensive!
I’ve not seen that phrase before—refugee recruitment—it must be newly coined by critics of Wyoming Republican Governor Matt Mead’s proposal to study the possibility of a refugee resettlement office in the state, but I like it!
Mead’s primary challenger, Dr. Taylor Haynes, opposes Mead’s invitation to the federal government to study the possibility of resettling refugees in Wyoming.
Here is yet another article on the controversy. Our complete archive, is here.
CHEYENNE — State officials are continuing to study a proposal that could bring a refugee resettlement program to Wyoming.
But the governor’s office and others are also trying to quell worries that this will lead to an influx of immigrants coming here.
“Some people are concerned about this effort, worrying that Wyoming is ‘recruiting’ refugees,” Gov. Matt Mead recently wrote in a letter to the editor sent to newspapers in the state. “There is no recruitment; there is, however, an effort to understand the issue.
“Right now, our state is learning more on the issue.”
Mead sent a letter last year to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement*** to explore setting up a public-private resettlement office here.
The federally funded program would provide refugees with a range of assistance, including help finding housing, employment and health care, for the first several months after they arrive in the country.
The feds and their resettlement contractors would like Wyoming decision-makers to think that the whole program is funded from Washington. It is not! For a few months US taxpayers foot the bill for the refugees and then the responsibility falls on the state for all of those refugees who never find work. Wouldn’t you think that a Republican governor would be sensitive to taxpayers and jobs for Americans everywhere before getting into a contract with Washington?
Barnett: Federal refugee contractors are no different then your Lockheed Martins in that they have the same incentives.
The Tribune Eagle continues:
Don Barnett is a fellow for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for a reduction in the number of immigrants coming into the country.
He agreed that refugees can impact the state’s and federal government’s budget.
And he cautioned that the federal government and the groups picked to be its contractors rather than the state would largely control how many refugees come here, where they will live and where they come from.
He said the contractors also proactively try to set up the refugees with the welfare programs.
“I don’t think people realize that the state will not have much control of this program if it is institutionalized or implemented,” he said. “It’s largely these contractors that will have the say, and these federal contractors are no different than your Lockheed Martins in that they have the same type of incentives.”
*** Gov. Mead wrote his letter of inquiry to the Office of Refugee Resettlement which is in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services (they dole out the $$$ to the contractors after the refugees are resettled. It is the US State Department (and the UN) which makes decisions about who comes to the US and it is the State Department which doles out the $$$ to the contractors for the initial resettlement and decides where they will be located (in consultation with ORR). Contractors are PAID BY THE HEAD.
Wyoming controversy goes national, including discussion about Mead challenger Taylor Haynes
The Associated Press has picked up the Wyoming refugee story. Here it is at the Washington Times:
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – Gov. Matt Mead is addressing criticism about the possibility of opening a refugee resettlement program in Wyoming.
Mead recently sent a letter to the editor addressing the issue to newspapers across the state. Mead wrote that the state is still learning more about the issue and said that Wyoming is not recruiting refugees.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle (http://bit.ly/1m21Fj0) reports that Mead’s challenger for the Republican nomination, Taylor Haynes, is among those who have criticized the move.
Haynes said refugees could strain Wyoming’s budget by relying on state and federally funded safety net programs like Medicaid. He is also worried that they may not be screened for ties to violence or for diseases such as HIV and the Ebola virus. [Haynes is a medical doctor, so it is interesting that the story doesn’t mention those credentials.—ed]
Two Wyoming cities are the subject of discussion for locating the federal offices—Gillette and Casper. Once established, it is only rarely (extremely rare!) that a city can stop the program when they find out that there are problems and there will be many problems!
Addendum: I see our fact sheet on refugee resettlement is attracting large numbers of readers (again!). If you haven’t seen it, click here.
We have been reporting since early February on the controversy in Wyoming about opening the state for the first time to refugee resettlement—a proposal from Republican Governor Matt Mead. All of our previous coverage is here.
Dr. Taylor Haynes
The Casper Star Tribune has been the source of many stories on the growing political firestorm and here is one more article (mostly about Dr. Haynes’ primary challenge) in which the refugee proposal is discussed.
By the way, Casper, along with Gillette, are the two cities being considered by the US State Department and its contractor (Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains) as resettlement sites.
Just a reminder, opposition to formal (contractual) resettlement does not bar refugees from living in Wyoming. Legal immigrants are permitted to move around and live wherever they wish in America.
Haynes speaking about refugees from the third world:
“To make them our problem doesn’t solve their problem.”
Haynes, a medical doctor, also raises an issue that is increasingly on peoples’ minds—fear of diseases entering the US with refugees. (See our ‘Health issues’category).
Gov. Matt Mead and others are learning more about refugees and evaluating options to possibly create a plan in Wyoming for refugee resettlement. Wyoming is the only state without a formal resettlement program.
Haynes opposes the idea.
“First there is a cultural language problem, which is a barrier to them being self-sufficient,” he said. “Second, there are communicable diseases from central Africa,” which is where a lot of refugees who need to resettle are from.
Communicable diseases include HIV, Ebola, Rift Valley fever, he said.
Haynes acknowledged some Americans have HIV and AIDS, “so why would you risk importing any more?” [Refugees with TB and with HIV/AIDS are being permitted entry into the US and taxpayers are responsible for the cost of their treatment.—ed]
While plenty of people from Central America move to the U.S., learn English and become successful, Haynes said, it’s easier for them because many American citizens are fluent in Spanish and can speak to them while they’re learning English. Culturally, they’re similar to Americans, Haynes said. That’s not the case with Africans, he said.
Haynes acknowledged that in engineering school he and his classmates had popular professors from India, China, Taiwan and Pakistan.
“We’re talking about individuals who have made an effort to get the degree, they’ve made the effort to get into our culture,” he said. “These people were Hindus, Sikhs and obviously Muslims, all on the same campus. It was not an issue.”
But many refugees are not educated or prepared culturally for the United States. A Wyoming community of 35,000 cannot support 2,000 refugees.
“We can’t solve their problem by bringing them here,” he said. “We have to help them with humanitarian aid, and my heart goes out to them. To make them our problem doesn’t solve their problem.”
Read the whole Casper Star Tribune article for more on the campaign.
