Muslim Refugees to Maryland

     According to numbers we just recieved from the US State Department, Maryland beats the national average in the resettlement of Muslim refugees.     From 2002 through 2007 (to date) Maryland has been the resettlement destination of 1,556 Muslim refugees out of a total refugee pool of 3,979.   Muslims thus represented 39% of the refugee population for those years.    The national average from 1990 to 2003 was 15%, with  peak year 1999 (44%).   (We have not obtained national averages for more recent years.)

      The statistics received from WRAPS (Worldwide Refugee Application Processing System)*, indicated that of the remaining 2,423 refugees in that time period 22 other religions were represented.     This group of refugees hailed from 42 differant countries.   

      My home county (Washington Co.) received 125 Muslim refugees out of 168 total refugees since 2004 when resettlement began in earnest.    That puts us at 74% Muslim refugees resettled.

      *  What is WRAPS?  Here is what they say at their website  http://www.wrapsnet.org/

The Refugee Processing Center (RPC) is operated by the U.S Department of State (DOS) Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia USA. 

. . . . .

At the RPC and at Overseas Processing Entities (OPEs), an interactive computer system called the Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System (WRAPS) is used to process and track the movement of refugees from various countries around the world to the U.S. for resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).

Try contacting WRAPS and find out what is happening in your state or city.  E-mail help@wrapsnet.org  and see what response you get.  Then let us know!

Iraqi Christians should be moved to the head of the line

     Iraq’s Christians are being wiped out.   The Islamic government that we have helped establish in Iraq is not protecting them and consequently thousands have been killed, driven from the country as refugees or forced to convert to Islam to save themselves.   

     A representative of the State Department told us, we take Iraqis of all religions into the Refugee Resettlement program.  It’s frankly insane.  It is multiculturalism uber alles.   There are plans to bring 25,000 refugees into the US in the next two months and we are wasting spaces on the likes of Malta’s 200 illegal immigrants (see our post on July 26th)—those are likely Muslims from North Africa who have sneaked into Malta.

     Reform of Refugee Resettlement is imperative and one place to start is with focusing on bringing our friends to America and not our mortal enemies.

     Read  articles that have just appeared in the last few days on this important topic!

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjFlZTIyYjZjYjk1NmZhZTc2MmUxNzJjZmI4ZTI0MWI=

http://www.aim.org/aim_column/5637_0_3_0_C/%0A

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070730-022137-3037r

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={02F1B8FE-02CC-42B0-BADB-66D0F99FD9F0

British fleeing the UK

     Atlas Shrugs has a warning for us from the United Kingdom—-the British are leaving their ancestral home  in droves to live abroad due to the unbridled immigration that the government there has encouraged over recent years.  

  ”Ironically, the main reason for these people leaving the UK is the over-stretching of services caused by inbound immigration to the UK. “

     Read the whole post here and take heed.  Where will we go one day?   According to Mark Steyn, we are already America Alone.

  http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2007/07/citizens-flee-t.html

Can a double bed be a substitute for home?

     The subject of Refugee Resettlement generates many stories–daily stories–about the little joys refugees experience in our wonderful America.   Every one of those stories highlight some caring and enlightened American who gives of him or herself by purchasing or donating some material item to make life easy.    This story today in the Lincoln Star about Burmese Karen arriving in Nebraska caught my eye.

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/07/28/news/local/doc46aaa04f6ae92618087560.txt

      Sara Pipher had been to the camps in Thailand and was moved to collect $300 from friends and family to buy a double bed for a soon to arrive refugee family, something that would make any of us feel all warm and fuzzy.   I don’t mean to diminish the gift, but as the Burmese Karen people are scattered like the four winds across the United States, can she give them something they had together?

Pipher said she was impressed by the amazing closeness among friends and families in the camps. 

. . .

And in the Karen culture there is a real emphasis on the extended family and on respect for elders and embracing the wisdom of the elder generation, Pipher said.

     There won’t be an extended family in America.   I wonder at the wisdom of our do-good policies that cause us to rush around the world rescuing people whenever there is strife or a civil war in some region.

      The fact that the refugees are arriving in Lincoln brought to mind our Civil War.  Imagine if tens of thousands of the brightest Northerners and Southerners had just been wisked off to Europe never to return, would America, as a re-united nation, have been diminished.  I think so.

       Maybe it’s our own material need for instant comfort, for things to be easy, that makes us rush in wishing to save people.   Fortunately, some people still have common sense, dignity, and a  spirit and desire to achieve their destiny on the continent of their birth.  In Africa the Liberians are returning home under banners that proclaim:

LIBERIA CAN ONLY BE BUILT BY LIBERIANS THEMSELVES

…

UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. ITS TIME TO COME BACK HOME TO REBUILD OUR MOTHERLAND LIBERIA

According to an article in AllAfrica.com on July 24th, over 100,000 refugees are headed home.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200707270743.html 

The lady from NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council) is wearing a T-shirt with the map of Liberia on the front, and the words Theres No Place Like Home.

      In Rwanda they are returning home too.     http://allafrica.com/stories/200707300120.html

      But sadly, in Nepal, the Bhutanese may never return home because the US has agreed to resettle 60,000 refugees.  http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2007/jul/jul27/news13.php

      Writing in the Weekly Telegraph of Nepal, July 31, 2007 (tomorrow!) Niraj Ayal suggests it would be better to stay together in Nepal with the hope of one day going home:   

Better let them stay here; Let them make their homes here! Let us live together with our brothers and sisters!; Let them forget Bhutan, make our future together and one day the easterly wind might bring the smell of their soil here.

    

Expect More? Yes we all do!

Your tax dollars:

      If you are a numbers person you’ll find this US goverment website of interest.  It’s called ExpectMore.gov  (Expect Federal Programs to Perform Well, and Better Every Year).  See the evaluations of the Refugee Resettlement Program here:   http://www.whitehouse.gov/expectmore/query.html?col=empics&qt=refugee&Go03.x=14&Go03.y=0

Check out this little table (below) and note the cost of each refugee arrival.   In 2006 the cost overrun amounted to $695 per refugee.  We admitted 41,277 refugees that year.     http://www.state.gov/g/prm/refadm/rls/85970.htm   

That’s only an overrun of $28,687,515.    But what’s a million here or there when it’s just taxpayer money.

 http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/detail/10000394.2004.html#performanceMeasures

Term	Type
Annual	Efficiency	Measure: Total average cost per refugee arrival in the U.S. Explanation: Year Target Actual 2002 BASELINE $4,445 2003 NONE $4,428 2004 $4,000 $3,500 2005 $3,700 $3,565 2006 $3,600 $4,295 2007 $3,500 2008 $3,400

Go to Expect More and learn more (maybe more than you want to know!)

Muslim immigration other than refugees

     Although this is off topic, but only slightly, see Gringo Malo’s blog on the subject of immigration from Muslim countries other than through refugee resettlement.      http://gringomalosblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/pop-quiz-with-strange-answer.html

Muslim High school curriculum

      I’m speechless!  You will have to read about the Islam Projects curriculum to believe it yourself.

     Go here  http://www.theislamproject.org/education/Lessonplans.htm  and click on “Muslim Immigration to America” to see the lesson plans that are available for your public middle and high school students.    Yup,  I knew it, we are all a bunch of hate mongers.   First, we hated the Catholics, the Japanese and the Jews and now for no reason we have moved on to Muslims.

      The school year begins in just about a month, maybe you should check with your friendly local school board and see what’s in the lesson plans at your neighborhood school.

Find your state Refugee Resettlement Office

      Most states have a state Office of Refugee Resettlement funded in large part by the US government.   Find yours here:        http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/partners/coordina1.htm

     Contact your state office and get information about what is happening with refugee resettlement where you live.    And, if someone knows why Wyoming does not participate in the program, and how the state got out of it,  we would love to know!

More stats: How many refugees have come to your city?

     Although lengthy and slanted (all is just peachy), the Brookings Institution published last fall a 31-page report about the Refugee Resettlement program, how it works, who pays for what, and how much.  Most interesting though is that it is chock full of tables with cities and how many refugees settled in each and from where they came since 1983.

The report is entitled:    From ‘There’ to ‘Here’: Refugee Resettlement in Metropolitan America

http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060925_singer.htm

by Audrey Singer and Jill H. Wilson
September 2006

Public outcry stops special Muslim accomodation

     To update our story,  ”Somalis here, Somalis there, Somalis everywhere” posted on July 13th, Carver Elementary School, a San Diego elementary school, has been forced to withdraw its special “madrassa” program for Somali students due to pressure from the public.   Read the whole story on Little Green Footballs:  http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=26424_San_Diego_School_Stops_Allotting_Class_Time_for_Muslim_Prayers&only

     From 1983 until 2004, San Diego received 4,200 Somali refugees.   Thats 20 years to bring more family members in and to have lots and lots of babies.

      Anyone have any numbers on the total Somali population of San Diego right now?