Bob Maginnis’s editorial

Yup, it’s official. We are unwelcoming. So says Bob Maginnis. I’ll have a lot more to say about this editorial, but here’s the link to “The welcome and the unwelcome.”  Then there’s a letter, “Selfish interests betray the common good,” from the Rev. Timothy Leighton.  (Scroll down to second letter.)  I guess we should slink away with our tails between our legs. I’m writing a letter in response, and I hope many others do too.

One-sided AP story

The Associated Press has a story about the refugee program shutting down in Hagerstown dated September 29. The writer quotes VCC’s Richard Cline, Church World Services’s Joseph Roberson, Rev. Richard H. Jewell of the Hagerstown Area Religious Council. He doesn’t mention any of those who opposed the program or why we opposed it. I know that Ann has talked to the Hagerstown AP reporter, so he has her contact information. But the word is out: Hagerstown is “unwelcoming” and there’s no other side to the story worth finding out about.

Hagerstown is “unwelcoming”

Here’s the article the Herald-Mail is running today: Council to close office to resettle refugees. The subhead reads, “Hagerstown described as ‘unwelcoming.’”

“The people who made the decision felt that it was not in the best interests of refugees to resettle them in an area that is perceived to be unwelcoming … I regret that our presence in Hagerstown had to end in such a manner,” wrote Cline, who was out of his office Friday and could not be reached for comment.

Someone from the VCC said the State Department made the decision. Someone from the State Department said Church World Services, VCC’s parent organization, made the decision. Doesn’t anyone want to take responsibility?

Hagerstown City Councilman Lewis C. Metzner said he was disappointed by the decision no matter who made it. People have an obligation to help their fellow man,” he said.

Yes, people do have an obligation to help their fellow men. But sometimes elected officials think they’re carrying out this obligation by using other people’s tax money to help their fellow men. All of the critics of the refugee program that I know have said that refugees should be sponsored individually by churches or families, the way refugees used to be. That’s a far different thing from what’s happened in Hagerstown.

VCC’s Hagerstown office to close

We’ve gotten the news that the Virginia Council of Churches will be closing its Hagerstown office. That means no more refugees will be coming to Hagerstown. We think there will be an article in the Herald-Mail tomorrow giving more details. And we’ll have more later.

Omeish resigns from Virginia Immigration Commission

Dr. Esam Omeish’s  tenure on a Virginia commission to address immigration problems in that state was shortlived when tapes of past statements supporting Jihad came to light.    Omeish is President of the Muslim America Society (MAS) an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Go to the Center for Vigilant Freedom here for the full story.

For readers in Washington County, Esam Omeish was on the front page of the Herald Mail on January 1 of this year speaking at a religious event at the Islamic Society of Western Maryland. 

Over 200,000 Muslim refugees have entered the US since the State Department began tracking their numbers in 1988.

A follow-up thought this morning (the 28th):  Note that the Herald Mail doesn’t identify Esam Omeish as the President of a national Islamic organization.  Where is the journalistic curiosity?

More on the L.A. refugee agency scammer

We came across a great article in the L.A. Weekly magazine: Is the Saint of South L.A. for Real?  It is a long, thorough investigation of Nikki Tesfai, the woman I posted about on September 23.  Amazingly, it was written in May 2004; apparently it has taken this long for the government to get her case together sufficiently to arrest her.

The author, Jeffrey Anderson, did a terrific job of investigative reporting. I know our local journalists don’t have the resources of a large-city magazine, but they didn’t even try to look into the questions that were raised about the refugee program, instead dismissing those who raised the questions as mean-spirited or even racists. Anderson, by contrast, took on a woman who was a local and national heroine, with a story so dramatic and pitiful that it would seem almost a sacrilege to question it, and followed his leads to uncover a riveting story of deceit and corruption.

The point about it is larger than this one story. We’re accustomed to hearing of CEOs and other businessmen who go to jail for one thing or another. The media love these stories. In my own life, though, I’ve come across corrupt government officials like Nikki Tesfai more often than corrupt businessmen. That’s because there’s less oversight and few real-world consequences like a business that goes under.  In fact, Anderson’s article lays out clearly how some government officials were not competent to recognize Tesfai’s malfeasance, while others appeared to be enabling her.  When the government is paying for something, it’s easy to forget it’s real money, supplied by taxpayers. It can seem like free money, and some of those who live on government grants forget this.

Nikki Tesfai seems like one of a kind. She seems to possess boundless chutzpah, a lot of charm, and perhaps some real charitable impulses. She also seems, from the article, to be a compulsive liar and inventor of amazing tales. The lesson to be learned is that she found easy pickings in the labyrinth of government grants and government agencies, as well as gullible marks in the media, and lived well in that setting for many years.

Is big business driving immigration?

Yes, it is.  We all know that the quest for cheap labor is fueling the push for stepped up immigration to America.  Even President Bush freely admits that.  It is in the news daily.  But, is it also driving Refugee Resettlement? 

One of the things I’ve been pondering, and this will sound pretty inflamatory is:  Is Refugee Resettlement a modern form of slavery?   Are “human resource” managers and volag workers scouring camps around the world looking for bright laborers?  When companies hire refugees for $8 an hour, who for all intents and purposes can’t really go home (well they can, they just have to pay their own way), does that help keep wages low in America?  We then further subsidize big business by supporting the refugee family with welfare.  

In addition, businesses which hire refugees who are on welfare can receive a federal tax credit through the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.   The refugee need only stay on the job for 400 hours (a couple of months!) for the business to reap our federal tax dollars.

Yesterday someone sent me this article from the Wall Street Journal, that although meant to tell us how wonderful the immigrant situation is in Louisville, KY, made me wonder further if Refugee Resettlement is really a big business venture covered by do-gooder ‘white hats.’

You really need to read the article, there is so much in it.  Here are some excerpts:

“It’s an economic imperative to attract immigrants at all levels, from factory workers to software engineers,” says Omar Ayyash, a Palestinian from Jordan who runs the city’s Office of International Affairs.

———–

Louisville’s approach has changed the composition of a 700,000-person city, which was once mainly white and African American. From 1990 to 2004, the city’s foreign-born population jumped 388% — far above the 73% increase in the national average — as it absorbed thousands of Asians, Eastern Europeans, Africans fleeing persecution and Latin Americans in search of opportunity. Some 80 languages are spoken in its schools, and one apartment complex — “Americana” — houses families from 42 countries.

————

All of the immigrant groups pose challenges, and perhaps none more than the Somali Bantu. While the overwhelming majority of Bantu men have jobs, their large families, illiteracy and limited skills can make self-sufficiency an elusive goal.

————-

The first couple hundred Bantu arrived in Louisville in 2003 and 2004. But since then, the city has attracted hundreds more of the preliterate Muslim minority who were originally assigned to other U.S. cities. “People are nice, the rent is cheap and you don’t need English to get a job,” says Nahiyo Osman, a Bantu woman whose family moved to Louisville from Chicago six months ago.

————

Charnley Conway, a vice president of human resources at UPS, which plans to add 5,000 jobs at its Louisville hub over the next three years, says investing in immigrants like the Bantu is vital.

————

Despite everyone’s efforts, the immigrant population is sometimes a financial burden on the city. A year ago, Mr. Issack moved into public housing because he couldn’t afford a bigger apartment after his fourth child was born.

————

But Tim Barry, the director of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority, says he isn’t concerned. “This is the sacrificial generation,” says Mr. Barry, who is convinced the next Bantu generation will be better off.

I wonder if Mr. Barry who speculates that the next generation will be better off,  knows about the Kurdish gangs in Nashville (here also) and the disenfranchised youth in Utica, NY.   Will the cheap labor really be worth it in the end? 

P.S.  To Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, I’m taking bets that Louisville is one of the 30 cities Imam Hendi has in mind when he speaks of 30 Mulsim mayors by 2015.

Why do we need volags?

Your tax dollars: 

Last week at the forum in Hagerstown on Refugee Resettlement the first question may have been the most important.  Louise Dawson, a lifelong resident of Hagerstown, asked why can’t Refugee Resettlement be run completely by the government and the churches could just volunteer to help?   Here is the Herald-Mail’s coverage of what she said:

“I think the concern in our community is financial,” said Louise Dawson, who suggested that refugees be sponsored and resettled by volunteers within churches instead of through taxpayer funds.

The public doesn’t understand the importance of this line of questioning because most people do not know that the church groups (the volags) are paid by the taxpayer to do this work.  The federal government even pays for the entire Washington DC offices of the volags.    In addition, local volunteer hours can be translated into taxpayer funds to the volags via the Match Grant Program (among other ways of pulling in the taxpayer dollars).

The response from the State Department representatives was a weak comment about how this was a Public-Private Partnership, in other words, by just uttering that phrase it was deemed an adequate explanation.   Hum….could the government officials be afraid of the volags?

The Public-Private Partnership sure failed the public side of that partnership in the outrageous case of the volag, African Community Resource Center, Judy reported on a couple of days ago.  Is it the tip of an iceberg?

It’s time to revisit the Refugee Act of 1980.   We need a Congressional investigation, perhaps a General Accounting Office (GAO) study of the cozy arrangement the volags enjoy. 

 Louise Dawson’s first brushed-aside question needs to be answered.

Family Reunification–opportunity for fraud?

Did you know that refugees can apply to bring family members to America and the refugee becomes the sponsor for more refugees?  The volags (non-profit groups funded by you) take the applications for the extended family members and then are paid by the head for the additional refugees they resettle.

Anecdotal stories abound about how easy it is to defraud the government (and us).  I heard that one woman “found” ten adult children over the course of several years.  Apparently there is some truth to the stories.

At the September Forum last week in Hagerstown , I asked the US State Department Reps about a June 2007 Congressional Research Service Report for Congress which referred to fraud in the family reunification program of refugee resettlement.   This report was sent to me privately and I can’t find it on-line yet, but here is what it says:

During the late 1990’s the State Department found that a large number of Priority 3 (family reunification) applications were received from persons who did not qualify for refugee status and that there was significant amount of fraud associated with those applications.

The report goes on to discuss the fact that certain nationalities are ineligible from participation in the family reunification program because of rampant fraud. 

My question to the State Department ladies was three-fold:  What was the nature of the fraud?  Answer:  It happened a long time ago (the late ’90’s was a long time ago) and people were applying who were not eligible.

What nationalities have been barred from the program?   Answer:  there was no answer.

Was anyone admitted to the country fraudulently and then deported?   Answer:  Homeland Security has more important deportations than these.

When Judy posted the Los Angeles fraud arrest a couple of days ago.  I checked out the African Community Resource Center and found it to be a subcontractor of Ethiopean Community Development Council (one of the 10 major volags with State Department contracts).     Note that the African Community Center prominantly promotes its role in helping bring family members to America.  I just wonder, if someone is allegedly willing to steal from refugees and cheat the taxpayers, might they be tempted as well to find lots of missing children, brothers, sisters and long-lost cousins to bring to America as well?

We need to reform family reunification.  Only spouses and minor children should be permitted.

Inviting Perspectives

If you were at the Refugee Resettlement Forum in Hagerstown on September 19, and if you have some knowledge or insight you would like to share about the issues that were discussed or anything else about the Forum, please send your comments to us. We will publish short posts — no more than three paragraphs — in a new feature called Perspectives on the September Forum. If you were not heard at the Forum, or have not been able to get your letters or phone calls on the refugee issue into the Herald-Mail, this is an opportunity for your voice to be heard.

Send to:  refugeeresettlementwatch@vigilantfreedom.com