Refugees leaving Chicago looking for work…

……or looking to escape crime? Or, both?

This is your basic refugee warm and fuzzy story about refugees finding new lives in the suburbs of Chicago.  It is also a prime example of why RRW exists.  The media penchant to gloss over problems in refugee resettlement that do not fit the political Leftwing world-view must be balanced.

Census figures have come out recently to show the flow outward from Chicago’s slums, where the refugees were first resettled by federal contractors, to surrounding suburbs.

From Medill Reports:

New waves of refugees are branching outwards from Chicago to surrounding suburbs adding to growing diversity in adjacent counties.

Job opportunities [?], increasing numbers of refugee organizations [federal contractors increasing in number?], desire for better education for their children and a semblance of their homeland contribute to this trend, according to refugee experts.

The U.S. Census Bureau Wednesday released 2010 census data confirming a 10-year exodus from Chicago to the suburbs. Refugees who continue to be part of that wave face intimidating lifestyle changes. Lack of easy access to public transportation and less ethnic and religious diversity can pose challenges for refugees living in suburbs.

[.....]

It is estimated that there are currently 136,000 refugees in Illinois with 40 percent, or 54,400, residing in the suburbs.

Silverman (below) says they are moving out for jobs, but then says refugees are unemployed. Which is it?

And, no where in this article does it mention Silverman* coming under fire here for earlier resettling refugees in crime-ridden slums in Chicago.  I’ll bet the US State Department told Silverman and the contractors to get them the h*** out of Chicago.

Edwin Silverman, chief of the Illinois Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Services, said approximately 136,000 refugees live in Illinois. Up until five years ago, 85 percent of refugees lived in Chicago. But that has decreased to about 60 percent now, Silverman said.

“Part of the reason is that one organization, World Relief, has offices in Wheaton and Aurora and they have had greater access to jobs,” Silverman said. “So it’s mainly been a jobs issue – because of the recession, refugees have remained unemployed.”   [readers, I believe this is why no legally mandated annual reports are coming out of ORR.  They don't want to show the unemployment numbers for refugees.]

Affordable housing in short supply in the suburbs (not surprising) and I am skeptical about whether the resettlement contractors are working with local government.  They weren’t doing that two years ago.

Wouldn’t you think the reporter for Medill would do a little googling?  Here, Friends of Refugees reports on the living conditions World Relief has provided for refugees in Aurora.

Suburban organizations also have to work with local government and schools to make sure their towns can handle more refugees each year.  [In 2008 I reported that Aurora was having a difficult time with too many refugees, here].

Finding affordable housing for refugees is another issue for organizations to consider. [In competition with low income Americans---ed]

Meanwhile, the refugee defender outfit, Illinois Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (funded largely by taxpayers), is busy helping to “organize” in Egypt, here.

* Learn more about Edwin Silverman here and how he and representatives of the State Department treated a critic of their Chicago resettlement policies.

Afghan refugee sentenced to life for murder of fellow refugee

Since I’m on the subject of Australia this morning (see my previous post) this is an update of a story I thought I posted when the arrest was made, but maybe not.   Osman Ahmadyar was sentenced to life for the brutal torture and murder of fellow Afghan asylum seeker (they came to Australia as boat people).

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

An Afghan refugee has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 17 years to be served, for murdering another refugee in Perth.

Osman Ahmadyar, 38, pleaded guilty to murdering Abed Ahymad Shah, 29, at his unit in the southern Perth suburb of Victoria Park in February 2009.

The WA Supreme Court heard on Friday that the pair came to Australia on the same asylum seeker boat in 2001.

Read on about the awful details.

And here is another story from Australia last year where an Afghan refugee honor-killed his wife.

To learn more about refugee issues in Australia, visit our Australia category here.

Comment worth noting: Australia’s failed experiment with multiculturalism worse than Europe’s

This is Australian reader B.L.’s response to the post in which we reported that a petition had been filed in Australia to halt Muslim immigration for ten years.   B.L. is referencing recent reports from Europe, here, about the failure of multiculturalism in the UK, France and Germany.

B.L.:

We all wish for the sake of a better and more peaceful world don’t we? Unfortunately, reality isn’t so nice and this petition won’t have any legs to stand on in this gutless and left driven parliament of ours.

Let me remind readers that my country of Australia has problems with Arab Muslims on a daily basis here. In this country they have a notorious reputation for crime and disregard for society at large. They strategically have outspoken community leaders that cry foul at the very onset of anything that remotely attacks their race, culture or religion, even though what is said is absolutely true. The very sad thing is these community and religious leaders succeed under the blanket of political correctness. Surely Australia’s present state is worse than Europe’s. The political correctness disease has spread so much here due to the government’s cowardliness and the Muslim communities constant protests that it wouldn’t be far fetched to imagine Sharia Law being implemented in the not so distant future here. Perceivably, one would swear that Arab Muslims can do absolutely what they please in our communities without fear of reprisal.

It is just an absolutely shocking state of affairs here but the saddest part maybe that the average Australian is too ignorant or has fallen prey to the government’s multiculturalism propaganda even though it slaps them in their face on a daily basis.

Has the exodus from Egypt begun?

It begins—Italy is reporting Egyptians have begun arriving in boats.  But wait!  This can’t be!  Egypt is free now.  Egypt had a peaceful revolution (I swear that is what the news media has told us).  The people got what they wanted, right?

From AP at the Washington Post:

GENEVA — Nearly 100 Egyptians have arrived in Italy in two boats, international migration officials said Wednesday, as fears rose about a wave of people trying to reach Europe because of turmoil in the Arab world.

This week, a large boat carrying 66 migrants, including 10 possible minors, was intercepted in Sicily, close to Pozzallo, the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said Wednesday. Another boat carrying 30 migrants, all but four of them under the age of 18, landed nearby in Ragusa, the group said.

More than 5,330 Tunisians have already arrived the Italian island of Lampedusa, off the coast of Africa.

You watch, this will turn into the big excuse to bring an even larger number of refugees to the US.

Migration officials say it’s too early to conclude there will be an exodus from Egypt.

“(Still) any kind of change has always been the trigger for some kind of human movement and it seems to be a moment for people to seize the change around them,” IOM spokesperson Jemini Pandya said Wednesday.

Simply because people have overthrown a dictator does not mean they can suddenly find jobs or feed their families, Pandya said, noting that the collapse of the old regime can create greater opportunities for escape.

European governments are bracing for a large influx of migrants due to turmoil in the Middle East…

Read on.

If you are sitting in the United States and thinking this is Europe’s problem, forget it.   The precedent was set during the Bush Administration when the US State Department transformed Africans arriving illegally on the island of Malta into refugees and brought them to the US.   I began writing about it in 2007.  The Obama administration has continued the practice under Republicans-for-Obama and Catholic Ambassador Kmiec.  Here is one recent post on this terrible precedent.  Refugees are to seek asylum in the first country in which they land—not make it a way station to America!

Be on guard! If there was ever a time to protest refugee resettlement this will be it! American Leftist/Marxist/Islamist agitators helped precipitate the Egyptian revolution let them deal with the fallout there, not in our towns and cities.

House voting today on cuts to immigration programs and cuts for refugee funding

Action Alert!

This is a day for any of you who are concerned about your tax dollars going to federal contractors like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops I told you about earlier this morning, here, to contact your Congressman and let him or her know what you think about spending for more immigration and more immigrants.

MicEvHill (for February 16th) has a whole list of items to possibly be cut and I am overjoyed to see that there is a move to stop all funding for the Diversity Visa Lottery.  I just mentioned this incredible program recently that allows tens of thousands of immigrants to simply enter a lottery to add more diversity to America.  Just look at the countries sending us DIVERSITY!

Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA) has proposed an amendment #225 to kill the funding for the Diversity Visa!  Tell your Congressman to vote for the Goodlatte Amendment to HR 1 (the continuing resolution for FY2011 funding).

See MicEvHill here for more possible amendments seeking to cut refugee program funding.

Numbers USA is urging action on these immigration funding issues today (green is good, red is bad).

Get US Conference of Catholic Bishops off the US taxpayer dole!

Your tax dollars!

[Editors note, when I first wrote this none of the USCCB links opened, they do now]

Nothing gets my blood boiling more than the Catholic Bishops running to Washington to beg for money for themselves! That is right, you might think they are standing up for the “poor and vulnerable,” but they are standing up for the millions of federal dollars they receive to run not only their field operations through Catholic Charities but their Washington, DC lobbying office funded by you!   [Full disclosure:  I am Catholic]

Before you read the story I’m steaming over this morning, check out some of my previous posts on how your tax dollars are holding up the Catholic Churches “social justice” activities and funding their far left political activism in the United States.  (And, I don’t want to hear that their position, often squishy actually, on abortion makes them conservatives or right wingers.)

Readers, this is only a small sampling of posts I’ve written to show how your money goes into Catholic “social justice” community organizing.

* In USCCB pushes the Dream Act note:

2009 USCCB annual report tells the story

Now check out the USCCB Office of Migration and Refugee Services annual report here.   Note that in an overall annual income stream of $62 million, $58 million comes from the taxpayer! Only $1.3 million comes from collections taken up during mass.

*Here the Bishops are pushing their global warming political agenda.

*Bishops funding illegal alien activity including CASA de Maryland, here.

*USCCB Catholic Campaign for Human Development and origins involving Saul Alinsky, here.

* Here is Accuracy in Media on the USCCB role in the pro-amnesty March on Washington last year.

O.K. so you get my drift…..Check out the Bishops yesterday using the poor and vulnerable propaganda to try and head off a cut in tax dollars from you to their budget for THEIR POLITICAL ACTIVITY!

From the Catholic News Agency:

Washington D.C., Feb 15, 2011 / 02:31 pm (CNA).- A group of more than 300 Catholic leaders met with members of Congress on Feb. 15, to share a message from the U.S. bishops – urging legislators to remember the needs of the poor and vulnerable, as they make cuts to the federal budget.

Participants in the 2011 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering (Feb. 13-16) took the bishops’ message to Capitol Hill, delivering letters from two committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops during a day of visits with U.S. representatives and senators. The letters express concern over what Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, chairman for International Justice and Peace, described as “disproportionate cuts in programs that serve the most vulnerable” to the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Appropriations Resolution.

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman for Domestic Justice and Human Development, warned lawmakers against the temptation to “secure the nation while at the same time furthering the insecurity of the poor and vulnerable in our midst.”

“Decisions should be made that not only reflect a commitment to national and long term fiscal security but demonstrate justice, compassion and fairness,” wrote Bishop Blaire.

“Our plea, then, is simple: Put the poor and vulnerable first as you consider how to spend limited federal resources.”

You think they worked enough of their ‘social justice’ mumbo jumbo into their appeal for YOUR MONEY to do THEIR POLITICAL WORK!

As I have said on many previous occasions it is not Christian charity to take money from one group and give it to another (and lie about it to boot!).  It is up to the Bishops and Catholics generally to dig deeper for the poor and vulnerable—privately!  Gee, I kind of remember something about Jesus and Caesar and money….

Endnote: The USCCB is one of the top federal contractors resettling refugees and in some states Catholic Charities actually have taken over the role of  the State government in deciding who comes to the state and how many.  It is virtually impossible to track all of their federal funding because it is so widely dispersed through a network of Catholic organizations, but I suspect that the USCCB with its affiliates is the top federal contractor in the immigration field.

Australia: Petition seeks to halt Muslim immigration for ten years

And, it’s causing a fury Down Under!

From OnIslam:

CAIRO – A new petition in the Australian Federal Parliament for a ten-year moratorium on Muslim immigrants is drawing the fury of the Muslim community in the country.

“That’s hardly a loving Christian to be very selective in whom you want to enter in your home,” Ikebal Patel, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, told the Herald Sun on Tuesday, February 15.

ACT Liberal Senator Gary Humphries presented a petition calling for a 10-year suspension of Muslim immigration into Australia and for a review of the country’s immigration policy to ensure priority is given to Christians.

So will Europe be next?

So why is a state refugee advocacy organization going to help “organize” Egypt?

Your tax dollars!

And, are they going on your dime?  You bet they are!

I’m talking about the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

I just learned yesterday (Hat tip: Ed) that Joshua Hoyt, Executive Director of the ICIRR, is on the the board of the Far Left (Socialist/Marxist) “community organizing” outfit—the Organizers’ Forum—which is planning a trip to Egypt in September to help get Egypt on the right track now that the Muslim Brotherhood is pushing for “change:”

Our fall 2011 International Dialogue will be located in Egypt where we will meet with labor and community organizers and other activists in Cairo.  There are exciting changes and developments that are currently taking place in Egypt with elections coming soon to determine leadership transitions in what has been an autocratic regime, now challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood and succession and democracy issues.[they probably think its so cool to hang with the Muslim Brotherhood---ed]

Note that Hoyt is on the board of an organization created by Wade Rathke (ACORN founder), Drummond Pike (Tides Foundation) and “workers of the world unite” Andy Stern (formerly SEIU).    And, the oh-so-smart elitist left-leaning media is making fun of Glenn Beck for saying the Egypt crisis was precipitated by Unions, 60′s radicals, Soros and the Muslim Brotherhood.  Just check out the make-up of the Board of the Organizer’s Forum!  Looks like Beck will have the last laugh.   Note that CASA de Maryland the leading advocacy group for illegal aliens in Maryland is also on this board.

But my focus this morning is the ICIRR, your friendly defender of immigrants in Illinois.   What!  they don’t have enough poor refugees in Chicago to take care of they have to hop over to Egypt to nudge along a revolution.  Well it’s a free country you say, they can do what they want—associate with Marxists and Islamists whatever.  But, what if they are doing it on the backs of American taxpayers?

Check out the ICIRR Form 990 filed with the IRS.  This is the most recent one on record and its for 2009.

The organization took in $6,935,046 and $5,647,288 (page 9) is FROM GOVERNMENT GRANTS.  That means that YOU are paying for over 80% of the budget of this organization!

Now return to the bio for Joshua Hoyt and see what you have been paying for!   You pay for 80% of his salary!  You pay for his trips to foreign countries to organize. You pay for him to agitate and bring unrest to American cities.

WITHOUT YOUR MONEY THEY WOULD BE NOTHING!

And, by the way I thought I recognized the name when I looked at the Board of Directors of the Organizer’s Forum.  I told you about Hoyt sitting-in in the offices of Michael Steele demanding that the RNC support Amnesty for Illegals last year.

DRY UP THEIR GOVERNMENT GRANTS (FEDERAL OR STATE) AND THEY WOULD BE NOTHING!

I’ve also told you previously that the ICIRR is a money laundering organization, here, where I also reminded readers that refugees in Chicago are living in terrible conditions yet ICIRR simply moves money around to advocacy groups and organizes civic unrest.  They move your tax dollars to organizations that you likely would never approve (scroll to the end of the Form 990) and see what I mean.

WITHOUT YOUR FUNDS THEY WOULD BE NOTHING!

In 2008, I told you about the ICIRR, here, in a post about Obama’s taxpayer community organizing money trail.  Of course when I read about all that taxpayer money sloshing around to various Muslim organizations in the election year, I had no idea it might slosh all the way to Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood.

YANK THEM OFF OF THE TAXPAYERS’ TEAT! NOW!

Update! Be sure to read the comment from tatosian who alerts us to the fact that an ICIRR board member was in Cairo for the recent uprising.  That board member is the director of CAIR-Chicago.

Update 2:  In case you are confused about the Muslim Brotherhood’s goals for Egypt, I just saw this report which says:

The Brotherhood’s charter calls for creation of an Islamic state in Egypt…

That means Shariah law, so is ICIRR now in support of a religious government that discriminates against women?  What else can it mean?

Update 3: And, we were told only the good guys (the peaceful freedom fighters) were in the square celebrating the day Mubarak stepped down, see CBS correspondent brutally raped.

Right fractures over Islam

That is the title of a story at Politico and something I’ve been writing a lot about elsewhere, but I think its important for readers of RRW to know this is going on within the Republican Party.  Simply stated, two board members of the American Conservative Union and movers and shakers in DC rightwing circles, Suhail Khan and Grover Norquist, are believed to have links to the Muslim Brotherhood and are attempting to destabilize  the conservative movement according to their critics.

Here is a story from Politico which sums up how things went at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington late last week.   I urge you to read it all and do your own research.

I also suggest that you watch the CPAC speech of former Communist and 60′s radical David Horowitz who saw the light, became a conservative and has been an outspoken critic of the Far Left and the Islamists for decades now.

Politico:

While a gay rights controversy drew headlines at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, another — and even more bitter — dispute rippled as views varied widely on how to reconcile the conservative movement with Islam in the United States.

At the 38th annual conservative gathering, there was no shortage of accusations of Islamist sympathies, Muslim Brotherhood infiltration and charges of fear-mongering. Republican presidential hopefuls, including Newt Gingrich and John Thune, also drew applause with suggestions that the Obama administration has taken a politically correct blind eye to the connection between radical Islam and terrorism.

Freshman Rep. Allen West also drew thunderous applause in his keynote speech about the threat to America posed by Islam and other security threats. And as Republican candidates define their national security stands in the 2012 elections, conservative discomfort with Islam in America will be a feature of the debate.

“We are also faced at home and abroad with a mortal threat in political Islam,” conservative activist David Horowitz said in his address to the conference. “Political Islam is a totalitarian movement that seeks to impose Islamic law on the entire world through the seizure of states by stealth and electoral means where possible and by terror where necessary and sometimes by a combination of the two. There are hundreds of millions of believers in political Islam.”

CPAC organizers held an official panel on the threat of sharia law, with several other affiliated, but unofficial, events on inclusion, religious liberty and the so-called ground zero mosque controversy, featuring the controversial blogger Pam Geller and Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer.

[.....]

“For 10 years, people have been asking for moderate Muslims to speak up,” said Spencer. “We’re going to be waiting for those guys until doomsday.”

Read on.

Longtime readers know that Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) and Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch) are  among our favorite bloggers and are often quoted on these pages.  Check out their blogs in our blogroll.

Egyptian said to be behind the wheel in San Diego cab carnage

I’m not seeing it mentioned in other publications yet, but a San Diego TV station is reporting that the cabbie who plowed into a crowd outside of a popular San Diego night club was an Egyptian nicknamed “Osama.”  Hat tip:  Janet.

The story is here at San Diego 6 News:

San Diego 6 News has exclusive information into the driver of the cab.

Owners and friends of the downtown restaurant Darband say the man, they know as “Osama”, frequented the establishment. They say he was the one behind the wheel.

There is new video of the taxi cab crash that sparked chaos in front of the Stingaree nightclub. The cellphone images show the hood of the taxi cab driven by, according to friends, a 48-year old Egyptian native named “Osama.”

Outside Darband Fifth Avenue Grill cab drivers finish a game of chess. This taxi cab hangout was a place drivers met up frequently with “Osama”.

Cyrus Rushi is the owner of Darband. Rushi said, “I am sure I have seen him here. I am sure. They say he is an Egyptian guy.”

By the way, Egyptians don’t come as refugees (yet), but surely some have arrived seeking asylum for one reason or another.  Also, Egyptians can get into the US if they “win” the Diversity Visa Lottery —yes there is such a thing.  You see we don’t have enough diversity so a whole bunch of immigrants from countries that normally don’t send us too many people get an additional shot at getting into the US.  There are even immigration lawyers who specialize in helping immigrants win the lottery. And, I see here that Egyptians are big winners.

Did you ever notice that when a legal immigrant is involved in some crime, it is rarely mentioned which legal program he or she used to enter the US?

Honor killer still on the loose

I believe the trail is cold in finding the Egyptian cab driver who shot his teenage daughters to death because they were becoming too Americanized in 2008 in the back of his cab in Texas, here.