Comment worth noting: large contractors like ECDC monopolize refugee funding

This is a comment I received in response to my post last week about how the Ethiopian Community Development Council (one of the big nine cabal of federal refugee contractors) testifying at the US State Department May 1 meeting, here, asked that the funds keep coming even if the refugees aren’t.

Readers not familiar with the situation in St. Louis with the African Mutual Assistance Association of Missouri, might wish to first read this article (for background) in St. Louis Today from earlier this year.

From Gedlu B. Metaferia (emphasis mine):

Although I differ in views from you [at RRW] because of my former status as a refugee with liberal background I still appreciate your blogs because you expand our horizon of dialog and understanding from various angles. I know where you are coming from.  I am with you on many posts of waste of Government use of tax payer dollar. I was sick to the stomach when I saw the $13-14 million ECDC 990 to resettle less than 300 refugees every year.  I am not envious person by nature, and I expected honesty from non-profits, foundations and our government. Now I know better.  I did not want to write this post because I have stopped writing on ORR-“VOLAG” related issues temporarily because I do not want to offend very few genuine contractors who help refugees, although I believe that change is coming soon.  I am also outspoken on ORR and the crony like racket because the grant (contract) awardees are always the same personalities and organizations. I have also stopped writing temporarily because I believe that the worst offenders of a malfunction of a system are those refugee workers who keep quite and turn their just eyes the other way instead of fixing it.  I will be having a web site of advocacy in refugee issues pretty soon.  As you may probably know ECDC has given me hard time by cropping ad helping another agency (AIRS) in St. Louis, the effect has contributed to AMAAM [African Mutual Assistance Association of Missouri] to close early. We were beaten hard here in St. Louis by ORR money which was obtained on behalf of AIRS by ECDC from 2002-2004.

ORR does not consider million of resources that VOLAGS have before distributing $600 million- $1 Billion a year.  This why small genuine organizations are wiped out  especially in this recession.  One refugee  specialist friend made me laugh when he commented that ‘If some of these rich share volags  contribute at least 1% of their net income  for agencies like AMAAM life will not be difficult for many”. I know that this will not happen. The resettlement lobby is very strong. It does not tolerate differing opinion. It is a kingdom  that uses refugees to enrich itself. I am not writing as a self-serving issue, but I was providing services for more than 500 refugee families without including other categories of legal immigrants for less than $100K with 3-7 employees.  These refugees are often given support 2 years after arrival because resettlement agencies have to concentrate on new arrivals. There are also secondary migrants (who stay in St. Louis from 1 week to 5 years). It is not self-serving to say that I have the blessing of respect, well wishes and love as I walk on the street from African immigrants. That is the only beautiful capital and gratitude I get and it is a blessing from God.  When I saw the $14 million figure in the 990 of ECDC it just makes me sad.  I am not against making wealth. I strongly believe that tamed capitalism is the best system because I had seen vestiges of 3 systems in Ethiopia which are very horrible. I am not against if VOLAGS make billions by their hard work. But this one is not right by capitalisms standard, by Gods standard, by true charitable standard, by any standard, by conservative standard, by liberal standard, by American standard.  There has to be a way to reform refugee resettlement, non-profits and foundations. I do not want the name refugee to be associated with making profits, it is immoral and unjust.

Well said!

Comment worth noting: Somalis take our jobs, who do we contact to stop this?

Readers, below is a comment I received from a black American living in St. Louis last night in response to yesterday’s post, here.  This is not the first time I’ve heard of this problem where refugees are competing for jobs (and housing) with other minorities.

Here is one post I wrote two years ago that mentions the role of the Congressional Black Caucus in helping to open up the African refugee program some years ago because (I presume) they were looking for more black Democratic voters.

From a reader:

This is such a scam, I respect you a lot for bringing this kind of thing to lite.

Most of all, as someone who has traditionally voted for black Democrats, and supported the black congressional caucus, I am pissed that they are the ones who push to have these Somalis brought here to America. We have this huge budget problem, and cuts in welfare, and we are PAYING to bring Somalis over to compete for the same jobs my brothers need!! And get infront of the line for affordable housing over brothers who have been waiting for years!! That is a crime, and it happens here in St.Louis. You can work your entire life, and get on hard times and try to get subsidized housing, and find it is already filled with “refugees,” I HAVE SEEN IT. I might have moved out of Wells-Goodfellow (North STL), but I don’t forget where I came from.

Black people, especially, we need to wake up to this scam. Our congressmen are organizing to KEEP US POOR with this kind of waste. EVEN IF IT WERE FUNDED 100%, and the federal government paid for extra housing and more budget for social welfare, they would STILL compete for the same jobs. And who do you think is going too get hired, a Somali willing to work for peanuts or a proud black American who knows his rights and wants a working wage?? (NOT A REAL QUESTION WE ALL KNOW THE ANSWER)

You should put up some contact info, in an obvious place, so we know how to contact to get this stuff fixed, NOW.

Who do you contact?

* The most important people for you to contact are your US Senators and your Member of Congress.  They are ultimately responsible for the funding of this program.  Unfortunately, they are such chickens—almost all of them!—on the issue of immigration.  They will just skirt this problem with the same old line:  “This is a legal immigration issue and I’m all for legal immigration.”  But they create the laws, they created this one in 1980 (Kennedy, Biden and Jimmy Carter), they can just as well reform it or repeal it.  Although surely Obama wouldn’t sign a repeal of the Refugee Resettlement Act (overloading the system is part of the plan).

* If I were you, I would also write to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and at least tell them what you think.

Here is an address, phone number and e-mail address for the CBC.

* You can also complain to the US State Department.  Write to:

Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Anne Richard, US Dept. of State, 2201 C St. NW, Washington, DC 20520.

By the way, any letters you send to the State Department or anywhere else should be copied to your Member of Congress and your US Senators.

* In St. Louis, you might also let the Mayor know of your concerns.  Although they have no authority over the program, some Mayors have been very vocal in trying to stop the flow of refugees.

The most vocal at the present time is the Mayor of Manchester, NH who has been trying to get a temporary moratorium for his city.

* Most of the immigration control non-profit groups steer clear of the refugee program because they too are pretty squishy on it.  But, you might try contacting NumbersUSA because they have taken a stand against the Diversity Visa Lottery (another ridiculous legal immigration conduit).  And, Numbers is very concerned about the jobs problem.

If readers have other ideas about who to contact, then please send us a comment!

Comment worth noting: reader asks when will refugee problems come to Montana?

Reader, Carol, asked that question in response to my previous post on Boise, ID.

It occurred to me that it’s been awhile since I told you where you could get information on your state programs.  Here is the list of State Refugee Coordinators at the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

I urge all of you to write or call your coordinator and ask for a copy of their most recent PLAN for your state.  Technically all states must have an approved plan every year!  If they say they have no PLAN for this year, tell them you want the most recent PLAN approved by ORR.

Also, you should visit WRAPS from time to time to check on the numbers and nationalities of refugees being resettled where you live.  I mentioned WRAPS here recently.   Go here then scroll down to the data base for ‘Arrivals by Destination City by Nationality by FY’ for the stats for the last five years.

Note that Montana has only had a few refugees resettled in recent years—then continue scrolling to the states that follow in the alphabet—Nebraska, Nevada and New Hampshire—and note the THOUSANDS dropped-off from every corner of the world.

Visit our ‘where to find information’ category for other fun facts.

Comment worth noting: Olive Branch we differ over who pays

Here is a rare comment—someone who supports refugee resettlement and thanks us for raising the issues we raise here.  That is refreshing.  Usually we are told we are racists and xenophobes for even talking about it.  Thank you Olive Branch for being willing to discuss what really is a difference in how we view the US government’s role in bringing more people to the US and then expecting citizens to pay for their resettlement through their tax dollars.  Ms. Branch was responding to this post.

Here is Olive Branch (my comments are in red, and I could have gone on and on, but I have more posts to write and one is about Church World Service):

Thanks for writing this blog – I think it’s really healthy to have this debate. [Thank you! for not going on the you-are- a-racist attack!---ed] I spent the last 2 years living in a Burmese refugee camp preparing Burmese for resettlement or integration into Thai society. Before that, I spent about 5 years working for 2 VOLAGS (LIRS and CWS*). Because of that experience, I do not think it is fair to place all the blame for what you see as poor living conditions or lack of integration of refugees in US cities on the resettlement agencies.

The majority of VOLAG employees DO have good intentions and most of the individual agencies are faith-based. [I am all for private good intentions, but since when do faith-based agencies get to use other peoples money against their wills to do their good works?---ed]  They really do believe they are doing the work of “welcoming the stranger.” However, they become yet another cog in the wheel of our inept and inefficient government [Then I say do the work without the government, you can't have it both ways---taking government money then complaining about government inefficiency--ed], and many staff members are too over-worked and under-paid to do everything they would like to do to help new arrivals [then get more volunteers, if you can't find enough, slow the flow of refugees--ed]. For example, in my first month as a Case Manager, I was assigned 76 individual new arrivals. That means that in a month, there were 76 people that needed to be picked up at the airport, moved into their apartments, given cultural and agency orientations, taken to get shots, health screenings, dental screenings, and eye check-ups, as well as taken to the clothing bank for clothes, to the welfare office for food stamps and medical benefits, to the food bank for boxes of food, to the SSA for their social security cards. About 50 of them were children who had to be enrolled in school and taken to get backpacks, underwear, shoes, and all the other things they were lacking. The 20+ adults had to be taken for enrollment in our jobs program and Match Grant. These cases were my responsibility alone – racing around town in my agency minivan like a mad woman.

However, I soon realized that I was doing more than was required of me. You see, if you read the Reception & Placement contract that VOLAGS sign with ORR, they are not contracted to “take care” of refugees. They are contracted ONLY to connect refugees to resources in the communities [This means to find the social welfare and education programs provided by taxpayers.--ed]  Of course, there are VOLAG employees who care and do more, and there are additional ORR grants for Healthy Families, Preferred Communities, etc. But R&P, as well as MG, only exist to connect refugees to resources that move them toward self-sufficiency. The resettlement program was set up to place all the responsibility of resettlement ON THE REFUGEES. If you think about it, this is the way immigrants have been arriving in the US since the beginning – with the responsibility for success or failure on their own shoulders. [Yes, and the original immigrants, our ancestors, had no social welfare like food stamps, health care, job training and subsidized housing, they had to make it on their own.  Some did and some didn't, those who didn't returned to their home countries.  We also realized we were taking too many early in the century and had a moratorium on immigration.  You simply can't have high numbers AND welfare, our system will crash (and it is!)---ed] I think this is the way it should be. However, the inefficiencies of the big bureaucracy, combined with public perception (and some refugees’ mistaken expectations) that resettlement is more like a baby sitting job, make for a lot of disappointment for both refugees and the host communities.

I recommend that all of you who think you want to help the world get to the US should do it with your own private funding and take FULL RESPONSIBILITY for anyone you bring until they are completely on their feet and can provide for themselves and their families.  It is not the responsibility of some middle class family which is barely able to raise their own children to be taxed to help others feel good about themselves.

Thanks Olive Branch for your comments, they were very illuminating.

* Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Church World Service.

Note to commenters

Once again we are drifting into foul language in comments.  If you have commented recently and haven’t seen your comment posted, that’s why.  Just present your argument without name-calling and cursing—O.K.!

Also, I have offered several commenters (again) the opportunity to write a guest column about why the average American taxpayer, trying to make ends meet in his own family, should be taxed to support third world immigrants coming to the US with the encouragement of the US State Department and their contractors (and big industry employers who want cheap labor).  I’m still waiting for an essay based on reason and not on feelings of guilt.   After all, we have plenty of poor Americans who could use your care and attention.

Comment worth noting: How do HIV positive immigrants get to stay in the US?

Here is a comment from ‘HoboProjekt’ last night to this 2008 post.

How do they get to stay in the USA when they are HIV positive? In many countries, that is a definite exclusion from staying. It creates a hardship on the nation’s medical system and being that the USA doesn’t have a national health system- per say, that means these people are unlikely to receive proper medical care and thus be a drain when they become very ill or pass on. Not to mention the possibility of spreading this diseases on to other people.

The answer, of course, is that Congress passed a law and the President signed it allowing anyone with HIV to come to the US.   We taxpayers then provide them with their medical care.

Challenge to Victor and Newsome

Update August 19th:  Victor has declined my invitation (see comments) and has signed off.  Still no word from Newsome.  Some people are really good at taking shots, but have little interest in discussing what they would do about the problems with the refugee program.   Any other commenters who wish to answer my challenge below and tell readers why the average American taxpayer should be paying for the program, please do.

Update August 16th:   It’s 8:30 p.m. and I came home today eagerly looking for a piece from Victor or Newsome, but alas, nothing!    Will get back to posting in the morning.

Update August 14th:   It is 7 a.m. and dead silence from Victor and Newsome or anyone wishing to take up my challenge to write a thoughtful piece on why average middle class Americans should have to support tens of thousands of refugees with their tax dollars.   Offer is still open, but I am away for a few days and may not have any internet access, so unless I get lucky, I may not be posting comments until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Update:  It’s noon on Saturday the 13th, still no opinion piece from these guys (girls?).

Victor and Newsome are a couple of commenters here (that is the post about the London race riots).   They are into that personal attack thing (you know we are all a bunch of racists and haters, blah, blah blah) but I seriously want one or both of them to write a guest column for tomorrow.  Below is my challenge, but if any other readers would like to take a stab at it, please do so.

Hey Victor and Newsome, I got a challenge for you. How about you write an opinion piece for me to post tomorrow and tell me why my neighbors (farmers, fire fighters, truck drivers and hairdressers) should have their federal tax dollars used to support third world refugees like the family that went to Memphis last week (posted this morning).

I am serious, instead of attacking me and people like me (it’s prejudiced you know), tell our readers in a thoughtful piece why federal/state tax dollars should go for refugee resettlement. Tell us why it’s a good thing to take money from regular folks for this purpose when in fact those people are giving to all sorts of charities of their own choice (church, Red Cross, Boys and Girls Club, etc.) already.

There are a couple of rules, first you can’t call anyone names (you know all that “racist” crap) and attack people personally. And, secondly, you can’t use some religious argument because we all know that any church, synagogue or mosque can sponsor a family and fully care for them on their own dime (also individuals like you can sponsor a family and take care of their needs as your personal charity).

I don’t believe the founding fathers ever intended for the US government to redistribute hard earned money from one group to another with the money passing through the federal treasury. Do you?

So, write a serious piece and explain to our readers your view on the issue of refugee resettlement…. but you gotta write it tonight or early tomorrow so I can post it before I go away.

Mail it in the body of an e-mail to Ann@vigilantfreedom.com

Comment worth noting: Bowling Green International Center made me sick

From time to time we receive comments from former refugees who give us an insider’s look at a refugee’s life in America.  And, LOL!, you can bet this Bosnian woman wasn’t selected to go to Washington to tell this story at the anniversary bash last week!

For background you might want to re-read the 2009 post ‘Peelow’ is commenting on, here (and this related post) before reading her comment below (I’ve added paragraph breaks to make the comment more readable).

HI,

I just wanted to say that I am a Bosnian refugee who lived in Bowling Green KY for 8 years.

My family and I first moved to Spokane WA through World Relief and after living there for a year we moved to Bowling Green. Bowling Green International Center made me sick to my stomach with the way they treated refugees. Even though most of the employees there are my own people I didn’t want to deal with them.

They made my family and I retake all of our shots needed to apply for Green Card after we brought in sealed envelopes with all of our medical stuff from WA. Luckily my English was very good so I questioned everything. I went to the Health Department and gave the nurse my medical history asking for shots needed to apply for Green Card and that’s when the nurse informed me that I was super up to date with all my shots.

My whole family went to get their shots with an interpreter from the International Center and they all had to get a shot each (God knows what kind of shot). The main reason behind this was so the International Center can collect the ‘filling fee’ for the Green Card and the interpreter services.

A lot of friends and family asked me to interpret for them if they had a doctor visit, delivering a baby, unemployment filing, medicaid filing and I would do it, but then one day I started being told that if I was not associated with the International Center I couldn’t interpret. So what happened here is that people from the International Center contacted all the major agencies in town and convinced them that anybody interpreting and not associated with the IC is not truthful and they should not use their services. But the real truth was that IC interpreters collected state funds for interpreting plus the fees they would charge innocent people who were struggling with English.

I avoided International Center for years until the time came for me to apply for my citizenship. I told my parents that I was going to apply for my American Citizenship and after they realized that my intention was to apply online, or print my application online and mail it myself they started telling me that I will never get an appointment because the International Center told them that the only way you can apply for citizenship is to go through them. They have to give you an application, they fill it out for you and they will get you new copies of all the documents you need and if you try going any other way it won’t work.

I was speechless! I told my parents that they were full of s@@t and I was going to do it my way. I have had my citizenship for almost 3 years now. I graduated from WKU with a B. S. in Business Economics and currently work for a worldly known hospital. Oh did I mention that I no longer live in Bowling Green? Yep, I moved 3.5 hours away looking for a better future and representing my culture and my background in the best way possible.

All of the stories I have read here about Bowling Green and Bosnians are unfortunately true but I have to say that not all Bosnians are bad. Bowling Green is populated with Bosnian Gypsies and Albanians who are prone to violence and the actual Bosnians who cause trouble are the ones from very very rural areas in Bosnia and unfortunately the life in US (very modern country in the world) didn’t teach them anything.

Oh by the way, I was told that the reason why there are so many Bosnians in Bowling Green is because some 15 years ago Bowling Green wanted to become a metro so they accepted refugees to increase their population and that’s why the International Center was set up. Who knows what’s true and what’s not.

One honest truth here is that I cannot thank enough to whomever brought me here because I created a wonderful life for myself without anybody’s help, not government, not parents, not international center. I live your typical American life: pay taxes (most people don’t believe that), pay student loans, got my first FHA mortgage all on my own, live with my boyfriend before marriage (who is by the way American because I couldn’t stand dating Bosnian guys in Bowling Green), got two adorable cats, and love my job.

This category, comments worth noting, is for comments from readers that might be missed because they were posted to older posts and/or are very informative themselves.

Comment worth noting: Somalis are a very dysfunctional community….

…..so they could never get it together to establish Shariah law.

This is a comment from a reader named Some1notsomali to an old post (Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis?) and he is responding to Allahsoldier (a commenter, an African American convert, who hasn’t been around for awhile).

One of the things that Some1notsomali points out so well is that one cannot compare how immigrants to America fared a hundred years ago BEFORE WE HAD THE MODERN WELFARE STATE that Somalis and others have learned to use to its fullest.

Some1notsomali (but apparently a Muslim):

Salaam Allah Soldier,

I read your posts and would like to offer you my thoughts on Somalis.

But first I would like to let you know that I understand where you coming from. For any black American their is no doubt that this country did wrong to their ancestors and that today it continues to fail black America.

For all those who want to blame the AA (African American) community for it’s ills you need to realize that it is Majority America that is policing her neighborhoods, dictating her laws, educating her children etc… Since Majority America reserves its exclusive right to do these things it should take responsibility for the shortcomings of such a historic and very American community.

Now about Somalis. It should be noted that the elders generally rely on social assistance, although a number of them are at least partially employed. Among the youth they almost without question have some kind of employment and although I would say care giver is a common occupation and one that is less popular among native born Americans, you do see Somalis working in more respectable fields and also in customer service (the existence of their community creates a need for native speakers in the social services and businesses).

The youth are also able to benefit from educational assistance because of their parents low incomes and because their jobs are usually either low paying or part time, under 15k annually.

This country has done so much to help Somalis and other refugee communities, it has given their parents monthly income, paid for the youths education all the way to a bachelors degree, and every Somali I have met has nothing but contempt for this country. Even worse is that because so much affluence (disposable income) exists in some households because the youth all have jobs, live at home and have of the basic needs of the family being met by the elders unearned income (section 8 housing, welfare, food stamps, passing excess children around for earned income tax credit) [I suspected the earned income tax credit was being used this way, so its nice to see confirmation---ed] crime is attractive to the youth who can’t find jobs. With the economy not improving this will become worse, and the criminal elements within this community are becoming more sophisticated, a prostitution ring was recently busted in MN.

RR is wrong to be concerned with Shariah …

Somalis are a very dysfunctional community. The women often have relationships with men (even sex, and even the ones who wear jilbab), it is extremely common. To them religion is a revolving door, the hijab is something worn as a convenience, either to feel pious or as a fashionable article. Unlike Pakistani Pathan and Arab Yemeni communities Somali’s do not seem viable candidates for living in a state within a state societies. Most families have absentie fathers and the few with a male head of the household often have a step father and not the original father. Combine this with big city environment most live in and you will see that your fears of a shariah community are not realistic. No one in the family is strong enough to dictate how others should live within the family, unlike Yemeni and certain Pakistani communities. With that said many do have attachments to their mothers, so although the traditional concept of family does not pervade their society, certain tradition which you will never have to deal with (primarily marriage ceremonies) will be dictated by the mother.

So I guess what this means is that they can’t organize themselves to push for Shariah law (but by comparison the Pakistanis and Yemenis could?)   However, those Somali youths who went off to Jihad training seemed to be pretty good at organizing, here.

Comment worth noting: Let’s have the trial (televised!) from Kentucky!

Reader Gary posted this comment on my earlier post today on the issue of where the Iraqi refugee terror trial should be held—Gary, like me! thinks it should be right here, not behind closed doors at Guantanamo Bay!

I totally agree that the trial should be held in Kentucky, in full view of America, and the daily fringe revelations about the insanity of the refugee and asylum seeker scam that is being dumped on our country through the machinations of George Soros, the State Department and the United Nations should be shown on every flat screen in this country. These Iraqis should be tried and, if guilty, convicted and sentenced to many years in prison. Not deported to Iraq and left free to stab us in the back again.

This is our damn country, American Citizens first, and those legally here second. Their rights should be preserved and upheld. When the legal immigration package, including refugee and asylum seekers, gets so cumbersome that it is impossible to control and safety concerns are thrown out the window because we simply don’t have the enforcement infrastructure to cope with the criminal elements trying to dupe and defraud us then it is time to declare a moratorium and take a long hard look at what we are doing to the USA.

We provide several hundred billion dollars annually to the Legal/Illegal Immigration Industry, (approximately one trillion dollars every two years), and cannot afford to continue to ignore down and out Americans whose basic needs go begging while we give special treatment to those who do not belong here). It is not inconsistent with compassion for the world to provide for one’s own family first, so as to be in financial position to consider helping others. The USA has given more to the world than all other countries combined, and our immigration policy accepts more immigrants than all other countries. But we cannot continue to ignore our own people.

The Somali situation is a perfect example of immigration failure, and we have for some reason allowed more than 100,000 into our country from this lawless, violent, backward country that is dominated by one of the most cruel and fraud prone Muslim “societies” in the world. And that “society” has major control over the input necessary to pinpoint “qualified” refugees and asylum seekers.

I work with law enforcement agencies, including the US Border Patrol, in the Rio Grande Valley area of the Texas/Mexican border. The porous southern border is being crossed daily by many, many illegals from Somalia, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka, Africa and more than 75 countries from around the globe. Much of the invasion is encouraged and financed by ethnic groups already legally and illegally in the United States, and the feeble attempts by the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security offer scant protection for American citizens.

We could have all of America riveted to their TV’s as they were with the Casey Anthony trial that just concluded!