EEEK! “Pockets of resistance” to refugee resettlement have developed; ORR hires ‘Welcoming America’ to head off more

This is the second part of my report from the Pennsylvania Refugee Conference which I attended earlier this week in Lancaster, PA.  If you haven’t read my earlier report it might be useful to check it out and then come back here for part II.

One of the many things that I found revealing about the conference was that problems with the program to resettle over 100,000 “refugees and asylees” to your towns and cities each year was not discussed (your classic hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil!).  There was no direct discussion about problems with assimilation, tensions in communities, crime problems, cost to local communities, school conflicts, housing shortages for refugees etc. except for one session dedicated to how to silence people who might like to complain—the keynote speaker talked about how ‘Welcoming America’ was working to get YOUR minds right about your new refugee neighbors (and, they received a federal grant from ORR to do it!).

Before Susan Downs-Karkos from ‘Welcoming America’ spoke, we had been alerted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Director of Placement, Mitiku Ashebir that  (gasp!) “three pockets of resistance against new arrivals” had developed.  He assured the gathering it was not widespread and that Pennsylvania, thankfully, was not one of them.   Drum roll please!  Here are the pockets of resistance and Mr. Ashebir’s brief description of the unwelcoming problems:

New Hampshire—some mayors have problems, said Ashebir

David Lubell, founder of ‘Welcoming America,’ doing work for George Soros!

Georgia—budget reductions for some service providers

Tennessee—they want to control arrival numbers!  Imagine that!

But, Welcoming America is on the case!  They want to “transform” communities by “Building a Nation of Neighbors”!

Downs-Karkos described her organization’s job as “promoting understanding and support for refugees.”  The whole concept is that YOU must improve your attitude to your new neighbors, not that the refugees must learn to fit into American society.  We are a Nation of immigrants, they are coming, so get used to it was the basic message.

The refugees and immigrants are the seeds and your community is the soil into which they are being planted is how she described what is happening.  Her group is working on improving the soil.

She said ‘Welcoming America’ was created by David Lubell of TENNESSEE who had successfully launched ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ a few years ago where he mobilized support for refugees in Nashville and Shelbyville and promoted the propaganda film—Welcome to Shelbyville.  If you are a new reader here you might want to visit our many posts where we traced the history of that deceptive film from its origin when a Hard Left documentary film group was funded to visit Shelbyville (where community tensions had developed around a large influx of Somali refugees who had arrived there to work for Tyson Foods)–-it is a classic case study in how to produce propaganda.

“Is everything perfect in Tennessee now?” asked Downs-Karkos.  No, she answered herself, “but it is improving.”  Really?

Follow the money!

Here is a summary from Welcoming America’s website about how the organization got its start (with the help of George Soros).  Our friends in Tennessee will be amazed at the spin about their state! “Changing communities” indeed.  I wonder does David Lubell understand what just happened in Manchester, TN last week?

The history of ‘Welcoming America’:

In 2005 the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), inspired by the Iowa campaign’s message and approach, started to make plans for a “Welcoming Tennessee Initiative” (WTI). Since launching in 2006, The Welcoming Tennessee Initiative – the model for all subsequent welcoming initiatives – has substantially improved the climate for immigrants within the state. Statewide polling by Middle Tennessee State University has demonstrated an increase in positive opinions towards immigrants, and thousands of Tennessee residents have become active supporters of Tennessee’s increased diversity as a result of the project. In 2009 WTI was awarded the E Pluribus Unum Prize for exceptional immigrant integration initiatives.  [LOL! an award!---ed]

The success of Welcoming Tennessee inspired several additional immigrant support organizations across the country to follow its lead. In July of 2007, seven organizations interested in starting Welcoming campaigns met  to combine efforts and expand Welcoming campaigns past Tennessee. Hosting the meeting was Four Freedoms Fund, a funding collaborative that has played a crucial role in the formation and development of Welcoming America.

Here is what Discover the Networks says about the ‘Four Freedoms Fund’ listed as one of many groups directly supported by George Soros’ Open Society Institute.  Soros, as longtime readers know, is pushing to “change” America by swamping the country with third worlders. He can’t have you fighting the “transformation.” Therefore, “Pockets of resistance” must be stopped now!

Four Freedoms Fund: This organization was designed to serve as a conduit through which large foundations could fund state-based open-borders organizations more flexibly and quickly.

Longtime readers know that Soros has had his proteges installed as Asst. Secretaries of State for Population, Refugees and Migration throughout the Obama Administration.   Type ‘George Soros’ into our search function for more.

A chuckle for Tennesseans—Tom Negri is on the board of ‘Welcoming America’!   You may remember the story from back in 2009:  Negri, who manages the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in downtown Nashville (hotels need cheap immigrant labor and that’s why so many are behind open borders), broke a contract just days before a conference that I and others (from around the country) had registered to attend saying we might be a danger to their other guests.  Maybe the Muslim protesters would be a danger, but not us!  The conference went on peacefully at another “welcoming” hotel!

Negri’s move was a stupid one because it just confirmed for all of those who knew about it (including thousands of readers of Newsmax) what dirty tricks the open borders advocates and Lefties are willing to use to silence speech they don’t like!

Bottomline is that ‘Welcoming America’ is spreading throughout the US–they are “community organizers” with affiliates in twenty plus states, here.  If you are in one of those states, sign up for the group and begin learning what they are planning for your community.  And, then spread the word!

For new readers:  If you would like to learn more about those pockets of resistance in New Hampshire, Tennessee and Georgia, simply type the state name into our search function and dozens of posts will be available.  Also, note that we have a separate category on Nashville (50 posts!) because it has been such a controversial site for refugee resettlement (by Catholic Charities!) and Islamic activism.

Pamela Geller, others to rally for free speech in Tennessee Tuesday!

Free speech is our Constitutional right and the one great defense we have to prevent us from falling into the demographic and cultural death spiral we are witnessing now in the UK and Sweden.

A few days ago I posted the news from Tennessee that a US Attorney and a special agent from the FBI were going to try to intimidate Americans into silence by suggesting that criticism of Islam was somehow against the law in the US.

My post is here, please read it if you haven’t already.  There is a correction.  Since the original story was published in the Tullahoma News, I hadn’t noticed that Tuesday’s meeting, organized by the American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee, was being held in Manchester, TN.

Now comes word that Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs), well known for her successful battle against the Ground Zero Mosque and her anti-Jihad public transit ads, and others concerned about the spread of Sharia law plan to descend on Manchester for a rally in defense of free speech.

Geller (Geller’s words, emphasis mine):

You must stand up. Now. No one is going to do this for you. Only YOU can save you.

I strongly urge every Atlas reader, twiter and Facebook friend that can be in Tennessee to join us in a major demonstration for free speech on June 4th at 5:30pm  Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center, 147 Hospitality Blvd, in Manchester, Tennessee to be there.  Change your plans, get off from work – g. Tweet it, Facebook share, get the word out.

AFDI, SIOA, and other major organizations will be rallying for free speech. On June 4th, an event titled “Public Disclosure in a Diverse Society” will be held from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at the Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center, 147 Hospitality Blvd, in Manchester, Tennessee.

Speakers for the event are Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee and the FBI special agent that runs the Knoxville office.

Plan on attending the meeting in Manchester.Don’t think that they is just going away. They have declared war on very freedoms. While we still have freedom of speech – we must use it. Bring FREE SPEECH signs. Peaceful resistance.

Note to the Justice Department — we will fight you on this every step of the way. We will drag your dhimmi asses all the way to the Supreme Court. This is sharia enforcement, and we are not going to stand for it.

As I have mentioned on many previous occasions, Tennessee is being targeted for Muslim refugee resettlement.  I think they would like nothing better than to get a symbolic foothold in the buckle of the Bible Belt.  But, Tennesseans are fighting back.  And, so is Geller!

Please tweet this news and get it to your facebook friends!

Somali man convicted in Nashville for refusing to testify in sex trafficking case

This is a story, one of the many, I missed in the days after the Boston marathon bombing when I was busy getting more information on the “refugee” bombers.

Couldn’t find a mugshot of ‘Grey Goose’ but here are some of the others originally standing trial in the multi-state prostitution case. Photo US District Court in Tennessee

And, I had been wondering whatever happened in that case involving 30 Somalis charged with using underage girls in a multi-state sex trafficking ring.  Some of them have gotten off.  More could be tried except an important witness refuses to testify (dead man if he does, I’m assuming).

All of our previous coverage of the case is archived here.

This is the short news story from The City Paper:

A man who repeatedly refused to testify in a sex trafficking case involving alleged Somali gang members has been convicted by a federal jury of contempt and obstruction charges.

The jury in Nashville on Wednesday convicted Abdullahi Farah of misbehaving before the court, contempt of court and attempt to obstruct the enforcement of sex trafficking laws.

“He agreed that he had material information on the ongoing sex trafficking case, but he still refused to testify against the other defendants,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Van Vincent said.

Farah, who is also known as Grey Goose, will be sentenced later. He is faces a maximum of life in prison, Vincent said.

Read on, the article has a short report about what happened with some of the others accused in the case.

Background for new readers:

We have resettled more than 100,000 Somali refugees to cities large and small in the US over the last 25 years.  See one of the most widely read posts here at RRW.  Large numbers went to Minneapolis, and now they are spreading out throughout the state.  In three years since 9/11 ( Bush years 2004, 2005, 2006) the number of Somalis arriving topped 10,000 per year.  Those refugees then began bringing in the family (chain migration!) until 2008 when shock of shocks! the State Department discovered that as many as 30,000 Somalis had lied about their kinship and weren’t related at all.  The State Department then closed the “family reunification” program for Somalis.  It has recently been re-opened for new and legit family members, but they have no intention of finding and deporting the liars.

In the first six months of this fiscal year (Oct. 1 to March 31) we have resettled 3,674 new Somalis which means we are on target to make FY2013 a year to rival the largest Somali influx years during the Bush Administration.

More testimony for the US State Department: Tennessee this time

Readers, you have less than 4 days (by close of business on May 8th) to get testimony to the State Department on the “size and scope” of the Refugee Resettlement program for fiscal year 2014.  Instructions are here!  Don’t forget!  Be sure you copy anything you send to the State Department to your elected Member of Congress and US Senators!  (if you don’t do this, your testimony will go down a black hole at the State Department).

So far we have published testimony in advance from Texas (here) and from New Hampshire (here).  Please send me your testimony for possible publication.

Below is our recent submission from Tennessee.  Please don’t be deterred by the incredible detail in this testimony.  If you can only send a couple of paragraphs, that will be enormously helpful.

By the way, I will basically be saying what I said last year, here.  LOL!, so now we need testimony from 46 more states!

Now from Tennessee:

Anne Richard
Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration
US State Department
Washington, DC

Re. Federal Register Public Notice 8241

I have been researching the federal refugee resettlement program for several years and have also been a volunteer with a resettlement agency.  I have been shocked to watch this program be divorced from its humanitarian and charitable roots and instead, be transformed into an industry for government contractors and government funded refugee entrepreneurs.

The refugee resettlement industry makes a mockery of “give me your tired, your hungry, your poor” when the refugee and immigrant rights groups that support the resettlement industry, oppose legitimate dialogue about the cost of programs.  In Tennessee a lawyer lobbyist from a highbrow law firm represents groups like the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a refugee group that boasts a 990 that tops the $1 million mark.

TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition and ORR

Formed in 2001, TIRRC was a result of a U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement grant awarded to the Nashville Chamber of Commerce for the “Building the New American Community” pilot program.  The program was designed to “foster the successful integration of refugees and immigrants at a community level.”  This goal was believed to be best achieved through “economic self-sufficiency and meaningful civic participation”, including the development of refugee and immigrant leadership.   Former ORR Director Lavinia Limon was recognized for working collaboratively with Nashville locals on this project.  This project was right up her alley because she advocated strongly for the need to support newcomer integration at the local level and to build the capacity of refugee organizations.

TIRRC has a highbrow firm lobbyist given that in 2011 (last 990 available), they reported $1,169,811 in total revenue.  Lobbying expenditures since 2008 total $556,506 with $160,881 spent in 2011.  Total gifts, grants and contributions since 2007 reported total $3,901,899.

These are now the very refugee organizations that have been positioned by the administration to shout down any objections or even legitimate fiscal inquiries into program costs.  These are the same organizations that have joined with more radical groups such as the Rights Working Group and Black Unity whose website insists that members follow these rules:

NO SNITCHING- The Police, Capitalism, the State etc. are an enemy to the people and to work with them is criminal, Ancestral Treason! Loose lips sink ships, snitching is unforgivable.
WARRIOR CODE – Security first! Protect Women, Children, & Elders. Train; work out get your fighting skills up to par. Police your own community. We don’t need pigs overseeing us.
NO FALSE FLAGGIN’ – Red, white, and blue ain’t never did sh*t for you. Don’t be a star-spangled slave. Get on the right team; rally round the flag on some Red, Black, and Green.
BUILD SURVIVAL PROGRAMS – The people come first. You are your Brother/Sisters keeper. Capitalism teaches individualism, which is anti-African. We have to create programs that are for the best interest of the people (especially Food, Clothing and Shelter).

By TIRRC’s own description, their focus today is to “empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee to develop a unified voice…”.  Sort of like a labor union model for immigrants and refugees except propped up with federal funds.  A review of TIRRC’s policy positions and description of its accomplishments presumes that Tennesseans and Tennessee policymakers are anti-immigrants/refugees.  However, there is nothing in TIRRC’s advocacy that acknowledges that what concerns Tennesseans and policymakers is the militant insistence that cultural and religious demands made by “new Americans” must be met, regardless of anything else– including cost or the encroachment on other’s legitimate and protected rights.

No amount of feature stories about the accomplishments of resettled refugees will make state and local taxpayers feel better about the militancy of groups like TIRRC and EEOC actions brought to demand more and more workplace accommodations.  Or the fact that the Kurdish Pride Gang (KPG) some of whose members were recently prosecuted, is a direct product of Catholic Charities’ humanitarian efforts.

One local Kurdish activist who was formerly a state lobbyist for TIRRC says there are gangs more dangerous than the KPG in Nashville and that the local government should spend more of its resources mentoring the gang members “to get them on the right path” as opposed to punishing them for gang activities.

Federal contractors and refugee advocates don’t want state costs disclosed

As an example of what is going on around the country, groups like TIRRC in Tennessee, take great pride in asserting their participation in defeating state legislation which sought to determine the cost to the state for the federal refugee resettlement program.  At the same time, TIRRC promoted legislation to increase state appropriations for English Language Learner (ELL) instruction.  TIRRC’s lobbyist works alongside the lobbyist for Catholic Charities.

TIRRC works hand in glove with Tennessee’s resettlement agencies including its largest – Catholic Charities.  They sit on each other’s boards and work in concert to deflect any public inquiries into their program operations and costs to the state, as was recently the case in Tennessee.  It has been documented that the federal contractor who testified before a state legislative committee went so far as to misrepresent facts in her testimony.

Local citizens who pay the tab for increased school costs associated with ELL services, get called names such as “extremist”, “xenophobe”, “bigoted”, and “racist”, when they object to increases in taxes to fund the increase in state and local costs.   Legislators who dare to pursue legitimate inquiries for cost data are met with opposition, public accusations of being inhumane, and name calling.

Public requests for resettlement proposals are refused and are instead directed to filing of Freedom of Information Act forms because the resettlement agencies and Catholic Charities’ TN Office for Refugees do not consider themselves accountable to state taxpayers or even donors for that matter.  This is because they are federal contractors.

Claims of fleeing from persecution with little interest in economic advancement lose their credibility with the disclosure of the fact that Bhutanese refugees were victims of non-violent displacement.

Equally disingenuous to the plight of Somalis is the recent reciprocal visits by Rep. Ellison and the current President of Somalia who has declared his country safe for repatriation, an alleged stated goal of the U.S. resettlement program.

Wilson-Fish federal contractors and the pro forma consultation

State Department officials consistently ignore the obtuse and disenfranchising of the local native population once a Wilson-Fish project is put in place, as is the case in Tennessee.  When the state of Tennessee elected to reduce its cost and size of state government by electing to get out of the refugee resettlement program, the Office of Refugee Resettlement approved Catholic Charities to become the state designee.  Thereafter, ORR approved Catholic Charities to become a Wilson-Fish project.

With that, Catholic Charities opened a new department now named the Tennessee Office for Refugees (TOR) misleading the public into thinking that this is a state authorized agency.  One of the key components of refugee resettlement – consultation, is now even more of an in-house exercise.  Recall that the 2012 GAO report highlighted, consistent with the policy position of the National Governor’s Association, that meaningful consultation with state and local stakeholders is virtually non-existent.  The GAO report likewise pointed out that assessment of “capacity” lacks uniform criteria and at best, is driven mostly by the per capita resettlement incentive.

In Tennessee, the state refugee coordinator (who previously ran the resettlement program for Catholic Charities), is employed and paid by the Wilson-Fish grant, unaccountable to the state taxpayer.  Catholic Charities and the other VOLAG affiliate offices operating in Tennessee along with the Wilson-Fish grant director, have made it clear that they are not accountable to the state and do not have to provide information to the state.

The consultative process in a Wilson-Fish state is an in-house self-propagating process: the local affiliate office consults with the state refugee coordinator and the state refugee health coordinator (who also reports directly to the state refugee coordinator, both of whom are employed by Catholic Charities which also happens to be two of the local affiliate resettlement agencies) about “capacity” and how many refugees they think they can resettle.  After this “objective” consultation, the local affiliate submits its “reception & placement” proposal to their national parent organization.

All this means is that in states operated under a Wilson-Fish project, “consultation” is a pro forma at best.  How ironic that once Catholic Charities took over refugee resettlement in Tennessee, the numbers went up.

The refugee resettlement program is a double whammy for the state taxpayer.  Federal dollars pay for the federal contractors to bring refugees to states (no consent required by those responsible for the state budget), to then enroll them into public assistance programs and public schools, which are in part paid for by state taxpayers.  Then refugee service providers like CRIT, NICE and Catholic Charities, subsidized with government funds, aggressively scour and flood the job market all the while working to increase annually the number of refugees they resettle in order to “grow” their agencies.

The Center for Refugees and Immigrants of TN (CRIT) – one example of “refugee entrepreneurs”

The Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee (CRIT) is referred to as a “community self-help” created by a refugee to secure government grants to provide refugee resettlement support services.  These entrepreneurial endeavors are highly praised by ORR and the TOR run by Catholic Charities. No amount of feel good stories can gloss over the fact that CRIT, the formerly named Somali Community Center continued to receive federal funds by subgrant from the Catholic Charities Wilson-Fish project even though the Somali Center’s then director pled guilty to grant fraud.

The story of the grant fraud was publicized in the local media and brought to the attention of U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper’s local Nashville office.  His office reportedly was going to look into the matter but apparently this never happened.

One can presume that Catholic Charities was merely following the example of ORR and the State Department that has continued the family reunification program despite acknowledged fraud in the program.

In short, the self-help (aka “mutual assistance associations”) spin off initially with funding from TOR, eventually secure other federal grant funding which create jobs for other refugees and then work to grow their agency by providing services to increasing numbers of refugees.  Other groups like NICE (Nashville International Center for Empowerment) started out the same way but is now resettling refugees and like other federal contractors, is incentivized to resettle more and more refugees each year.  In fact, a review of agency funding (attached here), available from their own website posted annual reports show that the majority of funding comes from government grants even though Cooperative Agreements make it clear that the government money is only supposed to supplement the “significant” funding the private contractors are supposed to raise from other sources.

CRIT and NICE both promote themselves to employers as being able to provide employees with job placement services without any placement fee – a FREE service to employers.  CRIT’s website (which has now been moved and scrubbed), posted the following with regard to employment services:

You [the employer] could qualify for tax incentives by hiring refugees: Since many refugees receive public assistance, your company could qualify for tax credits and training incentives when you hire them.
Our job placement services are FREE: Rather than spend money placing job advertisements, contact the Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee. Let us help you find qualified workers FREE OF CHARGE.
Refugees are flexible about what shift they work and what days they work: Many refugees will work second or third shift or weekends and holidays. Many of our refugee workers can work on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day.

Of course CRIT never mentions that the trade-off may be employees that demand prayer time, food and dress accommodations without which the company is most likely to be sued.  Both CRIT and the resettlement agency NICE are funded mostly through government grants.

Examples:
Sometime in 2002 Whirlpool in La Vergne, Tennessee, was sued by temporary Somali Muslim workers over the issue of prayer breaks.  After two years of litigation, a jury ruled in favor of Whirlpool.

In 2005 30 resettlement-placed workers walked off the job at Dell for being denied a prayer break.  The then director of CRIT who later pled guilty to grant fraud, was the spokesman for the workers.

In 2008 at the urging of the three Somali refugee workers on the union bargaining committee, Tysons agreed to substitute Id al-Fitr as a paid holiday for Labor Day, which was an unpaid holiday.  Tysons management was reported to have welcomed the change since the high number of Muslim workers at the Shelbyville plant taking off for the Muslim holiday caused significant work slowdowns.   Due to objections from Latino workers, Tysons retracted the holiday change replacing it with a paid personal holiday for any worker to use.

More recently in Minnesota, Somali workers walked off the job to protest the food company’s burqa ban.  Any legitimate concerns about worker safety around the machinery following a documented accident were dismissed as irrelevant by the offended workers.

Despite these support networks, resettled refugees and their support agencies cite their frustration that lack of English language competency has kept many in low paying jobs.  Given the plight of many Americans likewise struggling in the sluggish job market, complaints of this nature are untimely as are demands for more government spending on studying the need for expanded mental health services for resettled populations.

A recent article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press disclosed the resettlement services that Bridges apparently did not provide.  It also detailed that what little service Bridges did provide, was substandard at best.  As reported, the individuals that Bridges placed in the public housing site in Chattanooga still, five years later don’t have an ability to functionally get their basic needs met, calls into question how these agencies are monitored – or not, and whether they are simply overreaching capacity.  Rather than whining to Congress about their need for more money to be able to provide needed services, why not consider scaling back operations to do a more adequate job with the funding they have.

TOR either knew about this situation because they were monitoring or they didn’t because they weren’t monitoring.  Either way, the issues which the refugees still struggle with long after Bridges was paid and is gone, are now left to neighbors and others in the community to contend with.

Wrapping themselves in a banner of moral righteousness in the refugee cause of fleeing persecution, is the way VOLAGs and their advocates avoid any objective discourse of how these controversies affect businesses and communities and who pays the bill for the VOLAGs’ self-professed moral high ground.

Conclusion

Several years ago when budget cuts to the resettlement program were looming, one letter sent by a Catholic Charities resettlement worker to Tennessee senators was more concerned about retaining his job as opposed to the resettlement program.  This was the same year that resettlement agencies were upset about the enhanced security screenings because of the slow down in their cash flow.  As a result, Congress guaranteed a level of funding helping to shore up the evolving resettlement industry.

Should public money be used to institutionalize private charities?

The bureaucracy of refugee resettlement does not account for state or local government and stakeholder input, acquiescing instead to the demands of federal contractors like Catholic Charities and their agency’s funding needs.   Prior resettlement patterns are used to justify upending local communities along with accusations of racism and xenophobia.

In fact, the recent trip by State Dept. director Larry Bartlett to Ft. Wayne, Indiana is very telling in this regard.  “We really do see this as a partnership with the community,” which is why they meet with “stakeholders” who are identified resettlement agencies, service providers, advocates, the mayor, and refugees themselves.

It is time for the State Dept. and the rest of the refugee resettlement bureaucracy to recognize and publicly affirm that the state and local taxpayer is very much a stakeholder in this venture.  When federal contractors like the Catholic Charities TN Office for Refugees claims that they would be violating federal law if they didn’t enroll the clients they voluntarily choose to sponsor and bring to the state of TN from another continent, into state-funded programs like TennCare (the state’s Medicaid program), I as a taxpayer and citizen of the state, have a right to be a stakeholder recognized and valued by the State Dept.

The 2013 ORR Voluntary Agencies Matching Grant Program Guidelines on page 9 states that: “ORR recognizes that weekly cash payments may make certain MG cases ineligible for the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid.  Thus, local Matching Grant Program service providers may give some of the weekly allowance in the form of vouchers if such a form of payment is in the overall best interest of the client and he/she concurs.”

In other words, gaming the system to shift more cost to the state taxpayer for the federal program.

The bureaucracy of refugee resettlement and in particular, the private federal contractors that benefit monetarily from taxpayer largesse compounded by elected officials’ anxiety over being called the same derogatory names as taxpayers who ask legitimate questions, ignore the fact that Catholic World News reported in August 2012 that “Federal funds account for nearly 93% of USCCB’s migration/refugee budget…that over 92.5% of [their] $72.1 million budget came from federal grants and contracts while under $25,000 came from private donations.”

All in direct contravention of the letter and intent of the various Cooperative Agreements.  Just like the individual resettlement agencies.

Despite Congress’ enumerated power over immigration, recognition must be given to the fact that even Congress’ spending power does not extend beyond a state’s borders into a state’s treasury.  Every dollar of cost that the federal refugee resettlement program shifts to the state taxpayer, is unsupported by any permissible federal power and constitutes at best, an unfunded and impermissible federal mandate.

Absent meaningful, objective consultation with local residents and state legislators who approve the state’s budget, the State Department should not be allowed to approve one more Reception & Placement proposal for Tennessee.  That is, at least until the state and its taxpayers get a full and honest disclosure of what the federal program is costing the state’s taxpayers.  They should have a voice as to whether they consider this a funding priority.  If not, cash flush refugee and immigrant advocacy groups like TIRRC are free to use their funds to privately sponsor refugees even if it has to reduce the money it spends on lobbying.

Above all, the name calling has to stop.

Respectfully,
Joanne Bregman
Tennessee

cc: Sen. Corker, Schumer, Leahy, Feinstein, Durbin, Klobuchar,  Blumenthal, Hirono, Cornyn, Grassley, Hatch, Sessions, Flake, Cruz
Rep. Fleischman, Gowdy, Poe, Smith, King, Jordan, Amodei, Labrador, Holding, Lofgren, Jackson Lee, Gutierrez, Garcia, Pierluisi

Attachment:

Bridges

                   Govt grants            other contributions (not including foundations)

2008        $682,158            $47,031

2009        $641,801            $39,781

2010        $902,445            $30,562

Catholic Charities  TN

2008        $7,341,878            $2,484,456

2009        $11,078,694            $2,568,733

2010        $9,396,445            $4,173,312

2011        $7,322,336            $6,915,397 ($1,349,909 from USCCB grant from federal grant funds passed through)

Catholic Charities West TN

2008        $2,000,916            $139,571

2009        $2,112,095            $833,845

2010        $2,025,895            $336,671

2011         unavailable

2012        dollar amounts unavailable but annual report lists 48% of revenue from federal grants

CRIT

2005        $270,102            $3,925

2006        $388,259            $2,800

2007        $231,079            $7,550

2008        $434,710            $15,394

2009        $204,222            $60,109

2010        $213,105            $30,080

2011        $219,921            $36,749

2012        $197,304            $30,664

NICE

2009        $76,645            $7,056

2010        $175,233            $52,631

2011        $400,503            $46,331

Readers, this is our 7th post in our category for this year’s State Department meeting, here.

Al Jazeera picks Nashville to host one of its twelve American bureaus

The story comes to us from the Nashville Scene thanks to one of our many informants from Tennessee.

If you are a regular reader here at RRW, this won’t come as a surprise as Nashville (thanks to Catholic Charities) is a hub of activity for Muslim immigrants.  Often referred to as the Kurdish Capital of America it is also home to a growing Somali population.

For new readers curious about Nashville, note that it is so important to the Islamic Doctrine of Immigration that we have a whole category here (46 previous posts!) on the city and its immigrant issues.  (I believe Islamists especially want to stick-it to a city representing the Bible Belt of America).

The Nashville Scene sanitizes Al Jazeera (no surprise):

Nashville will be home to one of 12 Al Jazeera America hubs across the country, according to a bureau list from the network, obtained by Politico media reporter Dylan Byers.

You may remember, Al Jazeera — the news network owned by the government of Qatar — is coming to America after purchasing Al Gore’s Current TV at the end of last year. The network has often been highly controversial in the states, as many Americans associate it with airing Al Qaeda home videos on its Arabic-language station. More recently, though, it has gained credibility in journalistic circles, particularly after its coverage of the Arab Spring protests.   [Really now! Just a little spin---ed]

Go to Politico for the news and the list of the other eleven lucky cities.

Certain immigrants aren’t choosing red states, and red states won’t benefit!

“Immigrants ‘find their way’ to ______(city or state)!”

Joel Kotkin is a Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University

Although Joel Kotkin writing at New Geography doesn’t use that phrase I’ve come to hate, he implies it.

They don’t ‘find their way’ to your city by magic!

The majority of the cities he cites in his wrong-headed assessment of immigrant demographics are cities the US State Department and their nine major contractors CHOSE for refugee resettlement.  Once refugees from certain ethnic groups take up residence, those same contractors do the paperwork to bring in the family and others of that ethnic group—like Catholic Charities did with Kurds in Nashville.  Then secondary migrants of the ethnic group move there to set up their little Nation within our Nation.   Nashville is known now as Little Kurdistan (and it isn’t a positive thing!). Minneapolis is Little Mogadishu represented by Keith Ellison (as I said yesterday).

I believe that the State Department and the Left-leaning contractors are purposefully changing the demographics of cities in order to turn them from Red to Blue expecting the state to soon follow.

Immigrants largely vote for Democrats because they, for the most part, want to be taken care of by the government.

And, if cities are benefiting I’m not seeing it unless you count the federal welfare dollars that come to the cities with the refugees and other low-skilled immigrants.  As for the businesses they establish and Kotkin touts, they are funded by you, the taxpayer, through micro-loan programs also administered by the immigration contractors.  Furthermore, Kotkin isn’t factoring in the drain on the local school systems and the criminal justice system (Kurdish gangs in Nashville!).

Here is Kotkin (Why The Red States Will Profit Most From More U.S. Immigration) emphasis mine (hat tip: Richard Falknor, Blue Ridge Forum):

In recent years, the debate over immigration has been portrayed in large part as a battle between immigrant-tolerant blue states and regions and their less welcoming red counterparts. Yet increasingly, it appears that red states in the interior and the south may actually have more to gain from liberalized immigration than many blue state bastions.

Nashville the fastest growing immigrant city in U.S. Muslim Kurds and Somalis brought there by Catholic Charities.

Indeed an analysis of foreign born population by demographer Wendell Cox reveals that the fastest growth in the numbers of newcomers are actually in cities (metropolitan areas) not usually seen as immigrant hubs. The fastest growth in population of foreign born residents–more than doubling over the decade was #1 Nashville, a place more traditionally linked to country music than ethnic diversity. Today besides the Grand Old Opry, the city also boasts the nation’s largest Kurdish population, and a thriving “Little Kurdistan,” as well as growing Mexican, Somali and other immigrant enclaves.

Other cities are equally surprising, including #2 Birmingham, AL; #3 Indianapolis, IN; #4 Louisville, KY and#5 Charlotte, NC, all of which doubled their foreign born population between 2000 and 2011. Right behind them are #6 Richmond,VA, #7 Raleigh,NC , #8 Orlando, Fl, #9 Jacksonville,Fl and #10 Columbus, OH. All these states either voted for Mitt Romney last year or have state governments under Republican control [Just wait until all those immigrants of the last decade are voting!---ed]. None easily fit the impression of liberally minded immigrant attracting bastions from only a decade ago.

[I don't know about Birmingham, but all of the other cities mentioned by Kotkin are cities aggressively being populated with refugees by federal refugee contractors.  Is it possible that the cities were thriving because they didn't have a lot of immigrant poverty (until now!)?---ed]

Although the New York metropolitan area still has the greatest numeric growth in immigrants since 2000, a net gain of more than 600,000, there’s no question that the momentum lies with these fast growing immigrant hubs.The reasons are not too difficult to fathom. In the modern global economy, migrants represent the veritable “canaries in the coalmine”. They go to economic opportunities are often the greatest, which often means thriving places like Nashville, Raleigh, Charlotte, Columbus or #11 Austin, TX. Housing prices and business climate also seem to be a factor here; all these areas have lower home prices relative to income than many traditional immigrant hubs.

[Again, all US State Department refugee resettlement target cities---ed]

As a result, many immigrants are moving from their traditional “comfort zone” cities with historical larger immigrant populations — New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago — to generally faster growing, more affordable cities.

This is insanity!  Studies show that the majority of new immigrants are a drain on the economy and that they take much more from public assistance than they return through paying taxes (most don’t make enough to pay taxes!).

Kotkin continues:

This is drastically reshaping the demographic future of the country. Over the past decade the increase in foreign born residents accounted for 44% of the nation’s overall population growth rate. With the U.S. birthrate heading downwards, at least for now, immigration represents perhaps the one way regions can boost their populations and energize their economies. It may be America’s biggest hope  as well in keeping Social Security and Medicare from collapse. 

[Ask the Germans and the French if their wholesale importation of immigrants saved them using this ridiculous supposition---ed]

It might be a surprise to Kotkin (maybe he really doesn’t know about refugee resettlement) or new readers here, but we knew and Catholic Charities knew that Nashville was being “changed” with the importation of Somalis and Kurds and others!

Kotkin concludes with this:

A decade ago, after all, who would have seen Nashville, the ultimate symbol of our country heritage, as a rising immigrant hub?

Readers, we have a whole category on Nashville(45 posts!), go here and weep.  My most cynical side wonders if indeed Nashville was targeted for Muslim immigration because it was the buckle of the Bible Belt—what an opportunity to stick it in the faces of rednecks.

Tennessean op-ed: Catholic Bishops must contribute more; consult communities

Update January 26th:  The Nashville Scene doesn’t like Barnett’s commentary, attacks Barnett Alinsky-style.  They are so predictable.

On the heels of my post yesterday about the US Conference of Catholic Bishops “National Migration Week” comes this zinger of an opinion piece from longtime observer of the federal government’s refugee resettlement program, Don Barnett, published in The Tennessean also yesterday (highlights are mine):

Refugee resettlement was once the work of self-supporting charities that invested their own resources and were directly responsible for outcomes. Today, it is the work of federal contractors who spend public resources and have no responsibility three months after the refugee has been “resettled.”

A July Government Accountability Office report, “Refugee Resettlement — Greater Consultation With Community Stakeholders Could Strengthen Program,” is critical of refugee contractors and how they place refugees in local communities across the U.S. In particular, the report cites lack of adequate consultation with local “stakeholders” before placing refugees in a community. The agencies that resettle refugees are compensated from 17 different federal programs tailored to refugee resettlement, as well as from numerous nonspecific grants and programs at the federal and state levels.

The largest resettlement contractor is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which resettles refugees through its affiliate, Catholic Charities.

As the GAO report notes, a network of contractors, known as “voluntary agencies,” “selects the communities where refugees will live. … Voluntary agencies consider various factors when determining where refugees will be placed, but few agencies we visited consulted relevant local stakeholders, which posed challenges for service providers.”

The report found that “… most public entities such as public schools and health departments generally said that agencies notified them of the number of refugees expected to arrive in the coming year, but did not consult them regarding the number of refugees they could serve before proposals were submitted to the (U.S. State Department).”

Since striking a deal in 2008 to manage the federal dollars for other, smaller refugee contractors in the state, Catholic Charities of Tennessee effectively runs refugee resettlement in Tennessee. Today, only 35 percent of its annual budget is dedicated to nonrefugee social services. As the GAO report notes, for organizations such as Catholic Charities, “funding is based on the number of refugees they serve, so affiliates have an incentive to maintain or increase the number of refugees they resettle each year rather than allowing the number to decrease.”

Sure enough, resettlement in Tennessee went up dramatically after 2008. In fact, since 2009, Tennessee has taken an average of about 1,450 refugees per year, a 62 percent increase over the average number resettled from 2004 to 2008. The total number of refugees resettled to the U.S. actually went down at the same time that Tennessee’s number of resettled refugees went up.

More refugees mean more government services, since the contractors assist the refugees for only three months or less in the vast majority of cases. Most refugees go into TennCare for varying periods of time. TennCare and other welfare programs such as Families First are used by refugees at much higher than average rates and are partially supported by state taxpayer dollars.

Refugee resettlement is very profitable for the nonprofits. There is a reason why refugee resettlement is Tennessee Catholic Charities’ biggest mission. All of its non-refugee social services are smaller, less lucrative and almost all are shrinking from year to year. Ironically, its national motto is: Working to Reduce Poverty in America.

USCCB took in an astonishing $72.1 million in revenue from refugee resettlement alone in 2011, 97 percent of which came from government contracts, grants and earnings from federal refugee programs. A significant portion of this money does not have to be shown as having been spent on refugees. In other words, millions flow to the contracting agency with no strings attached. (My personal favorite in this money racket: USCCB received $3.7 million in 2011 as a commission for collecting on the loans made by the U.S. government to refugees for airline tickets to the U.S. USCCB is under no obligation to spend any of this money on refugees.

Federal contractors will always act like federal contractors. But is it too much to ask refugee contractors to cover at least a portion of the costs borne by Tennessee taxpayers today? Is it too much to ask for more of a voice for the taxpayer who, after all, is the main stakeholder in this program?

‘Diversity is strength’ alert from Nashville, TN

We’ve got a bunch of new readers here at RRW lately, so I bet many of you don’t know that Nashville, TN is one of the hottest refugee resettlement cities in America thanks to the work of Catholic Charities which is running the state program and using your tax dollars to do it. In fact, it is so hot, we actually have a whole category just for “welcoming” Nashville (here).

Now here comes one of those joys-of-diversity reports (hat tip: a friend from Tennessee), entitled ‘Man attempts to rape cousin to prevent marriage.’

From WKRN-TV:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -

Metro police arrested a man Monday for attempting to rape his cousin in order to prevent her from getting married.

According to police affidavits, Alaa Mikhaiel does not like his cousin’s boyfriend and doesn’t want them to marry.

Mikhaiel, 26, went to her apartment Monday and persuaded her to get into his car.  He then drove the victim, against her will, to the Hamilton Creek boat ramp area.

Once there, Mikhaiel began pulling off the victim’s clothes while telling her “I’m going to rape you,” an affidavit stated.

The victim fought the suspect off until he finally opened her car door and shoved her out.

Had Mikhaiel raped his cousin, her boyfriend likely wouldn’t have married her to due to “Egyptian customs.”

Mikhaiel was charged with kidnapping, attempted rape and domestic assault.

He made bond and was released from jail Tuesday.

The “Egyptian customs” referenced here are most likely Muslim customs but we don’t know for sure—we do know they are not our customs.

We don’t take very many Egyptian refugees (YET!), however a whole batch of Egyptian diversity visa lottery (new seed immigration!) winners were reported in Tennessee a few years back, here, but they were identified at the time as Coptic Christians.   We bring in over 3000 Egyptians each year with the lottery.

Europe’s multi-culti nightmare: Kurds this time

Kurds (they are Muslims) are making the news these days.   We just had a report of a Kurdish refugee “welcomed” by Australia being found guilty of human trafficking.   Then earlier this summer we learned that young Kurds in Nashville (little Kurdistan!) are chief promoters of gang violence.   And, some European countries are deporting Kurds, here.

Looks like Kurds are scaring the ‘bejeezus’ out of Germany.  This ‘event’ happened two weeks ago, did you read about it or see it on your favorite TV news programs?  No! (I didn’t think so).

Here is the story at Frontpage magazine (hat tip: Judy):

“The festival gives expression to our demand for a peaceful coexistence of all humans with their different cultures, languages and traditions.”

- Proclamation of the festival’s organizers.

The beautiful, rosy multicultural paradise Europe’s leftists promised in the 1960s and ’70s manifested itself brilliantly again recently at a Kurdish festival in Mannheim, a German city in the south-western state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Almost as soon as the festival began, German police were set upon by hundreds of young Kurds who were encouraged “with words and applause” by thousands of others. When the shocking, hours-long savagery ended, eighty policemen were injured, one seriously, while “more than a dozen vehicles were destroyed” before order could be restored.

Martin Boll, a spokesman for Mannheim’s police, said he had never seen such violence in his 30 years of police service.

They had been allowed into Europe under the multicultural banner or asylum laws!

It was estimated 40,000 people, of whom 2,500 were regarded as “violent or violence-prepared,” attended the twentieth holding of this annual “multicultural” event. Most of the previous 19 Kurdish festivals had been held in the German state of Rhineland-Westphalia. An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 Kurds live in Germany, but Kurds had travelled from all over Europe for this year’s festival in Mannheim.

The riot began when officials of a security firm contracted by the festival’s organizers asked two policemen for assistance with a 14-year-old Kurdish youth who was refusing to give up a flag he was carrying of the banned Kurdish terrorist group, the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).  Apparently angry at the police intervention, about 100 young Kurds “suddenly attacked the two policemen from behind and kicked them in the back.” The violence escalated from there as more police and thugs were drawn in.

Unfortunately, the Mannheim riot is not an isolated incident. Germans and other Europeans are becoming more accustomed to seeing their municipal police forces attacked by people who, for the most part, had been allowed into Europe under the multicultural banner or asylum laws. [Coming soon to a town near you?---ed]

Greatest worry for Germans?  The Police lost control.

It is not surprising that Germans are wondering what is going on in their country today. Many realize that multiculturalism is a destructive, failed policy and that they are destined to experience many more such violent, “culturally enriching” moments in the future. They question why people are being let into Germany who actually belong in jail rather than on their streets. But what appears to upset Germans most about the Mannheim riot, even more than the lack of arrests, is that the police lost control of the situation and actually had to retreat to safety, leaving the rioters in control of the area for hours until police reinforcements arrived.

[.....]

Due to this loss of control on the part of the Mannheim police, some Germans are now worried whether security authorities will be able protect them when such inevitable rioting occurs again in future.

Get a gun if you wish to survive in this beautiful multi-culti world!

And if the police cannot enforce law and order, another reader asked, what could prevent such a “violence-prepared” mob from “breaking into houses, plundering and pillaging?”

The answer is nothing. The politicians are also not going to help correct the situation by sending large numbers of these miscreants back to their country of origin. So the only option left is, like in America, for the ordinary citizen to arm him- or herself, if one wants to survive in the “beautiful, new multicultural world” Europe has become.

There is more on what is happening in Europe—read it all!

Nashville: Muslim woman arrested/charged after threatening co-worker at Dell

This story is significant on many levels.

Nashville has become the home of thousands of Muslim “refugees” including large numbers of Somalis (although the news story I’m about to report does not say the arrested woman is Somali, she appears to be).  Catholic Charities (funded by you, the US taxpayer) works with refugees to get them jobs in various companies nearby.

Nashville is also home to Dell which was the focus of an aggressive campaign by CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) when it pushed workplace demands for religious accommodation on the company a number of years ago.

And, finally, take note of one phrase in the woman’s tirade:   “…this whole country will be Muslim soon.”   I have heard that phrase many times from Somali refugees in stories I’ve reported on, or from commenters to RRW.

From The Tennessean (Hat tip: The Religion of Peace, a website you should all visit daily).

A Nashville woman was charged with attempted terrorism Friday after investigators said she threatened to hurt co-workers at the South Nashville Dell facility last weekend.

The trouble began when a CEVA Logistics employee said his co-worker Amal Ahmed Abdullahi, 29, of Zermatt Avenue, approached him during his shift last Saturday.

According to a release from Metro police, Abdullahi told the employee that “her people were dying for Allah every day; that she was ready to die for Allah; that this whole country will be Muslim soon; that this country is full of non-believers and that this place (her work place) is full of non-believers; that all unbelievers should die; that her life starts after death; that her life is not here, nobody pays attention to her and she should pick up a gun and shoot all these people.”

CEVA Logistics signed the arrest warrant as the prosecutor against Abdullahi, accusing her of intimidating/coercing a civilian population.

Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said Friday that he was not immediately aware of anyone previously being charged with attempted terrorism in Nashville.

Local Muslim mouthpiece:  Islam is a religion of peace

Still, news of the arrest was enough to send shock waves through Nashville’s Muslim community.

“We are very saddened to hear this, that one of our people acted this way,” said Amir Arain, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Nashville. “Islam condemns violence of all forms and condones peaceful coexistence and love for our neighbors..”

So, what happened at Dell several years ago?

Here is one of several accounts reported in 2005.  This is from Militant Islam Monitor:

Psychological Jihad was being waged last week at the offices of Dell computers after Somali Muslim temporary workers walked off their jobs and claimed they were not being given prayer time. The situation was exploited by Islamist organisations such as the Council of American Islamic Relations, and the Human Rights Commission, who intimidated Dell into giving into the workers demands which included monetary benefits such as back salaries for time off additional undisclosed payments. It is highly symbolic that this ‘Jihad byDa’wa ‘ is taking place at Dell, one of the world’s leading computer firms ,owned by Michael Dell, one of the richest men in the country, who ‘happens’ to be Jewish. The fact that Dell dominates the computer market in Israel could be another reason why CAIR wants to portray them as ‘anti Muslim’ and threaten a boycott of their products.

The audacity of temporary workers demanding that their religous ‘needs’ be accomodated has nothing to do with freedom of religion or civil rights. It is an attempt to bring Islam into the American workplace under the guise of ‘tolerance and diversity’. Even more alarming is that Dell has agreed to give employees training in the ‘requirements’ of Muslims…

Read it all!

New readers:  Because Nashville, and Tennessee generally, has become an important focal point for Muslim political agitation and the resultant push-back from anti-jihadists we have a whole category on Nashville, here.