NH refugee contractor says it is on target for NH resettlements

Even in spite of the fact that the state has had much controversy of late about a possible moratorium on resettlements,  Lutheran Social Services is bragging that it is mostly on target to get a full-compliment of refugees into the state this fiscal year (although it appears they won’t be placing too many in Manchester).

It was only a few days ago that we learned  (and here) that Minnesota wasn’t going to come close with its goal for the year.  So what is the difference?   Minnesota continues to be the go-to resettlement site for Muslims (mostly Somalis) and due to those security screenings, their numbers are down.  In New Hampshire (at the moment) they are resettling mostly non-Muslims so the numbers aren’t slowing so dramatically.

From the Concord Monitor:

Two-thirds into their fiscal year, the main refugee resettlement agencies in the state say they are on target to reach or fall slightly short of their projected new cases this year.

Lutheran Social Services, which works primarily in Concord, Nashua and Laconia, has settled 145 people so far this year, about 60 percent of the cases it projected to handle between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30.

Most of those people are refugees from Bhutan, and about 65 percent have settled in Concord; the others were settled in Laconia or Nashua. Most of the new arrivals are related to refugees who have already settled in New Hampshire, said program director Amy Marchildon.

“Nationally, we’ve been a little bit slower this year overall,” she said. “There were new security measures implemented in the beginning of the year so it’s taken a while to move refugees” through the system.

As for Manchester and the International Institute, the Institute hired a new head honcho and they hope to get things rolling again there so that more refugees can come in and get their “services.”

The International Institute of New Hampshire works primarily in Manchester, where it has so far this year settled 74 people, mostly Bhutanese refugees with family members in the city, according to site director Nasir Arush.

[.....]

“I had a very good conversation with him [speaking of Mayor Gatsas--ed] when I was in New Hampshire and was very involved in many initiatives in the past ten years for services to enhance the lives of refugees in Manchester,” he said. “I really thought this is a good fit for me and a good opportunity to have someone with my experience and background as someone who is very known in Manchester to take this job.”

Then here is one line in the story that caught my eye!

One exception [when numbers were larger then projected---ed] was in 2004, when a humanitarian crisis in Somalia led the State Department to resettle more refugees nationwide than anticipated that year.

It wasn’t just 2004 that was a good year for Somalis!  See this post I wrote years ago and is still every day on the list of most visited posts.  I had combed through all the annual reports and noted the numbers of Somalis entering the US through the refugee program.  And, yes, 2004 was a big year (remember the then-Senator Brownback involvement) but the years following 2004 were pretty overloaded too!   Here are those POST-911 years when we were bringing Somalis to the US in large numbers:

2004:  12,814

2005:  10,101

2006:  10,330

2007:  6958

It was in 2008 that the discovery was made that Somalis were lying about their family relationships and one portion of the program was suspended and the number of Somalis dropped dramatically (links to posts on the suspension may be found in this recent post on Minnesota)  Now we are creeping on up again.

Kansas governor signs bill to ban foreign laws in Kansas courts

And, of course the Islamic lobby is going nuts.   According to this story at Fox News, Kansas becomes the 4th state to enact the so-called “American laws for American courts” model legislation.  (Hat tip: Greg)

But, Governor Brownback’s signature on this bill is ironic since as a US Senator he helped open the Somali Muslim floodgates to America!

First, here is the story about the bill-signing last week:

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a law aimed at keeping the state’s courts or government agencies from basing decisions on Islamic or other foreign legal codes, and a national Muslim group’s spokesman said Friday that a court challenge is likely.

The new law, taking effect July 1, doesn’t specifically mention Shariah law, which broadly refers to codes within the Islamic legal system. Instead, it says courts, administrative agencies or state tribunals can’t base rulings on any foreign law or legal system that would not grant the parties the same rights guaranteed by state and U.S. constitutions.

“This bill should provide protection for Kansas citizens from the application of foreign laws,” said Stephen Gele, spokesman for the American Public Policy Alliance, a Michigan group promoting model legislation similar to the new Kansas law. “The bill does not read, in any way, to be discriminatory against any religion.”

But supporters have worried specifically about Shariah law being applied in Kansas court cases, and the alliance says on its website that it wants to protect Americans’ freedoms from “infiltration” by foreign laws and legal doctrines, “especially Islamic Shariah Law.”

[.....]

….laws similar to Kansas’ new statute have been enacted in Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Read it all!  See CAIR go nuts.

Now get this!  This is the same guy (Brownback) who as Chairman of a Senate immigration subcommittee pushed for the resettlement of Somali Bantu into the US (and lots of other refugees as well!).   However, after initially saying ‘we will take some in Kansas,’ he changed his tune when rumblings from his state indicated that it was not something the average Kansan was open to—AND 911 happened.   Here is a short segment from a very detailed article from Thomas Allen at VDARE, written in 2003, about the now ten-year-old Brownback change of heart:

Anywhere but Kansas!

When it comes to mass immigration, Sam Brownback is not just another Senator. He played a key role in sabotaging Republican support for the 1996 Smith-Simpson bill, the last serious effort at immigration reduction. And when the State Department accepted the Somali Bantu, and discussions began about where they would go, he was chairman of the Senate immigration subcommittee.

State Department officials say Brownback had told both them and U.N. refugee chief Ruud Lubbers that he was “interested in resettling more refugees in Kansas.” State began exploring the feasibility of resettling the Bantu in Wichita, Kansas.

According to Chris Renner, Program Director of the Kansas Board of Education, the Senator was the catalyst of the resettlement plan and “to make a long story short, he … lent his support to the resettlement of this population in Kansas.”

But apparently Kansas did not like the resettlement proposal any more than Maine and Massachusetts do. And after 9/11, Brownback announced a change of heart.

Change of hearts are O.K. as long as everyone knows the history of what happened and the people involved in bringing the largest groups of Muslim immigrants to the US—anyone involved with refugee resettlement—apologizes for what they are and have done to the country.   There would be no need for laws like this one if we weren’t importing the Islamic foot soldiers for groups like CAIR.

Flood of Somalis to Kansas anyway!

By the way, even if Brownback had a change of heart, he couldn’t stop the flood of Somalis to Kansas.  Remember in 2007 we began writing  many posts on the trouble in Emporia, KS as the town became flooded with Somali workers for Tysons Food (gee I wonder if Brownback was getting campaign donations from Tyson and other meatpackers looking for cheap and captive labor?).  We created a whole category on the problems in Emporia, here.

Tyson Foods closed the Emporia operation and moved the Somalis to other meat packing towns.  One was Shelbyville, TN, but some went to Garden City, KS where the somalification of Kansas is occurring at this very moment.   LOL!  It is Garden City where the Somalis want a special publicly-funded Muslim cemetery so they don’t need to be near infidels even in death.  I mentioned the Garden City cemetery in my post yesterday on Muslims demanding cemeteries in Europe, here.

So, it’s all well and good if there is no Shariah law allowed in Kansas courts, but Shariah is creeping into Kansas anyway in the most unlikeliest of places—local government training sessions (again, see somalification of Kansas) on how to understand Somalis in order to “serve” them better and local government decisions about segregated cemeteries.

Europe: Muslims want special taxpayer-funded cemeteries

And, you think Shariah isn’t creeping into Europe?

Before you read this story about special cemeteries in Europe for Muslims who cannot be buried with infidels, note that this demand for taxpayer-funded cemeteries for Muslims is also happening in the US.   We had a story in 2010 from Garden City, KS*, here, about such a request.  I don’t know if they got what they wanted in this Kansas city—the refugee resettlement hub in the heartland.  But, here is an idea!  Maybe Tyson Foods that was responsible for attracting the Muslim immigrants to the city might pay for their cemetery!

From The National:

BERLIN // In a sombre sign that Muslims are becoming more integrated in German society, the 300,000-strong Islamic community in Berlin has complained that it is running out of graveyard space, and is urging authorities to help solve the problem.

The shortage of sites reflects a desire by increasing numbers of Muslims to be buried in Germany rather than be taken to their countries of origin after their death. Community leaders have stepped up their campaign this month for more burial space.

[....]

The requirements of the Quran make the search for suitable sites more difficult. All graves must be positioned with the head facing towards Mecca, and rooms must be made available to allow the ritual washing of the dead. Cremation is not permitted.

Berlin does not require the bodies be placed in caskets and permits burials of people wrapped just in cloth, in accordance with Islamic tradition. But the German practice of limiting the duration of burial sites clashes with the Muslim tradition that the dead must be allowed eternal peace. In Berlin, the leases on graves span 20 years, after which they have to be renewed. Otherwise the site is cleared for reuse.

Poor France!

Many European countries face similar pressures to find burial space for Muslim immigrants. In February, France inaugurated its first municipal Muslim cemetery in the city of Strasbourg in a move Islamic leaders described as a step towards recognising one of the country’s largest minority groups. France has western Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, estimated at between five and six million people.

Germans, so far, don’t want to pay for special privileges for those who even in death wish to stay separate.

The German capital has voted to tackle the space shortage but has so far baulked at making funding available for a new cemetery. And Muslim representatives said they cannot afford to run a cemetery based just on donations. [Let the infidels pay!---ed]

* We have many many posts on Garden City, KS, just use our search function to find them.

Resettlement to “welcoming” Minnesota slowed

Well, not just Minnesota but everywhere.  There is nothing new in this story.  I’m posting it here because while the Israelis riot AGAINST more Africans coming across the Israeli border, recognizing the potential destruction of the social fabric, this article highlights the desire by Minnesota’s social service agencies and the “faith” community to “welcome” more to Minnesota.

The refugee program has been slowed because of the discovery (oops!) of Iraqi terrorists having been resettled in Bowling Green, KY and probably some other cases we haven’t heard about yet.    By the way, a reader from Kentucky told me recently that Bowling Green is 10% Bosnian Muslim now thanks to the Clinton Administration’s phony-baloney Bosnian war and refugee resettlement contractors.

Here is the Star Tribune article boo-hooing about the slow flow of refugees to Minnesota:

Fewer feet are stepping across Minnesota’s welcome mat.

Stricter screening measures for refugees hoping to enter the United States from countries deemed a security risk have allowed fewer people to reach Minnesota from hot spots around the world.

The total number of refugees arriving in the state dropped from 2,107 in the 12 months ending in September 2010 to 1,856 in the 12 months ending in September 2011, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

So far, only 758 refugees entering the U.S. have landed in Minnesota in the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2011.

Not to worry! The pace will surely pick up in the summer!

Workers at both state and federal refugee agencies predict the numbers of new arrivals to Minnesota will pick up soon as the government fine-tunes the new screening process in time for summer, historically the busy season for refugee resettlement work.

Readers, there is nothing special about summer, it is just that the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30th and the feds and the contractors put on a big push to resettle as many as they can toward the approved cap before the new fiscal year begins.  And, since they are likely to even get smaller numbers of refugees in 2013, they want to get all the bodies they can get in 2012.

Most refugees going to Minnesota are Somalis.

The recent decline in refugee numbers nationally and locally began nearly two years ago, after U.S. officials sought to tighten screening process for refugees coming from Iraq mainly, but it also has affected refugees from Somalia.

See my recent post about Somali chain migration to Minnesota hitting a snag, here.   Same reporter for the Star Tribune, Allie Shah, wrote that story—must be on the Somali beat (or the Muslim beat).

Addendum:  Silly me, I should have linked this post from January 2011 that is one of the top posts here almost every day.

NH Senate kills refugee moratorium bill; phony “grassroots” group organized

The New Hampshire on-again-off-again refugee resettlement moratorium bill is apparently dead for now.

Here is the short story from AP:

CONCORD, N.H.—The New Hampshire Senate has killed a bill that would have let cities and towns enact moratoriums of up to one year on allowing refugees to settle in their communities.

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas has pushed for the moratorium due to the demands for services on his city. The House had wanted to negotiate a compromise on the issue, but the Senate rejected that request Wednesday.

Scott Spradling, spokesman for Granite Staters for Strong Communities, praised the vote, saying lawmakers should focus instead on the economic, cultural and social benefits of refugee resettlement in New Hampshire.

For background and for new readers, search RRW for Manchester and you can catch up on the story.

“Grassroots” organize to defend refugee program

My interest this morning is in this Granite Staters for Strong Communities, a supposed grassroots group that sprang up spontaneously (I know stop laughing!) to defend the refugee program in New Hampshire!   Check out Scott Spradling—he runs a public relations firm and my first question is who paid him to start a phony-baloney “grassroots” group?  (Note that the AP reporter above knew to call the Lefty PR guy for a quote!) This is how the Left and people who have a financial (corporatist) interest in some government program operate—George Soros (and before him Saul Alinsky) taught them their tricks.  First, you set up a “group” and attract some naive people to join you and everyone thinks it is some spontaneous uprising of the ‘good’ people!

Here is a story I missed from last month at the Union Leader about the Granite Staters who want to flood New Hampshire with third-worlders (like the Rohingya Muslims I mentioned in my last post).

MANCHESTER — A group is forming in support of refugees who have come to New Hampshire through the federal resettlement program and are battling a proposal to allow communities to impose a 1-year ban on it.

Granite Staters for Strong Communities is still early in the formation stage. Spokesman Scott Spradling described it as a bipartisan coalition of business owners, concerned citizens, civic leaders and religious groups that hopes to raise public awareness about the issue, which has been the subject of debate of lawmakers in Concord.

[....]

Spradling said the group had about 50 members as of last week and is expected to decide on leadership roles soon.

Regardless of the committee’s position or a vote in the general Senate, Spradling said Granite Staters for Strong Communities expects the issue to come up again.

Besides Spradling (who is surely being paid for his work), the article mentions another person whose livelihood depends on the immigrant flow to New Hampshire—an immigration lawyer!   Oh sure, he doesn’t want NH to look racist!

George Bruno, a Manchester-based immigration attorney and member of the group, said he doesn’t want to see New Hampshire gain the same reputation as other states that have had highly-publicized anti-immigration efforts.

Not connected to Soros-funded group (or so they say)!

Bruno and Spradling said the group is focused on New Hampshire and not affiliated with the national “Welcoming America” initiative.

Don’t miss the comments to this story.  See especially what Jack Alex has to say (too long to post here).

Tip for you folks in NH—-you need to infiltrate this “grassroots” group!  Get some unknown people to join and report back on what they are doing.  Be sure to examine their incorporation docs (if they get that far) and their financial statements.   Be sure to note who benefits financially and politically from the importation of impoverished immigrants to NH.  Even more fun would be to start a blog and report their activities to the public!  Nothing like a little sunshine!

The face of Lancaster, PA refugee resettlement

Only last week we had a widely read post about the problems in Lancaster, PA with an overload of refugees.   A commenter from Lancaster to the US State Department May 1 meeting said that Church World Service (CWS) was bringing thousands of refugees to Lancaster.   Then a commenter to that post said that was hogwash, there weren’t thousands being resettled in Lancaster.  But, here CWS tells us about the person responsible for resettling “thousands upon thousands” in her home town of Lancaster.

Not many people can claim to have resettled thousands upon thousands of refugees to their hometown – but Sheila McGeehan can.

Since she began her work with the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program (CWS/IRP) 25 years ago, she has introduced refugees from all around the world to Lancaster, Pa. – the “tranquil, prosperous, safe, pretty” city she loves.

In turn, newcomers from Russia, Vietnam, Sudan, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Burma, Bosnia, Iraq and numerous other countries have transformed this small city in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country into what McGeehan calls a “very cosmopolitan” community, population 55,000-plus.

[.....]

“I don’t take credit.  This is a great area for resettlement, and it would have happened without me,” said McGeehan, Director of the CWS/IRP Lancaster Office.  “But it’s been very satisfying to contribute to making Lancaster more open and diverse.”

Hmmm!

Read it all!

PR campaign is on to relieve refugees of travel loan repayment

One of the things that jumped out at me in the testimony at the May 1 US State Department “scoping meeting”  nearly two weeks ago was that refugee advocates seemed to have themes to their testimony—things that many are pushing to change.  One of those things was a plea to eliminate some responsibility for travel bills the refugees ring up.

Back in  2007 I was surprised to learn that the refugees sign a promissory note to begin repaying their travel “loan” shortly after arrival.  A State Department employee told us that it was good for the refugees to begin to have responsibility for loans.  Of course as an advocate for the taxpayers of America I want to see them repay their travel expenses to get to the US, but how the h*** can they do that if they don’t have jobs?

Here is a story from Idaho last week which gives more detail then I have ever seen about the “loan” program that comes through the International Organization for Migration (IOM).   Of course what the World Relief (one of the nine federal contractors) employee doesn’t tell you here is that his non-profit will get a cut of any money they can wring out of the refugees—it doesn’t all go back to the US Treasury!

From NPR Idaho (What is the program you likely haven’t heard of? Emphasis mine):

It’s called the International Organization for Migration U.S. Refugee Travel Loan Program.

What is it?  In short, it covers the cost of transportation for nearly all refugees resettled in the United States.  (For this year, that could be as many as 76,000 people.)

Basically, it’s a revolving loan fund.  The loans are interest-free, and the money comes from the U.S. Department of State.  In FY2011, the State Department contributed $78.35 million for the transportation of refugees.  That money  went to the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental group headquartered in Geneva.

Before refugees come to the U.S., whether they are coming from Iraq, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, they sign a promissory note.  It spells out the refugee or refugee family’s cost of  travel, and requires that monthly payments begin within six months of arrival in the U.S.  The loan amounts vary according to the number of people traveling, and where they’re traveling from.  One loan may be $1,413, another $10,306.

Payment amounts vary accordingly.  Promissory notes dictate that loans be repaid within 42 months of arrival.  That means monthly payments are determined by dividing the total loan amount by 36.  The promissory notes say that if a loan goes unpaid for four or more months or if a refugee doesn’t pay the loan fully within 46 months, the IOM can accelerate payment, and report the refugee to a collection agency.

Before the recession hit, Boise’s World Relief office resettled more than 300 refugees annually. In part due to the economic downturn, that number has been cut back. Last year the agency received a total of 166 refugees.

“What of it?” you might ask.  As StateImpact has reported elsewhere, the recession dealt an especially hard blow to Idaho’s refugee population.

Larry Jones is the Boise Field Office Director for a refugee resettlement agency called World Relief.  In a recent interview, he recollected what it was like to try to help refugees establish lives here in Idaho as the recession hit.  “Fewer and fewer people were able to get jobs,” he remembered.

Jones said the lack of jobs meant refugees needed more support.  “We started to see the needs of initial resettlement start to stretch from five or six months to maybe two years before someone got their first job,” he said.  “That’s a long time to be patching together support structures to keep people in their homes.”

Sounds like it is time for a moratorium on the whole program!

More here on refugees to Idaho.  And, lots more by typing “Idaho” into our search function!

San Diego: Somalis say no to another liquor store

From KPBS News:

There’s a corner of University Avenue in San Diego that’s home to a store called University Market. It’s also home to a Buddhist Temple, a mosque and an Islamic parochial school.

Ahmed Malinomar is leading the opposition to a liquor license for a store that’s right next to a mosque on University Avenue.

Due to intense pressure from Somalis, a local planning committee has already recommended that the license be denied.

He [the owner of the store who doesn't want his name used] said he needs to sell alcohol, due to financial competition form many new Somali markets that have opened across the street and right next door to him. He said University Market has been a friend to San Diego Somalis, allowing members of the mosque to use the parking lot. Yet they have organized the opposition to his liquor license.

The question of the conditional use permit now goes before the San Diego Planning Commission. Islam forbids the use of alcoholic beverages, but Somalis I spoke with said that is not an issue in this debate.

Yeh sure!  Readers may recall that Somali cab drivers in Minnesota unsuccessfully tried to stop people from bringing even a closed bottle of liquor into their cabs.

By the way, we have a lot about San Diego Somalis, use our search function for more.

So what is going on in Lancaster, PA? More refugees than the city can handle?

Update May 20th:  Church World Service—thousands upon thousands resettled to Lancaster, here!

You know Lancaster—the home of the Amish.  Not!

I’m going to tell you about one of my favorite testimonies sent to the US State Department two weeks ago for the May 1 scoping meeting to hear from “stakeholders” (that is government talk for contractors) on how many refugees and which ones to bring to the US in FY 2013.  Obama will make a “determination” and send it to Congress in September where Congress will rubber stamp it just in time for the October 1st opening of fiscal year 2013.

But… before I tell you more about the testimony, a little background:  In 2007, we in Washington Country Maryland were just minding our own business when several incidents occurred with new immigrants that got the attention of the authorities and finally the newspaper.  We learned that the Virginia Council of Churches (Virginia! mind you) was resettling third worlders in Hagerstown (our county seat).  Some of us just wanted to better understand how this was happening—WHAT WAS THE GOVERNMENTAL PROCESS that allowed a supposed non-profit from Virginia to drop off people in Hagerstown.  Where would they work?  Who was paying for this?  Who was responsible for their health, their housing, their education?

To make a long story short, we had a public meeting for all those involved which included the primary federal contractor Church World Service (they subcontract to Virginia Council of Churches), our state refugee coordinator, and some representatives of the US State Department.  The public asked a lot of questions—many were answered in let’s just say a not straightforward fashion.  We were lectured about how we are a ‘nation of immigrants’ and probably not even two weeks later the program was closed in Hagerstown and we were labeled “unwelcoming” —I suppose because we asked too many questions.   This is how this blog was born—out of annoyance with government officials who keep information from the public!  (For anyone interested in more on what happened in Hagerstown we have a category, unused lately, here, in which we told our story in the early years.)

So how does Lancaster fit in?

We were told in 2007 that the majority of refugees we were getting were Meshketians (Russian Sunni Muslim Turks) who were originally destined for Lancaster, PA about 100 miles away.  However, somehow there was a glitch in the plan for Lancaster (we heard a crime problem had cropped up) and that Church World Service (one of nine federal contractors who monopolize the program) had to quickly find a place to take the next batch of Meshketians.  I think they just looked at a map and picked Hagerstown—fresh territory for refugee resettlement and close enough to Lancaster so the Meshketians could visit back and forth.

And, by the way, we heard that some Meshketians had homes to sell in Russia and were able to buy homes here—so were they even real refugees?  Or, were we using this program (again!) for some foreign policy political reason involving Russia and Turkey?

Here is what Church World Service (CWS) told the State Department on May 1 (Oh, and by the way, CWS is the “crop walk” group, some of you may know them from participating in their fundraising project.—ed):

In the United States, communities, schools, religious congregations, and employers welcome refugees and help them integrate in their new homes.  In turn, refugees bring their innovative skills, diverse cultures, dedicated work, and other positive contributions to their new communities, enhancing the quality of life for all parties. Refugee resettlement showcases the best virtues of the United States—community, opportunity, hard work, diversity, caring for one another, and courage to start a new life.

Now, here is what a citizen of Lancaster, PA says of Church World Service (I won’t publish the woman’s name, but apparently she has been trying to help refugees who are struggling in her community—in other words she is not a bigot and xenophobe like we are here at RRW!).  This is not the first time we have heard of refugee volunteers trying to do the best for refugees and running into problems with arrogant resettlement contractors.   For the record, I don’t know this woman.  [Emphasis below is mine---ed]

From a refugee volunteer in Lancaster, PA:

Why do organizations like Church World Service make unilateral decisions on how many refugees get settled into an area?

CWS and Lutheran Social Services have settled at least 2500 refugees (that’s probably a low guess as they refuse to give out totals, but only list how many of one nationality that they have settled in a past year) in Lancaster in the past 3 years without any approval process required from our mayor, our city council or without any consultation with our school board. The city of Lancaster population is approximately 56,000. In the past 2 1/2 years, these two organizations, who have no accountability to voters… have made the population approximately 4% refugee. I help refugees here in Lancaster and I am aware that in the short term, they are a very heavy financial burden on the city. Surely it is reasonable and right for our elected officials to have some say in how many refugees are settled into the city within a certain time period?

I work with families, I see the neglect:

I work with three refugee families in an informal support system through the Unitarian Social Justice committee here in Lancaster. I work with refugees who are hard working, serious people. They will eventually be a great asset to the city. But in the short term, they are a great financial burden on the city.

Every member of these three refugee families arrived with health issues. Many continue to have serious health issues and use the free clinics for health care, for surgery, for extensive testing, for dental work.

Each family has one or more grandparents who are permanently disabled in some way and need financial aid and city services.   [Elderly refugees may receive SSI even if they never paid into the system---ed]

Because of language and educational difficulties, earning power is low. In spite of their very low income, there are cultural issues, which lead the young women to marry early and start families right away and stay home with their babies. They do not work outside the home. I know this because… within a year… my three families, including newly married older daughters and married cousins who share the same buildings… had four new babies… and another baby is due this month. They are good families and the Nepali refugees are wonderful parents. But, each low income family needs government services and financial aid to insure that there is good food and good medical care for the moms and babies. It’s a significant cost to the community.

There are other cultural difficulties that present challenges and sometimes dangers for the refugees and for the city, which are not addressed by the two Lancaster settlement agencies.

CWS officially works with the families for 3 months but their orientations are neglectfully inadequate.

I could quickly list 10 very serious incidences of neglect by CWS, but to save time here, I will tell only one story and a few bullet points. Please contact me if you would like more information. I could write many pages based on my notes of the past 2 years.

The testimony goes on to report problems with the orientation of refugees, safety issues and bed bugs.

“CWS is dumping refugees on to the city”

Many Lancaster people that I talk with…who also try to help refugees here… use the word “dumping”… CWS is dumping refugees on to the city… taking a payment to settle the refugees and moving on to the next group of refugees who will bring in more money to pay for CWS salaries, office space and fund raising events. This is the impression of many compassionate, frustrated people here in Lancaster, who are then accused of being part of a racist or anti-immigration backlash. We are not anti-immigration. We are expending our own personal time and money and pressuring our churches to spend time and money, picking up the pieces that CWS drops into our community. We now want a say in how many refugees can be settle here.

[New readers, see this 2010 story from Greensboro, NC and see the same problem---local church volunteers crying out to stop the flow of refugees at least for awhile!]

The commenter then goes on to make recommendations and mentions the State of Tennessee’s efforts to get some local control into the program.   How much do you want to bet the State Department won’t follow-up and ask her for her proposals.  Nor is the State Department making any of this testimony available to the public.   She needs to send her testimony to her Congressman and US Senators and ask that they publish it in the Congressional Record!  The buck stops with Congress!

Buffalo, NY: Christians and Jews declining in number, Muslim population increasing

Ho hum, as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops asks the US State Department for more Muslims to resettle in your towns and cities, the number of Catholics and Jews are declining in “welcoming” Buffalo.

[If you are interested, here is a database to help you figure out who is coming to your town.]

Before reading on, you might want to check our archives on Buffalo here.  Wow!  We have a lot of stories from Buffalo! It was just two weeks ago we read about the Somali father who beat his young son to death in Buffalo over homework.

From Buffalo News:

Nearly half the residents in the Buffalo Niagara region are considered “unclaimed” by a religious group — a stunning change from just a decade ago, when the percentage of the population affiliated with a faith tradition was higher here than in any other metropolitan area in the country.

Catholicism, most mainline Protestant denominations, Judaism and some evangelical denominations in the Buffalo Niagara region experienced huge membership declines between 2000 and 2010, according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, which last week released the results of the latest U.S. Religion Census.

The study also showed exponential growth of the local Muslim community, which is now estimated at 18,483 people in Erie and Niagara counties, up from about 5,400 a decade ago.

That makes Islam the second most-practiced world religion in Western New York, behind Christianity.

Judaism slipped to third, with a total of 8,084 adherents in Buffalo Niagara, down from an estimate of 20,150 in 2000.

[....]

Catholicism alone lost more than a third of its members in Erie and Niagara counties — 217,944 parishioners in all — over the last decade, according to the census.

[.....]

The membership declines already have resulted in widespread closings of houses of worship, particularly in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, which has shuttered about 75 church buildings since 2005.

I suspect the Catholic population is kept somewhat steadier, but still dropping, in other parts of the country because of the large number of Hispanic (legal and illegal) immigrants helping to inflate the numbers.

Nationally, Catholicism lost about 5 percent of its membership from a decade ago.

My guess is that a lot of Catholics have fallen away because they are sick of the sex scandals and the increasingly leftwing politics of the church (which may change somewhat as the church begins to stand up to Obama).

In Buffalo a “whopping 242% increase” in Muslims:

The presence of Muslims grew by 67 percent nationwide, with estimates now pegged at 2.6 million, according to the census.

But in Buffalo Niagara, the percent increase for Muslims was a whopping 242 percent.

The 18,483 estimate appeared to be accurate, according to Dr. Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York.

US government policy encourages immigration from Muslim countries (no kidding!):

Qazi attributed the growth to several factors, beginning with immigration changes dating back to the Lyndon Johnson administration that allowed immigrants from primarily Muslim countries to enter the United States.

……in Buffalo, the resettlement of refugees from Bosnia and Somalia has added to the local Muslim community, which also tends to have families with more children, he said.

“As much as we saw loss of population [overall for Buffalo], it would be far higher if we did not see refugee resettlement,” Qazi said.

So, other than federal money for welfare (and food stamps) flowing to the Buffalo region with refugees, how does the increase in population of low income people help Buffalo?  And, how is that working out for the Catholic Church?

Related story (hat tip, Robert):   Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York encourages mosque building (this time in Wisconsin).   When will some of those shuttered Catholic Churches in Buffalo become mosques? Maybe that is happened already!  Hey, that is an idea, the Catholic Church can make money by selling unused church property to Muslims!