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!

New Hampshire refugee moratorium bill defeated in committee

Regular readers know that Manchester, NH is in refugee overload and its Mayor has been asking the US State Department and its paid contractors to hold off on resettling more refugees in the city that is having difficulty coping with the newly imported impoverished people unlikely to find work at this time (or maybe anytime for years to come).

It seems that the State Legislators were swayed by testimony alleging the unconstitutionality of telling the feds to slow the flow.  We know that secondary migrants can move anywhere in the US, but I would suggest the feds have no constitutional right to impose their program involving refugees selected largely by the United Nations (with unfunded mandates) on a state or city.  So, if there is any constitutional issue it would seem to be a tenth amendment one in favor of the state.

No more Live Free or Die! state—-it’s more like do what the Feds say and die anyway!

From the Union Leader:

No help with refugees: If Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas and other city officials expected lawmakers to help with the city’s refugee resettlement problems, they were very disappointed.

[,,,.]

Gatsas, Alderman and Rep. Pat Arnold and Manchester Reps. Win Hutchinson and Mike Ball all spoke in favor of the bill which would have allowed a one-year moratorium on refugee resettlements.

Gatsas has pushed federal officials for a moratorium, which he says is needed until the refugees who are here settle into the system, get jobs and become productive citizens. “We need to take a breath, step back and figure out how to do this right,” Gatsas told the committee last month.

Friday, Gatsas called the committee’s action “too bad. They need to understand the people here need to get an opportunity to succeed, but when there are 200 or 300 more refugees every year, there is no opportunity. They don’t know the language, they have a hard time finding a job and they put pressure on the schools, but we still have to test them.”

He noted there are 13 communities in the state designated under the federal resettlement program, and they all could face what Manchester does now.

My suggestion is to get a grassroots campaign going involving those other 13 communities, make lots of noise and bug the hell out of your Representatives in Washington.  The State Legislature is always going to wimp out on issues like this—well, except for maybe Tennessee!

Senators push for more “temporary” refugees—Syrians this time

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has turned into a joke.  Maybe there were good intentions behind the idea of giving “temporary” refuge to people in the US (legally or ILLEGALLY) when their home country was embroiled in war or had been recently hit by a natural disaster, but now it has become one more backdoor amnesty.

I’ve written several posts recently at Potomac Tea Party Report and here at RRW about TPS for Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Syrians.

So what is the problem?  They never go home!  As I have oft repeated, ‘there is nothing quite so permanent as a temporary refugee’ (Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies).  And, by the way, “temporary” refugees are given work permits and can do anything a US citizen can do except vote (and they are probably doing that too!).

Now here is Fox News telling us that six US Senators are pushing Obama to grant TPS to Syrians (they estimate around 10,000 are in the US legally at this moment, but they don’t know how many illegal Syrians are here).

Several Democratic senators are calling on the Obama administration to allow Syrians who are already in the United States to stay, at least temporarily, out of concern it would be “too dangerous” for them to return home.

The senators want President Obama to invoke what’s known as “temporary protected status” for thousands of Syrians in the U.S. The designation typically is given to foreign nationals whose home countries are beset by war or natural disaster and who could face harm should they return.

The senators argued that Syrians in the U.S. are in just that kind of predicament, as Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s regime sustains its bloody crackdown on protesters across the country.

“It is obviously too dangerous for Syrian nationals to return to Syria,” the senators wrote in a letter to President Obama.

Arab advocacy groups have been calling for the federal government to grant the status for Syrians in the U.S.

The designation, however, is controversial as Washington tends to repeatedly extend “temporary” status. Critics claim the status can become semi-permanent. The government currently grants “TPS” to people from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan.

Here are the six Senators pushing this latest backdoor amnesty program (no surprise!):

The letter was signed by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Ben Cardin, D-Md.; and Bob Casey, D-Pa.

And, just a reminder of the Arab activist agitators and refugee contractors pushing the Senators:

United for a Free Syria (UFS), in close coordination with a broad coalition including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Syrian Expatriates Organization (SEO), Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), Syrian Americans for Democracy (SAD), South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI),* and Refugee Council USA (RCUSA)

So, where does this all end?  Will we have TPS for every political hot spot, every hurricane, every earthquake in the world.  And, why are the Syrians more important than say the Libyans, the Yemenis, the Egyptians, the Nigerians and so forth—all experiencing upheaval of one sort or another.

Remember TPS isn’t just for those who are here legally on some visa or another; the TPS given to Salvadorans and other Central Americans went largely to ILLEGAL aliens.

* HIAS and USCRI are federal refugee contractors whose bankroll comes mostly from you—the taxpayer.

Tyson Foods Shelbyville, TN: all sorts of goodies to get and keep immigrant labor

This is the first in what will be many posts in my new category‘ Legal immigration and jobs.’  In fact, it’s this piece of information, now mysteriously missing from the US State Department’s website, that inspired this new category.

Clinton brings cheap refugee labor to Iowa

I’ve reported on this many many times on these pages.  I think the first time was when I wrote about the Clinton Administration acting as employment head hunter and dropping off thousands of Bosnian refugees in Iowa for the big meatpacker—IBP, here.  (Tyson Foods bought IBP in 2005).  That was such an eye-opener!  The Clinton Administration was solving an employment problem for big beef by bringing 6000 Bosnian “refugees” to Iowa in 1995.  And, Clinton, I am guessing, got a few benefits for his campaign war chest.  S**** Iowa and American workers!  Remember Hillary had that little lucrative connection to Tyson Foods too.

BTW, a former employee of Tysons told me that at one time these meatpackers paid very good wages and Americans were eager to do the work.

Cheap labor to Shelbyville, TN

Now jump forward in time to Shelbyville, TN last month.  I reported that acting Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, David Robinson, presided over a mission to Tennessee to ascertain just how things are going in the only state in the nation to pass a law to try to get the refugee flow under control.  (Although readers should know that Wyoming doesn’t participate in the refugee program for some unexplained reason).  Please read previous posts here on the visit to Tennessee.

After returning to Washington, Robinson penned a glowing piece about how great the refugee program is (wow! three million since 1975!) that was published at the Huffington Post.   But, keep in mind that Robinson is also the author of this ten-year-old report on how the program has been misused (to the detriment of the taxpayers and to the so-called refugees themselves!).

Here then is what Robinson said about Tyson Foods in an e-mail which originally was linked here at the State Department website (if you click on the link it is gone now):

In Tennessee, I heard firsthand the commitment of businesses to making
refugee resettlement successful. Tyson Foods support to refugees is
remarkable: $100,000 per year for on-site ESL, $3,500 per year for
college costs, 100% reimbursement for naturalization applications,
full-time interpreters on site, financial assistance, on-site banking,
and tax preparation services, all of which demonstrate why the company
had only a 12.5% turnover last year and has proven to be such a strong
example of leadership in integrating refugees, not just into their new
community, but into the wider U.S. economy.

WTF! So, let’s see, the town of Shelbyville has been roiled by controversy for years over the arrival of demanding, culturally challenging Somali refugees obviously lured by Tyson Foods with all sorts of special deals for them.   And, I am still working on finding out exactly what the tax benefits are to Tyson Foods for hiring LEGAL IMMIGRANTS (instead of Americans) in the first place. 

Click here to see what we get so Tyson Foods can have cheap labor.  I wonder does David Robinson sleep at night?  Never mind Robinson, how do you resettlement industry “church” people, in bed with big business and selling out small town America, sleep?

And, to top it all off, anyone who questions these arrangements, any taxpayer who doesn’t want to subsidize this deal, is promptly labeled a racist, xenophobic hater!  What a racket they have!

British Freedom Party leader warns America

Update:  Weston to speak in Toronto as well, here.

Imagine 2030 might have been the title of his speech.

Why that particular phrase?  It is the year that the Great Britain we know will be gone, warns Paul Weston, taken over by a multicultural mishmash who will undoubtedly be governed by Shariah law.

The other night while writing about immigration issues in Maryland, I came across a vile group calling itself Imagine 2050—the year they say America will no longer have a majority western culture.   For fun, go to Imagine 2050 and enter your group or your state and see what they are saying about what you believe and the efforts you are making to curb out-of-control immigration.

Now back to Paul Weston’s warning in Nashville posted at New English Review:

Weston’s message was sobering. Like Geert Wilders, he is trying to “warn America not to go down the same Islamic road” as has Europe and Great Britain. He quoted Samuel Huntington saying that when civilizations are in the process of dying, their inhabitants nevertheless remain under the “illusion of permanency,” even during the kind of massive demographic transformation England has experienced in the last 50 years. In the 1960’s Muslim immigrants numbered in the tens of thousands, but today, thanks to intentional Labour policy to “rub the noses of right-wing in diversity,” they number anywhere from 3 to 8 million in a population of around 65 million. The exact figure is unknown due to the open door immigration policies of those who were trying to further the “revolution” by making the indigenous Britons a powerless minority in their own country. And this is already happening in many areas which have been transformed into Sharia zones. Of course these new immigrants create a bloc vote for the Labour Party.

[....]

Weston maintains that this open door immigration policy is treasonous.

Civil war!

The non-indigenous population under age 40 is growing at ten times the rate of native Britons and Weston estimates that the tipping point, when the non-indigenous under 40 population becomes the majority is just 18 years in the future, in 2030. He openly warns of the possibility of civil war unless something is done right away.

Read all of the Freedom Party’s prescriptions for halting the demographic slide into oblivion for native Britons.   Here is one of twenty.

Halt any further immigration for a period of five years.

Read it all!

Are they worrying over Tennessee at the US State Department?

You bet they are! 

Why else send a high level delegation to the state last week to chat it up with those who drafted a bill that was ultimately signed into law that tells the feds they must do what federal law already says—coordinate with local officials before refugees are resettled into a particular state.

I reported on this little mission to the Bible-belt last week here, but the Shelbyville Times-Gazette has a more thorough look at what the meetings were about.  By the way, if you are a new reader and wish to know more about all the problems in recent years in Shelbyville with mostly Somali refugees, just type ‘Shelbyville’ into our search function.  We have dozens of posts on the subject.

First, here is some background from yesterday’s story by Brian Mosely:

A top representative of the U.S. State Department was in Tennessee this week to discuss a law dealing with the state’s refugee resettlement program.

The Refugee Absorptive Capacity Act, which originated from the desk of State Sen. Jim Tracy, became law last July. It’s the first bill of its kind.

It requires the state’s refugee program agency, Catholic Charities, to meet four times a year with local governments to plan and coordinate “the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival …”

The law also allows local communities to apply for a “moratorium” on refugee resettlement if those agencies overload local resources, and so far, Tennessee is the only state that has passed this type of legislation.

A number of refugees from a variety of countries, such as Somalia, Burma and Egypt, have moved to Shelbyville in recent years to be closer to jobs at the Tyson Foods facility.

State Senator Tracy:  “We had to codify something in state law to get their attention.”

On Wednesday, David Robinson,* acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, met with Tracy and other parties to discuss the law passed last year, the state senator told the T-G.

“That was the whole purpose of the visit, and they thought the bill was fine,” Tracy said, but he added that even though provisions in the new state refugee law passed last year was already codified in federal law, it had not been enforced.

“If you are going to bring refugees into a community, you need to meet with community leaders, mayor, councilmen, commissioners, school superintendents, hospitals, anyone that an influx of a refugee group would affect,” Tracy said, explaining the reasons for the law being passed last year.

Tracy said that the State Department representatives had no problems with the law and were complimenting them on the bill, but Tracy said he “thought it was interesting that we had to codify something in state law to get their attention.”

[....]

“It was interesting that they (the State Department) would travel to Tennessee to talk about the legislation that we passed last year and I really take it as a compliment,” Tracy said Friday. “I think they were already supposed to be doing that, and in Tennessee, they have to be doing that now.”

There is more, read it all, here.

* Robinson is about to be replaced at the US State Department by a George Soros protege’, here.  The reason there is so much unwillingness to listen to local concerns over flooding communities with poverty is that there is a larger plan in place to “change” America—-US citizens be damned.

The Contractor/Government revolving door spins again with refugee program

I told you the story a couple of years ago about how the federal contractor US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants’ (USCRI) head honcho had been Bill Clinton’s head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services that doles out money to contractors.    USCRI’s former VP is presently the director of ORR under Kathleen Sebelius.  Did you get that?

Now, and I am late with this news, Anne Richard a VP at one of the largest federal refugee contractors, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), has been tapped by Obama to take over from Acting Asst. Secretary for Population Refugees and Migrations David Robinson* at the US State Department  (also a funder of contractors) to be the new Asst. Secretary.  She must still be confirmed by the US Senate.

And note the door spins even more, Ms. Richard was herself a State Department employee before leaving to go to contractor IRC.   Isn’t there a law against this?  If there isn’t, there should be!

From DiploPundit:

Anne C. Richard is the Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy for the International Rescue Committee (IRC).  Prior to joining IRC in 2004, Ms. Richard was Director of the Office of Resources, Plans and Policy at the Department of State from 1999 to 2001.  From 1997 to 1999, she was Deputy Chief Financial Officer of the Peace Corps.  She has also served as a budget and policy advisor at the Department of State and as Budget Examiner at the United States Office of Management and Budget.  Ms. Richard was an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1993 to 1994 and was part of the team that created the International Crisis Group.  From 1985 to 1986, she was a fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Germany.

George Soros, again!

I told you about the International Crisis Group, here, in 2008.   I sure wouldn’t be bragging about that affiliation, let alone being listed as a founder.  It’s George Soros and the boys (and girls including Samantha Power).  These are the hardcore globalists.  They are the Leftwing one-percenters. They don’t give a flying c*** about the human beings–the refugees–this is all about erasing borders and establishing one world government.  The refugees are just pawns in the game—and the cheap labor for the large corporations.  People like Anne Richard get to wear their humanitarian white hats while destroying American sovereignty.

NGOs like USCRI and the IRC don’t just resettle refugees they are out and about around the world mucking in other countries’ politics and you are paying for it!

It is frankly disgusting.

* Robinson is the guy who went to Tennessee this week, here.

When an NGO isn’t an NGO

Update February 15th:  Egypt accuses US NGOs of bringing anarchy to Egypt, here.

NGO stands for Non-governmental organization, with the emphasis on NON!

From time to time I’ve pointed out that the Arab Spring thing everyone was so excited about only twelve months ago had actually brought Islamists to power in Egypt and set off one more refugee stampede across north Africa and more problematically across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tell me what good is it to America if a pro-democracy movement brings the Muslim Brotherhood to power?  Oopsie!

More confirming news that Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton and the media were applauding prematurely over the “revolution” came in the last few days as (gasp) the Egyptian government is now saying it will put on trial detained NGO workers in Egypt.   Here is the story from the Washington Times:

CAIRO (AP) — Ignoring a stern U.S. threat, Egypt on Sunday referred 43 NGO workers, including 19 Americans, to trial before a criminal court for allegedly using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest.

The decision marked a sharp escalation of the dispute between Cairo and Washington over Egypt‘s crackdown on U.S.-funded groups promoting democracy and human rights. The two countries have been close allies for more than three decades, but the campaign against the organizations has angered Washington and jeopardized the $1.5 billion in aid Egypt is set to receive from the U.S. this year. [good!---ed]

On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Egypt‘s foreign minister that failure to resolve the dispute may lead to the loss of American aid. The Egyptian minister, Mohammed Amr, responded Sunday by saying the government cannot interfere in the work of the judiciary.

[....]

Among the Americans sent to trial is Sam LaHood, the head of the Egypt office of the Washington-based International Republican Institute and the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

[....]

Already, Egyptian authorities are preventing at least six Americans — including Mr. LaHood — and four Europeans from leaving the country, citing a probe opened last month when heavily armed security forces raided the offices of 17 pro-democracy and rights groups. Egyptian officials have defended the raid as part of a legitimate investigation into the groups’ work and funding.

The NGO in question here—International Republican Institute—isn’t really a NON-governmental organization.  How could it be?  Check out its most recent Form 990 here.  Out of a budget of $85,479,348, they received $85,142,213 from the American taxpayer.

Did you happen to notice who is Chairman of the Board of IRI—Senator John McCain.  Senator Lindsey Graham is on the board too.   So we gave these guys $85 million to help bring us a radical Islamic government in Egypt—but a democracy none-the-less.

Oh, and it’s not just the rightwing “democracy” activists, but the leftwingers are agitating in Egypt too.  Kind of makes me think maybe Ron Paul is on to something after all.

What does the middle class American taxpayer get out of all this—less money in their pockets and more refugees on the way!

Bill to allow NH cities to impose a moratorium on refugee resettlement gets a hearing

The New Hampshire legislature heard testimony this week from proponents and opponents of a bill that seeks a short-term moratorium on the resettlement of more refugees to that state.   Long time readers know that especially Manchester, NH has been a hotbed of controversy after the city leaders have repeatedly said the city cannot handle more refugees (here is just one recent post).

Here is the story from the Manchester Union Leader (hat tip to many readers who sent the story!).  A law professor claims it is unconstitutional, but I think there are wording changes that can be made to handle that supposed problem.

CONCORD — A bill allowing communities to impose a one-year moratorium on refugee resettlement is probably unconstitutional, a law professor told a House committee Thursday.

House Bill 1405 had both its supporters and detractors at a public hearing Thursday before the House Municipal and County Government Committee.

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas has called for a moratorium on refugee resettlement until the “city can catch its breath” after about 300 refugees a year have been resettled in the city over the last few years.

Gatsas supported HB 1405 Thursday, saying the city needs time to allow the refugees currently in the community to settle into the system, get jobs and become productive citizens.

Gatsas said communication with the resettlement agencies, the state and the federal government has been poor.

“We need to take a breath, step back and figure out how to do this right,”Gatsas said at the hearing.

Along with allowing a one-year moratorium, HB 1405 would require more communication between the state, resettlement agencies and the communities where refugees are placed.

Proponents of the measure say the bill is similar to the successful bill signed into law in Tennessee last year, posted here.

Of course the federal contractors who get paid to resettle refugees are opposing the measure.

Representatives of Lutheran Social Services of New England and the International Institute of New Hampshire spoke against the bill.

The original Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 does have a provision to opt-out of the program.  Just a reminder that the state of Wyoming does not resettle refugees (they may move there as secondary migrants, but there is no Wyoming program).  I don’t know why lawyers for opponents are not looking at ways to opt-out completely.

To tell you the truth, as this program comes under greater scrutiny, I think the Open Borders political activists (looking for more multicultural Democratic voters) will just direct their attention to backdoor amnesty for illegals, the asylum program, the diversity visa lottery, the treaty investor programs (immigrants buying convenience stores) and the temporary protected status program to pour more poverty/voters into your cities and towns in order to further destabilize your community.  They are working on a long-term plan to change America, plain and simple.

Somalis protest at Minnesota state capitol over money transfer issue; millions of questionable dollars sent back to Africa

This is an update on a story I wrote about just ten days ago, and didn’t think it was worth posting at first (you know, ho hum, same old story), but there was a bit of information that I found stunning.

So here is the story from the Twin Cities Daily Planet which began with the standard journalistic practice of telling a sob story (or do only Leftwing/mainstream media writers start with such stories?) about a woman who can’t send a few bucks to her starving relatives in the Horn of Africa because of new banking regulations.

By the way, it doesn’t start with the story of the Minnesota Somali women convicted recently (see how Minnesota political leftists are rallying around them)  for sending money to the terror group—Al Shabaab.

Twin Cities Daily Planet (via Hiiraan):

Hassan was one of about 200 mostly Somali and Oromo protesters outside the State Capitol last Friday, January 6, demanding that the state and federal government come up with a solution to allow Africans in the diaspora to send remittances to loved ones in the Horn of Africa.

[.....]

Sunrise Community Banks, the last Minnesota bank to work with Somali-owned money services businesses (MSBs), stopped transferring remittances abroad on December 30. The Somali community has scrambled to figure out alternatives ever since.

It is not just in Minnesota:

….there have been growing fears that Somali-owned MSBs may help facilitate terrorist activity abroad. Concerns heightened after two Somali women from Rochester, Minnesota, were convicted last October of sending money to the terrorist group al-Shabab in Somalia.

As a result, banks in Minnesota, Ohio and Washington State — all centers of Somali refugee population — have stopped working with Somali-owned MSBs.

The closures aren’t new. Most corporate American banks cut off ties with hawalas in 2005, after Congress passed stricter banking regulations in a post-9/11 era. The regulations designated MSBs as “high risk.”

Then here is the part I found astounding!

From Minnesota alone, $100-120 million in remittances is sent every month through MSBs, part of a global two-billion-dollar industry, Hassan said. He added that the term “hawala” is actually a misnomer, since hawalas are informal businesses. Technically, hawalas don’t even exist in Minnesota, he said.

Up to $120 million a month?  From Minnesota alone!  Readers keep in mind that many Somalis are on welfare and receiving food stamps.  Also note that earlier in the article we learned this:

Somali families typically send between $50 and $200 on a monthly basis to support the livelihoods of relatives in the Horn, she explained.

So, if I’ve done the math correctly that would mean there are 60,000 families sending $200 a month from Minnesota if they are each sending the highest amount we are given.   If they are giving the smallest amount ($50) then there are 240,000 Somali families in Minnesota—no way!

We learned just this past October that the US Census Bureau estimates the Somali population in Minnesota has risen to 32,000!    (I think the number is low, but that is what our government is saying):

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota’s Somali population is still the largest in the United States after a new Census Bureau estimate early Thursday raised the number of people of Somali ancestry in the state to more than 32,000.

That would mean that every man, woman, and child of Somali origin was sending $3750 a MONTH to Somalia. (LOL! Someone check my math!).  No way, but if the $100 -$120 million number is accurate someone is sending a whole heck of a lot of US dollars to Somalia.  Incidentally that census article says the average black family in Minnesota makes $27,500 a year.

Bottomline, there is a lot of money involved and so it is no surprise that Rep.Keith Ellison (first Muslim Congressman) and the Local SEIU leader were ringleaders at last weeks rally to demand that the banks reinstate the transfer of your money to prop up Somalia.  In addition there must be lots and lots of money involved in the transfer “business” right there in Minnesota.

Changing the subject only slightly, it is the huge amounts of money involved (remittance money) that drives decisions on such things as TPS, here.  Your social welfare money is propping up El Salvador too (while some, like certain people in Montgomery County, Maryland) are making money in the transfer business.