Myth: Refugees get free cars explained; not free, but taxpayer subsidized

One more mention of North Dakota and then I have to do a  whole bunch of other things (I expect posting may be sporadic in the coming days).

Yes, the federal government runs a piggy bank for refugees and cars are one of the permitted goals for the special savings account. The resettlement contractors manage the money.

When we told you about the myth-buster meeting in Fargo earlier this morning, here, one line in the news account jumped out at me (one of several), but I want to tell you a bit about this one:

She added that refugees are not given free cars. “They get, at most, a four-month bus pass,” she said.

For years I’ve been seeing the “free cars” line.  There really is an explanation to it, but because whoever asked about it at the meeting probably didn’t ask the right question that allowed Ms. Thomasson to dismiss it as she did.

In fact, the Office of Refugee Resettlement has a special grant program called ‘Individual Development Accounts (IDAs).

We told you about it here recently (sorry for daily readers that we have to go over these things, but on some days we have a couple thousand new readers who have never been here before, so we have to repeat information).

For every dollar the refugee saves for one of 4 possible savings goals, you, the federal taxpayer match them a dollar.  This whole program is managed through resettlement contractors like Lutheran Social Services.

Here is the gist of the program:

Individual Development Accounts (IDA) are matched savings accounts designed to help refugees save for a specific purchase. Under the IDA program, the matching funds, together with the refugee’s own savings from their employment, are available for purchasing one (or more) of four savings goals:

Home purchase
Small business development
Post secondary education or training
Automobile (for employment purposes)
Public or private non-profit organizations administer IDA programming.

[….]

IDA grantees provide matched savings accounts to refugees whose annual income is less than 200 percent of the poverty level and whose assets, exclusive of a personal residence and one vehicle, are less than $10,000. Grantees provide matches of up to $1 for every $1 deposited by a refugee in a savings account. The total match amount provided may not exceed $2,000 for individuals or $4,000 for households. Upon enrolling in an IDA program, a refugee signs a savings plan agreement which specifies the savings goal, the match rate, and the amount the refugee will save each month.

I must mention that there was a time when Catholic Charities was taking donations of used cars and there were some stories about cars going to refugees that way, but I haven’t heard of it in recent years.

I am guessing that the “free cars” claim is based on the IDAs.

If the question had been asked in this way: “Do refugees get car purchases subsidized through federal grants?” I would hope Ms. Thomasson would explain the program.

Incidentally, you can imagine that when word gets out in communities that refugees are getting ‘goodies’ like this and the average low-income American isn’t getting these special deals, some tension likely builds in the community.

More on the North Dakota poll: Lutheran’s refugee program opposed by 57%

In my previous post I mentioned that in Fargo, ND yesterday, the major refugee resettlement contractor spoke to a gathering hosted by the Chamber of Commerce to dispel the “myths” about refugee resettlement in the US.

Gotta keep the refugees flowing into North Dakota because LSS has a fancy new building to pay for. LSS is paid by the head to resettle refugees AND they receive other federal grants for all sorts of additional “programs” for their special charges. From a recent FORM990 we learned they received over $10 million in government grants. Here is what we said in August: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/backpedaling-on-the-numbers-of-refugees-expected-in-north-dakota/

After posting it, I came across this news account from Valley News Live which commissioned the poll.  And, I want to commend them for taking this initiative!

Perhaps all of you in ‘Pockets of Resistance’ should encourage a respected news outlet to commission a poll like this.

The story begins:

Refugees coming to the United States is quickly becoming a defining issue for the field of 2016 presidential hopefuls. It’s an issue too that directly affects us here in the Fargo-Moorhead area. This is a major resettlement region, and Fargo is home to the largest group of refugees in North Dakota.

This is the first in a series taking a deep dive into this issue, exploring your opinions, the impacts to our schools, our neighborhoods and our infrastructure, how your tax money is being spent and how this issue extends well beyond supporting or opposing refugee resettlement.

We, at Valley News Live, wanted to really understand your viewpoints when it came to this issue so we had a solid starting point from which to work. We commissioned a study by Mason Dixon Polling and Research out of Jacksonville, Florida, paid for it and now have those opinions.

I’m not going to snip the poll results because I want you to go visit Valley News Live yourself by clicking here.  Note that Independents made up the most number of respondents indicating very clearly that this issue is not a Republican v. Democrat issue.

Fargo, ND poll: Most citizens do not want more refugee resettlement

But, almost more interesting to me (in this news account) was the fact that the local CHAMBER OF COMMERCE hosted the event to try to convince the citizens there that they are wrong.

Readers, if you don’t know it already—The Chamber of Commerce throughout America is FOR more migration to America and lobbies FOR amnesty and obviously is now openly out in front promoting more refugee resettlement.  Can you say cheap immigrant labor!  And, look at the Republican members of Congress and Senators who are wimps on immigration and you will likely find the Chamber behind them (and funding them!).

From the Grand Forks Herald (emphasis is mine):

FARGO — The head of the nonprofit agency tasked with resettling refugee groups in North Dakota gave a presentation Tuesday hoping to dispel misconceptions about refugees.

Jessica Thomason, CEO of Lutheran Social Services in ND. Photo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicathomasson

“Today, we are going to be clearing the air,” Jessica Thomasson, CEO of Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, told a crowd of about 200 people at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Fargo.

Among the notions that Thomasson sought to debunk was the idea that refugees are responsible for increases in crime. “We know there is no correlation,” she said, citing a study that showed: “Immigrants are less likely to commit serious crimes or be behind bars than the native-born population.”***

Thomasson, whose talk was hosted by the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce, said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security screens refugees before they enter the country. “The United States has as one of its policies that we don’t resettle people who have been aggressors in the conflicts,” she said.

Thomasson’s talk came at a time when refugee resettlement is a hotly contested issue in North Dakota, which leads the nation in refugee resettlement per capita.

The day before Thomasson spoke, Valley News Live aired the results of a poll the TV station commissioned. Of the 625 adults surveyed in Cass and Clay Counties, 57 percent opposed the continued resettlement of refugees in the area, 28 percent supported it and 15 percent were undecided. The poll had a margin of error of no more than 4 percentage points.

Continue reading here.

***Update***  Here are the survey results.  And here is my post on the poll. And, one more update here—“myth” about free cars explained.

Go here for all of our previous posts on North Dakota.  This post is filed in our ‘Pockets of Resistance’ category, here.

By the way when you check our archives on North Dakota you will see several horrible crimes committed by refugees there—the one that jumped out at me was the Somali mass murder of native Americans, here.  Then there was the “hatchet man”….

In Atlantic City, NJ, owner of shuttered casino says he would house Syrian refugees

There is money in ‘them thar’ refugees!  Throughout Europe there are stories of developers and others in the real estate business who see dollar signs (well Euros, where they live) as the migrants pour in, but this is the first time we are seeing a developer here in America look to overtly cash in on federally-funded ‘humanitarianism.’

See our post last year from Germany—luxury hotel converted to housing for refugees.

FILE – This Oct. 17, 2012 file photo shows the Revel, Atlantic City, N.J.’s newest casino. Revel, the casino many people had hoped would turn around Atlantic City’s sagging fortunes, on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 said that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, less than a year after it opened. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, File) http://www.vosizneias.com/124618/2013/02/19/atlantic-city-nj-njs-newest-casino-revel-to-file-for-bankruptcy/

Although readers, you will find many local cases of rental property owners working hand-in-glove with local resettlement agencies, or developers looking for HUD money to diversify housing in your town, it is all kept pretty under the table.

The owner of the Revel, a shuttered casino, is apparently cash-strapped and right out in the open in his appeal.

From NBC10:

So far, the owner of Atlantic City’s former Revel casino has proposed using it as an indoor water park, a medical tourism resort, an equestrian facility and a so-called “genius academy” where the world’s top minds would tackle society’s problems.

Now add this to Glenn Straub’s thoughts for the property: housing Syrian refugees.

Straub told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he’s willing to let people displaced by the civil war in Syria stay at the 47-story Revel resort as he fights in court over its future. Straub has been trying to reopen Revel since buying it in April for $82 million but has been beset by litigation from utility companies and former tenants that has so far kept it shuttered.

“We treat our dogs better than we treat the Syrians right now,” he said. “If the government wanted to house Syrian refugees, I’d give them use of the building and let them put those people there.”

[…..]

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that it had not been contacted by Straub but would be willing to put him in contact with a local refugee resettlement agency*** should he so desire.

Straub said his only request would be reimbursement for the cost of operating the building while refugees were staying there.

***The closest resettlement agency is in Camden, NJ (go here to see the entire list of resettlement contractors, find one near where you live).

By the way, I don’t see Atlantic City on the list of cities whose mayors are hankering for more immigrants to boost their sagging economies.  And, there are two NJ cities looking for Syrian refugees, but I don’t see A.C. on the list yet.

 

WND: 100 cities vying for immigrants (legal and illegal) expecting them to boost local economy

No, they won’t boost the economy.  The whole idea is a myth!  The only boost I can see is that the local economy might benefit from the welfare dollars and other federal government supported programs to build low income housing (boodle for local developers!) and to give immigrants special loans to start businesses (that aren’t offered to low-income Americans)—dollars that arrive in the struggling cities from Washington.  Oh, and of course (almost forgot) bring in cheap labor to satisfy big business and the Chambers of Commerce.

Wealth redistribution?

Washington doesn’t grow money on trees—it is just your money being recycled for the benefit of the expanding immigrant population and the Left-leaning local governments.

This article reminded me of Nancy Pelosi. Do you remember when she famously said an expanding food stamp program helped the economy? She is essentially saying that the government needs to take your tax dollars and redistribute them to immigrants and then your money enters the economy of these struggling cities.

Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily features Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as his opening ‘star’ of the story.   We told you about Rawlings-Blake here on Sunday.

Hohmann found this list of 100 cities vying for your money (collected by the IRS in Washington and doled out to myriad local welfare programs and through grants to state and local governments and to non-profits).

Please look at this list!  Is your city on it?

Hohmann goes on to report on the 18 mayors looking for a large allotment of Syrian refugees.

….a coalition of 100 immigrant-supporting cities seem to be in competition with each other to see which city can offer the most services and benefits to attract foreign-born residents.

They help them find jobs, overcome language barriers and work around employers’ demands for birth certificates or drivers’ licenses. There are also grants to help them get set up in a business venture.

So it’s no surprise that Rawlings-Blake is one of the 100 U.S. mayors asking the Obama administration to send her city a fresh wave of Syrian refugees. She is one of 18 mayors who have written a letter to the administration expressing their desire for more refugees. The 18 mayors who signed the letter represent a total of 100 mayors with Cities United for Immigration Action.

Continue reading (almost 1,000 comments in less than 24 hours).  Hohmann reports some very good research by the Center for Immigration Studies on welfare use by immigrants, and he quotes me saying that this whole notion of boosting a local economy makes no logical sense if you include all the COSTS associated with the resettlement of third worlders and if you take out the federal taxpayers’ contribution.

UNHCR estimated daily European arrivals

Invasion of Europe news……

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has an interactive daily map of migrants arriving and spreading in Europe.  This is a screenshot for this morning.  Have a look, here.   Note that Hungary is dodging the bullet as only 31 slipped through on November 2.

It is actually very interesting to be able to click on the sliding scale and go back day by day to see where the flow moved since September.

Many media outlets are reporting that the migration into Europe this past month (well over 200,000) is the most ever, worse is predicted for next year!

From the UK Express:

MORE than 200,000 migrants entered Europe in October, beating all previous records, as the United Nations (UN) warns 2016 will see an even greater number of new arrivals.

For all of our posts on the ‘Invasion of Europe,’ click here. 

***Update***  Everyone has been sending me this good summary of the European invasion crisis at Powerline blog so I thought I better link it here so as not to lose it.

George Soros: EU must take in one million migrants a year…..

……for the foreseeable future!

Invasion of Europe News…..

We told you about the role of Hillary pal George Soros here the other day.  But, since everyone is talking about it, be sure to see Soros’ manifesto on how to bring down European borders forever.

Patrick Cleburne writing at VDARE tens days ago makes the connection and asks: has German Chancellor Angela Merkel been bribed? http://www.vdare.com/articles/merkel-gone-mad-or-bribed-gop-example-suggests-the-latter

Out of his own mouth (hat tip: Skip).  The asylum seekers are the victims!

The European Union needs to accept responsibility for the lack of a common asylum policy, which has transformed this year’s growing influx of refugees from a manageable problem into yet another political crisis. Each member state has selfishly focused on its own interests, often acting against the interests of others. This precipitated panic among asylum seekers, the general public, and the authorities responsible for law and order. Asylum seekers have been the main victims.

[….]

First, the EU has to accept at least a million asylum-seekers annually for the foreseeable future. And, to do that, it must share the burden fairly – a principle that a qualified majority finally established at last Wednesday’s summit.

Adequate financing is critical. The EU should provide €15,000 ($16,800) per asylum-seeker for each of the first two years to help cover housing, health care, and education costs – and to make accepting refugees more appealing to member states.

By the way, for those of you thinking that Soros is an old man and we don’t have to deal with him for much longer, remember he has children who I am told are ready to continue his ‘legacy.’

Go here to see a 2013 post we wrote and see Soros, son Jonathan and David Miliband (former British Foreign Secretary who heads one of our nine major resettlement contractors) at awards ceremony for Soros.  You (the American taxpayer) give over $300 million to the International Rescue Committee which honors Soros who works day and night to destroy borders around the world!

George Soros is a Hungarian-born American business magnate, investor, author, and philanthropist. He is chairman of Soros Fund Management. Wikipedia

Born: August 12, 1930 (age 85), Budapest, Hungary

Spouse: Tamiko Bolton (m. 2013), Susan Weber Soros (m. 1983–2005), Annaliese Witschak (m. 1960–1983)

Children: Alexander Soros, Andrea Soros, Jonathan Soros, Gregory Soros, Robert Soros

Organizations founded: Open Society Foundations, More

York County, SC resolution fails, but public gets educated!

Efforts to head off possible resettlement of refugees in York County, SC was slowed when a resolution put forth by one member of the council failed (although it was never put to a vote), but remember that we are up against powerful forces in some states.

In South Carolina the Republican Governor has already signaled her support of more refugees being resettled in a state which heretofore hasn’t been overloaded (unlike most states surrounding SC).  And, the powerful Senior Senator of the State—Lindsey Graham—is openly advocating for the resettlement of Syrian refugees to America.  I suspect that when Graham says “jump” the R’s (who desire upward political mobility) in the state do what he says.

So…. this effort is not wasted because it has obviously generated a discussion (and a controversy) that other local citizens are now learning about.

Here are a couple of short snips from The Herald:

Joe Newton came from Georgia (a state that is seriously strained by the refugee flow) to tell the South Carolinians what they can expect. His website is here: http://www.refugeeresettlementrelief.com/default.html

….the ordinance worries refugees will receive federal assistance to resettle in the U.S., that they might not work or learn English, become burdens on the taxpayer and “build enclaves, preserving the language and culture of their countries of origin rather than fully integrate into the surrounding community.”

The motion drew support from speakers at Monday night’s meeting. Joe Newton of Norcross, Ga., spoke before the council wearing a “Stop Refugee Resettlement” T-shirt. He told the council that schools in the Atlanta area have been “overwhelmed” by previously settled refugees who speak 150 languages.

New refugees would “increase that to 200 languages, plus 18 dialects spoken by the Syrians,” Newton said.

Governor Haley could stand up for the Tenth Amendment and against federal dumping of the costs of this program on the states if she had any backbone.

She might not succeed (yet), but the state’s rights issue is one she, as a Republican, should be championing.  This is a very reasonable proposal.

If it had been approved, the resolution would call for Gov. Nikki Haley to stop resettlement until its effects are studied separately by the State Law Enforcement Division and several state departments: Social Services, Labor, Education, and Health and Environmental Control. Resettlement should not resume until every refugee is cleared by the Department of Homeland Security, and “Each South Carolina State Senator holds several Town Hall meetings in his or her district … to determine that there is not substantial public opposition.”

More here.

Go here and see the locations of resettlement contractors in the US.  If you are within 100 miles of any of them, your town is fair game.  I suggest going on the offense and alerting your local elected government that this expensive and potentially risky resettlement of third worlders might be coming your way.

See our growing archive on South Carolina by clicking here.  This post is filed in our ‘Pockets of Resistance’ category, here.

Asylum scammers: fake passport business booming

That’s what the Wall Street Journal is reporting, thanks to Jeff for sending the story.

The ‘stars’ of the WSJ piece landed in the UK, but I wonder how many are landing at an airport near you as we speak?

ISTANBUL—Somewhere over Europe, Kassem went to the airplane’s bathroom and flushed his fake Italian passport down the toilet.

When he landed in London’s Heathrow Airport a few hours later, Kassem presented his Syrian ID to U.K. immigration officials and requested asylum. The trip wouldn’t have been possible using his actual, Syrian passport—the country’s four-year civil war has turned it into a burden for anyone fleeing the conflict.

When asked where his passport was, Kassem told the officials: “It’s in the toilet.”

While hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees make the dangerous sea voyage to Europe followed by arduous treks across the continent, some of their countrymen have used fraudulent Western passports to board planes to countries where they can request asylum. Winter’s approach, turning seas colder, stormier and more dangerous, is expected to increase the practice.

Continue reading here.

This chart shows how many successful asylum cases were processed in 2013 in the US.  Source: Migration Policy Institute. (I would love to know what countries are represented in that 7,776 (30%) from “other countries,” wouldn’t you?)

 

For new readers the difference between refugees and asylum seekers is that we fly the refugees in after the UN selects them for us and asylum seekers get in on their own steam—either illegally across a border or come legally on another type of visa—then ask for asylum, claiming they will be persecuted if returned to their homeland. Once granted asylum however, the asylum seekers get all of the same welfare goodies that refugees receive.

Are refugees taking from federal programs for American poor and homeless, sure looks like it

This is short and sweet (well, maybe not so sweet).  Reader Brenda is trying to figure out what is going on in her state and came across this document from the Department of Health and Human Services that sure looks like the welfare needs of refugees are being met by dipping into resources meant for Americans in poverty.

Click here, and then see if you can find out if this is going on where you live.

When the Refugee Act of 1980 was passed by Congress, a promise was made that the refugees would not simply bring more poverty to America, but that is exactly what is happening.  Refugees should not be part of our combating poverty programs!

I wanted to see where the most homeless US military veterans are located and found this map.  Fascinating!  Most of the largest refugee resettlement states correlate with the states that have the greatest number of homeless veterans—NY, FL, TX and CA.  See map!

Americans first!