Nevada: Ready or not refugees on the way
to Reno, by Ann Corcoran, 5/14/16
I’ve been reporting in recent weeks
about the new sites being targeted for refugee seeding by the UN/US State
Department Refugee Admissions Program (most recently yesterday it was Rutland, VT).
It is my educated guess that the
federal resettlement contractors are wearing out their welcome in the 190 or
so places in the US where refugees are already being resettled (and in many cases have been resettled for decades)
and that perhaps one of the limiting factors is government-funded housing (not
to mention other important things like lack of jobs!) and are thus scouting
fresh territory.
Also, remember that Obama has upped
the refugee stream to America this year from the 70,000 number of recent years
to 85,000 by September 30th.
Starting October 1, Obama says he
will be recommending 100,000 for FY2017 (even though he will be out of the
White House for most of it).
Digressing for a minute, Congress will have a huge role to play in
September when Obama makes his final determination about the number of refugees
coming for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 and we will be watching to see if
the gutless Congress does anything about it!
So back to Reno (and other sites)
which are being prepped for the even bigger wave of refugees expected to begin
October 1. By the way, I’m wondering if the low-skilled refugees will compete
with Nevada’s large Hispanic population for jobs.
From KUNR radio: The U.S. State Department has greenlighted a
Northern Nevada nonprofit to help resettle refugees escaping hotbeds of
conflict around the globe beginning this fall.
Carina Black, executive director of
the Reno-based Northern Nevada International Center, says their application to
become an official resettlement agency was approved in February. They’ve since
been laying the groundwork, and building a stakeholders’ network, before those
first few families arrive.
“Those stakeholders include
people from the health industry, from education, from ESL… people in the faith
communities have
been coming forward and showing a huge interest in helping us,” she says. “So
we’re still basically conducting a lot of training…and getting ready for this
new endeavor.” [Remember readers
that you are a stakeholder too! Maybe since you are paying for all of it, the
biggest stakeholder of all!—ed]
Black says initially about two
families — approximately 10 people — could arrive by September. For the federal
fiscal year running Oct. 2016 through 2017, they’ve asked to resettle at most
75 refugees.
The full list of countries include:
Cuba, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
El Salvador and Guatemala have never been refugee-sending countries,
that is, until Obama magically turned the unaccompanied alien minors from
Central America into refugees. He was re-writing the Refugee Act of 1980
without Congress and Congress let him get away with it!
The mayor had concerns.
It is up to citizens of Reno to speak up NOW if you have similar
concerns! Mayor Hillary Schieve was quoted
last November saying she would prefer a “pause” on the program, following the
terrorist attacks in Paris, but Black says she’s since had productive meetings
with Schieve and other city council members to assuage their concerns.
Recently we told you that sites are
getting ready to open in Ithaca, NY, Missoula, MT, and Rutland, VT. I’m
betting there are at least 30 new sites in the works where plans are being made
in secret to bring the joys of multiculturalism to your neighborhood. The
only way you or I will know if your town is next, is if it appears in a local
news story like this one. And, you can bet you will not see any of this in the
mainstream media or cable news!
You might want to visit ‘Ten things your town needs to know‘
by clicking here. The major refugee contractor for both Rutland and Reno is
the US
Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (more to come on this!).
Stay tuned!
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