Homebody Advocates

Maine to Minnesota, residents of small cities overloaded with Somalis happy with Trump, by Ann Corcoran 2/5 /17

“I think he’s doing a lot, every day I’m turning on CNN to see what he did and who he pissed off.” - Mainer Jim Nelson

They may not be protesting in the streets, but voters in towns seeing their communities transformed by refugees almost overnight, support Donald Trump’s efforts to rein-in immigration from certain countries.

No time to thoroughly analyze both reports, but here is a bit of the story from Lewiston, Maine where many residents are happy with President Trump’s temporary slowdown of refugees from certain countries.  I don’t know this guy, but he speaks common sense, and I know exactly how he feels about watching CNN!

From Maine Public Radio:

I think he’s doing a lot,” says Jim Nelson. “Every day I’m turning on CNN to see what he did and who he pissed off.”

As we reported here years ago, it was generous welfare in Maine that drew the first Somalis up from places like Atlanta, GA.  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/somali-migration-to-maine-its-the-welfare-magnet-stupid/ (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Nelson says he voted for Trump and he’s happy he did. He says doesn’t always like how the president acts, but that Trump is quickly fulfilling campaign promises.

That includes the president’s recent travel ban, which affects immigrants from seven countries, including Somalia.

“This country was made on immigrants. I mean, that’s exactly why the United States exists. We’re a melting pot. We can’t lose sight of that,” Nelson says. But he says he’s truly mystified by the local protests sparked by Trump’s order.

“On the front page of yesterday’s paper you got this little girl crying, and she’s a Somalian (sic) and she can’t see her grandmother, and ‘Oh, my God.’ You know, she can’t see her grandmother for six months. What about the people that got blown up down in Florida? What about those people? They can’t ever see their people again.” Nelson says.

More here. We have a huge archive on Lewiston, see here.

Faribault, Minnesota: Here is the Minneapolis Star Tribune about reactions in Faribault, another small city being overloaded with Somali refugees.  By the way, the population of Faribault was 23,594 in 2014, and Lewiston was 36,299 in 2014 (it had lost 293 residents since 2010, wonder why?).

FARIBAULT, MINN. – In her years of selling burgers and omelets in the heart of downtown Faribault, Janna Viscomi has seen changes she never expected.

For Viscomi, the new travel ban ordered by President Donald Trump that suspends refugee resettlement for 120 days and blocks entry for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries comes as mostly welcome news.

“I think slowing things down would be good,” she said this week, taking a short break after the lunch rush. “I don’t want to see families separated, but in the other regard, there needs to be somebody saying, ‘Hey, Let’s breathe here. Let’s breathe.’ ”

Like so many other towns I’ve visited in Minnesota, large meat and poultry companies are transforming small cities as their desire for cheap legal immigrant labor drives refugees to the area.

Reporter then describes pro-immigrant rallies in big cities. (Faribault is Trump country as was Lewiston on November 8th!)

Yet in other places, such as Faribault, the move has been welcomed by residents who feel the cost and pace of immigration is too much too fast. 

Trump won Faribault’s precincts with 50.4 percent of the vote in November, compared with 41.5 percent for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Faribault, like other small- to medium-sized cities throughout Minnesota in recent years, has seen its mostly European ancestry make room for new arrivals from Cambodia, Laos, Mexico, Central America and Somalia.

And, of course, like much of Minnesota we see Somalis are supplying the cheap labor for BIG MEAT! In many places, it’s the food processing plants that draw immigrants eager for work. It’s no different here, where the Jennie-O Turkey Store operates. Continue reading here.

See our previous post on the welfare costs of refugee resettlement.  Somalis are among the greatest users of welfare including benefits provided at the state and local level.

So next time you are tempted to say that you want your meat to be cheap, remember it isn’t! Your tax dollars for refugee welfare subsidize the meat industry!

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/02/05/maine-to-minnesota-residents-of-small-cities-overloaded-with-somalis-happy-with-trump/