Refugee Resettlement Update

Athens GA stopped Resettlement

They demanded a Resettlement Plan that never came.

Athens, GA mayor questioned resettlement proposal for the city, and so it never materialized by Ann Corcoran on 4/27/16

The Jungle 2016!

I have been wondering for the last year whatever happened to Athens, GA after the Democrat mayor there said, give us a “formal refugee integration plan” to the International Rescue Committee (one of the top nine federal contractors) and the US State Department before opening a direct resettlement site in Athens. Athens, GA mayor Nancy Denson: Give me a plan first! https://athensclarkecounty.com/315/Mayor

Click here for several earlier posts on the controversy.  In one, the IRC representative in Georgia said the feds would send the refugees anyway! But, apparently they haven’t.

Two lessons here for towns being faced with new offices: the first is that mayors can “rebuff them” and keep planned direct resettlement offices from opening, and secondly, apparently the contractor and the feds DO NOT want to be in a position to prepare plans (set a precedent?) on how the resettlement will work! 

So, if they are coming to your town or city, make them give your town a plan (with public hearings!). Here I see in the Flagpole, that nothing has moved forward (so far) on the office proposal.  

This is one of those long stories meant to play on your heart strings about the wonderful refugees (and I am sure this family is very nice) who have arrived in the area (as secondary migrants) to work in a chicken processing plant. 

One of those gushing in this account is a local real estate agent who has helped them buy homes (which they work 60 hours a week to pay for!). LOL!  Gee sounds familiar! I’m re-reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in preparation for a ‘Jungle’ revisited (100 years later!) fact finding tour this summer.  Although one big difference these days is that the US State Department and supposedly ‘humanitarian’ NGOs act as head hunters for BIG MEAT companies that are often foreign-owned!

So after wading through 24 warm and gushy paragraphs about the stars of the story—a hardworking Burmese Christian family—we come to the news I was looking for.  

Apparently there is no movement toward opening a direct resettlement site in Athens, GA (although this story might have been placed as propaganda to begin the re-education of the community on the subject).

From the Flagpole (emphasis is mine): All of the adults in the family work at the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant. Esther and her father work the night shift, while her husband and mother work the day shift. They do it this way so someone can always be home with the children.

Like some of the big beef processing companies in America, Pilgrims Pride is a Brazilian-owned company (JBS Swift!) which looks for cheap refugee labor in America. Some business model isn’t it when taxpayers subsidize their wages with welfare! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim%27s_Pride

Most refugees living in Athens and Comer work at a poultry plant—the industry that provides the most jobs for refugees in Georgia. It’s tedious work and physically hard, but the poultry plants pay $10–11 an hour [Ha! wages would be at least $15 and hour if they had to pay Americans!—ed], more than you can get almost anywhere else for unskilled labor, and that makes it hard to leave.

Esther stands on her feet for eight hours, five or six nights a week, cutting chicken in the cold factory, moving fast to keep up with the conveyer belts. One day she’d like to get a job that’s not so hard, maybe in a retail store or daycare. “We don’t have much time to be social,” says Esther, laughing, “because sometimes we work 60 hours a week. On Sunday we go to church, and then the whole week is finished.” [Wow! The Jungle!—ed]

Last year the International Rescue Committee (a nonprofit refugee resettlement agency) proposed setting up a small office in Athens and bringing 150 refugees here, but it was rebuffed by local government leaders. Subsequently, an ecumenical group composed of clergy and other citizens formed Welcoming Athens, a group “working to nurture a culture of welcome for all people in Athens and the surrounding area.” Among other things, the group is advocating for the city to let the resettlement office come.

The main reason Mayor Nancy Denson gave for not wanting IRC in Athens was that resources are stretched thin, and her priority is “to take care of the people who are already here,” citing issues with homelessness and panhandling. But some in the U.S. also resist taking refugees because of a concern that some refugees coming in might be criminals, violent radicals or unable to adjust successfully to American culture.

“That’s not why they’re coming here,” says Drago, emphatically. “They’re coming here to work, to go to school and have a better future. Now, after having been here awhile, they’re also part of humanity, and some people do commit crimes, but no more than people from any country. But to say that people come here to sow discord and terrorism in our country, absolutely not. They’re fleeing that! They’re coming here because they want to live in a peaceful place. Read it all. Share this.

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/athens-ga-mayor-questioned-resettlement-proposal-for-the-city-and-so-it-never-materialized/

Gain Control of Refugee Issues

Advice from a reader in-the-know! by Ann Corcoran on 4/27/16

‘Is yours to be a “welcoming” refugee community?’  Athens, GA mayor questioned resettlement proposal for the city, and so it never materialized

Editor:  This is another in our series of ‘comments worth noting’ and was posted by ‘jdelaney3‘ to our post yesterday,  I assure you that this reader knows what he is talking about!

Get organized! (from ‘jdelaney3’)

I urge folks to deluge local resettlement agency offices with phone calls to determine what refugees and in what numbers they plan to accept for resettlement during the remainder of the year. Put them on notice that you and many others will be watching.

If any of those refugees the agency is planning to resettle are, from all reports, improperly vetted, urge them NOT to “assure” (accept) them.

Keep your eye on these volags/ngos/gov’t contractors and call with regularity for updated information as to what refugees have arrived and what refugees are expected to arrive.

I would also contact City Hall and the County Executive to intercede as well in this regard.

Also, reach out to community organizations, many of which should welcome the opportunity to keep tabs on the refugee influx as well.

If the agency is a Catholic-supervised operation, e.g. Migration & Refugee Services–USCCB, also touch base with the Diocese as often as appropriate. Let them all know they’re being monitored.

It’s all about pressure and oversight which these refugee resettlement operations are terrified of.

Finally, if you know folks who have firsthand familiarity with the local resettlement office staff and operation, ask them to keep you posted. Not all who work for or volunteer for these agencies are lackeys. 

So how do you find your local resettlement agency offices? Click here and if you live near one of these offices know that they can resettle refugees in nearby towns—up to 100 miles or about a two hour drive away.

But, here is step 2!  You have got to get what you learn out beyond your own little circle!  Write a blog or website, write letters-to-the-editor, develop a social media network, make youtube videos, whatever it takes! Use your free speech while you’ve got it! Share this.

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/advice-from-a-reader-in-the-know/

Kansas Failed

Kansas governor withdraws state from federal Refugee Admissions Program by Ann Corcoran 4/27/16, but, but, but!

But, it simply means that the US State Department/Health and Human Services and their NGO contractors will resettle refugees there anyway as they do in 12 other so-called Wilson Fish States.  See Tennessee lawsuit.

Hold the applause! The real test for the Governor will be if he brings a states’ rights lawsuit against the feds, which he can do now that he has withdrawn the state from the program.  (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

But, will he explain why he vigorously supported the resettlement of third worlders to the country while he was a US Senator (see 2003 VDAREarticle), and even as recently as 2014 when he signed a letter with Grover Norquist and others to the GOP to encourage more refugee resettlement for America.

But, here is the true test for the governor—will he take the Thomas More Law Center’s offer of free legal work and file a states’ rights case against the feds once they resettle refugees in the state (expending state money in the process) against the express wishes of the governor.

Kansas citizens need to get to work — no praise for the governor (who helped get America into the fix it is in with refugees) until he takes this final step to redeem himself!  It does not require the state legislature to act as the plaintiff (TN was a special case with a refugee-supporting governor).

Don’t let him get away with saying this withdrawal is all he can do!

Governor Sam Brownback could be the plaintiff in the most important case ever to determine whether the federal government has the right to place a financial burden on state taxpayers by dropping needy third-worlders into its towns and cities.

Here is the news from the Kansas City Star from yesterday (hat tip: Joanne): Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday he is withdrawing Kansas from the federal government’s refugee relocation program because of security concerns. Despite the state’s withdrawal, refugees will continue to be resettled in Kansas, federal officials said. Brownback had already issued executive orders barring state agencies from assisting in the resettlement of refugees from Syria and other countries that posed a safety risk. The decision announced Tuesday removes the state from the program completely.

Feds to Brownback: we will shove it down your throats anyway (“welcoming” or not)! But federal officials told Brownback that if the state withdrew, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement would work directly with local refugee resettlement organizations and refugees would continue to come to the state.

“If the state were to cease participating in the refugee resettlement program, it would have no effect on the placement of refugees by the State Department in Kansas, or the ORR-funded benefits they can receive,” wrote Mark Greenberg with the federal Administration for Children and Families in an April 13 letter to Brownback.

Continue reading here.

Click here for our Kansas archive where we have reported on some big problems in Kansas with refugees, esp. with overload in schools systems.  And, go here to the handy list and see who the feds have hired for the seeding of Kansas. And one more thing…..The US State Department is taking testimony right now for the FY2017  RAP program (Obama’s last refugee importation plan) and there is no reason that state officials, including this governor, couldn’t send in testimony as well! Share this.

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/kansas-governor-withdraws-state-from-federal-refugee-admissions-program/