Synopsis of the ICON talk of April 5 2016 by James Simpson on “The Refugee Resettlement Crisis”.
Dear friends of ICON,
ICON has been inviting groups and organizations, which are working on related issues to attend our events, and this evening we were so glad that Keith Davis could be present. He is the leader of Act for America in Fayetteville NC. Featured guests have a side table to the right at the front of the room, and welcome questions and interest in their efforts.
Websites for further information and participation with the major organizations that focus on mass migration include:
- For Mr. Simpson’s organization: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/refugee-resettlement-watch-network/
- For ACT for America: http://www.actforamerica.org
- For NumbersUSA: http://www.numbersusa.com/about
- For Refugee Resettlement Watch:
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com
- For NC Listen: http://www.nclisten.com
Finally, for published data, please read the uniquely informative short book: The Red-Green Axis by James Simpson, Center for Security Policy Press, 2015.
The refugee migration issue is not a partisan issue. It is not a left-wing or right-wing issue. It is an effort to amass power and wealth. A core understanding of this and many other current problems is that the apparent issue in never the real issue. The real issue is the use of a means of obtaining power, in this instance refugee resettlement and mass migration. The result can be viewed as an example of entrepreneurial parasitism in which advocates seize the moral high ground by appearing to advocate for compassion and good intentions. However, the strategy by which power is being captured is by creating crises. Changing the population of America is changing America. This is creating unemployment, divisions, fiscal stresses, racial animosities, and thereby building voting blocks.
The refugee resettlement agenda was established by the UN in 1976 at the Conference on Human Settlements. It laid the groundwork for Agenda 21, the abolition of private property, and the foundation for policies of open borders. The current agenda built on the Refugee Act of 1980 by Ted Kennedy that allowed the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and State Dept to select and refer refugees to the U.S. from overseas processing centers.
The redistribution of refugees by the U.N. is not equally shared but go ONLY to the West. That is because the refugee programs are particularly suited to be a means of implementing attacks on the West. The U.S. contractors that implement the placing of refugees are called “voluntary agencies”, “VOLAGs”, and they decide where to place refugees. In planning to resettle refugees in any given community, VOLAGs are supposed to confer and work with local “stakeholders”, meaning local elected officials and leaders. Conferring and planning with effected communities rarely happens. The U.S. accepts more refugees than ALL other resettlement nations combined.
It is noted that the UNHCR is highly influenced by the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, and there are wide concerns in communities about the potential for radical Muslims to enter through refugee programs. Readers are referred to the graphs in Simpson’s book on the timeline of U.S. terror plots since 9/11, showing a major recent escalation of both frequency and severity. Currently the FBI has over 900 ISIS investigations over the 50 States, and there is an ISIS camp in Mexico. There have been 80 ISIS arrests in the U.S. and 28 convictions. Over 9,500 terror suspects have been lost sight of in the U.S. since 2001. 50 U.S. Somali refugees have joined al Shabaab, and it is noted that ISIS has a passport printing facility. A U.S. refugee was involved in the San Bernardino murders.
There is a wall of misinformation on refugee issues. First, by law the eventual returning refugees to their home is the TOP PRIORITY for refugee policies. Transporting them to a vastly different land, language, and culture guarantees that that cannot happen. Resettlement is supposed to be the LAST RESORT, whereas the VOLAG system makes it a first plan. Second, most current refugees are economic migrants, not refugees from battle. The legitimate Syrian refugees from the fighting are already settled in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Third, for every refugee brought to the U.S., for the same cost 12 can be helped in place. The current importation of refugees is fiscally insane. Fourth, there are many special refugee resettlement programs including those for Cubans, for asylum seekers, for unaccompanied children, for trafficking victim, and for Iraqis. The totals for these have risen sharply in the past few years, especially the special programs for Cubans, and now total about 200,000/year and still rising. Fifth, a special form of abuse of our nation is through the Visa Waver program in which there has been no tracking of entrances or exits, and it appears that in 2015 there were about 150,000 persons who came in on that program and overstayed. Finally, a major form of disinformation is to advocate that refugees resettlement “helps the economy”. No, it does not. What refugee resettlement does is to provide cheap labor for businesses by shifting the true costs onto taxpayers, and those costs are very high. The estimates are that in 2016, the cost for resettlement programs will be $36 million to Dept Homeland Security plus $418 million to state govenments plus $1.7 billion to HHS Office for Refugee Resettlement for a total of $2.2 billion. Taxpayers fund all of these expenses.
What are the VOLAGs? On average, they receive $5,000 per refugee they resettle, creating the overt and explicitly stated goal and incentive maximally to expand the U.S. program. Individual agencies include the largest, “U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops”, several associated with other religious denominations, the formerly Jewish organization HIAS, and others. See his text for NC VOLAGS including USCRI and Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas in Raleigh, and Church World Services in Durham. Approximately 24,000 refugees have been resettled in NC by VOLAGS with a majority going to Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh. What does the $5,000 go for? VOLAGs promise taxpayer supported housing, health care, food, English lessons, job help, child education, social services, and legal assistance.
What have been some of the experiences of local communities who were assigned to receive refugees? In Texas, 25% were skin-test positive for tuberculosis. In Lewiston ME English as second language schooling costs increased 4,000%. In Manchester NH 82 languages are spoken in the High School. In Amarillo TX 911 calls come in from people speaking 36 languages and ESL tutoring costs $1300/student/month. In Portland ME American citizens are homeless because all shelters and housing goes to refugees. In Minnesota Somali unemployment is 21%. In addition, refugees do depress local wages and costs to local communities are major. In Minnesota, foreign-born Indian, Korean, and Chinese are at or above the state average in income, and all other foreign-born receive extensive public assistance because they are well above the poverty level. In 2014 5.3% of US households received cash assistance while 73% of Muslim households did did. 15% US households received food stamps while 84% of Muslim households did so.
The relevance between enclaves of large numbers of legal refugees to illegal alien populations is that legal enclaves of foreign-born and unassimilated persons provide the setting in which illegal aliens can hide, be supported, and prosper. Some of the effects of harboring illegal aliens include criminality of members of the group. The murder of Kate Steinle has captured media attention, but her death is one of thousands that should not have occurred because the murderer should not have been allowed to be in the U.S. in the first place. A few points of data from the FBI: 10% of illegal aliens who have been convicted of a felony and are serving time were convicted of murder, which is double the national average. That represents over 7,000 murders by illegal aliens that should not have occurred. In 2009, 22% of the U.S. prison population was illegal aliens. Between 2006 and 2013 illegal aliens killed over 100 North Carolinians. In NC between Nov 2013 and March 2015 1170 illegal aliens were charged with over 5500 sex crimes against children.
With these self-evident and major problems with the current refugee and immigration policies, what has been the response of the current administration? There is a White House Task Force on New Americans. They established the agenda for “Welcoming Communities and Fully Integrating Immigrants and Refugees”. The purpose of the Welcoming agenda is to force Americans to accept mass immigration through the techniques of culture shaping. In 2013 communities were recognizing the risks and costs of mass immigration and began objecting. HIAS (a major VOLAG) responded with a report titled “Resettlement at Risk” which vivifies resettlement opponents and calls for the Southern Poverty Law Center to identify opponents as racists, bigots, xenophobes, and so forth. Please see at:
https://www.hias.org/sites/default/files/resettlement_at_risk_1.pdf .
These Welcoming America and other immigrant advocacy groups are highly supported by major U.S. foundations that benefit from minimizing salaries of citizens including Ford, Carnegie, Gates, Tides, and many others.
Are there community responses to these challenges? NC Governor McCrory has signed into law measures banning sanctuary cities. Multiple states have proposed laws limiting refugee resettlement. 31 governors have opposed Syrian resettlement. Several states have sued the federal government for violating the 1980 refugee act. The Thomas More Law Center is seeking a plaintiff for a Wilson Fish lawsuit. For individuals, please also check the sites listed at the outset of this synopsis for in-depth opportunities to participate in these efforts to control the futures of our communities and states. Please especially consider Mr. Simpson’s website at Center for Security Policy.
The next ICON event will be on May 17, when Dr James Carafano will speak on ‘The EMP Threat.
Best wishes, Laura Gutman (Board, ICON)