Charleston, West Virginia is the most recent small city to be secretly targeted by the Obama administration and the politically-powerful resettlement agency industry as a site to place more refugees, Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch writes:
West Virginia has only gotten a very small number of refugees ever since this program was established in 1980, but all that could change if Episcopal Migration Ministries joins Catholic Charities and begins to place Syrian and other refugees from the Middle East and Africa in the state capital.
And, frankly, you would never know that it was happening, that the federal legislators had met with a local Interfaith group and gave the go-ahead by attending meetings, being informed and then not saying anything to the general public about the quiet planning process underway. If it weren’t for the dogged research of one citizen activist—Brenda Arthur—no one but a tiny select group of insiders would have a clue about what was coming.
“Because we are a small state we have so far escaped some of the invasion devastation other larger states have experienced by their towns being invaded and overrun by hoards of peoples who neither want to assimilate or are assimilating,” Arthur, a resident of Charleston, wrote Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest on October 1:
West Virginia already faces a budget shortfall for 2018 FY of 290 million dollars , the unemployment rate is 6.5% and above the national average , the assault on our coal industry has cost 700 coal miners their jobs, there is a drug epidemic, and the June flood disaster severely damaged or destroyed 1200 homes. In addition, there are other economic factors that are impacting our state. How does it even remotely make sense to bring foreign nationals to our state at such high tax payer expense when so many of our own people are suffering? Further, our country is 20 trillion dollars in debt. A sane nation does not do this!
“I along with others are trying very hard to fight this invasion and keep this from happening here to our beloved state of West Virginia,” Arthur adds:
[T]his program has been operating very much in secret since its inception in 1980. Once I became aware of this effort to resettle refugees in my state of West Virginia I contacted 7-8 elected officials: 2 town mayors, 3-4 state senators and or delegates, my U.S. Congressman Alex Mooney, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and the Governor’s office. Even though refugees had been resettled in West Virginia no one knew anything about it. The Chief of Staff for Governor Tomblin even told me that West Virginia was not scheduled to receive any refugees. I later found out that the Governor had in fact signed a state refugee plan 3-4 months before I made the call to his office. This is not accountable or transparent government.
Critics of the federal refugee resettlement program warn that, if elected, Hillary Clinton will flood the country with Muslim refugees. Clinton is on the record as supporting an increase in the number of Syrian refugees resettled annually in the United States from the 12,500 who arrived in FY 2016, 99 percent of whom are Muslim, to 65,000.
During the first six days of October, more than 3,000 refugees were resettled in the United States, an annualized run rate of more than 185,000, which would represent a dramatic increase from the 84,995 refugees resettled in the United States in FY 2016 and the 110,000 the Obama administration has proposed for FY 2017.
The State Department has secretively tried to expand resettlement to at least 47 small communities. In some of these communities, like Rutland, Vermont, local officials are complicit in this secrecy. In others, such as Flint, Michigan, they appear to be unaware.
During FY 2016, 25 refugees were resettled in West Virginia, according to the Department of State’s interactive website, about one every two weeks.
Eight of these refugees were from Burma, eight from Eritrea, five from Syria, and four from Iraq.
All five Syrian refugees were resettled in Charleston.
In the first six days of October, the first month of FY 2017, five refugees, all from Iraq, have been resettled in West Virginia, more than one each day.
If this pace of refugee resettlement continues throughout the remaining 359 days of the fiscal year, over 400 refugees would be resettled in West Virginia in FY 2017, sixteen times the number of refugees resettled in FY 2016.
In her letter to Sen. Sessions, Charleston resident Arthur explained how the resettlement agencies have planned for this dramatic increase in secrecy:
USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) operating as Catholic Charities of West Virginia is the major contractor in our state placing refugees. EMM (Episcopal Migration Ministries) has filed with the State Department to also become a contractor here in West Virginia. I never hear the contractors speak of the interests of the people. They always speak of the interests of the refugees. I very much want to see the Episcopal Migration Ministries application to “set up shop” rejected. I have tried to get word regarding this to my U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito but it seems to fall on deaf ears or it is not being communicated to her.
On August 1 ,2016 I contacted the State Refugee Coordinator here in West Virginia to request a copy of the R&P (Reception & Placement ) Abstract for 2016 and 2017. I was asked who I was. I replied that I am just a private citizen who wants to know about the refugee resettlement program in West Virginia. The State Refugee Coordinator then told me that they couldn’t give this out to just anybody. I asked her why not when it is a public document and the program is paid for mostly with our tax dollars. She just replied that we have our process and that I would have to make a FOIA request . I did make that request and received the documents on August 9 ,2016 .
In finding out more about how the contractors operate I learned that they are to hold quarterly “stakeholder” meetings to track and report on the refugees who have been placed. I found out that they consider entities like the school officials, law enforcement, free clinic providers, potential employers , social service providers ,and others the “stakeholders” —–not the people of the community. We are completely left out while they operate in “secret”.
Arthur argues that it’s time to repeal the Refugee Act of 1980, the federal law upon which the refugee resettlement program is based:
It would be in the best interests of the refugees to one day return to their home country. Meanwhile , for every 1 refugee brought here we could provide the necessities of life for 12 refugees there. The Refugee Admissions program also poses a threat to our national security as you know . This fact alone should be sufficient to de-fund this program and put a halt to the refugee admissions “racket” .
Senator Sessions, the Refugee Act of 1980 ultimately needs to be repealed. Meanwhile, “We the People ” must rely on advocates like you who will operate in our interests —-not the interests of the UN , lobbyists , globalists , or any and all enemies both foreign and domestic who are out to undermine the sovereignty, safety, and security of our beloved and great nation.
Congress has failed to pass a budget for FY 2017, which began on October 1, so it has not officially approved or rejected the Obama administration’s proposal to increase the number of refugees to 110,000 in FY 2017.
The Department of State and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which together run the federal refugee resettlement program, are operating under the budget authority of the ten week interim budget that funds the federal government from October 1 to December 9. During this period, it seems clear that they, in concert with the resettlement agencies, intend to bring in as many refugees as possible, including to small cities and states that have previously not been forced to accept a high number of refugees.
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