Category: Refugee Resettlement

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Can Governor Lee Really “Control” Which Refugees Come to Tennessee?

It’s pretty interesting that Governor Lee keeps telling us how much “control” he can have over which refugees come to Tennessee now that he’s consented to putting the state back into the program.

Except Lee hasn’t actually defined what control means in any definitive way.

During yesterday’s second radio interview Lee mentioned the “control” factor no less than four times while defending his decision to put Tennessee back into the refugee resettlement program. 

He [Trump] improved the vetting process. And we have been speaking to them and talking to them about this process because I want to make sure it’s a process we want to live with and he improved the vetting process. If we engage in this then we have some control over it. And we have control over who comes in.

 This process that President Trump has outlined and that all these Republican governors are engaging? You know why they’re engaging? Because if we don’t, the Democrats decide what this process looks like. If we engage in this then we get to have some control over who comes. Where they come from. How they’re assimilated.

“…we get to have some control over who comes. Where they come from. How they’re assimilated.”

Remember the President’s Executive Order on the travel ban – the one titled Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States?

Guess what Governor – the travel ban EO doesn’t apply to refugee arrivals.

In fact, in 2019, just under 1,400 refugees were “imported” from travel ban countries. Since the final version of the travel ban went into effect, ninety-eight (98) refugees from Iran, Somalia and Syria, have been resettled in Tennessee. This number does not include secondary migrants from the travel ban countries who may have re-migrated to Tennessee during the same timeframe.

Lee is also relying on the “enhanced vetting” put in place after the courts shredded the first version of the travel ban EO. Enhanced vetting includes gathering more biographical data, checking social media accounts, training interviewers to detect fraud, and data sharing among agencies.

But even this has limits.

During the time of the first vetting discussion after the jihad in Paris, MULTIPLE U.S. agency officials involved in vetting refugees testified that vetting refugees from failed states or where no databases exist or where refugees lack vital documents, demonstrate the real limits of the vetting exercise.

The Governor also continues to try and hide behind Trump – he says he trusts the President, he appreciates that the President gave him a choice, he thinks the President has everyone vetted to the teeth, Trump, Trump, Trump.

We know that Tennessee is Trump country but that doesn’t shield Lee from his own actions – especially since Trump has been trying to dismantle the dysfunctional refugee resettlement program since he took office!!!!!!

During the campaign Lee told audiences that he supported the state’s Tenth Amendment lawsuit challenging the refugee program. The problem of course it that voters thought it meant he agreed with them that the state shouldn’t get back into resettling refugees and that the federal government shouldn’t get away with forcing the state to pay for a program from which it had withdrawn.

But the Governor has said he feels all better about it now because the President gave him a choice and didn’t force the state to be in the program.

So Governor, please, please, please explain to us, the great unwashed, how what you’ve said about the state now not being forced by the federal government to pay the fed’s cost share for the program, doesn’t undermine the state’s lawsuit?

And what is to be understood when the Governor says nonsensical things like we can’t stop refugees coming to Tennessee from other states so we should go ahead and have the federal contractors bring new refugees in from overseas. Huh?

And the thing he and his wife have with Kurdish refugees and the Governor’s adamant declaration that he won’t turn his back on them! Talk about a direct backhand to Trump against whom Nashville’s Little Kurdistan protested after the President’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Northern Syria.

The immigration issues plaguing the country was a centerpiece of Trump’s campaign. Trump has been trying to reduce the entry of low and unskilled immigrants and those who like refugees, are legally able to use all public assistance welfare programs. The Trump-effect has been that “workers at the bottom of the pay scale have been feeling positive effects on their wages at the end of 2019 — especially when compared to those at the top.”

Unlike Lee’s first “incoherent defense of his refugee decision” Monday’s radio host went overboard trying to minimize the overwhelming public criticism of the Governor’s decision by calling it a mere “disagreement.”

Hardly.

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Governor Lee Chooses Refugees Over 6,300 Tennessee Citizens with Disabilities

Even if Governor Lee doesn’t care about people with disabilities, at least the leftist Tennessean newspaper does. In December, the paper ran a pretty detailed story about Tennesseans born with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are supposed to get services from TennCare, but aren’t.

Right now there are 5,000 of these folks actively trying to get services but instead, they are “stuck on a waiting list.” TennCare, one of the worst agencies in the Tennessee state government, isn’t even asking the Governor or the legislature for enough money to serve all these people. TennCare says it’s willing to wait for however many years it takes for the money to be there to help these people.

There’s been no mention that the Governor included the money in his budget either. Instead, he’s been talking about spending down the state’s TANF (cash welfare) reserve probably as a way to funnel more money to the refugees he’s trucking into the state. Unlike most other legal immigrants, refugees are immediately eligible when they get here to apply for all forms of public assistance, including cash welfare.

In fact, the federal government mandates that refugees be enrolled into TennCare if they’re eligible. The federal government admits that they used to reimburse the state for the money the state spends on TennCare for refugees, but then stopped because Congress decided to spend less money on refugees. Congress decided to let states that wanted refugees use state money instead.

That’s why Tennessee has sued the federal government – because the state is being forced by the federal resettlement contractor-profiteers to use state money to fill the money gap created by the federal government which the Governor apparently agrees the state should do. Like pay for TennCare for refugees.

And that leaves less state money to pay for people with disabilities who are waiting for help from TennCare.

So next time you read or hear folks from Bill Lee’s administration say nonsensical things like “if we don’t take refugees, the state won’t get the federal money to support them” realize it’s the same political propaganda put out by the federal resettlement contractors.

In and amongst Bill Lee’s rambling and disconnected first radio interview trying to justify his decision to keep the refugees flowing into Tennessee, he said he was following his heart, his Christian faith, his (supposed) conservative values – “It was a decision based on a number of factors. Including my heart. Including my faith belief that we have a Biblical mandate to provide refuge for those who are persecuted and oppressed.”

So where’s his HEART for the state’s disabled?

Tennessee’s 2019 overall ranking for intending to help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities is 26th among states. BUT Tennessee is 48th in actually delivering the services to those who need it Ten years ago, Tennessee ranked 43rd in this category. The number of families receiving the needed supports in terms of state spending has been virtually stagnant since 2011. 

Someone should remind Lee that whether or not he likes it, the decision he made is about state policy, not his Bible, his heart or even finding cheap labor for the Lee Company or his corporate cronies at the Chamber of Commerce. (You know, “business decisions” like his campaign donations to pro-abortion candidates Megan Barry and Phil Bredesen).

He has a duty to care first and foremost for the citizens of Tennessee.

And if he can’t find the ethical courage to honor the oath he took when he became governor, he could defer to 1 Timothy 5:8  which we presume is in the same Bible he consulted for his decision on refugee resettlement:

But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

Bill Lee wants Tennessee voters to accept that his decision to resettle refugees is just about disagreeing on the issue. Fool us once, shame on you, fool us twice shame on us.

 

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Biblical Bill and Marsha Blackburn Work Their Individual Agendas to Undermine the President

Whoa! Biblical Bill’s lefty admirers have let the cat out of the bag. The refugee resettlement program isn’t about being a humanitarian. It isn’t about saving Christians. It’s about giving Pompeo foreign policy bargaining chips!

It’s also about keeping the gravy train of taxpayer money flowing to “charities” like Catholic Charities. Someone has done a great job of digging into the public money data which federal contractors have become addicted to:

In 2018 alone, over $1.2 billion has been awarded by our federal government to organizations and religious charities for refugee resettlement, unaccompanied alien children, refugee and entrant assistance, etc.

Catholic Charities of Tennessee (CCTN)’s latest available financials show that refugee resettlement money and services have come to dominate their work since they took over Tennessee’s program after Bredesen withdrew the state in late 2007. “Service fees” money is typically what the federal government pays for the privilege of having so-called charities like CCTN disburse taxpayer money.

Don’t be misled by the entry “Basic Needs/Counseling/Job Training/Elder Care” – most likely that is funded through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services formula grants for refugees and immigrants.

And what about those “Hispanic Services” CCTN now offers to complement the “Immigration Services” they offer?

Anyone really believe Bill Lee and Mike Pompeo’s weekend jaunt wasn’t deliberate? Don’t for one minute underestimate Bill Lee’s ego – he’s being touted by his Tennessee admirers as the expert who can help Pompeo fix the U.S. refugee resettlement program. And don’t think any of this is innocent.

Like Biblical Bill, Pompeo has a use for refugees, whether as bargaining chips for foreign allies or to mollify State Department careerists he now oversees. The same leftist New Yorker reporter who understands that the President is trying to dismantle the dysfunctional refugee program, has outed Pompeo as wanting to keep the numbers high.

Fake news? Maybe not.

Refugee Resettlement Watch reported an even more persuasive statement made by refugee contractor HIAS’ Melanie Nezer:

“Pompeo is the critical stakeholder,” one refugee advocate said.

Now that he’s served both as CIA director and secretary of state, activists hope that Pompeo has earned an appreciation for the diplomatic leverage having a robust refugee program can give the U.S. in negotiations with other countries.

“It’s a bargaining tool: We’ll take a certain number of refugees. These are the things you will do for us,” explained Melanie Nezer, a top official with HIAS, one of several organizations that helps refugees.

What Nezer knows that gullible Republicans including Bill Lee don’t, is that from the first minute, refugees are handled by the paid federal contractors who work at the overseas Refugee Service Centers. Once there in the U.S. who do you think handles all the goodies they get from the American taxpayer? The paid federal contractors, that’s who. And whose financial health is dependent on how many refugees they resettle? The paid federal contractors, that’s who. Their messaging is not how good the American taxpayer is, it’s look what we have done for you, if it wasn’t for us fighting for your rights, the Republican meanies wouldn’t even let you come to their country or their state.

Look what President Trump has done – tried to keep you out.

And look who Bill Lee has surrounded himself with – Tennessee Globicans like his Director of External Affairs, Joseph Williams who, like Bill Hagerty,, was a Jeb! delegate, and his chief of staff anti-Trumper Blake Harris.

Then there’s Sen. Marsha Blackburn doing her level best to deceive her way out of a bad bill that we now learn really does go against Trump’s American first immigration efforts.

A leaked State Department memo about Marsha’s bill confirms what Dailyrollcall previously reported:

Blackburn’sbillmandates a fast track for Syrians, Iraqis and Kurds who claim they were in some way connected, however loosely or remotely, to America’s fight against ISIS. The bill’s language in this regard isvery broadly written.

No cap is put on the numbers to be admitted as refugees, nor does this priority group of refugees count towards President Trump’s FY2020 cap of 18,000 refugees. Vetting for this particular pool of potential U.S. entrants, is vague at best.

The State Department memo states:

Bill Lee is manipulating Tennessee Christians. Marsha is manipulating Tennessee voters.

But Bill Lee and Marsha Blackburn are both undermining President Trump.

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Biblical Bill Started Planning TN’s Refugee Resettlement in October Behind Legislature’s Back

Biblical Bill (BB) has been a busy little bee.

In January, shortly after taking office, he signed Executive Order 3 which “mandates openness, transparency and accountability within the executive branch”

Then he started learning how to do his job which he said eleven months later, he still hadn’t figured out how to do it.

Fast forward to now and his announcement that has leftists “taking a victory lap” and more clearly identifying the Republicans within the state’s GOP that now have that big “L” as in liberal, stamped on their forehead.

The totally transparent BB repeatedly told the media as late as December 2, 2019, that the deadline to decide whether to consent to resettling refugees was January 21, 2020:

“The state’s deadline for consent is January 21. We will continue working with the federal government to determine the best outcome for Tennessee.”

In a radio interview the day after Lee blind-sided everyone, House Speaker Cameron Sexton said that legislators were also thinking that the Governor would issue a decision sometime in January:

“We had heard for a while that he was leaning in this direction but we were under the belief that it would be sometime in January. There were members who had reached out to the administration had conversations with the governor and with staff and so we were thinking it was going to be a little longer than what it was going to be so the announcement did take us by surprise when the call came in.”

Apparently the Governor showed no more courtesy to the legislators than he did to Tennessee citizens:

“We got a call from a staffer a couple of hours before [the Governor announced his decision] and then we saw the letter a few minutes before it went out to the media on what his stance was.”

But it turns out that as early as the beginning of October, the Governor was working on his plan to put the state back into the business of resettling refugees.

In defense of BB’s decision, a self-described Governor confidante and serial facebook poster has told everyone about U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo’s visit to the Governor’s church and how they have spent time canoodling and solving the problems of the dysfunctional refugee resettlement program:

October 13, 2019, was barely three weeks after President Trump issued his Executive Order giving states the option to not consent to resettling refugees. On the heels of the EO, the FY2020 Funding Notice was issued clearly setting out that the consent from the EO was only for the period of time from June 1, 2020 through September 30, 2020 – the end of the federal fiscal year.

So of course it makes total sense that when Biblical Bill got around to letting the legislative leadership know what he was doing, he wrote that “[m]y consent is valid initially for one year and that we will work closely with President Trump you, and your colleagues to ensure this process is effective as we work together with the Trump administration to facilitate and carefully monitor continued refugee resettlement for the next year.”

Which year or years Bill? Sounds ominously that BB is sending a very strong signal of his intent to commit Tennessee in perpetuity – or at least until a Democrat governor comes along to withdraw the state from the program.

So here’s the timeline:

-January 24, 2019 – Governor Lee signs Executive Order 3 which “mandates openness, transparency and accountability within the executive branch” [was this supposed to apply to him also???}
-September 26, 2019 – President Trump issues his Executive Order on refugee resettlement
-October 13, 2019 – Mike Pompeo spends weekend with BB & his wife and attends BB’s church
-November 5, 2019 – Governor Lee is looking to give state held money to non-profits
-December 18, 2019 – Christmas comes early and Governor Lee blind-sides everyone with his announcement to put Tennessee back into the business of resettling refugees

The Governor should consider that he only gets to submit a budget – it’s the legislature that has to pass it. And the Governor can’t pass legislation. All he can do is send his bills to the peons elected by the great unwashed and leave it to them to get his agenda passed – or not.

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Bill Lee – You Weren’t Elected to Be the State’s Lead Pastor

And citizens aren’t your congregants.

Heart, values and faith are all important ingredients that every decision-maker across all walks of life hopefully bring to the table. But you Governor, have an added duty. You Governor, took an oath to uphold and govern according to the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions. This oath still counts for something no matter how many times you tell us that you aren’t a politician.

And just to be clear, there was absolutely no rush to formalize your consent to put Tennessee back into the refugee resettlement program before the start of Christmas – that is unless you thought no one was watching or would forget about it once 2020 arrived.

Well, you are probably as wrong about that as you are about the decision you made.

You told radio listeners on Friday, that you made your decision for several different reasons but in the end, based it on your religious beliefs. 

You also tried to use President Trump and Ronald Reagan for cover. Your Biblical beliefs blinded you to the fact that Trump has been trying to dismantle the dysfunctional refugee resettlement program since he took office.

Clearly the President underestimated the resolve of GOP governors to support his America First immigration agenda. After all, how could the President have known that Biblical Bill would choose people living on other continents over the 5,000 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in Tennessee on a waiting list for help. The state says our most vulnerable citizens will have to wait for help until there’s more money.

And what about the veterans in Tennessee that also are waiting for help?

You made a mockery of the President’s “Make America Great Again” movement when you tried to use it to justify your decision to consent for opting the state back into the refugee program. What’s more, you went above and beyond the consent period required by the Executive Order. Consent was only supposed to be for June 1, 2020 through the end of the federal fiscal year which everyone knows is September 30, 2020. But you made your consent valid for a year from December 18, 2019.

And the same document that outlines all the stuff on consent says you didn’t even have to consent until late spring, like May 2020. So at the very least, you could have waited until after Christmas. Or maybe even like sometime in January which was the time you led legislators to believe was when you were going to decide.

You keep telling us that you’re new to this job, but after almost a year into it, how do you not understand simple courtesy?

Governor, you are not the only Bible reader in Tennessee. Biblical mandates are for individuals. But instead, Tennessee’s got Biblical Bill who has decided to use his authority as Governor to impose a Scriptural mandate on state taxpayers. 

And let’s talk about your Biblically-based inconsistencies when it comes to issues this past year:
-you’ve spent more time on school vouchers than the heartbeat bill. Even non-Bible scholars know that protecting life is in those pages somewhere.
-on thetransgender bathroom issue you said it was an area of life that the government should stay out of and that a state-wide policy would be divisive. Well, the Bible has something to say about that controversial issue also.
-and that marriage thing? That’s a twofer – Biblical and Tenth Amendment.

Are we to understand that as a faithful and devout Christian who says he supports the Tenth Amendment, it’s more like your position on the gas tax – that marriage thing is now “water under the bridge.”?

Rest assured though, that blind-siding us with your consent to put the state back into paying for a voluntary federal program is definitely unfinished business.

Nevertheless, Tennesseans were brought up with good manners so we want to thank you for the Christmas card!

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Bill Lee Tithes For the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program With Taxpayer Money

Why do millionaires like Bill Lee feel so free to use state tax dollars to live out their personal religious beliefs?

Remember when Bill Lee was campaigning and trying to dazzle gullible voters with his “brilliant” idea for an Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives?

Once elected he launched this initiative and it may end up being the vehicle for Bill Lee to funnel more state dollars to pad the pocketbooks of federal refugee contractors and other groups that want to get into the lucrative refugee resettlement business.

In fact, Bill Lee told us as much while he was on the campaign trail:

“My wife has worked in a ministry that serves Kurdish refugees, I’ve been to Kurdistan and served with refugees from ISIS in refugee camps,” Lee replied. “I believe that the work of nonprofits is powerful and important, and that’s what this is about. And I am a Christian, so my experiences and my work with non-profits that are doing effective work has been Christian organizations, so that’s what I talk about, because I talk about my experience, and I will support works that are doing, meeting some of the greatest challenges in our community that I believe government shouldn’t meet, it’s not the role of government to do that. But it is the role of the nonprofit community and I would encourage that kind of work, for sure.”

But he might just use the government to provide the greenbacks – we’ll get to that in a minute.

So why is anyone surprised that when offered, he jumped at the chance to say “YES!” I want to put Tennessee back into the refugee resettlement program!!!

And because of the 50-100 mile placement rules from the four urban centers where the federal resettlement contractor offices are located, when he consented for Tennessee, he pretty much put every county in the state up for grabs.

Shortly after the Governor announced consenting to bring more refugees to Tennessee, a Bill Lee Facebook devotee put out hints about what is in the works:

Kurds which seem to be a Lee-Blackburn obsession, are overwhelmingly Muslim and have been in a long-standing battle with other Muslims over terrain. Let’s also remember that the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party), a U.S. designated terrorist group is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF is a multi-ethnic group of secular forces in northern Syria led primarily by the YPG, a Kurdish militia group.

So exactly how does the Governor plan to “hold Churches and Christian organizations accountable for the refugees they resettle in Tennessee”?

It’s so simple even Governor Lee figured it out – do it the same way the federal government holds states accountable – by attaching conditions to money.

Lee can use his Office of Faith-based & Community Initiatives to offer state grants to the hard leftist federal resettlement contractors who just happen to also be faith-based non-profits. They’re paid by the feds to only provide 30 days of service during which, they get refugees a social security card, enroll kids in school and get anyone eligible for TennCare signed up.

Churches that want to get into the lucrative refugee industry by providing services after the federal resettlement contractors finish their 30 days, can also get in on the state money.

Money? What money?

Was a hint thrown out today by House Speaker Cameron Sexton during hisradio interview about the Governor’s consent on refugee resettlement?

Could the money be coming from the state’s accumulated TANF (cash welfare) reserve funds?

It was reported on November 5th, that the Governor originally supported holding onto the extremely large accumulated bundle of TANF money being held by the Tennessee Department of Human Services:

“However, Lee changed course on Monday by telling reporters he was open to using the surplus on a variety of options to continue helping Tennessee’s poor. His announcement was coupled with news that the state was planning on spending up to $70 million of the surplus on grant awards to nonprofits throughout the state starting in January.”

Maybe like the non-profits involved or soon to be involved with refugees? Would the Governor’s church qualify?

Tennessee has sued to challenge the federal refugee program because of the federal government shifting federal costs associated with the refugee program to the state government. This has been acknowledged in federal reports. And the cost transfer occurs whether or not the state consents to paying these added federal costs.

No worry now, because Governor Lee has now consented to paying the federal costs transferred to Tennessee on top of the state incurred costs for the refugee program and is possibly willing to add some of the TANF money to the effort.

Conservatives in Tennessee who put Bill Lee in office get a lump of coal for Christmas while the radical left TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) congratulates it’s lobbying effort on the consent push:

“We thank Governor Lee for his moral clarity and leadership in making his decision today…‘Refugee communities across Tennessee have played a powerful role in defending not only the resettlement program but the values and aspirations of this country’, said TIRRC Policy Officer Judith Clerjeune. ‘We will continue to work with refugee leaders and partner agencies to advocate for a robust and generous resettlement program.”’

During Bill Lee’s campaign his first major policy initiative was his “Roadmap for Rural Tennessee” which he highlighted by riding around on a tractor and talking about “his farming roots” and about how Tennessee is just one generation away from losing this way of life.

Not sure what happened to all that rural love, because what we have now, is the rural governor scrooging Tennessee’s rural counties in deference to the urban-based federal contractor resettlement agencies.

Merry Christmas!                  

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GOP Consent For Refugee Resettlement a Stab in the Back

According to the President’s Executive Order the Governor and the county executive must both agree in writing in order for refugees to be resettled in that county and/or 50-100 miles out from the consenting county.

How a non-consenting neighboring county might feel about that? Tough nuggies.

Knoxville’s city council has voted unanimously to beg Governor Bill Lee for refugees and has directed their lefty mayor Madeline Rogero, “to send a letter to the U.S. secretary of state to share the city’s plans to participate “’in this very worthy program.”’

We hate to burst their bubble, but the consent has to come from Knox County whose Republican Mayor Glenn Jacobs is “a proud Trump supporter.”

Two weeks after issuing his Executive Order on refugee resettlement, the President told the 20,000 strong at the Minnesota rally, that:

“Since coming into office, I have reduced refugee resettlement by 85 percent. And as you know, maybe especially in Minnesota, I issued an executive action making clear that no refugees will be resettled in any city, or in any state, without the express written consent of that city or that state.”

The President has gone out on a limb to help elected officials with an immigration program that may ultimately change a state, county or town from red to a shade of blue. Trump probably didn’t expect that GOP governors were going to stand with Democrats to undermine him.

Maybe his administration figured that 24 states which are already blue, would each happily take 750 refugees. (that would be the full 18,000 admission number for FY2020).

As of now, Republican governors from Arizona, Utah, New Hampshire, and North Dakota want more refugees. Their consent supports both the resettlement industry and the federal contractors who are suing Trump for trying to put American interests and needs first.

Conservative Review Senior Editor Daniel Horowitz, has accurately diagnosed the problem– “[m]any Republicans voted for Donald Trump in the primary because they were sick of business as usual with Republican politicians acting like Democrats.”

Do the GOPers think that Democrat governors are consenting to show their support for the President’s policies?

These GOPers are also rewarding the political groups actively working to unseat the President. They can try to spin it, but consent means publicly linking arms with the growing House Refugee Caucus and the Soros-linked Evangelical Immigration Table, to oppose the President and undermine his immigration policies, including refugee resettlement.

The membership overlap between the Refugee Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus should surprise no one. Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal who each have a foot in both caucuses, have also collaborated with TIRRC here in Tennessee and spent time getting cozy with AMAC.

Because of the Tennessee lawsuit, Bill Lee should know that consenting to continued refugee resettlement also means he’s okay with state taxpayers being forced to pay the state and federal costs of the program.

Religious moralizing by Tennessee evangelicals doesn’t cut it either. In a cleverly worded letter to Governor Lee they state that “since the Refugee Act of 1980, no refugee resettled to the U.S. has taken a single American life in an act of terrorism.”

 According to these compassionate Christians, it’s not good enough that the victim(s) attacked is severely injured; they have to actually die and it has to be labeled “terrorism” for it to matter.

Two years ago, Sudanese refugee Emanuel Samson, shot up a church in Nashville, killing Melanie Crow and injuring seven other worshippers.

 

In 2011, Omar Mohamed Kalmio, a Minnesota Somali refugee, murdered 4 people in North Dakota. This was after he and a group of Somali men had knife attacked a man in Minneapolis five years earlier.

In 2008 Esar Met, a Burmese Muslim refugee raped and murdered a young Burmese Christian refugee girl in Salt Lake City.

There are multiple cases of U.S. refugees who have been sentenced for planning bomb attacks which fortunately were discovered before being executed, except for these:

2012 – Abdullatif Ali Aldosary, an Iraqi refugee, set off a bomb at a Social Security Office in Arizona
2016 – Ahmad Rahimi set off bomb in NY injuring 29 people

A small sampling of violent attacks by U.S. refugees which fortunately did not end in the victims dying includes:

2014 – A group of Iraqi refugees brutally gang raped a 50 year old woman in Colorado which left her with a colostomy bag. These guys earned their refugee status because they assisted US forces in Iraq either as informants or interpreters
2016 – Dahir Adan, a Somali refugee who went on a stabbing spree in a St. Cloud mall injuring 9 people. That same year, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, committed a vehicle-ramming and stabbing attack at Ohio State University wounding 13 people.

The World Relief resettlement contractor with help from George Soros, is leading this evangelical letter writing. This is the same federal contractor who took the money but dumped refugees in Murfreesboro without providing the services.

Knoxville’s Bridge resettlement agency is a local affiliate of World Relief and like all resettlement contractors has prospered financially from the more than 2,000 refugees it has resettled in Knoxville.

Even if Governor Lee and Sen. Blackburn choose to ignore the dangerous undersides of refugee resettlement at least Congressman Chuck Fleischmann is. He’s asking to have certain Islamist organizations investigated for “promoting extremist ideology and terror finance.”

 

The organization appears to have deep ties to Knoxville.

 

Make sure you are sharing information with your county executives, your mayor, your state legislators and Governor Lee and tell them NO consent for resettlement in Tennessee.

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Tennessee Soros Funded Groups Win Big if Governor Lee Caves on Refugee Resettlement

It’s no secret that the ACLU, TIRRC and the TN American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC) have put Soros money into their bank accounts. After all, their political agendas – short and long term – are 100% aligned with Soros’ agenda for our country, especially the South.

Changing the demographics, particularly in Southern towns and cities, facilitates the bigger political agenda of these groups and George Soros.

Less conspicuous, is the support provided by organizations like the Nashville Chamber of Commerce. In 2001, they greedily took money from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) which was looking for new places to deliver refugees by “Building the New American Community” (BNAC).

One of the core principles of the BNAC project was for the new Americans to form coalitions, become voters and take leadership roles in their receiving communities. Let the transformation begin!

And that’s precisely what has happened with the help of groups like the ACLU and TIRRC (TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition) which helped spin off the AMAC.

These groups have led “the resistance” in Tennessee – opposition to every immigration related policy initiated by the Trump administration and every immigration related policy at the state level including the anti-sanctuary city law.

Even though these groups didn’t stop the sanctuary city bill from becoming law despite Haslam not signing it, they may very well win the fight on refugee resettlement with the help of leftist mayors, local chambers of commerce, county commissions, city councils, and Governor Lee.

Here’s what the left knows and understands – elected leaders on the right can’t take the heat that comes with saying no. The left knows that leaders on the right will use any justification they can think of – alleged economic benefits, reviving stagnant towns, need for labor, or a duty to “welcome the stranger.”

The left knows something else that Governor Lee may or may not know – consent is only required for refugee resettlement from June 2020 through the end of September 2020, which is the end of the federal fiscal year.  

From now until June, the 18,000 refugees coming to your towns and cities, are being restteled the same way they were under the 2019 guidance – NO CONSENT NEEDED!!!!

Add to this, that the Executive Order which set up an imperfect process for consent is currently being litigated by the federal contractors.

The left has made state and local consent about refugee resettlement a referendum on all of Trump’s immigration policies. They have broad-brushed the refugee agenda in a way to enable compassionate Christians to rationalize ignoring the political and demographic implications which in the end, will feed the anti-Christian agenda of the radical social justice left.

Don’t fall for it. The refugee resettlement industry has nothing to do with welcoming the stranger and these so-called religion-identified NGOs are unwilling to serve refugee interests unless your federal and state governments pay them to do it!

If you need further proof, consider that the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE) is a federal refugee resettlement contractor which was started and continues to be led by Gatluak Thach, himself a former Sudanese refugee whose bio suggests that he is a Christian. He already made his pitch for consent to the legislators, like one Christian to another. However, he aligns with the radical left, serving on TIRRC’s board alongside the former co-chairs of AMAC. By his organization’s own description, NICE resettles people of all religions and ethnicities including refugees from Somali, Iraq and Iran.

There’s a tendency to think that Sudanese refugees to the US are mostly Christian. Not so. From FY2011 to current, almost 85% of the Sudanese refugees brought to the US identified as Muslim.

As to all the misinformation about states being able to pick and choose which ethnic or religiously-identified refugees they prefer for resettlement it’s simple – they can’t. The FY2020 terms of consent specifically state:

The consent may not be conditioned on acceptance of certain refugees or on any other factor, such as refugees’ race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin.

For example, from FY2015 – FY2019, 812 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo have been brought to Tennessee. The on-going internal conflicts in the DRC are tribal, not religious. Refugee Resettlement Watch, reminds us that in 2013, the Obama administration promised the UN that the US would take 50,000 DRC refugees. “from fiscal year 2014 to today we have admitted 58,999 and there is no sign of the migration stopping” even though Jesuit Refugee Service reported this October, that “hundreds of Congolese refugees are voluntarily returning home.”

At the same time that DRC refugees were being brought to Tennessee, from FY2015 – FY2019, over 2,000 refugees from countries like Somalia, Burma, Syria and Iraq (over 80% identify as Muslim), also arrived.

Since October 2017, the beginning of Trump’s first full year setting priorities for refugee resettlement, through right now, 680 Syrians were brought to the US, of which, 601 identify as Muslims. This might be a good question to pose to Sen. Blackburn who is co-sponsoring S.2641, one goal of which is to increase the resettlement of Syrians.

Since President Trump set the annual cap for FY2020 admissions at 18,000, a total of 2,066 refugees have arrived with 33 resettled in Tennessee.

The SIV (Special Immigrant Visas) for Afghanis and Iraqis who supposedly helped US troops and who get to pick where they want to live, can arrive with refugee status, so far in FY2020, have numbered 2,857. Since FY2007, the US has admitted a total of 62,192.

Refugee Council USA, the lobbying arm of the refugee industry, has had its followers hounding governors, state legislators, mayors and county executives, with all kinds of refugee stories, mythical scenarios of how refugees revive dying communities and bring nothing but economic prosperity.

They also assure these state officials that the federal government 100% funds the program.

Completely not true. In fact, not even close. And that’s why Tennessee sued. After all, numerous federal reports have admitted to shifting the federal costs of the program to states and local governments.

But if Governor Lee caves and decides to consent to resettling refugees, the lawsuit goes away, Tennessee taxpayers pay the state and the federal costs of the program and the radical left resistance in Tennessee walks away with a big, giant political win.

The New York Times story from Monday mentioned that 16 governors, 6 of whom are identified as Republicans, have submitted letters consenting to continued refugee resettlement in their states. The State Department is supposed to post all consent letters on its website but that hasn’t happened yet. The only website keeping track is Refugee Resettlement Watch and by Ann’s count, only 9 governors have issued consent, 4 of whom are Republicans – Arizona, Utah, New Hampshire and North Dakota.

Is it possible that Bill Lee has submitted a letter of consent but didn’t bother to tell us? Have you taken the time to contact his office, your state legislators, your mayor, your city council or commission members? If not, why not??????

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Sen. Marsha Blackburn Sponsors Bill to Import Unlimited Number of Syrian & Iraqi Refugees to Tennessee

Blackburn’s bill mandates a fast track for Syrians, Iraqis and Kurds who claim they were in some way connected, however loosely or remotely, to America’s fight against ISIS. The bill’s language in this regard is very broadly written.

No cap is put on the numbers to be admitted as refugees, nor does this priority group of refugees count towards President Trump’s FY2020 cap of 18,000 refugees. Vetting for this particular pool of potential U.S. entrants, is vague at best.

After the 2105 jihad in Paris when a Syrian passport carried by one of the jihadis was discovered, some politicians, including Blackburn expressed concern about importing Syrians. At the time, it was discovered that there was a robust black market for fake Syrian passports. And who can forget that two months before the Paris jihad Obama promised to import at least 10,000 Syrian refugees.

It seems Marsha has a very short memory. She, five other Republicans and twelve of the most radical Senate Democrats are co-sponsoring S.2641 which is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, December 11, 2019, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The reality on the ground in Tennessee as opposed to the D.C. bubble, is that Iraqi Kurds established a foothold in Nashville, compliments of federal contractor Catholic Charities. With the influx provided by secondary migration, Nashville now has the largest Sunni Muslim Kurdish community in the U.S. By their own count, they put their numbers at approximately 15,000.

The Kurds in Nashville say “they’re angry” about the President’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Northern Syria and that Trump “betrayed” them.

Well you know what gets us angry Marsha and why we feel betrayed? The fact that Kurdish refugees led the fight against an important material support anti-terrorism bill in our state legislature. And that it was a Kurdish refugee who that same year, was the first to get the HAMAS front group CAIR involved in Tennessee state politics.

And it was Kurdish refugees who led organizing the Tennessee American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC) and then decided to collaborate with some of the country’s most vocal Jew-hating anti-Semites like Linda Sarsour while at the same time, tolerating the overt Jew-hatred of its Kurdish refugee board member Drost Kokoye.

She and her family were first delivered to Arizona and then re-migranted to Tennessee. Growing up in Tennessee seems to have made Drost hate our country and align herself with the most radical anti-American leftists. She protests against police, pushes her Jew-hatred, and helped start AMAC, only recently leaving her spot on its governing board. And by the way, she hates our country.

How convenient also that Sen. Blackburn chooses to overlook the other “gift” the Kurds imported to Tennessee – their Kurdish Pride Gang.

We’d like to see Marsha’s plan for how members of the Kurd’s own Antifa group will be prevented from entering the U.S..

Still more troubling is the part of Marsha’s bill which specifically permits someone to come to the U.S, even if they were in any way connected to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The problem with this is that two years ago, the U.S. led coalition spokesman Col. John Dorrian let slip that the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) terrorist group is part of the SDF.

It just so happens that the PKK is also a U.S. designated terrorist group.

After the Paris jihad, Marsha was quick to say no to importing Syrians to the U.S. and mentioned the problem with vetting and falsified documents:

The security of American citizens must be our top priority. We now have reports that one, and possibly more, of the Paris attackers posed as Syrian refugees before entering Europe. As a result, we must immediately suspend similar resettlement efforts in the U.S. I have repeatedly warned that it is impossible to vet Syrian refugees to determine if they have ties to ISIS. Any efforts to continue moving forward with the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. would be dangerously irresponsible.

She even co-sponsored a bill to temporarily halt the entire refugee resettlement program and from the House floor commended Tennessee legislators for suing to challenge the federal resettlement program:

Leaving all of this behind in the House, the now Senator Blackburn, is co-sponsoring a bill which pushes refugee resettlement. Does this mean that Marsha wants Governor Lee to consent to refugee resettlement for the state? Does Marsha realize that if the Governor says yes, our lawsuit challenging the federal program goes away? The same lawsuit that she claimed to support in her statement on the House floor?

And what about those measly little security type issues? Did Marsha leave those concerns behind when she graduated from the House? Is she aware of the vetting and other problems we’ve had with Iraqis already admitted to the U.S.?

And by the way Marsha, we’re simply sick and tired of paying to open our doors and pay to bring people into our country who denigrate us and work to undermine our freedoms.

Contact Sen. Marsha Blackburn and tell her this bill stinks. https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/contact_marsha or (202) 224-3344.

 

 

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Tell Greedy Refugee Contractors to Keep Their Hands Off Your Community!

But you’ll need the help of your mayor and your city council and/or commission.

President Trump’s Executive Order is giving power back to Tennessee citizens to decide whether they want federal refugee contractors to “transform” their communities with imported refugees.

Here are the rules of this game:

  • both the Governor and the “locality” for refugee placement, have to say “yes” we want refugees. This means they also agree to pay any and all short and long-term costs imposed by the federal program.
  • however, if either the Governor or the “locality” say no thanks, then supposedly, newly arriving refugees from overseas won’t be placed in that “locality.”
  • however, the Governor may consent to resettling refugees in only certain consenting localities within the state. This option is a total fiction and is as good as agreeing to put almost ALL cities and counties in Tennessee up for grabs for resettlement – even if they’ve never been an initial resettlement site.

FEDERAL RESETTLEMENT CONTRACTORS ARE ALLOWED TO PLACE REFUGEES ANYWHERE FROM 50 TO 100 MILES FROM THE REFUGEE CONTRACTOR’S OFFICE. 

                50-100 miles covers almost the whole state

This is just one of the many dirty little secrets that the federal contractors keep to themselves.

 And it’s been going on in Tennessee for years. Here’s the proof – the State Department’s reports show that over the years refugees have been resettled in Clarksville, LaVergne, Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Mt. Juliet, Franklin, Spring Hill, Shelbyville, Gallatin, Johnson City, just to name a few.

A few years ago, Catholic Charities of TN employee and federal contractor Holly Johnson who became the state refugee coordinator after the State of Tennessee withdrew from the voluntary refugee program, insisted during testimony to a legislative committee, that refugees were never directly resettled in Bedford County.

Well oops!!! A report subsequently issued by TIRRC about the victimization of Muslims in Tennessee, disclosed that in fact, at least 13 refugees had been directly resettled in Bedford County during the time period Johnson was asked about.

And just in case anyone (ie, Governor Lee) thinks you can pick and choose which refugees you get like maybe all Middle Eastern Christians, Refugee Resettlement Watch and Voice of America clear this up – no you can’t:

Again, by agreeing to ‘welcome’ refugees, your governor is saying your state will take any number from anywhere in the world!

Despite the consent requirement, state and local governments will not be able to choose which refugees it wants to accept, or to exclude certain groups.

Even the rules say you can’t pick and choose.

And just in case you’re thinking that the refugee resettlement industry has anything to do with religious prescriptions about welcoming the stranger – think again – it is first and foremost about money and cheap labor.

It wasn’t that long ago that Catholic Charities’ Holly Johnson, state refugee coordinator and federal contractor, wouldn’t even help the newly arrived refugees that had literally been dumped in Rutherford County by another refugee contractor who got their money, closed their office and left the refugees with nothing.

The State Department guidance says local consent or non-consent for bringing in refugees, has to be in writing from the “chief executive officer of the local government.

Open border leftist groups and the federal refugee contractors have been working at this for weeks. Some say December 25 is the deadline, others say January 21 and others suggest that the deadline can extend to June 1, 2020 when the new grant money comes into play.

But since the left has made this a referendum on Trump’s immigration policies, the sooner you get your local government’s support for Trump out there, the better.

Hopefully, Governor Lee will get the message about what voters in Tennessee want – the same voters who put him into office.

Knoxville’s city council passed a unanimous resolution to keep refugees coming and directed their leftist mayor to put the city’s consent in writing. There should be little doubt that Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga’s city councils and mayors will do the same in the coming weeks.

And it’s still critical to contact the Governor’s office and remind him that the federal government has admitted to transferring the costs of the refugee program to the states – the very reason Tennessee has a lawsuit challenging the program. If the Governor consents to refugee resettlement even for just the four counties where the contractor offices are located, the state’s lawsuit goes away and he puts almost every single town, city and county in the state up for grabs.

So what exactly Governor Lee’s office mean when they said that “[w]e will continue working with the federal government to determine the best outcome for Tennessee.” And who is he listening to??

 

What about the voters who put him into office????