Posted by Ann Corcoran on November 22, 2016
It’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money that goes towards transitioning the refugees.
In Rutland, VT the controversy about whether to bring mostly Syrian refugees to the city in the coming months continues to simmer. The brakes are on right now, as we told you here and here recently, because the federal contractors know they can’t get out too far ahead of their money (YOUR money, federal grants).
Frankly, the contractors have virtually no money of their own especially the contractor in Rutland (USCRI here). For new readers, USCRI*** is the contractor working in Twin Falls, Idaho too.
Rutland Mayor Louras thinks small towns will be saved by bringing in mostly Muslim refugees from the Middle East. I don’t see him clamoring for the Congolese Christians. Photo: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/08/05/shrinking-small-towns-see-hope-in-refugees
There is nothing earth-shattering in this, another story on Rutland, but I was interested to see how overtly the promoters of resettlement are willing today to talk (they didn’t 9 years ago) about the need for federal bucks to make the resettlement work.
Those promoting bringing the Syrian Muslims (flavor of the year!) to Rutland aren’t shelling out their own money, neither is the state of Vermont (at least on the surface, they will, however, shell out plenty for ‘services’ and educating the kids as time goes on.).
On this flavor of the year comment (I can hear the rage!), I was struck by a thought when I wrote about the rally for Syrians in Charleston, WV and we see it here in Rutland too.
Would the resettlement advocates be so eager if they were going to be getting mostly impoverished and boring Christians from the DR Congo or Burma, or is this fervor for Syrians and Iraqis (mostly Muslims) fueled by a desire to be just kinda cool?
Here is the bit of the story at WCAX.com I want you to see:
An opportunity about 100 Syrian and Iraqi refugees hope to find in Rutland. “It’s frankly just a lot of unknowns,” said Rutland Mayor Chris Louras.
After Donald Trump’s win, Rutland officials are not sure whether their resettlement plan for the refugees will be affected. “There’s the potential that we may only see two families in before he’s inaugurated. We don’t know what happens at that point,” Louras said.
President-elect Trump campaigned with anti-immigrant rhetoric, saying he plans to cut refugee funding and put a temporary halt on accepting Muslims.
“Without that federal funding for the program, there’s no mechanism to resettlement to the United States,” Louras said.[If people really were driven by humanitarianism, they would be privately funding resettlement, one family, one church at a time!—ed]
Right now with all the uncertainty, USCRI isn’t going to go out on a financial limb and hire staff and open an office!
It’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money that goes towards transitioning the refugees. The Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program Rutland plans to hire three full-time case workers and two part-time translators to work with the refugees on education and employment. “We’re still planning as if these people are coming — we have to,” Louras said.
So is Marsha Cassel, a Rutland High School teacher and active member of the group, Rutland Welcomes.
And, check out this next line. The good citizens of Rutland are bringing over their old furniture, but USCRI gets to give it a monetary value so they can tell the feds they have some skin in the game. The feds expect the contractors to show they have contributed something, and since they don’t have cash (especially USCRI 97% taxpayer funded) they get to use old furniture and volunteer hours (your volunteer hours are given a cash value!) to prove they are contributing.
In the Rutland Herald’s former printing press room, hundreds of pieces of donated furniture await new owners. “They’re coming with nothing but hope, so we are just hoping to get them started,” Cassel said.
The WCAX.com story continues with much discussion about screening terrorists, but I think the greater threat is what we are seeing in Minnesota where the generation of cute little kids we supported grows up to be jihadists.
To see our very large archive on Rutland, click here.
***Learn more about USCRI’s CEO Lavinia Limon here at Breitbart.
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