Friday, August 11, 2017

RRW - Why are we excluded from local 'refugee' planning meetings? We're not 'stakeholders,' dummy, our taxes are only paying for it! --tma





Posted by Ann Corcoran on August 10, 2017
No it isn’t.  Local governments want to pretend they have no role so as to get the monkeys off their backs!
First, here is the news about citizens appealing to the city council for a study about the costs of resettlement.  The council voted the proposal down by one vote and said this isn’t a local government issue.
Memory lane!  In 2015 we learned that the US State Department had only begun holding so-called “stakeholder meetings” with local government agencies in 2013!

This is what I said:

It has only been in the last year or so that we have been made aware that QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS with community “stakeholders” were being held quietly, out of public view.   In fact, I wondered why I hadn’t heard about them and now I know why!


Here Lawrence Bartlett, US State Department Refugee Program, told Senator Sessions that of course they consult communities and elected officials about numbers and impacts! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/senate-oversight-hearing-on-refugee-program-very-revealing-senator-sessions-did-a-masterful-job/
The citizens of St. Cloud, MN, here and here, brought the issue of exclusion of taxpaying citizens from the meetings where the ‘non-profit’ refugee resettlement agency meets with local elected officials, fire/police, education, health departments etc. to assess how things are going with the refugees, and they discuss how many to bring in the upcoming year.
According to a State Department spokesman (unnamed!) doing a press briefing for reporters on September 11th [sorry, the briefing has been removed!—ed] we learn that they have only been doing these QUARTERLY CONSULTATIONS since 2013!  WTH!
And, they are lying!  “Private citizens” have not been welcome.
These agencies (‘non-profit’ resettlement subcontractors) work very hard to hold these meetings secretly and out of the view of local concerned citizens—the ultimate stakeholder, the taxpayer! Yet, we have a State Department official (why no name?) telling the mainstream media that private citizens can attend!
Such meetings are required under the Refugee Act of 1980 as succinctly outlined here at Let Freedom Ring blog (hat tip: Katherine).  This is a must-read.  No time to pull quotes from it because I’m going away for a few days and dashing around this morning.
There is a local government role whether the city council of St. Cloud likes it (admits it!) or not!
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