Revealed: Feds Collude with Mayors, Private Organizations to Conceal Syrian Refugee Resettlement

When reviewing the various crises and controversies currently in progress in our country, you have to put immigration, legal and otherwise, near the top of the list.  We’ll focus on legal immigration right now.  Specifically the government-sponsored efforts to resettle Syrians in U.S. cities and towns.  And the odd government-sponsored efforts to do this using stealth.  If this immigration project is such a good thing, it should not have to be hidden.

One such effort isn’t hidden anymore, thanks to the efforts of Judicial Watch.  See if you’re not as offended by the comments and strategies employed as we are.

First, the basics of the story:

Judicial Watch today released 128 pages of documents it obtained from the mayor of Rutland, Vermont, showing a concerted effort by the mayor and a number of private organizations to conceal from the public their plans to resettle 100 Syrian refugees into the small southern Vermont town.

The documents include an April 14, 2016, email from Amila Merdzanovic, executive director of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, to Mayor Christopher Louras, in which she wrote:

“I want to share with you the concern my HQ has about holding a public forum. If we open it up to anybody and everybody, all sorts of people will come out of woodwork. Anti-immigrant, anti-anything. They suggest that the forum be invite only but make it as wide as possible. Work with faith leaders, United Way, etc… Perhaps, we could go back to the Congregational Church and continue the conversation there.”

The mayor and resettlement organizations shrouded the plan in such secrecy that not even the town’s aldermen were informed of what was taking place behind closed doors. The aldermen eventually wrote to the U.S. Department of State protesting the plan and opened an investigation into the mayor’s actions. The State Department has not yet ruled on whether it will resettle refugees in Rutland despite the aldermen’s protest.

Handwritten notes state that the issue was, “Not what can ‘we’ do for ‘them,’ but what the diversity, cultural richness do for the community.” The documents contain detailed discussions of what Rutland will need to provide for the refugees – including housing, jobs, medical care, and places for worship.

Where do you start with such duplicity?  A recall election giving that mayor the boot would be our choice.  Wonder who is supposed to pay for all that construction of housing and “centers of worship?”  Wait a minute.  It best not be the government.  Remember that the “separation of church and state” that is one of the holy commandments of liberalism.  Sorry, no tax revenues to build houses of worship. You know, the Supreme Court and all that stuff.

What else have we learned other than the fact that the mayor is something of a snake-in-the-grass?

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit based in Virginia, is the parent organization of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program working with the mayor’s office. According to its financial statements the Committee received $46,560,462 of its $50,858,706 (or 91.45%) for fiscal year 2015 from “government grants.”

If they are receiving government grants then they need to be out of the “centers of worship” building and funding business, too.

Where are the citizens in all of this?  You know, the taxpayers who would be on the hook for at least part of this.  The people who would be neighbors to these resetting immigrants.  Apparently, out they’re of the loop, if this was all done in secret.  But now that the cat is out of the bag, they want to be heard.  Can you imagine?

Local opponents of the refugee plans wanted a public vote on the proposal and transparency on the refugee settlement plan.

Judicial watch concludes,

“Americans should be concerned that the Obama administration is funneling at least $46 million in tax dollars to a shady operation that encourages elected officials to cover up Obama’s Syrian refugee scheme,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

We’ll end where we began.  If this government effort to resettle Syrians in the U.S. is such a wonderful thing, why all the secrecy?  Oh, yeah, we know.  Those pesky citizens — the taxpayers — the people.  These people might just want a say in how they are governed and how their taxes are spent.

Apparently in Obama’s America, that’s not to be allowed.

Source:  Judicial Watch