Refugees

Should We Be Importing Gang Violence?

Featured image Let’s start by acknowledging that in the past, we have, indeed, imported gang violence–the Sicilians are an obvious example. Still, that doesn’t make it a good idea. And shouldn’t we expect to learn from experience? The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports discreetly on a recent spasm of violence in Minneapolis: “East African community reeling from weekend violence, demands solutions.” Yeah? From whom? After the latest spasm of gang violence, Minneapolis’ Somali »

Here Comes the Caravan!

Featured image In an amazing coincidence, thousands of Central Americans, most, apparently, from Honduras, are making their way toward the southern U.S. border two weeks before the midterm elections. Someone has organized this “caravan,” and–evidently because it won’t otherwise arrive in time for the election–someone reportedly is paying for bus rides for many of the caravaners. Who? That question is met with the studied incuriosity we have come to expect from the »

Asylum Seeker’s Rape/Murder Roils Germany

Featured image Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy of admitting into Germany hundreds of thousands of purported “refugees”–out of a misplaced sense of guilt, apparently–has been a disaster. The policy is appropriately unpopular, even more so following the latest outrage, the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl by an Iraqi whose plea for refugee status was turned down. The New York Times reports, with surprising objectivity: It was a gruesome murder: »

HBO Kills “Mogadishu, Minnesota”

Featured image A year ago, there was buzz in the Twin Cities about a projected HBO series that would center on the lives of Somali refugees in Minnesota. It was to be called “Mogadishu, Minnesota” and was hailed as the possible savior of Minnesota’s moribund film industry. Well-known director Kathryn Bigelow, who made “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” was involved, but the main creative talent was a Somali-Canadian rapper named »

No Groping, Damn It!

Featured image American liberals want to take in lots of Islamic refugees from the Middle East and Africa, presumably because that policy has been so successful in Europe. This is, of course, a dubious premise, as we have noted many times. This story comes from Austria, and it must be legit because it is reported in the Sun. Heh. As best I can tell, though, it is authentic: A swimming pool has »

The Outlook from “New Europe”

Featured image SOFIA, Bulgaria, June 30—What the heck, I may as well get my Rebecca West on and file an old-fashioned “foreign correspondent” story from the the Balkans, where I’m visiting for several days that have included a seminar for graduate students and young professionals at New Bulgarian University, and yesterday a “strategic briefing” for business and political leaders, about which more in a moment. One of my favorite ledes from Whittaker »

Flow of Refugees Slows to a Trickle

Featured image News reports indicate that illegal immigration has dropped sharply since President Trump’s inauguration, even though no progress has been made in building the wall. Similarly, it appears that the flow of refugees has declined, even though the president’s travel orders, including his reduced ceiling on refugee admissions, has been tied up in the courts by partisan judges. The Star Tribune reports: “Minnesota’s refugee stream slows to a trickle.” The pace »

15% of Terror Investigations Are of Refugees

Featured image This stunning fact comes from James Comey’s last act: While most of the time he was asked about Hillary’s e-mails and Russia, Russia, Russia, Sen. Tillis asked about terrorism investigations. … Comey responded that out of 2,000-plus “violent extremist investigations … about 300 of them are people who came to the United States as refugees.” So 15 percent of the FBI’s terrorism cases are refugees – far more than their »

Trump Administration to Follow Through On “Dumb Deal” Re Illegal Refugees

Featured image Australia has been holding over 2,000 illegal refugees on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. These are individuals who tried to enter Australia illegally, something that Australia, unlike the U.S., does not permit. The refugees are from Iran, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Sudan, and some are described as stateless. The Obama administration, for reasons that remain unclear, agreed with Australia’s government to resettle some »

President Trump, King Abdullah, and the Syrian Refugees

Featured image Jordan’s King Abdullah has been at the White House meeting with President Trump. Today Trump and Abdullah did a joint press conference in the Rose Garden. News coverage has focused mainly on Trump’s outraged response to Assad’s chemical gas attack in Syria, and whether it will lead to military action by the U.S. That could develop into a major story, particularly after U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley confronted Russian officials at »

The Costs and Benefits of Somali Refugees: Part 2

Featured image Scott wrote this morning about the costs of Minnesota’s Somali refugee population to the state. He discussed, among other things, an article in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune that contains information about the cost of welfare benefits to Minnesota’s Somali refugee population. The Strib’s spin on the issue is a positive one: yes, temporary welfare costs are high, but just wait until all those refugees go to work and benefit the »

The Silly Sweden Flap

Featured image The liberal media’s war on the Trump administration has become comical in its monomania. The latest skirmish is over this riff from Trump’s triumphant speech in Melbourne, Florida: Here’s the bottom line. We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening. We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would »

The left’s view of refugees, then and now

Featured image Richard Pollock at the Daily Caller offers this flashback — one that’s not without irony: Despite today’s outrage over President Donald Trump’s refugee executive order, many liberals in 1975 were part of a chorus of big name Democrats who refused to accept any Vietnamese refugees when millions were trying to escape South Vietnam as it fell to the communists. They even opposed orphans. The chorus was led by Jerry Brown »