“Refugees” Arriving in Massachusetts at Alarming Rates
by Ted Tripp
Sr. Political Reporter
Refugees, many from the Middle East, are flowing into Massachusetts at an astonishing rate and at great expense to the taxpayers. Note these are NOT illegal aliens. That is a totally separate issue.
A refugee is a “person outside of his or her country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to return because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
The State Department works with nine national refugee resettlement agencies (six religious, three secular) to determine where the refugees will resettle in the U.S. These nine agencies work with local affiliates or subcontractors to help newly arriving refugees by providing them safe and affordable housing, furniture and other basic necessities, and help in applying for Social Security cards welfare services. Massachusetts has 13 of these large subcontractors, more than all the other New England states combined. For these subcontractors, it is a lucrative multimillion dollar business.
For FY 2015, 1,966 refugees from various countries were resettled in Massachusetts. Here is the breakdown to where they went: Boston 300; Framingham 8; Jamaica Plain 100; Lowell 275; South Boston 260; Springfield 230; Waltham 10;
W. Springfield 340; and Worcester 443.
For FY 2016 up to August 19th, 1,792 have been resettled in Mass.: Dorchester 150; Framingham 0; Jamaica Plain 102; Lowell 240; South Boston 275; Springfield 215; Waltham 12; Westfield 315; and Worcester 483.
Note that what’s missing are the places where the “beautiful people” live. Where are Wellesley, Newton, Andover, Westford, Marblehead, Winchester, or any place on Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard? I guess these places don’t qualify for refugee resettlement because … well, because the officials and residents in those areas most likely don’t want them living there. This is simple politics, folks.
And the cost of resettling refugees here, particularly Middle Eastern refugees, is huge. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the five-year taxpayer cost for Middle Eastern refugees is $64,370 for the individual and $257,481 in household costs (see http://tinyurl.com/p3ufgr5 for detailed information).
The refugee program is run jointly by the State Department, the Department of Health & Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security. The Refugee Act of 1980 was the creation of Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Bidden, and signed into law by President Carter.
For more Massachusetts relocation information, visit http://tinyurl.com/jve924s.
A special thanks to Ray Hanna, leader of the Boston Chapter of ACT for America and president of Christians and Jews United for Israel, for the statistics presented here. You can reach him at:
massactforamerica@gmail.com.
I certainly am not against helping people out when they are refugees but my problem is where are the towns and cities PEOPLE opinion on this? Don’t these people have a right to say WHO comes into their towns and cities without others telling them who can come in when these distributors of these refugees don’t even live in those targeted towns themselves?
In the early yeras of our cites and towns we had a policy called “Warning out” where ANYBODY who came into a town was specifically targeted for a good talking to by the local Selectmen and town boards. THOSE SELECTMEN decided if a person coming into a town wasn’t a burden to the taxpayers. If those people were then they were “Warned out” back to their home towns or wherever…We hear a lot about “taxation with representation” yet isn’t this similar without the peoples input?