One of the themes we’ve emphasized on American Rattlesnake this year is the damage inflicted upon American society by ill-conceived policies of
refugee resettlement carried out by the
federal government. Unlike past generations of refugees who came here from nations behind the Iron Curtain,
Cuba, or other Communist states, the ones transplanted to the United States now are not educated, white collar elites or aspiring middle class professionals who have been dispossessed of their property and wealth by tyrannical despots. Unlike the much-maligned
Polish plumbers who have migrated to the United Kingdom in order to increase their earnings before returning home, they are also not temporary visitors.
To the contrary, many of them have little-and some have no-formal education, and thus are encouraged to exploit our generous welfare programs by self-interested parties known as
VOLAGs. Like the Kurdish refugees in Tennessee described by Don Barnett in his
speech to the Penn Club earlier this year, immigrants from Somalia have had extreme difficulty adapting to life in the United States. Although some have prospered and contributed to the enrichment of
American culture, more often than not we associate them with undesirable activities such as inspiring or carrying out
suicide bomb attacks against their native countrymen.
Although that horrific act is anomalous, it is by no means
unique. As the
testimony of Abdirizak Bihi before the House of Representatives made clear, the
divided identity experienced by many Somali Americans serves as a
fertile recruiting ground for pan-Islamic jihadist organizations like Al Qaeda and its affiliates. What’s more, the much more widespread problems of
drug abuse, violence-especially the type linked to
organized crime-and
welfare exploitation are endemic to large swathes of these communities...
