The Mayor of the city of Springfield, MA (26.8 percent of the population live below the poverty line) says ‘enough is enough‘:
The mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts has asked the federal government for a moratorium on sending refugees to the city, claiming that newly arrived families create a strain on city resources and the school system and do not receive sufficient aid from resettlement agencies.
Domenic Sarno, a Democrat, made his request in a letter sent Thursday to Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass. Copies were also sent to Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, as well as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
“I’m not cold-hearted at all,” Sarno told The Republican newspaper Friday. “I want to help. All I am asking for is accountability from the agencies. You just can’t continue concentrating poverty on top of poverty.”
The problem? Somali refugees, who… well… let’s just say they have a hard time ‘leaving Somalia behind’:
Sarno first demanded last summer that the U.S. government stop sending refugees. But after recent inspections found Somali families living in overcrowded, pest-infested apartments without electricity and sometimes heat, he stepped up complaints, saying resettlement agencies are bringing in “warm-weather” refugees and dumping them into cold climates only to leave them dependent on the city.
“I have enough urban issues to deal with,” Sarno said. “Enough is enough.“
And reactions from the ‘immigrant community’?
Sarno’s comments have drawn a backlash from refugees who say they’re being scapegoated for problems the city faced long before their arrival.
“Why not talk about the problems in the city, why not talk about the houses that are unstable and in bad conditions, why only talk about the Somalis and Somali Bantus?” Mohammed Abdi, 72, said through an interpreter…
It’s amazing to hear such things as the following from the mouths of Democrats:
Sarno says the State Department has not been receptive to his requests to stop sending refugees, echoing sentiments sometimes heard elsewhere.
Lewiston, Maine, Mayor Robert MacDonald, who in 2002 asked Somalis there to help “reduce the stress on our limited finances,” took heat a decade later for saying immigrants should “accept our culture and, and you leave your culture at the door.” He later clarified that he didn’t expect them to abandon their religion or language but said: “I’m not going to apologize for `leave your culture behind.”‘
Manchester, New Hampshire, Mayor Ted Gatsas in 2011 asked the State Department to stop resettling refugees there. Last year, he told the AP he still believes the city could benefit from a break in arrivals to “get these people into working society.”
And who is instrumental in getting ‘refugees’ from a place as far away as Somalia into a city like Springfield, MA?
Robert Marmor, president of Jewish Family Services, a resettlement agency in Springfield, said that aid for additional services is available from other sources and that his door is always open.
In the case of Springfield, Jewish Family Services has pretty much single-handedly arranged for the Somalis’ arrival.
Makes you wonder why.
