Elites Bring 12,000
Bantu Tribespeople to U.S.
By Phil Kent,President,
Southeastern Legal Foundation

t's bad enough that both legal and illegal immigration is straining American taxpayers' wallets and threatening our culture -- now there is more mindless do-gooding when it comes to our federal government's overly-generous refugee resettlement policy.

The government enters into various agreements with the United Nations on what foreigners will be taken in under "humanitarian grounds" as officially-designated refugees. One recent pact involves Somalia's Bantus, estimated to number approximately 900,000.They have been attacked and harrassed over the past decade by other black Somalis, so many were resettled by the UN in neighboring Kenya. The African country of Mozambique - the Bantu ancestral homeland - initially agreed to resettle up to 12,000 but later backed out.

So now, guess what? Uncle Sap has agreed to take them.
Over the past two years the U.S. State Department and the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement have decided to place these primitive tribesmen in various U.S. cities.

The word "primitive" is not being used in any pejorative sense. The unfortunate truth is that the arriving Somalis are not terribly far removed from the Stone Age.

Most Bantus are illiterate even in their own obscure language and, beyond that, have never seen automobiles, light switches, bath tubs, and all other modern appliances. The problems they face integrating into a modern society are graphically summed up by Shasha Chanoff, an official from the International Organization for Migration: "Do not assume they can open a door just because it has a doorknob," she warns.

Like most other refugees, the Bantu will be subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer. Tax dollars will pay their apartment rent and light bills for the first four months. Then the Somalis (who, remember, do not speak English and have never even seen a door knob) are expected to find jobs and support themselves. Only the most dreamy of wishful-thinking bureaucrats can believe that the transplanted tribesmen will be able to leap from the African bush to a full-time job and self-sufficiency in modern America in just four months.

One of the cities targeted for this project is Atlanta, where some 635 Bantus are to join about 4,000 other Somalis resettled in Georgia since 1992. But even the various relief agencies that welcome foreigners with open arms are, in the words of Atlanta World Relief director Barbara Cocchi, "scratching our heads saying, how are we going to do this?"

Atlanta Constitution reporter Mark Bixler notes, "Most Bantu have cooked over an open flame their whole lives. They only recently have learned of modern conveniences, in classes at a refugee camp in Kenya. They face a learning curve similar to that of a rural African family resettled by Cocchi's organization years ago. "We explained the kitchen over and over again, and the question was still, "Where do I build the fire to cook my food?" she said.

Law enforcement officers in Atlanta tell this writer that apartment fires have become all too common in areas where Third World newcomers unaccustomed to modern ways attempt to cook, and then start blazes that kill people and destroy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property. Isn't this an incredible disservice - not only to Americans who are their neighbors, but to these backward people when diversity-driven elites thrust them into unfamiliar situations?

Thomas Allen, a one-time refugee worker, notes, "For a fraction of the money the U.S. will spend moving this tribe to America, Mozambique could have been persuaded to carry through on its promises. But the U.S. refugee industry needs clients! So that option was never considered."

The role of America's political elites in forcing Stone-age people into modern neighborhoods is a story of disgrace and hypocrisy. When the State Department and other federal authorities were deciding where they should go, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-KS, the then-chairman of the Senate's influential immigration subcommittee, was instrumental in getting them spread out to various cities. Yet he was ultimately adamant that none were to be accepted in Kansas. The program director for the Kansas Board of Education, Chris Renner, recalls that his senator was the catalyst for the resettlement project and that some of the tribesmen were supposed to come to Kansas. But after a backlash from some of Brownbacks' constituents, on Oct. 12, 2001 the senator flatly said, "I oppose any resettlement of Somali Bantus in the state of Kansas. ... Simply put, this should not occcur."

According to Rob Roberts, a reporter who worked on the story for The Johnson County Sun, Brownback did everything to make sure both his original welcome of the tribe and his subsequent retraction of the invitation were forgotten.

This is the same Sam Brownback, by the way, who had the gall to later chide Florida for not taking in more illegal boat people from Haiti.

Furthermore, Brownback - to the cheers of the domestic refugee industry - is currently sponsoring the Refugee Protection Act (along with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.) which national security experts complain will unleash a tide of bogus asylum seekers into our country.

So as Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Richmond, Salt Lake City, Charlottesville, Va., Louisville, Ky., Roanoke, Va. and 30 other American municipalities grapple with an influx of Somali Bantus this year - they can thank the foolishness of their political elites at the State Department and the hypocrisy of Sen. Sam Brownback.