Feds dispatch aliens to … Gowdy's backyard

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who handles immigration issues as the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee, has raised concerns about the settlement of tens of thousands of refugees without proper screening for jihadists among them who would pose a threat to security.

He hasn't received a satisfactory response from the Obama administration, and now many  refugees are ending up on his home turf.

A local news report said churches in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where Gowdy grew up, have started "welcoming refugees."

Jason Lee, director of World Relief Spartanburg, said members of Summit Church, Hope Point Church and Kaleidoscope Multi-Ethnic Fellowship have helped welcome the first refugees.

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Blogger Ann Corcoran, who authors the watchdog blog Refugee Resettlement Watch, wondered if the newcomers' arrival at that location is significant.

"Spartanburg is pivotal in the battle for determining who controls the resettlement process – will the UN/US State Department ram third-worlders down the throats of small town America, or will cities and states play any role in the present secretive resettlement process?"

She noted Gowdy "is not just any congressman with concern for his district, he is chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee responsible for the refugee program!"

"If anyone has any power in Congress on this issue, it is Gowdy. The question is, is he willing to exercise his power?"

WND has reported extensively on the government's secretive refugee resettlement program.

Tens of thousands are to be settled in the U.S.. from war-torn Syria and other hot spots with minimal if any, screening.

Gowdy has been trying to shed light on the program for months. Most recently, he called for a meeting with State Department officials.

He started asking questions in April about how aliens are distributed to various cities, the impact on local job markets and public services, and who makes the key decisions.

His questions came after it was revealed that Spartanburg was selected to receive 60 to 65 newcomers over the next year, mostly from Syria. Unable to answer all of the questions posed by nervous constituents, Gowdy fired off letters to Secretary of State John Kerry.

After getting a response from Kerry that he said was "wholly inadequate" and "vague," he demanded more specifics May 4. This week he got a second response, which he also called a "non-response."

The State Department secretly selected Spartanburg sometime last year to be one of its designated "receiving communities" for Syrians, 92 percent of whom have been Muslims that the FBI has said will be virtually impossible to safely screen for terrorist connections.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's refugee coordinator quietly approved the Spartanburg resettlement in December – again with no public input or notice.

In reaction to the State Department's refusal to fully answer Gowdy's 14 follow-up questions, which he sent May 4, he said he is inviting a State Department official to meet with South Carolina's legislative delegation and answer questions in person.

"The State Department's response to our office's 14 follow-up questions was again sorely inadequate and failed to provide answers," Gowdy said in a statement emailed to WND. "Additionally, our office met with World Relief in April, contrary to State's most recent letter. Because the State Department was wrong on this account, and because our office did not receive answers to our questions during that meeting with the resettlement agency, we are inviting State Department Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Julia Frifield to provide a briefing to the South Carolina delegation on this issue."

FBI terrorism expert Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the agency's counter-terrorism unit, has said that screening refugees from a "failed state" like Syria is beyond the capability of U.S. intelligence, because the U.S. has no military presence in Syria and does not have access to reliable police or intelligence records. Steinbach testified publicly to that fact at a Feb. 11 hearing before the House Homeland Security committee.

Yet, the State Department continues to tell congressmen and the public that refugees are rigorously screened. The contradicting statements from the FBI and the State Department continue to trouble those in Spartanburg and elsewhere who have been pushing back against a refugee program they see as secretive and unaccountable to anyone. The critics say the government hides details by working through a maze of private nonprofit "contractors."

An example is the Tsarnaev brothers, who came to the U.S. as small boys with their parents, who were asylum seekers to escape war in Chechnya.

They grew up attending a Boston mosque. In April 2013, they killed three people, injuring scores of others, at the Boston Marathon.

A similar scenario played out with Hoda Muthana of Birmingham, Alabama. Her parents came from Yemen more than two decades ago. They lived peacefully in an upscale suburban neighborhood and raised several children, one of which was Hoda, who at age 20 left the country to become an ISIS bride.