Commissioners oppose Syrian refugee resettlement

Public meeting on topic ‘one of largest meetings in Ravalli County history’

By Michael Howell

The Ravalli County Commissioners held a meeting last week to take public comment on a proposed letter that had been drafted to state the county’s opposition to any resettlement of Syrian refugees here or even in any nearby counties. So many people showed up however, that the meeting was immediately continued to re-adjourn in the Middle School Auditorium just a few blocks away. The commissioners have on past occasions used the facility on the spur of the moment to handle overflow crowds in their relatively small meeting room. This time, though, things were different as a crowd of about 500 people lined up outside the Middle School waiting for the doors to open. It did not take very long to see that the crowd would not fit in the auditorium either, so they were funneled through the hallways to the school gymnasium. All of this took place while the school was in session.
Commission Chair Ray Hawk told the assembly that the commissioners had received letters and emails running 50 to 1 in favor of sending the letter. This drew a rousing applause, as did the announcement that the proceeding would begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. The crowd roared out the pledge, and in unison roared louder for special emphasis on the words “under God.” Passions were running high and the rest of the public comment period was punctuated with emotional statements followed by thunderous applause or, in other cases, heckling and jeering. The charged atmosphere and the boisterous nature of the crowd made it much more like a pep rally or a sports event than a commissioners’ meeting.
State Representative Nancy Ballance told the commissioners that Governor Bullock has chosen to take money to resettle refugees in Montana.
“Montana is open for business,” she said. “Make no mistake, refugee resettlement is a big and lucrative business.”
Ballance said the federal government pays nine volunteer organizations based on the number of refugees they resettle, “so there is a huge incentive for these organizations to bring as many refugees as they can.” She said last year these companies made a billion dollars in revenue, most of it from tax dollars to actively advocate for bringing refugees in. She said she wasn’t opposed to the letter as written, “but sending it to this group is not going to have the effect you want.” She urged the commissioners to work with the state to document the negative impacts to the community that would follow the resettlement of any refugees here.
Past planning board president Jan Wisniewski said that the county examines the impact on services for every subdivision and that should be done with regard to resettlement of refugees as well.
A majority of the comments were not about economic impacts, though, but about religion. The Muslim religion was denigrated by some, one man even denigrating the prophet Mohammed. A few claimed that Muslims could not possibly be assimilated into our society.
Others spoke of war.
“The U.S. may not be at war with Islam,” said Phil Higgins, “but Islam is at war with the United States.” He denied that his God and Allah were the same.
The woman speaking after him agreed. She said Muslims cannot live with non-Muslims.
“We are infidels to them,” she said. “Are we going to have mosques making prayer calls in the Bitterroot?”
Hollis Poe said, “This isn’t about accepting refugees. Let’s cut to the quick here and I’ll tell you what this is really all about folks… this is about setting the stage so there will be a path in Ravalli County so that they will come after our women. Fortunately, in Ravalli County women have weapons.” [loud applause] Look at the fact that this is setting the stage for martial law. That’s what it’s about.”
Recalling the shot fired at Lexington, Poe said, “I would say to Montanans, stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon…” His words were drowned out by applause.
Pastor Steve Barton, of Big Sky Baptist Church, said, “There is going to be a battle over this. It is going to happen sooner or later.” He recalled what George Washington said before crossing the Potomac, “I will not go into battle without a pastor in front.”
“I am here for you guys,” said Barton.
Several people expressed the fear that the government’s vetting process could not be trusted and terrorists would slip in. They mentioned the two laboratories located in the county as being possible targets.
Annie Edwards said that she had opened up a bakery in Darby. “I’m a woman running a business. These people are diametrically opposed to me being a business woman.” She asked the commissioners what they would do to protect her.
A few other people mentioned that veterans, elderly and other people were going without aid already in the valley and the refrain was, “Let’s take care of our own first.”
Some people did speak out against the letter and in favor of accepting refugees.
Chris Love noted that the letter was addressed to an agency that wasn’t in charge of resettling refugees. She said typically the government doesn’t make the decision. She said it is generally made by independent agencies who send refugees to where they have family members, jobs, and someone who can support them.
Rick Lubinski said, “I am very embarrassed.” He said when he goes anywhere out of the Bitterroot, “I find that what people think is that we are a bunch of radical anti-government people.” This drew a round of applause from many in the crowd who apparently took it as a compliment.
Another man commented that it was a moral responsibility to help people who are in such a desperate condition. Another said that the possibility of ISIS terrorists sneaking in amongst the refugees was slim. He said it’s easier for them to just get a visa.
Bill Wasserman said that his great grandparents all came over in the late 1800s and were all refugees.
“I suspect everyone here is descended from refugees,” he said. This drew some heckling.
Heather Lewis said, “I am an American and a Montana woman and am not afraid of someone from another religion coming to me and asking me to change my lifestyle. I was raised in America. I know what my rights are and I know what my worth in this world is. I’m not a victim and I don’t appreciate being put forth as one by the county.”
Commission Chair Ray Hawk did tell the crowd that the commission doesn’t really know how many or if any refugees would be coming to the valley at all.
Following the public comment session held in the gym, the Commissioners reconvened in the county administration building and considered whether to make any changes in their draft letter.
Commissioner Jeff Burrows immediately suggested copying the letter to “a whole bunch of other people.” The suggestion was met with favor by the board and the letter, addressed to Anne Richard, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration at the US State Department, was cc’d to Governor Steve Bullock, the Director of the US Office of Refugee Resettlement, the entire Montana Congressional delegation, the Montana Refugee Coordinator, all Ravalli County legislators, the Missoula City Council and the Missoula County Commissioners.
Hawk then suggested the possibility of expanding on the letter by adding more details such as those brought up by Representative Nancy Ballance.
Burrows said he’d like to leave it general. He said the letter would probably just go onto someone’s office desk, “but I’m thinking we need to make a stand.”
“Oh, I’m for sending it, there’s no question about that,” said Hawk.
Commissioner Greg Chilcott suggested mentioning that taking in refugees was an “unfunded mandate” but was going to bring increased security costs, increased infrastructure costs and increased educational costs, perhaps having to hire translators.
“They’ll clearly not be paying taxes here for a while,” he said.
Burrows said that one thing he heard repeatedly was that the public wanted “more teeth” in the letter. He honed in on the last sentence about opposing resettlement in Ravalli County “without proper analysis.”
“That’s what the government does,” he said. “They analyze and then make a decision that nobody wants. Are we saying we would be okay if they had a better vetting process?”
Chilcott said, “I think these are people who would assimilate, but I don’t know. From what I heard today, no how no way would they ever assimilate.”
Hawk said, “One thing that convinced me was that the military people, the people that had served overseas amongst these folks, didn’t have very good things to say about them. There was a lot of testimony and emails from people with experience with these folks. They are really adamant about it.”
“In contrast to that,” said Commissioner J.R. Iman, “we need to explain how we will be affected, whether or not you agree with their religion or anything else. We need to look at the effects that can be quantified and have an impact.”
Commissioner Doug Schallenberger agreed.
Chilcott said, “You know it always frustrates me when people come in and they want to complain about something but they don’t offer a solution. I’d like us to be able to offer something.” He said he thought some of the concerns might be addressed by proper vetting.
Burrows said that you could say “adequate” vetting process, or “reasonable” process, or whatever, “but what I heard people say was they wanted more teeth.” He questioned the analysis itself.
“Who analyzes it? Are we going to let the federal government say, ‘we are confident in our vetting system now’?”
Hawk agreed, saying, “Let’s just say we oppose it. Period.”
Burrows said, “Or we could say, ‘unless they can assure us that no terrorists are coming in’.”
Schallenberger said, “From what I heard, it is the people coming over that are in danger.”
“I’m not sure the people coming here would be safe,” said Hawk.
Turning back to discussion of the letter, Chilcott said, “We have a community that’s been brought up in arms, but do we think they will get past the first two sentences in this before they throw it away?”
“It was a big crowd and that will get some attention somewhere,” said Burrows.
Hawk said, “What we did today with this crowd will have more impact on this question with those people than this letter is going to have on a bunch of bureaucrats. Our Congressional delegation should be made aware of what happened today and I hope they see it in the news.”
Getting back to consideration of the last sentence, the commissioners considered a few expanded variations and then Burrows said, “Why try to spell it out? We say the impacts are unknown. If you say something that’s wrong, you’re going to get nailed for it. When you say the impacts are unknown, nobody will disagree with that.”
Chilcott then recommended that they add to the beginning of the letter, “after a well-attended public meeting, we…”. He said that would indicate that it had broad support from the community.
Schallenberger said, “We knew we wanted to send a letter before we went to that meeting.”
Burrows said it was not just a meeting. “We had to change venues because of the crowd turnout.”
Hawk suggested it say, “after the meeting we felt it necessary to write this letter.”
Iman said, “Yea, but we offered the letter to start with so it isn’t after the fact. We didn’t write the letter after the meeting.”
“They don’t know that,” said Hawk. “Anne Richard ain’t going to read this anyway, I don’t think.”
“I understand that,” said Iman, “but the other half of it is we came up with the idea first. We are the ones taking ownership. We listened to other people, but we’re taking ownership.”
“Oh yea,” said Hawk. “We are not saying anything in the letter that we are not taking ownership of. The reason we had the meeting was to see if we should send it.”
At the last minute Chilcott said they should be sure to say that it was the largest meeting in the history of Ravalli County.
“Now we’ll be on their list of radicals,” said Hawk.
“Like we’re not already,” said Chilcott.
The motion to send the letter as amended was approved unanimously.
Following is the text of the letter as approved:
“Re: Resettling of Refugees in Ravalli County
Dear Ms. Richard;
After receiving public comment at one of the largest meetings in Ravalli County history the Ravalli County Commissioners are opposed to the resettling of refugees in Ravalli County or neighboring counties. The migration of refugees from a host county to surrounding counties would be inevitable.
It is the responsibility and sworn duty of Ravalli County to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Ravalli County. The threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other radical terrorist groups is intensifying. The Director of the FBI and the Secretary of DHS have both stated on the record that it is not possible to adequately investigate the legitimacy of each claim of refugee status to prevent members of ISIS or other terrorist organizations from entering the United States.
Impacts to small communities’ economy, culture and most importantly health, safety and welfare from refugees are unknown, therefore the Board of Ravalli County Commissioners oppose the resettling of refugees in Ravalli County.”