Kalispell Draws Huge Crowd Protesting Refugees
Nearly 500 people came together in Kalispell this week to protest the Refugee Resettlement Program being promoted by the Obama Administration.
The Daily Inter Lake reports an estimated 460 people turned out Tuesday in Kalispell to hear a Bozeman-based immigration speaker detail the reasons he believes settlement of refugees in the United States is a drain on national resources and potential threat to homeland security.
Paul Nachman said immigrants often don’t assimilate and are a drain on state resources. He pointed out that the two brothers who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings were children of parents who were granted asylum from war-torn Chechnya.
In making his case that the vast majority of those granted asylum or refugee status are not actually in danger, Nachman pointed out that one of the bombers and their parents had traveled back to the area they had fled from in the years leading up to the bombing.
Nachman said the purpose of the United States is stated in the Preamble to the Constitution. He focused on the part that says the people of the United States will “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
“So what the United States is about is benefiting the citizens of the United States, not rescuing the rest of the world from its distress,” Nachman said.
His talk was hosted by the Flathead County chapter of Act for America, a national group working to promote security and defeat terrorism.
Caroline Solomon, Flathead Valley Act for America chapter president, said Tuesday’s event had been planned months in advance and was not scheduled because of demonstrations in Missoula and Helena this month over possible resettlement of Syrian refugees in Montana.
The protests did seem to help heighten interest in the Kalispell event — it had to be moved from Sykes’ Diner to a larger conference room at the Red Lion Hotel Kalispell. Collapsible panels were removed to expand the room from the 275 seats originally put out for guests.
Solomon was surprised by the large turnout, the second-largest gathering the group has hosted since its 2014 inception. Only a talk from the organization’s national founder had higher attendance.
“I’m blown away,” Solomon said of the crowd.
Additional coverage of this event at Refugee Resettlement Watch and The Daily Inter Lake.
