UPDATE: Two recent sexual assaults by Muslims in this community of about 50,000 people have made national headlines and raised a wider question: why are the refugees in Twin Falls in the first place?

On June 2, there was the horrifying alleged video recorded gang rape of a developmentally challenged five-year-old American girl at the hands of three refugee boys that created shockwaves after the media and local politicians attempted to cover up the story and stifle local activists.

Then just this past weekend, Mohammed Hussein Ibraheim Eldai – who was previously lionized by the media – was charged with the alleged sexual assault of a 33-year-old mentally disabled woman who fled her house screaming and crying after he molested and then attempted to have sex with her.

The simplest part of the answer is that Muslim refugees are being used as cheap replacements for the middle-class Americans who want to work in Twin Falls’ government-boosted food processing industry.

Idaho’s Refugee History

Idaho is among the states with the largest population of refugees per American, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The state has been bringing in refugees for decades, but local activists, including Julie Ruf, grew concerned as they noticed that the rising percentage of Muslims among the refugees. “I started noticing the burqas,” said Ruf.

Ruf’s observation was correct. The program began in the 1980s with diverse refugees coming from Vietnam, Poland, and Russia. But is has shifted since 2012 to bring in refugees from Islamic Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Eritrea, and Sudan, according to the webpage for the College of Southern Idaho’s refugee resettlement program.

The boys involved in the gang rape are allegedly from Iraq and Sudan. (Two may have been born in Eritrea and then arrived in the U.S. from a refugee camp in Sudan).

The frightening increase in worldwide Islamic terrorism concerned the local activists, particularly when it became clear that ISIS was using the Syrian refugee crisis—created in part by the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s meddling in Syria— to bring terrorists into the West.

This commonplace concern about who is being brought into neighborhood is routinely stigmatized by local politicians and the media as “racist.” But data compiled by the respected Pew Research polling company show there is good reason to raise questions about the culture of new immigrants.

For example, when Pew asked whether Islamic sharia law – not democracy and the constitution — should be the law of the nation they lived in, 91 percent of the residents of Iraq agreed it should, as did 99 percent of Afghanis.

In the same polling, 85 percent of Afghans asked believed that stoning is an appropriate punishment for adultery – instead of U.S.-style divorce and alimony – as did over 50 percent of the Iraqis. 79 percent of the Afghans also believed that leaving Islam – AKA religious freedom – should be punishable by death.

Bringing people with these Islamic beliefs into America obviously raises troubling questions about the refugee program, but the cover-up of the Twin Falls refugee rape by local media and politicians doesn’t appear to be connected to some deeply held belief in sharia law.

Instead, the motivations behind those promoting the refugee program are probably much simpler: money.

Idaho’s Globalist Devil’s Bargain

Visiting Twin Falls, it’s obvious that there is a good deal of new construction and economic activity. New hotels and fast food restaurants are springing up just down the street from the College of Southern Idaho’s campus. Brand-new retail stores such as Best Buy and Old Navy have been built near Twin Falls’ picturesque Perrine Bridge.

Across town, however, many refugees live in rundown apartments or are scattered in taxpayer-subsidized “Section 8” housing throughout the city.

The two sides of the new Twin Falls are a product of the city’s food-processing industry, which has has been on the upswing because of various partnerships between business and government. As Food Engineering Magazine reported in 2014:

Since December 2012, food-related companies announcing or opening locations in Southern Idaho include: Chobani which opened the world’s largest yogurt manufacturing plant in December 2012 ($450 million)

Monsanto, which announced a new wheat technology center for R&D opening in 2014 ($9.2 million)

Clif Bar & Company, which announced the construction of a new facility in October 2013 ($160 million)

Frulact Group, which announced a new $30+ million plant to open in 2014

Glanbia Foods, which opened a new headquarters and cheese innovation center in 2013 ($15 million)

McCain Foods, which invested $100 million to expand its potato processing facility in 2014, and

Calva/Brewster Partnership, which announced new infant animal formula plant in 2013 ($9 million).

In 2014, Ireland-based Glanbia announced an $82 million local expansion, which was hailed by Idaho’s Republican Governor:

This is yet another exciting announcement for the Magic Valley to see one of its own home-grown companies expand and create new jobs,” said Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter. “We are particularly thrilled that we were once again able to leverage the Tax Reimbursement Incentive to support the growth of an existing Idaho company.” Glanbia Foods has been headquartered in Southern Idaho for 25 years and processes over 12 million pounds of milk per day, one third of all milk in Idaho. Over that time, Glanbia has experienced significant growth, with the total workforce in Idaho projected to exceed 800 for the first time in 2015.

This corporate investment has brought more federal money into the state. In 2015, local TV news station KMVT reported that the Commerce Department designated Twin Falls as a “top 12 US manufacturing community.”

Because of this federal designation, the Southern Idaho region will receive a number of direct and significant benefits. Including: preferential consideration for federal funding; food–related talent attraction and training opportunities; direct access to federal economic development resources; and national branding opportunities, just to name a few.

The lure of these lucrative government/business partnerships is great, but there are civic consequences. Consider Chobani’s Twin Falls facility, which is the world’s largest yogurt plant. As NPR reported after it opened:

A press release for today’s event says Chobani is opening with “over 300″ employees. The New York Times reports the Twin Falls facility has 300 employees. That’s 100 fewer jobs than Chobani first announced, but Twin Falls City Manager Travis Rothweiler says there are more jobs to come. He anticipates Chobani will employ up to 500 people once the facility is running at full capacity. Back in Nov. 2011, the company said it planned to use about $25 million in business grants, federal grants, and state and local tax dollars to open its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. That number has grown to more than $54 million, including worker training reimbursements and waived fees.

While the civic boosters in Twin Falls have discussed the job growth, many of those jobs have not gone to those born and raised in Twin Falls, or even to Americans… The jobs are going to immigrants and refugees, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

In Twin Falls, they have been a diverse and committed part of Chobani’s workforce, a spokesman said. Snack maker Clif Bar & Co. has begun hiring workers, including immigrants, for a state-of-the-art baking facility set to start operating this spring, according to a spokeswoman.

In part two of this special report, we’ll look at how Twin Falls is feeling the impact of its inflow of many very foreign workers.