Your tax dollars:
Bob Kay, director of Public Policy for Lutheran Social Services of New England*, last Friday asked readers of the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire to write to their elected officials and ask for more money to bailout the refugee program.
Well, that is reasonable you say, everyone else is asking for a bailout, but it’s his very resettlement agency that was the source of complaints from Iraqi refugees last fall who went so far as to protest in the streets about their treatment by this Lutheran volag. They weren’t protesting about money, but their treatment!
Here is Kay on Friday:
To accomplish this challenging work, our government subcontracts with nonprofit agencies, like Lutheran Social Services. The vast majority of refugees are highly motivated to succeed in this country. Over time, most refugees adapt well to life in the United States and become productive employees, good neighbors and citizens. But the initial period of resettlement requires the provision of many essential and costly services.
In this area a crisis now exists brought on by years of under-funding. The reserves and fundraising abilities of the resettlement agencies are stretched to the limit. The capacity of local communities to cover these needs could be overwhelmed. Our federal government has resolved to continue resettling refugees and must now provide adequate funding.
As we continue to provide a safe haven for increasing numbers of refugees, please take a moment to make a phone call, send a letter, e-mail or fax to our two senators in Washington and your representative in the U.S. House and ask that the federal program for refugee resettlement be fully funded. [Edit: it is fully funded they just want additional funding.]
Last fall I wrote a couple of posts on Lutheran Social Services and unhappy Iraqis in NH. The first is here in September. And, the second is a month later, here.
The following is a portion of what I said in the later post. Note the Iraqi complaints are not about money.
Then there is this curious comment. I say curious, because although I have heard of this before, volags shutting out other volunteer help (it happened in Waterbury, CT), frankly, it makes no sense. You would think these “church group” contractors would be looking for all the help they could get.
Each refugee interviewed for this story said he or she was told by Lutheran staff members not to take help from people outside the agency, a claim that some African refugees in Concord have echoed.
Lutheran Social Services say they just need more money and imply that the Iraqis are irrational due to war trauma.
She [Lutheran rep] said it is caused in part by a lack of funding by the federal government. And, she said, the Iraqis have experienced such trauma that adjusting to their lives here is particularly difficult.
Aleaa hits the nail on the head with this line:
“It’s like we’ve asked for millions of dollars or something,” she said. “They humiliate us. To treat a human with respect, does it require funds?”
Since Kay is asking that readers write to the New Hampshire Congressional delegation to ask for a bailout, maybe readers should also ask for a federal investigation into how Lutheran Social Services has been conducting itself there—-before bailing them out!
Or, instead of writing to Congress, how about lobbying the fat cats who are pushing more immigrants and refugees on us!
My suggestion: Lobby the big moneybags George Soros, Wade Rathke and Drummond Pike and their fat cat buddies at the Tides Foundation to make up for all the shortfall, afterall it is they who are pushing for more immigrants, especially Iraqis, to flood the US. And, sadly, they have more money than the Federal government!
* Lutheran Social Services of New England is a subcontractor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, one of the Top Ten (volag) Government Contractors.