Your tax dollars:
Just came across this blog—Jacob Street—where blogger GiGi posted her plea to US Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker to not cut any funding for the refugee program. I told you here and here recently that the resettlement industry is busy drumming up opposition to proposed budget cuts passed by the House of Representatives. By the way, the longer this 2011 budget issue drags on the more time all the special interests will have to gear up and oppose any cuts.
At least, and probably for the first time, I’m seeing an employee of a federal contractor—in this case Catholic Charities—express fear for the loss of her job. BUT, MY QUESTION CONTINUES TO BE—WHY ARE WE FUNDING CHURCH GROUPS TO RESETTLE REFUGEES IN THE FIRST PLACE? What happened to private Christian charity?
From Jacob Street:
As your constituent and a staff member of Catholic Charities of TN and the Tennessee Office for Refugees, I write to urge you to save the refugee resettlement program from drastic cuts, and to fund the Migration and Refugee Assistance Account (MRA); Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR); and International Disaster Assistance (IDA) accounts at their FY2010 enacted levels. Cuts to these accounts, which have been historically under-funded, will have a devastating affect on refugees, Afghan and Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa recipients, victims of torture and trafficking, other vulnerable populations, as well as communities across the country that welcome these populations.
[…..]
I worry for my job and the jobs of all of my co-workers and all of the organizations that have a role in refugee resettlement. I worry for the refugees we resettle and for the refugees who live in dire situations in refugee camps across the world. By cutting funding our livelihoods will be drastically affected and sadly, many many lives will be in jeopardy.
I don’t blame GiGi for being worried for herself. People have become so accustomed to living off the government (the taxpayer) that they don’t even think about where the money comes from. Just like the unions in Wisconsin, they don’t get it. The taxpayer is broke, the government is broke!
For new readers: Tennessee has many problems with refugees such as the Somalis resettled there by mostly Catholic Charities (see my whole category on Nashville). Remember the Somali sex trafficking gang was working out of Nashville, here. Also, State Senator Jim Tracy introduced a bill in the state legislature to try and get more state and local control over the refugee program being run by Catholic Charities, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and the US State Department, here. There is also a growing controversy over a bill to make Shariah Law (favored by Muslims in Tennessee) illegal, here. So, it’s not all sweetness and light in Tennessee as it relates to immigrants and refugees as GiGi would have her Senators think.