Here is an article from The Tennessean this week (from the same reporter who did a hatchet job on Brigitte Gabriel and the American Congress for Truth recently) that will make your blood boil.
Seems we are supposed to have sympathy for the budget cuts (that means the flow of your money to the “church” federal contractors which resettle refugees in your towns and cities) and resultant lay-offs due to enhanced security checks for refugees. For new readers, resettlement contractors are paid by the head—more refugees they resettle more tax dollars they receive.
And, remember it was only earlier this summer when two Iraqis were arrested in nearby Kentucky on terrorism charges, but reporter Smietana doesn’t mention that. (What! Smietana doesn’t know how to google?).
It’s all just boohoo, refugee agencies don’t have money and Iraqis like this guy (who looks to be at least in his 30s) is stamping his feet and wanting to know when mommy and daddy will get here from Iraq!
From The Tennessean:
When Ahmed Ahmed left his home in Iraq as a refugee in 2008, he hoped his parents and sister would follow him soon.
Three years later, Ahmed, former translator for Iraq’s ministry of defense, is living in Nashville, and they are still in Baghdad.
“The wait is killing me,” Ahmed said.
The number of refugees being resettled in Nashville has slowed dramatically because of federal regulations enacted this year. The regulations are designed to weed out refugees who might pose a security risk, but they’ve left refugees like Ahmed waiting to reunite with family. And they’ve left charities that resettle refugees with six-figure budget deficits.
The Nashville office of World Relief, a Christian nonprofit, had expected to resettle about 550 refugees from Iraq, Bhutan, Myanmar and other countries this year. The slowdown has reduced that figure to about 430.
Since the charity receives government funding for each refugee, that has meant about $105,000 in budget cuts, said Nathan Kinser, director of World Relief’s Nashville office.
The charity made the budget cuts by not replacing employees who resigned.
[…..]
Catholic Charities in Nashville has seen a similar slowdown. It had hoped to resettle about 600 refugees. But its numbers are off by about 30 percent this year, said Kellye Branson, director of Refugee Services for Catholic Charities of Tennessee Inc., prompting budget cuts of about $125,000 and some layoffs.
Readers, go have a look at Catholic Charities of Tennessee’s Form 990 for 2010. They had an income of $13,245,078 (yes millions of dollars) and $10,300,875 (yes, over $10 million came from taxpayer funding). That amounts to 78% of their annual budget is paid by you! So they are whining about losing $125,000 dollars in funding this year—so if my math is correct that amounts to a lose of less than 1% of their government-funded support!
World Relief in Nashville must be funded through the national World Relief headquarters in Maryland where the organization gets $32,701,335 ($32 MILLION DOLLARS FROM TAXPAYERS) and its CEO, Sammy Mah, is paid $323,302 in annual salary and benefits (LOL! Doing well by doing good!) By the way, its highest paid contractor (for services) is $772,543 to something called True Sense Marketing (must be a PR firm). See their most recent Form 990 here. And, they are whining about losing $105,000 in funding. Maybe Sammy and other 6-figure employees could chip in a little of their money—you know redistribute the wealth to the poor and suffering refugees like Ahmed!
So we are told that Ahmed, who had been working as a translator for the Iraqi defense department (and has his daughter here with him) doesn’t “understand” why it’s taking so long? Come on Smietana, who do you think you are talking to with this silly reporting?
Ahmed said he doesn’t understand why the refugee resettlement process is taking so long. He just wants to see the rest of his family.
“I need to see my mom and dad,” he said.
Want to learn more about Iraqi refugees, see our previous 503 posts on them here.