Day: August 26, 2013

US Catholic Bishops begin massive lobbying campaign for amnesty

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a good article at Breitbart, but like most other news outlets they assume that the Catholic Church’s campaign for amnesty is being driven by its desire to add Hispanics to its dwindling flocks (and to show that they are good Christians), but few ever look at the fact that the Bishops are being funded by massive amounts of taxpayer dollars and the so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that passed the Senate will give them gobs of more money!

Right now the Bishops are over 98% funded by tax dollars* and they are being paid to get refugees and asylees hooked up with social services.  S. 744 contains a slush fund for the Bishops and others of the religious Left to do that same work for the newly legalized—help them do their paperwork, find jobs, find welfare, sign them up for Obamacare, and supposedly get them English lessons.

I’m a fallen-away Catholic and the main reason is this:  I want no politics mixed with my religious worship, and the Church will have to really make sure they get the Hispanics because hearing a Leftwing political message (as is planned for September 8th) from the pulpit will only serve to drive more conservative-minded people from the Church.

Kevin Appleby, USCCB lobbyist pushing amnesty for money!

Breitbart (hat tip: Cathy):

If you attend Mass on September 8th, it is likely the priest’s homily will be less about spiritual matters and more about the political imperative of passing an amnesty law for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. Last week, the Catholic Church announced a massive, coordinated effort to press Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship. Catholics make up the largest single religious group in Congress.

“We want to try to pull out all the stops,” Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the New York Times. Appleby said the immigration issue was at a now-or-never moment. “They have to hear the message that we want this done, and if you’re not successful during the summer, you’re not going to win by the end of the year.”

The Church is planning advertising, phone calls and marches targeting 60 Catholic House Republicans. Over 130 members of the House are Catholic, including Speaker John Boehner.

The Bishops are working harder on amnesty then on Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate and abortion!

The Church’s effort in support of amnesty seems broader and more coordinated than its actions against an ObamaCare mandate requiring coverage of contraception. In recent years, the Church has been more vocal in its criticism of abortion, but even that seems muted in comparison with current plans on immigration reform.

The Bishop’s lobbyist Appleby (Director of Migration Policy) will be pimping for amnesty and giving out marching orders in Minneapolis on September 4th.  If you live in the area you might want to drop in on this meeting.   After all, you help pay Appleby’s salary.

*The USCCB and YOUR money

Now check out the USCCB’s migration fund 2012 annual report (pdf here) and note on page 11 their income and expenses (I’ve rounded the numbers for easier reading).

Out of a revenue stream of $71 million, federal grants and contracts (that is you the taxpayer!) gave them $66 million.  They also received $3.6 million from refugee travel loans.  Your tax dollars pay for refugees to fly to America and then they are supposed to reimburse the government, but in fact a big chunk of whatever the refugee contractor extracts from the poor refugees, the contractor gets to keep—in the Bishops case, in 2012, that is $3.6 million that does not go back to the US Treasury.

Taking Caesar’s money!  98% of their budget is paid by the US taxpayer!

So, the USCCB only received $1.4 million from private sources of money (parishioners), but they paid salaries of $8 million!

The USCCB would wither on the vine and not be able to lobby if you, the taxpayer, weren’t funding them!

So, come on Breitbart!  Let’s go a little deeper with your reporting!

Update:  Here is an old story, but related.  Catholic Charities in Memphis, TN dropped its refugee program in favor of spending more time and money on Hispanics.   They will be well-placed for the newly amnestied!

Italy: A day at the beach watching the illegal aliens come ashore

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Families enjoying the last days of summer in Southern Italy must be wondering how that glorious Arab Spring worked out for them! Photo: UK Telegraph

Imagine this scene as beachgoers on the Italian mainland watched as a boatload of mostly Egyptians landed in front of them and the would-be asylum-seekers scampered ashore and into the hills.

Amazing that it’s been 40 years since French writer Jean Raspail envisioned the invasion of Europe by the Third World in his dark novel The Camp of the Saints.   How did he know?

This is the news yesterday from the UK Telegraph:

From her deckchair on a beach in southern Italy, Gina Bova watched with interest as the small, rickety fishing boat was pushed by the waves closer to the shore. It was a windy Saturday afternoon in August, and the beach was packed with holidaying families, picnicking on tubs of home made pasta and fresh figs.

26-year-old “human rights activist” from Rome says if you have a problem with this you are just “racist.”

But suddenly, as the boat hit the shallow sandbank, the passengers sprung overboard and made a dash to the shore, with police in hot pursuit.

“But there were lots more migrants than police,” said Mrs Bova, 63. “The police grabbed a few of them, but most ran up the beach and off into the hills. There wasn’t a lot anyone could do.”

Her feeling of inevitability is one shared by the Italian authorities – and their counterparts across Europe.

Around 1,000 migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa have landed in Italy in the last week alone, and the waves of migrants show no sign of decreasing.

There is more, read it all.

For all of our posts on the invasion of Italy, go here.

Afghan government supposedly trying to keep its people home

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Concerns about the welfare of asylum seekers as they flow out of one of the most violent countries in the world has the Afghan government taking action (we are told!).

Afghan asylum-seekers line up for food in Calais, France

Most impoverished countries want their people to illegally enter first world countries so that they can send remittances back home.  Heck, some countries’ economies (consider El Salvador) would crash if the migrants didn’t send home the moolah! So, we are expected to believe that the Kabul government wants the mostly young men to stay in Afghanistan and be unemployed.

And, then some Muslim countries want to send their Islamic foot soldiers into the West.  In this case, the IOM (using US $$$) probably gave the Afghan government loads of cash to do this “campaign,” but with no real expectation that it will succeed.   (I am so cynical!)

Here is the story from Radio Free Europe:

Afghan authorities have launched a campaign aimed at raising people’s awareness about the risks of taking illegal avenues to a new life abroad.

Afghanistan has earned a reputation as a source of illegal immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, prompting a backlash from some destination countries.

With nearly 2.6 million refugees in more than 80 countries, Afghanistan was the leading country of origin for refugees in 2012. And as the end-of-2014 withdrawal date for NATO troops nears, concerns have risen that the exodus of Afghans will only increase.

“Many Afghans who consider seeking asylum abroad have little knowledge of the dangers involved,” says Siddiq Hazratzai, a spokesperson for the Kabul office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The IOM is teaming up with Afghanistan’s Refugee and Repatriation Ministry, Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, and the United Nations Children’s Fund to carry out the three-month awareness campaign in all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

“The campaign aims at providing people with a wide range of relevant information, such as tightened immigration policies of host countries, the risks of falling victim to human traffickers, or treacherous routes to reach destination countries,” Hazratzai says.

State media is expected to play a major role in the campaign. Posters warning people of potential risks will be displayed in Kabul and other large cities.

In villages, authorities have asked influential imams and tribal elders to raise the issue with local residents during mosque sermons and private gatherings. 

Sure they will!  I bet those Imams are telling their flocks to get into the West and spread the word about Allah (al-Hijra).  What are these young men going to do in Afghanistan with no work anyway, just make trouble?

Afghanistan is the source of a quarter of the world’s “refugees.”

According to a recent report by the United Nations, one in four refugees in the world is from Afghanistan.

And get this!  Once again we are lead to believe that abjectly poor people can get this kind of money together to pay a human smuggler!   I don’t know too many working American young men who could “scrape together” this kind of money.  Someone, or some organization is supplying them with this cash!  Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past someone like George Soros or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to supply the foot soldiers with the resources necessary to invade the West!

Potential asylum seekers have been known to pay up to $20,000 to smugglers who organize dangerous journeys to major refugee destinations — Europe, North America, and Australia.

Read it all.