In an interview with Sky News, the American actress condemned what she called the failure of the international community to intervene effectively in recent crises in the Middle East and Nigeria.
[…..]
Asked by Sky News presenter Anna Jones if Britain and other countries should take in more refugees, Jolie replied: “Yes.”
But she added that the international community’s current approach to such a crisis is “broken”.
[…..]
Her call for action has been welcomed by The Refugee Council – a UK charity that works with refugees.
[…..]
Jolie lamented what she called the increasing inability of the international community to solve crises like the recent kidnapping of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by extremist group Boko Haram.
However, she admitted she could offer no immediate solution herself.
“I do lie awake at night like most people wondering… I cannot get my head around all of the horrors in the world today,” she said.
Are you laying awake at night troubled by the world? It seems clear to me…..
…. for the Syrian civil war—let them fight it out themselves and then the Syrians who ran for cover should return. Then there is only one solution for Islamic terrorist groups like Boko Haram, wipe them out swiftly and completely, but no African or Western country has the testicular fortitude to do it.
The Lutheran church has all the right in the world to lobby Congress for whatever it wants, but what is so infuriating about this news release is that we know that US taxpayers foot almost the entire budget of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) and thus we pay for their “advocacy.”
LIRS headquarters near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. They need taxpayer $$$ to keep it all going!
Here is what we reported a year ago when LIRS was lobbying for the Gang of Eight amnesty bill. LIRS budget:
Have a look at a recent Form 990 for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, page 9. They had income in that year of $31,653,748 and, of that, you, the taxpayers of America, gave them $30,376,568. Their CEO makes $204,186 in salary and benefits. Where is the ACLU? No separation of church and state here! The church is the state!
Here (and below) is their entire press release yesterday (emphasis is mine).
I find it unspeakably shameful that they should use your tax dollars and the refugees themselves to lobby the federal government for more money and more refugees (LIRS is paid by the head for each refugee they resettle).
What happened to private Christian charity?
World Refugee Day Academy to be Held in Baltimore Event will convene over 50 former refugees
BALTIMORE, May 23, 2014 /NEWS.GNOM.ES/ – As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) will host World Refugee Day Academy, a three-day event for former refugees focusing on building advocacy, community organizing, and leadership skills. The event will take place June 18-20, 2014 in Baltimore and Washington, DC.
Fifty-one participants, including two training facilitators who are also former refugees, were selected from a pool of applicants with demonstrated leadership experience, strong ties to their local communities, and a desire to mobilize in support of pro-refugee policy. The participants hail from 27 different states and represent 18 nationalities of origin. Each individual’s inspiring story of overcoming hardship to become a community leader illustrates the courage and perseverance of former refugees. The Academy schedule is as follows:
~Wednesday, June 18th: Academy participants will take part in advocacy training on issues impacting refugee communities and will prepare for visits with elected officials on Capitol Hill.
~Thursday, June 19th: Participants will travel to Washington, DC to meet with Senators, members of the House and their staffers in an effort to share their personal stories in support of pro-refugee legislation.
~Friday, June 20th: Agenda will focus on developing essential skills for community organizing and leadership. Participants will work together to plan year-long initiatives for their local communities. After they return home, the network of World Refugee Day Academy participants will serve as a support system and resource for the work of each leader in his or her community.
For more information about LIRS or World Refugee Day Academy, please contact Folabi Olagbaju at 202-626-7931. Media interested in attending Capitol Hill meetings on June 19th may contact Miji Bell, 410-230-2841.
Founded in 1939, LIRS is nationally recognized for advocating for and with refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, immigrants in detention, families fractured by migration and other vulnerable populations, and for serving migrants through 60 grassroots legal and social service partners across the United States. Celebrating 75 years of service and advocacy this year, LIRS has helped more than 500,000 migrants and refugees rebuild their lives in America.
Press Contact: Miji Bell
410-230-2841, mbell@lirs.org
There are a few things you can do:
If you are a Lutheran and think this stinks, let church leaders know. Tell LIRS too what you think. Then tell your elected officials how you feel and ask for oversight hearings to begin to reform this out-of-control federally-funded program.
To counter LIRS propaganda campaign, it is even more important for you to send comments to the US State Department by May 29thand send those comments to your elected officials in Washington next week and throughout early June.
Turns out he was wanted for war crimes in his native country and another Ethiopian recognized him in Denver** and reported him to authorities. So much for the much bally-hood security screening!
Kefelgn Alemu Worku
Here is the latest news from AP at the Washington Times (Hat tip: Robin):
DENVER (AP) – An Ethiopian jail guard accused of torturing and killing dozens of people during government-sponsored violence in the 1970s was sentenced Friday to 22 years in prison for immigration crimes by a federal judge who said the U.S. cannot become a refuge for human-rights violators.
Defendant Kefelgn Alemu Worku (kah-FEH’-lun ah-LEE’-moo WER’-koo) had lived quietly in the Denver area for eight years until 2011, when another Ethiopian recognized and confronted him outside a cafe with the words, “I think I know you,” before alerting authorities.
Worku was convicted last year of assuming another man’s identity and lying on U.S. immigration forms by denying that he committed acts of political persecution.
Worku is just one of many “refugees” with crimes to hide that we have admitted to the US and reported about on these pages. We learn about them when taxpayers foot the bill for an expensive trial! So, I guess better late than never, the judge wants to send a message:
“The risk that this country becomes regarded as a safe haven for violators of human rights is such that the maximum sentence is required,”U.S. District Judge John L. Kane said during sentencing, adding there was undeniable evidence that Worku had a role in war crimes. “The relatively harmless lifestyle he has had in the United States does not change the character flaw of psychopathy.”
Will the “kids” be prosecuted for the fraud as well?
We wrote about Worku’s conviction, here, in 2013 and this is what we said at the outset:
I searched our thousands of posts and voila, I knew I recognized the name, we first reported on Worku here in 2012. It is really worth visiting that post to see how complex a fraud was perpetrated on the US State Department. Worku didn’t just claim (in isolation) to be someone else, but “kids” in America (not his kids) actually helped perpetrate the scam and allowed him to assume the identity of their ailing father. He came to the US through ‘family’ reunification.***
Ethiopians already here in the US as refugees claimed he was their father. Are those liars going to be prosecuted or deported?
***In 2008, the State Department was shocked to discover that the family reunification program was so riddled with fraud that tens of thousands of Africans got into the US by lying! The program was closed for years, here, but is now up and running again!
This is a story I missed last Friday while away. Readers (thank you) have been sending me links for days of other recent news accounts of the boom in illegal alien kids coming across the border alone. They are officially known as unaccompanied minorsand come under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. It is a topic we have discussed here on innumerable occasions. (click here)
What really frosted me about this story is that the “humanitarians” act like they have no idea why the kids are coming in such great numbers when there have been so many stories about the dreamers! coming now in anticipation of amnesty before Obama leaves office!
Record-breaking numbers of children and teenagers caught in the U.S. illegally and alone have overwhelmed the federal government’s detention network, prompting officials to start housing up to 1,000 on a San Antonio Air Force base.
Kenneth Wolfe, an Office of Refugee Resettlement spokesman, said Friday that the Department of Defense has agreed to start temporarily housing children at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland starting on Sunday.
Resettlement agency officials used the base temporarily as an emergency shelter once before, in the spring of 2012, when the numbers of children caught crossing the border jumped sharply, leaving the federal government scrambling to find adequate bed space.
Since then, their numbers have continued to grow exponentially, driven by what advocates are calling a “humanitarian crisis” in Central and South America. Some 60,000 unaccompanied children and teens are expected this year – up from about 6,560 in 2011, according to the agency.
Give me a break! Stumped academics!
The exact cause of the influx has stumped academics, government officials and advocates. They describe a “perfect storm” of factors: lack of opportunity at home; family ties in the U.S. pulling them north; and the overriding factor – the rise of violent drug cartels and gangs in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
And, of course, no mention of the federal contracts to resettlement contractors (the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services) to help take care of the youngsters (most are older teens of course).
So, what has been happening to the “kids” who have turned 18 in the care of contractors in recent years? They have simply been released into America. Remember “George” in Galveston!
They are officially called remittances and have made the news lately, here, because American banks are increasingly refusing to send money to Somalia fearing it will end up in the hands of terrorists.
Rep. Keith Ellison (right), with Somali president, wants to keep the “hawalas” hopping and the money flowing. http://www.twincities.com/ci_22619932/minnesota-rep-keith-ellison-arrives-mogadishu
The Pew Research Center earlier this year calculated that approximately $123,273,000,000 is sent out of the US every year. Hat tip: Jim.
The first five receiving countries in descending order are: Mexico, China, India, Philippines, and Nigeria. By the way, number 9 is El Salvador.
We’ve written about El Salvador previously in relation to remittances because the Salvadorans’ legal right to be in the US and work is continually renewed in the Temporary Protected Statusprogram. Even George Bush renewed their status here (again and again) and said we needed to continue to prop up the economy back home through remittances.
One of the major arguments of the open borders crowd is that immigrants work and fuel our economy, or is it the economy back home that they are fueling?
Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota has been the leader in charge of making sure money flows to Somalia, here. It is estimated that $120 million goes to Somalia from the US every year, but note that Pew has no idea of what the real number is.
