Check out “top posts”in the right hand side bar to see what other readers are finding most interesting. Also, note tag clouds. See our “categories” in the left hand side bar (the ‘where to find information’ category is filled with reports, statistic, documents) and then use oursearch function for specific topics.
We have written 5,689 posts over the last seven years, so you should be able to find something useful by typing a few key words into our search function. For example, the hot topic these days include ‘unaccompanied minors,’ or ‘Syrian refugees.’ Don’t type in ‘Somali refugees’ without another key word unless you have all weekend to read!
Thanks and be back on Monday!
Addendum: Almost forgot! Since we moderate comments, those won’t be posted until I come back.
And, we are told that Lansing has been very “welcoming” to refugees in the past.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement continues its site shopping…..
The children are mostly teenaged boys. Photos: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/06/05/Leaked-Images-Reveal-Children-Warehoused-in-Crowded-US-Cells-Border-Patrol-Overwhelmed
Note it’s the Lutherans again here! (Remember they are contracted by the feds to serve the kids!).
So long as they are not Mexican or Canadian, unaccompanied children who enter the U.S. illegally can be held in custody by the federal government for up to 72 hours. After that, they are transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, where they are then placed in temporary shelters where they await foster care, a family member or a relative who can “claim” them or deportation.
Michigan houses two of the nation’s 22 shelter programs for unaccompanied refugee minors: Lutheran Social Services in Lansing and Bethany Christian Services in Grand Rapids. [Bethany is the agency that got lucky and had the convicted murderer as a client, here.—ed]
Bates said that because Michigan plays a large role in offering shelter programs, the influx of children at the nation’s southwest border will be felt here as well.
“A crisis like this strips resources from social services,” he said. How much Michigan will be affected, however, is unknown — officials have been guarded at best in discussing the matter.
The feds asked the Lutherans to not say a word to the media!
On Friday, Michigan United and Michigan Immigrant Right Center hosted an emergency conference call to coordinate an advocacy response about “the emerging issues for immigrant children,” but it was closed to the media.
Representatives from Lutheran Social Services of Michigan and Bethany Christian Services said they were unable to release data on unaccompanied minor children they house or comment on the Central American surge of children without authorization.
“The federal government has asked us to not talk about the increase in numbers or the humanitarian crisis at the border,” said Diane Baird, program manager of Lutheran Social Services.
“Historically, Lansing and the mid- Michigan area have been very welcoming,” she said.
See Lutherans lobbying for the “unaccompanied minors” here.
I would have some respect for the Catholic Bishops if with each of their statements like this onethey publish a disclaimer along with it.
The disclaimer would go something like this: It should be noted that the largest share of the money we use for helping refugees and the “children” coming across the border comes from the federal government.
Here is their annual report for 2012. Out of a revenue stream of $71 million they got $69.6 million from US taxpayers (numbers are rounded, reference to travel loan fees is your money too).
Bishop Elizondo leading a pack of priests on the border: they are all refugees now! http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/01/catholic-leaders-push-immigration-reform/7164359/
Children crossing border should be seen as refugees fleeing persecution
WASHINGTON–On World Refugee Day, celebrated June 20, Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, auxiliary bishop of Seattle, and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, called upon the U.S. government to do more to assist vulnerable Syrian refugees in the Middle East and to protect the rights of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The Syrian refugee crisis in the Middle East has reached a point of humanitarian disaster,” said Bishop Elizondo. “Although the United States has provided overseas support to these refugees, other forms of relief, including possible resettlement of the most vulnerable, should be seriously considered.” The United States has resettled a total of 42 refugees this year, compared to a Syrian refugee population of over two million persons.
Bishop Elizondo also talked about the current migration of children from Central America as a refugee situation. As many as 47,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since the beginning of the year in order to escape violence in their home countries.
“These children are indeed fleeing for their lives and must be looked at through a protection lens, not through an enforcement lens,” said Bishop Elizondo. “We must not send them back if they have valid protection claims.
The USCCB and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are two leading federal contractors retained by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to take care of the illegal alien children. Refugees and illegal alien kids are “clients” of the contractors. So why don’t they ever tell the public that!
Glen Beck needs to get his facts straight. It is not Christian charity when the ‘church’ is paid by the taxpayers to do charitable work.
Glen Beck, get your facts straight!
The other day I heard Glen Beck suggest that the charity affiliated with his company should help take care of the illegal kids (unaccompanied minors).
His audience went berserk and many told him that was the final straw with their support for Beck’s charity and his show.
One example Beck used to demonstrate his point of view—that Christian charity dictates that we care for these kids—was a Catholic Church in Texas taking in the illegals. Glen was praising the parishioners.
I think Beck, like most of the general public, has no clue about the millions of tax payer dollars being doled out to ‘churches’ to take care of the so-called “refugees.”
Keep it up Bishops! Call the illegal alien teenagers “refugees” and you do more to tarnish the positive image the word “refugee” had enjoyed for decades than anything the “anti-refugee resettlement backlashers”could ever do!
See our extensive (and growing daily!) archive on the so-called “unaccompanied minors” crisis by clicking here. It extends back several years.
I’m away for a few day to take care of some family business and will have little or no access to the internet.
