What do I mean by that?
I mean that because federal resettlement contractor, World Relief (National Association of Evangelicals), decided to target that town, of all places, we have made an enormous leap in our understanding of how the secretive UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions and Resettlement program operates.
Additionally we are gaining a model for citizen involvement and a blueprint for what needs to happen going forward.
Spartanburg also ties in to the much larger issue in Washington right now—-should we do what the UN wants and admit 65,000 Syrians to the US in the next year or so? World Relief is on record with a resounding—YES!
And, to top it all off, since Spartanburg happens to fall in the district of the chairman of the subcommittee responsible for the US Refugee Program, we hold out hope that oversight hearings will be scheduled soon to begin to review a program that has literally become a multi-billion dollar a year industry that is way too large and way too secretive.
Spartanburg has it all!
I think we will look back at this point in time with Spartanburg as the point where the history of refugee resettlement in America is changed forever. I say that because there is a sea change occurring before our eyes as the public is awakening to the problems with out-of-control-immigration of every kind.
(For background see our original post with links for updates.)
Spartanburg has the most important element when a town first gets word that it has been selected by an unelected body—a resettlement contractor like World Relief—to ‘welcome’ third worlders to town. It has an energized and active grassroots citizenry willing to demand answers and not shrink from the task when the ‘religious’ Left begins hurling accusations that anyone asking questions is automatically mean-spirited or downright racist.
One of those leading voices in Spartanburg is Dr. Christina Jeffrey who penned an excellent letter to the editor over the weekend in response to a scurrilous attack on Rep. Trey Gowdy. The letter writer, She D’Ambrosio, said this about the Congressman:
Wish I had a job that I could waste time and taxpayer dollars on useless crap.
Dr. Jeffrey responded with this (emphasis is mine):
I read with dismay a GoUpstate.com comment, reprinted in the May 21 Herald-Journal, attacking Congressman Trey Gowdy for wasting time/money investigating a refugee program. The writer’s complaint showed a complete misunderstanding of our federal system.
However, since I first asked our congressman to look into the matter of Syrians possibly being welcomed into Spartanburg County, maybe she should blame me. A March 9 Herald-Journal article mentioned Syrians as one group that might resettle here. The State Department reports that 92 percent of Syrian refugees are Muslim (www.wrapsnet.org/Reports/InteractiveReporting/tabid/393/Default.aspx). (It has since been reported that no Syrians will be among these refugees.)
Gowdy is the ideal official to look into the Refugee Resettlement Program (RRP); not only is he our congressman, he is chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security and responsible for overseeing refugee programs.
Because Secretary of State John Kerry insists that much of the information relative to the RRP is “proprietary,” aka secret, the Gowdy committee will need to hold hearings to get answers. This will take a long time.
There is more read it all.
Lesson to our readers: Keep hounding them for answers! You have every right to know what is being planned for your town!
World Relief’s own documents indicate they have plans to resettle Syrians to Spartanburg
Do they expect us to believe that they (World Relief) would go on record with the US Senate as one of six supposedly religious government contractors asking for 65,000 Syrians to be resettled very soon and at the same time say that none would go to Spartanburg?
We have the FY2015 Spartanburg ABSTRACT that World Relief submitted to Washington in its quest for funding and it specifically states that refugees would be resettled in Spartanburg from: Burma, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Iraq, Sudan and Syria.
The Abstract tells how many refugees, and from where, your town can accommodate, and what amenities your town has to offer the refugees.
All of you should continue to try to get copies of the Abstract for your town. (See list of local contractors near you).
Based on feedback we are getting from those who have asked, citizens are being told they can’t have them and in some cases the contractor is playing dumb and pretending that they don’t know what the caller is looking for. We think the word has gone out nationally to keep this important information from you.
If you continue to be rebuffed, ask your Congressman or US Senators to get it for you!
Our goal going forward must be to demand that Congress stop the secrecy and require that these documents about your town be public information!
If you haven’t called Rep. Trey Gowdy yet to ask him to hold hearings, please do so. If you have already called, do it again!
About the photo and World Relief’s finances: I checked a recent Form990 for World Relief and learned that they received gifts, grants and contributions for that year in the amount of $54,777,404. $41,161,003 was from government grants. They could not exist without that 75% in taxpayer funding they receive. Their salaries are not as outrageous as other contractors, one in particular, David Miliband, the CEO of the International Rescue Committee pulls down an annual salary of nearly a half a million dollars to run a charity!
Endnote: Is your church, as a partner to World Relief, supporting the importation of 65,000 Syrians to America right now? Go here to have a look!