Month: March 2018

Here we go again! Bishops appeal to Prez on Christian charity grounds, never mention their federal funding

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, they are putting out their first moves for 2019!
I promised long ago to report on the enormous funding the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) receive from the US Treasury every time they make political statements about how the Trump Administration isn’t doing enough for refugees. See one such post here.
I also promised to stop reporting on their millions of taxpayer dollars if they would only start to mention their financial stake in the US Refugee Admissions Program in their public statements.
Here is the latest and of course (again!) no mention of their millions of taxpayer dollars.
From Catholic News Agency:

Washington D.C., Mar 28, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. bishops have voiced concern over the abnormally low levels of refugees admitted to the U.S. under the Trump administration, saying that it puts those fleeing danger at risk, and fails to comply with Christian teaching on welcoming the stranger.

“The current level of refugee arrivals leaves thousands of vulnerable people in harm’s way and searching for protection,” said Bishop Joe Vasquez, speaking as chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee On Migration.

 

Vasquez immigration
The good Bishop never mentions that immigrants=federal funding!

 

The bishops’ March 26 letter was sent to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and to the U.S. State Department.

“As Christians, our concerns for refugees is integral to our life of faith,” the bishops said. “In this spirit, we urge the Administration to renew a bipartisan commitment to resettlement for refugees, including religious minorities.” [I told you here just yesterday that ‘bipartisan’ means the R’s want cheap labor and indeed the USCCB acts as a headhunter for big business.—ed]

[….]

These trends “signify an abdication of our nation’s leadership in humanitarian protection through resettlement and in championing international religious freedom,” the bishops charged.

Here we go again, they cite Jesus. I feel sure Jesus never meant that citizens should be taxed to pay for Christian charity to the poor stranger. 

They cited Jesus’ words from the Gospel of Matthew, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” as well as the Old Testament’s exhortations to care for the stranger.

Ha! Ha! This next bit made me laugh.  I told you just the other day that the political push would soon begin for fiscal year ’19, and right on cue…..
They want 75,000 beginning October 1, 2018.  I thought they would demand 100,000 as their opening bid, so I was wrong.

They called on the Trump administration to admit at least 45,000 refugees in this fiscal year and to issue a presidential determination allowing 75,000 refugees to enter the country next year. They again requested a meeting with Trump to discuss how to address refugee processing. [See the letter to the President, here.—ed]

More here.

Now to the millions the Bishops stand to lose during the Trump presidency (something they never mention)!

A couple of years ago we found an annual report for the Bishops’ Migration Fund, see here, and learned that the fund is 97% funded by the federal government (parishioners put very little into the fund for immigrants and refugees).  We have not found an annual report since that one in 2014 (strange, huh!).
However, here in an audit of the USCCB for 2015 and 2016, we see this (below) on page 14.
(Dear White House, before granting a meeting, be sure the President knows about this!)
 

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DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD!

 
Catholics should consider addressing this issue with your parish priests.
Go here for my complete archive on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
And, Happy Easter! Happy Passover too!

Trump Administration looking to enforce the law: "public charge" requirement coming back!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

To my readers who have asked me about this for years—-asked me what happened to a law already on the books—here is a glimmer of (potential) good news.
welfare office
Needless to say the No Borders Left will go insane, but frankly if the Dems do go on a warpath against the idea that immigrants shouldn’t be sucking up welfare, it will hurt them at the polls in November.
No sensible Republican or Democrat supports the importation of welfare recipients.
From Neil Munro at Breitbart (hat tip Richard @highblueridge):

Homeland defense officials are reviving enforcement of a law that is intended to bar legal migrants who cannot earn a living in the United States.

The proposed regulation would implement the existing law, which bars legal immigrants from imposing a “public charge” on Americans. However, the plan is likely to be bitterly opposed by a loose alliance of business groups and by Democrats, both of whom gain when the federal government provides taxpayer aid to migrants, legal or illegal. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Breitbart News:

The administration is committed to enforcing existing immigration law, which is clearly intended to protect the American taxpayer by ensuring that foreign nationals seeking to enter or remain in the U.S are self-sufficient. Any proposed changes would ensure that the government takes the responsibility of being good stewards of taxpayer funds seriously and adjudicates immigration benefit requests in accordance with the law.

The plan was mentioned in a 2017 work-plan released by DHS, but it was highlighted Wednesday by a report in the Washington Post. The report said:

Immigrants who accept almost any form of welfare or public benefit, even popular tax deductions, could be denied legal U.S. residency under a proposal awaiting approval by the Trump administration, which is seeking to reduce the number of foreigners living in the United States.

The proposal would also require Americans who sponsor migrants to post bonds of up to $10,000, which could be used to repay taxpayers for migrants’ use of federal aid.

The plan must be approved by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and then undergo a months-long public comment and regulatory process before it becomes a large regulation. If adopted, it will replace a 1999 regulation.

Much more here.
If the requirement extended to refugees the entire refugee program would crash and that is because the primary job of the resettlement contractors is to sign incoming refugees up for their ‘services’ (aka welfare).  They also help refugees find those low skilled jobs (slaughterhouse and hotel workers, etc) and show them how to supplement meager wages with welfare.
And, that idea of posting a bond makes me chuckle. 
Imagine this: Catholic Charities, the Lutherans, the Episcopalians and the Jews among the refugee resettlement agencies*** could sponsor refugees and instead of being paid to place them, the non-profit NGO puts up a $10,000 bond for say each family they place with the bond money coming from private charity.
When they have to put their private money where their mouth is, we would find out very quickly that their humanitarian zeal isn’t real!
***These are the nine major federal refugee contractors presently paid millions of tax dollars to resettle refugees. There will never be reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program as long as they collect federal funds and act as community organizing and political agitation groups.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services!  From most recent accounting, here.

 

Harrisonburg, Virginia: Perdue admits that they are hiring locally as refugee arrival numbers 'plummet'

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I saw this story yesterday at WMRA Radio , I figured it was one more of dozens of stories I mentioned here and here recently.  Talking points have obviously gone out to the gullible/biased media about the mean Trump Administration and its plummeting refugee admission numbers. I wasn’t going to bother posting it until I came to the juicy bit near the end.
Forget the humanitarian mumbo-jumbo, refugee resettlement is about finding cheap labor (supported with your tax dollars) for big corporations especially BIG MEAT and BIG CHICKEN!  And, the next time you hear about the bipartisan support for the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program remember the R’s are looking for laborers for their big business pals and Chamber of Commerce lobbyists.
 

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BIG CHICKEN companies like Perdue are being questioned about working conditions in plants around the country.  And, Church World Service brings them more refugee workers! Photo and story:   https://news.vice.com/article/chicken-industry-workers-wear-diapers-because-bosses-allow-no-breaks-ngo-says

 
From WMRA Radio:

But last month, a Perdue spokesman confirmed that refugee applicants to the Bridgewater plant have dwindled significantly, and that the company is filling positions from the local community.

Before I give you the rest of the story, you should know that Harrisonburg is in the heart of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s district.  The Judiciary Committee is responsible for the Refugee Admissions Program. I’d like to know if Perdue is the reason Goodlatte has never made any significant move to reform the refugee program!
Now here is the rest of the boo-hoo story.  At least WMRA Radio tells listeners that Church World Service is being paid by the feds (by you!) for their ‘religious’ charity!

Trump’s Policy Sharply Reduces Refugee Flow to Harrisonburg

Following President Trump’s decision to sharply restrict the number of refugees allowed into the United States, the State Department has informed refugee resettlement offices nationwide to trim operations or even close. One of those offices is in Harrisonburg, which has a long history of refugee resettlement.

Harrisonburg’s general open-mindedness, low cost of living and high employment in industries that don’t demand English, such as food production, have allowed the city to resettle from 175 to 200 refugees every year.

But the feds recently informed some 40 refugee resettlement offices nationwide to cut back their operations, according to Reuters. Twenty are expected to close.

[….]

Church World Service at White House
Church World Service protesting against Donald Trump at White House.   https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/

Jim Hershberger runs the resettlement office for Church World Service in Harrisonburg. Church World Service is one of nine agencies*** nationwide that contracts with the federal government to resettle refugees. He says ten branches of those agencies nationwide have already closed. Although there are no plans for the Harrisonburg office to close as of yet, it hasn’t had a single refugee arrival in two months since mid-February.

[….]

I am worried that we won’t have the money to continue to offer services to refugees like we like to do. [How about doing the hard work of raising PRIVATE money!—-ed]

[….]

Church World Service is funded by the federal government to help recent arrivals find jobs and apartments, and to enroll them in English classes, driving classes, and their children into school.

In fact, according to our most recent accounting, Church World Service is 71% funded out of your taxpayer wallets!
Here it comes! Slaughterhouse workers needed!
WMRA Radio continues…..

The changes are being felt at the poultry plants too. Poultry is a big industry in Rockingham County and long considered a pipeline for immigrants and refugees.

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Perdue’s Kenneth Lambert. It’s a great business model for Perdue. Federally-funded Church World Service finds them workers and the taxpayers subsidize the other needs of refugee workers with food stamps, low income housing, medical care, etc.

Two years ago, the workforce at the Perdue plant in Bridgewater was 42 percent immigrant, according to its Director of Operations Kenneth Lambert.

KENNETH LAMBERT: Our countries are made up of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatamala, Honduras, Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Bosnia, Russia, Kenya and right now we have a couple of people from Uganda.

But last month, a Perdue spokesman confirmed that refugee applicants to the Bridgewater plant have dwindled significantly, and that the company is filling positions from the local community.

No comment from school officials regarding the refugee slowdown.  Gee, I wonder why?

Fewer refugee arrivals may impact local schools as well.

It’s really where the city’s status as a melting pot comes to life. Students in city public schools come from 51 foreign countries and speak more than 56 languages.

Because Harrisonburg High has long been overcrowded, plans are underway for a second high school. But when asked if fewer refugees arrivals have eased the overcrowding, school administrators didn’t want to comment.

More here.
Next up: Catholic Bishops (big business headhunters) whine too!
***These are the nine supposed non-profit groups (LOL! Six are ‘religious charities’) that act as headhunters for big business which welcomes the cheap, compliant labor (refugees can’t go home and don’t know how to complain!).
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services!  From most recent accounting, here.

Burmese refugees jittery about USCIS fraud investigation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It appears that the USCIS is doing something rarely done and that is attempting to find holes in the system that have allowed the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program to chug along for decades with rarely an examination of the fraud that we hear is rampant at processing centers throughout the world.
The suspicion of fraud in the huge Burmese flow to America, processed mostly through the Muslim country of Malaysia, does not surprise me (I’ve talked to sources who know about fraud first hand!).

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Why aren’t we entitled to balanced reporting from Voice of America?

Since FY07 we admitted 166,539 refugees from Burma. The vast majority are Christians and many obediently go to work in meatpacking towns across the country.
Although it should be noted that we have started to bring in more Muslim Rohingya. In Obama’s last two years in office we admitted 3,809, and 3,127 Muslims (some processed through Malaysia) to bring the total to 19,607 since FY07.
Texas, by far, is the number one placement destination.
Here is reporter Victoria Macchi penning a story obviously tilted toward ‘ain’t Trump’s people awful’! 
Voice of America! Shouldn’t we expect more from a media outlet that works FOR the US government!

US Investigation Rattles Resettled Burmese Refugees

WASHINGTON —
When letters from the U.S. government last month summoned more than 1,000 Burmese refugees in the United States for official interviews, chatter spread across the immigrant community: Were the letters real? Did the refugees have to attend? What was the government trying to glean from meeting with refugees who were already in the country, in some cases for years?

The letters — sent by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency that conducts interviews with refugees overseas and vets immigration applications — were real.

Some of the refugees opted to go to the interviews, depending on where they were in the residency or citizenship process. Failing to comply could jeopardize pending immigration applications, according to the letters.

The ultimate goal of the investigation into possible identity fraud — specifically, two refugees entering under the same name — that may go back nearly a decade remains unclear a month later. USCIS will not say whether criminal charges have been or will be filed, and refugee advocates have not reported any such actions.

[….]

Jill Niswander, director of communications and fund development at EMBARC Iowa, a refugee support organization in Des Moines, Iowa, said the USCIS interview requests rattled the Burmese community.

This next bit is when Ms Macchi really shows her bias, and, in so doing, causes me to dismiss VOA as a balanced news source. But, I guess what more can you expect from ‘journalists’ educated at Columbia Univ.  They just can’t help themselves!

The investigation into potential identity fraud cases isn’t the first time the U.S. has investigated its refugee vetting process. It’s rare, and narrow in scope when it does happen. Yet, an internet search of fraud and refugee-vetting turned up a mix of stories, many of which tout the risk of refugees to the country. The subject is a favorite among ultra-conservative, pseudo news sites and xenophobic blogs.

In one, the U.S. temporarily suspended refugee arrivals from East Africa in 2008 after some refugees failed DNA testing to confirm blood relations they claimed in their paperwork.

Somali fraud!
She downplays the incredible degree of fraud uncovered by the State Department in 2008 (in one of the only fraud investigations I know of!) which was first revealed by Miriam Jordan at The Wall Street Journal (not this “xenophobic blog”).  The State Department estimated that at least 20,000 Somalis entered the US fraudulently through family reunification and the whole P-3 program for Somalis and other Africans was closed for more than four years! Ms. Macchi says “temporarily suspended!”  See here.
The fact that there was very little coverage of the Somali cheaters (except at “ultra-conservative, pseudo news sites and xenophobic blogs”) is because the mainstream media and probably VOA never mentioned it because it didn’t fit their narrative!
Not one of the Somali liars was removed from the country that I know of!
Ms. Macchi goes on…..

Though the problem originated on the ground in Malaysia, when refugees were registered with the U.N. system, it remains unclear how the errors occurred — whether there was a system for buying refugee identity cards, or errors in data entry in the rush to register refugees, or if refugees assumed the identities of other refugees in an attempt to get out of a country that was threatening them.

So, aren’t those all legitimate reasons to see if fraud is occurring, and isn’t it about time we uncover the truth! 

My guess is that the fraud is occurring either with the UNHCR or through the International Rescue Committee (one of the nine federal resettlement contractors) that works for the US State Department in Malaysia, see here.
Someone doing the paperwork is being bought off I suspect. Whatever it is, American citizens (paying for it all!) have a right to know!
There is more, but the darn article was jumping around my screen so much I couldn’t stand it another minute.

Refugee lobby in high dudgeon over Trump refugee numbers slump

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Their paying client numbers are very low right now and could hit an all-time low if this trend continues.
I started this post simply wanting to let readers know what the normal sequence is in a given year as the feds move toward the next fiscal year, but then I noticed the press release from the Refugee Council USA-–the lobbying arm of the refugee industry.
I wanted to get the jump on them as we approach the 6-month mark in the refugee admission year of FY18 by telling you what the time table for their action will be.  (Fiscal years begin on October 1 and extend to September 30th, so April first marks the 6 month mark.) So, I’ll do that, then tell you about the press release.

Mary and Eleanor
Ms. Giovagnoli is now the director of the Refugee Council USA the lobbying arm of the refugee industry and on the left is Eleanor Acer of Human Rights First at an earlier event.

And, I said here yesterday, admission numbers are way below where they would normally be at this time of year (that isn’t to say they won’t rebound in the second half of the year because some of that depends on how much cash Congress put in the recent gigantic omnibus).
Abstract prep
At about this time in a normal year, the subcontractors are busy as beavers in hundreds of US towns and cities putting together their ‘Abstracts’ in secrecy.  That is the plan for your community with how many refugees your local agency desires.
Scoping meeting sham
In a normal year the US State Department holds a scoping meeting in about May to basically see how many refugees the contractors want in the upcoming year and where they might come from.  (The State Dept. did not hold such a meeting last year that we know of, and I’m betting the newbies in there don’t even know about it.)
Ostensibly the scoping meeting is to gauge your views too, but in a number of years where we participated and many of you, my readers, sent in comments, it was pretty clear that the State Department did not want to hear about objections to the program.  If anyone is interested in what we said, there are dozens and dozens of posts filed here about what happened in 2012-2016 with those “scoping meetings.”  (See category drop-down for State Department Testimony.)
It would be nice (and fair!) if the State Department reinstated scoping meetings and made them available to all Americans.  Heck, it would be great if they went on the road and held hearings!
Presidential determination for coming year
The Abstract prep and the scoping meetings were (are) lead-ups to August when the President’s people supposedly meet with Congressional committees in the House and Senate to discuss the coming year.  There are supposed to be Congressional hearings (before the submission of the ceiling) at this point, but that never happens.
The President then sends a ‘determination’ letter (and report) to Congress for the new fiscal year which begins October 1.  The President decides what the CEILING will be for the coming fiscal year—how many refugees and from where.  This is a CEILING, A CAP, and is not a goal although the contractors want it to be a goal or target.
I told you yesterday about the myriad stories in the media about “plummeting” numbers.
And, also yesterday, the lobbying arm of the refugee industry—Refugee Council USA sent out a press release to whack the Trump Administration and beg for this year’s 45,000.
Right now, for new readers, the CEILING is 45,000, but at the present rate of entry we will get no where near that (thus the press blast yesterday from RCUSA).

Washington, D.C. – Midway through Fiscal Year 2018, the Trump administration has admitted only a quarter of the 45,000 refugees it pledged to take in, making it highly unlikely that the United States will meets its anticipated admissions goal. Instead, the administration appears to be on track to admit roughly 22,000 refugees, far below any admissions number since the modern refugee program began in 1980. Today, Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) gathered experts to discuss the immediate and long-term implications of this failure.

More here. Mary, Eleanor and others participated.

Trump and Pompeo
Mike Pompeo at the State Department is still a wildcard!

Get ready for the big FY19 push to start at any time 
Although they are still in panic-mode and pushing for the 45,000, this is about the time of year the yammering begins for next year’s numbers.  The contractors shoot really high.
Watch them ask for 100,000 or more (to make up for lost time and lost revenue for them).
Last year, because of Trump’s campaign promises they were pushing for a paltry 75,000.  What will it be this year?  We will be watching!
The Refugee Council USA has an Activist Toolkit that you might benefit from seeing. Click here. It might give you some ideas!

I sure hope that none of this is being paid for with our tax dollars! Congress are you paying attention?

And lastly, I got a chuckle seeing this sample letter (from the toolkit) that refugees are encouraged to send to newspapers:
 
RCUSA sample letter