The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (aka HIAS), as if on cue, sent out an appeal this week to their followers to pressure their governors to support refugee resettlement via a letter to the President.
We just reported two days ago about how the Trump Executive Order , that ostensibly provides for local input in the decision-making process of where to place refugees (decisions right now are made by the US State Department in conjunction with the nine federal refugee contractors), will do almost nothing and is already serving as another means for the contractors to bash Trump.
The governor of Pennsylvania, where HIAS is a lead resettlement agency, has already fired off his letter to the President. No surprise that he says PA welcomes more refugees. See where else HIAS has affiliates, here.
Building on that success, HIAS is now urging its followers to pressure other governors.
Here is what they say in an e-mail yesterday:
Dear friend,
Ask your Governor to to Stand Up for Refugees
On September 26, the White House issued an Executive Order that, for the first time, allows states and municipalities to veto refugee resettlement in their communities. This order, the latest in a series of attempts to dismantle the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, is in effect a state-by-state, city-by-city refugee ban.
Refugee resettlement is lucrative work. As Senior VP at HIAS, Nezer in 2018, according to HIAS Form990, had a compensation package that included $183,498 in salary and an additional $68,836 in related compensation. If this were a truly private organization, salaries would be none of our business, but as a quasi-government organization that received over $20 million from taxpayers that same year, it becomes our business.
Call your Governor now to urge them to continue welcoming refugees to your state.
If the Executive Order goes into effect, it could drastically reduce — or entirely stop — the resettlement of refugees in your community. We need the help of HIAS supporters in every state to make sure that refugees continue to be welcomed to our country.
While the administration is still working out how this order will be implemented, we expect that it will create chaos and confusion about where refugees can be resettled.
[Note how they are helping create chaos by urging governors, ahead of any formal process being put in place to support a continuous flow of paying refugee clients to American towns and cities.—ed]
Already a number of Governors have communicated that they will continue to support refugee resettlement in their states. We need to let all Governors know where the Jewish community stands on resettlement and work together to ensure our states publicly declare welcome for refugees.
Call your Governor now and ask them to take a stand by declaring their support for refugee resettlement in your state.
Thank you for taking action,
Melanie Nezer
Vice President,
Public Affairs
P.S. We recently started using a new system to make calling your elected official simple and effective. All you need to do is click the link in this email and pick up the phone!
The refugee industry is organized and well-funded. I’ll have more to say about HIAS’s IRS Form 990s in a few days, but check out their system to make it even easier for their followers to quickly fire off a phone call to their governors.
Those of you concerned about your state and community (whether taxpayers can afford more impoverished people and the societal upheaval that comes with them) have no such system to make your voices heard on the issue of refugee resettlement and the unfairness of the whole placement system.
Frankly, no major immigration-control group has made refugee resettlement a priority.
