I am going away for a few days so this is going to be a quick post.
Although we try not to get too far off track from refugee issues into the broader immigration reform issue, this story got my attention because it involves the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society one of the top ten federal contractors for refugee resettlement.
A coalition of Jewish community leaders is urging the reform of immigration policy before Passover begins on April 8.
Called “Progress by Pesach,” the campaign began with a Jan. 29 conference call to members of the Jewish media chaired by the president of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Gideon Aronoff of South Orange.
Aronoff went on to say:
“We are calling upon President Obama and Congress to make immigration reform a top priority,” Aronoff said. “For too long, our government has relied primarily on enforcement, but immigration raids only cause suffering for immigrants and communities and do nothing to solve the underlying problem of immigration.”
Not all Jews support these groups.
But Stephen Steinlight, senior policy analyst at Center for Immigration Policy, disagreed strongly with those aims. Steinlight, a frequent critic of immigration policies promoted by the major Jewish policy groups, did not take part in the telephone conference.
“There is a gigantic chasm between those who purport to speak in the name of Jews and what real Jews think,” he told NJJN. Those promoting immigration reform “are dead wrong on this issue, and they do not represent Jews. It is an outrage that they claim to. Real Jews are horrified by the positions taken by Jewish defense agencies.”
I’m wondering if the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, that receives federal grant monies, is using any of those funds for lobbying efforts on immigration reform. We keep hearing stories that the resettlement agencies (volags) are not adequately caring for refugees which should be taking priority over political activities.
It’s just like the issue now where taxpayers have every right to complain about practices of big businesses that took taxpayer funds in the bailout—once a group or business takes government (our) money it becomes everyone’s business how it is spent.