Lutheran refugee contractor beating the drum in Washington for more $$$

~ Ann Corcoran

This is no surprise, since resettlement contractors like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are given millions of your dollars every year (more than 90% of their funding comes from you!) to bring refugees to your towns, they spend a lot of time pressuring Washington for more moola!
Editor’s update/clarification!  Read carefully! This is a post about the the funding we object to, it is not a post in support of their desire for more of your tax dollars!

Below is what their head-honcho (Linda Hartke) is saying on their website.  Thanks to a reader ‘domstudent11’ for sending it.

Linda Hartke
Linda Hartke: Waaahhhh! We need money for the 100,000 (mostly Muslim) refugees Obama promised for next year.

REDEFINING WELCOME

A blog by Linda Hartke, LIRS President & CEO

Time is Ticking Away to Provide Critical Refugee Funding

August 1, 2016 by

 

The days left on the Congressional calendar are numbered, and yet, funding provisions to respond to the greatest humanitarian crisis of our lifetime have not been allocated.
Congress has from now until September to pass funding bills for Fiscal Year 2017 that ensure critical funding for refugee resettlement. However, the draft text cripples the U.S. Refugee Admissions program and reduces resources for refugees at a time when our commitment to serving uprooted men, women, and children is needed most.
With more displaced people today than ever before, funding for refugees programs cannot afford a spending cut. The United States has signaled commitment to resettle 100,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2017, a mere fraction of the global need, yet the proposed funds would cap refugee admissions at no more than 75,000. At least 25,000 vulnerable refugees will spend another long year without the life-saving protection they deserve.
Furthermore, the funding cut fails to reflect the outpouring of support and welcome for refugees you all have demonstrated across the country. With over 75 years of experience resettling and providing integration support to refugees, we know there is ample community support to help 100,000 refugees rebuild their lives in the United States in FY17.
We need your help to call on appropriators to echo our commitment through robust funding. During the Congressional recess from now until Labor Day, you can take the following actions:

  1. Meet with your Members of Congress in your district (Here’s the how-to toolkit.)
  2. Tweet at your Senator and Representatives:
    “.@SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE, show that #AmericaWelcomes by supporting increased funds to resettle #refugees! #RefugeesWelcome”
  3. Call your Members of Congress using this script:
    “As Congress considers Fiscal Year 2017 funding, I urge Congress to increase funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of State’s Migration and Refugee Assistance account to support refugee assistance that appropriately responds to the global need. As a person of faith, my community welcomes refugees. I urge your office to reflect my commitment to welcome refugees by increase funding for refugee protection and resettlement.”

Don’t allow Congress to let time slip away before they enact sufficient funding for refugees and other vulnerable populations. Call on Congress to be Good Samaritans who support those in need of life-saving protection.

Editor: Our reader suggests you change the words in the appeal to Congress in #3 above and ask your Member of Congress to “decrease” funding instead!

See LIRS most recent available Form 990 here.   In 2014, LIRS had a total revenue of $59 million and $55 million came from government grants (from you!).  Hartke pulled down a comfortable $235,000 salary and five other employees were in 6 digits.
If you want to know if LIRS is resettling refugees where you live, click here, find your state and see the abbreviations in the left hand corner of the entry.  Look for LIRS.
One more thing, although Hartke is whining about being short on funds to resettle 100,000 refugees, remember that the Refugee Council USA (the lobbying consortium for the contractors) is calling for 200,000 next year (which begins Oct. 1, 2016).
And remember that September is crunch month as Obama does his UN gig and sends his final determination (for how many refugees we will take) to Congress.

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Published by Ann Corcoran

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