Category: Nashville

Tennessee files suit against federal government over cost to state of refugee program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a  long time coming, but yesterday, the State of Tennessee filed its Tenth Amendment case against the US Department of State and the Department of Health and Human Services over the issue of cost-shifting of the US Refugee Admissions Program to the states.

Readers, this is big news!

Here is Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart yesterday (I see that Drudge featured the story last night and Fox News has picked it up as well):

The Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Tennessee General Assembly and the State of Tennessee in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee on Monday challenging the federal refugee resettlement program for violating the state’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit places Tennessee at the center of the national debate concerning the operation of the federal refugee resettlement program.

President Trump will be holding a rally in Nashville on Wednesday to garner public support for his agenda. His revised Executive Order 13780 temporarily halting the federal refugee resettlement program and temporarily banning travel from six Middle Eastern countries goes into effect on Thursday.

[….]

The Refugee Act specified that 100 percent of each state’s cost of Medicaid and cash welfare benefits provided to each resettled refugee during their first 36 months in the United State would be reimbursed to each state by the federal government. However, within five years of having created the federal program, Congress failed to appropriate sufficient funding and instead, costs of the federal program began shifting to state governments.

Within ten years of passing the Refugee Act, the federal government eliminated all reimbursement of state costs, a huge financial cost to the states that was, in effect, yet another unfunded federal mandate.

[….]

The lawsuit seeks to define Tennessee’s rights in light of the forced expenditure of state funds in support of a federal program from which the state has formally withdrawn.

Continue here and see below the full text of the press release from the Thomas More Law Center.

For all of you in states that have withdrawn from the program***, you must push your governor and legislators to join this case.

If your state has not withdrawn and is willing to sue on states’ rights grounds, this is the direction you should be following: withdraw and then sue when the feds assign a non-profit to run the program!

To further your understanding, here (and below) is the full press release from the Thomas More Law Center, yesterday:

First in the Nation — Tennessee Files Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality of the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, today filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the State of Tennessee, the Tennessee General Assembly, and two State legislators, challenging the constitutionality of the federal refugee resettlement program as a violation of the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the principles of State sovereignty.

Defendants in the lawsuit include the U.S Departments of State and Health and Human Services, and their respective Secretaries.

Assisting the Thomas More Law Center, pro bono, is attorney B. Tyler Brooks with the law firm of Millberg Gordon Stewart PLLC located in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, noted, “Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts has observed, ‘The States are separate and independent sovereigns. Sometimes they have to act like it.’ We intend to follow that advice in our lawsuit on behalf of the State of Tennessee and its citizens. We are asking the Court to stop the bleeding out of millions of Tennessee taxpayer dollars each year to fund a federal program from which the State officially withdrew in 2007.”

Thompson added, “Although there are compelling policy reasons to dismantle the existing refugee resettlement program in favor of resettling refugees in Middle East safe- zones as President Trump has suggested, this lawsuit focuses solely on the unconstitutional way the federal program is currently operating in the State of Tennessee.”

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. The purpose of the lawsuit is not to inflict harm on refugees, but to preserve the balanced constitutional relationship between the federal government and the States. It seeks a court declaration that the federal government has violated the Tenth Amendment and an order permanently enjoining the federal government from forcing the State of Tennessee to pay money out of its treasury to finance the federal refugee resettlement program.

The Tennessee General Assembly, by overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate, passed Senate Joint Resolution 467 (“SJR 467”) during the 2016 legislative session, which authorized legal action to stop the federal government from unconstitutionally commandeering State funds to finance the federal refugee resettlement program.

State Senator John Stevens and State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver are the two legislators who joined the lawsuit as individual plaintiffs. Senator Stevens is First Vice-Chair of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance, Ways and Means, which is responsible for all measures relating to taxes and oversight of public monies in the State’s treasury. Representative Terri Lynn Weaver is the Chairman of the House Transportation Subcommittee which is charged with oversight of the budget relating to transportation.

Senator Stevens stated, “Through federal economic dragooning of our State’s budget, past Presidents and Congresses have quieted my vote and thereby my constituents’ voices. President Trump through executive action has reversed the overreaches of the Obama Administration in numerous ways. I trust President Trump in this regard. However, he needs our help.”

Continued Stevens, “The Constitution does not allow the Federal Government to force me as the elected representative of the 24th Senate District to implement federal programs while they sit in Washington insulated from the consequences.”

Representative Weaver, who played an instrumental role in mobilizing legislative support for passage of SJR 467, commented, “Of all the legislation that I have worked on, this by far is the most important. The only way we can get back to our constitutional beginnings and the intent birthed by our Founding Fathers is to go and take it back. We are looking forward to linking arms with the Thomas More Law Center for the long haul to regain sovereignty for our great State.”

Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, another strong advocate for the lawsuit, emphasized the point that the lawsuit should not be taken as a criticism of the Trump Administration, “We want to convey to the President that we support his efforts concerning immigration and refugee resettlement and believe this suit for declaratory relief is consistent with what would likely be his position regarding states like Tennessee which have withdrawn from the refugee resettlement program but are forced to continue paying costs associated with it.”

When Congress enacted the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980, the explicit intent was to assure full federal reimbursement of the costs for each refugee resettled and participating in benefit programs provided by the states. Eventually, however, federal reimbursements to the states for these benefit programs were reduced and, by 1991, eliminated entirely. The states thereby became responsible for the costs of the programs originally covered by the federal government.

Tennessee officially withdrew from participation in the refugee resettlement program in 2007. However, instead of honoring Tennessee’s decision to withdraw from the program, the federal government merely bypassed the State and appointed Catholic Charities of Tennessee, a private, non-governmental organization to administer the program. Catholic Charities receives revenue based upon the number of refugees it brings into the State.

Currently, Tennessee State revenues that could otherwise be used for State programs to help Tennesseans are, in effect, appropriated by the federal government to support the federal refugee resettlement program. This arrangement displaces Tennessee’s constitutionally mandated funding prerogatives and appropriations process.

The Complaint is here.

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life. It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America. The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

*** These are the so-called Wilson-Fish states that have withdrawn from the program over the years.

In addition to these below, several states have withdrawn in the last year and those include: Texas, Kansas, New Jersey and Maine. Florida is considering it right now.
Texas citizen activists must press your governor. He has already shown a willingness to sue the feds, but this is a much stronger case!
To the right of the state (and one county) is the federal NGO running the program in the state (I don’t know who has been assigned in the 4 recent withdrawals mentioned above):

Alabama: USCCB – Catholic Social Services
Alaska: USCCB – Catholic Social Services
Colorado: Colorado Department of Human Services
Idaho: Janus Inc. (formerly Mountain States Group), Idaho Office for Refugees
Kentucky: USCCB – Catholic Charities of Louisville, Kentucky Office for Refugees
Louisiana: USCCB – Catholic Charities Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana Office for Refugees
Massachusetts: Office for Refugees and Immigrants
Nevada: USCCB – Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada
North Dakota: LIRS – Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota
San Diego County, CA: USCCB – Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego
South Dakota: LIRS – Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota
Tennessee: USCCB – Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Tennessee Office for Refugees
Vermont: USCRI – Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program

 
 

Utah, Tennessee seeing cuts in budget and staff as flow of refugees to US slows; it is their own fault!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Sorry to keep repeating myself, but someone once told me people have to hear things seven times before it sinks in.
One side benefit of the Trump refugee slowdown (but 50,000 isn’t that low! as I explained here) is that the public is learning that the federal refugee contractors have failed to keep their end of the bargain and raise enough private money to sustain their ‘charities’ as the US Treasury spigot is turned off.

miliband-laughing
Will Miliband take a 20% pay cut as his subcontractor is taking in Utah? See here that IRC CEO Miliband makes over a half a million dollars running this ‘charity’? https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/02/12/nyt-allows-wealthy-british-subject-to-lecture-us-about-fundamental-american-values/

The hundreds of contractors and subcontractors are dependent on a per head payment for their job of placing a refugee in your town and getting them signed up for their ‘services’ (ie. welfare).
Thus, once established (as I said here in ‘Ten things’ (#5)), there is no incentive for a contractor to voluntarily slow the flow to your community if it becomes overloaded with needy third worlders.
Here is one of many sob stories, this one from Utah, and from the extremely wealthy International Rescue Committee.
From KUER:

With anticipation of a possible new travel ban from the Trump Administration, refugee resettlement agencies in Utah are bracing for the worst.

The International Rescue Committee is one of Utah’s two refugee resettlement agencies. For every person they help find a new home, they get money from the U.S. State Department. Each year they resettle half the refugees that come to Utah, around 600 people according to their staff. But they’re expecting that number to be nearly cut in half.

“For the IRC this year, we’re estimating about 366 refugees, so that’s a pretty drastic drop,” says Natalie El-Deiry with the International Rescue Committee.

El-Deiry says that drop in numbers would come from the proposed 120-day halt on all refugees to the U.S. and an indefinite block of Syrian refugees, which she says need the most assistance.

El-Deiry says the decrease in clients could translate to about 20 percent less in their budget.

“The economic impact is: when we’re looking at reducing numbers across the board, it’s reducing an organization’s budget and so most organizations that resettle refugees are going to be looking at a budget shortfall,” El-Deiry says.

Continue reading here.

In Tennessee Catholic Charities is cutting staff to make up for its shortfall.

Apparently they too were too lazy to raise private money over the years from all of the humanitarians shouting for more refugees to be admitted to the US. Only Catholic Charities’ leadership is to blame for this evident mismanagement.
From The Tennessean:

Catholic Charities of Tennessee cut 13 jobs this week in its refugee resettlement office due to President Donald Trump’s executive order that drastically reduced the number of refugees coming to the United States this year.

The employees were notified of the layoffs Thursday, said Pam Russo, the executive director of the Nashville-based Catholic Charities of Tennessee. Staff who lost their jobs primarily served incoming refugees, and many of those employees came to the U.S. as refugees themselves, she said. [BTW, this highlights a little known practice of hiring refugees with federal money to help improve stats showing that refugees have employment.—ed]

“These are heartbreaking cuts,” Russo said. “We did not want to make them, but we had no choice because we did not want to put any of the other refugee services at risk.”

The layoffs come on the heels of another Christian-based refugee resettlement agency, World Relief, announcing more than 140 staff layoffs across the country and the closure of five offices, including in Nashville. World Relief also cited the Trump order in its decision.

More here.

Again, these refugee contractors have only themselves to blame for extremely poor leadership/management that had gotten fat on federal dollars and didn’t do enough of the hard work that legitimate charities are expected to do—raise private funds!

Endnote: The prize for Tucker Carlson would be to get IRC CEO, former British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband on his show!
Dear producers, I’ve done your work for you, click here to learn more about David Miliband (Hillary had a crush!). He also gave the IRC’s top prize—Freedom Award—to George Soros!

Tennessee lawsuit challenging refugee program could be filed by end of January, Kentucky may join

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Faithful readers know that this is a long time in coming, but we now see movement with the legal challenge that has the best shot of success in pushing the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program toward reform.

haslam4
Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Haslam fought the legislature on this issue. He welcomes more refugees to the state. Tennessee’s two US Senators (Alexander and Corker) also have done nothing to control expansion of the program in Tennessee.

The case, to be litigated by the Thomas Moore Law Center after the Tennessee legislature voted to sue and the governor agreed to hire them, involves the so-called Wilson-Fish provision that many believe is being used to unlawfully place the refugee program in a non-profit groups’ hands in states where the state government has opted out of the federal program.
In other words, one of the questions to be resolved is can a non-profit group (working with the feds) say how state taxpayer funds are spent, which is essentially what is happening in states that have withdrawn from the program?
States that could join Tennessee are those that recently withdrew including Texas, Maine, New Jersey and Kansas.  The older Wilson-Fish states, in addition to Tennessee and Kentucky, are also possible litigants, depending on the structure of their program, and include: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont.
Here is the news from The Tennessean yesterday:

Tennessee’s lawsuit against the federal government over refugee resettlement could be filed by the end of the month, a proponent of the effort said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, said a team of legal experts was coming to Nashville to discuss the forthcoming lawsuit, which was approved by the legislature last year.

“We will be working on the complaint that we intend to file I hope before the end of the month,” he said, while indicating that there has been interest from some in Kentucky about joining the lawsuit.

Norris said any lawsuit would be filed in the federal court in Nashville or possibly in Washington, D.C.

Tennessee’s lawsuit will be the first of its kind in the nation, given that it will challenge the federal government for noncompliance of the Refugee Act of 1980 based on the 10th Amendment.

[….]

The basis of the lawsuit centers on based on several arguments, including that the federal government has failed to consult with the state on the continued placement of refugees; the cost of administering the refugee resettlement program has been shifted to the state without officials specifically authorizing the appropriation of funds; and that the ongoing placement of refugees is a violation of the 10th Amendment.

Last fall, legislative leaders signed off on the selection of the Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan-based legal group that has taken on several conservative legal causes in recent years.

For our extensive archive on Tennessee, click here.  Go here for all of our reporting on Wilson-Fish states.

Nashville refugee/immigrant conference disrupted by protestors!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Are some starting to understand that an element of the Open Borders movement is really more concerned about cheap labor for global corporations?  That is how I read the message from protestors who stormed the stage in Nashville over the weekend.
For background, you might want to read Leahy’s earlier piece about the conference in general, here.
From Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart:

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Protesters shouting “liberation not integration” stormed the stage at the National Immigrant Integration Conference on Tuesday, disrupting Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) as he was about to deliver a speech to the gathering, eyewitnesses tell Breitbart News.

ryan-gutierrez-fb-640x480
Does Donald Trump know that Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Gutierrez are on the same side!  http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/17/paul-ryans-open-borders-push-luis-gutierrez-exposed-2013-video/

As Breitbart News reported previously, the conference is a gathering of refugee and immigrant advocates meeting to plan opposition to the refugee and immigration policies of President-elect Donald Trump.

A spokesperson for the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), one of the two hosts of the conference, confirmed that Gutierrez’s remarks were disrupted.

[….]

One eyewitness who was present at the conference when the disruption took place offers a more detailed version of the event.

“A group of mostly non-black activists started screaming about black immigrant rights and rushed the stage blocking the speaker [Rep. Gutierrez] with a banner that said ‘What About My Family?,’ ‘Black Immigrants,’ ‘What About Sex Workers, LGBTQ Folk, Muslim Immigrants, Criminalized Immigrants?,’ and ‘Not 1 More Deporation,’” the eyewitness told Breitbart News.

“They [the protesters] accused conference organizers of working with multi-nationals to exploit workers, and they started shouting ‘liberation not integration,’ ” the eyewitness added.

Continue reading here.
In my ideal world I want those promoting refugee resettlement to admit that much of the drive for more refugees to be admitted to the US comes from BIG business looking for legal immigrant workers willing to work for lower wages (which we subsidize with various forms of welfare).
The RAP is not first and foremost about ‘humanitarianism.’  It is about workers and increasing the Democrat voter base. Maybe once that fact is completely out in the open, we could have a fair national debate about the issue!
Business interests (and those making a living admitting refugees) have just very effectively used the bludgeon of name calling (racist!) against anyone who raises the issue.  LOL! That is why it was so amusing to hear that in Nashville some activists on the Far Left have caught on!
Endnote: Learn more about the Left’s control of the language: Integration vs. Assimilation (here).

We need to get rid of slippery REPUBLICAN Senators like Bob Corker (R-TN)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Don’t let letters like this one from Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee (thank God Trump did not choose him as VP) deter you. I’ve been asking all of you to write/call or whatever even if you know your US Senator or Congressmen are losers.
Thanks to a reader for sending this with this comment:

So much for contacting my senators and congressman, there are significant reforms don’t you know which makes everything all right.

Corker has done zip! He is one of the biggest problems we have in the US Senate and here he thinks he can blow you off with throwing the blame onto the Obama administration.  Corker and his fellow Republicans in the Senate hold the purse strings. They could cut off Obama’s funding if they wanted to—they don’t want to!

corker-and-obama
Surely Senator Corker is pressing Obama here on the golf course to slow the flow of mostly Muslim refugees to America!

With this letter, he insults his constituents by assuming you know nothing about refugee resettlement.  The Visa Waiver program has nothing to do with refugee admissions!  And, then he falls back to blame those dastardly Senate Democrats (who are in the minority!) for not getting anything done.
Corker is going to “press the administration!”  How about pressing your own leadership namely Mitch McConnell!
Letter from Senator Corker:

Thank you for taking the time to contact my office with your concerns regarding homeland security and the resettlement of refugees in the United States. Your input is important to me, and I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts.

Like you, I believe there can be no shortcuts when it comes to guaranteeing the safety of the American people, and that protecting American citizens is the most significant responsibility of the United States Senate. In light of recent attacks in the United States and Europe, Congress can and should examine all potential gaps that might allow individuals who pose a security threat to enter our country, including in our refugee and visa programs and at our nation’s border, and resolve these issues in a constructive way to make sure our citizens are protected.

For this reason, I was pleased the Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations law included significant reforms to strengthen the visa waiver program, including prohibiting individuals who have traveled to Iraq, Syria, or countries that are state sponsors of terrorism, or are nationals of those countries, from using the visa waiver program to travel to the United States.

As you may know, I also voted to advance H.R. 4038, the American SAFE Act, which would put new requirements on the refugee vetting process for refugees who are nationals or residents of Iraq or Syria, or have been present in those countries at any point since March 2011, the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. Specifically, the FBI Director would have to certify the refugee vetting process, and refugees from these countries, could only be admitted into the United States after the Secretary of Homeland Security, the FBI Director, and the Director of National Intelligence certify that each refugee does not represent a threat to national security. While there was majority support for proceeding to debate this legislation, unfortunately Senate Democrats blocked it from coming to the floor.

Please know, I understand your concerns about the potential security risks from immigrant visa programs, including the resettlement of refugees in the United States. I will continue to use my position in the United States Senate and on the Foreign Relations Committee to press the administration to demonstrate leadership on this issue and protect Americans from all those who seek to do us harm.

Thank you again for your letter. I hope you continue to share your thoughts with me.

Sincerely,

Bob Corker
United States Senator

Are you getting slippery letters like this one, send them my way and I will publish some (can’t promise to publish all if you send me dozens and dozens!).
And to our reader and all of you getting letters like this.  Write back and tell them their answer is unsatisfactory and you want to know what he/she is going to do right now on this year’s omnibus—tell them you want the funds cut completely for the Refugee Admissions Program because there has never been a satisfactory answer to the security screening issue.  Tell them in fact security screening time has been reduced for Syrians and ask slippery Senators like Corker what he is doing about it!