Lutherans lobby in Washington for amnesty; limited detention of illegal aliens

04/10/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, to top it off—you, the US taxpayer, most likely footed a large portion of the bill!

Take a minute and go to a post we wrote last spring (Don’t break our rice bowls! see their lavish Baltimore office building) about the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (one of the nine major federal refugee contractors***) which was the ring leader of the event in Washington last week. Out of approximately $31.5 million in annual income, $30 million is from government grants and contracts, in other words, from you. Their CEO (photo below) makes over $200,000 in salary and benefits.

Linda Hartke, LIRS CEO: ‘We honor the gifts new Americans bring to the country.’ (and we get paid by US taxpayers to push that line!) http://blog.lirs.org/linda-harke-bio/

I have it from a good source that the average Lutheran in America has no clue about what their leaders are doing.

Here is the story from Religion News Service:

WASHINGTON, DC April. 4, 2014 – 42 Lutheran leaders visited lawmakers Wednesday on Capitol Hill and at the White House, calling for virtuous and compassionate immigration reform. From the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran ministry organizations, they emphasized that as people of faith, they are called to welcome the sojourner and walk alongside migrants and refugees as they rebuild their lives in the United States.

The leaders had face-to-face conversations with more than 20 members of Congress, including House and Senate leadership and members of Congress who are themselves Lutheran. They also met with staff at nearly 70 congressional offices, sharing stories of how our nation’s broken immigration system affects their congregations and communities by creating a culture of fear and leaving children without parents. The meetings were part of the annual Lutheran Immigration Leadership Summit, hosted by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS).

The US has an “unjust immigration system,” they told the White House:

A group of ten leaders also met with the President’s Domestic Policy Council and the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the White House. A letter was delivered to President Obama after the meeting, signed by 37 of the leaders. The letter thanked President Obama for his leadership on immigration reform and for reviewing immigration enforcement. However, it also called on President Obama to “ease the pain caused by unnecessarily high rates of detention and deportation.” They wrote: “we urge you to alleviate the hardships and separation experienced by families caught up in our unjust immigration system.”

Here (and below) is the text of the letter they delivered to the White House. If you are a Lutheran who disagrees with your church leadership for pushing amnesty and advocating for no detention for most illegal migrants, click here to see which leaders of your church signed the letter.

April 2, 2014

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

As people of faith, we pray and call for immigration policies that keep families together, protect individuals forced from their homelands or fleeing persecution, and value the great gift immigrants are to our churches, communities and nation.

On behalf of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and the undersigned leaders from the Lutheran Immigration Leadership Summit and the communities we represent, thank you for today’s meeting with staff from your Domestic Policy Council and the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and for your willingness to hear our concerns.

We join the cry of the prophet Amos: “…let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

We lift our voices in speaking to members of the House and Senate, and to your Administration. Compassionate immigration reform must become the law of the land. Every day without action does harm to families, to communities, and to our nation.

We were encouraged by your announcement that you will review immigration enforcement practices. We believe that such a review is long overdue. While we await legislative action on just, compassionate and comprehensive immigration reform, we are counting on your Administration to exercise its authority to bring about an end to the excessive detention and deportation of immigrants by providing for:

*Broader and increased use of prosecutorial discretion at all points of law enforcement decision-making to reduce harmful enforcement practices and family separation.

*An end to the arbitrary use of detention and to the detention of vulnerable migrants such as asylum seekers and survivors of torture, and true access to justice.

*Increased availability of community-based alternatives to detention that do not unnecessarily deprive individuals of their freedom and for migrants who are neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk.

Today, we and fellow Lutheran leaders are meeting with Congressional leaders to call for swift immigration reform that reflects our American values and the calling of our faith to love and serve our neighbors. We yearn for a nation that honors the contributions that new and aspiring Americans make to our society and economy, and we long for immigration policies that strengthen families within our borders.

You, as President, can ease the pain caused by unnecessarily high rates of detention and deportation. While we appreciate your leadership on comprehensive immigration reform, we urge you to alleviate the hardships and separation experienced by families caught up in our unjust immigration system. We pray that you follow this way of justice, and by doing so, show the positive impact that stabilizing migrant communities can have of all of us.

Yours in faith,

Here is an article about one of the Lutheran leaders excellent adventure in Washington.

*** The federal gravy train steams on! If the Senate version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform should become law, the contractors, including LIRS, will be in line for MORE federal grants to provide “services” to the millions of newly amnestied. They will be contracted to get the “new Americans” set up on welfare, help them find jobs, get them micro-loans to start businesses, teach them English etc. There are even federal grants to teach the immigrants how to have healthy marriages!

Obama’s Aunt Zeituni dies; subject of infamous asylum case

04/09/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Anyone who had read Obama’s and Bill Ayers’ book, ‘Dreams from my father,’ knew that Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, was in the US somewhere when he claimed not to know in 2008.

Obama’s Aunt Zeituni dead at 61. Josh Reynolds/AP/2009

She had been ordered deported in 2004, but in a much publicized court case, she was granted asylum in 2010.

Keep in mind that her home country of Kenya is not one of the top places in Africa people claim asylum from, it is a stable country (Well, except for the Somali agitators and terrorists. I doubt she told the court she was running from Somalis!). All of our coverage on Aunt Zeituni is here.

Aunt Zeituni died on Monday in a rehab center in Boston.

I wonder if the Obama’s will attend her funeral. Aunt Zeituni had complained in 2009 that her famous nephew didn’t invite her to family gatherings. That snub and the apparent disregard for the “brother in a hut” in Kenya are strange actions indeed for our supposedly good-hearted young President.

From the Boston Globe (Hat tip: Judy):

President Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, who won asylum in 2010 after living illegally in Boston for several years, died on Monday night in a nursing home in the city, her legal team said.

The law office of Margaret W. Wong, one of Onyango’s immigration lawyers, confirmed on Tuesday that she died the night before in her sleep at the Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation Harborlights facility in South Boston.

Onyango, 61, had taken ill in January and suffered from breast cancer and respiratory problems, Wong and a relative said.

[….]

The White House had no comment on Onyango’s passing. She was a native of Kenya and moved to South Boston in 2000, Wong’s office said. She was the half-sister of Obama’s late father.

[….]

Wong’s office said that Onyango was denied asylum in 2004 and nearly deported. Her case was leaked to the press during Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008.

[….]

Onyango, whom the president called Auntie Zeituni in one of his books, was ordered to leave the country in 2003, but she stayed. Later that year, she tried to stay again. But she lost the appeal, and an immigration judge ordered her deported in October 2004.

Instead, Onyango remained in Boston and lived in state and federal public housing. Critics have denounced her for defying deportation and for living in public housing while scores of families are on waiting lists.

Her lawyers successfully argued to reopen her case, and she was granted asylum in 2010.

In 2011, Zeituni’s brother Omar was discovered (drunk driving) living on the US taxpayers in Boston as well, and subsequently granted asylum. Here is our archive on Uncle Omar. See especially, Obama lies!

If you would like to learn more about the Obama ‘family’ tree—a fantastic book on the old man (Barack Sr.) is Globe reporter Sally Jacobs’ ‘The other Barack…..’ He was a creep, a cad, a liar and more.

Abrams and Schwartz want further relaxation of security screening for Syrian refugees

04/03/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In a highly criticized move, the Obama Administration already relaxed security screening aimed at bringing in thousands of Syrians. Now Elliott Abrams and Eric Schwartz have penned an op-ed saying it wasn’t enough.

Frankly, some serious wrangling must be going on within the Administration because as far as I can tell, Obama has not YET opened the floodgates to Syrian refugees and thus we are seeing the public relations push—as we mentioned in the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society story the other day. (Incidentally, that story was viewed by 33,328 readers via our facebook page!)

Who are Abrams and Schwartz? According to the USA Today op-ed:

Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, was a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration. Eric P. Schwartz, dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, was assistant secretary of State for population, refugees and migration in the Obama administration. They are members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

We have a lot on Eric P. Schwartz, a Soros protege and one-worlder, on our pages, here.

Abrams and Schwartz at USA Today:

Last month, as Syria’s civil war entered its fourth year, bloodshed continued without pause and the number of refugees continued to swell. Those are among the reasons that the Obama administration took an important step to sustain a U.S. tradition of protecting refugees, including Syrians fleeing their country. But the administration can do more.

The United States has long provided haven and resettlement to those escaping tyranny.

They then go on to describe the waiver from terrorism bars the Obama Administration has already put in place and say it isn’t enough:

There are other categories of refugees who still fall afoul of current law, such as former combatants who never acted against U.S. interests and have laid down their arms, and individuals who provided “insignificant” support for groups that the U.S. has designated as terrorist groups. The administration should consider expanding its waiver to include these groups.

Abrams and Schwartz say they only want a few thousand Syrians to be admitted, but therein lies the rub. The US State Department had bandied about the possible resettlement of 2,000 this fiscal year, but the resettlement contractors are pushing for from 12,000-15,000 this year (to be repeated again next year and the year after…).

BTW, we are already 6 months into the 2014 fiscal year which began on Oct. 1, 2013. And, just a reminder: the contractors are paid by the head for each refugee they resettle.

In case you are wondering, Abrams and Schwartz never mention the persecuted Syrian Christians.

This is how you snooker the low-information Americans who read USA Today:

We are not suggesting that the United States admit waves of new refugees. While there are more than 2 million Syrians outside their homeland, the U.S. resettlement program for Syrians is focused only on several thousand of the most vulnerable.

LOL! It is only a few thousand and only the “vulnerable” they say. What is “several thousand?”

As I said the contractors and the open borders lobby must be running into some resistance on the Syrian refugee resettlement issue or Abrams and Schwartz wouldn’t be penning this piece.

Just as Americans are weary of war, I believe they are weary of taking in the world and putting the masses on US taxpayer-funded welfare, not to mention putting our security at risk!

You need to be letting your Representative in Congress or US Senators know, you have had enough!

Rush Limbaugh is wrong about Catholic Church

03/31/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Limbaugh gets-it on immigration, so he now needs to modify what he says about the Catholic Church! http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/rush-limbaugh-gop-to-commit-suicide-102947.html

The other day I happened to catch a bit of Rush Limbaugh’s radio program and for the first time in over twenty years found myself shouting at the radio.

If I understood him correctly in the portion of the show I heard, Limbaugh was pretty much saying that the Catholic Church/Pope was a paragon of conservatism and nothing anyone (especially Obama and pals!) could say would cause them to waver on issues such as abortion and gay marriage and for that the Left is p*****-off.

Is Rush ignorant of the role played by the hard left Catholic church in Obama’s rise in Chicago politics?

The Catholic Bishops stand to benefit financially from ‘immigration reform!’

It may be so (that the Church won’t be swayed) on those social issues, but Limbaugh apparently has no idea about how important the Catholic Church is, and especially the Bishops, on the issue of immigration and open borders. They are as far-Left on that issue as they come, and it has little to do with compassion and everything to do with cold hard cash!

Come to think of it, I can’t really blame Limbaugh for not knowing that the Bishops are deep into the taxpayers’ wallets since the mainstream media NEVER mentions it.

The Bishops would be broke without the millions of dollars they get from US taxpayers. Then there is the taxpayer funding they get for some of the 120 illegal alien “kids” crossing the border each day. The Bishops have a contract with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement for their care.

And, don’t forget the church helped bring the thousands of Muslims to Syracuse, NY which has now resulted in the travesty of a historic Catholic Church being converted to a mosque.

To illustrate where the Bishops are on open borders, this story from the Washington Post on Friday entitled, ‘US Catholic leaders hope church’s actions can revive immigration reform,’ pretty much says it all.

The news-hook is Obama’s visit with the Pope, but it’s all about the church’s lobbying efforts to bring about so-called ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’ which (if passed and signed into law) will benefit the Bishops financially as they will get more ‘clients’ (millions of clients) in need of ‘services’ (showing them how to get their welfare benefits) to add to the tens of thousands of refugees they now have on their client roster.

Read the WaPo article yourself and remember these deportation numbers are B.S. as Senator Sessions reported last week (it must be maddening for the Senator to see this propaganda). ***Update*** More evidence that Obama is not deporting large numbers of aliens.

And, get ready for the Bishops publicity stunt at the border this week where they plan to mimic the Pope’s visit last summer to the beleaguered Italian island of Lampedusa.

Hey Rush, how about putting some qualifiers in when you praise the Bishops the next time!

The expansion of Medicaid is a “key indicator for refugee placement”

03/19/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If your state is one of those which has expanded Medicaid as a result of Obamacare then yours is a prime target for refugee resettlement.

I don’t know when they did it, but the feds and their contractors seem to have chosen the word “placement” over “resettlement” in their government lingo.

Whatever they are calling it, they are on the hunt for new “welcoming” locations to start seed communities of refugees because many of the old places are saturated and complaining—think Lewiston, ME, Manchester, NH, Nashville, TN, Atlanta, GA and most recently Amarillo, TX. All “pockets of resistance!”

So, back to ‘Key Indicators for Refugee Placement FY2014’.…

One of their key indicators for the desirability (the “capacity”) of your community as a placement site is whether your state has expanded Medicaid!

From the Introduction:

Affordable Care Act

ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] considers placement to be a key element in facilitating a refugee’s successful adjustment. One major factor that may affect placement is the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Accordingly this year’s data has incorporated information on heath access determinants including updates on states that plan to expand Medicaid during the final implementation phase of ACA, and states that have ruled Medicaid expansion out.

Then check out the handy data on which states have and which states haven’t expanded Medicaid (pages 11, 12, 13).