Add “trickle” to our descriptive media word-list about this years’ refugee flow to America.
Previously we jokedabout “plummeting” numbers (dip, tumble, drop dramatically, drastically decline, etc.). Now we can add “trickle.” Back in the good ‘ol days, Lavinia Limon (USCRI) was sending Mr. Chobani Yogurt (Hamdi Ulukaya) his workers for Twin Falls.
Mr. Chobani Yogurt must be a bit annoyed as the refugee worker stream to his Twin Falls yogurt plant must be trickling too.
And, heck, he even lost pal, doyenne of the refugee contractors, Lavinia Limon last fall. See here.
This article is just another of the ho-hum planted media stories about that mean ol’ Donald Trump and how his refugee slowdown is hurting their refugee industry. It wouldn’t be worth posting except for the blatant admission that plummeting refugee arrivals are hurting the contractors’ budgets.
For longtime readers you are likely thinking—well we know that!
However, ten years ago, when I started writing this blog about the flawed US Refugee Admissions Program, the media didn’t know that refugee contracting agencies*** were paid by the head to place refugees, so I see this paragraph below as progress!
From the Idaho State Journal:
There are challenges that come with taking in fewer refugees. It’s hard to manage the Refugee Center’s budget, Rwasama said, because the center receives federal funding per refugee who arrives. “Everything is impacted when you don’t have funding to provide services.”
More here.
I was glad to see that they say they are taking better care of the formerly placed refugees since they are receiving so few new ones.
Rwasama is CSI Refugee Center director Zeze Rwasama. It has never been adequately explained just how the College of Southern Idaho became a subcontractor for USCRI, one of the nine (soon to be eight?) federal contractors.
Nevertheless, we are happy to see that the admission is being made regularly and the media is now reporting that:
Federal resettlement contractors (and their subcontractors) receive payment from you, the US taxpayer, on a per refugee head basis!
Progress!
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.
It seems that the fifty or so Jewish groups operating in the US have a secret pact to not speak ill of each other. However, that agreement seems to be coming apart as complaints involving the more conservative Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)have been filed.
One of those complaints appears (no one is revealing complete details) to involve a possible complaint by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society(HIAS) which is not happy with ZOA pointing out HIAS’s financial incentive to admit and resettle more Muslim ‘refugees’ to America.
Mark Hetfield, CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society speaking at one of many anti-Trump events he was involved in. See more on the schism among American Jews here: http://jewishexponent.com/2017/11/08/groups-see-surge-activism-since-2016-election/
(HIAS, for new readers, is one of the nine major federal resettlement contractors*** placing refugees as secretively as they can into your towns and cities. HIAS played a major role in filing lawsuits against the Trump Administration’s so-called Muslim ban.)
First here is information from Forward in a story entitled:
Presidents Conference’s Secret Rules Bar Jewish Groups From Attacking Each Other
(President refers to the Presidents of each of the Jewish advocacy groups.)
Top American Jewish organizations agreed last year to adhere to rules that ban them from attacking each other, the Forward has learned.
The rules, which regulate the discourse of American Jewish leaders, have never been publicized, and are unknown to the vast majority of the constituents of the organizations that have agreed to abide by them. First written in 1995, they were quietly revamped in early 2017.
All of the fifty-odd Jewish groups that belong to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations are subject to the rules, which now ban “insults, ad hominem attacks, and name calling” against the Presidents Conference or its member organizations, and statements that are “false, inaccurate or unfairly exaggerated.”
Alleged violations of the rules are referred to a committee that has the power to recommend that organizations guilty of serial violations be expelled from the Presidents Conference. The membership and procedures of that committee, which also were updated last year, have never been made public.
At least four alleged infractions of the rules are currently pending before the committee, the Forward has learned. Those four all involve the Zionist Organization of America, a hawkish pro-Israel group, which is the subject of two of the complaints and has filed two more.
“I criticize other organizations all the time,” said Mort Klein, the ZOA’s president. “You just can’t lie, and you can’t say don’t support them. You can’t call names.”
[….]
The Presidents Conference did not respond to a request for its current governing documents. It also did not respond to questions about what complaints are currently pending before the tribunal, and whether the tribunal had ever acted against a member organization.
[….]
According to one person active in the Presidents Conference, both the Jewish refugee aid organization HIAS and the Anti-Defamation League currently have complaints that have long been pending against the ZOA.The ZOA’s Klein told the Forward that his group has brought its own complaints against the ADL and Ameinu, a progressive Zionist organization.
None of the organizations would describe the content of their complaints. But that they relate to the ZOA is not surprising, given the organization’s willingness to publicly attack its colleagues. In a letter to the editor published in the Forward in 2017, Klein suggested that there was a “profit motive” behind the HIAS’s opposition to President Trump’s Muslim ban.
“Some refugee resettlement groups, such as HIAS, which have invoked ‘morality’ arguments….have been receiving millions of dollars of government grants to resettle refugees,” Klein wrote.
HIAS would not say whether the January 2017 letter, or some other public statement by the ZOA, was the subject of its complaint to the committee.
“I do not want to prejudice the proceedings in any way by commenting before the process has run its course, which I hope will be soon,” said Mark Hetfield, HIAS’s president and CEO.
More here. The letter and the allegations against HIAS: Here is Hetfield again protesting against the President. Hetfield pulls down an annual salary of over $350,000. Where is Congress? Cut their federal funding! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/03/05/dear-donald-give-bibi-a-gift-today-cut-federal-funding-to-hias/
This is a portion of the 2017‘Letter to the Editor’by Morton Klein (supporting President Trump) that seems to have Hetfield steamed:
…. under Jewish law, someone with a potential “profit motive” to favor a particular position is in no position to judge. Some refugee resettlement groups, such as HIAS, which have invoked “morality” arguments to promote admitting poorly vetted refugees have been receiving millions of dollars of government grants to resettle refugees.
There is also no moral equivalence between Trump’s executive order and Franklin Delano Roosevelt slamming the doors on Jews trying to escape from Nazi Europe. The 1930s Jews posed no terror threat to the U.S., were in imminent danger of annihilation, and had nowhere else to go. By contrast, immigrants from the seven countries of concern are infiltrated by terrorists, are often already in Turkey or Jordan where there is no imminent danger, and have 50 other Muslim nations that can be pressured to accept them. (ZOA also favors safe zones in the Middle East.)
The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes survey (2009) found that over 90% of Muslims in surveyed majority Muslim nations held strongly unfavorable (anti-Semitic) attitudes towards Jews. Bringing more Jew-haters into the U.S., who will join surging vicious anti-Semitic activities on college campuses and the anti-Israel Congressional lobby, is dangerous and immoral.
More here.
Our complete Hebrew Immigrant Aid Societyarchive is here. HIAS is very close to the SPLC, by the way.
*** These (below) are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors and I say all of them have a profit motive(including Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, etc) to resettle more refugees including Muslim refugees.
And, I think one of the greatest insults to taxpayers is that these same groups, which are paid by us to take care of refugees, have become super-sized Leftwing community organizing and agitating groups. HIAS is the leader in attacking Trump!
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.
When I saw this—one more story on Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ and the slowdown in refugee arrivals to America, it was just one more ‘ho-hum’—so what else is new.
But, like most of the stories a little nugget pops out that gives me a better picture of how the UN and the US State Department are changing America. Only rarely do I see stories that tell us where other African blacks experiencing hatred from black South Africans are moving to. This is one of those where we see the pipeline start to finish!
Of course they can’t call it racism when its black vs. black, so for those Somalis who arrived in South Africa as illegal aliens and were transformed into refugees for your towns and cities by the thousands, they say it is xenophobia that is responsible for their ticket to America.
The story is about Mankato, MN a city that went from a 19% poverty level in 2000 to a 26% in 2015 being resettled with Somalis by the Minnesota Council of Churches(a Subcontractor of Church World Service).
That (left) is the CWS logo in the picture below…..
Here we have an anti-Trump protest by federally-funded Church World Service and HIAS with CAIR at the White House in January. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/
…. and it is Church World Servicethat is paid gobs of taxpayer dollars to run the resettlement program for the US State Department out of Kenya and out of Johannesburg, South Africa. Hereis the Mankato Free Press falling for the big boo-hoo story on the drop in number of Somalis arriving in that southern Minnesota city.
MANKATO — Refugee resettlement in the Mankato area has slowed over the past year amid President Donald Trump’s attempts to ban travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries.
The local drop is a reflection of what’s happened statewide and nationwide, adding further uncertainty for refugees already in the middle of lengthy resettlement processes.
Somali refugees and their families awaiting reunification in Mankato have been most impacted by the ban.
Ben Walen, director of refugee services with the Minnesota Council of Churches, said his organization knows of 16 individuals who would’ve likely settled in Mankato before September 2018 if the ban never happened. Now he doesn’t expect them to arrive in Minnesota before the end of the year. And an arrival next year is anyone’s guess.
Then this is what I found most informative. Minnesota Council of Churches employee, Habiba Rashid, came to Minnesota as a refugee from xenophobia in South Africa (aka the “Rainbow Nation”). Then she got her family in through chain migration.
So, as I have been saying, the white South Africans who are being persecuted by racist black South Africans should apply to the UN and Church World Service to get to the US as refugees. Head on over to that UN/Church World Service office in Johannesburg and (try to) get on the list!
After all, CWS is paid by the head to bring refugees to the US, it shouldn’t matter to them whether they are black or white, right? Mankato Free Press continues… Habiba Rashid, 3rd from right is a Somali ‘refugee’ from xenophobic South Africa. Photo: http://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/travel-ban-hampering-refugee-resettlement-in-mankato/article_fdedf3a2-2c85-11e8-a7b9-0f4aa256e212.html
Not knowing when the wait will end has been hard on families in the area, said Habiba Rashid, who settled in Mankato with her husband six years ago.
“Families here are panicking,” she said.
Now a community navigator in the council’s Mankato Area Refugee Services office, she waited six years before her resettlement here and another four afterward for her mom, dad and siblings younger than 18 to join — a timeline she describes as “lucky” compared to others. She said a term like “chain migration”is a misleading term for what should be thought of as family reunification.
Calling it chain migration also assumes refugees can just attach family members to their resettlement applications, which she said doesn’t resemble her experience or the experiences of the families she knows.
[….]
Aid organizations try to comfort them, knowing many waiting for resettlement grew so restless they turned to dangerous crossings into Europe.
Others who wait out the process in countries like South Africa, like Rashid’s family did, face xenophobic attacks.
More here.
If I were organizing a campaign to bring the persecuted white farmers to America, I think I would start writing to key offices at Church World Service, like these below:
Address to Church World Service. Re: Save the South African White Farmers!
See my extensive South Africa archive, here.
Don’t miss my post from yesterdaywhere Minnesotan Bob Enos tells us what a fictional Somali family is costing taxpayers of that state and nation.
A Tennessee judge this week moved to dismiss a case that would have, we believe, once and for all, settled the issue of whether the federal government can place refugees in a state and expect state taxpayers to pay for many of their needs. So sad. I had such high hopes for AG Sessions. He of all people should have known how significant this case is.
But, as you read the story, remember that the Judge was dismissing the case because the US Justice Department (Jeff Sessions) asked for the case to be dismissed.
We told you back in Maythat DOJ lawyers were pushing for dismissal. I find it stunning that AG Jeff Sessions did not see the significance of this Tenth Amendment case for, not just the refugee resettlement program, but for other programs where the feds dump financial responsibility on states that don’t want it! (And, don’t tell me he might not have known what his lawyers were doing!).
Here is Neil Munro writing atBreitbarton Tuesday:
A March 19 federal court decision requiring taxpayers in Tennessee to fund the federal government’s refugee program ignores a 2012 Supreme Court decision, says Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center.
The judge’s 43-page decision on the refugee program “is filled with appealable issues,” Thompson told a Tuesday event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies. “Our view is that we should appeal it” at no cost to state taxpayers, said Roberts, who is the lead pro-bono lawyer in the case.
“We would relish that … this case could very well end up in the Supreme Court,” he said.
A Supreme Court majority ruled in 2012 that the federal government cannot force states to fund federal programs, so “the judge basically backed off because it was too controversial and ruled on the basis of standing,” Thompson added.
The case is important for many states because the federal refugee program forces state taxpayers and governments to fund most of the welfare, aid, and education costs of federal government’s policy of dropping refugees and their children in the states, he said. If states balk at paying the costs, the federal government can threaten to cut their share of federal funding for the Medicare program, he said.
In Tennessee, the federal Medicare program funds one-fifth of the state budget, or $7 billion per year.
[….]
The judge did not hold a hearing on the case but relied on written statements from the plaintiffs and defendants.
The judge’s decision shows the political power of the federal program, said Mark Krikorian, director of the center. “A state can check out of the refugee program, but it can never leave,” he said.
More here.
As I understand it, it is now up to the state of Tennessee to decide to take theThomas More Law Centers‘ offer to appeal the case, free of charge. (Or, will big industry—meatpackers!—prevail on the pols to drop the whole thing so their steady supply of cheap refugee labor continues to flow into the state.)
Editor: From time to time we post guest opinion pieces and comments worth noting. This is another from Bob Enos of Willmar, Minnesota (home of Jenny-O turkeys!). Here he is reacting to a pronouncement by the state legislature that it simply cannot calculate the cost of refugees to the taxpayer. Of course, since the state’s auditors contend that the numbers simply are not available, then conversely that means that every economic study from the likes of ‘Welcoming America,‘Global Detroit! (and Lutheran Social Services of MN and Arrive Ministries MN) which claim immigrants and refugees bring economic prosperity to small towns and dying cities can’t possibly make that conclusion. Data on the true costs are not available says the Minnesota legislature. Here is Mr. Enos:
On March 10, 2017, the Saint Cloud Times(Minnesota) newspaper – a Gannett Media publication – reported, “Refugee costs are difficult to gather, report says”. The story was published in the aftermath of Saint Cloud city council member Jeff Johnson’s spirited but vain attempt to gather support for a study of refugee resettlement’s economic impact on his city and county.
Of course, whether the costs are difficult to gather or not evades the issue. Furthermore, it is but part of a larger question:
Are refugees a net gain to their communities?
In anticipation of the April 15 tax filing deadline, the following comes from a “pro forma” federal tax return for the fictitious Mr. and Mrs. Ahmed Mohammed.
What we know of the Mohammed family’s likely financial scenario comes from several sources: the US Office of Refugee Resettlement, the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development, the MN State Demographic Center, the MN State Refugee Resettlement plan, the World Health Organizations, and probably a few more sources rattling around in my head.
Here’s the Mohammed family profile.
Two parents are raising seven minor children in a nuclear family. One parent likely works in meatpacking, earning a maximum of $12 per hour for a 30-hour work week – just two hours shy of full-time employment, absolving the meatpacker of a health insurance obligation. The other parent is home (with seven children, someone has to stay home!), consistent with the 40-50% unemployment rate reported by several public and private sources.
Consequently, the family’s total wage income is $18,720. With exemptions and deductions totaling $49,150, there is ZERO tax liability. Stated another way, the family’s income would have to increase 145% – to $49,500 – for the family to begin having any federal tax liability at all.
What’s more, the Mohammed’s are income-eligible for the “earned income tax credit”, entitling the Mohammed’s to receive an IRS “rebate” of $6,318.
Sorry Welcoming America. Since none of you know what the true costs are to local, state and federal taxpayers, you can’t sell us on more refugees as a vehicle to re-building local economies.
So much for the refugee family which earns its keep.
Now that we have confirmed the Mohammed’s tax status, let’s turn to the additional burdens placed upon taxpayers; the burdens that the MN Office of the Legislative Auditor finds inordinately complex.
The income threshold for poverty guidelines in Minnesota for a family of nine is about $45,900 annually; consistent with the income required for the Mohammed family to reach tax liability. The Mohammed’s income is only 41% of that which our federal government calls a family in similar circumstances 100% impoverished.
There is virtually NO poverty entitlement program for which the Mohammed’s are not eligible.
So, let’s add ‘em up.
Health Care
Since Mr. Mohammed is considered a part-time employee, publicly-funded Medicaid provides the family health insurance. We know what our private insurance premiums are costing us, so let’s be lenient and estimate the value of the Mohammed’s insurance premium at a $1,000 per month, or $12,000 annually.
Housing
Subsidized housing for a four-bedroom apartment is close to a $1,000 per month, or $12,000 annually. The Mohammed’s will have no co-pay.
Education
Estimates for the costs of teaching a non-English learner are about 50% over a mainstream education, according to most sources. In Minnesota, educating a mainstream student costs about $6,000 annually; for the refugee student, about $9,000, or $63,000 annually for the Mohammed family.
Federal supports and sundries
The federal Refugee Reception and Placement Program contracts with the nine “faith-based” VOLAG’s, to relocate and place the family over a 30-day period, for $2,225 per person. Total RRP tab for the Mohammed family: $20,025.
Minnesota’s “Diversionary Work Program” is intended to help parents prepare for the world of work. The family can qualify for a benefits package of up to $70 per person to cover expenses including shelter, utilities, phone allowances, and other “personal needs”. Total expense for the Mohammed family: $630 a month, or their eligibility for the cash portion of the Minnesota Family Investment Program (read: welfare), whichever is less. For a family of just two, the cash portion of the MFIP is $408 per month. MFIP assistance lasts for five years. Oh, and by the way; up to 43% of the Mohammed family’s earned income is disregarded when determining the net income for computing their monthly benefits. Essentially, the Mohammed family will be eligible for the maximum full ride on this program for five years.
If, by some freak occurrence, the Mohammed family is ineligible for the benefits described above (and how could they be?), the state Refugee Cash Assistance program will pick up the slack. RCA provides a monthly standard of $437 for a childless couple, so it’s a safe assumption that a family of nine will receive at least twice that amount.
The federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Minnesota Supplemental Aid (MSA) provides cash assistance for aged, blind, or disabled refugees.
Then there are: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a/k/a food stamps; refugee health screening for communicable and infectious diseases; employment services; English-language learner classes; federally-mandated translation services for schools, hospitals, health clinics, law enforcement, judiciary, and corrections. [And, I will add a cost never calculated and that is the cost of the criminal justice system if just one of the ‘children’ has a run-in with the law.—ed]
Finally, there have been suggestions that employers of refugees, such as in the meatpacking industry, receive cash subsidies from the US Department of Labor, intended to offset the cost of training the refugees. In the past, federally-funded “on-the-job” training at the worksite has enabled employers to recover cash equal to 50% of the employees’ wages for up to twelve months.
Have I said enough, fellow activists?
Small wonder Minnesota’s Legislative Auditor can’t get its head wrapped around refugee resettlement finances. And it won’t. And neither will any other agency of local, county, or state government. Because it’s the equivalent of pulling a loose thread on your clothing. And because the motivation, the incentive, simply is not there.
Run the numbers for health care, housing, education, cash assistance, and sundries, and this one Mohammed family appears to produce liabilities to federal, state, county, local, and school district taxpayers of about a HALF MILLION DOLLARS over a five-year period.
So, the hair-splitting and hand-wringing that reports like the Minnesota Legislature’s Auditor produced this month are simply a diversion. The question is not whether or not refugee resettlement burdens the taxpayers. The existence of the burden is beyond question. The central questions is: how much, if any, burden is our society willing to incur?How much of a burden is TOO much? Those are political questions. Meanwhile, we as a nation are now faced with the management of a chronic financial burden.
And with regard to the future political question, the following proposal is a reasonable starting point for a conservative’s solution:
1) Any refugee resettled in the US must have pre-arranged employment, pre-arranged unsubsidized housing, and a private sponsor that secures an insurance policy – a bond – to relieve government of any financial liability, should the resettlement threaten to become a public charge;
2) Refugees must be INELIGIBLE for any public assistance, excluding the public education of minor children, for the first five years following resettlement;
3) The taxpaying public is long past the point for trusting its government agencies associated with refugee resettlement to audit themselves. It’s time for the establishment of Citizen Review Boards, bestowed with the legal authority and the funding to retain private, independent auditors; to identify which public programs are to be measured, the metrics used to measure them; to share what is learned with the citizenry, through neighborhood-based discussion and debate; and to recommend reforms or repeal. Lastly, it is time for citizens to DEMAND that state legislatures take up this issue for discussion, debate, and resolution.
We do not need the permission of the federal government to protect our communities. What we need is the political will, along with very thick skin.
Mr. Enos’ guest column is archived in my category entitled: ‘Comments worth noting/guest posts,’ here. You will find other columns by Mr. Enos there as well. Endnote: In 2015, the Center for Immigration Studies took a stab at calculating the cost of Middle Eastern refugees to your wallets, here. And more recently the Federation for Immigration Reformdid a calculation, here.
