This is a longish story meant to be warm and fuzzy about how the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society*** is injecting diversity into crime-ridden Philly. That should be really good for the struggling African Americans there, but who cares about them, HIAS is being paid to do a job. This is a business.
The reporter has the facts down fairly well and I recommend reading it, especially for Pennsylvania residents who should know that your state is in the top ten resettlement statesin the nation right now. HIAS’s Philly rep Rona Buchalter is worried about what Trump will do once he arrives at the White House. Bio and photo are at HIAS’s website: http://hiaspa.org/rona-buchalter
I quibble with the selective reporting here where we are told that the refugees get $1,125 each (from US taxpayers). To be completely accurate it should be mentioned that the contractor (HIAS here) gets an equal amount for its payment to do their ‘charitable’ work. All of the contractors are quaking in their boots now as the wait to see what Donald Trump does after Friday because cutting the numbers means cutting their income!
HIAS Pennsylvania is an affiliate of one of those nine organizations that receives funding from the U.S. Department of State to resettle refugees. They are funded to provide initial casework and help refugees spend $1,125 per person they get in assistance from the government to pay for housing, groceries, bills and other necessities. From there, it’s enrolling kids in school, finding adults work and getting families integrated into their communities. Quickly.
By the way, I once had an American, who was trying to help a new refugee family in his neighborhood, contact me to ask why the refugee doesn’t get the full $2,250 because the contractor was not helping the family. Why? This is a business!
How many Syrians since the beginning of the 2017 fiscal year?
I haven’t checked the Syrian numbers at Wrapsnetlately, so checked just now.
In the first 3 and 1/2 months of the fiscal year (it began on Oct. 1, 2016) we have admitted 4,005 Syrians, and 98% are Muslims.
Here is where they were ‘planted’ in Pennsylvania from October 1, 2016 to January 15, 2017: 98% of Syrians arriving in US are Muslims.
For new readers, know that it was HIAS which first directed the Southern Poverty Law Center to investigate RRW, see here.
***They don’t want to be called by their full name anymore, they changed it to HIAS (why was that?).
As if they don’t have enough problems with the tens of thousands of Somalis living in Minnesota, the Minneapolis city council passed a resolution yesterday, welcoming Syrians to join the gang in Minneapolis. Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges (right) in Somali language Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3po7RG2Eyc
Frankly, I’ve wondered why so few Syrians have been sent (by the US State Department) to Minnesota so far and wondered if the DOS was worried that there could possibly be some tensions created with the added diversity in the city where Somalis are king.
Arab Muslims (98% of Syrians entering US right now are Muslim) and black Africans aren’t always the best of friends, and the Syrians will add competition for the same welfare dollars as the Somalis enjoy now.
See screenshot from Wrapsnet.org below showing how many Syrians have been placed in Minnesota. I went back to FY2012 and only these few are recorded so far (with none in FY 2017 to date).
From Minneapolismn.gov:
The Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Betsy Hodges approved a resolution today supporting the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Minneapolis and calling on other Minnesota communities to support a national effort to resettle the country’s most vulnerable refugees.
The resolution notes that “hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees are making life and death decisions to flee Syria and neighboring countries because they are unable to access shelter, health care, education or protection, and neighboring countries have closed their borders to new arrivals.”
[….]
More than 14,000 Syrian refugees have resettled in the United States since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. The Twin Cities is a leader in welcoming refugees and has resettled more than 12,500 refugees from 40 countries, including Syria, since 2011. [Only 5 from Syria have been placed in Minnesota so far—-ed]
“Minneapolis has long stood as a place of welcome for refugees from throughout the world, including those seeking resettlement from Syria,” said Mayor Betsy Hodges. “Today we restate our City’s commitment to welcome Syrian families to make homes and new lives here.”
They believe that Obama’s last proposal, sent to Congress in September 2016, will continue to be operative and that his huge ‘recommendation’ for 110,000 refugees to be admitted this year will be honored by the incoming Trump administration.
Curious to see the last time we admitted more than the astronomical number of 110,000 refugees in one year, I went back to the Office of Refugee Resettlement annual reportsand found that we must go back to 1995 (Bill Clinton) to find a year when we brought that many refugees. It was a year that we admitted over 30,000 Cubans, 30,000 Russians and 30,000 Vietnamese.
Just a few days ago I posted a widely read postabout this week as National Migration Week at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and how much of your money is going to the USCCB.
The USCCB’s migration fund is 97% funded by you! Their ‘work’ is not funded by Catholic parishioners giving their own private money!
Here is a report from Cincinnati, Ohio about one Migration week, ‘welcoming the stranger,’ event. This is how the progressives do it, they declare a special day or week, hold a public relations event and the press shows up to write glowingly. They are masters at media manipulation (propaganda)! (Emphasis below is mine):
Despite uncertainty and concerns about policies of the incoming Trump administration, programs and agencies helping immigrants and refugees in Greater Cincinnati anticipate more growth in 2017.
The Refugee Resettlement Program of Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio,which helped bring in 330 refugees in 2016, will help 450 this year, said Alisa Berry, the agency’s chief operating officer who oversees the program. It resettled 260 refugees in 2015.
Wishful thinking on Alisa Berry’s part—Obama’s 110,000 refugee plan for FY17 will continue?
“The federal government keeps asking us to help more people,” Berry said. “Demand for services increases every year.”
She was one of five panelists to participate Thursday in an interfaith immigration insights event at Hebrew Union College. About 150 people attended to listen to updates on programs and perspective on a contentious national issue.
The opposition to legal immigration and assistance for undocumented immigrants and refugees helped Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race.
The Thursday event was part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Migration Week and in conjunction with Pope Francis’ World Migrant and Refugee Day, which will be Tuesday.
The United States will accept 110,000 refugees in 2017, a number established by President Barack Obama. Trump has the authority to change the number for 2018. [Trump can change the number in 2017, on day one, will he?—ed]
Refugees arriving in Greater Cincinnati through Catholic Charities are coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Bhutan, Syria, Iraq and Myanmar.
Check out what else they are doing through CLINIC (the Catholic Legal Immigration Network), a non-profit organization that depends on millions of your tax dollars too! They are giving ID cards out to those who have no legal identity in the US. Who is paying for this? You? Allison Herre, with CLINIC, is promoting ID cards for those in the country illegally.
In January 2015, immigration attorney Allison Herre started as the local Catholic Charities’ agency director of Legal Immigration Services.
[….]
The event also provided an update on the MARCC ID card, issued by the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati and manufactured and distributed by Catholic Charities. It is recognized as legal identification by all city departments, including the police.
[….]
Card supporters say the card will improve public safety by providing people who otherwise do not have an ID card – people returning from prison, the homeless, immigrants, especially those living here without legal documentation.
Herre said her agency continues to advise clients to apply for the MARCC card and file for extensions of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Known as DACA, it was created by an Obama executive order in 2012 to provide status to children brought illegally into the country and who have grown up in the United States. It allows them to apply for driver’s licenses and work permits.
If all of these Catholic organizations (USCCB, Catholic Charities and CLINIC) operated on truly private charitable giving, then we would have nothing to say about their activities, but it is the fact that they use our money (never report that fact to the public), so they can brag about their Christian charity, that is so offensive to me.
“Even people that live here, they don’t even know they have that many refugees in the state.”
Aden Batar, Catholic Community Services
Right now, most refugees resettled in ‘welcoming’ Utah are placed there through Catholic organizations under the umbrella of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, but the Mormon church is jumping on the bandwagon. So far they haven’t applied to become a refugee contractor (to get direct grants from the federal government), but I have been speculating about the possibility that they are in the learning stage right now working along with Catholic agencies. Poster boy for refugee program in Utah! They will never mention the sensational trial of Burmese Muslim refugee, Esar Met, sentenced to life in prison in Salt Lake City in 2014. He brutally raped and murdered a 9-year-old Christian Burmese girl. Met was likely placed in a housing complex with Burmese Christians by one of the Utah’s resettlement agencies. Was it the Catholic agency? National media never reported the story! I’m not going to let it die! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/05/15/utah-burmese-muslim-refugee-sentenced-in-brutal-rapemurder-of-little-girl/ If you missed it yesterday, you might want to read my post about the millions of tax dollars the US Conference of Catholic Bishops receives every year for their charitable (Ha! Ha!) workhere.
It doesn’t surprise me that other ‘religious charities’ might want to get on the gravy train! See recent posts on the Mormon church and refugees here.
Here is a the fluffy puffy news from The National Catholic Reporter (the star of the story is a Somali refugee) about how wonderful the refugee program is in Utah.
Aden Batar’s first taste of Utah came more than 20 years ago as a high school student in his native Somalia. An agriculture team from Utah State University had traveled there to work with Somali farmers on their farming techniques. Batar was a promising student then, learning about the snow in Salt Lake City from the ag workers, studying English and planning for law school.
[….]
Now 48, Batar was the first Somali refugee resettled by Catholic Community Services (CCS) of Utah in 1994. The agency has helped to resettle close to 7,000 men, women and children in the state, the majority since 1996. That same year, Batar got a job as a case manager with CCS in part because he could speak Somali.
“Utah is home to more than 60,000 refugees,” said Batar, now the immigration and refugee resettlement director at CCS, which is affiliated with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He credits a partnership between the Catholic church and the Church of Latter Day Saints for much of the immigration work done in the state. “Even people that live here, they don’t even know they have that many refugees in the state.”
[….]
Hser Ner Moo: The medical examiner testified that she died in “excruciating pain” and her mother wonders if coming to America was the right thing to do.
Concerns about terrorism and the prospect of harsher immigration laws under the incoming Donald Trump administration aren’t making the work of CCS and Holy Cross Ministries any easier, but they’ve frankly got too much on their plates right now to worry much about what might happen in the future.
If it’s still a surprise that so many refugees end up in Utah, it may be even more so to learn that they are often the “most difficult to serve,” Batar said. The refugees are usually part of large families, people with medical issues or disabilities, or women who have suffered trauma and are the head of household. Utah is popular not just because housing is inexpensive there, although it is, Batar said.
We can only assume that Utah has run out of American poor people for the LDS church to serve, so they have moved on to importing poverty to the state.
Near the end we hear from Rick Scott, manager of North American humanitarian operations for the LDS Church in America and Canada:
The LDS Church had explored becoming a resettlement agency itself, Scott said, but it currently provides cash, commodities (mattresses, food, hygiene products, etc.), resources, and volunteer assistance to CCS.
Frankly, I think they still are exploring it! But, to break into the monopoly the nine volags(federal contractors) have, an organization wishing to become a direct resettlement agency must prove they have experience with refugees. What better way to get it than to partner with the largest contractor—the US Conference of Catholic Bishops—to learn the ropes.
There is a lot more that might be of interest to Utah residents, go here to read the glowing report about Utah wrapping its arms around refugees.
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. 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 Tennesseanyesterday:
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 herefor all of our reporting on Wilson-Fish states.
