Tomorrow is the previously stated date for refugees to begin arriving again in large numbers. They have been trickling in, probably a couple of hundred in the last two months since refugee travel was halted by the United Nations, but the US Refugee Program is largely shut down.
Special Immigrant Visas do continue to arrive from Afghanistan by the hundreds, but I’ll leave that discussion for another day.
Meanwhile the only news coming out of the mainstream media about refugees in America are sob stories about how they are struggling, out of work, fearful of being evicted, and trying to cope with COVID (like all of America!).
Some are working in essential services like meatpacking (Yogurt making?), others like those in the hospitality industry are out of work in large numbers.
Hereis one such story from Twin Falls, Idahowhere controversy over refugee resettlement has been muted after years of public protests about how the program was changing Idaho.
‘It’s like we’re living a half life’ — For refugees, COVID-19 impacts depend on where they live
The star of this story, a refugee from the DR Congo, says he is more worried about his brother in a refugee camp in Africa.
However, so far, the Chinese Virus has made no significant impact on refugee camps (although as I have reportedit isn’t for the media’s lack of interest, they expect catastrophe momentarily).
The article mostly discusses how challenging it is for refugees to live here in America these days (especially as many can’t speak English) and how the refugee agencies are short of funding and also cannot help refugees in person. (Why not? Where are their masks?)
They really aren’t short of funding as I pointed out here. The nine major contractors that send money down to subcontractors are getting nearly as much as they did during the Obama years (some are getting more!) when thousands upon thousands arrived every month!
The motherships must be holding on to the cash in order to pay salaries of their top execs. Besides, letting the low level staffers go makes for a better media story anyway!
Here is one little snip from this publication (these Idaho papers are prickly, they once sent me a letter telling me I couldn’t snip their stories).
Director Zeze Rwasama College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center in Twin Falls, Idaho. CSI is a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
The federal government pushed the date resettlements would restart from May 1 to May 15, but resettlement centers anticipate it will be pushed again.
“For that to happen involves the coordination of many government agencies to allow a refugee to travel,” Rwasama said.
“Many of those agencies are working with limited staff. I don’t see how we can receive refugees during this time.”
Coping with reduced budgets:
Now that refugee resettlement is halted in the wake of COVID-19, federal funding coming to resettlement programs will be drastically reduced…
Then there is an AP storycirculating mostly about Arizona Afghans you can read yourself entitled:
New refugees struggle to find footing in US during pandemic
Coping with reduced budgets! Not!
The College of Southern Idaho Refugee Program is a subcontractorof the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrantswhich is almost 100% funded by taxpayers. Its chief executive officer makes at least a quarter of a million a year in salary (last we checked) that YOU are paying.
Here is how they are doing financially from USA Spending….
The $90 million in the left hand corner is the amount of federal funding they have received in the last 12 months!
The International Rescue Committee, also mentioned in the Twin Falls sob story, has seen little change in its financial position from the Obama years. Its CEO, David Miliband, is pulling down a salary approaching a million dollars annually.
How about if they pony-up some of their federal funding to directly feed and house refugees they have distributed around America for years.
Why should taxpayers first pay for the resettlement and now pay for refugee care during the virus crisis?
$215 Million in the last twelve months!
This is no time to resume admitting more poverty to America!
This is one more story on how refugees are being harmed by the Chinese virus supposedly disproportionately to us white folks (that is the implicit suggestion anyway!).
When I saw this opinion piece, it reminded me to check the refugee camp virus crisis news. There is no new news—the media is poised to report that COVID-19 is running through refugee camps like wildfire. So far it isn’t, but, the warnings of pending doom are rampant. (And, we better damn well do something about it!)
Herein this Op-Ed from San Diego we are told there is no data on refugees who have Coronavirus, however the good doctors know that refugees there are being hit at a greater rate then who? Other migrants? Illegal aliens? African Americans? White people?
No, they really don’t know because on one thing opined, I agree—-there is no good data on refugees, on their health before arrival and the cost of their medical care here, their income, their rates of employment, the cost of educating the kids, their crime rates and the list goes on.
Yes, if you are willing to wait years for theAnnual Report to Congressthat the Office of Refugee Resettlementis supposed to be preparing (even during the Trump Administration ORR is dragging its feet) you might get some data.
However, much of the data there is based on phone interviews with refugees willing to be quizzed about their welfare use by a stranger on the phone, or based on inflated employment data from the contractors—great methods for getting at the truth.
Your local welfare agencies are not cataloging welfare use by immigration category, heck, I doubt they even pay any attention to broad categories like illegal status vs. legal refugee status when handing out government goodies.
How many times over the years have readers asked me—how much is all this refugee resettlement costing US taxpayers? You can’t even find out how many refugee kids are in your local school system, or how many refugees are using local health services! And, you know who is happy to keep it that way—the nine refugee contractors that monopolize all resettlement in America.
I do agree with the opinion writers on one thing!
“A national debate on the way we collect data on refugees is urgently needed.”
Commentary: Refugees must not be left behind in the U.S response to the coronavirus pandemic
Reopen the country or not? The answer may be complicated, but is surely “no” if we fail to control the novel coronavirus pandemic in certain communities.
Refugees are one community that is being hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, yet data is not telling their story, threatening their survival once again.
San Diego refugees, photo accompanying the Op-Ed
[….]
Generations of refugees have been essential contributors to the economy, diversity and prosperity of San Diego.
More than 100,000 refugees have been resettled since the end of the Vietnam War, making it the second largest refugee resettlement city in the U.S. and home to half of California’s refugees.
The majority of refugees are clustered in El Cajon and City Heights, two of the top seven areas in San Diego with the highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that refugees, although healthier than the general population when they first arrive, suffer “loneliness and social Isolation” resettlement as their health deteriorates over time. Researchers refer to this phenomenon as “intergenerational trauma,” which is passed on to children and persists over time. The pandemic is risking further alienation and social isolation of these communities.
So they were healthier BEFORE arriving in America? Then why not leave them where they were?
For example, despite the pandemic, many refugees are reluctant to access public assistance programs, including healthcare, because of the “public charge” rule, which is a White House policy that bars citizenship to immigrants and refugees who take advantage of public assistance programs.
Refugees are specifically exempt from the public charge rule! Facts please!
A report by the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., indicates that almost half of all refugees living in the U.S. have annual incomes that are less than half the federal poverty level, and that the majority work in the service industry. This could be as rideshare drivers or emergency responders or for other businesses deemed “essential” that make staying at home impossible.
When Ted Kennedy and his sidekick, Joe Biden, pushed through the Refugee Act of 1980, they promised the program was not importing poverty. Ho hum! I guess they lied.
In U.S. health systems, we rarely collect data on country of birth or refugee class. Population-based data is limited to data collected by the county health departments when the refugees first arrive in the U.S. and undergo health screening. In San Diego, mapping cases by ZIP code may be the only way to tell how the refugee community is being affected by the pandemic.
Observations of high rates of hospital admissions of Arab refugees with coronavirus was noticed by Arab American doctors…
Okay, so some Arab docs say they see a lot of Arabs with COVID? What are we supposed to do about that?
A national debate on the way we collect data on refugees is urgently needed.
It is almost impossible to get an accurate estimate of the number of refugees in the population carrying COVID-19….
But the authors are sure it is disproportionate and therefore unfair!
If it is so awful in America for refugees, it begs the question—maybe they should have been left in their own country or a safe one nearby?
News on refugees is pretty sparse these days involving mostly stories about how refugees (including illegal immigrants) don’t have work and are scrabbling to get their government bennies. Stories like this one from New Hampshire where my message to the Open Borders movement activists is this—you now need to step up and personally help (with your own time and money) all of the migrants you have helped bring to America.
However, I’m delighted to see that there is a spotlight shining on HIAS (aka the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) from within the Jewish community.
HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew International Aid Society*** until 2014, is in the news following a firestorm over the prospects of Dianne Lob, formerly the chair of its board of directors, becoming the chair-elect of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
The increased attention on HIAS provides an opportune time to scrutinize its work in resettling refugees. Unfortunately, a close examination leads to the conclusion that HIAS knowingly promotes policies that endanger Jews, as well as aligns with those linked to Islamist terrorism.
Rather than debating whether a former HIAS executive should head the big tent of all big tents of mainstream Judaism, the Jewish community should instead begin discussing how to show HIAS the door, just as it would for any other organization that enabled dangerously racist communities.
[….]
….the company HIAS keeps is telling. It has been unapologetic in its partnership with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The ADL has raised serious concerns about CAIR, citing the fact, among others, that it openly delegitimizes Israel.
Because it is all over the news these days, I figured this might be a good time to repost some stories that you might not have seen or have long since forgotten. Like this one from 2017 (sure is good we were able to recover RRWwhen it was removed from the web last summer!):
Foreign-owned Big Meat hires Lutherans to help them find and retain refugee labor
That is the crux of this story and not in my wildest dreams did I think that money was directly changing hands between the meat industry and a federal refugee contractor, in this case Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Serviceheadquartered in Baltimore, MD.
I always assumed it was an informal relationship where the largely federally-funded ‘religious’ charity (LIRS is 96% funded by you and not via the collection plate) just happened to be bringing immigrant workers to small town America.
Now we learn that there is a formal (secret!), contractual arrangement planned for pilot projects in four states with JBS USA a Brazilian-owned company.And, it makes me wonder if this isn’t new and whether similar arrangements are being made with others of the nine federal refugee contractors.***
For those of you in places like St. Cloud, MN frustrated that you can’t get local elected officials to listen to you, remember their seemingly illogical resistance to slowing the flow of refugees has nothing to do with humanitarianism and everything to do with changing America for the almighty dollar!
Global meatpacking giant goes all in for refugee labor
A Lutheran resettlement agency that places United Nations refugees into dozens of U.S. cities and towns is working with the world’s largest meatpacking conglomerate to train refugees for work in four American states while also softening up the local natives to be more “welcoming.”
JBS Headquarters in Greeley, CO Photo credit: me
The secretive pilot program between Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the U.S. subsidiary of JBS Swift aims to pump more refugees into Georgia, Texas, Iowa and Michigan to work in the company’s meat plants. If successful, the pilot program could be renewed for a second year and replicated at JBS meat plants across the U.S., WND has learned.
JBS Swift, the Brazilian-based global meat-processing giant, has agreed to pay Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, or LIRS, $155,000 to implement the pilot program over the next year in the four states, according to a draft of the partnership agreement obtained by WND from a person with inside knowledge of the deal.
“The shock here is to find out that a religious agency is being paid by a foreign global corporation to train refugees and ultimately transform the demographics of small towns in America’s heartland,” said Ann Corcoran, an expert on the international movement of refugees and the nine volunteer agencies that resettle them for the U.S.
The deal between the global meat producer JBS and the Lutheran agency has been dubbed “Rebuilding Dreams,” and is described in the draft document as a “grant and collaboration agreement” between JBS USA and LIRS in the four states.
“The primary goal of this agreement is to improve the capacity of JBS USA and local resettlement agencies to support and improve the hiring and retention of refugee employees at four pilot sites in Michigan, Texas, Iowa, and Georgia,” according to the document.
The following are the cities in those states where JBS has meatpacking plants:
Iowa – Council Bluffs, Marshalltown and Ottumwa, mostly pork production
Michigan – Plainwell, mostly beef
Georgia – Elberton, Douglas, Athens, Ellijay, Canton and Carrollton, mostly chicken
Texas – Waco, Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Pittsburg and Mount Pleasant, mostly chicken
“Rebuilding Dreams will achieve this goal by creating customized trainings and resources for key stakeholders, building stronger relationships through communications and technology platforms, enhancing the collection and evaluation of data, and improving the overall quality and culture of the workplace experience for refugee employees,” the agreement states.
The agreement also calls for improving the local “welcoming culture” in the cities where the refugees will be placed.
Part of United Nations agenda for sustainability
JBS is a transnational, global corporation that beats the United Nations “sustainability” drum on its website, and it also cashes in on the globalized “labor mobility” concept pushed by the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Read more here.The story is a detailed must-read about how a global corporation and a supposedly religious charity are changing America by changing the people.
And as a side reading project, see this 2006 articlefrom the Greeley Tribune involving Swift (JBS bought Swift) explaining how the meat industry went from being a desirable place for Americans to work to their model today that is increasingly reliant on the global movement of labor—-middle America be damned!
Don’t miss Bloomberg: Big Meat worried about Trump’s reduced refugee flow,here.
For Republicans it’s about money!
We know the Dems are pushing refugee resettlement in order to boost the number of Democrat voters, and if you are wondering why the Republicans aren’t doing enough to get the program controlled—look to the Chamber of Commerce and GLOBAL Corporations that have convinced the Republican leadership that the free flow of cheap and captive (uncomplaining) labor across borders is the future.
The jig is up!
Big Meat gets cheap labor, the Dems get voters, and you, the taxpayer, get to subsidize it all (including welfare for workers paid insufficient wages!). If you complain you are a hater, a racist and an Islamophobe!
LIRS is headquartered here in Baltimore. This is their own description: The Lutheran Center (LIRS headquarters) is a six-story structure constructed in 1999 on property owned by Baltimore’s historic Christ Lutheran Church. The building is located near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in the historic Federal Hill neighborhood, a charming area rich with history and an eclectic array of eateries and shopping venues.
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Serviceis the lead federal contractor for the following list of subcontractors.
Making it clear!
LIRS, in Baltimore, is not a separate group from the others on the list!
LIRS is the lead contractor that deals directly with the US State Department and divvies up incoming refugees between the agencies below—LOL! it is the ‘mothership’ to the following:
(Update: Since this post is from 2017 some of the subcontractors listed may no longer exist. I didn’t bother checking. See if the one near you is still up and running and let me know!)
So what do you do? Go tothis postI wrote earlier this month and get to work where you live!
For more on meatpackers and cheap immigrant labor, go here.
*** For new readers, these are the nine major federal refugee contractors largely funded by you, the taxpayer. Refugee resettlement is not first and foremost about humanitarianism so don’t let them shut you up!
Presumably because global warming (they say) is producing more refugees, or, because the Left has complete control of old line traditional conservation groups, or is it simply because the CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is married to the CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.
When I saw this story with a small mention of a joint video between the Hindu CEO of LIRSand the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) it got my attention.
Back in the day, the NWF, as the largest of the politically active national groups working to supposedly protect the environment, was about as far right as you could get on the Enviros spectrum of groups working in Washington. I know, I was there.
(The Nature Conservancy was the largest financially, but NWF had a greater grassroots network of activists that were often hunters and fishermen concerned with true conservation of wildlife and who could be counted on to call their Congressmen and Senators.)
Apparently like all of the groups, starting with the Sierra Club, NWF is now thoroughly immersed in the promotion of Leftwing political goals. See what Influence Watchhas to say:
The National Wildlife Federation is one of the nation’s largest and highest-profile environmentalist organizations. In recent years, along with its associated NWF Action Fund advocacy organization, it has transitioned from being a conservation organization representing the interests of hunters and outdoor recreation enthusiasts into a left-leaning pressure group focused on global warming advocacy and promoting left-wing social causes.
Like refugees!
You’ve got the picture.
Now here is the story about Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the former Michelle Obama staffer and former gubernatorial candidate in MD, now CEO of LIRS, arguing that Trump is hurting national security with his refugee and immigration restrictions that have been tightened since the Chinese Virus ‘crisis’ arrived.
How Blocking Immigration Hurts U.S. National Security
President Donald Trump’s new executive order barring broad categories of immigrants from entering the country may bring real harm to U.S. national security.
“The pandemic has highlighted for us that national security also involves the assets that we can harness and put against an invisible enemy,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah during an interview with Ploughshares Fund podcast, Press The Button. “And that includes the health care providers, the nurses, the doctors, the aides who are serving in assisted living facilities. So many of them are made up by refugees and other immigrants.”
Vignarajah is the president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine resettlement agencies working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide advocacy and support for immigrants and refugees. She argued that the central justification for the immigration clampdown – the Trump administration’s claim that a faltering US economy cannot absorb any more foreign workers – is based on a myth.
“Saying this order is needed to protect American workers plays into the patently flawed idea that American prosperity is a zero-sum game,” said Vignarajah. “We see consistently that immigrants are essential workers. They’re entrepreneurial, they’re tax paying, they’re job creating members of society.”
Far from being a threat to the United States in its fight against COVID-19, immigrants are providing vital national services, explained Vignarajah, particularly in a time when experts are redefining traditional notions of national security.
Vignarajah is advocating for a pro-immigration united front.
Last year, her organization partnered with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation “around a campaign responding to threats of mass deportations from the administration.” [LIRS is almost completely taxpayer funded!—ed]
Vignarajah is also joining with some non-traditional allies. Just last week, she recorded a video with the National Wildlife Federation on how the climate crisis is affecting immigration. “Two thirds of the migrants that we see today are actually a result of climate displacement,” said Vignarajah. “This is only going to get worse going forward.”
As I have said before, tell your kids to grow up to be Leftwing/Democrat non-profit CEOs! As head of an approximately $80 million a year organization O’Mara makes just over $350,000 a year. (Seerecent Form 990)
