Here it is!—a great summary of the US Refugee Admissions Program and where it has gone wrong according to Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studiesin an interview at Blaze TV. H/t Kevin
I get pretty deep in the weeds here at RRW, so this is excellent to send to everyone—especially newbies—who want a quick overview of the program’s failings!
SIVs are nationals of Iraq and Afghanistan who supposedly helped us during our long involvement in the Middle East. They are most often referred to as “interpreters” but they could have done any menial job connected to our military or connected to non-profit groups operating in those countries and be eligible to come here and be given the same benefits as refugees—which means of course virtually all social services.
So the US goes to war in some hellhole country and then, admitting we didn’t leave them a better government and a safer country, Americans are expected to reach out and welcome tens of thousands of their people to the US so that the next time we go to war, the military can offer a ticket to America in exchange for our largely unwilling presence in their hellhole country.
Sorry, I do respect our military, but this is going too far.
Since October of 2006, and as of a week ago, we have admitted 64,501 Afghan SIVs and another 18,677 Iraqi SIVs and so we are being told that over 83,000 is NOT ENOUGH!
83,000 is NOT enough says the International Refugee Assistance Projectthe same ‘non-profit’ law firm that has fought the Trump Administration in court on every immigration/refugee reform issue the administration has undertaken.
From the Military Times(a report that leaves readers believing that only a trickle have come in so far):
Former interpreters laud court ruling to accelerate special visa decisions
For thousands of Afghan and Iraqi nationals who served as interpreters with the U.S. military, visa applications to gain permanent legal residence in the United States have languished in legal limbo for years. Now there may be help on the way, in the form of a court ruling.
[….]
This week, however, a judge granted “class certification” to Afghan and Iraqi nationals suing the federal government for overdue visa decisions, allowing thousands of outstanding cases to be included in a class-action lawsuit.
[….]
US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan,
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled in favor of the five anonymous Afghan and Iraqi nationals, “who, despite significant personal risk, aided the United States in its time of need and now look to the United States for refuge for themselves and their immediate family members.”
The federal government now has 30 days to submit a plan to adjudicate long-delayed visa applications that have been pending for more than nine months.
“We are thrilled that the judge is holding the government accountable to its obligations to the thousands of men and women who have sacrificed so much in serving the U.S. missions abroad,” said Deepa Alagesan, a supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), in a press release.
[….]
Currently, a total of 22,500 visas could be issued to former Afghan interpreters through the Special Immigrant Visa program — up from the 18,500 limit — after a provision was included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
Never forget! The SIV programs for Iraq and Afghanistan were created as riders to must-pass Defense authorization and appropriation bills and thus never went through the committee process to be stand-alone bills sent to the President for his signature. Snuck on when hardly anyone was looking!
And, if you are wondering about vetting for the SIVs, here is another bunch (besides the CO rapist gang) who clearly slipped through and werebusted for running an international fencing ring in California late last year. There are probably plenty more like that they just haven’t come to my attention yet!
Mark my words, the SIV program is a ticking time bomb!
I’ve been noticing the absence of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), one of the top nine federal contractors***, in all the anti-Trump media hubbub and wondered if they were shrinking financially and therefore laying low to stay out of Trump’s line of sight.
So I checked today, and guess what?
USCRI is approximately 96% federally funded, and…..
They are doing financially better under the Trump Administration than they ever did in the Obama years.
But, before I give you the data, let me tell you how much controversy they stirred over the years.
Memory lane:
Former USCRI CEO Lavinia Limon with Chobani CEO at the Clinton Global Initiative (all you need to know!).
Longtime readers may remember the huge controversy in Twin Falls, Idaho that I wrote about extensively for months that involved USCRI’s subcontractor there. It revolved around Chobani Yogurt’s hunger for refugee labor and came to a media explosion over the sexual abuse of a child by refugee boys.
Then there was USCRI’s effort to open a new office in Rutland, VT that ended in failure when citizens rose up, protested, and threw out the ‘welcoming’ mayor.
Earlier I reported on the mess USCRI was embroiled in in Bowling Green, KY when Burmese refugees were placed in substandard housing.
(Here I am going to urge readers to use thesearch window top right at RRWand enter key words to find out more about Twin Falls, Rutland, Bowling Green, Lavinia Limon, Eskinder Negash etc. and save me some work putting in a zillion links!)
One point on the issue of subcontractors:
Someone knowledgeable about the big nine recently mentioned that local agencies don’t have the same name sometimes as their parent organization. Exactly right! Whether they do that on purpose I don’t know, but for those of you wanting to better understand how secretive this program is, that is one important piece of evidence.
Hundreds of subcontractors work for the big nine and those nine move federal funding to their subcontractors usually referred to as affiliates.
They have been wailing and moaning about having to close offices in the Trump era, apparently Trump isn’t hurting USCRI.
Also, USCRI is notable as a prime example of the revolving door between government contractors and the agencies from which the organization gets most of its funding.
Both USCRI’s previous CEO Lavinia Limon (headed Clinton’s Office of Refugee Resettlement) and its present CEO Eskinder Negash (headed Obama’s ORR) revolved in and out of government. Both have done very well themselves in the process as you will see below.
First, here is the stunning financial information at USA Spending. (I told readers how to use the invaluable site in Knowledge is Power V.)
Remember that we are only 4 months into FY2020 and that is why that number is so low. So check back in September.
Looking at the most recently available IRS Form 990, we can say that USCRI is 96% federally funded—that is funded by you, the US taxpayer!
That means they are acting like a government agency but without any of the checks and balances of a federal agency. For example you can’t use the Freedom of Information Act to get information out of a ‘non-profit.’
Check out the 6-figure salaries you pay! Some are higher than US Senators or Supreme Court Justices!
*** Here are the nine major federal refugee contractors. I’ve analyzed five so far including USCRI today and only the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a serious budgetary hit under the Trump Administration. Congress and the Deep staters are making sure these fake non-profits are staying in the black.
I will work on the remaining four in the coming days and weeks.
I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.
Indeed much to my shock,USA Spendingreports that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) is getting more federal dollars under the Trump Administration than it did under the Obama government!
HIASis the 4th of the nine federal contractors I’ve analyzed at USA Spendingand three of the four are doing exceedingly well financially under Trump in spite of their constant wailing and moaning about how they must close offices and reduce staff.
Our often assumed connection between the number of refugees coming in and the nine contractors’ financial well-being is out the window!
Holy cow! Who knew! Not only do millions of your tax dollars go to the nine federal refugee contractors*** in the US, but we send apparently billions to supposedly Christian social justice groups in places like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Let the wailing begin as the groups claim that they use our millions to keep citizens of those countries from fleeing toward our southern border, so cutting them off is wrong they say.
It is pretty clear for all to see that even with billions of dollars over the years they have failed spectacularly in stopping the invasion and I assume the State Department has pretty much figured that out.
Honduran migrants on the way to the US in 2018
I wish I had time today to take a deep dive into past funding for the groups that include, Proyecto Aldea Global, Association for a More Just Society, International Justice Mission and World Vision, but I don’t.
Christian Nonprofits Reeling from Trump Cuts to Foreign Aid
Christian ministries in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador know they are in for a tough year. The US government has drastically cut aid to the three Central American countries in response to the large number of refugees who have fled north to seek asylum in America. Some of the more than $500 million of US taxpayer money was going to Christian nonprofits working on economic development, anti-corruption efforts, and helping children in poverty in the three countries. Those ministries will have to lay people off, reduce services, and scramble to find other funds. [Just call George Soros and ask him to supply the funds—ed]
“The Trump administration shot itself in the foot with these cuts,” said Chet Thomas, director of Proyecto Aldea Global in Honduras, which has been forced to stop a job training program that gave teenagers alternatives to working for criminal gangs. “These projects are designed to … reduce the number of people migrating to the US.”
US foreign aid flows through various channels. In many cases, it ends up funding nongovernmental organizations, including Christian relief organizations in the area of Central American known as the Northern Triangle. Many of these address the conditions that cause people to flee their homes and seek asylum, leading to a crisis at the US border. Some ministries work directly with host governments to train national staff and increase the effectiveness of state institutions. Others focus more on community development, often building connections with local churches that don’t trust their government and don’t have many of their own resources.
Governments must do their jobs!
Justifying the cuts, the State Department appeared to downplay the role of nonprofit groups in addressing migration. “We expect the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to keep their commitments to stem illegal immigration to the United States,” it said in a statement.
Sure looks to me that the State Department calculated that based on the hordes flooding to the US border, we weren’t getting our money’s worth from these ‘Christian non-profits’.
However, some US ‘religious charities’ are not seeing huge funding cuts!
*** Here (below) are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.
I’m not posting my usual spiel, but only want to say that in my analysis of funds received by three contractors (so far) since Trump took office, only the US Conference of Catholic Bishopshas taken a large cut in its federal funding.
I’ve been noticing the absence of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), one of the top nine federal contractors***, in all the anti-Trump media hubbub and wondered if they were shrinking financially and therefore laying low to stay out of Trump’s line of sight.
