…..and it is confirmed by their go-to commenter—Mark Hetfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society—who says of Trump’s ceilingthat it is “lower than it’s been in history.”
But, what he doesn’t say is that even at 50,086 (the number this morning), that is not the lowest ADMISSIONS number in the history of the program as we pointed out here(and will show you below).
Here is Think Progress(John Podesta):
“We’ve reached a low point in U.S. history today with the Trump administration setting and enforcing a refugee admission ceiling which is lower than it’s been in history,” HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield told ThinkProgress in a phone interview Wednesday.
I just told you two days ago (something Think Progress will never tell you), that groups like HIAS are quasi-government agencies paying CEO salaries at major corporation levels. Hetfield makes $358,718 (doing well by doing good!) annually. Only one of the nine CEOs makes more, and that is David Miliband of the IRC ($591,846). https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/07/11/updating-financial-data-on-refugee-contractors-big-bucks-for-humanitarian-work/
HIAS, a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian assistance and aid to refugees, has long helped refugees resettle in the United States. Hetfield was immensely displeased that at least one HIAS client, who was approved as a refugee, will be unable to come in despite having a grandmother in the country. Others will also see their flight reservations cancelled.
[….]
“We’re at least grateful the Supreme Court prevented Trump from fully implementing his mean spirited executive order and that refugees will [with] ties to US will continue to be admitted,” Hetfield said. “It’s an embarrassment for our country to be taking in so few refugees when the needs are so great.”
Think Progress goes on to perpetuate a massive misunderstanding claiming that countries like Turkey (Lebanon and Jordan) take in more refugees than does the rich (mean-spirited) US.
Those countries do not take refugees permanently (another thing that Think Progress will never tell its readers!)
Those countries would never let large numbers of other ethnic groups (Iraqis, Syrians, Somalis, Pakistanis, Palestinians etc.) become PERMANENT VOTING CITIZENS. In our refugee program (the largest in the world even at 50,000) we do, and so….
….we are the number one country in the world admitting refugees for life!
Let’s look at historically low admissions levels (see charts here).
There were 4 years when we admitted fewer than Trump’s 50,086:
FY02: 27,070
FY03: 28,117
FY06: 41,279
FY07: 48,281
And, since the SCOTUS is allowing refugees with “bona fide” relationships to enter above Trump’s 50,000 ceiling, here are some other years that might easily be surpassed before September 30th (the end of FY17):
FY87: 58,863
FY04: 52,858
FY05: 53,813
And these next two are THE Man’s (Obama’s years):
FY11: 56,424
FY12: 58,238
I’m guessing that Trump will, in the end, be admitting in the low 60,000s, close to the average for the last ten years. The big question is—what will he propose for FY18???
Then for the remainder of the 120-day ‘moratorium’ only refugees with certain relatives and certain “bona fide” connections to US entities will be admitted. The Supremes—the US’s new legislative body! Once we pass the CEILING for the first time in the history of the program, it is my view that the refugees will belong to the Supreme Court since it has taken it upon itself to unconstitutionally WRITE REFUGEE LAW!
Adding to the confusion going forward is the fact that the 120-day moratorium will run in to late October (Supremes will likely not have ruled on the merits of the case by then).
September will be the real test for Trump’s Presidency on the refugee issue….
Late October (when the 120 days will be up) is a month PAST the legally required deadline for the President to send his 2018 refugee determination to the Hill. (Here is one of many posts on the ‘determination’ for new readers.)
In September, how will the White House handle that wrinkle SCOTUS has handed them? The real test for President Trump on refugees comes in September! What will he propose for FY18?
LOL! Of course one thing the President could do is send a Determination to the Hill for FY18 of zero and tell Congress to reform the program in a serious way during a year-long moratorium.
(The Labrador bill isn’t much.)
Here is the story at KPCC radio in Southern California that got me going on this subject again this morning:
Federal officials expect the national cap on refugee admissions for fiscal year 2017 to be reached Wednesday, ushering in the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban affecting refugees.
Once that happens, all refugees will have to prove they have close relatives in the United States or established ties such as a job before they can gain entry. The new rules will remain in effect for at least 120 days, starting from late June when the U.S Supreme Court ordered the partial reinstatement of the Trump travel policy.
[….]
The State Department posted guidance listing the accepted categories of relatives: “a parent (including parent-in-law), spouse, fiancé, fiancée, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sibling, whether whole or half. This includes step relationships. The following relationships do not qualify: grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, and any other ‘extended’ family members.”
A department spokeswoman told KPCC by email that refugees scheduled to travel to the U.S. will be allowed in until the end of Wednesday. Then, “beginning July 13, only those individuals who have a credible claim to a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States will be eligible for admission through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.”
A relationship with a U.S. entity, such as a university or employer, can also qualify a refugee for entry on a case-by-case basis. However, the spokeswoman said refugees are not likely to have such ties and are more likely to have connections to relatives.
The State Department made clear that a relationship with a U.S. resettlement agency does not count as a qualifying relationship.
Remember when Donald Trump rolled out his first Executive Order and wanted to prioritize Christians and the contractors***went crazy and said that was not fair. The lead squawker was the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society!
Well, you need to know, before you read this next segment of the story, that we have been prioritizing Jews from, first Russia, and now Iran (processing them after they get to Austria as visitors) as refugees to America! Learn about Lautenberg here.
The agency that Castro directs settles many Iranian Jews who travel to the U.S. via Austria, arriving through a refugee program that benefits religious minorities. He said one of his agency’s refugee clients has been waiting in Austria. She is being vetted by U.S. officials but likely will be stuck in Austria because she has no close relatives in this country.
Resettlement agencies say they have yet to receive guidance from the federal government about what happens once the 120 days of the temporary refugee travel ban are up. [Again, the 120 days puts us in to the new fiscal year—what will Donald do in September?—ed]
“I suspect that what will happen is there will be a push to make this more permanent in some form,” Castro said. “I can’t imagine going back to the status quo prior to the order.”
I can’t imagine that either! It would be political suicide for Trump if he reverts to the old system of secret refugee seeding by phony ‘religious’ charities!
All of my posts on the Supreme Court’s overreach are here.
***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizers paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities. Because their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, the only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors from the process.
And, they suggest that the big reform effort with the program should be around the issue of “assimilation.” Yikes! Didn’t Ms. Enos see what Linda Sarsour said recently—no assimilation for Muslims coming to America! Olivia Enos http://www.heritage.org/staff/olivia-enos
When Richard (Blue Ridge Forum) brought this article to my attention last evening, I found I couldn’t even cope with the title late at night:
“5 Reasons The U.S. Refugee Program Serves American Interests”
Now with my morning coffee I’m ready to blast away at this fluff!
Enos sounds like she is auditioning for a job at the US State Department where she would join like-minded bureaucrats who want nothing to stand in the way of more refugees for America!
Yet, on paper, she would come with the ‘conservative’ stamp of approval—from the vaunted Heritage Foundation! Here is Heritage on why the US Refugee Admissions Program only needs a little tinkering around the edges! I swear this sounds like the verbiage that came out of the mouths of Obama’s refugee pushers! Five flimsy, fluffy reasons that the American taxpayer should shell out billions a year (a large chunk of which goes to the religious LEFT, see here, working against conservatives), to seed welfare consuming third world poverty and diverse cultures many of which don’t plan to assimilate in to unsuspecting towns and cities across 49 states. (But Ms. Enos doesn’t have to face any of that, according to her bio she lives on Capitol Hill.)
Her five reasons….
#1. USRAP enables the U.S. to assert American leadership in foreign crises.
#2. USRAP provides the U.S. with a way to respond positively to intractable crises.
#3. USRAP enables the U.S. to assist allies and partners in crisis.
#4. USRAP strengthens American public diplomacy.
#5. USRAP alleviates human suffering.
I admit I didn’t read Heritage’s entire report, I mentioned one portion of it here. I stopped reading when it became clear that the authors had no firm understanding of how the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program really works.
Ms. Enos is working on a Master’s degree at Georgetown University, could she be studying with Anne Richard? Perish the thought!
Update: I realized tonight that if we cut off federal funding for refugee contractors we would have a significant down payment for The Wall!
I hadn’t checked the most recent data on how much of your money goes to the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors (aka VOLAGs) lately. So here is the latest information I could find. I had to use several sources mostly because some contractors do not file a Form 990(LOL! they claim they are churches and are thus exempt).
Unfortunately I couldn’t find all income information for all nine for the same year, so it is a little hard to make a direct comparison, but you get the idea.
These are the nine major federal resettlement contractors. (Go here to see a data base with the hundreds of subcontractors working for them in a town near you.)
Church World Service as of June 2016 had a total revenue for the previous year of $88,455,527.
71.3% of their millions comes from you—the taxpayer—according to Charity Navigator, here. You are the source of government grants:
Their chief executive, Rev. John McCullough makes an annual salary of $251,224.
Ethiopian Community Development Council (93% funded by taxpayers)
ECDC is not rated at Charity Navigator so I had to use their most recent Form 990, see here.
(If you have trouble opening the Form 990, go here and then download the document.)
Their total revenue for the year ending September 30, 2014 was $17,448,992. You will see on page 9 that they received $16,290,580 in government grants making them 93% funded by you, the taxpayer.
ECDC’s President Tsehaye Teferra has income listed on page 7 in three columns. The first is direct compensation of $171,683 and the two other columns involve other income from this organization and from “related” organizations of $57,857 and $46,843 (don’t ask me what that is!).
Episcopal Migration Ministries (aka Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church) (99.5% funded by taxpayers)
We know they are 99.5% funded by you because they admitted it here. But, because their federal funds flow in to a church ‘kitty’ and because churches don’t file Form 990’s (or most churches don’t), we have no idea how much they are getting or what the program leaders are being paid. Frankly, this is shameful!
If you are of the Episcopal faith, you need to start asking questions!
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (aka HIAS) (57% funded by taxpayers)
According to Charity Navigator for the year ending 12/2015, HIAS had a total revenue of $40,565,891.
Chief executive Mark Hetfield‘s annual salary in that report is $358,718.
International Rescue Committee (66.5% funded by taxpayers)
Be sure to focus on how much bigger the IRC is with an annual revenue of $688,920,920! From Charity Navigator: 66.5% is in the vicinity of $455 MILLION of your dollars annually!
Head honcho David Miliband hit the jackpot with this annual salary: $591,846!
US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (98% funded with taxpayer dollars)
USCRI is a little harder to figure out. Charity Navigator does not rate them for this reason:
This organization is not eligible to be rated by Charity Navigator because, as a service for individual givers, we only rate organizations that depend on support from individual contributors and foundations. Organizations such as this, that get most of their revenue from the government or from program services, are therefore not eligible to be rated.
You could say that USCRI is a quasi-government organization masquerading as a non-profit! We have a lot on Lavinia Limon here at RRW. She was Bill Clinton’s director of the ORR! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/?s=Lavinia+Limon
So we go to the most recent Form 990 available for year ending September 30, 2015. (Or download pdf at ProPublica, here)
On page 9 you can see that they only take in less than $1 million of their $51,524,570 from private gifts and contributions. All of their “program income” is likely through taxpayer dollars as well.
President and CEO Lavinia Limon makes $260,258 in annual compensation plus pulls down another $42,231 from this and related organizations (whatever that is!).
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is 96-97% funded by taxpayers
Like USCRI it’s a little hard to figure out, from their recent Form 990 herewhere their total income is $55,983,615, exactly which of the fees in their income column actually are taxpayer dollars too.
We can assume there isn’t much private charity going to LIRS because Charity Navigator says the same thing they did for USCRI which is:
This organization is not eligible to be rated by Charity Navigator because, as a service for individual givers, we only rate organizations that depend on support from individual contributors and foundations. Organizations such as this, that get most of their revenue from the government or from program services, are therefore not eligible to be rated.
Hartke (blue jacket front row) with refugee lobbyists last month. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/06/26/refugee-contractors-brought-refugee-lobbyists-to-washington-again-last-week/
Just a reminder that USCRI and LIRS are really quasi-government agencies yet they are busy lobbying Congress and otherwise community organizing in order to influence the media and Congress to support more refugees (aka paying clients!) coming to America.
LIRS President and CEO Linda Hartke makes an annual salary of $274,632 and an additional $33,401 from this and related organizations (page 8).
US Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration Fund (97% taxpayer funded)
Now it gets even trickier! The Bishops don’t file a Form 990 and their operations are so vast, I could spend the whole day and still not sort it out. Also, maybe you can find one, but I have not found an annual report for their refugee program since I found this one for 2014.
So we will have to rely on it (again). Keep in mind these funds for their refugee resettlement program do not include millions that go directly from the feds to some individual Catholic Charities and Dioceses around the US. (If you are researching your local CC or Dioceses, you can often find good numbers at USASpending.gov)
“Federal grants” is your money, so is the Travel Loan Collection Fees, so that puts the Bishops’ refugee resettlement program at 97% taxpayer funded. (I am not sure if the Unaccompanied Alien Children fall in to yet another fund!).
I would like to get a more up-to-date accounting for the Bishops, but they must be hiding those reports really well! I suspect they are pulling down even more payola in more recent years.
Obviously we don’t know what salaries are being paid for their Washington, DC lobbying shop. Their previous head lobbyist was Kevin Appleby.
World Relief (Corp. National Association of Evangelicals) is 72.8% funded by taxpayer dollars
That is according to Charity Navigator, here. Total revenue is $62,583,313 for the year ending September 30, 2015. But, I did find a more recent Form 990, here, with a huge jump in income in one year to $71,022,032. I thought World Reliefwas broke and closing offices??? (Gives me an idea for another post and that is to report on some of the contractors increases in funding over several years).
That Form 990 shows something I hadn’t seen in other Form 990’s and that is that the Prez/CEO doesn’t make a whole lot, but some financial officer(Barry Howard) is making over $250,000 big ones (see pages 7 & 8).
Here is Charity Navigator’s “contributions” breakdown. Ha! Ha! your tax dollars for government grants are contributions!
Whew! What a job searching for all that financial information! Hope you made it this far!
Can you see now why I say there will be no reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program as long as these nine contractors, masquerading as charities, are sucking on the federal teat and bidding for bodies (aka refugee ‘clients’)?
And, adding insult to injury, they lobby, kiss up to the media, and community organize against you who are paying for the whole refugee racket!
None of these organizations would survive very long if Congress and the President cut them loose (or stated more kindly and so as not to mix metaphors!—weaned them!).
Your daily assignment! Write to the White House, here.
Last night Tucker Carlson interviewed a woman who is a leader of something called the ‘Haymaker Collective’ where Leftists (Antifa!) have a gym project in Chicago where they are learning self defense to protect themselves from hate crimes and prepare for “war” with racists and xenophobes (in the Trump era).
Tucker has no problem with their desire for self-defense, but asks where is the evidence that it is the “rightwingers” they need to fear in CHICAGO!
His guest cites statistics from the Cato Institute and from the Southern Poverty Law Center as evidence that her people are under attack already.
But, what interested me most happened in the closing minutes of the segment. “Naila” cites the recent Virginia murder of the Muslim girl by an illegal alien as an example. When Tucker questions her about whether he was a ‘rightwinger’ she completely ignores him!
What happened to illegal alien murders Muslim case?
It reminded me to have a look and see if there is any update at all about that horrible murder case, but it seems to have completely disappeared from the news. Imagine if the alleged murderer had not been an illegal alien, but instead a white American boy! We would be seeing daily updates and not just in the US media. Instead, I see dead silence by the mainstream media.
Watch the whole 6+ minute interview here:
