There is so much happening, we can’t keep up.
So, just now had a few minutes to read Michael Patrick Leahy’s article on ‘Welcoming America’ and its role in tamping down ‘pockets of resistance’ to the resettlement of more refugees into certain cities and states.
And, wow, impressed that he found some information about Soros’ role in creating ‘Welcoming America’ that had been scrubbed from its website since I reported it in 2013.
Read the article which pulls together in one place some of our best information on the community organizers at Welcoming America and their role in selling the “seeding” of America.
While you are there, be sure to read some of the hundreds of comments as well!
Category: The Opposition
'Church' refugee resettlement contractors bring in millions as debt collection agencies
Perhaps the most wonderful thing about all of the burgeoning interest in how the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program works, is that we are discovering that there are some real investigative reporters out there like this one (Jeffrey McDonald) at Religion News Service.
For eight years we’ve commented about this little known aspect of how the resettlement contractors (six ‘religiously-oriented ones) are getting a little extra boodle by pressuring refugees to repay their airfare loans (the original funding came out of the US Treasury and was distributed to the International Organization on Migration to buy plane tickets). I have several posts on the practice, but here is one from 2010 I found interesting when having a quick look.
In fact, where I live, in 2007, a stressed-out refugee took a letter he didn’t understand to an ESL teacher to ask exactly what it meant—it was a letter from a resettlement agency telling him he needed to start paying back the airfare, or else. The “or else” would be a poor credit rating (you can imagine how some former camp-dwelling third-worlder was confused!).
So, if you are saying, well of course they should pay it back! This is the part that is so egregious—-the resettlement contractor pockets 25% of what the agency wrings out of the refugee. It does not all return to the US Treasury.
Here is the story I was so excited to see! From Religion News Service (hat tip: Joanne):
(RNS) Faith-based agencies that resettle refugees in America stand to gain more than a clear conscience if the United States — after what is expected to be a fierce debate in Congress — accepts a proposed 10,000 Syrian refugees next year.
More refugees also means more revenue for the agencies’ little-known debt collection operations, which bring in upwards of $5 million a year in commissions as resettled refugees repay loans for their travel costs. All nine resettlement agencies charge the same going rate as private-sector debt collectors: 25 percent of all they recoup for the government.
I think it’s actually more than $5 million because in one recent year I saw that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops had pulled in $3 million (in one year). Later in the story reporter McDonald says he found that the USCCB got $3.4 million from their debt collection work.
Human rights industrial complex is having an internal conflict over the boodle.
Now get this! Even in their own circles they have noticed a little hypocrisy from those who lecture us about our moral duty to “welcome the stranger.”
Moral duty has become a prominent feature of the refugee debate.
[….]
As resistance to refugees grows, so also do calls for moral action on their behalf. Some refugee advocates are now urging resettlement agencies to help the cause — and boost their own moral authority — by forgoing their 25 percent commissions if possible and letting newly arrived refugees keep that money. So far, none has heeded that call.
“It would be wise, if they can afford it, to let the refugees use whatever resources they have to help their self-sufficiency,” said Eva Millona***, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. “It would add more credibility.”
What the heck, give it to the refugee? How about foregoing their commission and giving all of it back to the US taxpayer! (I’m betting none of this little cozy arrangement was spelled out in the original Refugee Act of 1980.)
McDonald goes on to explain how “churches” need this cold hard cash for their ‘good works.’
Read the whole thing!
These are the nine contractors resettling refugees and acting as debt collectors:
- Church World Service (CWS)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- World Relief Corporation (WR)
***More here on Eva as she and the NO Borders gang get ready for their big pow-wow later this month (where they will be talking about us!). The event was planned long before all hell broke loose with the refugee program.
One more thing….
It occurs to me that maybe we don’t give the contractors their cut but instead use that 25% of returned airfare money to fund our proposed Repatriation Fund! What do you think?
Action Alert: Call your members of the House and Senate at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vigorously oppose the Refugee Resettlement funding contained in the Omnibus Spending Bill that will be voted on by 12-11-15! Please call by this Friday, Dec. 4th.
Know the other team: Big-wigs who WANT more Syrian Muslims admitted to the US, so Muslims will like us
They have sent a letter to Congress expressing their wish for Syrian and Iraqi refugees to continue to be admitted to America to show ISIS we are good people and love Muslims. Well, they don’t say it that simplistically, but that is essentially what they mean.
As usual the letter is not linked in the story, so will try to find it later because I would like to see who else is on the other team.
Update: Here is the letter at Human Rights First (did they gin this up?).
From the Detroit News:
Washington — Former top national security officials from Republican and Democratic administrations urged Congress on Tuesday to continue allowing the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the United States.
“Refugees are victims, not perpetrators, of terrorism,” the 20 retired military, security experts and others wrote in a letter sent to all lawmakers. “Categorically refusing to take them only feeds the narrative of ISIS that there is a war between Islam and the West, that Muslims are not welcome in the United States and Europe, and that the ISIS caliphate is their true home.” [That last is ridiculous, no one says an ISIS caliphate should be their home. If it weren’t for boobs like some of you, there wouldn’t be an ISIS today!—ed]
ISIS is one of the acronyms for the Islamic State group.
Among those signing the letter are former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, George Shultz and Madeleine Albright. Retired Gen. David Petraeus also signed the letter, as did former Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff and onetime Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel and William Cohen.
Just look at those names and we shouldn’t be surprised America is in the mess it is in now! Because they screwed up over the years, we now have to welcome questionable and expensive migrants to live in American towns!
We featured Madeleine Albright in a post just recently, here.
Action Alert counter the big-wigs: Call your members of the House and Senate at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vigorously oppose the Refugee Resettlement funding contained in the Omnibus Spending Bill that will be voted on by 12-11-15! Please call by this Friday, Dec. 4th.
White House laughing at governors: we will teach you how to use the US State Dept. data base!
Update: Leo Hohmann has more on the governors here at WND.
The White House is making fun of the governors by offering them information that is readily available to the public already!
I had barely posted this earlier post today, when reader Joanne alerted me to this news.
In a laughable bow to governors’ demands that they be told who is coming to their states and where they will be placed, it appears the magnanimous and transparent (sarcasm alert) White House is going to teach governors how to access the Refugee Processing Center data base (we just used it here in our previous post) so they can know AFTER THE FACT who has been brought into the state by a non-profit group.
Here is the news at KnoxNews (hat tip: Joanne):
WASHINGTON — The White House sought Monday to ease concerns among the nation’s governors about Syrian refugees entering the United States by proposing a new program that would provide regular data on refugees who have settled in their states.
In a letter to Gov. Bill Haslam and other governors, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough defended the refugee vetting process as “extraordinarily thorough and comprehensive.” But McDonough said the administration would be willing to work through the National Governors Association to set up a new system to provide governors with more information about the refugees in their states.
Under the new program, once the State Department receives a governor’s request for data on refugees, it would compile a report tailored to that individual state. The data would include information on refugees resettled in the state during the prior month and the fiscal year to date.
That information is already available to anyone wishing to take the time to access it!
As I said earlier, the governors should be able to call the US State Department every week, as the decisions are being made. It is outrageous to think that some unelected non-profit group employee is making decisions for state taxpayers.
The US State Department and un-elected non-profits are making the decisions!
Representatives of the nine contractors*** sit down in the DC area every week and make the decision with the US State Department about where to send refugees!
Go here (official US State Dept. website) if you don’t believe me! Maybe the governors should demand to have representatives in those meetings as they divvy-up the cases!
Every week, representatives of each of these nine agencies meet to review the biographic information and other case records sent by the overseas Resettlement Support Centers (RSC) to determine where a refugee will be resettled in the United States.
So to re-cap!
David Miliband (former British Foreign Secretary) and now CEO of the International Rescue Committee knows who is coming to your state in advance, the governor is not permitted to know!
Lavinia Limon of USCRI knows in advance, but the governors don’t know.
Erol Kekic and the Rev. McCullough of Church World Service know in advance, but the governors don’t know.
Tsehaye Teferra of the Ethiopian Development Council knows (your governor isn’t permitted to know).
Linda Hartke of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service knows in advance, but the governors don’t!
Mark Hetfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society knows in advance, but your governors don’t know.
That is enough, you get the idea!
You didn’t elect these people who are determining the demographic and economic future of your towns and cities!
Be sure to read the whole article, apparently the issue of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program will be on the agenda of the Winter Meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, DC, February 20-23.
***The nine federal contractors running the show, as Don Barnett said here in the Washington Times on Sunday!
- Church World Service (CWS)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- World Relief Corporation (WR)
Action Alert: Call your members of the House and Senate at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vigorously oppose the Refugee Resettlement funding contained in the Omnibus Spending Bill that will be voted on by 12-11-15! Please call by this Friday, Dec. 4th.
Contractor says governors can find out which refugees are being resettled; White House said NO
Update: White House is now saying they will give information to governors, but it is info. already available to the public, here.
In a recent conference call with the White House, governors were told that they are not permitted to find out who is being resettled in their states, while here a big-wig at Church World Service says governors need only call the US State Department and they will be told who is coming.
We reported on the conference call here—the White House said NO they can’t! (You know I’ve noticed that many of the operatives in the resettlement contracting business know less than we do about what is going on!)
Now here we have Church World Service Director of Refugees and Immigration Programs, Bosnian Erol Kekic, telling Chris Christie to call up the US State Department and they will tell him who is coming to New Jersey and when:
Resettlement groups immediately declared their independence. “We don’t believe the directive the governor put in place is necessarily enforceable,” said Erol Kekic, executive director of immigration and refugee programs for Church World Service. “Immigration is a federal issue. He can’t control who lives in his state.” And as for reporting any contact, Kekic said that information on any refugees settled in New Jersey is already easily available to governors by calling the State Department in Washington, D.C. “It’s not something very secret, nor it is hard to obtain,” said Kekic, “If Christie and these other governors want to know who and where these refugees are, maybe they should pick up the phone?”
Note to Governor Christie (and other governors):
Pick up the phone! Call Anne Richard, Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration each week and get a list of who is being resettled in New Jersey (or your state).
CWS, probably Kekic himself, sits down each week with PRM and decides who is going where.
Then Governor Christie, make a public announcement each week about which refugees are going to which NJ towns and cities and you would do your NJ citizens a great service. They have a right to know (they will be paying for it!).
If you haven’t made the connection, Kekic works for the Rev. McCullough, we told you about here on Sunday. He is the guy being arrested in front of the White House. Remember these federal contractors also promote amnesty for illegal aliens!