“We reiterate that the only strategy to combat ‘irregular’ migration is to open legal, safe channels, managed at the European level.”
(Paolo Naso)
The Leftist Open Borders Evangelicals do not represent all Evangelicals. I hate it when the media makes it sound like Leftwing political Christians are somehow representative of all Christians. But that has been the game for decades as the cultural Marxists work to bring about the (yes I’m saying it) the new world order.
We pay attention to Europe because what is happening there is a warning to us! See my complete Invasion of Europearchive.
Italian Evangelicals Call for Open Channels of African Migration into Europe
ROME — A prominent Protestant leader in Italy has called for streamlined channels of immigration from Africa into Europe after some 370 migrants arrived on the island of Lampedusa Saturday night.
Paolo Naso, coordinator of Mediterranean Hope, the migrant and refugee program of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, said Sunday that the current situation on Lampedusa is “undeniably unsustainable” both for migrants and residents, while calling for the immediate activation of “even temporary networks for the immediate reception of the most vulnerable subjects.”
“For our part, we are engaged in assisting the landings to help associations and institutions to manage the first moments of the arrivals of these people,” Mr. Naso said. “As Protestant churches we are ready to collaborate with institutions and other associations to seek solutions related to this emergency.”
“We are facing an emergency that was, however, entirely predictable, given the conditions in Tunisia and Libya,” he added.
Matteo Salvini
Opposing efforts by Matteo Salvini’s Lega party to control immigration by securing ports and borders, Naso insisted that the only real solution is to open regular channels of legal immigration.
“We reiterate that the only strategy to combat ‘irregular’ migration is to open legal, safe channels, managed at the European level,” he said.
Banners of demonstrators included messages such as “Stop Immigrants,” “Close Lampedusa Welcome Center,” and “Criminal Government.”
Matteo Salvini, leader of the populist Lega party, has blamed the leftist coalition government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for the recent surge in illegal migrants.
Last month, Mr. Salvini noted that “landings have tripled since last year, with illegal immigrants being recovered even near Maltese waters, while Lampedusa is collapsing and hundreds of immigrants flee the reception centers who risk spreading Covid-19.”
The Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) just completed a three-day grassroots lobbying campaign to pressure members of Congress into supporting a refugee admissions ceiling of 95,000 refugees*** who would begin arriving in the US in a few short weeks—the 2021 fiscal year begins October 1.
Of course it isn’t Congress that makes that decision it is the Executive branch as stated by law in the Refugee Act of 1980. Their campaign, that ran from Tuesday through Thursday this week, was designed for several reasons.
They want Senators and members of Congress to pressure the administration, they want the media to pay attention to an issue that has almost completely disappeared from the news, and they want to give their groupies and grassroots around the country something to do on an issue that they think makes the President look bad before November.
You cansee their “toolkit” (they love toolkits) complete with talking points and contact information for representatives in Washington.
Here is their sample script because I guess they assume their people aren’t smart enough to figure out what to say:
Sample Script: “I’m your constituent from [CITY/TOWN], and I urge you to hold the administration accountable to resettling refugees. The administration is required by law to consult with Congress by September 30th before deciding the refugee admissions goal for Fiscal Year 2021. In the last three years, the administration has cut refugee resettlement by more than 80%, from the historic average goal of 95,000 to just 18,000 – an all-time low. Our country can – and should – safely resettle more refugees and reunite more families. Refugees have contributed greatly to America in ordinary times, and have continued to show up for their new communities during the COVID-19 crisis, with many on the frontlines, including 176,000 serving as healthcare workers and 175,000 working in the food supply chain. Please do everything in your power to see that the administration meaningfully consults with Congress and builds back refugee admissions to the historic norm of 95,000. My community welcomes refugees, and I urge you to reflect the best of our nation by supporting refugee resettlement.”
In addition to contacting one’s own rep, they want their folks to contact the following members and Senators:
Sen. Graham (R-SC), Chair, Senate Judiciary Committee: 202-224-5972 / @LindseyGrahamSC
Sen. Cornyn (R-TX), Chair, Senate Immigration Subcommittee: 202-224-2934 / @JohnCornyn
Sen. Feinstein (D-CA), Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee: 202-224-3841 / @SenFeinstein
Senator Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member, Senate Immigration Subcommittee: 202-224-2152 / @SenatorDurbin
Rep. Nadler (NY-10), Chair, House Judiciary Committee: 202-225-5635 / @RepJerryNadler
Rep. Lofgren (CA-19), Chair, House Immigration Subcommittee: 202-225-3072 / @RepZoeLofgren
Rep. Jordan (OH-04), Ranking Member, House Judiciary Committee: (202) 225-2676 / @Jim_Jordan
Rep. Buck (CO-04), Ranking Member, House Immigration Subcommittee: 202-225-4676 / @RepKenBuck
And, see my extensive file on theRefugee Council USA, the Washington DC lobbying arm of the refugee industry. Hmmmm! At one point Islamic Relief USAhad been removed from their membership roster, but I see it is back.
Don’t miss my post from Wednesday about the campaign to get local elected officials on board to support huge numbers of refugees for your towns and cities.
***Joe Biden says he is going to go big and change whatever Trump proposes to 125,000 for FY2021 if he is elected President. Truth be told, there isn’t enough capacity within the contractor industry to support that number, heck they can’t adequately resettle 95,000 now either.
And did you know! Forcibly displaced people declined in 2020!
As I said in myprevious post this morning,September is the big month for pressuring the President to set a high ceiling for the number of refugees to be admitted to the US in the fiscal year that begins October first.
I was curious to see if I could find out who is behind this year’s ‘WelcomingRefugees2021.org” campaign and as best as I can figure out it seems to be the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service federal resettlement contractor which has a special “toolkit” for the project here.
I’m guessing however that most ofthe other eight contractors are helping to gin-up local elected official support to pressure the President to set a ceiling of 95,000 refugees for the upcoming year.
Although 95,000 seems to be the magic number again this year, the letter they have prepared for Trump this year leaves that number out. I’m guessing that is because it is so high it would turn off prospective local elected official support.
Take note of the fact that the number of daily needy refugees has dropped from last year. Wow! It is not often that the scaremongers actually report a reduction in the numbers!
1,318 refugees moved to America in the month of August. That is a huge jump from the previous COVID ‘crisis’ months that saw 522 arrive over a four month period from April through July.
Forty states welcomed the third worlders who will now need shelter, food, and medical care as US citizens continue to struggle themselves with those same needs.
Of the nine states and the District of Columbia that were unwelcoming, three are worth mentioning. Vermont (Bernie), Delaware (Biden) and the District of Columbia didn’t take any.
Here is the map for August from the Refugee Processing Center.
I know the numbers are hard to read, so here are the top ten welcoming states (sure send us more poor people!): Texas, California, Washington, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia.
Presidential Determination for 2021 due by the end of the month!
September 30th marks the end of the fiscal year and the President is required to tell Congress this month how many refugees the administration would like to admit in the coming fiscal year.
Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy set up the Refugee Admissions Program that has been operating to bring in more Democrat voters for 40 years. But, I’ve found it ever-so-amusing that Delaware has welcomed only a tiny, tiny number of refugees in those 4 decades.
I haven’t seen anything yet about where the negotiations stand, but if this is like other years there is much negotiating going on behind the scenes. Of course the President could put off making any determination in light of the more important business facing the federal government right now.
Even if Trump sets a low ceiling, as he has done in previous years, it is just a ceiling and doesn’t mean that it must be reached. And, if Biden succeeds in November, all bets are off.
Biden has already promised 125,000 refugees for 2021.
I thought you might be interested in this data at the Refugee Processing Center which shows the ceiling and the actual admissions for the last ten years. Take note of the fact that Obama himself never brought in anywhere near 125,000 in a year.
August 2020 data (1,318) had not been added yet.
And, these numbers do not include the Special Immigrant Visas from Iraq and Afghanistan that are treated with the same benefits as refugees.
As soon as I see anything about what the President is proposing for 2021, I’ll report.
Remember, as we have said for four years, he can set the arrival number at zero!
And, you can be sure that right now the “interfaith community” is getting in gear for what they anticipate will be a great blue wave in November and they will all be back in business when Biden/Harris fling open our borders to the third world beginning in January.
Of course you are probably reading this and thinking: don’t we need to get our people back to work and get through the Chinese virus panic before you hit the Hill with your strategic lobbying for more refugees and for more payola!
No! While you are distracted they are busy as they always are working all the angles to get more fundingand influence more members of Congress to see things their way.
If a member is Catholic—send in the Catholics! Jewish? Send in HIAS. If the Muslims want an entree? The Catholics and the Jews will help make that possible.
This article at Devexdescribes the basics of well-organized lobbying efforts in Washington that you, average citizens, can NEVER match.
These are all well-funded organizations with high paid staff working 40-hour work weeks, 52 weeks a year to influence Congress, and they hope very soon to get back into the White House.
(emphasis is mine)
‘We can be very strategic’: How faith-based NGOs advocate on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON — Many NGOs dedicate time to advocacy (aka lobbying) on Capitol Hill to garner support for development and humanitarian policies and funding, but faith-based organizations work together to bring a different perspective to these lobbying efforts.
“We, at one level, are doing what everybody’s doing, which is trying to understand to the greatest extent we can what drives a particular member.And that is as varied as the membership in the House and Senate,” said Bill O’Keefe, executive vice president for mission, mobilization, and advocacy (aka lobbying) at Catholic Relief Services.***
“We do look at what is the religious background of this member, and is there a particular appeal that we can authentically make that would make a difference in this case?”
[….]
CRS aims to meet with every member of Congress regardless of the member’s religious affiliation, O’Keefe said. The organization’s work to eliminate causes of poverty and injustice is rooted in principles of Catholic social teaching, a tradition that bolsters the NGO’s reputation and allows it to work well with members on both sides of the aisle, he said.
[….]
CRS works closely with other faith-based organizations — both those that are part of what O’Keefe calls “Team Catholic,” as well as those of other faiths — on the Hill to coordinate advocacy (aka lobbying) efforts for certain bills or funding requests.
The NGOs determine what type of appeal may be most effective with particular members who may have seats on relevant committees or from whom they want support.
“If there is an office where the elected official is a strong Catholic, it wouldn’t necessarily make sense for HIAS to take the lead on that meeting,” said Naomi Steinberg, vice president of policy and advocacy (aka lobbying) at refugee resettlement organization HIAS.
“Every single day we are in partnership with other faith organizations and we work in coalition on a lot of different issues. What we find is that we are all heading in the same direction and certainly we sometimes might have different strategies, but through the coalition, we really do speak with one voice.
The value of us coming from different faith traditions is that we can be very strategic.”
HIAS began as an agency that resettled Jewish refugees in the U.S. Now, it is one of nine refugee resettlement agencies in the country that works with people of all faiths as well as with refugees abroad — issues Steinberg said have become unfortunately partisan during the Trump administration.
Her team works to develop relationships with congressional offices even when they are not pushing for a particular policy or funding so that when there is a tougher issue on which they seek support, they have existing contacts to tap.
I was a lobbyist decades ago and I can assure you that this is where they spend a lot of their time building their influence. They make friends with staff members and spend time with them, often outside of regular work hours, so that naturally when the lobbyist needs something, they can get a phone call returned or even get an entree to the member on short notice.
Devex continues….
HIAS also ties this advocacy (aka lobbying) closely with its grassroots efforts on refugee issues, which includes urging Jewish communities across the country to contact their members of Congress to express their support for more funding and higher refugee resettlement caps.
[….]
“One of the messages we share with our grassroots advocacy network … is you should never assume that even if your elected official has been on the right side of these refugee issues, that they know how important this is to you, to their constituency,” Steinberg said.
“Keep those calls coming, keep those emails coming. Because we want them to know that people in their district vote partially based on these issues.” [Other than NumbersUSA and FAIR, with limited staff and financing, I don’t know any other organizations doing this on the immigration restriction side of the debate.—ed]
Politics can also impact inroads faith-based organizations are able to make on Capitol Hill. Jihad Saleh Williams, senior advocacy (aka lobbying) and government affairs advisor at Islamic Relief USA, said his organization can have difficulty getting a response from Republican offices who are nervous to meet with a Muslim organization with which they may not be familiar.
As a former congressional aide, Williams said he understands the instinct of Hill staffers to protect their boss at all costs, and that IR USA must understand “discreetness” required for some of its meetings.
[….]
Williams said he often begins outreach with congressional offices by discussing IR USA’s domestic work in order to build relationships.
Many offices incorrectly believe that the organization only works in the Middle East, he said, or only deals with civil liberties and counterterrorism issues. By educating members about work to promote food security and health access — particularly during COVID-19 — in the U.S., Williams said he can gain an entry point to promote the value of international development and humanitarian work as well.
NGOs use interfaith coalitions to work together to counter such misconceptions about particular groups, positioning faith-based organizations as a united block that support the same issues, regardless of religious affiliation, to strengthen their power on the Hill.
[….]
“I really have tried to work hard over time, particularly with Islamic Relief and with other minority religious groups in the United States, to make sure … when people think of the faith community, they don’t just think of the Christian community,” O’Keefe said.
“We partner a lot with Islamic Relief and consider them brothers and sisters in this development and humanitarian world.”
***I just had a look at the most recent Form 990 for Catholic Reliefand learned that in 2018 they had an income stream of over $936 Million and of that $453,988,287 (nearly a half a billion!) came from you, the US taxpayer!
No wonder they are busy lobbying on the Hill.
Here is the salaries page from that Form 990. Sean Callahan sure is doing well by doing good!
Personal anecdote: About 20 years ago I had a reason for wanting to help a Catholic convent in Danang, VN. The sisters there are devout Catholics who had spent a couple of decades in the rice fields when the Communists took over the country. By the year 2000, the government had lightened up on them and they were back running an orphanage and a school for young children, but they needed financial help.
In my naivete I called Catholic Relief to see if they could help that convent and was told “That isn’t what we do!”
Now I have a better understanding of what they do—big fat salaries, lobbying efforts to garner more funding, and efforts to bring more Muslims into the US is what they do! Nuns in Vietnam who love America can go pound sand.
The Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) just completed a three-day grassroots lobbying campaign to pressure members of Congress into supporting a refugee admissions ceiling of 95,000 refugees*** who would begin arriving in the US in a few short weeks—the 2021 fiscal year begins October 1.
