Category: The Opposition

Lutheran Leftists release propaganda to influence amnesty bill in Congress

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just in time for the August recess, and time for Members of Congress and Senators to go home to their states and districts, a major federal refugee contractor and advocate for amnesty, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), has come out with “mythbuster” handouts so that Lutherans can be sure to hit-up their members with literature in hand.

When I saw the list of those LIRS is thanking I want to ask all Lutheran readers—-is your church so far to the Left that you rely on the Center for American Progress (Soros!) for your talking points?

Linda Hartke, LIRS CEO. Big smooch to Soros and the boys at Center for American Progress.

Here is the news about the Mythbusters at the Sacramento Bee (which was too lazy to write its own story and just posts the press release from LIRS verbatim):

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2013 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)  today releases its Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster, a unique infographic resource that arms advocates with the truth about reform’s social and economic benefits, while debunking the most widely propagated misinformation.

“The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster comes at an absolutely critical time,” said LIRS President and CEO Linda Hartke. “We can’t let the immigration reform debate be hijacked by propaganda or myths. At this moment in our nation’s history, perhaps more than at any other time, it’s clear that our nation’s future and economic well-being hinges on our welcoming of New Americans.”

“The facts are clear: Our immigration system is not working, and it’s time we enact fair and humane immigration reform that keeps families united and protects refugees and other vulnerable migrants,” said LIRS Director for Advocacy Brittney Nystrom. “The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster makes the clear case that immigration reform with a roadmap to citizenship is the right thing to do for migrants and refugees and the right choice for our nation’s lawmakers.”

“Congress’s August recess is a pivotal time for immigration reform,” said Nystrom. “Armed with this new Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster, we all need to make our Members of Congress understand why immigration reform is critical for our nation’s families, communities, and economy.”

A reminder to readers, your tax dollars pay for the work of LIRS (96% of their funds come from you)!

LIRS is grateful to the Center for American Progress and the American Immigration Council for helping to ensure the accuracy of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster.

Let’s talk about the accuracy!!!   OMG! They use Malta as an example of a country that takes more refugees than the US per 1000 square kilometers. 

MALTA OF ALL PLACES! (click here then click on the refugee propaganda)

Suffering Malta doesn’t want to take them permanently (as we do), they are illegal migrants that Malta is trying desperately to return to where they came from or move on to other countries.  But, some dumb American (even a dumb Member of Congress) is going to assume from this “mythbuster” that Malta is somehow more generous than America.  I can hear it now:  ‘Isn’t that so welcoming of tiny Malta to be so generous to the downtrodden while we are so stingy!’

For the real truth about Malta, see our nearly 6-year-old Malta (Mess!) archive here.

Some of those other comparisons are nuts too.  Sure Jordan has more refugees at the moment, but we all know what that is from.  One can’t honestly compare their situation with America, but then honesty is not Soros’ and Podesta’s way (nor the Lutherans either I guess!).

Grrrrr!

Blog cites RRW on Bishops taking money from Caesar, gets a good discussion going

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You might want to check out Juicy Ecumenism a blog at The Institute on Religion and Democracy on the issue of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops receiving millions of tax dollars every year to resettle refugees.  I wasn’t familiar with it, but blogger Marjorie Jeffrey cites RRW and pulls in other information about the USCCB pushing the Gang of Eight bill (S.744) through Congress.  A lively discussion follows in the comment section.

You might want to join the discussion!

Our extensive archive on the USCCB and its entanglement with the US government and dependence on taxpayer dollars is here.

Big immigrant-run food stamp fraud bust in Cleveland area

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to Cleveland!   While ‘Welcoming America’ is busy trying to persuade Cleveland that diversity is beautiful and that they need more of it, some of their diversity has figured out how to scam the US taxpayer out of $2 million!

First have a look at the news from La Prensa about how bringing more diversity to Cleveland will improve the economy:

Embracing a more proactive immigrant friendly vision for Cleveland, Global Cleveland partnered with MetroHealth Medical Center and Welcoming America to lay groundwork to transform the city. Nearly 250 guests attended the movie and post discussion at MetroHealth Medical Center on July 16, 2013.

And here we have David Lubell again out hocking that Shelbyville propaganda film!  Lubell’s organization was recently hired by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to sell reluctant cities on the idea of “welcoming” refugees.  La Prensa continues:

‘Welcoming America’ trying to sell Cleveland on increasing immigrant diversity to save itself from the same fate as Detroit!

“We often dismiss people with fear,” said David Lubell, executive director of Welcoming America, which is a critical mistake in the effort to transform the mindset of a community. Welcoming America is a national nonprofit organization working to improve immigrant integration by direct engagement through individual and group efforts to create local initiatives that facilitate cultural understanding and ease transitions.

Lubell said all communities are different; some have less distance to do and working with Global Cleveland and other partners Welcoming America will determine where the city stands to best address its needs. Lubell said there is intense competition brewing amongst cities to become the most immigrant friendly city in the United States and attract global talent.

Global talent!  That is a good way to describe the major (many are Muslim or Middle Eastern) network of bright convenience store food stamp scammers!   Cleveland is about to lose three of its most talented Arabs.

EBT Nation! LOL!  We use this graphic when I can’t find a photo of the perps!

From ABC 5 in Cleveland:

BROOK PARK, Ohio – Three Brook Park men have been indicted for defrauding the food stamp program out of $2 million at four Cleveland stores.

The United States Attorney’s Office of Northern Ohio said brothers Saed and Maher Wahdan, along with the help of Nidal Jaber, accepted food stamps for ineligible items like beer and cigarettes.

All three men have been indicted on counts of conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud, food stamp fraud and unlawful redemption of food stamps.

U.S. Attorney for Northern Ohio Steven Dettelbach said that attempts will be made to recover stolen money.

“The food stamp program has provided nutritious food to thousands of hungry families over the years,” he said. “We will continue to work to recover money stolen from the program and eradicate waste, fraud and abuse of government programs.”

Between January 2008 and March 2012, the three men attempted to commit more than $2 million in food-stamp fraud through four of their businesses that were held under different names to conceal Saed Wahdan’s prior food stamp convictions, authorities said. Those stores were One Stop Beverage, 5105 Franklin Blvd.; Bridge Deli and Beverage, 4700 Bridge Ave.; Franklin Beverage and Deli, 4719 Franklin Blvd., and Scott Food Mart, 951 Linn Drive.

The three men used their businesses to exchange customer food stamps for cash and other unauthorized items. They also bought food stamp cards from customers to use at other grocery locations to get inventory for their stores and for their personal use, according to the indictment.

The indictment seeks to forfeit the businesses run by the Wahdans.

Food stamp fraud is a side interest of mine at RRW.  We have an extensive archive on cases like this one (click here).

As each year passes and our archive grows I still hold out hope that some real investigative reporter will dig into this story—how do all these immigrants acquire these Mom & Pop grocery stores and then go into the food stamp fraud racket?   And, every time I hear the likes of Lubell say immigrants are entrepreneurs and open shops, I can’t help but think of these food stamp scammers.

Kerry chewed out by “most difficult refugees”—Syrians at Zaatari

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just recently we posted on the UN’s Kilian Kleinschmidt telling Der Spiegel that the refugees at Zaatari in Jordan are the “most difficult he has ever seen.”  Did Kerry find that out too?

Kerry meets with Syrian “refugees” trying to drag US (further!) into their civil war.

Last week, Secretary of State Kerry met with “refugees” in the camp who gave him an earful about how the US wasn’t doing enough to help the ‘rebels.’  I fully expected to see demands that they be taken to America, but at least in this story, they only want the US to insert itself even further into their civil war.

In reality, it’s often the NGOs (paid by the head for each refugee they resettle) who want to take them to America, sometimes against their will.

From AP at Yahoo News (hat tip: Charles):

ZAATARI, Jordan (AP) — Angry Syrian refugees confronted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday with demands for the United States and the international community to do more to help opponents of President Bashar Assad’s regime, venting frustration at perceived inaction on their behalf.

Visiting the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan near the Syrian border, Kerry met six representatives of its 115,000-strong population, all of whom appealed to him for the U.S. and its allies to create no-fly zones and set up safe zones inside Syria to prevent the Assad regime from inflicting additional destruction.

The article mentions that the number of refugees in the camp is declining.

The Photo is from this article, not clear who the photo credit belongs to.

IBD: La Raza and other non-profits will benefit from S.744 “slush fund”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars!

That is exactly what we have been saying for months—S.744, the Gang of Eight plus Grover bill provides massive new funding for non-profits including the nine major refugee contractors.

This excellent summary by M. Stanton Evans for Investors Business Daily, even suggests that the slush funds might be the major reason behind the whole monstrosity.  Thanks to Creeping Sharia again for alerting us to an important news item.

[Note to readers:  The link is giving me fits this morning, so what I have snipped below is all I could get before getting error messages]

The title, La Raza In Line To Pocket Reform-Bill Slush Funds, focuses the piece around The National Council of La Raza, but what La Raza presently gets from you, the taxpayer, is chump change ($10 million annually) compared to the tens of millions NGOs like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services receive now for their immigrant services.  If S. 744 (or anything like it) becomes law, they will be rolling in your money.

LOL!  Yesterday I saw a Catholic official quoted as saying the Catholic Church is “enriched” by immigrants!  Can’t find the link right now, but I did laugh at the choice of the word “enrich.”

Here is some of the IBD piece by Mr. Evans, but check out the whole thing.

The avowed purpose of the immigration bill passed by the Senate and pending in the House is to provide a “path to citizenship” for the illegal immigrants in exchange for tough new enforcement measures that would prevent other such incursions in the future.

But buried deep within the immigration bill are hidden multimillion-dollar slush funds for left-wing nonprofit groups to provide services to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants now in the U.S. Once enacted, the slush funds would total almost $300 million over three years and grow over time.

Reviewing the massive legislation, it’s obvious that lawyering would be needed. The 1,100-page proposal is a network of legal requirements and protections, waivers and exceptions, including a new “provisional immigrant” status (the first phase of legalization for illegals), appeals of adverse rulings, stays of deportation, applications for work visas, and countless other such guarantees.

Within this thicket of new rights are features that would vastly increase the flow of immigrants to perhaps 30 million or 40 million over the next decade. One is a set of “chain immigration” clauses, legalizing the spouses and children of illegals.

Recipients of the pork (Obama’s redistribution of your wealth) are not named in the bill.

The bill provides a sizable slush fund for leftward groups in the immigrant serving, advocacy and lobbying business. As Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., puts it, the bill is “chock-full of de facto earmarks, pork barrel spending, and special interest sweeteners.”

Though the nonprofit agencies getting the money aren’t named in the bill, their identities can be deduced from the history and politics of the issue.

We can name some, besides La Raza, the advocacy groups getting more of your money will be Casa de Maryland, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Assoc., Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Mass Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, others for your states!

Then here are the nine major refugee contractors (plus they have 300 or so subcontractors making it very difficult to follow your money):

Evans continued discussing the various slush funds and then says this:

One section creates a “New Immigrant Council,” including representatives of nonprofits “with legal and advocacy experience working with immigrant communities,” to “introduce and integrate” new immigrants “into the state.” The bill authorizes an additional $100 million — $20 million a year for five years — to finance these efforts. Thus a second slush fund is created.

A third grant program appears in a later section, funding an outreach “campaign” to inform immigrants and the public about employee “rights, responsibilities and remedies” in the legislation. This recruitment project too would be contracted to nonprofits, at a cost of $120 million — $40 million a year over a three-year span.

While the Senate bill is advertised as a “tough, conservative” measure, the largely unnoticed sanctuary funding and La Raza clauses may be the real point of the legislation.

Our entire archive on S.744 and the refugee contractors can be found by clicking here.

Call your Congressman to stop the train wreck!