Just like the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Church World Service, representing some major churches in America,*** do not want you, taxpaying Americans, to have any say in which impoverished third worlders are placed in your towns and cities.
Read all about the lawsuit to put a roadblock before Trump’s September Executive Order that although far from perfect, at least acknowledges that heretofore you have had no say in the demographic future of America.
Nine contractors working with the US State Department make the decisions!
As promised yesterday I’ve had a little look into Church World Service’s finances and say once again, if they were a true religious charity, not receiving any taxpayer dollars, we would have no quibble with the sources of their money, or how they spend it.
However, in the case of CWS they are even more heavily funded by you and me than is HIAS and so we have a right to know how our money is being used.
As I said earlier today, tell your children to grow up to run ‘non-profit charities!’
CEO Rev. John McCullough pulled in over $1 million in compensation in just the last 4 years—lucrative work if you can get it!
BTW, for new readers, it was CWS’s activities in my rural county in 2007 that ‘inspired’ me in my investigative work that has become my passion.
And, you should know that CWS also advocates for Open Borders for illegal aliens. (See right)
2015 (Obama year)
$50.1 million from government grants
$25.1 million from other sources of income
Total income: $77.8 million (other smaller sources of income included)(Conservatively 64% federally funded because some of their other smaller amounts of income are from taxpayers too.)
$27 million passed through to other organizations
$16.3 million paid in salaries (salaries do not include other payroll expenses)
$316,714 CEO (McCullough) compensation (includes other compensation from the organization and other related compensation)
2016 (Obama’s top refugee ‘welcoming’ year)
$61.3 million from government grants
$24.7 million from other sources of income
Total income: $88.5 million(69% federally funded.)
$29.5 million passed through to other organizations
$15.5 million paid in salaries
$333,626 CEO (McCullough) compensation
2017 (Trump takes over 3 and 1/2 month into the fiscal year)
$68.4 million from government grants
$24.6 million from other sources of income
Total income: $95.8 million(71% federally funded)
$41 million passed through to other organizations
$16.3 million paid in salaries
$345,366 CEO (McCullough) compensation
2018 (Trump year)
$39.3 million from government grants
$23.8 million from other sources of income
Total income: $66.1 million (60% federally funded.)
$20.9 million passed through to other organizations
$13.3 million paid in salaries
$353,220 CEO (McCullough) compensation
Interesting trend line! Unlike HIAS whose budget is growing via private money under Trump, CWS’s is declining (sharply from 2017 to 2018, no wonder they are ticked off).
However, despite the wailing when Trump came in, CWS had an exceptional year in 2017 when it was 71% federally funded.
But the best fun fact is that as the organization’s resources declined in 2018 (closed offices and reduced staff), the Reverend McCullough’s compensation continued an upward climb. Hmmmm! Doing well by doing good!
*** Find out if your church is a member congregation of CWS, see here.
It is as simple as this: HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) wants to continue to call the shots from Washington, DC about where refugees will be placed in America.
You, who live in cities large and small are expected to shut up and let the professionals and experts determine which third world refugees will be resettled in which communities.
Never mind that as we pointed out here, the President’s Executive Order really doesn’t do much and never mind that there are yet no published guidelines from the federal government about how the Executive Order would be carried out, HIAS is nevertheless getting a jump on it by beating their anti-Trump drums and filing a lawsuit.
Clearly they have no interest in listening to what citizens have to say about their community being forever changed by federal contractors working for the US State Department.
I suspect this new lawsuit is all about raising more money from an outraged constituency and I’ll tell you why I think that after you see what HIAS said yesterday.
Here is Mark Hetfield, HIAS CEO in an e-mail announcing the lawsuit:
Dear Friend,
In September, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) purporting to give state and local governments the authority to block refugee resettlement in their jurisdictions. This state-by-state, city-by-city refugee ban not only violates federal law, but also keeps refugees apart from their families, and prevents willing and able American communities like yours from welcoming people in need of safety. [Cry me a river!—ed]
This morning, HIAS, joined by two other refugee agencies, filed suit to stop this latest attempt to shut down refugee resettlement.
Today HIAS, together with two other refugee resettlement agencies, took President Trump to court over his recent executive order giving state and local officials authority to block refugee resettlement in their jurisdictions.
HIAS, Church World Service (CWS), and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) are suing the administration because it is attempting to enact a state-by-state, city-by-city refugee ban.
[….]
The president’s order, signed on September 26, would require resettlement agencies, including HIAS, CWS, and LIRS, to obtain written consent from all localities and states in which they plan to resettle refugees. If written consent cannot be obtained, it could prevent resettlement agencies from maintaining local affiliate offices that provide essential services to refugees already in the area.
According to the complaint, filed this morning in U.S. District Court in Maryland, the executive order violates federal law, which requires federal agencies to make decisions about where refugees are to be placed within the United States according to a detailed list of factors, leaving no room for state and local governments to veto such decisions.
What factors? What are the detailed list of factors on which the feds (with their contractors) base their placement decisions? Shouldn’t we be given that information? We are the ones paying for it in more ways than one!
HIAS continues…
HIAS sued the Trump administration in 2017, when the president’s executive order called for halting refugee resettlement and banning people from seven majority Muslim countries with an exception for non-Muslim religious minorities.
Melissa Keaney, Senior Litigation Staff Attorney for IRAP called the order “a back-door attempt to decimate the refugee resettlement program.” and noted that a single local politician should not be able to stop Americans who have been waiting years to reunite with family members. [Their willingness to flat out lie is disgusting! A single local politician could not stop resettlement!—ed]
“Trump’s War on Refugees” as they call it, has been very lucrative for HIAS!
I suspected that HIAS, and maybe some of the other contractors, was financially hurting as the Trump Administration has severely cut back on the number of paying clients (aka refugees) that the contractors are paid to ‘care for’ for a brief time, but I was wrong.
HIAS is better off financially today than it was at the pinnacle of the Obama Administration when refugees were pouring in by the tens of thousands.
We are getting into the weeds here, but hang in there.
I went back to the last four years of HIAS’s IRS Form 990s and guess what I confirmed? HIAS is richer today than when Obama’s refugee spigot was wide open.
Their federal dollars have fallen only slightly while their private fundraising has mushroomed with the addition of over $10 million to their income between 2015 and 2018.
They are making money hand over fist because Donald Trump is in the White House!
In addition they are paying out more in salaries and giving less to other organizations.
Let me be clear. If HIAS was a truly charitable organization that was not partially funded by taxpayers, I wouldn’t care about where their money came from, where they spent it, or how large their salaries are, but we, the taxpayers of America, are involuntarily paying for their overtly political activities and thus have a right to know how our money is being spent.
Here is a summary of some key data points on their IRS forms (I’m rounding numbers to make it easier to follow the money!):
2015 (Obama year)
$20.4 million from government grants
$15.2 million from other sources of income
Total income: $40.6 million(other smaller sources of income included)(Conservatively 50% federally funded because some of their other smaller amounts of income are from taxpayers too.)
$8.5 million passed through to other organizations
$12.2 million paid in salaries (salaries do not include other payroll expenses)
$375,000 CEO (Hetfield) compensation (includes other related compensation)
2016 (Obama’s top refugee ‘welcoming’ year)
$24.5 million from government grants
$17.4 million from other sources of income
Total income: $45.3 million(54% federally funded)
$12.2 million passed through to other organizations
$13.9 million paid in salaries
$344,000 CEO total compensation
2017 (Trump takes over)
$20.7 million from government grants
$19.9 million from other sources of income
Total income: $48.4 million (43% federally funded)
$8.9 million passed through to other organizations
$15.9 million paid in salaries
$322,000 CEO total compensation (took a little pay cut)
2018 (Trump)
$19.1 million from government grants (just about what they were raking in during Obama’s 2015!)
$27.4 million from other sources of income
Total income: $50 million (38% federally funded)
$6.6 million passed through to other organizations
$14.9 million paid in salaries
$330,000 CEO total compensation
Bottomline: HIAS is wealthier today ($10 million wealthier) than they were four years ago and I suspect they are fully aware of how the President, and their campaign against him, has enormously helped their fundraising operations.
The lawsuit will likely bring in gobs more money for them!
And, just so you know, I’ll be looking at the Form 990s of the other ‘religious charity’ partners in this lawsuit.
Just when I thought I knew all the ways in which the federal refugee resettlement contractors were milking taxpayers, along comes ‘Switchboard.’
If the millions of dollars we dole out to nine refugee contractors isn’t enough, we, US taxpayers, are funding what is for all intents and purposes a federally funded Leftwing community organizing operation!
Continue reading!
This story’s headline at WickedLocal(wth?) caught my eye.
Chelmsford mosque hosts forum on immigration, refugee issues Billerica leader speaks
Gee, what kind of forum was a Massachusetts mosque holding I wondered.
Here are a few snips from the beginning of the news account:
A forum held Nov. 14 at the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell mosque explored issues of immigration and refugees — including changes, challenges, and uncertainties.
The forum was sponsored by BRIDGES — the acronym for Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity.
BRIDGES represents a collaborative effort of state, federal and local government agencies.
Participants included religious leaders, law enforcement officials, a representative from U.S. Rep. Laurie Trahan of the 3rd Congressional District.
[….]
BRIDGES formed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, explained Fatema Esmail, of the Anjuman-e-Ezzi Masjid in Billerica — a mosque that serves the area’s Dawood Bohra, a movement within Shi’a Islam.
Esmail said the organization began with a mission — “to start a better dialogue for understanding, between community leaders and government officials.”
Activities have included cultural sensitivity trainings for personnel at Logan Airport, and with police departments across the state, and across New England.
We will have to have a look at BRIDGES in the future, but here is what I was most interested in…
The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement sent a representative?
The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) (this is Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services) is sending spokesmen out to forums like this and suggesting that everything should be fine and dandy (for more refugee arrivals) in New England as governors there would want more refugees.
But, Jason Crislip, “representing the ORR”, doesn’t work for ORR.
He works for David Milibandat the International Rescue Committee that has apparently recently created another avenue, called Switchboard,to siphon off more of your tax dollars!
These Leftist Open Borders groups are masters of deception as they create new groups, which is all fine and dandy as long as we aren’t paying for it!
Jason Crislip, of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, said the Trump administration has proposed reduction of refugee resettlements in the current fiscal year from 30,000 to 18,000. [Crislip is not on the staff of the Office of Refugee Resettlement!—ed]
ORR surrogate Jason Crislip
In addition, Crislip said a presidential executive order, issued Sept. 26, aims to provide state and local consent for the resettlement of refugees.
Not to worry assures Crislip, your New England governors will be on board with MORE refugees.
Governors of New England states have generally indicated support for local consent, said Crislip, who said, “This is a good thing for the refugee program in New England.”
The resettlement program will continue as normally until June 1, which [sic] expected changes take effect, Crislip said. Crislip said the Department of State has begun releasing some information to illuminate the changes.
June 1? What happens then? The Deep staters have their pipelines well established, and those of us whose communities will be changed by what they decide in Washington, DC will be the last to know!
I’m going to be paying close attention to Switchboard which is fully funded by you—the taxpayers through a $ 1.2 million grant from the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Dear Stephen Miller, if you read RRW, check out this latest federal boodle going to community organizers working against the President!
The IRC received $1,194,063 through competitive funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant # 90RB0052. The project will be financed with 100% of Federal funds and 0% by non-governmental sources.The contents of this website are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
Just think about that!
WE supply the funding and Open Borders agitators do what they want (in our name!).
Here is a recent story from their blog (a blog that you pay for!).
The Leftwing propaganda machine runs on stories, stories to tug on your emotions. We need to be doing more of that with stories of our own like those I report at ‘Frauds, Crooks and Criminals!’ for free!
I told you about this collaborationwhen it was happening, US refugee resettlement contractor, the International Rescue Committeecompeted for a $100 MILLLION prize and won by joining with Sesame Street to produce a Middle Eastern version of the show being produced in Jordan. Characters will of course be speaking Arabic.
Too funny that we have the IRC’s CEO David Milibandcrying the blues to CBS’s Leslie Stahl that there isn’t enough money to solve the refugee crisis in the Middle East.
Bringing home the boodle?
I wondered if somehow Miliband’s huge salary jump from $600,000 in 2017 to over $900,000 now was somehow related to winning this multi-million dollar prize? Just wondering?
Sesame and the IRC join forces to help Syrian refugee children
It’s [Sesame Street] been using television to educate kids in the U.S., including tackling tough subjects like racism and death, for five decades. And it’s done local versions in other countries. In 2016, Sesame Workshop and the IRC had been strategizing about how they could collaborate to help refugee children when a new competition was announced. The prize: a stunning 100 million dollars.
British press called Miliband a member in good standing of the “begging bowl barons!” https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2019/10/02/the-british-press-notices-million-dollar-miliband/
David Miliband: The MacArthur Foundation offered $100 million to any organization who was ready to, quote-unquote “solve a big global problem.”
Lesley Stahl: A global problem that was intractable.
David Miliband: We defined the global problem we wanted to tackle was trauma, toxic stress among refugee children in the Middle East.
In the final pitch to the competition’s judges, Miliband and his Sesame Workshop counterpart Sherrie Westin presented a two-pronged plan: Sesame Workshop would create a new show for the Middle East and the IRC would dramatically expand its services to young refugee kids directly, including where they’re living.
Lesley Stahl: And they gave you $100 million.
David Miliband: Yeah, $100 million is not as much as it sounds. Because it’s–
Lesley Stahl: It isn’t?
David Miliband: It’s over–
Lesley Stahl: It sounds huge.
David Miliband: It’s over (LAUGH) five years. And we’re delivering in-person services to over a million kids and educational content via TV to nearly 8 million kids. So it’s a big enterprise.
The IRC receives nearly a half a billion a year from you, the US taxpayer.
So, I guess the good news is that the money is coming from a filthy rich private foundation and the plan is for it to take care of the refugees where they are—intheir own cultural zone.
I’ve been sounding like a broken record when I continue to report that we are taking tens of thousands of DR Congolese refugees (housed in camps like this one) at the behest of the United Nations.
Nakivale’s camp sign, where corruption is alleged, is meaningful. Hijra is the Islamic doctrine of migration and although they don’t say it, it means spreading Islam via immigration.
In fact, the DR Congolese make up the largest number of refugees being admitted to the US right now, during the Trump administration, even as Congolese elsewhere in Africa are going home. See here.
In case you are wondering, most Congolese are not Muslims, but a small number being admitted to the US are.
The Uganda camp sounded familiar to me, so I went to my archives to see if I had written about Nakivale and sure enough I had, in 2010, when we were taking thousands of Somalis from that camp.
Here is what I reported nearly ten years ago in a post entitled:
Are you sitting down! UN sending 6000 more Somalis to US this year
The Obama administration agreed to take that number from Nakivale camp in Uganda because the Somalis could not get along with the other refugees in the camp.
An article that has now been removed quoted a source who said this:
Explaining the reason of resettling Somalis to the US, Katura said Somali refugees have failed to integrate with other refugee groups living in Nakivale and with the local communities because of their unique language and culture. [This is insane, they can’t get along with other African people but they are going to jump into the mythical American melting pot and come out as just good old regular Americans!—ed]
Later, in 2017, we learned that some of the Nakivale Somalis went to Minnesota thanks to Catholic Charities, here.
Earlier this year we heard about the allegations of fraud and corruption in the UN system in Africa, here, and this news is a continuation of a supposed effort by the UN to find out exactly how alleged corruption is occurring.
UN Refugee Agency Reopens Corruption Investigation
Refugee Sources Report Retaliation After Speaking Out
The United Nations is investigating allegations of corruption among employees at a Ugandan refugee camp following a 100Reporters investigation, but victims say they face retaliation for testifying and that the UN is not protecting them.
In a story published in partnership with NBC News and Journalists for Transparency, refugees at the Nakivale settlement in southwest Uganda said employees and contractors working for the UN Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, as well as local police and employees of the Ugandan government’s Office of the Prime Minister and police, were demanding bribes for everything from access to essential services, including medical referrals, to resettlement in Europe or the U.S.
The reporting came as part of a broader investigation this spring, in which dozens of refugees in East Africa accused UNHCR staff and contractors of exploiting refugees and whitewashing corruption charges.
Refugees interviewed said they felt they had nowhere to turn when they witnessed corruption, as they had to rely on the UNHCR, whose mandate is to protect them, for food, medicine and safety.
A UNHCR spokesperson denied the allegations of wrongdoing at the time the stories were published. But staff are now carrying out interviews with refugee witnesses at the Nakivale refugee settlement and elsewhere.
Continue reading because there is a question about whether the UN is looking for fraud and corruption, or trying to find out how allegations of fraud reached the mainstream media’s ears!
Maddening isn’t it!
First we took thousands of Somalis from this camp and now we are taking thousands more Congolese just because the UN wants us to take them off their hands.
Endnote:Just had a quick look at the data at the Refugee Processing Centerand see that we processed a whopping 2,697 refugees into the US from Uganda in the last fiscal year. See here. (Don’t look at the colored map it is messed up, look at the chart and scroll down to Uganda.)
