Category: Trump

Some Counties Still Debating Refugee Consent even as Court has Blocked Trump Reform

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Every morning I scan dozens of refugee stories and am seeing that some counties are still debating and voting to support refugee placement in their counties even as the US State Department says it has stopped seeking consent due to the success of Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in finding a friendly court to enjoin the President’s reform initiative.

(In Minnesota the contractors sent out letters to counties to say they could stop debating the issue, and I assume that is going on elsewhere as well.)

Florida Governor DeSantis was one of a handful of Republican governors who did not say whether he was for or against more refugees for 2020 before the refugee contractors succeeded in halting the President’s reform plan.

Any governors who had not yet said yea or nay are keeping their powder dry—especially the Republican governors of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

I was surprised to see how few counties and states got their letters into the State Department prior to the Maryland court enjoining the whole process on January 15th.

Presumably the administration is working on a legal response, but in the meantime the US Refugee Admissions Program will continue to run as it has been for decades with the nine contractors*** pretty much calling the shots with the help of deep staters in the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in HHS).

Of course at least for now the number of refugees coming in has been greatly reduced (will have numbers on Saturday).  And, whatever happens going forward the exercise was useful for flushing out governors and city and county elected officials who are eager to admit more impoverished people to America for you to take care of with your tax dollars.

Below is what the DOS is telling visitors to their website on the Executive Order:

Remember the consent period as described in the ‘funding guidance’ would only have been in effect from June through September so that timetable must surely be seriously impaired now.

Executive Order 13888 on Enhancing State and Local Involvement in Refugee Resettlement provides that refugees may be resettled only in U.S. jurisdictions where both the state and local governments have provided their consent. Close cooperation with state and local governments ensures that refugees are resettled in communities that are eager and equipped to support their successful integration into American society.

The requirements of Executive Order 13888 are incorporated into the annual notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for resettlement agencies that wish to participate in the initial resettlement of refugees in the United States. The NOFO directs resettlement agencies to seek written consents for that fiscal year from the state governor’s office and the chief executive officer of the local government (county or county equivalent) for each state and locality where the resettlement agencies propose to resettle refugees. Currently, this NOFO is closed due to a January 15, 2020 preliminary injunction issued by the U.S. District Court in HIAS v. Trump, PJM 19-3346.

Executive Order 13888 provides that the Secretary of State shall publicly release any written consent of states and localities to the resettlement of refugees. The following is a list of such written consents that the Department of State had received and processed as of January 13, 2020. Currently, the Department of State is not processing or publishing such consents due to a January 15, 2020 preliminary injunction issued by the U.S. District Court in HIAS v. Trump, PJM 19-3346.

Now go here and see the consent letters that had been processed before January 15.

 

*** For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.

Church World Service one of the ‘religious charities’ responsible for changing America by changing the people with a ‘Christian message.’

And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.

The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?

(I try to post this information once a day, or at least every few days!)

 

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

 

In Oregon: “A beautiful cycle of charity?”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

On Sunday I reported that Democrat writer Steven Roberts (of the DC/NYC bubble) had posted a syndicated column praising Republican governors for betraying the President’s first effort to reform the US Refugee Admissions Program and opening their welcoming arms to more refugees for their states that will ultimately cost state taxpayers millions to care for.

I asked if the Burmese refugee, Esar Met, who raped and murdered a Christian girl in Utah was part of the “beautiful cycle of charity” and suggested you write a letter-to-the-editor if the column shows up in your home town paper.

He especially focused on Utah’s Governor Herbert in his stunningly fluffy piece about how refugees are the most wonderful people, helped by benevolent Christian charity doled out by the likes Church World Service and World Relief, and that they also provide workers to companies looking for unskilled employees for low wage jobs.

But, nary a mention of any cultural upheaval or criminals  that come along with welcoming certain ethnic groups from Africa, Asia and the Middle East—refugees like Esar Met.

Roberts’ implication of course is that our President is a nativist SOB for wanting to halt the “beautiful cycle of charity.”

This morning I see Roberts’ column is published in an Oregon newspaper—at Coos Bay’s The World.

If we don’t remember, it didn’t happen, right?

But, I remember (it is my job to remember) and likely you do too because I reminded readers at ‘Frauds and Crooks’ recently:

Memory Lane: Somali Refugee Planned to Bomb Oregon Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

 

Mohamed Osman Mohamud is a refugee (you raised to adulthood with your tax dollars) who told an FBI undercover operative that it was a “sin” for him and his family to live in the US. So he figured he might blow up some Americans as a jihadist? https://www.kunc.org/post/alleged-christmas-tree-bomber-thought-living-us-was-sin#stream/0

 

Once again, I recommend that if you see Roberts’ fluffy, puffy piece in your paper that you write a response letter-to-the-editor praising the President for trying to keep us safe—for putting Americans FIRST!

Leftists Rejoice as Republican Governors Embrace Refugees, Stick it to Trump

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here we go again!

In order to bludgeon the President, here comes another misinformed diatribe using the Republican governors who consented to receiving more impoverished people for their states’ taxpayers to care for.

The writer (Steven Roberts) is a longtime Democrat who has lived in the Washington, DC/New York City elitist bubble as the husband of journalist Cokie Roberts.  But, because he has lived in his bubble he hasn’t a clue about the refugee admissions program (Washington, DC gets only a handful), how it works, how it impacts communities, how it is paid for, and how it has admitted some evil, yes evil, creatures.

But, that hasn’t stopped him from running his mouth about something he knows so little about!

Esar Met, a Burmese Muslim refugee, raped and murdered a little Burmese Christian girl in Utah in 2008. He was sentenced to life in prison. The medical examiner testified that the child died in excruciating pain. The child’s parents wished they had never been resettled to America. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/05/15/utah-burmese-muslim-refugee-sentenced-in-brutal-rapemurder-of-little-girl/

Roberts uses, as the star of his opinion piece, Gary Herbert, the governor of Utah who prattled on about a “beautiful cycle of charity” when he told the State Department to send Utah more refugees.

More like Esar Met?

Did the governor not know about the horrible murder committed by Burmese refugee Esar Met—the trial was front page news in Utah in 2014—when he penned his “beautiful cycle of charity” letter?

Or, is the governor hoping you all have forgotten about it? (If you don’t remember, it didn’t happen, right!)

I suppose we should forgive Roberts because the national media NEVER reported the story and frankly this is the primary reason I continue to report about the other side of the “beautiful cycle of charity.”

My mission is to balance the news! (and to remember!).

Here is a bit of Roberts’ syndicated column which LOL! brings in my old pals at Church World Service (so get ready for another trip to USA Spending)!

Steven V. Roberts: These Republican governors welcome refugees

Donald Trump didn’t reckon with Gary Herbert.

Since the day the president took office, he has conducted a morally abhorrent and economically absurd campaign against refugees, slashing the annual quota admitted to America from 110,00 during Barack Obama’s last year in office to 18,000 currently.  [Like so many lazy lefties, he fails to mention that Obama never had numbers close to 110,000 in his previous 7 years in office.—ed]

Last fall, Trump doubled down on his appeal to the country’s worst nativist instincts, issuing an executive order that allows individual states and localities to bar all new refugees from resettling within their borders. Clearly, he thought most Republicans would join his cynical crusade.

Utah Governor Herbert, one of many Republican governors to turn on Trump!

Enter Herbert, the governor of Utah since 2009. Not only did he reject Trump’s offer, he wrote a letter to the president welcoming refugees to Utah and asking the administration to send more of them, not fewer.

“Those refugees who resettle in Utah become integrated and accepted into our communities,” wrote the governor. “They become productive employees and responsible citizens. They become contributors to our schools, churches and other civic institutions, even helping serve more recent refugees and thus generating a beautiful cycle of charity. This marvelous compassion is simply embedded into our state’s culture.”

It turns out that “marvelous compassion” is still embedded in our national culture, not just Utah’s, despite the president’s efforts to deny and destroy our heritage. Political leaders across the country, including many Republicans, have soundly rebuked the president because they know Herbert is right: Refugees are an enormous benefit to any community.

Church World Service’s CEO the Reverend McCullough is far left. That is Nihad Awad, CAIR’s head honcho in the middle. They were arrested on the steps of the Capitol this fall protesting the President. McCullough pulls down a handsome salary and benefits package for doing “moral” ‘religious charity’ work.

[….]

Some of the revulsion to Trump’s anti-refugee rampage is simply moral. The Rev. John L. McCullough, president of the Church World Service, an agency that helps resettle refugees, told the New York Times, “With one final blow, the Trump administration has snuffed out Lady Liberty’s torch and ended our nation’s legacy of compassion and welcome.”

[….]

The whole country will suffer from Trump’s poisonous policies. Gary Herbert’s “beautiful cycle of charity” is also a beautiful cycle of growth and prosperity.

You can read it all here . Roberts throws in a bit about how businesses need the cheap labor refugees provide in the “beautiful cycle of charity.”

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=7685

Roberts fails to mention that for its “moral” charitable work Church World Service is paid millions annually by US taxpayers (62.3 % of CWS’s income is from federal grants according to a recent report at Charity Navigator).

Therefore it has a financial interest in opposing the President and lobbying for ever greater numbers of impoverished Africans, Asians and Middle Easterners to be dropped off in your towns and cities (but not in Washington, DC!) for local and state taxpayers to support.

One of CWS’s “moral” agitators!

This is now my third visit to USA Spending in the last week.

See how much boodle the Bishops get, and yesterday I reported on how Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is doing well even under the Trump Administration.

Church World Service is actually doing better under Trump than it did for most of Obama’s years! 

 

https://www.usaspending.gov/#/recipient/c83f597b-f40f-a1a9-e865-31db5c8ea40d-C
What is up with this? See that they are getting more of your money now than they did for most of Obama’s years!!!

 

“Marvelous compassion” pays well!

Here is the page from CWS most recent IRS Form 990.  The good reverend is doing well by doing good—sure must beat leading a flock!

 

Doesn’t that work out to about $130 an hour, not including that extra related income?

 

Is your church a member of Church World Service?

What can you do?

Roberts’ column is syndicated so if you see it show up in your city, write a letter to the editor, use his column to get the paper to publish your views on the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.

Three down and six more visits ahead at USASpending.gov!

Lutherans to TX Governor Abbott: We are Paid to Take Care of Foreigners NOT Americans!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 4 Comments

That is the response to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s suggestion on Fox News earlier this week that groups like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service focus their ‘Christian’ charity on vulnerable Texans.

Governor Abbott’s plea: ‘Humanitarian’ groups should take care of Texans first!

Abbott is the only governor who has said his state needs a break from the massive influx of illegal aliens, asylum seekers and refugees the state has received (like it or not!) for a decade or more.

He suggests that the ‘non-profit’ groups that are pushing refugee resettlement reprioritize and take care of Texans first, especially the homeless, because he says he does not want Texas to be California.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service‘s new CEO, former Michelle Obama staffer, shot back in a story at the Texas Tribune on Wednesday:

Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas nonprofits helping refugees should focus on homelessness. Refugee groups say it doesn’t work that way.

Former Obama staffer, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, became President of LIRS when Linda Hartke was pushed out over some sort of mismanagement scandal.

Gov. Greg Abbott dug his heels in Tuesday in a TV interview explaining why Texas will be the only state in the nation to reject refugees seeking resettlement, saying that aid groups working with refugees should instead prioritize other Texans in need, including the state’s homeless population.

[….]

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said money for resettlement can’t be spent on homelessness or any other safety net programs.

“The federal funding that nonprofit resettlement agencies administer limits its use so it can only be spent through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program,” she said in an email.

More here.

Ms Vignarajah is saying that they aren’t paid to take care of Americans, their millions come from the taxpayers to take care of foreigners only!

So how many millions are we talking about?

Let’s visit USASpending.gov and find out.

Well, this is interesting!  Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) has in the last 12 months received as much as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops!

And, although the Bishops have experienced a steep reduction in their federal taxpayer provided ‘gifts’ since their top Obama year, LIRS has not!

Haven’t they been crying the blues that the President is causing them to close offices?

One reason for their steady stream of funding appears to be that the Lutherans’ budget is being propped up via $38 million from Unaccompanied Alien Children grants, while the USCCB in the same time period received $21 million for what should be more accurately labeled Unaccompanied Alien Teens.  84% of the ‘children’ crossing the border without a parent are above the age of 13.  Two thirds of the teens are males.

Yup! Ms. V is right, all of their federal funding is to take care of foreigners, many here illegally, so, silly Abbott, why on earth would the humanitarian Christians bother with Americans, with vulnerable Texans—there is no MONEY in it!

From USA Spending:

Note that they are down only about $3 million from their top Obama year while the US Catholic Bishops were down by $50 million. Why? I don’t know.

 

See that 60% of their federal boodle is for whatever they are doing with the Unaccompanied Alien Teens (illegal aliens). Close the border and save the taxpayers millions!

 

BTW, I’ve been told by a reliable source that it was the Obama Administration that made this revealing USASpending.gov resource available to us.

Now, it is always fun to have a look at a recent IRS Form 990 for these ‘religious charities.’  This is the salaries page for the most recent one I found for LIRS which is 85%-90% FEDERALLY FUNDED in any given year.

Former CEO Linda Hartke was hitting the $400,000 mark just as she was headed out the door. You were paying 85-90% of that salary and the salaries of the other six-digit employees.  I wonder if they are paying Ms. Vignarajah that much?  (We will find out when their next Form 990 is made public).

 

This is fun. I can’t wait to have a look at the other ‘religious charities’ which use our money to “welcome the stranger” rather than to take care of  Americans.

I sure hope good Lutherans are speaking up and making it clear that LIRS does not represent them!

Oh, and I should have mentioned that LIRS is one of the three federal contractors that filed a lawsuit and successfully halted, for now, President Trump’s first effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.

Impeachment Leader Rep Zoe Lofgren Longtime Proponent of More Refugees for America

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Lofgren (72) has served 13 terms in the House of Representatives serving a district near Fresno, California—a district that is now 58% Hispanic. For as long as I’ve been writing RRW, a dozen years, she has been an outspoken proponent of more third world migration to the US.

When I saw her droning away on the floor of the Senate last night I was reminded to tell you that she has been a leading advocate for more refugee resettlement for decades.

In fact, late last year, she, along with Senator Leahy of Vermont, introduced the ‘Refugee Protection Act of 2019’   which among other things seeks to set a minimum number of refugees that a President must admit to the US each year.

Lofgren, Leahy and a whole host of Democrat lawmakers want the ‘Refugee Act of 1980’ changed to REQUIRE a President to set the annual cap at 95,000 or higher.  Presently there is no floor and a President could set the level at zero if he wished.

A level of a minimum of 95,000 a year would keep the nine federal refugee contractors*** rolling in federal dough with not a worry about a year like this one where the President set the level at 18,000 thus straining their budgets that in many cases depend entirely on federal funding.

You can read about other changes the Democrats want to see, here.

I must say again that this is why the Leftists are successful—they push and they push and they push—while those of us who want to see immigration brought under control must always play defense.

Trump changed that dynamic and that is why they want him gone.

Personally I think it is Trump’s America First! immigration policies that are driving the Dems to a state of insane frenzy.  They are comfortable with Chamber of Commerce Republicans who quietly go along with ever-increasing numbers of cheap labor coming into the country…

...but, a Republican on the offensive is something new and frightening.

From the Leahy/Lofgren November press statement:

The Senate bill is cosponsored by 16 Senators: Senators Leahy, Harris, Booker, Hirono, Markey, Shaheen, Gillibrand, Blumenthal, Cardin, Wyden, Murray, Sanders, Reed, Merkley, Warren, and Klobuchar.

The House bill is cosponsored by 31 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives: Representatives Lofgren, Nadler, Jayapal, Neguse, Castro, Crow, Dean, DeLauro, DeSaulnier, Engel, Escobar, Espaillat, Garcia, Grijalva, Higgins, Johnson, Khanna, Lowenthal, McGovern, Napolitano, Norton, Pallone, Panetta, Quigley, Raskin, Sires, Smith, Swalwell, Watson Coleman, Welch, and Tlaib.

The Refugee Protection Act of 2019 is endorsed by a wide range of refugee, asylum, immigration, and faith-based organizations. A short outline of the bill can be found here, and a sectional analysis can be found here. Text of the legislation can be found here.

 

*** For new readers these (below) are the nine federally-funded refugee contractors that operate as a huge conveyor belt monopolizing all refugee placement in America.

Don’t miss the endorsement list for the Leahy/Lofgren bill. See that Church World Service (above) is on it, as is CAIR. https://www.leahy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Organizations%20Endorsing%20the%20Refugee%20Protection%20Act%20Of%202019.pdf

And, they do not limit their advocacy toward only legal immigration programs, but are heavily involved in supporting the lawlessness at our borders.

The question isn’t as much about refugees per se, but about who is running federal immigration policy now and into the future?  

(I plan to say this once a day from now on!)

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.