Rich International Rescue Committee gets richer with grants for refugee gardens

04/24/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is that time of year when homeowners and hobby gardeners are out with high hopes for their small crops of spinach, beans and tomatoes.
It is also the time of the year we can expect warm and fuzzy stories about how refugees are gardening with the help of their federal resettlement contractors and your tax dollars!

growing_new_roots_1 — Refugee gardeners in Tucson. https://www.rescue.org/announcement/growing-new-roots

This story from Baltimore reminded me that I haven’t mentioned this additional source of payola for refugee contractors—-Refugee Agricultural Partnership grants—lately.
In addition to the per head refugee payment the contractors receive to place refugees, there are myriad grant programs available for the nine contractors and their subcontractors to keep their coffers full.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement actually gives out hundreds of thousands of dollars (about $1.5 million in the latest allotment) to the contractors (the VOLAGs) to help refugees plant gardens.
In Baltimore we learn that gardens run by the International Rescue Committee connect refugees to the earth, their cultures and their neighbors (or so we are told).
Keep reading to learn exactly how much this all costs you, and who is raking in the big bucks!
Continue reading →

Pew does a remix of its 2017 data on US Muslim vs. Foreign-born Muslim numbers

04/18/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I would have to spend all day analyzing this data and I don’t have the time. So I’m throwing out the latest from Pew on Muslim racial and ethnic makeup in the US for your consideration.
But before I get to the latest (glowing) report (remember it doesn’t look like a new study, just a rehash of 2017 numbers), this is the report they refer back to, click here, posted in July of 2017.
This paragraph is worth repeating, although Pew doesn’t repeat it in this latest piece.

When asked whether targeting and killing civilians can be justified to further a political, social or religious cause, 84% of U.S. Muslims say such tactics can rarely (8%) or never (76%) be justified, while 12% say such violence can sometimes (7%) or often (5%) be justified.

Sounds small doesn’t it? Only 12% say violence is sometimes or often justified. But assume that there are 3 million Muslims in the US and consider that 12% represents 360,000 Muslims who believe that!
Here is the latest entitled:

Muslims in America: Immigrants and those born in U.S. see life differently in many ways

The immigrant experience is deeply ingrained in the fabric of Islam in America. Most U.S. Muslim adults (58%) hail from other parts of the globe, their presence in America owing largely to the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act that lowered barriers to immigration from Asia, Africa and other regions outside Europe.

But the U.S.-born share of the American Muslim population is also considerable (42%). It consists of descendants of Muslim immigrants, converts to Islam (many of them black) and descendants of converts.

Screenshot (384)

When Pew Research Center surveyed American Muslim adults in 2017, the findings revealed important similarities between foreign-born and U.S.-born Muslims.

[….]

Both the immigrant and U.S.-born Muslim populations are racially and ethnically diverse, though in different ways. A large share of foreign-born Muslims are Asian, while many U.S.-born Muslims are black or Hispanic. And substantial shares of both foreign-born and U.S.-born Muslims identify as white, a category that also includes people who identify racially as Arab, Middle Eastern or Persian.

[….]

Muslim immigrants in the United States, roughly half of whom (56%) have arrived since the year 2000, come from a wide array of countries, and no single region or country of origin accounts for a majority of them. In total, immigrant respondents in Pew Research Center’s 2017 survey of U.S. Muslims named 75 different countries of origin. And this is reflected in their racial and ethnic diversity: No single racial or ethnic group accounts for a majority among Muslim immigrants, with 45% identifying as white and a similar share (41%) identifying as Asian.

Screenshot (386)

Looking at the above numbers can we conclude that in the third generation the Asian Muslims have left Islam while the black Muslims become a larger share of the Muslim population than when they were first admitted? Or, is it simply a case that the black Muslims have multiplied so greatly that they represent a much larger share of the total. Or both?
And, don’t miss the increase in the percentage share of Muslim Hispanics.
Muslims mostly vote for Democrats!
Be sure to see the part about their political leanings. I’ve frequently joked that if the vast majority of immigrants voted for Republicans upon arrival, then it would be the Dems screaming to close the borders and shut down the refugee admissions program!
I can only conclude that the Republicans’ lack of will to control immigration results from their desire to admit more laborers for their business pals and that is more important to them then the loss of Republican power as the Muslim migrants (all migrants!) vote largely for the Ds!

Screenshot (387)

Read it all here.
See my post yesterday (the Muslim blue wave) about Muslims running for political office, here.

Trump on pace to break Bush record of lowest refugee resettlement numbers since 1980 law enacted

04/03/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Trump and Bush — Bush (so far) holds the record for low refugee admission years: **Bush admitted 27,070 in 2002 and 28,117 in 2003**

We have now reached the six month mark of the first full fiscal year of the Trump presidency and Trump could easily break the Bush record set in 2002 of 27,070 refugee admissions for one year.
(See post here on the Bush record low years.)

At the six month mark, the Trump Administration operating well under a CEILING of 45,000 refugees, is at 10,548 admitted so far.

Assuming that rate continues for the next six months, Trump could be at 21,000 (give or take a few) for the year, handily smashing President Bush’s record.
Since the nine federal contractors*** are paid on a refugee per head basis for placing the refugees in your towns and cities, they surely are taking big hits to their budgets.
Here is a map from Wrapsnet of where those 10,548 have been placed. Wyoming is the only state in the nation that never signed up to ‘welcome’ refugees and for some unexplained reason, Hawaii gets very few even though the government there has said they welcome diversity!

map top

Screenshot (354) — Sorry numbers are not clearer. They aren’t very clear at the website itself.

Top ten resettlement states are in descending order: OH, TX, NY, WA, CA, PA, AZ, NC, GA, and MN.
Admissions by month for the last ten+ years (Wrapsnet):

wrapsnet by month

The top sending countries so far in FY18 are:

DR Congo (2,569)

Bhutan (1,925)

Burma (1,769)

Ukraine (1,176)

Eritrea (760)

Muslim numbers drastically reduced to 16% of total.

In recent years the Muslim refugees accounted for sometimes as close to half of all refugee admissions. As of April 1, of the 10,548 admitted, 1,725 are Muslims of one sect or another. (Data maintained at Wrapsnet)
Significant numbers of Muslims are coming in the Burma and DR Congo flow.
Let the President know what you think!

Contact the President by clicking here.

*** The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.
As long as the nine contractors are paid largely by you via Congress and the US Treasury, and then act as community organizing/political agitators, there will never be serious reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.

GAO: Huge numbers of Special Immigrant Visa holders not finding work

03/23/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But a big problem, says the Government Accountability Office , is that neither the US State Department or the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS are doing much to track the outcomes of those admitted to the US from Iraq and Afghanistan who supposedly worked for us as interpreters.

I told you here recently that the number admitted to the US from those two violent countries is pushing 70,000 in the last ten years.
As Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders they are treated as full-fledged refugees with all the welfare benefits other refugees receive.
We have been told that the resettlement contractors*** are relying on these paying clients to keep federal dollars flowing to their budgets as the refugee flow they hoped for is not materializing.
Some members of Congress must have requested this GAO study because problems are obviously brewing with this portion of our ‘welcome’ to Middle Eastern Muslims. I did not read the whole report, here, but it seems that there are some pretty disillusioned SIVs who thought they would have good jobs and decent housing when they got here.
Here are a few snips from the summary:
Not exactly a bombshell title:

AFGHAN AND IRAQI SPECIAL IMMIGRANTS: More Information on Their Resettlement Outcomes Would Be Beneficial

What GAO Found

Since fiscal year 2011, about [about?—ed] 13,000 Afghan and Iraqi nationals (excluding family members) have resettled in the United States under special immigrant visas (SIV), but limited data on their outcomes are available from the Department of State (State) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). State collects data on SIV holders’ resettlement outcomes once—90 days after they arrive. GAO’s analysis of State’s data from October 2010 through December 2016 showed that the majority of principal SIV holders—those who worked for the U.S. government—were unemployed at 90 days, including those reporting high levels of education and spoken English.

Screenshot (313) — Very high unemployment rate at 90 days. Why is 90 days important? That is when their resettlement contractor is done with them and has moved on to the next batch of paying clients (aka refugees). By 90 days the SIV is expected to be self-sufficient. BTW, don’t you wonder who the 1,760 “interpreters” without “good spoken English” are?

GAO continues…

Stakeholders [must be referring to the resettlement contractors—ed] GAO interviewed reported several resettlement challenges, including capacity issues in handling large numbers of SIV holders, difficulties finding skilled employment, and SIV holders’ high expectations.

Officials from local resettlement agencies in Northern Virginia reported capacity challenges for their agencies and the community due to the large increase of SIV holders. In almost all of GAO’s focus groups with principal SIV holders, participants expressed frustration at the need to take low-skilled jobs because they expected that their education and prior work experience would lead to skilled work. [You can bet they aren’t going to the slaughterhouse jobs where contractors like to place those in their care.—-ed]

State and HHS have taken steps to address some resettlement challenges. For example, in 2017 State placed restrictions on where SIV holders could resettle and HHS announced a new grant to support career development programs for SIV holders, refugees, and others.

In addition, State provides information to prospective SIV holders about resettlement. However, the information is general, and lacks detail on key issues such as housing affordability, employment, and available government assistance. Providing such specifics could lead to more informed decisions by SIV holders on where to resettle and help them more quickly adapt to potential challenges once in the United States. [I don’t think that GAO knows that the SIVs original resettlement location is not chosen by the refugees, but by the State Department in conjunction with contractors*** as they bid for bodies (aka paying clients).—ed]

In light of so many disillusioned and unemployed SIVs, I sure hope that someone is reporting that news to others in the pipeline on their way to America!

Why the discrepancy in the numbers?

I wondered if GAO is downplaying the numbers on purpose…. were they as shocked as we are to find these enormous numbers?
In the summary, GAO talks about 13,000 SIVs since 2011, excluding family members, but in the full report they describe the real numbers we have placed in your towns and cities.
And, rather than saying “over 60,000”, they could have said closer to 70,000! As I reported early this month, using data readily available at the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center (Wrapsnet), we admitted from FY2008-right up to my post on March 8th, the numbers as follows:

Iraq: 18,084

Afghanistan: 49,358

Total to March 8th: 67,442
When I went to the full report they say this (below) on Page 1, but once again use the word “about.” They do clarify one point: “about 20,000” are the people who worked for us or on behalf of us, the remaining, over 40,000! are their family members.

Afghan and Iraqi nationals who were employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan or Iraq and have experienced ongoing serious threats as a consequence of such employment, or who worked directly with the U.S. Armed Forces or under chief of mission authority as a translator or interpreter, may apply for a special immigrant visa (SIV) to the United States.

Upon securing a visa, the principal SIV holder and his or her eligible dependents may resettle in the United States and are granted lawful permanent resident status upon admission into the United States. Since fiscal year 2008, over 60,000 individuals—about 20,000 principal SIV holders and their families—have been admitted under SIVs and received federal resettlement assistance upon arrival.

SIV holders are authorized to receive resettlement assistance from the Departments of State (State) and Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as federal public benefits, to the same extent and for the same periods of time as refugees.

***These are the nine federal contractors working with the US State Department to place the SIVs and their families. Although GAO seems to have been fixated on how poorly the State Department and ORR are keeping track of the SIVs and their progress toward assimilation, it seems to me that the contractors should come in for more blame if their charges are doing so poorly.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.

ORR: two federal grants available to benefit refugees and their resettlement contractors

03/21/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This post falls in my ‘Special deals for special (non-citizen) people’ archive!

I see that although Congress is debating the budget for the remainder of the year, there are still millions of taxpayer funds sloshing around HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement and those have been offered up for grabs starting this week.
We’ve been reporting on the fact that the nine federal refugee contractors,*** which monopolize all resettlement in the US, are paid by the head to place refugees in your towns and that they are hurting financially as the Trump Administration slows the flow of new paying clients.

However, know that those per head payments are not the only federal funding available to them. The Office of Refugee Resettlement has myriad other grants, like these two announced a few days ago.

The first is one of the most outrageous ones we have ever discussed. It is the ‘Refugee Individual Development Accounts (IDA) Program.’
In a nutshell, to be eligible, refugees must save some money toward a house, a car, a business or education and their savings are MATCHED by you up to a limited amount. For example, if a family saves $4,000, you, dear taxpayer, will match them another $4,000.
The match-money is managed (and doled out) by middlemen NGOs awarded the grant—the contractors or their subcontractors usually. Don’t believe me, see here.
Incidentally, one of the side benefits of the Leftwing government contractors/community organizers as middlemen is that it endears the refugees to that local non-profit. I’m sure the refugees think the non-profit group is giving them money!

The Trump Administration is not starving the beast!

This is the grant availability for the coming year for refugee savings accounts….

Screenshot (300)

And, here I went back to look at previous grants for the IDA and it sure looks like Idaho’s Mountain States/Janus Inc. (they are one and the same) have figured out the racket as the organization got a couple of big dips into the federal trough.

Screenshot (301)_LI

Feds help refugees set up licensed childcare facilities for their kids!

The second grant announcement from ORR is the ‘Refugee Family Child Care Microenterprise Development Program.’ See here.
Besides the fact that here we have the middlemen contractors and subcontractors getting paid to help refugees set up businesses that of course will compete with American businesses where the American citizen worked hard to establish her daycare service, we reported here in 2013 that the ORR program touted the fact that the children cared for by refugee day care workers would get “culturally appropriate” care.
So much for assimilating the kids!
And, this will surely steam you—-the money is only available to those not yet US citizens.
ORR, here.

All low income refugees who are not citizens are eligible for services under this program.

Here is the grant announcement:

Screenshot (297)

This post is filed in my ‘where to find information’ category.
***You can bet the nine contractors (below) and their subcontractors will be scrambling for these millions of dollars made available a few days ago.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services! From most recent accounting, here.