So why am I mentioning the obvious—that the Lutheran Social Services Center for New Americans in Sioux Falls is a federal “contractor?” Because we have heard over and over again in angry tones that the contractors are not contractors using your money, your tax dollars, to do work for their clients (all the while pretending to be private ‘religious’ charities).
Into the weeds we go (but this is important!)…. Tim Jurgens, Director of LSS in South Dakota: “We are a contracted provider on behalf of the federal government.”
Not that long ago Asst. Secretary of State Anne Richard went to South Carolina and said critics must stop using the word “contractor” in reference to the agencies resettling refugees across 48 states (no refugees are resettled in Wyoming and Montana, yet).
But, here, in a gushy announcement of a ‘feel good’ propaganda event in Sioux Falls, refugee sub-contractor Lutheran Social Service of SD (sub-contractor to federal contractor Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Servicein Baltimore, MD) says they are, wait for it, a “contracted provider on behalf of the federal government.” (That is a federal contractor ‘for those in Rio Linda!’)
From KSFY (ABC):
The 21st annual ‘Taste of Cultures’ event benefiting Lutheran Social Services, Saturday, will help to celebrate cultural diversity and raise funds helping newcomers re-settle. [What! No poor, elderly or homeless Americans left in South Dakota for the good Lutherans to help?—ed]
While the event is sold out, the awareness of a diverse community is key as hundreds of refugees continue to make Sioux Falls their home.
The Lutheran Social Services Center for New Americans is the only agency of its kind in the area.
“We are a contracted provider on behalf of the federal government. We provide initial resettlement for refugees that the president allows in each year. We resettle up to 420 each year.What we do is provide immediate assistance upon their arrival,” Program Director Tim Jurgens said. “The refugee resettlement program is an early self-sufficiency model. The expectation upon us is to have individuals employed within six months.” [Yeh, good luck with that self-sufficiency lie!—ed]
By the way, the contractors (colonizing your towns and cities) really prefer to call themselves VOLAGs, that is short for Voluntary Agencies (see all nine here), but that is such a misnomer as most are largely federally funded. $296 million went to LIRS alone since Obama took office.
Even as Anne Richard objects, you have my (and Tim’s!) permission to call federal refugee contractors—contractors!
I’m surprised the LA Timeseven published this woman’s remarks when asked how she felt about all those Americans who say they will move to Canada if Donald Trump is elected president.
Here is Elaine…. They think if they say it over and over again it will be true!
Elaine Munro, 62, is a retail customer service clerk in Almonte, just outside Ottawa.
“I would rather have a bunch of Americans than all of these Muslims [the Canadian government is] bringing in,” she said. “I am totally against that. They’re taking jobs that Canadians have. The [Canadian] government is setting them up better than how Canadians are being looked after. Healthcare is being overrun by [Syrian refugees].”
Readers here know that boy Trudeau promised Canada would take 25,000 Syrians within a few months of his election as prime minister and sure enough he has (much to the consternation of Canadians like Elaine).
Thousands are living in hotels (on the taxpayers’ dime) throughout Canada as the country doesn’t have an adequate supply of housing especially for large families.
Trudeau will be “on the hot seat” in a 60 Minutes interview to be aired Sunday evening, for more click here.
See our entire Canada category by clicking here (171 previous posts).
Editor:This is one in our series of guest posts we publish from time to time. This one comes to us from a reader and reminds us of what you as grassroots activists can do (in the comfort of your homes!) to ferret-out information about the secretive refugee admissions program. It might take you awhile since the US State Department is notoriously slow (if they respond at all) to Freedom of Information Act requests, but it is well worth the time and effort, as you will see. Indeed, reports like those discussed below were not given to Judicial Watch in a timely manner last year and JW has since sued the State Department to obtain them. We mentioned these planning documents in our previous postwhen a Colorado County Commissioner said they were never given any notice about refugee arrivals. The contractors know in advance and are keeping that information from local elected officials. When the bill that became the Refugee Act of 1980 made its way through Congress, members were told that this was not a program to import more poverty to America, but when you read this post you will see that is exactly what is happening. You can be sure that what we learn below is happening wherever refugees are resettled in 48 states! Catholic Charities oversaw the resettlement of 1,578 refugees to Tennessee in FY 2015. This map represents the counties to which they were distributed. http://www.cctenn.org/servicedetails.cfm?name=Tennessee%20Office%20for%20Refugees%20-%20Resources&pid=14062712305095652&id=9
Refugee Resettlement in their own words
Typical of the refugee resettlement industrialists, they say one thing to the public and another among themselves.
Looking through a stack of annual resettlement plans written by the local resettlement agencies and sent, in advance of the federal fiscal year, to Washington it’s understandable why these proposals are aggressively hidden from public scrutiny. One VOLAG even circulated an internal memo telling the local offices to refuse any public request for these plans. [This is something we learned about previously—ed]
Imagine if the public knew what the federal contractors really have planned for the host communities.
Arguably, these non-governmental organizations are shielded in many instances, from state open records laws, even though the organizations are predominantly funded with public dollars. But, the proposals can be obtained using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) once the documents are in the possession of the U.S. State Department.
A 2014 FOIA submission was finally answered in December 2015. It produced the annual proposed resettlement plans for all the resettlement agencies operating in Tennessee for FY2009 through FY2013.
The documents also suggest that once a state withdraws from the federal program and ORR appoints its own replacement, the federally contracted State Refugee Coordinator who typically works for one of the NGO resettlement agencies, gets a say in approving the number of refugees that will be brought to a state.
Below are excerpts from some of the resettlement plans:
Episcopal Migration Ministries (doing business as Bridge Refugee Services)
“The agency’s partnerships with Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise and Chattanooga Housing Authority ensure that approximately 50% of clients are resettled into subsidized housing at a rental rate of $50 per month.”
“Two of the complexes are public housing units operated by Knoxville Community Development Corporation, which feature spacious units, on-site property management and very affordable monthly rents.”
“The Bridge sub-office coordinator regularly participates in Chamber of Commerce meetings to learn about new employers or hiring opportunities.
“Refugee household income after the R&P [Reception & Placement] period usually includes MG [federal Match Grant] assistance, RCA [federal refugee cash assistance], TANF [state cash welfare], food stamps, SSI and additional programs as needed.”
World Relief
“The Nashville area offers numerous services through other non-profit organizations to refugees with critical and emergency needs. Refugees can visit the Nashville Rescue Mission for shelter [a homeless organization], food and safety, as well as Room in the Inn [a homeless organization] which provides working men with a hot meal and a place to sleep during the winter months. There are several shelters for abused women in the area where refugee women and children can find safety if necessary. Rooftop Ministries provides one-time assistance with rent payments: Wherry Housing Complex in Rutherford County houses refugees and others recovering from alcohol and substance abuse and has a Community Servants program to meet refugee needs.”
[So, the federal contractor gets paid to bring the refugees to Tennessee and then refers them to homeless, substance abuse and domestic violence shelters!]
Church World Service
“Several strong partnerships exist between Bridge and employers and they often come to Bridge first when hiring.”
“Employers in Knoxville are beginning to feel the effect of the economic downturn but are committed to hiring refugees.”
ECDC(doing business as the Nashville International Center for Empowerment)
“NICE has relationships with local businesses that hire refugees, and since NICE is 60% operated by former refugees who have work relationships with local businesses, and lucrative partnerships are easily established and maintained.”
“Refugees also qualify for and can access subsidized public housing.”
“In Nashville there are many social service agencies to which NICE refers refugees for services including rent utility and food.”
USCCB (doing business as Catholic Charities of Tennessee)
“Memphis’ outmigration for FY07 was reported at 43% but nearly all of these clients (21 people) were a part of Somali cases. These cases relocated to Minnesota which has a larger ethnic community, ….and more welfare state subsidized housing.”
“The DHS worker responsible for enrolling refugees for food stamps and TennCare [Medicaid] health coverage meets with our Self-Sufficiency Coordinator every Tuesday morning and routinely discusses the number of arrivals we are expecting.”
“On June 14, 2010 CC [Catholic Charities] and the SRC discussed the agency’s resettlement program and approved that we can resettle 240 refugees in FY2011…”
[So does this mean that State Refugee Coordinators can also “not approve” proposed resettlement numbers? Maybe Texas and other non-Wilson Fish states ought to try that route!]
“Our relationships with employers are extremely strong and we now find ourselves in the position of being called upon when they have openings, rather than us having to seek them out.”
“The Sheriff’s Department provides inmates and a truck to assist us in moving furniture and setting up apartments twice per week.”
If you would like to get started on your own Freedom of Information Act requests, here are some sample letters. If you are looking for the planning documents discussed above, be sure to ask for those for FY2016 (in addition to previous years) and you might ask for all planning documents “including but not limited to the R & P Abstracts” for ____state.
This is a hot issue in Tennessee at the moment as the State Senate has passed a resolution to initiate a States’ Rights lawsuit in an effort to halt the resettlement program in Tennessee, see most recent post here.
See this post and others like it in our category entitled‘Comments worth noting/guest posts.’
In Missoula, at the “anti-hate” rally they heard from a Muslim man who has lived in the state for 20 years who said—too bad to those who oppose the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program, “We’re already here.”
The pro-Muslim refugee rally was held to respond to huge turnouts, by those questioning the economic and social costs the Refugee Program would bring Montana citizens and taxpayers, like this one in Kalispell last week. Missoula Mayor John Engen welcomes refugees to Montana because his mom was a Norwegian immigrant! http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/318/Mayor
From The Missoulian:
“I just would like to say as-salaam-alaikum, which in Arabic means ‘peace be with you’,” he said. “It’s a greeting which is said by six million Muslims in America and 1.6 billion people across the world. So whether you are Arab, Indonesian, Pakistani, Somali, whatever, we all say the same greeting. I have lived in America for 25 years. I refer you to one of the signs I saw that said ‘No entry to Muslims in Montana’. It’s too late. We’re already here.”
Missoula’s mayor, John Engen, spoke in support of Syrian Muslim refugee resettlement to the state and said he was the son of a Norwegian woman right “off the boat.”
News accounts don’t indicate that the Mayor had any concerns for the cost of the program to the city and state, but focused solely on an emotional appeal about his immigrant roots.
Hmmm! I wondered if he has any clue about what is going on in Norway at the moment with the massive Muslim tide washing over Scandinavia.
“My mother’s parents were off the boat,” he said. “And I’m separated by a generation of people who were off the boat. So many of us are separated by very little. And we have more in common than we imagine. And as we gather in a place like Caras Park on the first of March, we recognize that we have far more in common that we have that separates us.”
Maybe some good citizens of the state should send the mayor news stories from Norway. Search for Norway and refugees and make sure Mayor Engen is enlightened about what is happening there as the good-hearted Norwegians discover the monster they have created. Right at the top of the list as I google-searched just now is this story about refugees raping three-year-old boy. Click here. Hint! Middle Eastern and African refugees are not like Norwegians! Go here for our complete Montana archive. Endnote: Do you know who represents you? A reader sent me this handy link so that you can find out who you should be contacting to let those elected officials know what you think. Enter your zip code or address and presto! you will have the list with contact information.
We told you (here, pressure cooker!) on Saturday that the flow out of Greece was effectively halted when many countries north of Greece closed their borders to the invaders wanting to get to Germany.
Border pressure builds at Greece/Macedonia checkpoint. Photo and story at the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34026114
Today there were riots at the Greece/Macedonia border. Al Jazeera says this:
A riot broke out as hundreds of desperate refugees stranded at the Greek-Macedonia border smashed down a gate guarded by security forces on Monday.
The razor-wire barrier was ripped open and border guards fired tear gas in response.
Angry crowds shouted and pushed towards the barrier. Several men used a large steel post to ram the gate while trying to pry it open.
Map and story at Deutsche Welle: http://www.dw.com/en/hampered-by-new-border-controls-migrants-make-case-for-asylum/a-18869422
Nearly 8,000 refugees are in limbo at the overcrowded border camp – with a capacity of 2,000 – at the village of Idomeni, according to Greek officials.
The Idomeni camp is rapidly turning into the main focal point in the largest migration crisis in Europe since World War II.
It was set up to shelter refugees as they wait for passage to Macedonia, which has greatly reduced the number of people allowed to pass in recent days.
For readers who might not have been paying attention until just now and are wondering how and why so many are in Greece, look to Turkey for allowing them to launch from Turkish shores. Go to the interactive map that tracks the movement in to Greece and northward and see how many arrived in Greece in this last week alone and how few moved north! Go here for all of our posts on the ‘Invasion of Europe.’
