Tag: Church World Service

'Religious Left' on the rise in response to President Trump's people and policies

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Are they organizing in your name?
This is a Reuters story highlighting the phrase ‘Religious Left’ something we have been talking about on these pages for years.  Entitled of course to their political views, what has grated on me for so long is the FACT that many of the organizations working on the ‘Religious Left’ receive large pots of federal grant money that is not sufficiently accounted for.
The ‘Religious Right’ has not tapped in to the US Treasury as the Left has done!
Also, I believe churchgoers (Catholics and Protestants) should know what is being done in their names.
Here are some snips from the story featured at Drudge yesterday:

(Reuters) – Since President Donald Trump’s election, monthly lectures on social justice at the 600-seat Gothic chapel of New York’s Union Theological Seminary have been filled to capacity with crowds three times what they usually draw.

Rev. Serene Jones, a leader of the Religious Left

In January, the 181-year-old Upper Manhattan graduate school, whose architecture evokes London’s Westminster Abbey, turned away about 1,000 people from a lecture on mass incarceration. In the nine years that Reverend Serene Jones has served as its president, she has never seen such crowds.

“The election of Trump has been a clarion call to progressives in the Protestant and Catholic churches in America to move out of a place of primarily professing progressive policies to really taking action,” she said.

Although not as powerful as the religious right, which has been credited with helping elect Republican presidents and boasts well-known leaders such as Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson, the “religious left” is now slowly coming together as a force in U.S. politics.

This disparate group, traditionally seen as lacking clout, has been propelled into political activism by Trump’s policies on immigration, healthcare and social welfare, according to clergy members, activists and academics. A key test will be how well it will be able to translate its mobilization into votes in the 2018 midterm congressional elections. [They better darn well not use taxpayer dollars for their vote mobilization!—ed]

[….]

Some in the religious left are inspired by Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic leader who has been an outspoken critic of anti-immigrant policies and a champion of helping the needy. [These reports NEVER mention that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities receive millions of tax payer dollars every year!—ed]

Although support for the religious left is difficult to measure, leaders point to several examples, such as a surge of congregations offering to provide sanctuary to immigrants seeking asylum…

[….]

The number of churches volunteering to offer sanctuary to asylum seekers doubled to 800 in 45 of the 50 U.S. states after the election, said the Elkhart, Indiana-based Church World Service, a coalition of Christian denominations which helps refugees settle in the United States – and the number of new churches offering help has grown so quickly that the group has lost count.

You need to know that “asylum seekers” are illegal aliens until their cases are settled by an immigration judge. The Left uses the phrase to put a veneer of respectability on illegal aliens who may or may not have a shot at being granted asylum and thus being deemed a legitimate refugee.

Church World Service!

As we said here earlier in the month, CWS, got nearly a HALF A BILLION tax dollars during the Obama years. Why doesn’t Reuters ever mention this!

There  should be a law! Any non-profit sucking this kind of money out of the US Treasury should be prohibited from running anti-Trump (or anti-any President) campaigns!

 

 

Donald Trump needs to nip this in the bud through the budget process. Will he?

Are you being used by the Religious Left?  Are they working in your name?
I recommend that you check with your ministers and pastors!
See the churches that are affiliated with Church World Service and its progressive policies:

Member Communions

    African Methodist Episcopal Church

 

Refugee resettlement contractors "whipsawed" says New York Times

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Of course, the New York Times could be expected to help the US Refugee Resettlement contractors wail about their loss of paying ‘clients’ (aka refugees).
As I have said (more than seven times), the contractors*** have only themselves to blame if they can’t maintain staff and offices during a pause in refugees entering the US.  They have gotten fat (with big salaries!) on the US Treasury teat and long ago stopped doing any serious private charitable fundraising.
Here is the NYT:

Last month, in anticipation of the Trump administration shutting down the flow of refugees entering the United States, Church World Service, one of the groups that handles resettlement, took drastic measures. It laid off all but 40 of the 600 employees at its African center that prepared refugees for travel.

My first question is WTH! did CWS need 600 employees in Africa for? And, since many were probably low-paid jobs for Africans, did the Reverend McCullough take a pay cut to keep some of those poor people employed?

Doing well by doing good! The President and CEO of CWS pulls down a cool $316,714 in annual compensation. Will he and other top execs take a pay cut to maintain some of their staff? BTW, I wouldn’t care what they paid their CEOs if they weren’t largely funded by taxpayer dollars. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/03/04/church-world-service-announced-yesterday-that-it-is-launching-anti-trump-campaign-to-raise/

Then on Wednesday night, a federal judge in Hawaii temporarily stayed the executive order that would have, among other things, halted refugee resettlement for 120 days and cut the total number of refugees admitted in the 2017 fiscal year by more than half, to 50,000.

First, Church World Service and the other organizations that resettle refugees cheered the news. Then they wondered, what now?

“We just simply do not know,” said Erol Kekic, the executive director of the immigration and refugee program for the agency. “There’s no guarantee that this, well, hold, will hold between now and Sept. 30,” he added, referring to the end of the fiscal year. [See our previous post which indicates that they better get used to a lower paying client flow—ed]

But one thing was clear, he said: “You can’t just play games with people. You can’t just lay off 500 people and then hire them back and lay them off again. We’re going to need some answers from the federal government.”

The judge’s decision was just the latest dramatic twist in six weeks of whipsaw changes faced by refugees and the agencies that work with them.

[….]

More than 60,000 refugees were already in various stages of approval before Mr. Trump’s first order went into effect on Jan. 27. The State Department, realizing that the new cap meant that there was only room for about another 17,000 refugees, slowed down the machinery to space out arrivals to 400 per week.

But the slowdown meant the agencies faced budget cuts. The State Department pays each refugee agency $950 per person to cover administrative costs, with another $1,125 going directly to the refugee or to cover expenses like rent.  [But they are paid, much much more! See below—ed]

Readers who are researching the refugee program where you live might see slightly different numbers involving the split of the $2,075 per head payment. Some of the contractors keep a larger chunk of the State Department’s per head payment which represents a perverse incentive to never stop the flow no matter how over-loaded a community becomes.
Also, I repeat!  This is not the only funding the contractors get from you.
They get myriad grants totaling in the millions of dollars for such things as building community gardens for refugees, training refugees to do ‘culturally appropriate’ daycare, handing out micro-enterprise loans to refugees, and teaching them English (something I have maintained could be done at local community colleges). And, in the case of CWS, running programs in Africa.
Continue reading here for more of the wailing at the NYT!
Can’t these lazy biased reporters ever take a few minutes and get all the facts! 
Look at how much CWS is getting from you! This is one page at USA Spending.  In the last 8 years they are approaching a half a billion $$$ from the US Treasury!
 

 
If anyone sees a report about the top execs at the nine contractors taking a voluntary pay cut, let me know and we will give them credit!
*** The nine contractors that monopolize refugee resettlement in America:

 

Church World Service announced yesterday that it is launching anti-Trump campaign (to raise $$$)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Is your denomination one of 37 that will be holding demonstrations and lobbying Congress?

It is called the #GreaterAs1 campaign.  (Just my personal opinion, but I sure wouldn’t run my whole campaign around a hashtag, see what happened at #ThisIsARefugee!)

greater-as-one-t-shirt
Get your T-shirt and help pay some big salaries at Church World Service as Donald Trump turns off their flow of your money (your tax dollars!). https://greateras1.org/ACT/

Here is the news at WFYI (Indianapolis):

Religious groups around the country Friday announced a coordinated effort to fight immigration policies being pushed by the Trump administration. The campaign includes 37 Christian denominations representing 30 million Americans.

President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration was made manifest in January through an executive order blocking citizens from seven countries – said to protect Americans from foreign-born terrorists. A federal judge blocked the order, but a revised version is expected soon.

The order has been divisive among faith groups. But on Friday a number of Orthodox and mainline Protestant churches announced a grassroots effort to fight any version of the ban.

[….]

The campaign also hopes to raise $1 million over the next six months to help refugees. [They have salaries to pay!—ed]

It was announced through the National Council of Churches and Church World Service, a group that helps settle refugees. [Paid by the head by American taxpayers to resettle refugees!—ed]

You can go here and see what the campaign will do.

mccullough-arrest
CWS CEO Rev. John McCullough being arrested in Washington, DC protesting in SUPPORT of Obama’s executive AMNESTY. Photo and story here: http://njfon.org/2015/04/08/faith-groups-challenge-fifth-circuit-court-on-presidents-immigration-actions/

And, I had a hard time finding a link to the 37 denominations they are bragging about, but it must be their usual list of congregations that are affiliated with Church World Service, see here (there are 37 listed).
Is one of these your church? If so, and you disagree with the anti-Trump campaign, speak up!

Member Communions

 

So those churches above will be fundraising, demonstrating and lobbying Congress against President Trump’s immigration policy.

Now, let’s look at Church World Service’s financials….
According to Charity Review, Church World Service has 241 paid staff.  Head honcho, the Rev John McCullough, CWS’s CEO, makes a shamefully high annual salary of $316,714!
 
screenshot-393
 
Here is a breakdown of their income. Besides the $50 million from the US Treasury in one year, that service fee is likely your money too!
screenshot-394
 
 
And holy moly!
Just for the heck of it, I checked USA Spending.gov to see how much of your money this supposed ‘religious’ charity got from you since 2008.
I am shocked! In the bidding-for-bodies racket, they have got the Lutherans beat!

They are approaching a half a billion dollars in federal money between 2008 and 2016!

 

screenshot-396
Here are just 5 transactions of 351! And, aren’t you wondering why the Dept. of Homeland Security is giving them payola!

 

There  should be a law! Any non-profit sucking this kind of money out of the US Treasury should be prohibited from running anti-Trump (or anti-any President) campaigns!

Where is Congress?
Go here to see if politically Leftwing Church World Service operates a refugee office in your city.  And, click here, for all of our previous posts on CWS.

Dept. of State coordinating with its refugee contractors to try to keep refugees coming for two more weeks

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is the time frame they estimate they have before the latest legal wrangles are resolved.

So look for another big rush of refugees in the coming days.

mark-hetfield-hias-logo
US Together in Ohio is one of Hetfield’s subcontractors.

And, if they don’t materialize, contractors will have to start reducing their federally-funded staffs.
From CNN:

Washington (CNN) For the second weekend in a row, nonprofits tasked with welcoming refugees to the United States are reacting to a sudden, major shift in the policies that govern their work.

A week ago, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending resettlement for 120 days and initiating a review of the vetting procedures used to approve applicants to come to the United States.

Then Friday, a more welcome surprise for refugee groups: A federal judge in Washington reversed several key provisions of the executive order, paving the way some refugees to enter the country.

US Together is the Ohio subcontractor for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

I feel like our whole world has been turned upside-down,” Danielle Drake, community relations manager at the Cleveland*** nonprofit US Together, told CNN Saturday.

“The executive order came in so quickly, no one was prepared for it,” she said. “We had zero notice.”

Why can’t leftwing media like CNN be completely honest about this funding and explain how contractors are paid by the head out of the federal treasury to do their ‘work.’  As subcontractors of the big nine contractors, groups like US Together are almost exclusively funded by taxpayer dollars!
I am sure that the average American reading this has no understanding that they are talking about mom and pop taxpayer paying for all of this.

screenshot-256
Henshaw is a career federal employee obviously running the show and giving guidance to the DOS refugee contractors. Trump must appoint his replacement.

Funding for resettlement groups is also in question as the administration and the courts each consider the future of the US refugee program.

If the administration is given the go-ahead to move forward with its four-month suspension, Drake estimates US Together will have to lay off at least half its staff.

“One of the other very difficult aspects of the executive order was the financial implications faced by the local resettlement offices,” Sarah Krause, a senior director for the national resettlement agency Church World Service, told CNN. [See my funding analysis of CWS, here.—ed]

Busy, busy bureaucrats!

The State Department has been coordinating with CWS and other agencies to provide guidance on what Friday’s court ruling means for them in practical terms.

As of Saturday afternoon, CWS had been advised that flights were expected to resume early next week and continue for at least the next two weeks.

The cap of 50,000 refugees for this fiscal year remains in effect. See here where we explained why this was still too high! Bush had 4 years under 50,000, so this does not represent any big slowdown! Even 50,000 is going to cost taxpayers several billion dollars!

But for refugees still awaiting approval to go to the United States, the uncertainty created by the executive order and subsequent legal challenges has left them in limbo.

That’s due, in part, to a provision of the Trump administration’s order that was not overturned in Friday’s court ruling — a provision capping total refugee admissions at 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year, which ends October 1.

More than 30,000 refugees had already been admitted to the US before the new policy went into effect, according to State Department data, leaving just under 20,000 spots open.

Continue reading here.
Church World Service and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society are organizing demonstrations against Trump. There should be a federal law prohibiting federal contractors from such overtly political activities.

*** Interested readers might want to visit my 2013 post about when ‘Welcoming America’ came to Cleveland to push for changing the city by seeding it with more third worlders.

Poughkeepsie: Church World Service has signed lease, refugees coming

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The opposition that had begun to grow seems to have waned according to Poughkeepsie mayor Rob Rolison and Church World Service is expecting refugees shortly apparently confident that Donald Trump will not stop the flow anytime soon.
Although, opening the office and then having to close it, if Trump does pause the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, will serve them well as a public relations hammer to use on the Trump administration meanies. So, it isn’t a crazy gamble on their part.

poughkeepsie-map
Refugees to be placed within 50 mile radius of Poughkeepsie.

Remember, refugee resettlement is a business dependent on your tax dollars and the federal contractors are skilled political fighters and will use those abilities to keep their federal money flowing. (See CWS could not exist without your money!)

Here is the latest from Poughkeepsie.  (See our previous posts here)

A refugee resettlement program in the Hudson Valley is on schedule to welcome its first families this month. Church World Service has found office space in Poughkeepsie and volunteers in the region are ready to lend a hand.

Church World Service has signed a lease for office space in the Family Partnership Center in Poughkeepsie and the welcome mat is out, with staff and volunteers at the ready. Church World Service is one of nine resettlement agencies that contracts with the federal government to resettle refugees across the country. Church World Service, as announced in November, expects 80 individuals to relocate within a 50-mile radius of Poughkeepsie through September.

rev-chris-antal
Rev. Chris Antal

Reverend Chris Antal is president of the Greater Newburgh Interfaith Council, which represents about a dozen faith communities in Orange County. The Council is a partner of the Mid-Hudson Refugee Solidarity Alliance and has established a welcome team. And Antal says the Council recently received an anonymous donation. [Someone gave them $10,000 for the effort to bring mostly Muslim third worlders to Poughkeepsie.—ed]

[….]

At a Church World Service meeting in Poughkeepsie in November, senior director for the organization’s Immigration and Refugee Program Sarah Krause said a priority is being placed on Congolese and Syrian refugees as well as Iraqis with special immigrant visas for the Poughkeepsie region.

[….]

Meanwhile, Democratic Assemblyman Frank Skartados says he hopes to work with the community to help refugees.

As is usual, the plan to resettle refugees was sprung on the community. Secrecy is its watchword (unless of course you are an insider in the interfaith community network!).

His district includes both the cities of Poughkeepsie and Newburgh. Some area residents at the November meeting expressed concern about the resettlement effort. And some say resources should be spent on Hudson Valley residents. Others are concerned the initial number of refugees could skyrocket, plus took issue with being informed of the program late in the process without many answers to their questions.

[….]

City of Poughkeepsie Mayor Rob Rolison says any talk of formal opposition seems to have waned.

More details here.