Tag: Church World Service

Feds will close 74 refugee offices during the course of this year

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We knew this was happening, but this article at The Indypendent has some useful nuggets of information on the internal turmoil involving the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program which began in 1980 as a supposed public-private partnership, but has evolved in to an almost entirely publicly (taxpayer) funded industry.
I’m guessing that the average uninformed reader of this story is scratching his or her head and asking, how can the federal government ask non-profits to close their doors?
It is because the ‘non-profits’ are really fake charities and they can’t survive without the continuous infusion of federal dollars.
Here are a few nuggets from the story:

The Trump Administration is Dismantling the Refugee Resettlement System

April 1 marked the halfway point in the federal government’s fiscal year and, so far, the United States has only admitted 10,548 refugees, placing it on track to fall far short of its already record low admission ceiling of 45,000 individuals. Resettlement workers and refugee advocates say that this is further evidence of the Trump administration’s deliberate efforts to sabotage the refugee resettlement system now and for years to come.

shelley callahan
“The program is being torn down from the top!”

“The program is being torn down from the top,” says Dr. Shelly Callahan, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center in Utica, which works to resettle refugees.

[….]

The U.S. government works with nine private nonprofit organizations***, known as voluntary agencies, to assign refugees to host communities around the United States.

Voluntary agencies receive $2,125 in federal funding for each refugee they resettle and administer networks of local offices that provide services directly to the refugees. All of the approximately 320 local offices provide new arrivals with housing and social services including language training, job-search assistance, school-enrollment assistance and help integrating into the community during their first months in the United States. [They can never bring themselves to say they are signing them up for welfare, medical care and food stamps!—ed]

In practice, virtually all resettlement offices also provide a variety of services to other immigrant, minority, and vulnerable communities alongside refugees, and assist refugees beyond the first months of resettlement. [Yes, we know they are providing taxpayer-funded services to illegal migrants too!—ed] They rely on private donations for these programs. [No they don’t! Only small amounts!—ed]

[….]

erol-kekic
Erol Kekic of Church World Service says they are trying to find a more sustainable model. Does that mean trying to raise private money now that the easy federal money, doled out on a refugee per head basis, is drying up?

In December, the State Department informed the voluntary agencies of its intention to close all local affiliate offices [aka subcontractors.—ed] that are not projected to receive at least 100 refugees in fiscal year 2018. According to a plan drawn up by the voluntary agencies and obtained by Reuters, some 74 offices are expected to be closed this year.

Eleven new offices that were in the planning phase at the time will not be opening, although some of them may still be able to operate as sub-offices dependent on other offices for cases and funding.

“We’re trying to look into what would be the best make up of our network and how do we change what currently exists into something more sustainable that can still meet its moral and legal commitments,” says Erol Kekic, executive director of Church World Service, one of the national voluntary agencies. Church World Service has closed 17 offices this fiscal year, bringing its total to just 19.

[….]

The layoffs and closures being engineered by the Trump administration will impact the refugee resettlement system for years to come.

More here.
The article references a cool Reuters interactive graph showing how many offices are closing in each state.  See the whole thing here. This is just a portion of a screen shot.
Here is where the original list of over 300 subcontractors is archived, but it looks like the list has not been updated for over a year.
 

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Partial screenshot. See full image here:  http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/USA-IMMIGRATION-REFUGEES/010060WC1Q2/index.html

 
***  I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).  We are hearing reports that all nine might not survive the year.
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 (welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.

 

Harrisonburg, Virginia: Perdue admits that they are hiring locally as refugee arrival numbers 'plummet'

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I saw this story yesterday at WMRA Radio , I figured it was one more of dozens of stories I mentioned here and here recently.  Talking points have obviously gone out to the gullible/biased media about the mean Trump Administration and its plummeting refugee admission numbers. I wasn’t going to bother posting it until I came to the juicy bit near the end.
Forget the humanitarian mumbo-jumbo, refugee resettlement is about finding cheap labor (supported with your tax dollars) for big corporations especially BIG MEAT and BIG CHICKEN!  And, the next time you hear about the bipartisan support for the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program remember the R’s are looking for laborers for their big business pals and Chamber of Commerce lobbyists.
 

Screenshot (329)
BIG CHICKEN companies like Perdue are being questioned about working conditions in plants around the country.  And, Church World Service brings them more refugee workers! Photo and story:   https://news.vice.com/article/chicken-industry-workers-wear-diapers-because-bosses-allow-no-breaks-ngo-says

 
From WMRA Radio:

But last month, a Perdue spokesman confirmed that refugee applicants to the Bridgewater plant have dwindled significantly, and that the company is filling positions from the local community.

Before I give you the rest of the story, you should know that Harrisonburg is in the heart of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s district.  The Judiciary Committee is responsible for the Refugee Admissions Program. I’d like to know if Perdue is the reason Goodlatte has never made any significant move to reform the refugee program!
Now here is the rest of the boo-hoo story.  At least WMRA Radio tells listeners that Church World Service is being paid by the feds (by you!) for their ‘religious’ charity!

Trump’s Policy Sharply Reduces Refugee Flow to Harrisonburg

Following President Trump’s decision to sharply restrict the number of refugees allowed into the United States, the State Department has informed refugee resettlement offices nationwide to trim operations or even close. One of those offices is in Harrisonburg, which has a long history of refugee resettlement.

Harrisonburg’s general open-mindedness, low cost of living and high employment in industries that don’t demand English, such as food production, have allowed the city to resettle from 175 to 200 refugees every year.

But the feds recently informed some 40 refugee resettlement offices nationwide to cut back their operations, according to Reuters. Twenty are expected to close.

[….]

Church World Service at White House
Church World Service protesting against Donald Trump at White House.   https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/

Jim Hershberger runs the resettlement office for Church World Service in Harrisonburg. Church World Service is one of nine agencies*** nationwide that contracts with the federal government to resettle refugees. He says ten branches of those agencies nationwide have already closed. Although there are no plans for the Harrisonburg office to close as of yet, it hasn’t had a single refugee arrival in two months since mid-February.

[….]

I am worried that we won’t have the money to continue to offer services to refugees like we like to do. [How about doing the hard work of raising PRIVATE money!—-ed]

[….]

Church World Service is funded by the federal government to help recent arrivals find jobs and apartments, and to enroll them in English classes, driving classes, and their children into school.

In fact, according to our most recent accounting, Church World Service is 71% funded out of your taxpayer wallets!
Here it comes! Slaughterhouse workers needed!
WMRA Radio continues…..

The changes are being felt at the poultry plants too. Poultry is a big industry in Rockingham County and long considered a pipeline for immigrants and refugees.

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Perdue’s Kenneth Lambert. It’s a great business model for Perdue. Federally-funded Church World Service finds them workers and the taxpayers subsidize the other needs of refugee workers with food stamps, low income housing, medical care, etc.

Two years ago, the workforce at the Perdue plant in Bridgewater was 42 percent immigrant, according to its Director of Operations Kenneth Lambert.

KENNETH LAMBERT: Our countries are made up of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatamala, Honduras, Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Bosnia, Russia, Kenya and right now we have a couple of people from Uganda.

But last month, a Perdue spokesman confirmed that refugee applicants to the Bridgewater plant have dwindled significantly, and that the company is filling positions from the local community.

No comment from school officials regarding the refugee slowdown.  Gee, I wonder why?

Fewer refugee arrivals may impact local schools as well.

It’s really where the city’s status as a melting pot comes to life. Students in city public schools come from 51 foreign countries and speak more than 56 languages.

Because Harrisonburg High has long been overcrowded, plans are underway for a second high school. But when asked if fewer refugees arrivals have eased the overcrowding, school administrators didn’t want to comment.

More here.
Next up: Catholic Bishops (big business headhunters) whine too!
***These are the nine supposed non-profit groups (LOL! Six are ‘religious charities’) that act as headhunters for big business which welcomes the cheap, compliant labor (refugees can’t go home and don’t know how to complain!).
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.

South African xenophobia is the reason some Somalis are in Mankato, MN

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I saw this—one more story on Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ and the slowdown in refugee arrivals to America, it was just one more ‘ho-hum’—so what else is new.
But, like most of the stories a little nugget pops out that gives me a better picture of how the UN and the US State Department are changing America.  Only rarely do I see stories that tell us where other African blacks experiencing hatred from black South Africans are moving to. This is one of those where we see the pipeline start to finish!
Of course they can’t call it racism when its black vs. black, so for those Somalis who arrived in South Africa as illegal aliens and were transformed into refugees for your towns and cities by the thousands, they say it is xenophobia that is responsible for their ticket to America.
cws logo
The story is about Mankato, MN a city that went from a 19% poverty level in 2000 to a 26% in 2015 being resettled with Somalis by the Minnesota Council of Churches (a Subcontractor of Church World Service).
That (left) is the CWS logo in the picture below…..
 
 

cws protest at wh
Here we have an anti-Trump protest by federally-funded Church World Service and HIAS with CAIR at the White House in January.   https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/

 
…. and it is Church World Service that is paid gobs of taxpayer dollars to run the resettlement program for the US State Department out of Kenya and out of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Here is the Mankato Free Press falling for the big boo-hoo story on the drop in number of Somalis arriving in that southern Minnesota city.

MANKATO — Refugee resettlement in the Mankato area has slowed over the past year amid President Donald Trump’s attempts to ban travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries.

The local drop is a reflection of what’s happened statewide and nationwide, adding further uncertainty for refugees already in the middle of lengthy resettlement processes.

Somali refugees and their families awaiting reunification in Mankato have been most impacted by the ban.

Ben Walen, director of refugee services with the Minnesota Council of Churches, said his organization knows of 16 individuals who would’ve likely settled in Mankato before September 2018 if the ban never happened. Now he doesn’t expect them to arrive in Minnesota before the end of the year. And an arrival next year is anyone’s guess.

Then this is what I found most informative.  Minnesota Council of Churches employee, Habiba Rashid, came to Minnesota as a refugee from xenophobia in South Africa (aka the “Rainbow Nation”).  Then she got her family in through chain migration.
So, as I have been saying, the white South Africans who are being persecuted by racist black South Africans should apply to the UN and Church World Service to get to the US as refugees.  Head on over to that UN/Church World Service office in Johannesburg and (try to) get on the list!
After all, CWS is paid by the head to bring refugees to the US, it shouldn’t matter to them whether they are black or white, right?
Mankato Free Press continues…

Mankato
Habiba Rashid, 3rd from right is a Somali ‘refugee’ from xenophobic South Africa.  Photo:  http://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/travel-ban-hampering-refugee-resettlement-in-mankato/article_fdedf3a2-2c85-11e8-a7b9-0f4aa256e212.html

Not knowing when the wait will end has been hard on families in the area, said Habiba Rashid, who settled in Mankato with her husband six years ago.

“Families here are panicking,” she said.

Now a community navigator in the council’s Mankato Area Refugee Services office, she waited six years before her resettlement here and another four afterward for her mom, dad and siblings younger than 18 to join — a timeline she describes as “lucky” compared to others. She said a term like “chain migration” is a misleading term for what should be thought of as family reunification.

Calling it chain migration also assumes refugees can just attach family members to their resettlement applications, which she said doesn’t resemble her experience or the experiences of the families she knows.

[….]

Aid organizations try to comfort them, knowing many waiting for resettlement grew so restless they turned to dangerous crossings into Europe.

Others who wait out the process in countries like South Africa, like Rashid’s family did, face xenophobic attacks.

More here.
If I were organizing a campaign to bring the persecuted white farmers to America, I think I would start writing to key offices at Church World Service, like these below:
Address to Church World Service.  Re: Save the South African White Farmers!
 
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See my extensive South Africa archive, here.
Don’t miss my post from yesterday where Minnesotan Bob Enos tells us what a fictional Somali family is costing taxpayers of that state and nation.

Linda Sarsour, CAIR’s top gun Nihad Awad, and Imam Suleiman among those arrested on Capitol Hill this week

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story isn’t something I would normally bother posting (it is a ho-hum story), but since I was just introduced, via NPR, to Dallas Imam Omar Suleiman yesterday I thought it was an interesting coincidence.

Omar Suleiman, CAIR Director Nihad Awad and Linda Sarsour arrested. Refugee contractor Church World Service helped organize the protest.

 

Yesterday we learned that Muslim leaders who had once said they would open their mosques to people of all faiths escaping ICE, have changed their minds. 

I described how Suleiman so skillfully deflected and snowed the NPR reporter. He shifted the blame to Trump and his merry band of haters when I suspect their change of heart had more to do with realizing that having a bunch of infidels living in their mosques could be problematic.

But when I looked more deeply into the demonstration story this morning, I saw that one of the nine federally funded refugee resettlement contractors—CHURCH WORLD SERVICE—was an organizer of the media stunt making this story very much of interest to RRW because taxpayers fund CWS to the tune of $62 million a year!

Now here is Al-Jazeera on the demonstration:

Muslim-American leaders have been arrested at the US Capitol while urging Congress to stand against President Donald Trump’s effort to end a programme that protects certain young immigrants.

This is a still shot from the corny CHURCH WORLD SERVICE video from a corny demonstration. I guess they mean ‘democracy’ is sick and weak as the actor is being held up by none other than Nihad Awad (CAIR!) and Suleiman. Who comes up with this stuff?

Omar Suleiman, Dawud Walid, Mujahid Fletcher, Talib Shareef and Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Zahra Billoo, and Linda Sarsour advocated immigration reform before getting arrested on Monday.

The protesters participated in an act of civil disobedience at the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, demanding that he meet them to hear their concerns.Muslim-American leaders have been arrested at the US Capitol while urging Congress to stand against President Donald Trump’s effort to end a programme that protects certain young immigrants.

[….]

Quoting Malcolm X, Talib Shareef of the Muslim Alliance of North America said: “Almighty Allah has told us to stand for justice. We are not weak in faith and we are here for a mobilization.

“We stand here in the spirit of Malcolm X with the people who are affected by these policies.”

Imam Suleiman, who I read about yesterday, depicts himself as a moderate Imam deeply involved in the Dallas interfaith community.  But, make no mistake—it is “white supremacy” he sees as the root of all evil (and so must Church World Service!).

“This is creating real fear,” Suleiman said, adding that the imams are fighting white supremacy because Islamophobia, racism and hostility against immigrants all stem from the same roots.

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE

Couldn’t figure out how to link the hokey video, but if you go to their twitter feed for March 5, you can find it.

Church World Service was clearly an instigator of this comical demonstration.

It should drive all of you crazy to know that according to a recent accounting, they received 71% of their income from US taxpayers—that amounted to about $62 million for the one year!

They can have free speech all they want, just not with our money!

(Where is Congress? Where is Paul Ryan allowing our money to be used for stunts like this?)

Recently they protested outside the White House as well, see here.  And, this is what I said in that post:

If you belong to any of these churches (below) know that Church World Service was representing you outside the White House in January and this week at the Capitol. 

They also hold the annual “Crop Walk,” so if you disagree with their political tactics you need to start speaking up!

Are they speaking for your church? They obviously believe they are!

And, incidentally it was a Church World Service subcontractor responsible for placing refugees in Western Maryland where I live and so they are directly responsible for birthing RRW (nothing to do with white supremacy and everything to do with transparency and how our government spends our money).

See all of my previous posts on CWS by clicking here.

Here are the churches they represent:

Member Communions

    African Methodist Episcopal Church

'Temporary' status to be continued for Syrians says Homeland Security chief

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As regular readers know, there has been nothing temporary about this LEGAL immigration program called Temporary Protected Status (until now!).
In a long overdue process, President Trump’s Homeland Security Department has been ending TPS for nationals of many countries who have been here for over a decade in some cases.
However, TPS for Syrians will be continued for another 18 months and is only available for those Syrians who got in to the US (somehow?) before August 2016. (See my recent accounting of who was behind the push for Syrian TPS, here.)
Here is the snippy Trump-bashing news from HuffPo reporter Elise Foley:

WASHINGTON ― The Trump administration will leave some Syrians in the U.S. at risk of being deported while their country is still mired in war, but extend temporary protections for several thousand others, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday.

Meredith Owen
HuffPo quotes Meredith Owen a lawyer at Church World Service.  CWS is paid millions of dollars annually (71% of its budget) from the US Treasury to take care of refugees admitted to the US, yet they seemingly spend all of their time politically agitating for more immigrants of all stripes, not just legitimate refugees.

The agency will extend temporary protected status, or TPS, for Syrians for another 18 months, which will allow an estimated 5,800 Syrians to legally continue living and working in the U.S. But Syrians who came to the U.S. after August 2016 will be shut out of the TPS program — despite the ongoing war in Syria and against the urging of human rights organizations, faith leaders and national security experts.

“After carefully considering conditions on the ground, I have determined that it is necessary to extend the Temporary Protected Status designation for Syria, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement. “It is clear that the conditions upon which Syria’s designation was based continue to exist, therefore an extension is warranted under the statute. We will continue to determine each country’s TPS status on a country-by-country basis.”

[….]

The president has also resisted extending TPS, which is granted to immigrants from countries hit by armed conflict, natural disasters or other urgent problems. Under Trump, DHS already ended TPS for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan and gave at least 250,000 nationals of those countries notice they needed to leave the United States. Trump also rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which puts 700,000 young undocumented immigrants who came as children at risk of deportation. All told, that’s nearly a million people who are set to lose work permits and protections under Trump.

[….]

Deportations to Syria are relatively uncommon, but they do happen. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported two Syrian nationals in the 2017 fiscal year and nine the year before, according to the agency.

LOL! That last line made me laugh. So intent are reporters like Foley to show Trump as the evil one, she can’t even mention the inconvenient fact that the nine Syrians deported in FY16 were deported under their Dear Leader—Barack Hussein Obama!
Don’t miss my posts this past week about Church World Service’s political agitation activities against the President, here and here.  Mr. President, Cut them loose from the federal teat!