Tag: Comprehensive Immigration Reform

US Catholic Bishops begin massive lobbying campaign for amnesty

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a good article at Breitbart, but like most other news outlets they assume that the Catholic Church’s campaign for amnesty is being driven by its desire to add Hispanics to its dwindling flocks (and to show that they are good Christians), but few ever look at the fact that the Bishops are being funded by massive amounts of taxpayer dollars and the so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that passed the Senate will give them gobs of more money!

Right now the Bishops are over 98% funded by tax dollars* and they are being paid to get refugees and asylees hooked up with social services.  S. 744 contains a slush fund for the Bishops and others of the religious Left to do that same work for the newly legalized—help them do their paperwork, find jobs, find welfare, sign them up for Obamacare, and supposedly get them English lessons.

I’m a fallen-away Catholic and the main reason is this:  I want no politics mixed with my religious worship, and the Church will have to really make sure they get the Hispanics because hearing a Leftwing political message (as is planned for September 8th) from the pulpit will only serve to drive more conservative-minded people from the Church.

Kevin Appleby, USCCB lobbyist pushing amnesty for money!

Breitbart (hat tip: Cathy):

If you attend Mass on September 8th, it is likely the priest’s homily will be less about spiritual matters and more about the political imperative of passing an amnesty law for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. Last week, the Catholic Church announced a massive, coordinated effort to press Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship. Catholics make up the largest single religious group in Congress.

“We want to try to pull out all the stops,” Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the New York Times. Appleby said the immigration issue was at a now-or-never moment. “They have to hear the message that we want this done, and if you’re not successful during the summer, you’re not going to win by the end of the year.”

The Church is planning advertising, phone calls and marches targeting 60 Catholic House Republicans. Over 130 members of the House are Catholic, including Speaker John Boehner.

The Bishops are working harder on amnesty then on Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate and abortion!

The Church’s effort in support of amnesty seems broader and more coordinated than its actions against an ObamaCare mandate requiring coverage of contraception. In recent years, the Church has been more vocal in its criticism of abortion, but even that seems muted in comparison with current plans on immigration reform.

The Bishop’s lobbyist Appleby (Director of Migration Policy) will be pimping for amnesty and giving out marching orders in Minneapolis on September 4th.  If you live in the area you might want to drop in on this meeting.   After all, you help pay Appleby’s salary.

*The USCCB and YOUR money

Now check out the USCCB’s migration fund 2012 annual report (pdf here) and note on page 11 their income and expenses (I’ve rounded the numbers for easier reading).

Out of a revenue stream of $71 million, federal grants and contracts (that is you the taxpayer!) gave them $66 million.  They also received $3.6 million from refugee travel loans.  Your tax dollars pay for refugees to fly to America and then they are supposed to reimburse the government, but in fact a big chunk of whatever the refugee contractor extracts from the poor refugees, the contractor gets to keep—in the Bishops case, in 2012, that is $3.6 million that does not go back to the US Treasury.

Taking Caesar’s money!  98% of their budget is paid by the US taxpayer!

So, the USCCB only received $1.4 million from private sources of money (parishioners), but they paid salaries of $8 million!

The USCCB would wither on the vine and not be able to lobby if you, the taxpayer, weren’t funding them!

So, come on Breitbart!  Let’s go a little deeper with your reporting!

Update:  Here is an old story, but related.  Catholic Charities in Memphis, TN dropped its refugee program in favor of spending more time and money on Hispanics.   They will be well-placed for the newly amnestied!

Lutheran Leftists release propaganda to influence amnesty bill in Congress

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just in time for the August recess, and time for Members of Congress and Senators to go home to their states and districts, a major federal refugee contractor and advocate for amnesty, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), has come out with “mythbuster” handouts so that Lutherans can be sure to hit-up their members with literature in hand.

When I saw the list of those LIRS is thanking I want to ask all Lutheran readers—-is your church so far to the Left that you rely on the Center for American Progress (Soros!) for your talking points?

Linda Hartke, LIRS CEO. Big smooch to Soros and the boys at Center for American Progress.

Here is the news about the Mythbusters at the Sacramento Bee (which was too lazy to write its own story and just posts the press release from LIRS verbatim):

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2013 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)  today releases its Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster, a unique infographic resource that arms advocates with the truth about reform’s social and economic benefits, while debunking the most widely propagated misinformation.

“The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster comes at an absolutely critical time,” said LIRS President and CEO Linda Hartke. “We can’t let the immigration reform debate be hijacked by propaganda or myths. At this moment in our nation’s history, perhaps more than at any other time, it’s clear that our nation’s future and economic well-being hinges on our welcoming of New Americans.”

“The facts are clear: Our immigration system is not working, and it’s time we enact fair and humane immigration reform that keeps families united and protects refugees and other vulnerable migrants,” said LIRS Director for Advocacy Brittney Nystrom. “The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster makes the clear case that immigration reform with a roadmap to citizenship is the right thing to do for migrants and refugees and the right choice for our nation’s lawmakers.”

“Congress’s August recess is a pivotal time for immigration reform,” said Nystrom. “Armed with this new Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster, we all need to make our Members of Congress understand why immigration reform is critical for our nation’s families, communities, and economy.”

A reminder to readers, your tax dollars pay for the work of LIRS (96% of their funds come from you)!

LIRS is grateful to the Center for American Progress and the American Immigration Council for helping to ensure the accuracy of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Mythbuster.

Let’s talk about the accuracy!!!   OMG! They use Malta as an example of a country that takes more refugees than the US per 1000 square kilometers. 

MALTA OF ALL PLACES! (click here then click on the refugee propaganda)

Suffering Malta doesn’t want to take them permanently (as we do), they are illegal migrants that Malta is trying desperately to return to where they came from or move on to other countries.  But, some dumb American (even a dumb Member of Congress) is going to assume from this “mythbuster” that Malta is somehow more generous than America.  I can hear it now:  ‘Isn’t that so welcoming of tiny Malta to be so generous to the downtrodden while we are so stingy!’

For the real truth about Malta, see our nearly 6-year-old Malta (Mess!) archive here.

Some of those other comparisons are nuts too.  Sure Jordan has more refugees at the moment, but we all know what that is from.  One can’t honestly compare their situation with America, but then honesty is not Soros’ and Podesta’s way (nor the Lutherans either I guess!).

Grrrrr!

IBD: La Raza and other non-profits will benefit from S.744 “slush fund”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars!

That is exactly what we have been saying for months—S.744, the Gang of Eight plus Grover bill provides massive new funding for non-profits including the nine major refugee contractors.

This excellent summary by M. Stanton Evans for Investors Business Daily, even suggests that the slush funds might be the major reason behind the whole monstrosity.  Thanks to Creeping Sharia again for alerting us to an important news item.

[Note to readers:  The link is giving me fits this morning, so what I have snipped below is all I could get before getting error messages]

The title, La Raza In Line To Pocket Reform-Bill Slush Funds, focuses the piece around The National Council of La Raza, but what La Raza presently gets from you, the taxpayer, is chump change ($10 million annually) compared to the tens of millions NGOs like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services receive now for their immigrant services.  If S. 744 (or anything like it) becomes law, they will be rolling in your money.

LOL!  Yesterday I saw a Catholic official quoted as saying the Catholic Church is “enriched” by immigrants!  Can’t find the link right now, but I did laugh at the choice of the word “enrich.”

Here is some of the IBD piece by Mr. Evans, but check out the whole thing.

The avowed purpose of the immigration bill passed by the Senate and pending in the House is to provide a “path to citizenship” for the illegal immigrants in exchange for tough new enforcement measures that would prevent other such incursions in the future.

But buried deep within the immigration bill are hidden multimillion-dollar slush funds for left-wing nonprofit groups to provide services to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants now in the U.S. Once enacted, the slush funds would total almost $300 million over three years and grow over time.

Reviewing the massive legislation, it’s obvious that lawyering would be needed. The 1,100-page proposal is a network of legal requirements and protections, waivers and exceptions, including a new “provisional immigrant” status (the first phase of legalization for illegals), appeals of adverse rulings, stays of deportation, applications for work visas, and countless other such guarantees.

Within this thicket of new rights are features that would vastly increase the flow of immigrants to perhaps 30 million or 40 million over the next decade. One is a set of “chain immigration” clauses, legalizing the spouses and children of illegals.

Recipients of the pork (Obama’s redistribution of your wealth) are not named in the bill.

The bill provides a sizable slush fund for leftward groups in the immigrant serving, advocacy and lobbying business. As Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., puts it, the bill is “chock-full of de facto earmarks, pork barrel spending, and special interest sweeteners.”

Though the nonprofit agencies getting the money aren’t named in the bill, their identities can be deduced from the history and politics of the issue.

We can name some, besides La Raza, the advocacy groups getting more of your money will be Casa de Maryland, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Assoc., Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Mass Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, others for your states!

Then here are the nine major refugee contractors (plus they have 300 or so subcontractors making it very difficult to follow your money):

Evans continued discussing the various slush funds and then says this:

One section creates a “New Immigrant Council,” including representatives of nonprofits “with legal and advocacy experience working with immigrant communities,” to “introduce and integrate” new immigrants “into the state.” The bill authorizes an additional $100 million — $20 million a year for five years — to finance these efforts. Thus a second slush fund is created.

A third grant program appears in a later section, funding an outreach “campaign” to inform immigrants and the public about employee “rights, responsibilities and remedies” in the legislation. This recruitment project too would be contracted to nonprofits, at a cost of $120 million — $40 million a year over a three-year span.

While the Senate bill is advertised as a “tough, conservative” measure, the largely unnoticed sanctuary funding and La Raza clauses may be the real point of the legislation.

Our entire archive on S.744 and the refugee contractors can be found by clicking here.

Call your Congressman to stop the train wreck!

Obama/Dems pin hope on Rep. Paul Ryan for their amnesty goals

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That’s what an AP story published in the Boston Globe tells us.  And, a good part of the reason Ryan is pushing the “comprehensive reform” bill that includes a “slush fund” for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is because the Bishops depend on taxpayer slush to survive.  And they are counting on Ryan to provide their slush.   Of, course the AP doesn’t tell us that, but I am.

Ryan and dumbbell. Photo: Gregg Segal for Time

Here is what AP says (emphasis mine):

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats doggedly pursuing a far-reaching immigration bill are counting on help from Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s running mate last year and an unlikely candidate for delivering the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s second-term agenda.

Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman who is frequently mentioned in the GOP lineup of possible 2016 presidential candidates, stands apart from many fellow House Republicans in favoring a way out of the shadows for the 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. in violation of the law.  [Note to Ryan, no hope for 2016 if you continue down this path—ed]

He casts sweeping overhaul as a necessity to ensure both economic and national security — a fitting argument for an acolyte of Jack Kemp, the late Republican congressman and 1996 vice presidential candidate who backed an ill-fated effort in 2006 to overhaul the immigration system.

‘‘Paul Ryan says we cannot have a permanent underclass of Americans, that there needs to be a pathway to citizenship,’’ says Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who has been working relentlessly on immigration legislation. ‘‘He is my guiding light. I know I get him in trouble every time I say it.’’  [LOL! Gutierrez is killing Ryan.  First get him to support amnesty, then pin it on him so that he can’t win the Republican primary, slick, huh?  They killed Rubio too!—ed]

Senior White House aides often mention the Wisconsin Republican as crucial to the prospects for legislation this year, hoping the Republican with impeccable conservative credentials will sway recalcitrant House members. Ryan also is a reminder of two other powerful forces backing an overhaul of immigration laws — the Catholic Church and business.

Ryan is a practicing Catholic who made a point of attending Mass every Sunday during the jam-packed 2012 campaign; the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops strongly favors the first major changes to immigration in 27 years.

There it is in print—the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, lobbying for amnesty too.

We told you about the Lutheran Immigration service and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society this week.

What makes me steam over this is that there is never a next paragraph that explains that the USCCB is the largest of the federal refugee contractors.  They receive the majority of their funding (their DC lobbying office is even paid for by the US State Department) from you—the taxpayer—to bring refugees and asylees to your cities and towns, get them hooked up with services (food stamps, health care, education), find them subsidized housing and maybe a job (although the unemployment rate for refugees is through the roof and lack of work is blamed for high suicide rates in Bhutanese refugees).

The racket!

If S.744 becomes law the USCCB will receive even more of your money to help the newly legalized aliens get their services too!  The Gang’s bill also expands the refugee program making it easier for more refugees and asylum seekers to enter the US.   So, why can’t AP and others in the mainstream media ever point this out—-it’s about MONEY (and future “progressive” voters), but mostly it’s about money?

So, how much is the USCCB getting in federal refugee and migration funding—-just about their entire budget!

Go to page 20 of their 2011 annual report (didn’t see a more recent one).   Archbishop Jose’ Gomez (bring in the Syrians!) heads up the USCCB MIGRATION services.

Their revenue for the year was $72,102,484

Of that, $66,723,452 came directly from federal grants and contracts

Additionally, $3,751,295 came from travel loans.

Do you know what the travel loans are?   Another government agency (your money) pays for refugees to fly to the US. Then the USCCB (and the other contractors) dun those refugees for the air fare money, and for their services (as a collection agency) they get to keep a portion of the money they wring out of refugees.  That is your money too!

Add the travel loan money to the federal grants and you have 98% of the US Bishops MIGRATION services are paid for by the US taxpayer!

So how about a little honesty from Rep. Paul Ryan, Senator Marco Rubio and the mainstream media!  This is not about humanitarianism, it’s about Caesar’s money!

Lutheran refugee contractor sends SD refugee to Washington to lobby on amnesty bill

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I wonder does he fully understand that S.744 (the Senate “comprehensive” bill) will legalize 11 million plus alien workers who will compete with his fellow Bhutanese refugees who are already not finding employment, a situation some say is connected to a high suicide rate among ‘his people’ in America?

I don’t know how the refugee contractors can in good conscience lobby (along with big business interests like the meat packers!) for amnesty when they know that the refugee unemployment rate is through the roof.

Lutherans send Bhutanese refugee to Washington to lobby on the amnesty bill! Photo: Steve Young, Argus Leader

The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (all of the top nine federal refugee contractors are surely involved) is lobbying for this bill because it means more money for them to help get the newly legalized immigrants hooked up with ‘services.’  It doesn’t mean more money for the refugees.  The contractors really are despicable—using refugees this way!

The Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, SD reports that Bhutanese refugee, Thag Poudyal, went to Washington paid for by the Lutherans (more likely the US taxpayer) to lobby.

Two weeks ago, he was chosen by the national Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service to take his story to Washington, D.C., and lobby South Dakota’s congressional delegation about immigration reform, and for more dollars to protect and assist the more than 15 million refugees worldwide.

[….]

His participation as part of a World Refugee Day delegation to D.C. was significant for several reasons. Only two dozen refugees nationwide, representing many different oppressed groups, were selected to go. Poudyal was the lone representative from South Dakota.

[….]

After a day of training on issues important to the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Poudyal traveled to the offices of South Dakota’s congressional delegation and met with staffs for Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune and Rep. Kristi Noem.

Poudyal asked that dollars for the State and Health and Human Services departments remain robust to protect and aid refugees. He lobbied for immigration reform, including an end to a one-year filing deadline for asylum claims, and that children of a refugee or the asylum seeker’s spouse be allowed to join their parents in this country.

[….]

To date, 68,000 Bhutanese have been resettled to the United States*, though Schwab [Roland Schwab. Lutheran Social Services director in Sioux Falls] expects that migration to Sioux Falls to slow considerably within the next year as the Nepalese refugee camps empty. Poudyal estimates that as many as 3,000 are here now because of direct resettlement or movement from other U.S. cities.

Many of his countrymen hope to go back to their homeland some day, including a 103-year-old Bhutanese man who has lived here only a short time, Poudyal said.

Readers, what do you think a 103-year-old refugee is living on?  You guessed it—SSI!   This reminds me, if you haven’t visited our newly updated fact sheet on the US refugee program, it is here.

Refugee Program should be stripped from the bill!

In a sidebar, the Argus Leader lists the issues in S.744 (the Gang of Eight plus Grover comprehensive amnesty bill) affecting refugee resettlement.  As we have pointed out on numerous previous occasions, these are significant issues that should be addressed in thorough separate hearings on the Refugee Program that has never been seriously reviewed in three decades!

Refugees’ requests

About two dozen refugees from across the country, including Bhutanese refugee Thad Poudyal of Sioux Falls, went to Washington, D.C., on June 20 for World Refugee Day to lobby Congress. Among other things, they asked federal lawmakers for:

• $2.8 billion for the Department of State for migration and refugee assistance.

• $1.31 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services for refugee and entrant assistance.

• The elimination of a one-year filing deadline for asylum claims

• The enhancement of refugee family unity by allowing the child of a refugee or asylum seeker’s spouse to accompany or join their parents in the United States.

• The ability of the president to designate certain groups of refugees to be resettled in the United States. [This will be a huge deal—a refugee will no longer have to prove that he or she is personally persecuted, just being a member of a certain ethnic, social, or political group will get them in the door.—ed]

• The updating of legislation regarding services involved in the resettlement of refugees.

Readers, you must contact your Representative in Congress and tell him or her that you oppose “comprehensive” immigration reform and that the Refugee Resettlement Program must be reviewed separately and thoroughly by Congress. 

Call on Monday just as American Black leaders rally at the Capitol in opposition to the amnesty legislation:

The Black American Leadership Alliance (BALA) has organized an anti-amnesty march and rally — the DC March for Jobs — in Washington, D.C. on Monday, July 15th. The goal is to “demand that our leaders reject amnesty, enforce immigration laws as written, and support policies that put black U.S. citizens back to work.”

* We have written extensively on Bhutanese refugees (mostly Hindus btw) originally approved for resettlement by the Bush Administration.  We were to bring 60,000 in five years but we are now approaching 70,000.