In a letter to their candidate to defeat Donald Trump in November, 51 of the hardest left groups in the US tell Biden what they want from him if he is elected.
They’re baaack—the Code Pinkers!
The Hill has a story here, but it took me a while to find the letter the stories all reference. I found it at HuffPo, here.
The Hill:
Liberal groups ask Biden to support progressive foreign policy agenda
The liberal groups are now asking Biden to support 10 key measures they say will usher in a new progressive vision for U.S. foreign policy…
[….]
The liberals are asking Biden to admit at least 125,000 refugees in his first year in office, and to increase refugee numbers every year after.
That is nothing new. Somehow 125,000 has become the Open Borders magic number for refugees. What was surprising, when I finally found the letter, is that none of the nine federal refugee contractors signed it.
Here is what the letter says and the list of those who signed it. You will notice that they use the Chinese virus and Climate change as a way to tie their demands together.
This is the wording of the immigration section:
Rejecting discriminatory immigration policies and supporting refugees
We call on you to repeal the Muslim, African, refugee, and asylum bans, restore access to asylum, and support a robust refugee resettlement program. This includes a commitment to admit at least 125,000 refugees in your first year in office, increasing refugee admissions every year, and investing in infrastructure needed to rebuild our refugee resettlement program and restore U.S. leadership on refugee protection given that we are now facing the worst global displacement crisis in history. As we urge other countries to admit and protect refugees, the U.S. must also ensure all asylum seekers have a meaningful opportunity to be heard before a judge and utilize community-based alternatives to immigration detention.
If you are a one issue voter, then this is all you need to know about Joe Biden and those who hope to put him in the White House—refugee resettlement will be on steroids in January 2021.
You may have noticed that I have a category for the 2020 Presidential campaignwhere you can see some of my posts on the topic recently and expect to see more archived there in the coming weeks and months.
It is only 3, but their arrival tells us that all refugee resettlement to America has not stopped and that the Obama “dumb deal” to take Australia’s rejected asylum seekers who have been held in offshore detention for years is still on-going.
According to BuzzFeedreporter Hannah Ryan the three new arrivals went to Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.
The US, Struggling Under The Pressure Of The Coronavirus, Is Still Taking Refugees From Australia
Three refugees flew from immigration detention in Australia to start new lives in the United States this week, despite the coronavirus pandemic placing a chokehold on international resettlement.
Coming to a town near you! Trump called it a “dumb deal” but his Administration is carrying it out anyway.
The men, two from Sudan and one from Pakistan, jetted together from Melbourne through Qatar to the US, where they parted ways before reaching their final destinations of Tennessee, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The US took them under the refugee swap deal between the two countries.
The flights went ahead despite a global pause on refugee resettlements announced by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees in mid-March. The US also suspended its refugee program because of the coronavirus on March 19, with the exception of emergency cases.
The ongoing operation of the resettlement program in the US leaves refugees in Australia and its offshore detention camps who have been accepted under the program with an invidious choice: to stay in detention, where many have been for the past seven years, or start a new life in the US as it is ravaged by a deadly pandemic.
When President Trump arrived in the Oval Office I had a lot of hope that the new Administration would begin to turn off the funding for the nine federal resettlement agencies that have been for decades monopolizing all refugee placement in the US.
But, alas, even as refugee numbers have plummeted, the contractors are still sucking down millions of federal dollars each month, in most cases on par with what they were getting during the Obama years.
And, as they complain that they have had to close offices and fire staff they are still doing well (Ha! By doing good?) and will be well-positioned to ramp-up as soon as the Dems regain the White House (whenever that is!).
Presidential candidate Joe Biden has already signaled he wants over 100,000 refugees admitted each year (a figure Obama never achieved).
Of course, it isn’t all on Trump, Congress is a major player and there is no will there to slow or reform the refugee program. Oh, some do want to ‘reform’— by expanding it!
For the umpteenth time, the flawed structure of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program has not been reformed one significant bit in the last 3 years.
What are these ‘charities’ doing with all this money?
Using data atUSASpending.gov ,*** I’ve gathered in one place the federal payout to the nine federal refugee grantees/contractors which, as I said, have monopolized all refugee resettlement in America for decades.
When looking at the screenshots below, for relative comparison of the size of the ‘non-profits,’ that number in the left hand corner is useful. It is what they received in the last twelve months from the US Treasury—the US taxpayer.
Know that FY2008 was Bush’s last year and that FY2016 was Obama’s last year in office.
Church World Service
That $45 million is what they received in the last 12 months from you, involuntarily via the US Treasury.2008 was a Bush year. And for FY2020 remember we are only 7 months into the fiscal year which ends on September 30th.
Ethiopian Community Development Council
Don’t ask me why they show no federal funding for those previous years, they have been around for a long time.
Episcopal Migration Ministries
(This one is tricky because they have another name!)
HIAS (aka Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)
Notice that HIAS has had its best year in over a decade during the Trump Administration.
International Rescue Committee
There were additional transactions for the IRC under different duns numbers.They are down a little under Trump, but they are up more than double what they were getting under Bush!
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
(By the way, in addition to the monies here mostly for the refugee program, the Bishops received a whopping $400 million for Catholic Relief Services.)
The Bishops have taken a significant drop in funding since their top Obama year.
World Relief Corporation
So what are the contractors whining about, they are all still better off now than they were ten years ago. And, they are positioned well to expand when the Dems retake the White House.
*** USASpending.gov is a relatively new undertaking of the US government that creates transparency for all of us and it was created in the Obama Administration.
Presumably because global warming (they say) is producing more refugees, or, because the Left has complete control of old line traditional conservation groups, or is it simply because the CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is married to the CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.
When I saw this story with a small mention of a joint video between the Hindu CEO of LIRSand the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) it got my attention.
Back in the day, the NWF, as the largest of the politically active national groups working to supposedly protect the environment, was about as far right as you could get on the Enviros spectrum of groups working in Washington. I know, I was there.
(The Nature Conservancy was the largest financially, but NWF had a greater grassroots network of activists that were often hunters and fishermen concerned with true conservation of wildlife and who could be counted on to call their Congressmen and Senators.)
Apparently like all of the groups, starting with the Sierra Club, NWF is now thoroughly immersed in the promotion of Leftwing political goals. See what Influence Watchhas to say:
The National Wildlife Federation is one of the nation’s largest and highest-profile environmentalist organizations. In recent years, along with its associated NWF Action Fund advocacy organization, it has transitioned from being a conservation organization representing the interests of hunters and outdoor recreation enthusiasts into a left-leaning pressure group focused on global warming advocacy and promoting left-wing social causes.
Like refugees!
You’ve got the picture.
Now here is the story about Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the former Michelle Obama staffer and former gubernatorial candidate in MD, now CEO of LIRS, arguing that Trump is hurting national security with his refugee and immigration restrictions that have been tightened since the Chinese Virus ‘crisis’ arrived.
How Blocking Immigration Hurts U.S. National Security
President Donald Trump’s new executive order barring broad categories of immigrants from entering the country may bring real harm to U.S. national security.
“The pandemic has highlighted for us that national security also involves the assets that we can harness and put against an invisible enemy,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah during an interview with Ploughshares Fund podcast, Press The Button. “And that includes the health care providers, the nurses, the doctors, the aides who are serving in assisted living facilities. So many of them are made up by refugees and other immigrants.”
Vignarajah is the president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine resettlement agencies working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide advocacy and support for immigrants and refugees. She argued that the central justification for the immigration clampdown – the Trump administration’s claim that a faltering US economy cannot absorb any more foreign workers – is based on a myth.
“Saying this order is needed to protect American workers plays into the patently flawed idea that American prosperity is a zero-sum game,” said Vignarajah. “We see consistently that immigrants are essential workers. They’re entrepreneurial, they’re tax paying, they’re job creating members of society.”
Far from being a threat to the United States in its fight against COVID-19, immigrants are providing vital national services, explained Vignarajah, particularly in a time when experts are redefining traditional notions of national security.
Vignarajah is advocating for a pro-immigration united front.
Last year, her organization partnered with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation “around a campaign responding to threats of mass deportations from the administration.” [LIRS is almost completely taxpayer funded!—ed]
Vignarajah is also joining with some non-traditional allies. Just last week, she recorded a video with the National Wildlife Federation on how the climate crisis is affecting immigration. “Two thirds of the migrants that we see today are actually a result of climate displacement,” said Vignarajah. “This is only going to get worse going forward.”
As I have said before, tell your kids to grow up to be Leftwing/Democrat non-profit CEOs! As head of an approximately $80 million a year organization O’Mara makes just over $350,000 a year. (Seerecent Form 990)
In their usual knee-jerk response, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service came right out of the box on Monday (before anything is even on paper) to blast the President over a reportedly non-existent ban on immigration to America during the Chinese virus crisis.
Never mind that the President’s draft plan is pablum (see my commentsat Frauds and Crooksearlier). You would think by now the President should know that walking down the middle on an issue of great importance—in my view the most important issue for the future of America—he would understand that the middle of the road means you are road kill (targeted for death from both sides).
He is getting it from the Right and from the Left on the immigration ban issue.
[By the way, if you think this group is financially suffering during the Trump years, you are wrong. The ‘religious’ charity which is 85-90% federally funded is doing just fine. See here. It is insane that you pay their salaries as they denigrate the President and us!]
Lutheran Group Has Condemned Trump’s Plan to Suspend Immigration During the Pandemic
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah is a former staffer of Michelle Obama
One group pushing back is the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which called on the White House to continue to welcome asylum seekers and refugees during the pandemic. “America has always been able to respond to crises while upholding its obligations to the most vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers,” wrote LIRS President Krish O’Mara Vignarajah. “How can we shut our borders at the same time as our leaders openly encourage protests and the reopening of businesses like gyms and bowling alleys? To imply that immigrants are a threat to the vibrance and prosperity of America’s workforce is a xenophobic talking point — proven false time and time again.”
Ho hum, what else would you expect. Free speech, right!
She can blast the Prez all she wants on her private dime. The maddening thing is that you, the taxpayers of America, pay her salary. Three years ago Trump should have figured out how to shut down their funding.
By the way, I expect some of you are reading this now and saying—well who the heck are you going to vote for other than Trump?
Of course there is no question I still support the President, but Trump and all politicians need to know that in order to have an energizedbase they need to take strong positions—no one is going to go out and knock themselves out campaigning for middle-of-the-roaders.
